Living and Learning: I remember what I’ve learnt. I reflect on my learning.
We had a very interesting discussion during our ‘Living and Learning’ session this week all about how remembering plays an important part in our learning. We agreed some people just seem to be able to remember things more easily than others. There are certain important facts we have to learn and then remember to help us in our work, such as times tables, number bonds and spellings. We can then apply these skills during our lessons which makes many tasks so much easier.
People shared the strategies they find the most useful. We noticed how many different preferred styles of learning and remembering everyone uses. We discussed how it might be useful to try alternative ways to remember instead of always using the same method. As Oliver commented, “I do experiment because I get bored if I always do the same one”.
It was interesting thinking about all the learning that takes place at school which we use in in our daily lives. Evie said learning Spanish in Year 2 really helped her on holiday and gave her the confidence to say a few words!
In our classroom we have a ‘reflection area’ which people go to for various reasons during the day. This led us to talk about the second statement, ‘I reflect on my learning’. We discussed why it is important to ‘think about’ not only what we have learnt but why and how we learnt it.
Again the class contributed to the discussion with real maturity when talking about making mistakes. As one group commented; ‘That’s what helps us to learn sometimes, because if it’s wrong we try not to do it again.’ We made links with our previous discussions about how it is important to respond positively to feedback, know our personal targets and strive to reach our targets.
People shared the things they really wanted to get better at and reflected on the bumpy journey it often takes to really reach that goal. We’ll make mistakes along the way but that’s all part of the learning process!
Wonderful writing!
This half term, our class novel is Kensuke’s Kingdom, written by Michael Morpurgo. This week, we have been writing from the perspective of a character; using figurative language to describe and create atmosphere.
Our time travelling companion
Our homework this week was to talk about what makes a good time travel companion. We had some brilliant ideas from everybody in the class. However, these are some that we picked out as our favourites:
- Daisy-Mae: ‘I would take my family and friends because I think they are the most important’.
- Hannah: ‘I would take Erin because I have known her since year 1’.
- Erin: ‘I would take my Mum and Dad because they mean a lot to me’.
But, our star answer this week came Oliver who said: ‘I would take a person who I could count on and trust and who I would get along with’. We think this is a great demonstration of one of our Christian values – friendship!
Homework celebrations
Just a quick note to say how amazing it was to see the creative homework that the children worked on last week. We extended our homework review session to play all of the wonderful games and quizzes that children had made.
Highlights included Bella’s memory game, Joe’s tiddlywinks style quiz, Amber’s anagrams and Harvey’s quick fire capital cities quiz.
Keep up the good work 3/4!
What wonderful writing!
All classes in school have a class novel on the go. Y5,6 are enjoying the modern classic, Kensuke’s Kingdom this half-term.
This morning, our older children in Y5,6 have been writing a diary entry from a character’s perspective.
Have a read of this great writing – well done, Mya!
…Mya’s not finished the diary yet. If your child is in Y5,6, have a chat with how the diary entry could continue!
Church Experience
Today, we visited St James’ Church to participate in Harvest activities.
Living and Learning
We’ve been thinking about what it means to be resourceful and resilient this week. We set ourselves some goals that we would like to achieve by the end of the year (or maybe sooner) by being resourceful and resilient. We’re aiming high!
Year 1 and 2 Super Stars!
In Year 1 and 2, we have a marble jar that we try to fill as a class. We can earn marbles for lining up quietly, following instructions and working together as a team.
We were very excited to have filled our marble jar today so we voted on our treat – democracy in action! The children chose to have extra playtime where they were allowed to have the equipment out, play football and play on the slide.
Here are some pictures of us enjoying our treat.
Living and Learning: I am resourceful and I am resilient.
In our Living and Learning session, we talked about being resourceful and resilient.
Willow told us it would be resourceful to use a dictionary or to search for the word on the internet if you were reading and didn’t know what a word meant. Mikey said that if you needed a glue stick and didn’t have one you could use sticky tape or double-sided tape. Ellie pointed out that if you didn’t have any pink paint you could mix red and white. Leah said that if you are reading and you can’t read a word you can use your phonics to help you.
We then thought about resilience. We talked about how you might feel if you were learning something new. Emilija said you might be anxious because you might not know what to do. Daisy said that if you can’t do something straight away, you need to think about it. Mikey told us that he struggled to learn to count to 100 but he kept practising and felt happy when he could do it. We listened to the saying:
“Try to keep going, try to keep smiling, even when things get bad.
Try to keep going, try to keep smiling, then you won’t feel so sad.”
Reflection Time; Friendship
Friday afternoons are a special time in Foundation. Although we reflect on our values and share our thoughts throughout the school week, we set aside a quiet time on a Friday afternoon to have circle time in our school Reflection Area. Recently, we’ve been thinking about Friendship.
We ensure that we are respecting our friends as they talk by using our talking hedgehog. We take turns: the person holding the hedgehog is the speaker and we listen as they share their thoughts and ideas.
We’ve thought about what it is to be a good friend and reflected on the qualities our friends have. We have spoken about why our friends are special to us. During reflection time, we have made dough representations of our friends and in the classroom we have created a display of our friends through paper doll portraits.
Fostering friendships is so vital at school. Friendships can boost confidence, help children feel safe and secure and even support learning through co-operative play. It has been wonderful to see continued and new friendships blossoming during these first few weeks at school – friendships that will enhance the children’s enjoyment of their time at school this year and in the years to come.
