Living and Learning: I know the importance of sleep.
Our living and learning statement for this week was:
I know the importance of sleep.
As well as individual class living and learning sessions, the whole school attended our ‘Tuesday Viewsday‘ collective worship to learn more together. We discussed the role of sleep in our lives and it’s importance/lack of importance both personally and collectively (the world).
Children put forward some fantastic points of view to debate both sides of the importance of sleep – here’s some of the quotes:
‘I think sleep is important because it gives our brain a chance to rest so that we can do well in school the next day.’ (JC, Year 6)
‘Sleep is important for us to switch off and not think about things for a while. If we didn’t sleep, we would all just be tired and moody.’ (FJ, Year 2)
‘I don’t think sleep is important because it wastes time. We could be doing other things that we like instead of sleeping.’ (NE, Year 5)
‘Sleep can be important if you have a job, but if you don’t have a job or something to get up for, you’re wasting time in your life that you could use to help others or find something that you enjoy.’ (JS, Year 5)
Help at home:
Discuss the importance of sleep for a healthy, happy lifestyle with your child. Does your child know what a good amount of sleep is? Explore their thoughts on what might happen if they don’t get enough sleep, or they sleep too much!
Book Club
The children were busy during Book Club today producing some fantastic work in their reading records.
Class novel
Our love for reading continues to grow in Year 3 and 4 as we have begun our new class novel – The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane.
We have been enjoying the early chapters and can’t seem to put it down. We have so many questions already.
The children are developing their own views about Edward and have been finding evidence from the text to justify their impression of him.
Help at home – ask your child about the story so far. Who is Rosie and what did he do? What does Abilene do to display her love for Edward? What are their thoughts about Pellegrina and why?
Living and Learning: We know the importance of hand washing.
This week, the children learnt about the importance of hand washing with Mrs Bald. Whether it’s after going to the toilet, before eating or when you’re preparing food, washing your hands with soap and water is one of the easiest ways to prevent the spread of germs!
First, the class identified high usage areas where germs may build up.
- door handles
- toilet flush
- pencils
- hands
- tables
- carpet
- light switches
The children put flour on their hands and then touched different surfaces to see how easily germs spread.
But how does soap really work?
When you wash your hands, the soap breaks down the outer layer of germs which means they can’t survive. The pieces of broken down germs are then surrounded in a soapy bubble-like shield. After washing your hands for at least 20 seconds, you then rinse the soap away with water. When the soap is washed down the drain, you wash the germs away with it!
The soap and pepper experiment
The children conducted an experiment to show how soap breaks
down germs.
The class filled a bowl with water (the water represents your skin). Next, black pepper (the germs) was sprinkled onto the surface of the water.The children applied soap to their fingers and submerged them in the water. The soap reacted with the water causing the pepper to repel. This demonstrated how soap affects germs.
Mrs Bald was very impressed with the knowledge and learning attitudes shown by all of the children.
Why not try this at home?https://www.wateraid.org/uk/sites/g/files/jkxoof211/files/2021-10/wateraid-soap-pepper-experiment.pdf
Help at home by using the questions below. Can your child tell you about the pepper experiment?
Points for discussion
• When should we wash our hands? How long for?
• Why is using soap so important?
• What would happen if we didn’t use soap?
Times Tables
As you will be aware, the Year 4 will complete a times table check in a few months. We have been working hard in school to ensure children know their times table facts and can recall them quickly.
Thank you for all the hard work that you do for the children at home. I know that they are practicing lots as times table scores are consistently strong.
Help at home
There are many websites that help children and increase the speed at which they answer:
Maths Frame – https://mathsframe.co.uk/en/resources/resource/477/Multiplication-Tables-Check
Hit the Button – https://www.topmarks.co.uk/maths-games/hit-the-button
Times Table Rock Stars
The Bad Tempered Ladybird
Welcome to the Summer term!! I can’t believe we are in our final term of the school year, this year has absolutely flown by so far!
This week our focus book has been The Bad Tempered Ladybird by Eric Carle.
The children have really enjoyed this story and have had fun joining in with the repeated lines. In class we have enjoyed making ladybirds and looking at the life cycle of a ladybird. We even discovered some ladybird facts. For example a group of ladybirds is called a loveliness.
Help at home: go on a walk and look out for some ladybirds, see if you can find a loveliness of ladybirds and count how many you can find.
Our Word of the week this week was frustrated the children have really enjoyed using this during their learning.
“I was frustrated when I was hungry and my dinner wasn’t ready so my mummy gave me a starter.”
“I was frustrated with my little brother for breaking my Lego.”
In Forest School we have practiced our drilling skills by using the hand drill to put holes in wood, this has helped us to get ready to make a Bug Hotel next week. We also did some litter picking to make sure we keep our school grounds safe for the animals that live here.
Help at Home On Monday 22nd April it is World Earth can you so something with your grown ups to celebrate our wonderful Earth.
