Living and Learning: I know who I am.
Our Living and Learning theme this week is ‘I know who I am’.
To begin, we spent time thinking about all the things that make us who we are. We discussed how we are all special and unique. By using talk partners, we found out the similarities we have with our classmates and the things that make us different, be it our beliefs, skills or preferences.
Leading on from our previous sessions, lots of us were quick to point out how important it is to respect other people’s views and opinions. We designed our own ‘I am special stars’, with designs and words to reflect our personalities. We were surprised by how challenging it can sometimes be to say positive things about ourselves and the things we are proud of!
30 November 2018
This week’s homework is practice makes perfect and is due on Thursday 06 December. You will find an activity for the children to complete in their homework book.
Year 1:
We’ve been working on our subtraction skills (using a number line) and finding the difference between two numbers. Here are two clips to help explain finding the difference: Video 1 Video 2
Year 2:
We’ve been learning different methods to work out addition and subtraction calculations. We’ve learnt to use tens and ones (a rod of ten for each ten and cubes for the ones), drawing it pictorially (draw a stick for ten and a dot for one) or by using the column method. Have a look at our calculation videos which show some of the methods we use.
Living and Learning: I know who I am
This week our Living and Learning statement is ‘I know who I am’.
We talked about everyone being part of St James’ school and Year 1/2 class. We also talked about the other groups we belong to – for example, we live in Leeds which is in England.
We talked about some of us being born in different places and having links to other places. We also talked about clubs outside of school and teams that we support. The children made posters to show who they are.
Living and Learning
This week, our Living and Learning statement is ‘I know who I am’. In Year 5/6, we have been thinking about people who influence us and if they are positive and negative influences. We discussed how influences on TV and online can influence what we think about ourselves, our self-esteem and body image. We all agreed it is important to be proud of who we are and what we do if we are being influenced in a negative way.
We completed a ‘diamond nine’ activity where we thought about who has the most positive influence on us, all the way down to who has the least positive influence on us.
Power
Our new mini- topic named ‘Power’ has begun this week. During this topic we will be learning mainly about forces and magnetism. So we began by looking at friction.
We choose different surfaces to test out: hessian, plastic, sandpaper. Then, we rolled a small car down a slope across the surfaces and measured how far the car rolled.
We then graphed our results to find out which surface produced the most friction. It was really important that we measured accurately and kept all the other variables such as the length of the slope the same.
Stay tuned for more investigations!
Digging up the past
This week, we became archaeologists for the day and excavated some interesting artefacts. We spoke about how we know a lot about the past from objects that have been found and they can tell us a lot about how people lived and what their daily lives were like.
So that we didn’t break or damage the artefacts, we had to use brushes to delicately unearth the objects. We also used a co-ordinate grid system to record where each artefact was found. The artefacts were a little strange, so we had to use our detective skills to figure out what they were what they were possibly used for.
Supertato- Veggies Assemble!
As our exploration of Superheroes continues, we have seen that they come in all shapes and sizes! This week we’ve been reading, retelling and writing about the story Supertato- Veggies Assemble. Towards the end of the week, we were sent a special video from Supertato, who gave us a mission to capture the Evil Peas.
Next week we’ll be learning about another unlikely Superhero- SUPERWORM!
We’ve been focusing on our new number ‘5’; showing different combinations of number that can be added together to make 5. F2 have revisited how to use a number line to find out one or two more, or less than a given number. It is important to understand which direction to ‘jump’ on the number line; going up the number line for addition, when we are adding more and going down the number line for subtraction, when we want to find less. This is a tricky skill that we will continue to work on in class. We’ll also be sending home a number line to keep in your child’s bookbag, to continue practising at home.
F1 children have been creating shape pictures and naming the shapes they have used. They’ve been listening to stories, drawing and exploring the vocabulary of texture during their Key worker time.
All of the children have enjoyed programming our remote control cars this week. We’anve used them in role play (to save the veggies) and in a maths game on the beebot mat. The children had to roll the die, count the spots and move their car that many squares on the mat.
This week we’ve declared the run up to Christmas. The magical Christmas fairies had heard that the children have been pretending to load Santa’s sleigh in the ‘Toy Shop’ role play area and have created them their very own ‘Santa’s Workshop’! We’re also starting to learn the songs for our exciting Christmas production. We have an extra reward in the classroom at this festive time too; all children who have a ‘wow’ moment in the classroom get to choose a decoration to add to our Christmas tree.
Home-Link Challenge
F2- We did not get many challenges returned this week (the challenge based on the number 5) This week, instead of providing a photograph please encourage your child to draw their own representation of 5 objects- it can be 5 of anything! They could tell you the different ways they know how to make 5, using full number sentences.
F1- Please read picture books with your child that feature people. Pay particular attention to personal pronouns (“he”/ “him” for boys and “she”/ “her” for girls)
Upcoming Stay and Play Sessions
Wednesday 5th December 2018; 3.15- 3.45 – Funky Phonics
Thursday 20th December 2018; 8.45- 9.30- Learning journey drop in with CHRISTMAS STAY AND DECORATE!
Fabulous Homework
This week, we had a homework review and looked at our creative homework that the children had completed.
We had a lovely variety of homework. Here is a sample of our homework.
Sphero coding!
Recently, Year 1 and 2 enjoyed a visit to Wetherby library to participate in a coding workshop using Sphero balls and iPads.
The children used the Sphero app to programme their robot. They programmed it using drag and drop actions and even changed the colour of their Sphero. Sphero was sent flying across the library and the children learnt to weave the robot around a maze.
Living and Learning: I know how to stop bullying
Our living and Learning statement this week was ‘I know how to stop bullying’. We began the week by participating in “Odd Socks Day”. We looked at how it is okay to be different.
During our living and learning session, we started by talking about what bullying is. We used the word STOP to help us. STOP stands for Several Times On Purpose. We discussed that this means that if somebody is hurting someone’s body or their feelings on purpose and more than a few times it is bullying.
We used the word STOP again to help us remember that if somebody is being bullied, whether it is us or somebody else we need to Start Telling Other People. We thought of five people/ways that we could tell: mum/dad, teacher, grandparents, write it down and put it in the worry box, or a friend.