Food Technology – Tomato and lentil soup
This week, Year 4 have loved making tomato and lentil soup in Food Technology.
We thought carefully about how to keep ourselves safe.
- We washed our hands to make sure we used good hand hygiene to help keep us healthy.
- We wore aprons to protect our clothes.
- We used the bridge cutting method and the claw cutting method to cut up our ingredients to keep our fingers safe.
- We were very careful near the hob which got very hot!
The soup was a hit in the taste test – we hope you will enjoy making the recipe again at home!
Help at home: Next time you are peeling or cutting vegetables, ask your child to show you how they have learnt to do this safely.
Owl Babies
This week our focus book has been Owl Babies by Martin Waddell.
We’ve really enjoyed using a story map, we created our own actions to help us retell the story from the beginning to the end. We practised remembering key events from the story and included the repeated phrases.
All owls think a lot.
‘I want my mummy!’
‘What’s all this fuss!’
Our word of the week has been swoop and we’ve enjoyed using it during the week.
‘Mummy owl swooped down to the baby owls.’
‘Swooping is when you go from high up to low down.’
We’ve also continued exploring nocturnal animals this week.
Help at home: Ask your child if they can explain what a nocturnal animal is and if they can name any.
Phonics
Autumn 2 week has focused on words with s /s/ added at the end (hats, sits), words ending s /z/ (his) and with s /z/ added at the end (bags)
We’ve learnt the tricky words; we, me, be
Tricky words are words that should be read by sight.
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. We talk to the children about how this can help us become better readers. This week’s poem is called Wise Old Owl.
A wise old owl sat in an oak,
The more he heard, the less he spoke.
The less he spoke, the more he heard.
Why aren’t we all like that wise old bird?
Maths; counting, ordinality and cardinality
In Maths, we’ve revisited careful counting. Making sure we say our numbers in the correct sequence (ordinality) and stopping ‘at the stopping number’ (cardinality).
Have a happy and healthy weekend and thank you as always for your support.
Why does Christmas matter to Christians?
This half term, our big RE question is “Why does Christmas matter to Christians?” We have spent time exploring the events of the Nativity story, which we now remember very clearly.
One of our key vocabulary words is Incarnation, which means that Christians believe Jesus was God in human form, coming to Earth to show people what God is like.
In our most recent lesson, we compared the birth of Jesus with the birth of a baby today. We identified many differences and discussed them thoughtfully. We also considered how people today prepare for a new baby, and how people in the Nativity story prepared for Jesus’ birth.
My sister was visited by friends and family. Jesus was visited by kings and sheppards. – Lyla
It must have been a very difficult journey for Mary. -Frankie
Normally a baby is born in hospital. – Austin
Topic (Art) – Leonardo da Vinci
This half term, in topic, we’re artists. This week, we’ve explored three famous pieces:
- The Vitruvian Man
- The Last Supper
- The Mona Lisa
We compared the works and talked about whether we thought they had been created by Leonardo da Vinci or Paul Klee (our focus artists this half term). The children used our art vocabulary skilfully, thinking carefully about line, shape, pattern, texture, tone, primary colours and secondary colours.
“I don’t think it’s Paul Klee because there are no shapes.”
“I think Leonardo da Vinci made it because the tone is darker.”
“All the people look quite real so I think it’s Leonardo da Vinci.”
We then decided which picture might be the odd one out and explained why. We had some fantastic discussions…
“That one (Vitruvian Man) reminds me of Paul Klee because it has a square and a circle.”
“One of them has writing on.”
“It looks like it was done with a pen or pencil and the others look like paint.”
“The Mona Lisa is the odd one out because she’s the only lady.”
Help at home by exploring some art together. Encourage your child to talk about line, shape, pattern, texture and tone.
Maths – Partitioning 10
In Maths this week, we’ve been exploring different ways to partition the number 10. We practised finding number pairs that make 10 and talked about how to make sure we work systematically so that we don’t miss any combinations.
