Class News

Spellings for the first half term

Below are the 40 spellings for this half term. Please continue to learn these at home. There will be a test every Friday on 8 random words from the list. If your child is finding it difficult to learn the words, have a look at our Super Spelling Strategy document on the school website – it’s got some great ideas!

Loving Latin

The children have really enjoyed learning Latin this week and discovering that many words we use today are heavily influenecd by the Ancient Greeks and Romans. Here are some examples:

Tele (far away) – television, telephone, telescope
Micro (small) – microphone, microscope, microbe
Tri (three) – triangle, triplets, tripod

As a class, we enjoyed learning, collaborating and then sharing our thoughts and findings.

At home, see what your child can remember.

The Everywhere Bear

This week we have loved listening to our class story The Everywhere Bear by Julia Donaldson. We have enjoyed remembering all the different place he visited. We made some story maps to help us re-tell the story.

We even went on our own journey around school and found the slide! It was great fun having a little play on it! We have talked about maps and made some of our own.

“I’ve made a map of Wetherby, Mrs Kendrew you are the blue spot.’

‘I have made a treasure map!’

‘My map has a big hole; it goes all around the classroom!’

 Phonics

This week the children have learnt the phonemes (the sound a letter makes) g, o, c and k. The children have been listening to and saying words that begin with these phonemes (the sound a letter makes). They have also been practicing writing the graphemes (the written letter). We have also learnt our new tricky word ‘is’ the tricky bit in this word is the ‘s’ phoneme because it sounds like a ‘z’.

You may choose to play an I Spy game at home using these new phonemes (the sound a letter makes).

Today we also visited the school library, the children really enjoyed picking a book to bring home. These books are our reading for pleasure books, we hope you enjoy reading them. Please can they be returned on Thursday with reading records so they can be changed and updated. Thank you.

Poetry Basket

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 or poem was Pointy Hat

A little old lady with a tall pointed hat,

Knocked on my door with a rat-a-tat-tat.

I peered through the window to see who was there,

And off on her broomstick she flew through the air.

Maths

This week we have been focussing on our counting skills – to find out ‘how many’ objects there are.

We have explored how all sorts of things can be counted, including sounds. By singing rhymes, we have enjoyed developing our knowledge of the counting sequence.

Help at home phonics sheet

Today, your child has come home with a new ‘learn at home’ phonics sheet. The sheets link to our current learning in phonics. Please support your child by practising their new sounds and reading skills at home.

Home-Link

Autumn is here and the children have enjoyed exploring acorns and conkers. If you have chance, go on an autumn walk and collect, draw or discuss all the signs of autumn. You may choose to collect items to bring into school or email pictures.

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. Please can we also remind every to only put water inside water bottles, thank you.

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.

Phonics Phase 2- 12.10.23- 8.50am-9.30am

Maths- 15.11.23 2.20pm-3.00pm

Phonics Phase 3- 16.1.24 2.20pm-3.00pm

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 11.12.23

Week beginning 25.03.24

Week beginning 08.07.24

Don’t forget to email your pictures from home stjameseyfs@spherefederation.org thank you, have a lovely weekend!

Mrs. Kendrew, Mrs. Rippon and Miss. Feldman

I’ll huff and I’ll puff!

Nursery have had a busy week of learning. The children have been engrossed in purposeful play within our circle time’s and within provision. As we’re getting to know everyone, we like to talk about our families and home life.

To encourage children to tell us more about their family life, please e-mail or bring a photograph of your child with their family to Nursery next week. Our email is:  stjamesnursery@spherefederation.org

We will use these to create our own family trees to display in the classroom.

Our focus story this week has been The three little pigs. The children really enjoyed listening to the story and thinking about what might happen next. We used our themed tuff tray to role-play the story in provision.

Just a little reminder…

Have a happy and healthy weekend!

Miss Ward

Maths: Place Value

This half term, we’re focussing on Place Value in Maths. Numbers are very important so it is important we know everything we can about numbers 0-100. We have been using base ten, place value charts and part-part-whole models to recognise which number represents the ‘tens’ and which represents the ‘ones’. We’re now thinking about how a number can be partitioned flexibly and we’ve used base tens and part whole models to show this practically.

