Gobble, gobble, munch, munch, SCRUNCH!
We’ve been busy as usual in nursery over the last two weeks. We’ve been getting our stomp on!
Over the last two weeks our focus story was ‘Dinosaur Roar‘ by Paul Strickland. The children enjoyed exploring our dinosaur swamp, creating dinosaur skeletons and retelling the story through simple pretend play using vocabulary and key phrases from the story.
My favourite was Dinosaur grumpy, I really enjoyed been able to show the children my grumpy face and voice! Which one did you like?
Forest School
Some of our children have had the opportunity to attend forest sessions with Børn of the Forest. A place where they can explore, create and imagine within the natural world. We’ve made Stickman, dinosaurs and even helped care for our forest by litter picking. We also checked up on our hedgehog house and it looks like its made a nice little home for some very lucky hedgehogs.
This week sound/s was: ‘g’ for Goat ‘o’ for Octopus
Rhyme of the week: Row Row Row your boat and Ring ‘o’ ring ‘o’ roses
Help at Home: How many nursery rhymes do you know? Sing your favourite with your grown ups and make up your own actions. Singing nursery rhymes supports children with their listening and communication skills to prepare them for reading and writing as they get older.
Notice:
We are running low on spare clothes. Early years would really appreciate if you would be able to donate any of the following items that you no longer need;
- pants (3-4 and 5-6)
- socks
- joggers
We hope you have a lovely weekend, here is a clue for next week’s learning. I wonder what it could be?
Miss Ward and Miss Harvey
Getting creative with classical music
Each Wednesday afternoon, Mrs Bald teaches music with Year 1. The children have enjoyed listening to and exploring a new piece of music by a British composer named Gustav Holst.
The class watched and listened to Mars by Gustav Holst, a British composer.
Through this music, the composer is telling a story all about the planet, Mars. The children shared their thoughts and asked a few questions.
I wonder if Mars is big or small?
I wonder what is happening on Mars?
Using drums and other instruments, Year 2 were asked to play them in different ways such as a really smooth way or by drawing circles on the drum with their palms.
After listening to the piece of music again, the children thought about how they would travel to planet Mars.
Of course, by rocket!
We must prepare for take off!
3, 2,1 …………………….
Help at home by listening to Mars by Gustav Holst with your child and discuss the instruments that can be heard.
Science – Plants (light and dark)
As we donned our science hats to start 2024, we turned our attention to plants and their requirements to survive and thrive.
Our enquiry question has been:
Do plants grow healthier in the light or dark?
The children have planned a comparative fair test to observe the results for themselves. They have made their predictions and are looking forward to seeing what happens!
We have chosen to plant cucumber seeds (the fantasy of a fruitful harvest proved irresistible) and will keep 2 plants in the sun and 2 plants in the cupboard. This morning, we gathered our equipment and – one (cu)cumbersome bag of compost and a few plant pots later – planted our seeds.
The children will be observing the plants and recording their progress… watch this space!
Help at home by discussing the investigation with your child:
- What was their prediction?
- Why did they make that prediction?
- How have we made sure our investigation is fair?
- How often will be observe the plants?
- What will we measure?
Living and Learning – speak out and stay safe
In Year 3 and Year 4, we have been learning about ways that children can stay safe if they are experiencing abuse.
We watched an assembly produced by the NSPCC and engaged really well throughout. We have learnt about the 5 types of abuse that children can experience and know that this is never OK. We know who we can talk to if we are worried about something and where we can get help if needed.
The Childline website is a useful place to visit if we need help and their phone number is easy for us to remember – 0800 11 11.
Help at home – Ask your child what NSPCC stands for. What are the 5 types of abuse that children can experience. What does each one mean? Who are their trusted adults? Is there an easy way to remember the Childline phone number? Who is Buddy? What does Buddy represent?
A Trip Back in Time – Abbey House Museum
Last week, we had the privilege of spending the day at Abbey House Museum.
