St James’ is alive with the sound of music…
Music has been alive in Year 1 and 2 this week. We were lucky enough to have musicians from Wetherby Music Centre in school to run a workshop with the children. The children learned to keep a rhythm before beginning to learn the ukulele. They’ve learned the names of the strings on the ukulele and have begun to learn to strum notes.
Wetherby Music Centre will be running a workshop with Year 1 and 2, weekly, for the next six weeks.
Marvellous Mathematics!
A big thank you to all of the parents who were able to attend the Marvellous Mathematics Stay and Play this afternoon. The children are always so excited to share their learning with you and we hope you enjoyed seeing our Maths in action!
There be dragons
For the last few weeks to lead us into out ‘Life Force’ topic, we’ve been studying that most magnificent and magical of creatures – the dragon.
We started by looking at a report on various types of dragon and analysing how it used conjunctions to extend sentences and what pieces of vocabulary were used to add more impact.
We discussed how to construct a report and group pieces of information appropriately with catchy headings and sub-headings. Following this, we wrote a short report as a group on Toothless the dragon – ensuring we used suitable conjunctions.
This week, we have progressed onto writing our own report on Windshear, the razorwhip, a most dangerous and fearsome beast. We even measured out a scale model of him in the hall so we could appreciate just how large he is.
Worm Charming!
This week, we started our Life Forces topic by doing some ‘worm charming’ on the school field. We danced and tapped the ground to encourage the worms to come to the surface. It worked!
Then we used classification keys to identify the different types of worms that we found. It was a muddy experience!
d:side workshop
This week, we had d:side visit our school to talk to us about the bad effects of smoking. He explained to us about the harmful chemicals that are found in cigarettes and how they can damage our health.
“The workshop was interesting because when I am older, I know it will be bad for me and it will stop me smoking.”
Will Ted get wet?
Our class book, for the past two weeks, has been One Snowy Night. In this story, Percy the park keeper has to share his little hut with all the animals because their homes have been covered in snow.
Then, we found out poor old Ted’s home had been destroyed by the snow. We were concerned that Ted would get wet without a home so we set out on an investigation to find him a suitable material for his home.
We had a choice of paper, plastic, foil or fabric for his roof. The children made their predictions as to which would keep Ted dry and then we experimented. The children were shocked to find that the paper kept Ted dry along with the foil and the plastic. The children’s prediction of fabric not working was correct and Ted ended up floating in water.
Will it erupt?
Today, we have been testing variables to try and make the biggest eruption using cola and Mentos. One group changed the temperature of the cola, one group increased the amount of Mentos and one group changed the cola to a diet cola. Which one do you think made the biggest eruption?
Some children thought about some ‘what ifs’ after the experiment, such as: What if we heat up the coke? What if we use a different fizzy drink?
Can you think of any other ‘what ifs’ at home?
Rainy Play, Hip Hip Hooray!
The weather this week has been very grey and drizzly but that hasn’t stopped Foundation showing some amazing child-led learning.
We’ve had rainy painting and phonics on the board and we’ve seen fantastic, imaginative construction – making dens, racing cars and helicopters. The children have also been making bottle-top boats, floating them in puddles and then on the tuff tray. They’ve been experimenting with ways to make them move faster.
Who says rainy days have to be dull?!
Welcome to Spring 1!
A warm welcome back to Foundation stage this week. Children have been full of beans talking and writing about all of their lovely, festive news!
It’s great to see that the children have come back ready to learn with fantastic attitudes. We’ve seen hairdressers, show performers, dogs and dinosaurs through their independent imaginative play this week, giving us lots of exciting planning ideas for upcoming learning.
We’re beginning to trial having snack times together in Foundation. We hope this will provide another opportunity for talking and learning together. It also has other benefits such as making sure the children all have their snack in the morning (keeping up those energy and concentration levels) and that they are using ‘please’ and ‘thank you’ in their daily interactions.
PE will start again next week for F2 children. If you’ve not done so already, please return a named kit to school by Tuesday 09 January. PE will now take place on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.
A letter will be coming home with your child tomorrow about our next Stay and Play session. ‘Marvellous Maths’ will take place on Thursday 18 January at 2.30pm. We hope to see lots of you there 🙂
SATs in May
The Key Stage 2 tests (commonly called SATs) are in May:
- Monday 14 May: English grammar, punctuation and spelling papers 1 and 2
- Tuesday 15 May: English reading
- Wednesday 16 May: Mathematics papers 1 and 2
- Thursday 17 May: Mathematics paper 3
New style National Curriculum tests were introduced in 2016. This video lasts around five minutes and gives you a useful overview of the tests.
As always, speak with us if you have any questions, comments or concerns.