Celebrations and new friends

Over the last few weeks, we have welcomed some new friends into our classroom and it’s lovely to see them doing so well. The children who have been with us since the Autumn term have been really good role models for our new starters and they have helped them to settle into the routines of the classroom very quickly.

This week in Nursery, we have been using Chinese New Year as inspiration for our learning. We have looked at some of the family traditions involved in preparing for the new year and the celebrations which are important through the season. The children have made their own decorated red envelopes (which helped them to exercise their fine motor skills) and they will be completing their dragon heads over the coming week. The children have also been making comparisons between objects in relation to weight and have used mathematical language such as: ‘heavier than’ and ‘lighter than’ when describing the items they are holding. Next week, we will continue looking at ‘number two’ and its position on a number line.

REMINDER

Please remember to name all of your child’s clothing as well as their water bottle.

04 February 2022

This week, we’ve been learning about words that start with the prefixes ‘auto’ and ‘tele’. These words, which link to our Latin learning (kind of), come from Greek. Auto means ‘self’ and tele means ‘at a distance‘. Lots of words in the English language have these prefixes in and learning these words is another good way to practise our spellings. This week, we’d like children to learn how to spell these words…

automatic           autobiography         autograph          automotive          television           telegraph           teleport           telescope

We’ll test ourselves on Friday 11 February 2022 to see how we’ve got on.

For some tips and tricks on how best to practise your spellings at home, visit the Y3,4 spelling page on our website and click here.

This week’s message (Friday 04 February 2022)

Last week’s message began with some news about the continuing challenges Covid is presenting. Since then, we’ve had some information about the situation across Leeds. This week’s message begins with this, and continues with some information about next week’s Staying Safe themed week, and a few reminders and requests, useful for everyone to read. At the end, just for parents of younger children, is an update about phonics.

Covid caution

Absence rates are higher in Leeds than they are nationally: attendance at Leeds schools (20.01.22) was 85.2% (87% primary and 83.7% secondary) compared to a national average figure of 87.4% (89.1% primary and 85.9% secondary). Some of the difference is down to a greater proportion of pupils being absent with Covid in Leeds (6.2%) than nationally (5.1%).

Staff absence rates are also higher in Leeds: 5.5% of teachers are absent for Covid-related reasons compared to 4.5% nationally. For teaching assistants and other staff, the disparity is even greater: 6.4% in Leeds compared to 4.7% nationally.

Thankfully, this week has been a bit more settled. We’re really hoping the curve is about to turn as it has in other areas of the country, but in the meantime, please do stay vigilant to symptoms.

Staying safe

A few reminders and requests

We’re all so busy at the moment and we know it’s easy to let some things slip. The next few points are reminders and requests to help us keep our school a happy and healthy place to learn…

It’s natural that you’ll have some questions, comments and concerns from time to time. Our teachers will be happy to speak with you, but it’s worth remembering that after 8.50am, they need to crack on with teaching the class. Instead, try to catch your child’s teacher at the very end of the school day.

Alternatively, you could contact the office who’ll pass on the message – your child’s teacher or someone else in school will be happy to call you back. This also means you don’t need to have the conversation in front of your child – sometimes it’s better to have the conversation separately.

Older children might bring a mobile phone into school. If your child does, please make sure they’re careful as they walk to school. It’s sometimes easy to be distracted – your child needs to still concentrate on staying safe when crossing the road, for example.

Finally, please do take a moment to remind yourself and your child of uniform expectations. This includes wearing only small, plain stud earrings; keeping long hair tied back; and wearing hair accessories (like hair bands) which don’t distract – keep them small and not too bright.

Phonics

For parents of younger children only…

Thanks to everyone who attended Monday’s Zoom session about the changes to how we teach early reading. Parents who attended commented favourably:

• ‘The clarity of still reading a physical book in the classroom has reassured us on the ebook reading at home.’
• ‘Thank you for an informative Zoom. My son is loving the ebooks and his improved fluency has really impressed me!’
• ‘Really helpful as always and thank you for giving up your evening.’

If you missed the session, you can watch it here (with apologies for the weird animal noise I seem to be making at the very start!). As requested during the Zoom, look out for some resources which we’ll email to you next week, too.

As always, we hope you have a happy and healthy weekend.

