Living and Learning: I can describe and use self-care techniques.
Last week, our living and learning statement was all about looking after ourselves. It’s extremely important to care about our own well-being, as we can often put the happiness and healthiness of others before ourselves. As our school is a happy and healthy place to achieve and believe, our circle time in Year 3 this week helped us understand why looking after ourselves is so vital.
The children began with trigger statements, offering their own thoughts on two self-care techniques:
I look after my mind when…
I look after my body when…
The children shared fantastic ideas, such as:
I look after my mind by having a two minute silence in my room when things are getting too much. This helps my brain relax. – Hattie
I look after my body by having showers and keeping my skin clean and healthy. – multiple children
I look after my mind by not having too much screen time and playing outside instead. – Freddie
We also discussed ways to relieve stress and support our mental health. In our reading lessons, we read a news article on other schools trialling some nature time each day across the UK. Responding to this, we’ve decided to implement some outside learning into our Year 3 timetable, starting with three lots of 10 minutes across the week. After one full week of this, we will reflect on the results as a class and decide whether this self-care technique is working for us. The newspaper article is below if you wish to find out more!
Help at home:
Talk to your child about their self-care techniques. Do they know how to keep happy and healthy? Perhaps come up with some new strategies together and see if your children remember some of the advice given in our circle time.
Owl Babies
This week our focus book has been Owl Babies by Martin Waddell.
We’ve really enjoyed the story reciting the repeating line ‘I want my mummy!’ Our word of the week has been swoop and we’ve enjoyed using it during the week.
“The owl swoops to catch a mouse.”
“I can swoop when I put my arms out.”
We’ve also continued exploring nocturnal animals this week.
Help at home: Ask your child if they can explain what a nocturnal animal is and if they can name any.
Phonics
Autumn 2 week has focused on words with s /s/ added at the end (hats, sits), words ending s /z/ (his) and with s /z/ added at the end (bags)
We’ve learnt the tricky words; we, me, be
Tricky words are words that should be read by sight.
Poetry Picnic
Each week we will be learning a new poem. We will recite this poem each day. By saying the poem out loud, we can focus on the sounds and rhythm of each word or line. We talk to the children about how this can help us become better readers. This week’s poem is called Wise Old Owl.
A wise old owl sat in an oak,
The more he heard, the less he spoke.
The less he spoke, the more he heard.
Why aren’t we all like that wise old bird?
Maths; counting, ordinality and cardinality
In Maths, we’ve revisited careful counting. Making sure we say our numbers in the correct sequence (ordinality) and stopping ‘at the stopping number’ (cardinality).
Help at home: The Journey of a letter
Next week, we’ll be reading The Jolly Christmas Postman and learning about the journey of a letter when it has been posted.
To help with our discussions, we’d love to share some photos of your child at their local post box.
Send your photos to: stjameseyfs@spherefederation.org
We are also asking you to send in one stamp for your child, to support our learning next week.
Have a happy and healthy weekend and thank you as always for your support.
Mrs. Kendrew, Mrs. Rippon and Miss. Feldman and Mr. Smith.
Art – collages inspired by the work of Zaha Hadid and Sir Christopher Wren
We have thoroughly enjoyed our learning this half-term about the work of architects Zaha Hadid and Sir Christopher Wren.
As well as learning about the work of these architects, we have also developed our art skills to use techniques such as tracing, using carbon paper and freehand drawing.
Having honed these skills, we created multiple pieces which we then combined to form a collage. The children have thought carefully about the use of technique, colour, space and the composition of their final pieces.
Each piece was truly unique and it was wonderful to see the happiness experienced during the creation of the collages!
Gymnastics – applying our learning to big apparatus
There was much excitement in Year 4’s PE lesson this week!
The children applied what they have learned about jumping and travelling to the big apparatus. They showed courage and resilience pushing themselves to achieve new personal goals in gymnastics.
They followed the rules to ensure that they kept themselves and each other safe. There was a great sense of pride in the room as we reflected on what we had achieved by believing in ourselves. A great opportunity to see our school vision being lived.
National Santa Dash
On Friday, all children took part in the National Santa Dash. This event was all about having some fun whilst being active.
We’ve decided to extend this event: we’ll be holding an Easter and Summer Dash, too! Our goal is to allow pupils to set some targets and improve on their personal bests through the year.
Here are some photos – enjoy!
Philosophy Friday – 06.12.24
Philosophy is thinking deeply.
Every Friday, we start our day with some time to wonder and ponder.
We’ve a different question each week – there’s no obvious right/wrong answer and no underlying moral message. All children are given the opportunity to contribute their ideas and give reasons for their thoughts.
This week’s question related to our living and learning statement:
This question sparked some interesting discussion and debate.
People might be sad if they don’t do the right thing to each other.
– Esme
Being kind to yourself is everyone’s responsibility
– Vincent
This links to respect and tolerance. You have to respect others and yourself to be kind.
– Woody
Our oracy focus this half term is:
Help at home by discussing this week’s Philosophy Friday question with your child. Does this question link to any of our Christian values?
Super sentences
This week, Year 1 have been busy writing character descriptions for Cyril the Squirrel from The Squirrels Who Squabbled by Rachel Bright.
The children focused on using adjectives to add more detail to their writing, making Cyril come to life with words like “cheeky”, “fluffy”, and “playful.”
They independently wrote sentences to describe Cyril, being careful to include our must dos, which are capital letters, finger spaces and full stops.
They are becoming super noun and adjective detectives!
Help at home:
- Play “I Spy” with adjectives e.g. “I spy something soft and yellow.”
- Describe favourite toys using adjectives e.g. “My teddy is cuddly and brown.”
- Read books together and spot adjectives in the text.
Reading records
Just a reminder to hear your child read throughout the week – ideally 3 times a week for 10 minutes.
Please also encourage your child to complete activities set in their reading records on a weekly basis. I will collect reading records in on a Friday to read, mark and enjoy the work the children have produced.
As you know, there are so many benefits to reading so let’s have a big push as we head into the new year!
https://www.booktrust.org.uk/what-we-do/impact-and-research/Research/the-benefits-of-reading/
Any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me. Thank you for all continued support,
Mr Kilner
Science – Materials
In science, we’re learning about materials. We’ve been exploring a variety of everyday materials, including their properties and uses.
This week, we’ve learnt that some solid objects can change shape.
- stretch – to make something longer without ripping, breaking or tearing
- bend – to force something to curve
- squash – to crush or squeeze something
- twist – to bend or curl something out of shape
We collected a variety of everyday objects ready to test. We worked like scientists by planning our investigation and making predictions.
We tested each object by stretching, bending, squashing and twisting.
We recorded our results and checked them against our predictions. The children were precise and meticulous, both in making their predictions and carrying out the test.
Help at home by asking your child how they’ve worked like a scientist during our materials unit? Challenge them to complete the vocabulary matching task below.
Maths: adding and subtracting
In Maths, we’ve been learning how to add and subtract one or two from a single digit number. We’ve been using a number line to help us.
Check out our amazing work below.
Help at home: Complete the number sentences. Remember to check the symbol (+ or -) before you start.
2 + 1 =
4 + 1 =
7 + 2 =
5 + 2 =
4 – 1 =
6 – 1 =
9 – 2 =
2 – 0 =