Snow Closures and World Book Day Reschedule
Thank you parents and carers for your understanding regarding the school closures this week. It’s always our first priority to keep the children safe and could not ensure that this would be possible with the staff who could make it to school. We hope that the children enjoyed their time in the snow – we don’t see snow that deep very often!
The severe weather resulted in World Book Day being cancelled. The children had been so excited about coming to school dressed up so we have decided to have our own book day on Monday 05 March. Please come into school and share a book with your child. We’re opening to everyone in Foundation from 8.30am so there will be a little extra time to read a story.
Our eggs arrived safely on Tuesday and went into the incubator on Wednesday. The eggs will take 21 days to hatch and we’ll have to take good care of them. Watch this space for updates on their progress or come in and have a look for yourselves.
As the cold weather is set to stay please ensure that your child has named hat and gloves/ mittens at school every day. The children love to be outside exploring the weather and changes to the environment.
Please don’t forget to tell us about your child’s ‘Wow’ moments. Maybe it’s the first time they’ve been on a sledge or made their own snowman. Let us know what you have been up to and we can add it to your child’s learning journal.
A Bug’s Life
This week, we met some rather interesting creatures when we had a visit from the ‘Bug Lady’. The visit formed part of our learning about life forces and we were particularly interested in the life cycles of the bugs.
During our workshop we met; hissing cockroaches, stick insects and snails. We met different species of each one and all at different stages of life and development – from eggs to nymphs and fully grown adults.
We even got a chance to hold some of them, or should we say they crawled, slithered, jumped and even had a snooze on us.
This week in Foundation…
During our first week back after half term, Foundation have been learning about Chinese New Year through stories, film, activities and discussions.
- What can your child tell you about Chinese New Year?
- What stories can they remember from this week?
We’ve also been visited by ‘The Bug Lady’! Lots of the children were very brave, holding the minibeasts in their hands, on their legs and stroking their shells. We found out many interesting facts and were very proud of how well the children listened.
- Can your child tell you which minibeasts they saw?
- Where do the minibeasts come from?
- What were the differences between the girl and boy stick insects?
Next week, we’re looking forward to lots of ‘World Book Day’ inspired learning. Don’t forget your costumes on Thursday and parents/carers, please do join us for our Stay and Play to share a book with your child: 8.30-9.15am.
A visit from some creepy crawlies…
Today, we had some interesting visitors in school. We had a fantastic hands-on experience of holding some wonderful creatures including giant snails, giant cockroaches and stick insects.
Church Visit
Today, we have visited St Joseph’s Church in Wetherby. Father Nunon showed us around the church and we asked lots of questions. We learnt about how forgiveness is portrayed within the Catholic faith and we explored similarities and differences between St Joseph’s Church and St James’ Church.
Well done…
Foundation had another great half-term of learning! Enjoy a lovely break with your family and friends and don’t forget to fill in those Time to Talk sheets (sent home on Friday), so that we can hear all about it when we return to school on Monday 19 February.
Great grammar games
Here are some good links to help revise some grammar and punctuation concepts that we have been learning in school.
Creative Homework
This week, Years 5 and 6 have been learning all about how to stay safe online. It was also a topic for their creative homework this week. Here are some fabulous creations they have brought into school.
Hand to Mouth visit
On Thursday, Hand to Mouth, who are a Christian organisation which visits schools offering ‘reflective journeys’ on different topics and workshops with the children, visited our school to work with each of the classes.
Year 1/2 participated in a Lent reflective journey. The children took a journey with a partner or on their own, helped by volunteers from St James’ church to learn about Lent – step by step from Shrove Tuesday to Easter Sunday. The children visited 6 different stations, and if they wanted to, completed an activity at each station: Things we’ve got wrong, saying sorry for our mistakes, our hurts, the poor and what we can do to help, I wonder where Jesus is now? and God loves you.
The children also enjoyed a workshop learning about the creation story. Then, they made puppets of some of the creatures God created.
Below are some quotes from the children, after completing the journey, and some pictures.
“I feel happy because I learnt something”
“I learnt not to be a bully”
“It was fantastic”
“I liked writing prayers to God”
Getting active
The last couple of weeks have been very active indeed. We’ve launched our 30:30 challenge. This involves getting 30 minutes of physical activity at school, which is then carried on with 3o minutes at home on as many days as possible. It’s great to see that so many children are already well on with the challenge with ten full days of activity recorded.
To go with this big push on physical activity, we had a judo workshop where children experienced this interesting and technical sport first hand.
We also got physical with our Life Forces topic. After deciding how we could help wildlife around school, we hung up bird feeders and made bug hotels in the hope of being able to study some creatures close up.
