Times Tables Facts
If your child doesn’t know all of the times tables facts we have learnt in school so far, they’ve been given 2 facts to learn this week. It’d be great if you could ask your child what their facts are and quiz them on them over the week.
We will continue to do this for the rest of the year so any extra practise you can do at home would be great!
An unscheduled visit…
Last week, we explored our locality as part of our geography topic, conducting fieldwork to study the geography of our school and its surrounding environment.
As we reached the fire station to survey the traffic, recycling bins and litter, Mr Nash rang the doorbell…
Please can we have a look at your fire engine?
Moments later, the shutter opened and out drove the shiny, red fire engine!
The team at Wetherby Fire Station were so generous with their time, giving the children a tour of the vehicle and its tools, providing lots of opportunities to ask questions. The children really enjoyed the experience and asked some fantastic questions, representing our school fantastically with their impeccable manners.
Thank you to everyone at Wetherby Fire Station for being so accommodating with our unscheduled surprise visit. A lesson in “if you don’t ask, you don’t get.”…
Help at home by discussing what firefighters do to help in our community. Watch and discuss this video from West Yorkshire Fire and Rescue.
The Magic Paintbrush
This week our focus book has been The Magic Paintbrush by Julia Donaldson.
We talked about what we would paint if we had a magic paintbrush and wrote down our ideas.
We’ve be learning about Lunar New Year and have enjoyed making our own dragon in the workshop area that we showed in our whole school celebration assembly on Friday. We’ve also used our funky fingers to make snakes to mark the start of the year of the snake.
Poetry Picnic
Each week, we will be learning a new poem. We will recite this poem each day. By saying the poem out loud we can focus on the sounds and rhythm of each word or line. This week’s poem is A Little House.
I’m going to build a little house,
With windows big and bright,
And chimneys tall with curling smoke,
Drifting out of sight.
In winter when the snowflakes fall,
Or when I hear a storm,
I’ll go and sit in my little house,
Where I’ll be snug and warm.
We also recited this in our assembly and impressed the whole school with our wonderful prosody.
Phonics
Spring 1 week 2 has focused on our final sounds of phase 3: air, er
We’ve learnt the tricky words; are, sure, pure
Tricky words are words that should be read by sight
Have a happy and healthy week and thank you as always for your support.
Mrs. Kendrew, Mrs. Rippon, Mrs. Small and Mr. Smith.
Writing – Diary entries
We’ve really enjoyed writing our diary entries this week! We’ve been bringing our learning about volcanoes from Geography into our writing by writing a diary entry about the day a volcano erupted. We’ve been using expanded noun phrases to provide a detailed description and conjunctions to join clauses.
Elara was really proud of her writing, particularly when she reviewed it against the R2s (things we need to do to be successful.)
Elara’s writing skills continued to amaze me when the next day she wrote another diary entry. We will be editing and self-assessing these next week but you can already see how she has used more conjunctions and expanded noun phrases in the initial draft of the second diary entry. This time she also used her dictionary skills to correct her spelling mistakes.
Check back next week to see some more of our formidable writing!
Maths
Arithmetic
We have been working really hard on our arithmetic skills in Year 5 and 6 and our confidence is really improving. As a result, we are seeing our scores steadily improve. We have seen many personal best scores today and the children have been very giddy and eager to share. Well done everyone!
Help at home – please encourage your child to go on Times Tables Rock Stars.
Cross Country!
Over 40 of our Key Stage Two pupils recently took part in the East Leeds Cross Country Competition. From Year 3 races of 900m, to Years 5 and 6 running a whopping 1500m, these tough tasks were met with enthusiasm and brilliant attitudes from the children at St James. Every single child managed to finish their race, showing resilience and determination throughout. I was really impressed with how well children conducted themselves – they were brilliant role models for our school. Finally, a huge congratulations to one of our runners, Lily, who has qualified for the next round of the competition by finishing 6th in her race!
Comparing Numbers to 20 in Year one!
In Year One, the children have been mastering how to compare numbers up to 20 using greater than, less than, and equal to. They are now able to confidently organise their own number lines and describe numbers in different ways! This helps them understand number order and comparisons clearly.
Help at home:
- Try using everyday items like blocks, toys, or snacks. Ask questions such as, “Which is more: 6 cookies or 9 cookies?” or “Is 14 greater than 7?”
- Encourage your child to draw their own number lines to practice comparing numbers.
- Play a game where you describe a number: “I’m thinking of a number greater than 15 but less than 17. What number am I thinking of?”
Reading – Sequencing and Summarising
In reading and writing, our focus text is Flooded by Spanish author and illustrator, Mariajo Ilustrajo.
We’ve really enjoyed this text, exploring the key themes by asking questions and making connections.
A theme is a big idea or message.
Flooded is a funny tale of animals in a slowly flooding city. Behind the humorous story and illustrations, there’s an important message. Flooded touches on themes of environmental crisis and responsibility, as well as the power of community, and working together to fix a problem.
We’ve used the text to practise our summarising skills – summarising is retelling a story in your own words.
The children impressed me with their skills, sequencing pictures from the story and writing a summarising sentence for each.
Help at home by inviting your child to summarise Flooded. Can they tell you about the key themes? Try sequencing and summarising events in a different text. What happened first? What next? What happened at the end?
Heavier Or Lighter?
This week, we have been thinking about weight.
We have been comparing objects in our classroom and using the words ‘heavier’ and ‘lighter’ to describe them.
Sometimes, we were tricked! Some of us thought that the biggest object might be the heaviest. We now know
, 
that’s not always the case!
Help at home: Can you compare some objects that you have? Which feels heavier and lighter when you feel them?
Living and learning: I know how to seek help.
This week, our living and learning statement is:
I know how to seek help.
In our weekly circle times, we always refer to ways we can seek help. I am really impressed with how well the children remember and use these systems – this ensures we maintain a happy and healthy classroom environment.
Help at home: Talk through the slide above with your child. Make sure they feel confident enough to use at least one of these strategies if they are worried or in need of help.