Me and My Community Week
Wetherby Brass Band
On Tuesday, we were lucky to have a visit from Steven from Wetherby Brass Band. He spoke to the whole school about the benefits of playing in a band and being part of a community within the Wetherby community.
Steven, brought in some instruments and some of us were lucky enough to play some of them – some made hilarious noises.
The band play during many events in the Wetherby community, including the Remembrance Parade. They also play every Sunday at 2.30-4.30pm from the end of April to the end of September.
Bonfire Night Safety
We hope you have a lovely time if you are going out tonight to celebrate Bonfire Night and watch some fireworks.
Please remember the top tips we talked about in class today to help keep you safe:
Living and Learning: Me and My Community Themed Week – St James
Yesterday, as part of our Me and My Community themed week we learnt about St James. We learnt that he grew up as a fisherman with his brother. Jesus went to meet James and he became one of the three disciples who were very close to Jesus, along with Peter and John.
James became the first travelling apostle (an important early Christian Teacher) and the Apostle’s symbol is a scallop shell (the badge of pilgrims everywhere) which is like our school logo. We thought about why there are three shells on our school logo and why they are in 3 different colours and 3 sizes.
We also thought about our school vision ‘We are a happy and healthy place to achieve and believe’ and what the words happy, healthy, achieve and believe mean to us.
Help at home: Can your child tell you something they have learnt about St James? Can they tell you why we have shells as our school logo? Do they remember what our school vision is?
Junior Leadership Team Election
Congratulations to our new Junior Leadership Team representatives for Year One!
The election process was an exciting experience, as all candidates had the chance to speak to their classmates about why they would make a great addition to the team. In the end, two candidates were chosen to represent Year One for the coming year.
This realistic election process not only developed their communication skills but also introduced them to the democratic process, one of our core British Values.
We’re so proud of their hard work, enthusiasm, and dedication—congratulations to our new leaders!
It’s nearly time to elect our new junior leaders
We have recently launched this year’s Junior Leadership Team election process. Our Junior Leadership Team is one of the ways that children are encouraged to take an active part in pupil voice.
The election process allows children to develop an understanding of one of the British Values, democracy, with two representatives from each class, chosen democratically by their peers.
Here are some of the qualities our junior leaders think are needed to be an effective JLT member.
- use the 8Rs for learning
- be respectful and polite
- help others
- be a good speaker and listener (to members of your class and in the meetings)
- share and be confident with your ideas
- let others speak
- accept the views of others even if you don’t agree
- be friendly and approachable
- follow our school rules and make good choices in class and around school
Last weeks’ whole school homework is all about the election and democracy, ready for the elections on Thursday 24 October. For children who want to stand in the election, they will have the chance to share their speeches in class on Wednesday or Thursday this week.
Well done to all our current junior leaders who have represented their class so well this year. Remember, you can stand again in the election.
DT: Food Technology
Today, we made a fruit smoothie. First, we read the recipe together, looking at the ingredients and the instructions on what to do.
Before we began we made sure we had clean hands. We used a knife to carefully slice the banana. Next, we weighed the berries and added them to the jug. After, we measured out the milk and poured in the milk. Mrs Cairnes used the blender to blend the ingredients together. We all drank the smoothie and gave a thumbs up or thumbs down to show if we enjoyed it or not.
Help at home: Would you do anything differently if you were to make the smoothie again? e.g. change the fruits, add yoghurt (we didn’t use yoghurt at school), add some honey?
Can you make the smoothie at home?
Our new spellings focus on the days of the week, each containing one of our Phase 5 sounds: “ay”. The children will have their test on Friday 8th November.
- Monday
- Tuesday
- Wednesday
- Thursday
- Friday
- Saturday
- Sunday
Help at home
- Practise writing each day of the week, reminding them that days are proper nouns and need a capital letter.
- Say the days aloud together, emphasizing the “ay” sound.
- Use flashcards.
- Look, say, cover and check!
Regular spelling practise at home can make a real difference!
Writing: dictation
We’ve made a great start to our week with some fantastic writing in Year 1. Each day we practise our handwriting and write some words, captions/sentences about a picture.
Help at home:
Using the pictures below can your child write some words, captions or sentences.
Ask them about the process and how they do it school. I’m sure they’d be happy to share with you how skilful they are at counting the words in the sentence and using their Phoneme Fingers to listen for sounds in words. You could also include some tricky words or some of your child’s spelling words.
The Creation Story in Year One
This term in Year 1, we have been learning about Christianity and the Creation Story. The children have explored how Christians believe that God created the world in seven days, shaping everything from light to animals and people. We discussed why the Creation Story is important to Christians, focusing on the idea that the world is a gift from God.
“Thank you for the world so sweet, thank you for the food we eat, thank you for the birds that sing, thank you Lord for everything. Amen.” – End of day prayer
We discussed why we say the end of day prayer and what this means to us.
We have also been thinking about ways we can look after the world too, such as recycling, saving water, and protecting nature.
Help at home
– Talk about ways you can care for the environment together.
– Try a nature walk and discuss how you can protect the plants and animals around you.
– Encourage recycling at home and talk about why it’s important.
Take the caring for our world quiz with your child here!
Living and Learning: identity – self-respect
This week, we thought about what makes us and others special, valuing the similarities and differences between us.
Things we thought about included:
What eye colour do we have?
What hair colour do we have?
Who lives at home with us?
What language do we speak?
What is our skin like?
What is our favourite thing to do?
We discussed how there are things that are the same or different that are immediately obvious (physical features) as well as things you cannot see such as things you like doing. There are lots of things the same about us all but everyone is different too –nobody is exactly the same, everyone is unique. No-one is good at everything but everyone is good at something.
Have a look at our drawings. We thought about a friend and what made them special.
She is special because she is a kind friend to me.
He is special because he is really good at football.
He is special because he is good at drawing.
Help at home: Listen to the story It’s ok to be different by Todd Parr (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). Afterwards, have a conversation with your child and talk about what makes them and others special. Can they say why they are special and/or why someone else is special using the following sentence stem?
Something special about me/you is ________.