Living and Learning: I can talk about my feelings
This week, we’ve been exploring emotions and how they shape our feelings. We’ve talked about how emotions can change all the time and how it’s completely normal to experience a wide range of them—from anger and fear to happiness and excitement. Emotions are an important part of our mental health, helping us understand ourselves and others.
During our circle time on Monday, we focused on specific emotions: happiness, excitement, worry, and tiredness. Together, we reflected on how each of these emotions feels in our own experiences.
- “I felt worried when I stayed at my cousin’s house, and my mum wasn’t there.”
- “I feel happy when I come to school because I love learning.”
- “I felt excited when I went on holiday.”
- “I felt happy when I had hot chocolate while feeling unwell.”
Today, we became “emotion detectives”! We practiced identifying emotions by studying pictures. We carefully examined facial expressions and body language to decide which emotion best fit each character. It was a fun and insightful way to learn how to recognise feelings in others!
Afterward, we all took turns demonstrating how different emotions might look and feel through facial expressions and body language.
proud
surprised
fear
nervous
sad
happy.
Help at home: Take moments throughout the day to check in with your child and ask how they’re feeling. Encourage them to think about their emotions—what might that feeling look like? Does it have a colour, shape, or even a sound? This can help them better understand and express their emotions.
Reading – Inference
In reading, we’ve been reading The Three Little Wolves and the Big Bad Pig by Eugene Trivizas and Helen Oxenbury.
It’s a comically inverted version of the classic fable and the children have thoroughly enjoyed reading it. We spent some time discussing the pig’s character:
We’ve been using the text as a vehicle to practise our inference skills. Inference is the skill of using clues to make a sensible guess about something we don’t know.
One of our favourite activities for practising inference is ‘hot seating’ in which characters, played by members of the class (or the teacher!), are interviewed by the rest of the group. It encourages children to embody a character, thinking deeply about themes and ideas, and exploring their behaviour. We had great fun pretending to be the big bad pig!
Help at home by trying a hot seat activity with your child’s current book. Can they embody a character and dramatise their behaviour?
Online safety
We talk a lot about online safety in Year 5 and Year 6. It is crucial that the children are aware of how to stay safe, how websites keep us logged in and the role that cookies play.
Below are links to explain pop-ups and cookies in some detail:
When online, here are some key principles to keep safe:
If something seems too good to be true, it probably is.
Limit your screen time.
Avoid clicking on ads.
Clear your cookies frequently.
If you want to spend money, set a reasonable limit but ask yourself – is this really worth it? Will I want this in a year’s time? Can I use the money for something else?
Living and learning – I know how to make careful choices
This week, Year 3 have learnt about making careful choices in and out of school. We’ve also spoken a lot on how to disagree with other respectfully, especially if you feel you are in an uncomfortable position. In circle time, the children began by finishing off the sentence stem ‘I feel respected when…’ – here’s some pupil responses:
I feel respected when I’m listened to.
I feel respected when people give me time to myself if I ask for it.’
I feel respected when people give me eye contact.
We then went into imaginary scenarios, where children can offer advice and support to the situation. Pupils discussed different ways that we can disagree respectfully with others, especially if we are feeling that the situation is wrong or uncomfortable. Even with friends and peers, it’s important to disagree respectfully if necessary. All pupils responded well in this session and left feeling happy and healthy.
Peace at last!
This week we have been reading ‘ Peace at last‘ by Jill Murphy
We have been talking about all the different noises Daddy Bear could hear whilst he was trying to get to sleep! Some of those being animals outside, Can you remember what kind of animals are awake at night time?
That’s right.. Nocturnal!
One of our favourite nocturnal animals has been the Hedgehog. Sometimes we see them around school, especially in our forest area. We must remember to be quiet as they are sleeping.. Shhhh!
