Reading books
We are encouraging the children to be independent and choose their own reading book. This takes a little longer so we have started to change some books on a Monday and Tuesday. If your child has read their book and would like it to be changed before Wednesday then please put their reading book in their bag. If your child would like to keep their book until Wednesday that is also ok.
What have we been up to this week?
Maths
This week, we’ve been learning all about repeating patterns. We’ve been noticing patterns everywhere. The children even pointed out my patterned dress on Tuesday! Each day, the children were asked to make a repeating pattern using different objects/resources. They were fantastic at talking about their patterns and spotting mistakes – oops!
Phonics
This week, our daily phonics sessions have been a mixture of phase 1 activities. Phase 1 focuses on listening to different sounds and oral segmenting* and blending* skills. We went on a listening walk, made rhyming silly soups, and played I spy. Next week, we will begin phase 2. By the end of next week, the children will know the first three sounds: s, a, t.
PE
The children loved their first PE session! Mrs. Palmer will be teaching PE every Wednesday morning. The children had lots of fun travelling around the hall like animals. Mrs Palmer was very impressed with their amazing listening skills – well done Reception! Even though we only do one PE session a week, in early years we make sure we stay active throughout the week.
Snacks and Water…
Please make sure your child’s water bottle only contains plain water.
Every day, we provide a healthy fruit or vegetable at snacktime. If your child would prefer to bring their own snack, please ensure this contains only fruit and/or vegetables. Snacks from home will stay in the children’s bookbags until snack time at 10 am.
If your child is having grapes for their snack, please ensure that the grapes are cut lengthways.
Chilli challenges
The children have been introduced to the chilli challenges. Each week, there will be six green chilli challenges in different areas. The children will be encouraged to complete the challenges and tick them off on their chilli challenge card (see below). There will also be some red chilli challenges. These challenges are to extend their learning further.
Home-Link Challenge
*Segmenting – breaking down a word into individual sounds.
Blending – combining all the sounds to read a word.
Transition: Week 2
This week, we welcomed groups 2 and 3. It has been lovely to see the classroom full of busy children doing lots of fantastic learning.
Click here to see what groups 2 and 3 got up to this week.
On Thursday, we had a circle time session. We read the story All Are Welcome by Alexandra Penfold. We talked about the book’s key message. No matter what we look like, we all have a place in our school. The children were asked to work with a partner to spot things that were the same and things that were different.
Miss Marsden introduced the class bear to the children. They were asked to think of some names for the bear – we had a variety of names! We wrote their suggestions on the whiteboard and the children voted for their favourite. We counted the votes and Sparkle Shots won!
Isolation work
Next week, we will start emailing isolation work to your personal email addresses. Your child only needs to do this work if they are self-isolating.
PE
PE starts next Wednesday. Please make sure your child comes to school in their PE kit.
Parent Partners
This half-term, we’ll be learning about different families, where we live, and autumn changes. Alongside the main themes, we try to plan other areas of learning according to the children’s interests. To help us with this, Parent Partners are key in this process! Throughout the year, we really encourage that you send photos of any ‘WOW’ moments or new interests your child has at home. You can bring these moments into school or send them to [email protected].
Reception Zoom session
Thank you to everyone who has attended our recent Zoom sessions to help you support your child at home. Watch the phonics session and the Early Years introduction. (And apologies for the distracting cursor in the latter – maybe that’s a nervous habit of Mr Roundtree!
Home-Link Challenge
Week beginning 06 September 2021
Hi everyone
We hope you’re feeling happy and healthy at home. We miss having you in school but we want you to know that you’re still very much part of our school community. Enjoy your home learning for this week.
Maths
Follow this sequence of maths learning which is linked to addition and subtraction.
- Lesson 1: video, worksheet, answers
- Lesson 2: video, worksheet, answers
- Lesson 3: video, worksheet, answers
- Lesson 4: video, worksheet, answers
- Lesson 5: video, worksheet, answers
- Lesson 6: video, worksheet, answers
- Lesson 7: video, worksheet, answers
- Lesson 8: video, worksheet, answers
- Lesson 9: video, worksheet, answers
- Lesson 10: video, worksheet, answers
You don’t have to print the worksheet. Your child can write or draw their answers on paper. Your child’s learning will be most effective if you sit with them to pause the clip and check / praise / support your child as the clip moves on.
