Telephone inventors
This term, our topic is Inventions that changed our world.
Throughout the topic, we’ll look at different inventions, the history behind them and have a go at making some of them ourselves.
This week, we’ve been looking at the telephone, invented by Alexander Graham Bell in 1876. We attempted to make our own telephones using only string and paper cups.
We learned that the sound of our voice travels in waves down the string and the cup acts as an amplifier for the sound at the other end. We tested this theory with a long string telephone.
Year 2 and Year 6 assessments
The STA has published an information leaflet and two videos for parents/carers of children in Year 2 and Year 6 about national curriculum assessments. The purpose of these materials is to help you understand more about the end of key stage assessments that will be administered in primary schools in May. (The end of Key Stage 1 is Year 2; the end of Key Stage 2 is Year 6.)
The materials provide basic information about the purpose and format of the tests, how parents can best support their children and how results will be reported.
Cannon Hall Farm Fun
What a fantastic trip we had!
This week, we visited Cannon Hall Farm for our end of term trip. The children enjoyed seeing lots of different animals and impressed our guide Darrell with their life cycle knowledge.
The highlight of our day was seeing two lambs being born. The children were captivated watching Farmer Robert deliver the lambs. The general consensus was “that was awesome but gross”.
The life cycle of a frog…
This week, we’ve learned all about life cycles in our Life Forces topic.
First, we learned about the frog life cycle. The children were shocked at how many eggs a frog lays!
Have a look at our learning below of the life cycle of a frog.
We were very excited to see the newly hatched chicks in Foundation and learning about a life cycle of another animal. We’re looking forward to going to see them next week and holding a chick.
What does it mean to belong?
This term during RE lessons, Year 1 and 2 have been looking at what it means to belong to a church or a mosque. They’ve looked at the similarities and differences between themselves and others, and among families, communities and traditions.
To support their learning, Year 1 and 2 had a visit from Nabilah from Leeds Grand Mosque. The children learned what it meant to Nabilah to belong to a mosque and she shared some of the traditions she follows as a Muslim.
Fractions Fun
This past fortnight, Years 1 and 2 have been learning about fractions. Year 1 have learned about 1/2 (one half) and 1/4 (one quarter). Year 2 have learned about 1/2, 1/4, 1/3 (one third) and 3/4 (three quarters). Ask your child to find half of the pile of socks, a quarter of the veg you’re cutting or half of the pizza, for example.
Year 1s have enjoyed using the Cuisenaire rods. Cuisenaire rods are a mathematical tool for pupils that provide an active, hands-on way to explore mathematics and learn mathematical concepts. The children have enjoyed using these to discover different ways to represent halves and quarters.
Hand to Mouth visit
On Thursday, Hand to Mouth, who are a Christian organisation which visits schools offering ‘reflective journeys’ on different topics and workshops with the children, visited our school to work with each of the classes.
Year 1/2 participated in a Lent reflective journey. The children took a journey with a partner or on their own, helped by volunteers from St James’ church to learn about Lent – step by step from Shrove Tuesday to Easter Sunday. The children visited 6 different stations, and if they wanted to, completed an activity at each station: Things we’ve got wrong, saying sorry for our mistakes, our hurts, the poor and what we can do to help, I wonder where Jesus is now? and God loves you.
The children also enjoyed a workshop learning about the creation story. Then, they made puppets of some of the creatures God created.
Below are some quotes from the children, after completing the journey, and some pictures.
“I feel happy because I learnt something”
“I learnt not to be a bully”
“It was fantastic”
“I liked writing prayers to God”
A taste of judo…
On Tuesday morning, Year 1 and 2 enjoyed a fantastic trial judo session by Sportif Judo.
The children enjoyed learning some of the throws and hold downs taught by Glynn Fidgeon, who is a British and Commonwealth Medalist. Glynn was here to tell the children about the beginners Judo classes at St. Joseph’s Church Hall – have a look in your child’s bookbag for a leaflet with more information.
St James’ is alive with the sound of music…
Music has been alive in Year 1 and 2 this week. We were lucky enough to have musicians from Wetherby Music Centre in school to run a workshop with the children. The children learned to keep a rhythm before beginning to learn the ukulele. They’ve learned the names of the strings on the ukulele and have begun to learn to strum notes.
Wetherby Music Centre will be running a workshop with Year 1 and 2, weekly, for the next six weeks.
Will Ted get wet?
Our class book, for the past two weeks, has been One Snowy Night. In this story, Percy the park keeper has to share his little hut with all the animals because their homes have been covered in snow.
Then, we found out poor old Ted’s home had been destroyed by the snow. We were concerned that Ted would get wet without a home so we set out on an investigation to find him a suitable material for his home.
We had a choice of paper, plastic, foil or fabric for his roof. The children made their predictions as to which would keep Ted dry and then we experimented. The children were shocked to find that the paper kept Ted dry along with the foil and the plastic. The children’s prediction of fabric not working was correct and Ted ended up floating in water.
