Zoom with the author and illustrator, Bethan Woolvin
This morning, we had a zoom with an author and illustrator Bethan Woolvin. Over the past few weeks, we have been enjoying lots of her stories. She read her story Little Red to us. After, she showed us her studio and shared lots of her artwork. We had the chance to become illustrators too. Bethan showed us how to draw Little Red from her book. Have a look at our amazing artowork below.
Living and Learning – I can talk about my feelings
This week, we have been talking about our mental health.
We looked at some pictures and shared our thoughts and ideas on how the character was feeling.
I think he is angry because he has his hands in a fist and has steam coming off his head.
I think he is surprised because he is bending back and has his mouth open like he is surprised.
I think he is scared because it looks like he is crying.
We used the sentence starters to think about a time we might have felt different ways.
I felt embarrassed when I tripped over outside.
I felt nervous when I first started school.
I felt excited when I could play on my iPad.
Topic
In our Topic learning today, we continued to compare optical art by our feature artist, Bridget Riley. We commented on how there are lots of patterns in her work – the arrangement of colours or shapes in a logical order. We compared Bridget Riley’s artwork using a Carroll diagram. We looked at lots of different features – shapes, colour, patterns, and if the picture appeared to be moving.
Topic and English
In Topic this half term, we are artists!
We are learning and experimenting with structure, inspired by one of our feature artists Bridget Riley. She specialised in optical art. We are creating our own optical art pieces!
The first step was to draw straight lines with a ruler. Some children had drawn many lines, some had not so many, some had thick lines, some had thin… there was certainly lots of experimenting happening! Then, we used the colour black to paint every other line. We talked about this being a pattern, one of our key words.
Linked to our Art topic, in our English lesson we read Katie and The Impressionist. After, we worked in small groups to re-tell and sequence the story. We shared our favourite part of the story with each other.
Christmas is coming!
Our Christmas performance is fast approaching and we are so excited to perform for everyone! This is a reminder that children, if they have them, need to bring their scripts into school each day. Also, any costumes in named bags need to be in school by Thursday 24th November 2022 and letters for tickets to be returned as soon as possible. These were sent out last week in children’s bags.
Thank you! From the Early Years and Key Stage 1 team.
PE – Movement
This half term during PE, we are focusing on movement. Today, we showed movement through different types of weather on an Autumn day. We stretched upwards in the sunshine, shivered in the chilly wind and worked with a partner to grow as a tree, then we spun around slowly, like the leaves falling. Next, we danced quickly around the hall, as the rolling leaves were being carried by the wind. Finally, we put the moves we had learnt together to create a longer dance sequence.
Children In Need
Thank you for all the donations brought in today to help raise money for Children in Need.
Author visit – Alex Willmore
This afternoon, we watched and listened to the author and illustrator Alex Willmore reading his story I did see a mammoth, live on zoom.
Afterwards, we helped Alex draw a mammoth coming up with lots of different ideas. We suggested he could draw the mammoth wearing a Christmas jumper and elf shoes.
Challenge: Have a go at drawing a mammoth at home. Think about what they might be wearing, where they are, is there anyone/anything else around them? Bring your drawings in to share with your friends.
Topic
In our Topic lesson today, Year 1 and Year 2 came together! We compared works of art by one of our feature artists Bridget Riley, who specialised in ‘optical art’. She made flat images look like they are moving, creating a visual illusion.
At home, why not create your own optical illusion? We talked about how this could be done in irregular patterns. We’d love to see these in class if you do!
Anti-bullying week: Odd Socks Day!
Today for our anti-bullying day, we joined the nation by focussing on the message of “reaching out”. We talked about how this had several meanings: reaching out to a trusted adult for support/advice, reaching out to the victim to see if they are okay, or reaching out to make a change.
We looked at our school’s definition of bullying :
“Bullying is when you hurt someone physically or emotionally (including online), Several Times On Purpose”
Whilst we hope this would never be the case in our school, we also discussed what you can do if you were to experience bullying at St James’:
“Start Telling Other People. You could use the Living and Learning box, the worry box, email stayingsafe@spherefederation.org or even call Childline (0800 1111).”
We celebrated the message that everyone is different and equal by wearing odd socks to school and creating our own socks.