Practise times tables on Times Table Rockstars, too. If your child is in Y3, we’re concentrating on the 8 times table. If your child is in Y4, we’re concentrating on all times tables up to and including 12 x 12. Email the class teacher if you need your child’s login and password details.
(Suggested time: 30 minutes of Maths and 15 minutes of Rockstars daily)
Spelling
Look on the homework page to find this week’s spellings. They should choose some past spellings that they feel less confident with. Your child should complete one task each day.
- Day 1: Generate more words linked to the spelling pattern or ‘rule’. You could look out for the words in the book you’re reading at home, or any other text, like a website linked to our science topic of Living Things and their Habitat.
- Day 2: Practise the spellings using two of the ideas in our Super Spelling Strategies guide. (Set yourself and others at home a challenge of using some of the words when you’re speaking, too!)
- Day 3: Write separate sentences, each containing one of the spellings. (Don’t forget to show off really neat handwriting and make sure you sentence starts with a capital letter and ends with a full stop, exclamation mark (!) or question mark (?).
- Day 4: Repeat Task 2 or 3.
- Day 5: Get an adult at home to test you on your spellings. Practise any you spell incorrectly – you could write them out carefully until you’re sure.
(Suggested time: 15-20 minutes daily)
Reading fluency
This is the text we’re using in class this week to build up fluency skills.
In school, we generally follow this sequence:
- Day 1: Read the text aloud with your child listening. Read it clearly and slowly, pointing to each word as you read. Have a chat about any unfamiliar words.
- Day 2: Read aloud each sentence (a full short sentence or part of a longer sentence), and have your child read it back to you. Do this ‘echo reading’ for the whole text.
- Day 3: Read the text and talk about the effect of the punctuation on how you read it – pauses for full stops and expression for exclamations (!) or questions (?). Your child reads the text aloud.
- Day 4: Read together with expression (just like you practised on Day 3).
- Day 5: Your child reads independently and fluently.
(Suggested time: 15 minutes daily)
Reading comprehension
We’ll be using this RIC text in class to practise comprehension skills. RIC stands for:
- Retrieve: finding information in a text
- Interpret: using clues in the text to unlock information
- Choice: thinking about the author’s choice of words, techniques or organisation that make the text interesting and enjoyable to read
Follow these lessons from Oak National Academy. There’s a whole series of lessons, but start at Lesson 1 and work through, doing one (or maybe even two) each day. (If you’re self-isolating in your second week, stick with the series of lessons you’ve already started and aim to complete the full series.)
(Suggested time: 30 minutes daily)
Writing
Follow these lessons from Oak National Academy. There’s a whole series of lessons, but start at Lesson 1 and work through, doing one (or maybe even two) each day. (If you’re self-isolating in your second week, stick with the series of lessons you’ve already started and aim to complete the full series.)
(Suggested time: 30-40 minutes for each)
Topic
Our topic this half-term is about geography.
Follow these lessons from Oak National Academy and these lessons from Oak National Academy. There’s a whole series of lessons, but start at Lesson 1 and work through, doing one (or maybe even two) each day. (If you’re self-isolating in your second week, stick with the series of lessons you’ve already started and aim to complete the full series.)
(Suggested time: 30-40 minutes)
Science
Our focus this half-term is about chemistry.
These six lessons from Oak National Academy link closely to what we’ve been doing in class. Start at Lesson 1 and work through, doing two or three in the week. If you’ve previously completed on of these lessons, have a go at the ones you haven’t completed yet.
If Science really motivates your child, you could also use look at these lessons all about practical Science.
(Suggested time: 30-45 minutes)
PE
Don’t forget to do some daily exercise!
Do two or three of these Five Minute Moves from Joe Wicks each day – spread them across the day as if they were playtimes, maybe!
Try working through this series of 25 lessons from the Association for Physical Education – do two or three in the week.
(Suggested time: 5 minutes daily, plus 30 minutes for the longer PE lessons)
Extra stuff…
As an extra (or as an alternative, if this helps to motivate your child)…
Fancy learning about a new religion? You don’t have to be religious to learn about, and appreciate, religions from all around the world. Check out this set of lessons from Oak National Academy – you could choose to focus on one religion or dip into each set for an overview.
