RE – Daniel and the Lions’ Den

In RE, we’re learning about messages.

Christians believe that God sends them messages through prophets. Stories in the Bible tell of prophets – inspired teachers who spread the word of God.

This week, we’ve read the story of Daniel and the Lions’ Den. The story teaches Christians about the importance of faith in God and that God will protect those who trust him.

The children enjoyed acting out the story and reflected maturely on the important of trust.

Help at home by discussing faith and trust with your child. What does trust look and feel like?

Living and Learning – Relationships

To start this half term, our Living and Learning focus has been relationships. We’ve learnt about 3 key areas:

• respecting differences between people
• understanding that we all have different needs
• understanding that there are different types of families

Respecting differences

In this session, we explored the differences between boys and girls.

Sometimes, stories, TV and people say that ‘boys do this’ and ‘boys do that’. The children were able to demonstrate their knowledge that boys and girls can do the same tasks and enjoy the same things.

We also learnt about the PANTS rule. The key points are:

• pants are private
• always remember your body belongs to you
• no means no
• talk about secrets that upset you
• speak up – someone can help

Help at home by discussing the PANTS rule with your child. Explore the resources on the NSPCC website (along with lots of other helpful advice and support).

Different Needs

We all have different needs and we all need different types of care. We discussed the needs that people might have at different stages of their life and who might care for them. We explored different kinds of care:

• fulfilling basic needs
• playing
• loving
• medical
• listening
• physical
• emotional
• social

The children showed fantastic maturity and impressed me with their sensitivity when discussing people’s needs.

Help at home by discussing different needs with your child. You could use this stem sentence to help: I care for ______ by ______.

Different families

We started this session by sharing who was in our families. That was enough to realise quite how different families can look!

There are lots of different ways to be a family. Family is special no matter what it looks like. The important thing is that people in families care about each other.

We discussed how children can seek support when they’re worried about members of their family. Help at home by discussing trusted adults with your child. Where can they seek support at school and at home?

PE – Target Practice

In PE, we continue to work on fundamental movement skills. This week, we’ve been rolling and throwing at targets.

The children worked hard to improve their aim and control, showing fantastic perseverance throughout the session. It was brilliant to see how they encouraged and supported one another, celebrating each other’s efforts and progress.

Help at home by setting up some targets to practise at home. Assign each target a points value and challenge your child to a game!

Design and Technology – Structures

Our current topic is Design and Technology. So far, we’ve learnt about the importance of asking questions at all stages of the design process.

• What is the product for?
• Who will use it?
• How will it help the user?
• What materials will be used?
• How will the materials be joined?
• Did the product match the design?
• How could the product be improved?

We’ve also discussed the importance of stability in structures. The children enjoyed using their maths learning to mould some 3D shapes out of play-doh and test their stability.

We concluded that stable structures have a flat base and might be wider at the top than the bottom.

Help at home by building some structures. Which 3D shapes might you use to make a stable structure?

Reading – Rosie Revere, Engineer

This week, we’ve been exploring the imaginative world of Rosie Revere, Engineer by Andrea Beaty. This book links to our topic this half term – D&T.

The story of Rosie, a young girl who dreams of becoming a great engineer, has sparked curiosity in our classroom, leading to some brilliant questions.

We’ve discussed perseverance and the importance of learning from mistakes. The children were inspired by Rosie’s resilience and her ability to reflect on her failures. Her ability to evaluate demonstrates an important part of the design process.

The children enjoyed embodying Rosie Revere and writing a note to her Aunt using lots of fabulous adjectives.

Rosie Revere, Engineer has taught us that with a bit of imagination and a lot of perseverance, anything is possible! Mistakes help us to learn and grow!

Help at home by asking your child about a time when they’ve had to persevere after an initial failure. What did they learn from not giving up?

Enjoy the story at home here.

Top tip for watching YouTube with your child: go to the settings cog (it’s 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.

Living and Learning – 60 Active Minutes

In Living and Learning, we’ve learnt about the importance of physical activity in being mentally and physically healthy.

Children should be physically active for at least 60 minutes a day.