Next week our focus book is The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle
Reminders and Notices
Forest School- We have our last week of Forest School this week. Please send your child to school in their PE kits on Friday with waterproofs and wellies in a labelled plastic bag. Please can everyone check all clothes that have gone home after forest school, a few items have been misplaced. Thank you.
Waste Innovation- Please don’t forget to send in any donations for us to be creative.
Have a happy and healthy weekend and please don’t forget to email any pictures from home to stjameseyfs@spherefederation.org thank you as always for all your support.
Mrs. Kendrew, Mrs. Rippon and Mrs. Feldman
Welcome to Summer term!
Hello Everyone!
I hope you all had a wonderful well rested Easter break!
We’ve got straight back into being busy bodies in nursery this week! We’ve also welcomed some new friends who have settled really well!
Our theme this term is Wheels, wings and other things
This week our book focus was a favourite amongst nursery and myself- SUPERWORM! by Julia Donaldson
Superworm has lots of different jobs and is very helpful towards his friends, but we need to watch out for that sneaky Wizard Lizard!
In Forest school this week, we made a Wormery!
Help at Home: Can you make your own wormery? What do they need to help them burrow? think about the layers we made and what natural resources we used!
Fun fact: Whilst observing our worms the children wanted to know how they see where they are going? Worms don’t have eyes, they use antenna-shaped sensors to help them move around
This weeks sound is: ‘V’ for Volcano
Rhyme of the week: 5 little ducks
Notice:
Just a reminder …
Tuesday is our forest school session and library book day
Wednesday is PE day (comfortable clothes)
Have lovely weekend!
Miss Ward, Miss Harvey and Miss Feldman
Reading – The Highwayman (by Alfred Noyes)
This week, years 5 and 6 have been getting their teeth stuck into a new poem – The Highwayman (by Alfred Noyes). After reading the poem as a class, we discussed the meaning behind the story of the poem, and which emotions may have driven the way for this sad story.
Here’s what we came up with as a class:
Lots of these ideas derived from Tim the ostler, who’s plan to have the Highwayman killed ended with the death of his beloved Bess, the landlord’s daughter.
The vocabulary in this poem lead to further learning in our writing lessons – we looked at speech between characters within this story and what they may say to one another. The vocabulary used in the poem suggested a formal piece of speech was necessary to suit the purpose and the timeline, so the children have been hard at work practising their formal writing!
Towards the end of the week, the children practised their retrieval skills. One of their tasks was to draw and label the Highwayman, based on information they could retrieve from the text. Below is a small snippet of the text and some fantastic learning the children – do you think they have retrieved information successfully? Which parts of their drawings were retrieved facts, and which elements were their own interpretations?
We read with prosody!
Throughout the day, the children have many opportunities to read and be read to. As part of our daily sessions, we focus on using prosody. The children are quite accustomed to this skill now and can confidently add expression, where appropriate, to really bring their reading to life. The class have listened to lots of prosody being modeled by the adults so why not try this at home?
This week’s poem was yet another chance to showcase this important reading skill.
Help at home by listening to the poem being read by Mrs Freeman. Ask your child if they can hear some prosody being used and can they read the poem to you using their own expressive voices?
Prosody is the rhythmic and intonational aspect of speech that manifests as expressive reading. It comprises timing, phrasing and intonation, and helps to convey meaning and add ‘life’ to reading
Welcome Back – Summer Term
I hope you all had a happy and healthy Easter break. The children have come back to school in fine form, ready to achieve and believe this summer term. We’re looking forward to sharing our learning journey with you over the coming weeks but in the meantime, a few reminders.
Reading fluency books
Every Friday, children who are reading chapter books will bring a new book home. We have 4 reading practice sessions a week in which we read the first 4 chapters. Please read chapters 5 and 6 at home and return the book by Wednesday the following week. Books are signed in and out and we can’t send new books home until the previous one has been returned. Although the books are a very valuable resource at our school, returning books mustn’t be a cause of worry or upset for your child, so please contact me directly if there are any issues.
I’ll continue to assign e-books weekly, including chapter books.
Reading records
Please return reading records to school by Wednesday. Make a note of what has been read and any areas you have focused on. This is a great way for us all to keep up to date and an often overlooked way of staying in regular contact! If you have any questions about this, please be in touch.
Library books
Our library day is Friday. Please return library books to school by Wednesday, ready to return to the library in exchange for a new one.
Times Tables Rock Stars
Thank you to everyone who has been playing Times Tables Rock Stars at home. It’s a really valuable resource and a fantastic way of keeping home learning fun. If you need any technical support, please be in touch.
PE days
Our PE days are still Tuesday and Friday. Uniform compliance is excellent in Year 2 – let’s keep it up!
Water bottles
Please make sure your child comes to school with a clean, labelled water bottle every day. Water bottles must go home every day.
If you need any additional support, you can email me on ajnash@spherefederation.org and I will get back to you within an appropriate timeframe.