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.
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.
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.
Art Topic
This half term, our topic is Art. We will be focusing on the work of George Seurat and Bridget Riley.
Seurat used a technique called pointillism.
Zoom in and look at his Sunday Afternoon painting. Can you see all the small dots used to create the painting?
Bridget created op art pieces.
We have started by talking about the topic vocabulary, which you can see below.
Community Green Group visit
This week, we have been lucky to have lots of visits into school for our Community Week. The children have enjoyed having different visitors in school and learning about all the things that go on in our community.
This week, we enjoyed a visit from Wetherby and Boston Spa Community Green Group. The children learned all about how the group helps preserve the environment and help the local wildlife. We talked about how the children could help the environment: recycling, turning lights off, or eating less meat, and how we could help the local wildlife: by creating bug hotels, hedgehog highways, or planting bee-friendly flowers.
We finished by looking at the “8 to be great” promise. Can you promise to be any of the 8 to be great?
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.