We spent the morning wandering through authentically recreated streets, exploring Victorian shops and houses. As we toured the museum, we considered how living standards have changed, particularly considering the similarities and differences in shopping then and now.
In the afternoon, the children learned about how household items have changed since the Victorian era. From personal hygiene and heating the home, to cleaning carpets and washing clothes – we were astounded by how much easier things are for us today!
Help at home by asking your child about our visit. How might life have been different as a child in the Victorian era?
Abbey House Museum
At Abbey House Museum, Year 1 stepped back in time and wandered through the enchanting streets, shops and houses to experience life as a Victorian in Leeds. The children compared the standards of living with those of today, and discovered how people lived, worked and were educated in Victorian England.
The children represented our school impeccably and we feel very proud of them all. During the workshop, the class learnt about what life was like for people 100 years ago and how household items have developed over time.
Help at home by chatting to your child about the visit.
- What can they remember?
- What did they learn?
- Which part of the museum was their favourite?
- Can they name some differences in the ways people lived 100 years ago compared to now?
- How did people wash their clothes and warm their homes?
- What were the differences between rich and poor households?
Living and Learning: “I know what a drug is and that some drugs can be harmful.”
In Living and Learning, we have been learning about things that can go into (and onto) our bodies and how they might help or harm us. The children have shown fantastic knowledge of when and how to use medicines safely.
“You shouldn’t take tablets if you don’t know what they are.”
“Follow the instructions on the packet. You could ask an adult to help if you’re not sure.”
“Make sure it’s the right medicine for the type of poorly you are.”
We sorted some picture cards into ‘helpful’ and ‘harmful’ and were surprised to see how many products would fit into both categories:
- Hand sanitiser is helpful for cleaning our hands but is very harmful to put into your body.
- Sweet treats can be enjoyable in moderation but can lead to tummy ache and tooth decay if consumed in excess.
- Sun cream protects your skin from the sun but contains poisonous ingredients that mustn’t be ingested.
Help at Home
Discuss these scenarios with your child. What could the characters do to prevent danger?
Happy New Year!
Welcome back everyone and a Happy New Year too you all!
We’ve been busy as usual in nursery over the last two weeks. we’ve welcomed some new friends who have all settled in really well! Our older children have been fantastic in helping our new friends around our nursery classroom, showing them where everything is and making them feel apart of our nursery family.
Over the last two weeks our focus stories have been based on traditional tales, The Gingerbread Man and Little Red Riding Hood. The children enjoyed exploring our themed tuff tray’s and have been retelling the story through simple pretend play using vocabulary and key phrases from the story.
Brrrrr it’s cold!
It’s also been very cold this week and lots of our resources got stuck in the ice. The children looked for ways to help get them out. The children used senses in hands on exploration and talked about the changes they noticed.
How to keep our bodies safe and healthy!
This week Dave came to visit school from D-side. He spoke to the children about different feelings we might experience in new situations. How to keep our bodies healthy and how to stay safe with medicine.
It’s OK because our parents are there and its not scary- Mia (Visiting the dentist)
Grandma helps me when I went to the hospital. She keeps it up high in the cupboard (medicine)- Ella M
Apples are healthy and milk – Immy
I like watermelon – Louie
We can drink water and juice as well, but not fizzy pop – Charlie
This week sound was: ‘D’ for Duck
Rhyme of the week: Grand old Duke of York
Help at Home: Here are the sounds we have looked at so far s,a,t,p,i,n,m,d: how many objects can you find around your house beginning with these sounds?
Notice:
Just a gentle reminder to ensure your child has a warm coat, hat and gloves for outside. We go outside in all weathers! Please feel free to pack some extra layers for those exceptionally cold days! and please don’t forget to label everything with your child’s name as sometimes hats like to hide around school…
We hope you have a lovely weekend, as we will be stomping into the week ahead!