Chinese New Year and superheroes

This week, we’ve been learning all about Chinese New Year. We looked at where China is on a globe and world map. We’ve learnt about traditions, read the Zodiac story, watched parades and created our own Chinese dragons – they found this tricky challenge!

We  finished the week by having our own parade.

In PE, the children enjoyed moving like dragons. Click on the links below to watch two of the groups in action!
Dragon dance 1
Dragon dance 2

The new superhero office has been a big hit this week. The children have been using their super powers to save the world!

Next week, it’s safety week. We’ll be learning about how to keep safe in different situations. We even have some real superheroes coming to visit us!

Home-Link Challenge

Bird Beaks

This week’s Science lesson saw us learning about natural selection and adaptation. Charles Darwin came up with the idea of natural selection and the Theory of Evolution whilst travelling the world on the HMS Beagle.

He noticed how different birds beaks were adapted to suit the food that was available in a habitat. He also deduced that over time species with traits that helped them survive would be the ones who were naturally selected.

What does this mean for us? Well, we used different tools e.g tweezers, tongs etc to simulate birds beaks and found out what kind of food each could eat.

04 February 2022

Here are the next set of spellings.  Can  you challenge yourself by playing the speed write game.

Year 1: who, what, when, why, which, how

Year 2: move, Mr, Mrs, old, only, parents, past, pass, path, pole

Please practise your spellings ready for the spelling test on a Friday. 

04 February 2022

Our spelling focus this week has been on using apostrophes for possession and omission.

This week for homework, we would like you to write six sentences that demonstrate how to use an apostrophe for omission (can’t).

We would then like you to write six sentences that demonstrate how to use an apostrophe for possession (sister’s / sisters’).

04 February 2022

We are being historians through our topic learning this half term. Have you ever wondered what it’d be like to be around during historic events like the Great Fire of London? For this week’s Talk Time, we’d like you to do exactly that.

Would it be good to travel back in time?

Would it be good to travel forwards, into the future?

When talking about travelling back in time, you could use these question prompts to support discussions at home:

• What time period would you travel back to?
  • a time from recent history (eg your lifetime)
  • a point from your parents’/grandparents’ lifetimes
  • over 100 years ago
• Where in the world would you like to be at that point in time?
  • Does it relate to an important historical event?
  • What have you learnt in a current or past history topic that you’d like to experience?
• Who would you like to meet?
  • What historical figures have we learnt about at school?
  • Are there people you’d meet who aren’t famous eg family members?
• Is there anything about the past that you’d try to change?
  • If so, how would you go about it?
  • Would you realistically be able to make that change? Would you need help?

Many of the points above will also help you to discuss travelling into the future. As well as those, it’s important to think of what would be gained from travelling forwards in time. When coming back into the present, would you tell people what the future is like (good and bad things) and why?

These R2s will get you thinking critically about your own ideas:

• What reasons can you think of in support of time travel?
• Are there reasons why you might be against it?
• Challenge: Rank your ideas by importance. Imagine you could only do five, or maybe even three things.

Using drama to inspire writing

Year 3 have been busy in their writing lessons this week. To help gather ideas for their writing, the children have enjoyed getting into character and acting out some scenarios. Using drama helps to develop realistic dialogue and extend vocabulary.

Next week, the class will be writing a recount about the battles between the Romans and the Celts. In order to write this recount, the children need to get into character and tell the story as if they were an actual Celt. The children have certainly been inspired through improvisation and storytelling.

Year 3 have also been exploring some rich vocabulary and some are the words and phrases have been amazing.

blood-thirsty warrior

thundering hooves

deafening screams

trudging through thick mud

staggering, wounded soldiers

smoke filled air

metallic aroma

This afternoon, the class spent some time up levelling basic words using images and a Thesaurus.  Then, they looked at the work of their peers to find more ideas for writing. The children are developing a vocabulary-rich classroom and are beginning to use more sophisticated words when they speak and write.

We are really looking forward to reading the recounts.

History

History is the focus of our topic learning this half term. We have been learning new historical vocabulary. Can your child match the definitions below?

Last week, we looked at the history of phones and how they have changed over time. The children were particularly interested in a time before mobile phones and how people used telephone boxes. We then talked about how mobile phones have improved over time. You could show a picture of your first phone to your child and talk about how it is different to your current phone. 

 

 

This week, we talked about the similarities and differences between shops in the past and present. Can your child share what they learnt? We wrote a list comparing the similarities and differences below.