Reading detectives
Many mythical creatures were made up of different animals combined to make one beast. In our reading lessons, we have been using our inference skills to work out which animals were combined to make up these mythical beasts.
First, we listened to and read the description and tried to draw the beast.
The Sphinx was a female monster with the body of a lion, the breast and head of a woman, eagle’s wings and a serpent-headed tail.
Triton was a fish-tailed sea god, the son of Poseidon, king of the seas. He is blowing a conch-shell trumpet. In his other hand, he holds a staff.
Pegasus was an immortal, winged horse which sprang forth from the neck of Medusa.
Then, we matched the images to the description – the monsters were easy to match because the text gave us key information (tail, wings, horse).
Christian Value: Friendship
This half term, our Christian Value has been friendship.
We have thought about how we can be a good friend and what we can learn from the Bible about friendship. We learned that Jesus teaches us to be a good friend to all – he told a story about how the good samaritan was a friend to someone who was supposed to be his enemy.
In our reflection areas, we had two challenges: a friendship flower and how to be a good friend.
For our friendship flower, we thought about who was a good friend or someone we were thankful for and wrote or drew a short thank you thought or prayer for them.
We took the friendship finger challenge and thought about all the things that make a good friend. We thought about how we could be a better friend.
Foundation stage have also been learning all about our Christian value of friendship. They’ve created a friendship tree and friendship stones whilst thinking about the qualities they would like in a friend.
Look out for next half term’s Christian value: perseverance.
Living and Learning: I recognise mental health is important
This week, our Living and Learning statement was “I recognise mental health is important”. At school, we understand how important our mental health is which is why the first question we asked at parents evening was about how each child has coped since coming back to school and the changes due to covid.
To support this learning, we have been looking at the different emotions that the children could have been/ have been experiencing and how this can impact their mental health and what mental health is.
We looked at different emotions, when we might feel them and how we could react to those emotions and feelings.
Together, we created a feelings wall – it showed us that all feelings are acceptable and we talked about the different strategies that we could use to overcome/deal with any negative feelings.
Our Living and Learning lesson involved using some resources from the Anna Freud website and it has lots of advice and links for children and families if they need support around mental health.
Bagel Bar
Our bagel bar has been open for a few weeks now and the children have really enjoyed eating breakfast with their friends and it’s been a positive start to their day. The doors open at 8.30am each morning and all children from Reception to Year 6 are welcome.
Living and Learning: I can talk about my feelings
This week, our Living and Learning statement is “I can talk about my feelings.”
We discussed our feelings and who we could talk to about them. We also talked about how we can identify other peoples emotions. For example; their body language and their facial expression. Then we played an emotions game.
“We played an emotions game. There are different emotions – each colour means a different emotion.”
It was really fun playing the emotions game. I enjoyed making the emotions.”
“I enjoyed play the game because I liked drawing the emotions.”
Bagel bar
On Monday, our bagel bar will be opening at 8.30am. You can bring your child to school for a breakfast bagel free of charge. This will be available Monday to Friday until March 2021.
This is part of a Covid response under the National School Breakfast Programme.
Our school has signed up to receive free healthy breakfast food as part of the Covid response offer, under the National School Breakfast Programme (NSBP), which is being delivered by the charities Family Action and Magic Breakfast.
Reception, Years 1 and 2 will enter through the main door at the office. Years 3-6 will enter school through the playground gate as normal. Please remember to follow social distancing guidelines when dropping off your child.
We look forward to welcoming lots of children to our bagel bar next week!
Super scientists
This week, we have started our topic “Living things and their habitats”.
We started learning about classification – we sorted ourselves into different groups such has fair hair/dark hair, has a pet/doesn’t have a pet and has a cardigan on/has a jumper on/has just a t-shirt on. We loved running around and classifying ourselves into groups in the hall.
We then used this knowledge to classify animals into our own groups. We had groups with legs/no legs, reptiles/lives in water/lives in the forest/lives on land.
Our two new vocab words this lesson were invertebrae (doesn’t have a backbone) and verterbrae (has a backbone). So we then sorted our animals into these two groups.
Humpty Dumpty and his aeroplane adventures.
Poor old Humpty Dumpty had a great fall and was scared to climb the wall again. He found a new love for flying paper aeroplanes but wasn’t quite sure how to make them or what to make them out of.
But fear not, Humpty, Year 3,4 are here to help!
During our science lessons, we have been experimenting with paper aeroplanes to find the best material and size plane for Humpty.
First, we checked we all knew how to make a paper aeroplane. To make sure that is was a fair test, we all had to make them the same.
Then we made three aeroplanes out of different materials; paper, sugar paper and card, and tested how far they flew. We found the paper was the best!
Once we knew this, we were able to test which size plane was the best: A5, A4 or A3 sized paper.
We found A3 sized paper aeroplane flew the furthest whilst learning about how a science experiment must be a fair test, making predictions and how to ask scientific questions.
PE days
Hopefully you have read the information in the Autumn for all – Key Info St James’, which also has a link to our uniform policy.
On the days your child has PE, they should come to school in their PE kit. (Track-suit bottoms instead of shorts would be good on colder days. Footwear : black/brown/grey/white flat shoes which are safe to run around in.)
Footwear on PE days could be children’s ‘school shoes’ which are often a ‘trainer’ style anyway, if you want to avoid having to buy 2 pairs of shoes.
Please find below the days each class has allocated PE times, which will be taught outdoors, except in extreme weather.
- Foundation (Miss Marsden) – Wednesday
- Year 1/2 (Miss Harker) – Thursday & Friday
- Year 3/4 (Mrs Welsby/Mrs Rowley) – Tuesday & Friday
- Year 5/6 (Miss Beatson/Mr Mills) – Tuesday & Friday
17 July 2020: Home learning
Good morning children. It’s Friday. It’s the last day of the summer term! Sadly, the year hasn’t ended in the way in which we would have loved. We’ve missed out on our usual treats and fun. Mrs Welsby and I are missing it as much as you but we will make up for it when we see you in September.
School Trip
A fun school trip just because! Today, head to Walt Disney World. Have fun looking around. Find your favourite ride or attraction and write a review. Why should someone go and visit it? What was the best bit? How could it be improved?
Reading
You all know how much I love a good musical – this one was my favourite as a child and I used to watch it nearly every day on repeat!
Sing along with this song. Read the words as you go.
So long, farewell (from the Sound of Music)
There’s a sad sort of clanging
From the clock in the hall
And the bells in the steeple, too
And up in the nursery
An absurd little bird
Is popping out to say coo-coo
(Coo-coo, coo-coo)
coo-coo Regretfully they tell us
coo-coo But firmly they compel us
coo-coo To say goodbye
To you
So long, farewell
Auf wiedersehen, goodnight
I hate to go and leave this pretty sight
So long, farewell
auf Wiedersehen, adieu
Adieu, adieu
To you and you and you
So long, farewell
Au revoir, auf Wiedersehen
I’d like to stay
And taste my first champagne
Yes?
No!
So long, farewell
Auf Wiedersehen, goodbye
I leave and heave
A sigh and say goodbye
Goodbye
I’m glad to go
I cannot tell a lie
I flit, I float
I fleetly flee, I fly
The sun has gone
To bed and so must I
So long, farewell
auf Wiedersehen, goodbye
Goodbye
Goodbye
Goodbye
Goodbye
Now, write a list of any words that are new to you. Can you find out what they mean?