Reading – Authorfy
Year 4 LOVE Authorfy!
Year 4 may have mentioned special challenges and videos with authors that they’ve enjoyed in Book Club. Highlights so far have included:
- understanding more about why Onjali Rauf writes the books she writes by listening to her Q&A videos.
- designing our own laser-inspired level in response to a challenge set by 13 story treehouse author Andy Griffiths (see photo below).
- creating our own front cover design to Barb the Brave.
Rumour has it that to celebrate the National Year of Reading in 2026, Authorfy will be making many of their resources free to families to access at home. You can read more about the National Year of Reading here.
Night Monkey, Day Monkey
We have had another busy week in reception, our focus book this week has been Night Monkey, Day Monkey by Julia Donaldson and Lucy Richards.
We have talked a lot about the things we do during the day at school and things we do at night at home.
Our word of the week was: Nocturnal, the children have enjoyed exploring the different animals that are nocturnal and active at night.
“Foxes and bats are nocturnal.”
“Hedgehogs are awake in the night.”
Help At Home: Draw a nocturnal animal and label it.
Phonics
This week the children have focused on the diagraphs zz, qu and ch and the phoneme z. we have also looked at words with s added at the end like hats, sits.
We’ve also learnt the tricky words: go, no, to, into, his
Help at home: Please look at the ‘learn at home’ phonics sheet. The sheet links to all the phonemes we have covered this week. Please support your child by practising these at home.
Poetry Picnic
Each week we will be learning a new poem. We will recite the poem each day. By saying the poem out load we can focus on the sounds and rhythm of each word or line.
this week our poem was A Basket of Apples
I’ve got a basket of apples, picked from a tree.
Apples rosy red for you, and shiny green for me.
Some of them are big, and some of them are small.
Some of them are oval, and some shaped like a ball.
Some of them are sour, and some of them are sweet.
Lots of lovely apples for you and I to eat.
Help at home- we talked about the vocabulary oval (shaped like an egg) and sour (tastes like lemon or vinegar) tell your grown up what these words mean.
Maths
In Maths, we have begun to explore composition by focusing on the concept of ‘wholes’ and ‘parts’. The children have explored their own bodies and familiar toys to begin to understand that whole things are often made up of smaller parts and that a whole is, therefore, bigger than its parts. We have made whole faces by adding different parts of eyes, ears a mouth and a nose and put the parts together to make a whole monkey.
Help at home: Sing Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes to your grown up and tell them some of the parts you have on your body that make up the whole of you.
Next week our focus book is How to Catch a Star by Oliver Jeffers.
Thank you also to those who came to the Maths Stay and Learn session, please do get in touch if you ever have any questions. stjameseyfs@spherefederation.org
Have a happy and healthy weekend
Topic – Art – Colours
We’re looking forward to welcoming you in to class on Friday (28th November) for our Topic Review. When you come in, we can’t wait to share with you what we have learned about complementary, warm and cool colours.
You’ll see some of our work so far on our Art Working Wall. Here is a sneaky peek:
Help at home: Look at these pieces of art shared by the Tate – can you see how the artists have used complementary colours? Tate – Complementary Colours
In class we’ve learned that complementary colours are opposite each other on the colour wheel. This paragraph (taken from the Tate) provides another interesting observation that your child might want to explore.
In colour theory complementary colours appear opposite each other on colour models such as the colour wheel. The colour complement of each primary colour (primaries are red, yellow and blue) can be obtained by mixing the two other primary colours together. So the complementary of red is green (a mix of yellow and blue); the complementary of blue is orange (a mix of red and yellow); and the complementary of yellow is violet (a mix of red and blue).
Topic – Art and Sculpture
This half-term, Year 5 are learning all about sculpture. Since our trip to the Yorkshire Sculpture Park, the children have been reflecting on the sculptures and the artists behind the creations. We are focussing on three key sculptors: Thomas J Price, Henry Moore and Barbara Hepworth. These artists show many similarities and differences within their sculptures.
‘Henry Moore and Barbara Hepworth are abstract artists and Thomas Price is more figurative.’ – Elara
‘ Figurative means making a reference to people and real life.’ – Lottie
‘Abstract is all shapes and things that might not make sense.’ – Kiara
‘All three artists are modern artists because they don’t make references to Ancient Greek or Roman styles.’ – Oliver
Over the next few weeks, the children will be tasked with creating their own sculptures, taking inspiration from the work they’ve seen so far. The children know the difference between being inspired by someone’s work, and just copying it. For example, Henry Moore was inspired by Barbara’s concept of adding negative space, so he adopted the idea into his own creations.
Help at home:
Talk about the three artists with your child. Which inspires them the most and why? What is it about their sculptures that you like? Which parts might you transfer into your own sculpture?
PE – Year 1 Take Flight!
