Topic – Leonora Cohen
This week, we have been learning about Leonora Cohen. We have found out that she was a Suffragette who was born in Leeds. The Suffragettes protested about the inequality of women not being able to vote.
We looked carefully at some of the items worn by Suffragettes to show their support and what they believe in.
We commented on how they all used the same three colours.
purple = dignity green = hope white = purity
We also looked at the dress Leonora Cohen designed and wore to a ball and discussed why we thought she designed it this way.
“It has the same colours as the items. Purple, green and white.”
“It has a woman showing she was fighting for equality for women”
“It has the word Suffragettes so people knew what she believed.”
We designed our own Suffragette dress thinking carefully about the colours and the designs.
Today, we split into groups and created a freeze frame of the moment Leonora Cohen was arrested for one of her more violent protests.
Help at home:
Watch this video (This is a YouTube link. Top tip for watching YouTube with your child: go to the settings cog along the play bar and turn off autoplay – this avoids an inappropriate clip coming up automatically, and helps to discourage your child from passively watching clip after clip) and look at the pictures below to tell someone at home what you can remember about the Suffragettes?
Week 5 – Farmyard Hullabaloo
We have been down on the farm this week in Reception! Our focus story has taken us on a farmyard adventure visiting the different animals. We did some fantastic writing using adjectives to describe the different farm animals.
We have been working hard on our sewing projects and we have now finished our animal puppets. We added facial features and checked they were tightly sewn together.
In maths this week we have been learning more about number tracks. We used cubes to represent different numbers and then created our own tracks and counted starting at different points.
We have been learning more about different animals that we might see on a farm. Oscar asked “what is a baby duck called?” we decided to learn more about different adult and child animal names.
We have really enjoyed our poem this week. We really hope you enjoy it too!
Our observations on our caterpillars have continued this week. We have discovered that they have started their next stage of their lifecycle. We cannot wait to see them transform into butterflies.
We hope you all have a wonderful weekend!
Living and Learning: I know the importance of ‘five a day’
For our living and learning session, we were thinking about what makes a healthy diet and how we need to eat five portions of fruit and veg a day.
We learned what a portion was and how the size of the portion changes depending on what the food is – whether it’s as a juice, fresh or dried.
We heard about Lucas and his food diary. We looked at how we could improve his diet to make it healthier. 
We had a look at different foods and decided which food groups they should go into and how we were going to try and include ‘five a day’ in our healthy diets.
Meeting an author
Tom Palmer virtual visit
Today, the children had a virtual visit from Tom Palmer (and his dog Finn) who is an author that writes children’s books.
Tom began by talking about how he got into writing…
As a child, Tom didn’t enjoy reading, didn’t think he was any good at it and didn’t like it until his mum tricked him into it by using football! He began to read comics and newspapers about football and this helped him practise his reading. Tom found that the more he read, the more he enjoyed it!
His love for reading then inspired him to become an author and his ideas for different books come mainly from football, animals and war. “Write about what you love,” said Tom.
Question time!
Some of the children had the opportunity to ask Tom a question such as;
How long does it take for you to write a book?
It depends! Some books take 6 weeks to write and some take 6 months… it depends what I’m writing about and how long the book is.
What gave you inspiration for ‘Arctic Star’?
My wife used to work on HMS Belfast so her stories about the ship inspired me to write about a warship.
Why have you set some of your stories in Leeds?
I set some of my stories in Leeds because I’m from Leeds! Writing about somewhere that I know makes it easier as I can add more detail to my stories.
Have you travelled to the places you have written about?
Yes, I have been inspired by the different countries I have visited. However, travelling around the world is very expensive!
Help at home by researching Tom Palmer’s website. Find out more about the author and explore some of his fantastic books. https://tompalmer.co.uk/
Week 4 – Rumble in the Jungle
We hope you all enjoyed the bank holiday weekend! This week has been actioned packed in Reception. Our focus story has been ‘Rumble in the Jungle’ we have loved exploring the different rhyming words and creating movements to match the animals.
We have been creating our very own rainforests using a range of different materials. In construction we thought of bigger objects we could use, whilst in our creative areas we used different paints to create different trees and animals.
We have used our computer skills to find out facts about different animals that live in the rainforest. We then turned these into our own animal fact files!
We have began a special project! We are learning to sew! This week we have thought about the shape of our animal hand puppets and learnt how to threat the needle. We are using running stitch to stitch the two parts together. Please keep a watch out for how these develop next week.
Our caterpillars are getting quite large now! It will soon be time for them to start the next part of their lifecycle into a butterfly.
School is closed on Monday 15 May for a staff training day. We can’t wait to see you all back in school on Tuesday 16 May.
Maths: measurement!
Today, in Maths, we’ve been learning how to use a ruler to measure in centimetres (cm). We know that to be accurate, we must start measuring from 0cm. We’ve measured the length of books, pencils, pens and more!
We then learned that 100 cm = 1 meter (m). We went out into the playground and discussed why a ruler wouldn’t be a good idea to measure the length. A meter stick would be much less time consuming! 
We worked in groups and concluded that the playground is around 20m long!
Help at home: do you have a ruler or a measuring tape lying around? If so, why not measure small household objects in cm?
Living and Learning: healthy eating
Over the last two weeks, we’ve been thinking about healthy eating in Living and Learning.
We know the importance of having 5 portions of fruit and vegetables each day. We looked at what Miss Kay eats and decided to make some healthy changes to ensure she is having a balanced diet and 5 portions of fruit and vegetables each day, as well as the other food groups we need for a balanced diet.
Help at home by making sure you are eating a healthy, balanced diet that includes your 5-a-day!
05.05.23 and 12.05.23
Below are the new spellings for the next two weeks, please practise ready for a spelling test on Friday 19 May.
- table
- apple
- bottle
- little
- middle
- have
- live
- give
- there
- their
Minibeasts everywhere!
Over the past few weeks we have been exploring all things minibeast! We’ve looked for worms in the garden with our magnifying glasses, made our own junk model insects and observed how our tadpoles are starting to change.
We also began to celebrate the upcoming Coronation of King Charles. The children joined in making afternoon tea, got creative using red white and blue to make their own flags and designed their own crowns for our school parade.
Have a lovely weekend everyone!
Miss Ward
Spelling Quiz
Well done to the Year 1 children who scored 10/10 in their spellings this week!
Please support your child to practise their spellings at home ready for their spelling test every other Friday.