We used lots of representations to help our thinking, including ten frames, Multilink cubes and rekenreks, and we enjoyed spotting patterns as the numbers changed.
Help at home by challenging your child to find missing parts of 10. “What does __ need to make 10?”
Topic
Art
As you may know, in topic this half term we have been learning about different artists and sculptures. The children have been eagerly waiting to begin their own sculpting, and they were delighted to start this week.
The children took inspiration from other sculptors and designed their own in their topic book. Afterwards, we began sculpting using soap. The children spent time practicing and refining new skills, using teaspoons, paperclips, pencils and paper towels.
Over the next few weeks, we will be creating several sculptures; here are a few pictures from today’s exploratory session:
Help at home – ask your child to talk to you about what they did and the skills they have learnt. Can you create some soap sculptures together at home?
Banana Sandwiches in Year 2
Year 2 had a fantastic time making banana sandwiches this week. The children worked safely and sensibly. They washed their hands carefully and learned how to hold a butter knife correctly while preparing their snack.
What We Did
- Washed hands with soap and water
- Spread butter on bread
- Peeled and sliced bananas with adult help
- Put the banana slices on the bread and made their sandwiches
The children showed great teamwork, followed instructions brilliantly, and enjoyed tasting their creations.
Living and Learning – Friends and family
This week, in Living and Learning, we’ve been exploring what it means to feel happy and how we can recognise happiness in ourselves and others.
We talked about what happy faces and bodies might look like and how we can tell when someone might be feeling good inside. The children also thought about what makes them feel happy, from spending time with friends to enjoying their favourite activities.
We compared happy and sad faces and added new vocabulary the children suggested. They were brilliant at thinking about their own experiences and how feelings can change.
As part of our learning, we spent time getting to know Elmer, the colourful patchwork elephant who loves to make others smile. In the story, Elmer starts to worry when he thinks the other elephants are laughing at him but soon realises they are actually laughing with him because he brings so much joy to the herd.
The children coloured in their own elephants and we celebrated that each one was joyful and unique.
Help at home by labelling some happy moments at home – feel free to share! Our year 1 are becoming experts at recognising and talking about emotions.
Whatever Next
This week, we listened to another of Jill Murphy’s stories titled ‘Whatever Next!’
It’s about a little bear who went on an adventure to the moon. This story led to lots of conversations about space and rockets. In the story baby bear makes his own space rocket from a cardboard box. We decided to make our own rockets in the creative area using different shaped boxes and bottles. It was quite tricky working out how to attach the different parts together. But we didn’t give up.
‘I need some more sticky tape for my rocket bottle blaster!’ Archie
‘My rocket has got a shiny thing on to make it go fast.’ Frankie
Next week’s learning:
We are looking forward to reading ‘Stickman’ by Julia Donaldson in our story times next week.
In maths, we’re learning about length so will be using the words long, short, longer and shorter to compare different objects.
Sound of the week
i for iguana
Pull your lips back and make the i sound at the back of your mouth.
Nursery rhyme of the week –
Twinkle, twinkle little star
How to Catch a Star
This week our focus book has been How to Catch a Star by Oliver Jeffers.
Our word of the week has been reflection and we looked closely at shiny and dull objects. The children where challenged to find objects they could see their reflection in.
‘I can see my reflection in the tv. Look at my angry face!’ Leo
‘I can see myself in these glasses, my mouth is moving.’ Noyan
‘I found a shiny bowl, I can see myself on the side.’ Billie
Phonics
This week, we focused on the new digraphs sh, th, ng and nk.
We’ve also learnt the tricky words; she, he, of, go, no
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 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. We talk to the children about how this can help us become better readers. This week’s poem is called Mice by Rose Fyleman
I think mice are rather nice.
Their tails are long, their faces small,
They haven’t any chins at all.
Their ears are pink. Their teeth are white.
They run around the house at night.
They nibble things they shouldn’t touch.
And no-one seems to like them much.
But I think mice are nice.
Next week our focus story is Owl Babies by Martin Waddell.