Me and My Community
Today, in Reception and Key Stage 1, we had a special visit from Wetherby in Bloom. They are a charity who make Wetherby a nice place to live and visit by planting beautiful, colourful flowers around the town. After we had discussed how the charity supports our community, we had the opportunity to plant our own daffodil bulbs. These will bloom in Spring!
Me and My Community
Today, in Key Stage 1, we had a special visit from a PCSO (Police Community Support Officer). We talked about what a PCSO does as part of their job and their responsibilities within our community. The PCSO has an important job in schools too – working with children to help them make the right choices.
Me and My Community: Identity
This week, in Living and Learning, we have a special themed week. We are thinking about ‘Me and My Community’. Today, we have explored our identity and thought about what makes us unique and special.
Living and Learning – I can make democratic decisions
This week, we have been discussing in class what it means to be part of a democratic decision.
We had a vote on who the two new Junior Leadership Team (JLT) representatives from our class would be. Some children gave a short speech on why they would be a good member of the JLT and what they wanted to see more of or change within our school. Afterwards, we had a secret ballot in our classroom where we all voted for the person we wanted. We discussed how sometimes things might not go our way but we have to be respectful to the decision.
School photographs
On Monday, the children are having their school photograph taken. This is usually our PE day. Please can children come to school in their school uniform and not PE kits.
Numbots superstars
Well done to those children who have been using Numbots. Numbots is a fab way for the children to practise those vital maths skills that they need for their learning.
This week 29% of the class have been active on Numbots. Well done to Jig Kappaclone, Alloy Aquastar, Blue Autopod, Sunny Dataclone, Blaze Megamorph, Cruz Geigerdroid, and Crash Metastar.
It would be great if more children can be using Numbots. Have a go at using Numbots with your child for just 5 minutes a day and see how your child’s maths fluency improves.
Challenges
Well done to our challenge champions this week!
Each week, we have different challenges set up in our classroom for the children to do. All the challenges are linked to our current learning.
History Topic – The Great Fire of London
This week, we have been learning about Samuel Pepys. We thought about why he was so important to the people of London during the fire. The children were all very enthusiastic and could explain their thoughts.
“He went to the king and asked him for help. The king ordered the houses to be pulled down. This helped save some of London.”
We also talked about why Samuel Pepys is important to people wanting to learn about The Great Fire of London.
“His diary helps us to know what happened!”
“His diary gave us lots of information about The Great Fire of London.”
“Told us what people had to do to get away from the fire.”
After, Year 1 and 2 worked together to read some different scenarios and they had to decide what they would do in each situation.
“I would get all my gold and dig a hole and bury it, then I would leave.”
“I would wake up my family up really quickly and go out of our house, hide our things and go to a new, safe place.”
“I would see if anyone needed my help to try and stop the fire.”
Challenge: Why not read a scenario to your child and see if they can tell you what they would do and why.
Microhabitat hunters
In our science lessons, we have been learning all about living things and their habitats.
We went on a microhabitat hunt around our school to see if we could find any microhabitats and who or what was living there. We found many creepy crawlies hiding under a log including woodlouse, centepedes and worms.
Writing – The Great Fire of London
We have been enjoying learning all about The Great Fire of London. (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.)
We loved imagining what it would have been like to have been alive during the Great Fire of London. We used the senses word mat to think about what we would have heard, seen, smelt and touched.
When writing, we turned the lights off in our classroom and listened to a roaring fire to get a feel of the sounds we might have heard from the burning fire.
Afterwards, we thought about how we would use our senses words within a sentence.
“I would hear people shouting and dogs barking,” said Joshua.
“I would get all my things from my room and run outside,” said Jack.
“I would feel sweaty and hot,” said Florence.
“The houses burnt because they were made from wood and were dry from the hot summer,” said Lily.
“They made a firebreak to stop the fire spreading,” said Cameron.
We thought about how we know all the information we do about the Great Fire of London because Thomas Farriner isn’t alive today to say if it was or wasn’t his bakery on Pudding Lane where the fire started. We looked at old newspaper clippings, pictures, maps and diary entries. We have particularly focused on Samuel Pepys diary. All of these artefacts tell us information about what it was like and what people did.
Ask your child to tell you three facts about the Great Fire of London.