Miss Ward and Miss Harvey
Lost and Found
Happy New Year to everyone and a huge thank you for all the lovely cards and gifts we received before the holidays it was so kind of you, we hope you all had a restful Christmas and New Year.
Last week we started our learning in our new topic Fire and Ice, our first book is called Lost and Found by Oliver Jeffers.
We used the globe to find where the South Pole is and found it is in Antarctica. We talked about how it is a very different place to England as nobody lives there because it is the coldest, driest and windiest place in the world. We made boats and tested them out in the water tray, we even added some ice to be like icebergs, it was very chilly work! We made snow dough and explored how it was like snow because it was fluffy and crunchy.
Our word of the week was: Iceberg, the children have really enjoyed using this word during the week in their learning.
“Look out your boat is getting too close to that huge iceberg!”
“This iceberg looks like a Elsa’s castle!”
Help at home: Tell your grown up at home about where you can find an iceberg.
Phonics
This week we have started to learn the phase 3 phonemes. We have focused on the diagraphs ai, ee, oa and the trigraph igh. A trigraph is when three letters make one sound.
Help at home: Today, your child has come home with a new ‘learn at home’ phonics sheet. The sheets link to all the phonemes we have covered this half term. Please support your child by practising these at home.
Poetry Picnic
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 our poem was Let’s Put on Our Mittens
Let’s put on our mittens and button up our coats.
Wrap our scarves snuggly around our throats.
Pull on our shoes and fasten the straps.
And tie on tightly our warm woollen hats.
Open the door, and out we go.
Out, into the soft and feathery snow.
Crunch, crunch, crunch.
Maths
In Maths we have been using our perceptual subitising skills (seeing the quantity without counting), moving from dots in a line and arrangements, to a focus on standard dice arrangements. For larger quantities, we have begun to use skills of conceptual subitising, beginning to quickly see the sub-groups within these larger numbers. We have played a game Feed the Penguin to help us.
“I can see a 3 and a 3 it makes 6”
“I can see a 2 and a 2 and a 1, it’s 5!”
“I see 2 and a 1”
Help at home: Play a dice game with your family and show them your subitising skills.
Next week we will continue to use the focus book Lost and Found to support our learning.
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.
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.
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 25.03.24
Week beginning 08.07.24
Don’t forget to email your pictures from home stjameseyfs@spherefederation.org thank you!
Mrs. Kendrew, Mrs. Rippon and Miss. Feldman
Welcome Back
A Belated Happy New Year…
We hope you’ve all had a fantastic start to 2024. Year 2 have returned to school ready to impress; super learning attitudes have been in plentiful supply and everyone has achieved!
We started our year with a moment of reflection, celebrating success and considering what we’d like to change. The children impressed me with their maturity and have shown patience and ambition as we’ve established new routines.
Reading and Writing
We have been practising our inference skills! We decided together that inference is:
“using clues to make a sensible guess about something we don’t know”
We used some inspiring illustrations to stimulate our discussions and had great fun interviewing one another in character. I (Mr Nash) had a bit too much fun playing the part of a baby owl!
“How do you feel about taking your first flight?”
Maths
We have been adding and subtracting 2-digit numbers, using base ten to show what we know.
Science
We are biologists! To start this term, we’re investigating whether plants grow healthier in light or dark. We’ve observed plants and labelled their parts, working like scientists by asking questions.
We braved the chilly conditions to see what we could observe. The children found an array of plants. Some had fur or spikes – others had flowers. We even found a tennis ball covered in moss!
Help at Home
Daily reading with your child is key to developing fluency and stamina. Your child’s e-book (including chapter books) will be assigned on a Friday – if there are any problems using the app, please let me know.
Encourage your child to engage with a variety of texts – perhaps a child-friendly news article will generate a spirited debate!
Continue to use NumBots to consolidate number fluency. We have set a (conservative) weekly target of 20 minutes to start the year but recommend a little and often approach. If there are any barriers to accessing this resource, we can provide an alternative.