What about some Living and Learning? While you’re away from school, you could check out these lessons on keeping safe!
Week beginning 28 June 2021
Hi everyone
We hope you’re feeling happy and healthy at home. We miss having you in school but we want you to know that you’re still very much part of our school community. Enjoy your home learning for this week.
Maths
Follow this sequence of maths learning which is linked to fractions.
- Lesson 1: video, worksheet, answers
- Lesson 2: video, worksheet, answers
- Lesson 3: video, worksheet, answers
- Lesson 4: video, worksheet, answers
- Lesson 5: video, worksheet, answers
- Lesson 6: video, worksheet, answers
- Lesson 7: video, worksheet, answers
- Lesson 8: video, worksheet, answers
- Lesson 9: video, worksheet, answers
- Lesson 10: video, worksheet, answers
You don’t have to print the worksheet. Your child can write or draw their answers on paper. Your child’s learning will be most effective if you sit with them to pause the clip and check / praise / support your child as the clip moves on.
Practise times tables on Times Table Rockstars, too. If your child is in Y3, we’re concentrating on the 8 times table. If your child is in Y4, we’re concentrating on all times tables up to and including 12 x 12. Email the class teacher if you need your child’s login and password details.
(Suggested time: 30 minutes of Maths and 15 minutes of Rockstars daily)
Spelling
Look on the homework page to find this week’s spellings. They should choose some past spellings that they feel less confident with. Your child should complete one task each day.
- Day 1: Generate more words linked to the spelling pattern or ‘rule’. You could look out for the words in the book you’re reading at home, or any other text, like a website linked to our science topic of Living Things and their Habitat.
- Day 2: Practise the spellings using two of the ideas in our Super Spelling Strategies guide. (Set yourself and others at home a challenge of using some of the words when you’re speaking, too!)
- Day 3: Write separate sentences, each containing one of the spellings. (Don’t forget to show off really neat handwriting and make sure you sentence starts with a capital letter and ends with a full stop, exclamation mark (!) or question mark (?).
- Day 4: Repeat Task 2 or 3.
- Day 5: Get an adult at home to test you on your spellings. Practise any you spell incorrectly – you could write them out carefully until you’re sure.
(Suggested time: 15-20 minutes daily)
Reading fluency
This is the text we’re using in class this week to build up fluency skills.
In school, we generally follow this sequence:
- Day 1: Read the text aloud with your child listening. Read it clearly and slowly, pointing to each word as you read. Have a chat about any unfamiliar words.
- Day 2: Read aloud each sentence (a full short sentence or part of a longer sentence), and have your child read it back to you. Do this ‘echo reading’ for the whole text.
- Day 3: Read the text and talk about the effect of the punctuation on how you read it – pauses for full stops and expression for exclamations (!) or questions (?). Your child reads the text aloud.
- Day 4: Read together with expression (just like you practised on Day 3).
- Day 5: Your child reads independently and fluently.
(Suggested time: 15 minutes daily)
Reading comprehension
We’ll be using this RIC text in class to practise comprehension skills. RIC stands for:
- Retrieve: finding information in a text
- Interpret: using clues in the text to unlock information
- Choice: thinking about the author’s choice of words, techniques or organisation that make the text interesting and enjoyable to read
Follow these lessons from Oak National Academy. There’s a whole series of lessons, but start at Lesson 1 and work through, doing one (or maybe even two) each day. (If you’re self-isolating in your second week, stick with the series of lessons you’ve already started and aim to complete the full series.)
(Suggested time: 30 minutes daily)
Writing
Follow these lessons from Oak National Academy. There’s a whole series of lessons, but start at Lesson 1 and work through, doing one (or maybe even two) each day. (If you’re self-isolating in your second week, stick with the series of lessons you’ve already started and aim to complete the full series.)
(Suggested time: 30-40 minutes for each)
Topic
Our topic this half-term is about design & technology.
Follow these lessons from Oak National Academy. There’s a whole series of lessons, but start at Lesson 1 and work through, doing one (or maybe even two) each day. (If you’re self-isolating in your second week, stick with the series of lessons you’ve already started and aim to complete the full series.)