This week we were scientist, we made some delicious hedgehog bread. We talked about the ingredients we needed and how to use the weighing scales to measure how much we would need. Once we mixed our dough, we had to give it a good knead- this is a fantastic fine motor skill to help strengthen your child’s hand’s. We made sure our key ingredient was in.. Yeast. Without the yeast the dough wouldn’t rise. The children observed the process of the dough rising before we put them in the oven.
Here is our end result!
Help at home: Have a go at making some bread at home, What animal could you do this time? below is the recipe we used to make our bread
- 400g of wholemeal bread flour
- 1 sachet of yeast
- 380ml of luke warm water
- 2 tbsp of vegetable oil
- 1 tbsp of salt
Mix all the ingredients together and then knead for 10 minutes.
Shape your dough and add in any extras such as raisins for eyes.
Allow ro rise for 1 hour in a warm place.
Place your dough into the oven at 180 for 15 mins, (make sure your grown-up helps with this part)
Allow to cool and enjoy!
Notice:
Reminder of Parent Consultations this coming Monday 25 November 3:30-5:30pm
We’re going to the Moon!
Some of the children may have come out to you on Friday saying they need to bring snacks and a teddy as we’re going to the moon. This is partly true apart from we will be providing the snacks! So please just bring one of your teddies to school with you next week. I’ve got mine ready, he can’t wait to go!
Have a lovely weekend
The Nursery Team
Living and learning – online safety
As a class, we reflected on what we could do if we were presented with a search result that was not appropriate, we received a pop-up advert/message or received an unkind/inappropriate message when we were playing on an online game. The children had lots of ideas which they were keen to share with each other.
The 3 most popular tips were:
- tell a trusted adult
- close it
- block them
Help at home: If you are keen to learn more about how to keep children safe online, take a look at the advice provided by the NSPCC: NSPCC safe online
Pointillism in Year 1
This term, Year 1 have been diving into the wonderful world of George Seurat and pointillism! Last week, we explored Seurat’s paintings, noticing how he used tiny dots to create beautiful scenes. The children were fascinated by how these little dots come together to form a bigger picture.
This week, they became pointillist artists themselves! Using bubble wrap and Q-tips, they experimented with primary colours (red, blue, and yellow), dabbing dots of paint to create textured masterpieces. They also explored colour mixing, discovering new shades and tones as the dots overlapped.
Help at home:
- Encourage your child to create dot art using cotton buds or paint brushes.
- Look at nature – leaves, flowers, or clouds – and discuss how tiny details create a whole picture.
PE – Gymnastics
This half term, our focus in PE is gymnastics.
We’ve been exploring movement – the different ways in which we can control our bodies and travel from one point to another. We’ve considered the height of our position and how it can change.
The children created and performed sequences, giving feedback to each other. I was astounded by the flexibility, balance and creativity on display!
Help at home by discussing movement with your child. How can we move in different ways? Perhaps you could explore the movements of some animals – how do they move their bodies differently to ours?
Maths Stay and Learn
For those parents who could not attend the Maths Stay and Learn last week or if you would like to access the teacher presentation, please click the link below:
Parent copy SE Maths Mastery presentation stay and learn 2024
Science: Materials
This term, our Science topic is Materials. Today, we explored a variety of rocks, observing and describing their texture, colour, size, and shape. We also considered how different types of rocks might be used in real-life.
Here are some of the ideas we discussed:
- “We could use this rock to build a house or a wall.”
- “This one could be used to make a table or a bench.”
- “This type of rock would be great for carving a statue.”
- “Some rocks are perfect for kitchen worktops because they’re hard and strong.”
We compared the rocks, noting their similarities and differences. For example:
- Some rocks were smooth, while others were rough.
- Certain rocks were heavier, and some were much lighter.
Finally, we sorted the rocks based on their size and then texture, arranging them from rough to smooth. It was fascinating to see how varied and versatile these natural materials can be!
Help at home: Go on a materials hunt at home! Look around and see if you can find objects made from different materials e.g wood, plastic, rock, or metal. Use the key vocabulary below to help you describe the items you discover. What textures, colours and uses can you identify? Happy exploring!
