Class News

Lost and Found

Happy New Year to everyone and a huge thank you for all the lovely cards and gifts we received before the holidays it was so kind of you, we hope you all had a restful Christmas and New Year.

Last week we started our learning in our new topic Fire and Ice, our first book is called Lost and Found by Oliver Jeffers.

We used the globe to find where the South Pole is and found it is in Antarctica. We talked about how it is a very different place to England as nobody lives there because it is the coldest, driest and windiest place in the world. We made boats and tested them out in the water tray, we even added some ice to be like icebergs, it was very chilly work! We made snow dough and explored how it was like snow because it was fluffy and crunchy.

Our word of the week was: Iceberg, the children have really enjoyed using this word during the week in their learning.

“Look out your boat is getting too close to that huge iceberg!”

“This iceberg looks like a Elsa’s castle!”

Help at home: Tell your grown up at home about where you can find an iceberg.

Phonics

This week we have started to learn the phase 3 phonemes. We have focused on the diagraphs ai, ee, oa and the trigraph igh. A trigraph is when three letters make one sound.

Help at home: Today, your child has come home with a new ‘learn at home’ phonics sheet. The sheets link to all the phonemes we have covered this half term. Please support your child by practising these at home.

Poetry Picnic

Each week we will be learning a new poem. We will recite the poem each day. By saying the poem out loud we can focus on the sounds and rhythm of each word or line.

This week our poem was Let’s Put on Our Mittens

Let’s put on our mittens and button up our coats.

Wrap our scarves snuggly around our throats.

Pull on our shoes and fasten the straps.

And tie on tightly our warm woollen hats.

Open the door, and out we go.

Out, into the soft and feathery snow.

Crunch, crunch, crunch.

Maths

In Maths we have been using our perceptual subitising skills (seeing the quantity without counting), moving from dots in a line and arrangements, to a focus on standard dice arrangements. For larger quantities, we have begun to use skills of conceptual subitising, beginning to quickly see the sub-groups within these larger numbers. We have played a game Feed the Penguin to help us.

“I can see a 3 and a 3 it makes 6”

“I can see a 2 and a 2 and a 1, it’s 5!”

“I see 2 and a 1”

Help at home: Play a dice game with your family and show them your subitising skills.

Next week we will continue to use the focus book Lost and Found to support our learning.

Reminders

We will be doing PE on Monday, so please send your child to school wearing their PE kit and trainers. They will stay in this all day.

Stay and Learn Sessions

This is an opportunity for you to come into school to find out about the Early Years Curriculum and watch your child Learning in school.

Early Writing- 05.02.24 2.20pm-3.00pm

World Book Day 07.03.24 -8.50am-9.20am

Learning Journey Drop In’s

An opportunity to “drop into” school and share your child’ learning journal with them.

Times- 8.45am-9.15am and 3.15pm-3.45pm (Tuesday and Thursday)

Week beginning 25.03.24

Week beginning 08.07.24

Don’t forget to email your pictures from  home stjameseyfs@spherefederation.org thank you!

Mrs. Kendrew, Mrs. Rippon and Miss. Feldman

Welcome Back

A Belated Happy New Year…

We hope you’ve all had a fantastic start to 2024. Year 2 have returned to school ready to impress; super learning attitudes have been in plentiful supply and everyone has achieved!

We started our year with a moment of reflection, celebrating success and considering what we’d like to change. The children impressed me with their maturity and have shown patience and ambition as we’ve established new routines.

Reading and Writing

We have been practising our inference skills! We decided together that inference is:

“using clues to make a sensible guess about something we don’t know”

We used some inspiring illustrations to stimulate our discussions and had great fun interviewing one another in character. I (Mr Nash) had a bit too much fun playing the part of a baby owl!

“How do you feel about taking your first flight?”

Maths

We have been adding and subtracting 2-digit numbers, using base ten to show what we know.

Science

We are biologists! To start this term, we’re investigating whether plants grow healthier in light or dark. We’ve observed plants and labelled their parts, working like scientists by asking questions.

We braved the chilly conditions to see what we could observe. The children found an array of plants. Some had fur or spikes – others had flowers. We even found a tennis ball covered in moss!

Help at Home

Daily reading with your child is key to developing fluency and stamina. Your child’s e-book (including chapter books) will be assigned on a Friday – if there are any problems using the app, please let me know.

Encourage your child to engage with a variety of texts – perhaps a child-friendly news article will generate a spirited debate!

Continue to use NumBots to consolidate number fluency. We have set a (conservative) weekly target of 20 minutes to start the year but recommend a little and often approach. If there are any barriers to accessing this resource, we can provide an alternative.

Welcome back!

Years 5 and 6 have had a really positive start back at school in 2024.

With lots to look forward to, the children have flourished through opportunities to learn in different ways, such as through our fantastic forest school!

Linking to our Vikings topic, some children decided to build a Viking-inspired den outside in our woodland area! They used what they had learnt in their previous lesson to understand and make decisions on what their Viking home might’ve looked like back in 800AD.