(Suggested time: 30-40 minutes)
Science
Our focus this half-term is about animals including humans.
These six lessons from Oak National Academy link closely to what we’ve been doing in class. Start at Lesson 1 and work through, doing two or three in the week. If you’ve previously completed on of these lessons, have a go at the ones you haven’t completed yet.
If Science really motivates your child, you could also use look at these lessons all about practical Science.
(Suggested time: 30-45 minutes)
PE
Don’t forget to do some daily exercise!
Do two or three of these Five Minute Moves from Joe Wicks each day – spread them across the day as if they were playtimes, maybe!
Try working through this series of 25 lessons from the Association for Physical Education – do two or three in the week.
(Suggested time: 5 minutes daily, plus 30 minutes for the longer PE lessons)
Extra stuff…
As an extra (or as an alternative, if this helps to motivate your child)…
Fancy learning about a new religion? You don’t have to be religious to learn about, and appreciate, religions from all around the world. Check out this set of lessons from Oak National Academy – you could choose to focus on one religion or dip into each set for an overview.
What about some Living and Learning? While you’re away from school, you could check out these lessons on keeping safe!
Times Table Rockstars Champions!
We have introduced a new competition in our class. We are finding out, each week, who is the timetable rockstar champion. Each week, there is a chance to gain a title spot on our 10 place leaderboard and some dojo points!
Well done to the following children for gaining the title of being on the first of our Times Tables Rockstar Championship.
29 April 2021
This week, our homework is Creative: to show how I can solve problems.
In our Living and Learning lessons this week, we’ve been learning how to recognize emotions in tricky situations and how to cope with and resolve problems. In this homework, we’d like you to show how you can solve problems.
You might focus on one specific scenario or a few different ones. You could present this as a poster, a comic strip, a play script, an animation (on Scratch Jr, perhaps) or any other creative idea you have!
Captain Tom 100 Challenge
Today, the JLT voted for the school charity we will be supporting this year- RSPCA.
—
23 April 2021
This week, the whole school has the same Talk Time homework: Which charity should our school support?
Next week, a charity will be decided for us to support for the year ahead. We’ll focus our fundraising efforts on supporting this charity. What charity does your child think we should support?
You could talk about:
- what a charity is
- why charities are important
- what sort of work they do
- charities that have meaning to your family, your school or your community
- national / international charities and their work
Next week, each class will vote (because in our school we make democratic decisions) for the charity they would like to support to form a shortlist. Then, our recently elected Junior Leadership Team will decide which charity we will support for the next year.
Adults: before you discuss this with your child, check out this week’s Friday message from Mr Roundtree on the main news section of our website – it contains information about how we support charities and some points we’d like you to discuss with your child.
26 March 2021
This week, the whole school has the same Talk Time homework. In preparation for the upcoming Junior Leadership Team (formerly the School Council) elections, children should complete one of the following tasks:
- I can prepare a speech (Junior Leadership Team elections).
- I know the importance of voting.
It’s time for children to consider if they would like to stand for election for our new Junior Leadership Team (JLT). With two representatives from each class, chosen democratically by their peers, all children are encouraged to take an active part in pupil voice.
Elections for our new school council will take place on Thursday 01 April with our polling station and ballot boxes at the ready. Candidates will have the opportunity to give their election speech to their class on Wednesday 31 March ahead of a democratic vote on Thursday 01 April.
What makes a good school councillor has been considered by our current school council.
- ‘use all the 8 Rs for learning’
- ‘be respectful’
- ‘help others’
- ‘be a good speaker and listener (to members of your class and in the meetings)’
- ‘tell the truth’
- ‘be confident with your ideas’
- ‘accept the views of others even if you don’t agree’
- ‘be friendly and approachable’
- ‘make good choices in class and around school’
Hints for your speech include:
- What skills and abilities would a good school councillor have?
- What are you particularly good at that would help you to be a great school councillor?
- What do you think would make the school better?
- What could you do that people would really like?
- Think of things that are realistic, maybe that you could do yourself, rather than having to ask other people to do
Thank you to our current school councillors for all their ideas and contributions. We hope you have enjoyed this role and responsibility. You’re welcome to stand again for election.
Good luck to all children who decide to stand in the elections.
If you choose not to stand in the election, you should instead consider the importance of voting.