Owl Babies
This week our focus book has been Owl Babies by Martin Waddell.
We wrote messages from the baby owls in the Message Centre and made cosy houses for the owl babies in the Waste Innovation area. We rehearsed some phrases from the story and added actions to help us to remember them.
Our word of the week was: Swoop, the children have really enjoyed using this word during the week in their learning.
” mummy owl just swoops back home to the babies owls!”
“When you swoop you move down quickly!”
Help at Home: Tell your grown up at home about an animal that swoops.
Phonics
This week we have recapped all the Phase 2 phonemes. We also practiced reading words with ‘s’ at the end.
We’ve learnt all of the Phase 2 tricky words. Tricky words are tricky because we can’t sound them out- we just have to know them by sight.
Help at home: Practice reading the tricky words on the ‘Learn at Home’ sheets sent home each week.
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 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?
Next week our focus book is The Jolly Christmas Postman by Janet and Allen Ahlberg and we will be learning about what happens to our post. To enhance your child’s learning experience, we will be writing and posting a postcard home. If you would like your child’s postcard to be posted through Royal Mail please provide a stamp in a named envelop by Thursday 14 December,
Reminders!
Please can all Nativity Costumes to be sent in by Tuesday 12 December, please let us know if you’re having problems as we have some spare items in school.
Reception will be making Christingles this week, please can we ask for a donation of one orange for each child. We are not joining school in church but we will have our own little class worship in school.
Don’t forget to attend a learning journey drop in. We look forward to sharing your child’s books.
Times- 8.45am-9.15am and 3.15pm-3.45pm (Tuesday and Thursday)
Mrs. Kendrew, Mrs. Rippon and Miss. Feldman
Bandi Chhor Divas
This week, we have been learning about the story of Guru Hangobind Sahid Ji and how, in 1619, he saved 52 Sikhs from prison. We understand why Sikhs celebrate this event, known as Bandi Chhor Divas and how it links to Diwali. We have also compared this religious celebration with other events, such as Hanukkah and Christmas and how this celebration relate to us.
Help at home – ask your child about the story of Guru Hangobind. Can they remember how he helped free 52 innocent prisoners? Can they retell the Jewish story of Hanukkah and say how it links to the Sikh event Bandi Chhor Divas?
Listen to some reading with prosody.
Today, the children rehearsed the weekly poem. Here are a few examples of the children reading with prosody. (expression)
A HUGE well done to all of the children!
Spring Attendance Competition
St James’ CE Primary is a happy and healthy place to be – and maybe even a lucky one, too!
Look out for our attendance competition next half term. All pupils with attendance of 96% or higher will be entered into a prize draw to win a £50 Love to Shop vouchers!
So… for the full Spring 1 half-term, Monday 08 January to Friday 09 February (five weeks), if your child reaches a good level of attendance – that’s 96% – their name will be entered into a prize draw. We’ll select one lucky winner on the last day of the half-term (Friday 09 February).
Remember, arriving late for school counts as an unauthorised absence. This affects a child’s overall attendance figure, and that might mean they lose out.
So far this term, 40 pupils have 100% attendance and 80 pupils have over 96% attendance – well done to the children and their families!
We are chemists!
Our recent science lesson was all about melting and freezing water. The children held a piece of ice in their hands. They observed what happened to the solid over a short piece of time.
Our hands are warm but the ice is cold. Olly
It is starting to drip. Athena
Next, the class were shown some toys that had been frozen in ice.
How could the toys be released from the ice and what could we use?
– a hairdryer
– a blanket
– a pair of gloves
If we use a hairdryer, it might turn into a liquid. Athena
We need to warm them up to become a liquid. Kupa
The class concluded that adding some heat to the ice made it melt and become a liquid.
The vocabulary used in this lesson was;
- solid
- freeze
- melt
- liquid
- ice
Help at home
Make some ice cubes and then put them in different places to watch them melt. This is a great activity for learning about melting and freezing!
Discuss what makes ice melt and predict where the cubes would melt the fastest.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/articles/z9ck9qt
Reading with prosody
This week, the children will be using their knowledge of nouns and adjectives to create and write about a monster. To support this learning, we have chosen a monster themed poem to learn.
As well as developing fluency skills, we are teaching the children to add some prosody to their reading too. This simply means to read with expression. Prosody is taught through a variety of texts, not just stories.
On Friday, I (Mrs Freeman) read the text aloud and modelled using prosody and asked the children the following questions.
How have I changed my voice?
Why have I changed my voice and does it help us to understand the poem more?
Am I telling you about the character is an expressive/funny way?
Can you tell who is speaking? The monster or the reader?
Using prosody, gives early readers an insight into what reading for meaning should sound like. More importantly, it shows children how books can speak through readers, and how words on the page can come to life – which our monster poem certainly did!
By modelling this reading skill, children begin to learn how you can change the tone of a sentence simply by stressing different words and phrases.
After listening to me read, the class then echoed my prosody several times.
Help at home
Listen to this recording of the poem and discuss prosody with you child. Let me repeat back each line using expression.
Use prosody in your daily conversations. Emphasise certain words/phrases together.
Topic Review
Thank you to those families that were able to join us today for our topic review. We are continually recapping previous learning and today was a great opportunity for the children to showcase their knowledge. It was lovely to see the children discussing their work with families and friends.
If you weren’t able to attend, here is the quiz that the children did for their review. Topic Review quiz slides December 2023
Upcoming Gymnasts!
This half term, our school PE focus has been gymnastics.
We have been learning and practising fundamental movement skills, such as jumping, balancing, rolling and travelling in different ways. This week, Years 5 and 6 have put their fundamental movement skills to the test on our school equipment! We had to make sure that we followed our safety protocols whilst moving around the hall and using our equipment. Here are some pictures of the children in action!
Barbara Hepworth Art Gallery
Last Friday, we had an absolutely fantastic school trip to the Hepworth Gallery in Wakefield .
The day included looking around the garden, the different galleries in the art museum and sketching some of the sculptures.
We also enjoyed a print-making workshop which included looking at some Barbara Hepworth sculptures and finding inspiration from their shapes. We learned that Barbara Hepworth was inspired by nature to produce her own art.
Using different materials, we created a tile with different textures, lines and shapes. Then, we rolled ink over our tiles and printed them onto paper.
Our finished masterpieces are on display in the classroom. Please pop in and check them out!
PE: Gymnastics
Year 2 have been enjoying their Gymnastics sessions this half term. We’ve been moving our bodies in lots of different ways. We’ve been thinking about how we can change the height of our body.
