Christmas party

Yesterday, we had our class Christmas party. The children enjoyed playing some party games and eating some party food. We also enjoyed our Christmas dinner together.

Kandinsky inspired artwork

We have come to the end of our art themed topic learning and the learning has been very impressive.  The children have developed their knowledge and skills across a sequence of lessons. In order to showcase their learning, the children created calendars in the style of Wassily Kandinsky.

Abstract art does not represent images of our everyday world. It consists of  colours, lines, patterns and shapes and is not intended to represent objects or living things.

Ask your child about the words below. Can they give you a definition? Can they name the two artists we have been studying?

• figurative
• complementary colours
• collage
• warm colours
• abstract
• form

Here are a few of the Kandinsky inspired pieces created by the children.

Finally, Mrs Welsby, Mrs Walton and Mrs Freeman wish you all a very Merry Christmas!

Christmas week

It’s been a very busy exciting last week in Reception.
At the start of the week, the children enjoyed doing some Christmas activities…
Making reindeer food.
We hope you remember to sprinkle your magical reindeer food outside on Christmas Eve. 

Having fun (and getting very sticky!) making Christmas decorations.
On Wednesday, Miss Feldman kindly brought in some freshly baked  Gingerbread Men for us to decorate.

After decorating our Gingerbread Men, it was time to sit down for Christmas dinner. It was lovely to see the children enjoying their Christmas dinner, laughing together, and pulling crackers with their friends.

After eating our Christmas dinner, the excitement continued… it was time to PARTY! We were amazed at the children’s dance moves. They popped, boogied, and danced the afternoon away.

After some party games, we sat down to eat our party food and watched a video from Santa.

Finally, we hope you have a happy and healthy Christmas. Enjoy spending some quality time with friends and family.
Merry Christmas and a happy new year from all of the Reception Team!

Merry Christmas from Key Stage 2

Please click on the links below to listen to our Christmas singing.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Song 1

Song 2

Our final sculptures

This week, we completed our Barbara Hepworth inspired sculptures. After completing our own individual boxes, we put them together to create a group sculpture.

We set out all the sculptures in the school grounds to create a similar effect to Barbara Hepworth’s Family of Man.

“The thing I like about our sculpture is the negative space- it really shows what the sculpture represents. I think the shape of the cut-outs are not just circles- they actually represent the thoughts.” Scarlet

“I enjoyed painting the sculptures but we had to persevere when making the Verdigris colour because it had to be perfect. In the end, our sculpture looked different to the maquette.” Nicholas

Christmas Dinner

What an amazing Christmas dinner we have all had together. The kitchen staff have been beavering away so that we could enjoy our traditional turkey dinner with all the trimmings (plus vegetarian option!)

We all enjoyed sharing a joke or fact from our Christmas crackers.

It was great to celebrate as a whole school family.

Some of our nursery children joined us too!

Key Stage 2 all made party hats to dazzle us with. You may even spot a few sporting a moustache.

So thank you to our amazing staff!

BIG thought – a class debate

Today, in RE year 1 and 2 had a fantastic debate. Before we started we talked about respecting other peoples opinions and that it is okay to disagree with others.

I then gave the children the big thought for the day.

“Only Christians can celebrate Christmas”

The children had some fantastic opinions for and against this statement! We are very proud of how each child respected their friends opinions whilst discussing the ‘big talk’. Some children even changed their mind after listening to their friends views and opinions!

Below are some of the children’s fantastic opinions.

“Only Christians can celebrate Christmas because they go to church on Christmas day.”

“Anybody can go to church, even if they believe something else. My friend is a Muslim and she came to church with  me.”

“Other religions can celebrate it too. They can learn about how Jesus was born.”

“Anyone can celebrate Christmas. We need to include everyone otherwise it’s not fair.”

“You can celebrate Christmas because it’s for Jesus’ birthday – anyone can celebrate a birthday.”

“I agree because it’s Christians celebrating Jesus’ birthday.”

“It’s about everyone and celebrating with friends and family – it’s not just about presents.”

“I’ve changed my mind a little bit. Other people can celebrate because that’s kind and including other people.”

Living and Learning: Mindfulness

In Living and Learning over the last few weeks, we have been focusing on being healthy. We have one lots of activities to help us to he physically fit and this last week we have concentrated on our mental health. We need a healthy mind as well as a healthy body so that we are in the right place to learn and be happy in life. We have tried lots of different ways to take time to be calm, to relax, to breathe.
  
Breathing deeply is a really good way of calming yourself. Blowing bubbles can focus us on our breathing.

We really enjoyed the laughing yoga that we tried. We did a variety of controlled giggles, little laughs and belly laughs. Laughter is proven to have a positive effect on our brains! 
Listening to calm, meditative music can be really beneficial. In the track that we listened to, we imagined ourselves in our own magical treehouse. Many children said how much they enjoyed these activities!

Over this Christmastime, in and around all the frantic activities we do, why not find time to try some of these great mindfulness activities. There are lots to be found easily online. Have a happy and healthy Christmas!

This week’s bible story

Perseverance despite circumstances: Daniel 6:1-28 (omit verse 24)

Read the story of Daniel (omit verse 24 for younger or sensitive children)

Daniel was captured, along with many more of God’s people, and taken to live in a foreign country. In this country, they had different traditions and customs and it was not acceptable to worship God. But Daniel chose to continue serving God. Even though it meant that he was risking death, Daniel knelt down and honoured God by praying three times a day.
When the king discovered that Daniel was breaking the law by praying to God, he had Daniel thrown into a den of hungry lions. God stood by Daniel and rewarded his unwavering commitment to righteousness by protecting him from being eaten by the lions.

Reflection:
Do you think Daniel was lazy, or a hard worker?
When Daniel found out that he would be thrown into a lion’s den if he continued to pray, what did he do?
Why do you think Daniel continued to kneel down to pray instead of praying quietly in his head so that others could not see that he was praying?
How did God reward Daniel’s perseverance?

Prayer:
Dear God,
We can often end up in situations when life feels hard or difficult or when we feel we are out on a limb compared to everyone else.
Help us to persevere when times are tough.
Amen

Week beginning 13 December 2021

It’s the final week of this term. Sorry that you can’t be in school this week. Enjoy your home learning activities.

Maths

Follow this sequence of maths learning which is linked to number and place value.

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. 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

This half term we are reading Holes by Louis Sacher. He also wrote There’s a Boy in the Girl’s Bathroom. Follow these lessons on There’s a Boy in the Girls’ Bathroom and Charles Dicken’s A Christmas Carol. 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 on Shaun Tan’s The Viewer 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 art.

Choose an area of art which interests you from Oak Academy. Follow the lesson sequence. They each have 5 lessons so you could do two a week.

 (Suggested time: 30-40 minutes)

Science   

Our focus this half-term is light.

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 one 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)…

Geography isn’t a topic-driver this half-term, but you could brush up on your locational knowledge – something that was missed when schools closed earlier this year. You could explore some online maps and try to memorise some new countries, capitals, rivers and mountain ranges. These three lessons about Europe are worth checking out.

What about some Living and Learning? While you’re away from school, you could check out these lessons on money!