Spellings for this half-term

Science: We are biologists!

d:side

We have been fortunate enough to have a visit from Dave from d:side. He talked to us about smoking and the effects on the body, what is in a cigarette, E-cigarettes and why people smoke.

It was a very informative workshop and the children learnt how to say ‘no’ if pressured into smoking.

Help at home – Ask your child what chemicals are in a cigarette. What are the laws around smoking? Why do people start smoking? How can we say ‘no’?

History – Shopping in the past

History is the focus of our topic learning this half term. During this topic, we will be ordering significant events in our lives and we’ll be discussing them using historical vocabulary.

During this exciting topic, the children will discuss how significant things have changed over time: the food that we eat, the shops that we visit and how trade has changed. 

Below is the vocabulary that will be  learnt and referred to throughout the lessons.

Help at home by talking about what shopping was like when you were younger and ask grandparents for their memories too.

Have shops changed?

How were items paid for?

Welcome back

We have had a very busy first week back in Year 3 and Year 4. We have been ensuring we stick to our routines and recapping on our rules and expectations in the classroom and around school. We have also welcomed Mr Goodwin and Mr Smith who will be based in our classroom from now on.

In writing, we have learnt about subordinate clauses and how these differ to main clauses. We have been able to identify subordinate clauses and we will look to use these in our recount writing next week.

In maths, we have begun using Frayer Models to represent number. The children have enjoyed the challenge that these models bring and enjoyed sharing their findings.

In Living and Learning, we have been learning about drugs and the benefits and risks surrounding them. We have also shared ways of reducing these risks and how we can keep safe at home and school.

Help at home – Ask your child if they can tell you what a subordinate clause is. Can they write a sentence using a subordinate clause, subordinate conjunction, and main clause? Can they check around the house to see if drugs are kept in a safe place?

Living and Learning: I know what a drug is.

Happy New Year to you all.

We have been so impressed with the all the children this week. They have returned to school with super learning attitudes.

In Living and Learning, the class learnt about things that can go into our bodies and onto our skin and how this can make people feel.

After drawing around one of the children and labelling the outline,  we thought about  all the different things that might go into or onto a person’s body.
• What things might go into the mouth?
• What might go into the nose or ears?
• What things might go onto the skin?

Next, working in small groups, the children sorted picture cards according to whether the image shown was helpful or harmful, or whether some can be both helpful and harmful to our bodies.

Helpful: fresh air, water, sunscreen.

Harmful: smoke, berries from the garden may be harmful if we don’t know what they are or if they are safe to eat.

Both helpful and harmful: hygiene and cleaning products and medicines must be used safely otherwise they can be harmful; if someone eats too many sweets or drinks too much (fizzy drink) it can damage their teeth or make them feel ill; doctors and nurses use syringes to give injections that help bodies stay healthy but it is dangerous to pick up syringes if we see them lying on the ground.

Things that go onto bodies: make-up, clothes, moisturiser/cream, water, tattoos, hugs/kisses, sand, jewellery, animal hair/licks, smoke, plasters, bubbles, medicines

Things that go into bodies: food, water, fizzy drinks, sweets, medicines, fresh air, insect bites, injections, smoke

Help at home

It is important that young children begin to develop an understanding of drugs. Talk to your child about medicines – they’re helpful drugs, but only when used by the right people in the right way.

Here are a few scenarios for you to discuss with your child.

1.
Amrit has eaten too much ice cream and is feeling a bit sick.
a. Eat more ice cream
b. Drink water and have a rest
c. Jump up and down
d. Something else?

2.
Amrit’s skin has a rash — with little red spots.
a. Don’t tell anyone
b. Use some of mum’s face cream on it
c. Go with an adult to see a doctor
d. Something else?

3.

Amrit has dropped a can of black sticky liquid in the shed — it is spilt on the floor.
a. Leave it
b. Clean it up
c. Tell an adult
d. Something else?

4.
Amrit has fallen over and has a
grazed knee.
a. Wash it with water
b. Rub a leaf on it
c. Put washing-up liquid on it
d. Something else?
5.
Some shampoo has gone in Amrit’s eye by accident at
bath time.
a. Wash the eye with water
b. Rub the eye
c. Hold a wet flannel on the eye
d. Something else?

Merry Christmas!

We’ve had a really busy couple of weeks here in nursery and it’s been lots of fun. From Stick-man to The Nativity Story, we’ve really got into the Christmas spirit.

Thank you to all out grown-up’s who attended our ‘stay and decorate’ session. The children loved it and it was really nice to share the experience with our nursery family.

Our Nativity- Wriggly Nativity, was a HUGE success! We have all thoroughly enjoyed the many rehearsals and laughs along the way. We hope you all enjoyed it as much as we did and that you won’t be singing them in your sleep for too long! Thank you for your donations towards your child’s Nativity photo, the monies raised will go towards some extra resources for our classroom.

Here is a round up of our learning over the last few weeks …

We hope you all have a lovely Christmas and a well rested break!

We look forward to seeing you all in the New Year when we return (Monday 08 January)

Here’s to 2024!

Miss Ward and Miss Harvey