Wonderful Writing
Over the past few weeks, we have thoroughly enjoyed reading ‘Ollie’s Magic Bunny‘.
We came up with actions to remember the story in order. Children drew their own story map, listed the key vocabulary and then finally wrote the story.
I was so proud of all the children for their fabulous efforts. I saw some wonderful writing in Year 1 and 2. Here is a little sample of what the children achieved.
Ask your child to re-tell the story with the actions they learnt in class.
Times Tables Rockstars Championship
Well done, Year 3! Look at the percentages for this week. You have nearly all been on this week (up 30% to last week!) and the amount of time you’ve spent on each day has risen. Well done! 
The highly-anticipated championship results are in! Well done to the following children for winning a place on this week’s leadership board.
Your dojo points have been added – claim your prize from Mrs Welsby on Monday. Lookout, on Monday, for the updated leadership board.
Skipping into summer with Skipping School
We have launched a whole school skipping project with Skipping School. Each class has their own class set of ropes and we also have long ropes for every class too. The children are so enthusiastic about it already. There are some tutorial videos below so you can work on your skills at home too!
- Skipping Tips
- EYFS and KS1 ‘Click and Jump’ tutorial
- EYFS and KS1 ‘Big Rope Bouncing’ tutorial
- EYFS and KS1 ‘Double Bounce’ tutorial
- KS2 ‘Double Bounce’ tutorial
- KS2 ‘Speed Bounce’ tutorial
- KS2 ‘Hop and Swap’ tutorial
- KS2 ‘Side Straddle’ tutorial
- KS2 ‘Forward and Backward Straddle’ tutorial
- KS2 ‘Criss Cross’ tutorial
A calm week in Foundation
After a very busy week last week, it’s been a lot calmer this week!
Literacy
The F2 children chose a minibeast to write about. We then used adjectives to describe what they look like and wrote about their habitats. Check out our amazing writing!
Caterpillars
It’s exciting times in Foundation… all of our caterpillars have now made a chrysalis (cocoon). The children know that caterpillars stay in a chrysalis for approximately 2 weeks. I am hoping this is perfect timing before we break up for half-term!
PE
The children started the exciting new ‘Skip into summer’ project organised by Skipping School. The children will be practicing their skipping skills over the next 6 weeks. To get their skipping journey started, Foundation will be learning three key skills: big rope bouncing, click & jump, and double bounce.
Phonics
F2 have finished learning all of the phase 3 sounds! Next week, we will be recapping some of the tricky phase 3 diagraphs and trigraphs. All of the children are trying really hard in phonics and this is evident in their reading and writing – well done F2!
Art
At the creative table, the children made their very own Matisse-inspired collage called The Snail. They cut up different shapes using brightly coloured paper and stuck them in a spiral pattern.
F1
On Tuesday, the children were finding objects with the same initial sound. Mrs Rippon said, “I have found a cccc cat! I wonder if we can find any other things that begin with a ccc.” They showed fantastic listening skills and were super at finding objects with the same initial sound.
On Thursday, they went on a 2d shape hunt around school.
Click here to watch a snapshot of what we do in music. The children love Mrs Small’s music sessions!
Home-Link Challenge
Living and Learning: I know the importance of sleep
We have been learning about the importance of sleep.
Did you know that people who get good quality sleep are more likely to…
- learn better
- remember more
- make good decisions
- perform better at sport
- be more creative
- feel healthier
- avoid illness
- heal faster from injury
- feel happy
Y ear 3/4 know all of this after our research into sleep.
Children aged 6-12 years old usually need between 10 and 11 hours every night.
Top tips:
- Turn off electronic screens (TV, computer, tablet, mobile) at least an hour before bedtime.
- avoid doing lots of exercise just before bedtime
- avoid lots of sugar (like sweets or fizzy drinks) in the evening
- have a tidy, organised, dark and cool bedroom
Happy sleeping!
Times Tables Rockstars Champions
Well done to this week’s Times Tables Rockstars champions!
We will be running this competition each week until the summer holidays. We do play in school but extra practice at home will be the key to improving their times tables. If you have any issues accessing it at home, please get in contact with Mrs Rowley (beckyrowley@spherefederation.org) asap.
Y6 Swimming survey
As part of the government PE and Sport Premium for primary schools, there is a condition requiring schools to publish how many pupils in Year 6 are meeting the National Curriculum requirements. As school swimming lessons took place earlier in KS2, please could you complete this survey to provide up to date information for your child.
Thank you
Mrs Latham
PE/Health Leader
Living and learning : health and prevention (hand washing)
We have linked our Living and Learning lessons to our computing topic – particularly algorithms.
We talked about how washing your hands is an algorithm. You have to do each step in the right order for it to work. We all know how important washing our hands is!
Detectives at work!
This week we’ve had a very busy week solving crime. On Tuesday, the children got straight into detective mode! We’ve looked for clues, taken (pretend) photographs, taken finger prints and measured footprints! It’s been a tough week, but we managed to solve the crimes! Check out our amazing detective skills!
On Tuesday, the crime scene was in the garden centre.
On Wednesday, the crime scene was in the home corner – they were shocked at the mess!
On Thursday, the crime scene moved to the construction area. This time there was a big boot!
We even spotted a police officer going to vote. We kindly asked her to come and have a look at our crime scene. The children told her all about the different crime scenes and she was so impressed with our detective skills!
Today, there was an outline of someone’s body on the carpet. The children asked various teachers to lay in the outline to find out who it is. In the end, the culprit was Miss Marsden!
Maths
F2 started to learn about teen numbers. The children know that a teen number is made up on one ten and some ones. For example, 12 is made up of one ten and two ones. We’ve also been consolidating key skills such as part-part-whole, counting on, 1 more and 1 less and taking away.
F1 looked a different 2d shapes. They were fantastic at naming them and counting the sides and corners. They made robots using a selection of 2d shapes.
Literacy
F2 used their plans to write their own stories based on The Very Hungry Caterpillar. Click on the links to watch some of the children reading their stories.
Story 1
Story 2
Story 3
Story 4
Story 5
The F1 children re-read the story and painted caterpillars using their fingers.
Next week, we will be continuing the minibeast topic and finding out about different invertebrates.
Phonics
The F2 children have almost finished all of the phase 3 phonemes. We will be learning the final three next week: air, ure and er. Please continue to use their phase 3 sound mat at home on a regular basis.
Caterpillars
Click here to see how much our caterpillars have grown!
Home-Link
Have a lovely weekend!
Living and Learning: I know the importance of personal hygiene, including handwashing.
In Living and Learning, we discussed the importance of keeping clean and washing our hands. We did a little experiment with paint and talc to show how easily germs can spread if we don’t wash our hands!
We watched a video which showed us the ‘hotspots’ where germs are very good at hiding on our hands. We are going to make sure we pay attention to these areas every time we wash our hands.
We all know the importance of handwashing to protect ourselves and others. For a reminder, watch this experiment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kGQEuuv9R6E