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.
Topic – Trip to The Hepworth
Last Friday, Year 1 had a fantastic time on our school trip to The Hepworth Gallery. The children were excited to explore the gallery and loved looking closely at all the different sculptures. They noticed shapes, textures and materials, and asked some brilliant questions along the way.
We took part in a workshop where we carefully arranged corrugated card, bubble wrap and string to create interesting textures before printing onto a torn paper background inspired by the work of Barbara Hepworth. The children created some bold, imaginative designs and had a lot of fun.
The children were enthusiastic and focused and their artwork looked amazing. Every child represented our school wonderfully with brilliant behaviour, curiosity and creativity.
Help at home by encouraging your child to explore textures around the home. Try rubbing a crayon over different surfaces to see what patterns appear.
World Nursery Rhyme Week
This week has been World Nursery Rhyme week. We have had a great week celebrating our favourite Nursery Rhymes and have focused on a range of different nursery rhymes and we have been singing them (even more!) at carpet times.
Help at home: Sing your favourite Nursery Rhyme and send a video of you singing it for us to share in class.
Odd Socks
On Monday, we wore odd socks to signify our differences and share the message that we are all different in some way. We discussed how important it is to celebrate our differences and respect everyone.
Phonics
As part of our phonics learning, we’ve introduced the letter ‘a’ this week. We took turns to pull some objects out of a bag that all started with the letter ‘a’ We talked about the ‘a’ sound that we could hear at the start of each word. In Nursery, we focus on our listening skills. We’re not learning about letter formation just yet.
We show the children this picture card and use this pronunciation phrase.
a for astronaut and apple
Open your mouth wide and make the a sound at the back of your mouth a a a
Help at home: What can you find at home that begins with the sound ‘a’? Go on a sound hunt together and look for some. Let us know what you find.
Mrs. Kendrew, Mrs. Rippon, Miss. Feldman, Mrs. Linton and Mrs. Cairnes
World Nursery Rhyme Week
This week has been World Nursery Rhyme week. We have had a great week celebrating our favourite Nursery Rhymes and have focused on a range of different nursery rhymes and we have been singing them (even more!) at carpet times.
Help at home: Sing your favourite Nursery Rhyme and send a video of you singing it for us to share in class.
Odd Socks
On Monday, we wore odd socks to signify our differences and share the message that we are all different in some way. We discussed how important it is to celebrate our differences and respect everyone.
Phonics
This week, we focused on the new GPCs (Grapheme-phoneme correspondence) v, w, x, y.
We’ve also learnt the tricky words; and, has, his, her. Tricky words are words that should be read by sight. We start by identifying which part of the word is ‘tricky’.
Please continue to revisit this week’s sounds, by using the learn at home sheets. Thank you.
Poetry Basket
Children love listening to and joining in with poems each week. We learn a new poem every Monday and recite it together throughout the week.
Saying the poems out loud helps us focus on sounds, rhythm and rhyme, which supports our early reading skills. We’ve noticed that some poems have a fast and lively beat, while others are slow and gentle.
Shoes
Before I jump into my bed,
Before I dim the light,
I put my shoes together,
So they can talk all night.
I’m sure they would be lonesome,
If I tossed one here or there,
So I put my shoes together,
For they are a friendly pair.
Reminder
Next Tuesday is our Maths Stay & Learn session for parents. Once the children are settled on the carpet, we’ll invite you into the classroom to watch a short maths session. After that, there’ll be a variety of maths challenges for you to enjoy with your child. To finish the session, I’ll deliver a short presentation all about maths in Reception. We look forward to seeing you there!
Mrs. Kendrew, Mrs. Rippon, Miss. Feldman, Mrs. Linton and Mrs. Cairnes
Anti-bullying week
This week, it’s been Anti-bullying week. We came in our odd socks to show that we’re all different and that’s a good thing!
We talked about what bullying actually means. If someone is unkind to us once, it’s okay to feel upset and to talk to people we trust. However, recognising behaviour as bullying means:
S – Several
T – Times
O – On
P – Purpose
If we feel this is happening, it needs to STOP, so we should:
S – Start
T – Telling
O – Other
P – People
These people would be trusted adults such as our parents or teachers.
We looked at different situations and decided whether they were examples of bullying or just unkind behaviour.
We also thought about the different types of bullying, such as:
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Physical – when someone is being physically hurt
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Emotional – unkind words or negative body language
After looking at some friendship scenarios, we thought about how we might feel and what we could do to make sure everyone felt happy again.
We finished the day by thinking about the things we like. Not everyone liked the same things and that’s what makes us unique!
If someone likes something different, it would be good to try it because you might like it too. J
Help at home: Can your child tell you what both STOPs mean?