This week in PE, Year 1 have been developing their gymnastics skills by exploring different types of jumps. The children have been fantastic at listening carefully, moving safely and giving their best effort.
We focused on a range of basic jumps, including:
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Straight jump – keeping the body tall like a pencil with arms stretched overhead.
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Star jump – jumping out wide with arms and legs spread, then landing back together.
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Tuck jump – lifting knees towards the tummy while keeping the back straight.
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Half-turn jump – making a small controlled turn in the air and landing softly facing the opposite direction.
The children practised taking off with two feet, landing with bent knees and keeping their arms out for balance. They also learned how to sequence their movements with control and confidence.
Staying Safe in Gymnastics
Safety is always our top priority. We reminded the children to:
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Look for clear space before they jump.
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Use two-footed take-offs and landings.
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Keep knees bent when landing.
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Move carefully on and around the apparatus.
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Listen closely to instructions and wait for their turn.
Everyone did brilliantly at following our safety rules.
Help at home by trying some soft landings at home: Lay down a folded blanket or cushion and encourage your child to practise bending their knees to land softly.
New visitors
We’ve been very excited in Year 3 this week as our new bird feeders have started to attract some wonderful visitors! We spotted a blue tit and a coal tit taking turns flying from our apple tree to the classroom window to say hello before enjoying some bird food.
The children were delighted to watch them up close and are enjoying having this special connection with nature right outside our window. Sometimes, we even pause our learning for a quiet moment of spirituality and reflection, appreciating the beauty and calmness these little visitors bring to our classroom.
We love our new addition to the Year 3 environment and can’t wait to see who visits next!
Help at home: What birds can you identify in your garden?
We are artists!
This week, the children looked at artworks by Napaltjarri and Kandinsky. We spent time talking about what we could see in the pictures, such as colours, shapes and patterns, and how these visual elements made the artwork interesting.
We also discussed any tactile ideas the artwork suggested, like how the dots in Napaltjarri’s work might feel bumpy or how Kandinsky’s lines and shapes might feel smooth or sharp if we could touch them. These are know as visual and tactile elements in Art.
The children enjoyed sharing what they noticed, comparing the two artists, and talking about which visual or tactile elements stood out to them.
Help at home: Discuss the visual and tactile element in these art pieces.
Subtraction Through 10
This week, Year Two have been learning to subtract through ten using their knowledge of number bonds to ten. We used a bus story to help us picture the maths:
“There were 12 children on the buses. Then 4 got off, so 8 were left.”
We repeated this idea to explore 12 − 5, 12 − 6, and 12 − 7 with the children partitioning the number being subtracted:
subtract to get to 10, then subtract the rest.
To deepen understanding, the children also used tens frames to model the same number stories, showing 12, removing counters and checking how many were left. This helped them clearly see how subtraction through ten works.
💡 How to Help at Home
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Practise number bonds to 10 (e.g., 6 and 4, 7 and 3).
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Use small objects (pasta, buttons, Lego) to model stories like “12 take away 5”.
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Ask your child to explain how they got to 10 first before finishing the subtraction.
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Try quick oral questions: “If you have 12 and take away 3, how many to get to 10? What’s left?”
Writing
In writing, we’ve been beginning our sentences in different ways using nouns, adjectives, adverbials, determiners, words ending in ‘ing and words ending in ‘ly’.
For example:
– nouns eg Odelux Cinema is in Leeds.
– adjectives eg Impressive sound hits from every angle.
– adverbials eg As you leave the car park, avoid the traffic.
– determiners eg Some of the seats are extremely comfortable.
– ing eg Popping with colour, the screen is astounding.
– ly eg Exceptionally good value for money, these tickets cost less than £8 each.
Here’s some super sentences that our children came up with:
Painted onto the plastic are colours which take you back to the prehistoric era. Valerie
Furiously, the dinosaur will chase it’s imaginary prey as you play with it.
Carefully create your masterpiece. Willow
Strapped to the side, the microphone is perfectly placed. Tommy
Thoughtfully, the bricks are divided into small compartments.
Playing with friends has endless possibilities. Chloe
Hanging about the house, the balloon stood against the wind. Christian
Putting the microphone in the holder is quite frustrating.
Lego is an entertaining thing to do at home. Lily
Loudly, the speaker’s volume got whilst they were dancing to the music. Teddy
Bricks come in a variety of shapes and sizes and are vibrantly coloured. Freddie
Hunting with full energy, the squirrel found some nuts to eat. Charlina
Help at home – write some sentences together beginning each one in a different way.
Number stay and learn
It was great to see so many of you at our second Stay and Learn this week. We hope you enjoyed watching your child take part in some fantastic maths learning! We’d love to hear your feedback.
There are 4 more Stay and Learns this year – find the dates here.
For those of you who were unable to attend, please find attached the PowerPoint shared at the meeting.