Help at home: draw a part whole model and partition  numbers to 100. Use the stem sentence to consolidate the learning.

Topic: Seas surrounding the UK and maps

We’re really enjoying our Geography topic. We’ve enjoyed using an atlas to locate and name the four seas surrounding the UK.

Help at home: Can your child name the four seas surrounding the UK? (Irish Sea, English Channel, Atlantic Ocean and North Sea)

We’ve also used Google Earth to help us understand what a map is and we’ve looked at some examples of maps to help us learn how to read a map key.

We looked at a map and used the key provided to answer the questions. We then added some of our own symbols to the key and thought about why maps are useful.

Help at home: Talk with your child about how maps are useful to help us to keep safe? What should you do if you were lost and you didn’t have a map? Here are some of the responses we talked about in class.

“They show you where to go to keep you safe. Like where the hospital or fire station is.”

“They help you if you are lost!”

“You could ask someone around you for help (if there is someone to ask).”

“You should stay where you are and your grown-ups will come and find you.”

 

RE – The Creation Story

This half term, we are reading, learning and thinking about The Creation Story  (This is a YouTube link. Top tip for watching YouTube with your child: go to the settings cog along the play bar and turn off autoplay – this avoids an inappropriate clip coming up automatically, and helps to discourage your child from passively watching clip after clip). 

In our lessons so far, we have ordered the Creation Story and thought about the following questions:

We’ve also looked at two pieces of art by artists who used The Creation Story as inspiration. Thinking about the following questions together:

‘Breisheit’ (In The Beginning) by Jackie Olenick 

‘Premordial chaos’ by Judy Racz

“It’s all the days of the story in one painting. I can see the sea, the sky and the land”

“I like how the colours are nice and bright”

“I can see the different days from the story in each picture”

We then created our own piece of art.

Help at home – Ask your child to retell The Creation Story to you. What do they think the story tells us about God?

How can we look after our world?

This half term, we are thinking all about The Creation Story. We have been learning what happened on each of the seven days that the world was created by God.

This week, we thought about how it feels when people do not respect things we have made. This led us to consider how people do not always look after the world God created. We looked at pictures of pollution and thought about rules God might have for his world.

We then made some fabulous posters about how we should look after the world.

Reading with prosody

Each week, the children are learning a poem. With daily practise, along with added prosody, the class can recall the poem off by heart by the end of the week.

Here is the poem for you to enjoy with your child.

Read by Mrs Freeman

Living and Learning: I know that rights come with responsibilities.

Every Monday afternoon, the children have a Living and Learning lesson with Mrs Bald.

What is Living and Learning and why is it important?

Personal, Social, Health and Economic education (PSHE) is a vital part of school life and ultimately our children’s future health and wellbeing. Our Living and Learning provision helps pupils to develop the knowledge, understanding, skills and attitudes they need to live confident, healthy, independent lives now and in the future.  It is embedded within wider learning we offer to ensure that pupils experience positive relationships with adults and with each other, and that those who are most vulnerable are identified and supported. Pupils are encouraged to take part in a wide range of activities and experiences across and beyond the curriculum, contributing fully to the life of our school and community.

Our statement this week: I know that rights come with responsibilities.

As a group, the children discussed that alongside every right comes responsibility. At school for example, children have the right to play and relax, and the responsibility to play alongside others safely and respectfully.

Next, as individuals, the class thought about what they have responsibility for in and out of school.

I have a responsibility to ……

pick up litter – Olly/Woody

look after my friends – Poppy/Esme

look after my dog – Athena

look after my dad – Kupa

look after my sister – Daisy

put rubbish in the bin – Alexa

to look after our family – Arthur

to look after animals – Oscar

to walk the dog – Harry/Freddy

help our friends when they fall over – Alfie

to listen – Vincent

Help at home

Discuss the meaning of responsibility.

Ask your child to name five things they are responsible for. They could draw a picture and bring it into school to go on our Living and Learning display.

Here are some examples.