Festive homework
We have had some great creative homework this week, where children have researched a festival or created their very own festival.
Some of the festivals presented include: Christmas, Snow and Ice festival, Eid, Leeds festival along with many more.
Musical stars!
Yesterday, we played music all day long – it was fantastic!
We learnt how to play different chords on the guitar and keyboard so we could play along to various pop songs. At the end of the day, we performed to the rest of the school and to some of our parents.
This was a music project supported by Leeds Artforms.
“It was fun and I loved playing along to the Christmas song- Last Christmas!”
“I enjoyed playing the keyboard because I could play the music. I liked playing the Taylor Swift song.”
Living and Learning: I respect myself and others.
Our Living and Learning theme this week was all about Respect. When we hear the word what does it mean to us? We began by filling pieces of paper on the things we already know. By the end of the session we filled in the ‘gaps’ with the things we had learnt.
After our ‘silent statement’ circle activity, we discussed some of the things that arose.
How do we show ourselves Respect?
“By looking after our body, doing things that keep us healthy”. Emily
Would you ever respect someone who is unkind to others?.
“No because that would mean their behaviour is ok. People should treat other people how they wanted to be treated”. Lily
Should we only show respect to living things?
“No. We should respect our things, things at school and the environment”. Hannah
As usual, another mature and sensible session. Well done 3/4!
Our smells poems
Here are is a selection of some of the wonderful poetry work we have composed this week based on the poem ‘Smells’.
We all started the poem in exactly the same way as the poet and then added our own ideas from then onwards.
Why is it that the poet tells
So little of the sense of smell?
These are the odours I love so well
The smell of oranges freshly ripe – Erin
Apples sunset red and juicy – Oliver
The fragrance or a rich chocolate cake – Hannah
Melon mouthwatering and sweet – Jessica
Let’s investigate!
This week, we’ve been investigating air resistance in our Forces topic.
‘The bigger the parachute, the slower it will fall.’
In groups, we investigated if this was true or not.
We discovered that the bigger parachute fell to the ground slower than the smaller parachute. We concluded that the bigger parachute had a larger surface area, therefore there’s more air resistance. The more air resistance there is, the slower an object will move.
Funky Phonics!
Thank you to the parents who came to our ‘Funky Phonics’ Stay and Play. We’re so proud of how far the children have come already in their phonics and pleased that they had the opportunity to share their learning with you.
Our next Stay and Play is our Christmas Stay and Decorate! A chance to look at your child’s learning journey and make some lovely Christmas crafts to take home with you. It is taking place on Thursday 20 December, 8.30-9.45 am.
As always, you’re welcome to stay for the whole session or a little while.
We hope you will join us for some festive fun 🙂
Smells and tastes
After finishing our work on diaries based on our class novel ‘Friend or Foe’, we’ve been enjoying a poem called ‘Smells’ by Christopher Morley. In it, he talks about all of the smells which he loves, freshly ground coffee and campfire embers to name just two.
So we could write our own version, we sampled lots of different fruits with distinctive smells: apples, oranges and melons. We recorded a huge amount of vocabulary that could be made into expanded noun phrases and then played around with the words to fit into the style of poem we were writing.
And of course we got to eat the fruit afterwards!
Living and Learning: I respect myself and others
Cricketing superstars!
Year 1 and 2 have had an experience of cricket: they enjoyed a cricket workshop from Chance to Shine.
The children learnt new skills from their coach including how to catch and how to hit a ball using a cricket bat.
Here are some pictures of our workshop in action.
Christmas ADVENT-ures!
As the countdown begins, the next few weeks in Foundation will be Winter and Christmas topic-tastic!
The children have already been excitedly talking about the festive season and this has steered our learning toward some spontaneous discussion and activities. We have a new seasonal window filled with beautiful snowflakes. After exploring lots of vocabulary and sharing ideas, the children have written their ‘Winter’ words on them.
See if you can spot our ‘Kindness Advent Calendar’ in the classroom which the children have also collaboratively worked on this week. Each day, we’ll reveal a picture or kind message to our friends.
F2 have been learning about 3D shape names and their properties. The children have been using the 3D shapes in their construction to extend their learning.
We’ve been looking at small value coins and using our knowledge of combining numbers to create total amounts. This activity will be continued into next week, when the ‘Focus table’ has its very own Post Office Shop.
Next week, our focus book will be The Jolly Christmas Postman. This amazing adventure takes the children on a journey to visit familiar nursery rhyme and traditional tale characters.
Home-Link Challenge:
On Friday, we sent home our Monday News ‘Talk Time’ sheets. Please complete these with your child and bring to school on Monday morning. This includes both F1 and F2 children. Thank you.
Phonics:
Next week, we’re having our Funky Phonics Stay and Play after school on Wednesday 05 December. Phonics is so important: it’s the basis of skills our children need for reading and writing. We can help with important questions you may have.
Frequently asked questions include:
- How is each phoneme sounded aloud?
- Where is my child at in their reading/ writing and how can I best support this at home?
- What activities can we do at home to make phonics fun?
- What will my child be expected to be able to do at the end of Foundation Stage?
Although we are able to answer your questions at any time, the Stay and Play will be a good opportunity to see a variety of activities we use in action, as well as covering the above questions.
We hope to see many of you there.