Physical activity benefits our bodies and minds in lots of ways:

• muscle and bone strength
• fitness and heart health
• mental health
• improved concentration
• better sleep

We considered how we could add moments of physical activity in the day,  both at school and at home.

• walking to school
• football
• skipping
• gymnastics
• cycling
• dancing

To summarise our learning, we completed a physical activity diary.

Help at home by asking your child about the importance of physical activity. How can they add more physical activity into their day?

Living and Learning – 5 a day

In Living and Learning, we’ve focused on the importance of a healthy diet and the ‘5 a day’ message.

Fruit and vegetables are a crucial part of a healthy, balanced diet. They’re a great source of vitamins and minerals which help keep us healthy. They can even reduce the risk of disease!

What counts?

Almost every type of fresh, frozen, tinned and dried fruit and vegetable counts towards your 5 a day. Even things like fruit juice, tomato puree (not ketchup) and baked beans count. We were surprised to learn that potatoes don’t count! Potatoes contain a high amount of carbohydrate – another part of a healthy, balanced diet.

What is a portion?

A good rule is to consider that a portion fits in the palm of your hand.

Don’t stop at 5!

A total of 5 portions of fruit and vegetables combined is the minimum number to aim for. You don’t need to eat 5 portions of fruit and 5 portions of vegetables but the more the better!

Help at home by keeping a 5 a day diary. Have a look through The Eatwell Guide with your child. Are you eating a healthy, balanced diet?

Reading – Non-fiction Navigators

In Reading, we’ve turned our attention to non-fiction texts and the ways in which they help us to take charge! We’ve explored the differences between fiction and non-fiction and discussed their features.

Non-fiction can be read in any order to learn about a specific topic. Most non-fiction books help you to find your way around with some helpful features you wouldn’t normally find in a fiction book…

• contents – The contents page (sometimes called the table of contents) lists the sections of information in the book and where to find them, often with a page number.
• glossary – Usually found at the back of the book, the glossary contains key words related to the topic and their definitions. This can help with unknown, technical vocabulary.
• index – An index is an alphabetical list of all the topics covered in the book and where to find them. This helps the reader locate information quickly.
• subheading – A subheading is a bit like a signpost. It gives the reader an idea of what each section is about. It can also capture your attention – a bit like a mini headline!

We really enjoyed exploring some non-fiction books, using the features above to find information quickly and efficiently.

Help at home by exploring some non-fiction text with your child. Encourage them to navigate the text using the contents, index, glossary and subheadings.

A visit from Leeds Rhinos!

St James had a very exciting visitor from the Leeds Rhinos in today during our Collective Worship. Ian came in to talk to the children about teamwork and inclusivity – two key skills that help us to be happy and healthy in our school. We got the opportunity to learn about the different teams that Leeds Rhinos have, such as: men’s and women’s rugby; netball; a wheelchair rugby team and many more. The children responded really well when discussing the importance of inclusivity, teamwork and stereotyping, particularly in sport.

Ian also reminded us of the fantastic offer from Leeds Rhinos for pupils to go and see one of their matches! If you/your child is interested in this, discounted tickets can be purchased through school. Here are the details of the match:

Leeds Rhinos vs Hull FC

Friday 16th May

Kick off: 20:00

Living and Learning – I recognise the importance of sleep.

In Living and Learning this week, we’ve learnt about the importance of sleep; the things that help us to sleep and get a good night’s sleep.

A good night’s sleep can help us to feel:

• rested
• calm
• happy
• ready to learn

We discussed the importance of routine. A routine is a sequence of activities that is repeated. It helps us to know what to do and when – a bedtime routine can help our bodies and minds to get ready for sleep.

We explored the idea that different families might have different routines at bed time. These routines help us to mark the end of the day and get ready for sleep.

Sometimes, there are factors that can make it hard to fall asleep.

• busy body – jumpy legs, tummy ache
• busy mind – thinking, worrying
• surroundings – noise, screens before bedtime
• fears – dark, alone

Here are some good ways to relax at bedtime:

Help at home by discussing sleep with your child. What does bedtime look like in your house? How does your body and mind feel after a good night’s sleep? After a bad night’s sleep? What could you change to help you sleep better?