Class News

Leaf Man

Thank you so much for the leaf donation, they really helped with our learning, we have had great fun reading the story ‘Leaf Man’ by Lois Ehlert, in the book autumn has come, the wind is blowing and Leaf Man is on the move. No one is sure where he is going, but ‘A Leaf Man’s got to go where the wind blows.’ Our word of the week was ‘seasons’ we have talked about the four seasons winter, spring, summer and autumn. We have really enjoyed learning about the season of autumn, when the leaves fall from the trees, when some small animals like hedgehogs are looking for food to store and some animals begin to hibernate like a door mouse.

Phonics

This week the children have recapped all the phonemes (the sound a letter makes) we have covered so far this term. We have focused closely on our blending, the skill that helps us with our reading and our tricky words the, is and I. Keep up the great work everyone!

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 Five Little Pumpkins

Five little pumpkins sitting on a gate.

The first one said, ‘Oo, it’s getting late.’

The second one said, ‘There are witches in the air.’

The third one said, ‘Well I don’t care.’

The fourth one said, ‘Let’s run, run, run.’

The fifth one said, ‘Let’s have some fun.’

But oooh went the wind, and out went the light,

And five little pumpkins tumbled out of sight.

Maths

This week we have been helping our teddies out. Polly Penguin and Susan starfish has been arguing! We have helped them by using and repeating the sentences

…has more than…

…has fewer than…

Help at home phonics sheet

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.

 Help at home

We are continuing to develop our model making area as a ‘Waste Innovation’ area so the children can show off their creative side. Some have already explored this area and have been so proud to place them in the ‘Gallery’ for their friends to see and then bring home. Please can we ask you to kindly continue to send in any donations to make it a continued success. Donations of the following would be greatly appreciated,

• Small boxes
• cereal boxes,
• yoghurt pots,
• tubes (no toilet roll tubes please),
• bottles,
• bottle tops.
• old keys,
• beads (from broken necklaces),
• buttons,
• wool,
• corks
• Anything that the children might find interesting.

Next week our book of the week is Potion Commotion, please can we ask for donations of plastic bottles we are going to be making our own potions, hopefully without the commotion!

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.

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

Maths: ordering numbers

This week, we have been comparing and ordered two digit numbers from the smallest to the greatest and from the greatest to the smallest and using the < (less than) and > (greater than) symbols.

Help at home: Choose 3 two digit numbers and order them.

Challenge: Can you add in the < (less than) and > (greater than) symbols?

Topic: Local walk to Sandringham Park

On Tuesday, we went to Sandringham Park to answer our fieldwork question.

What types of green spaces are in our locality and what are they used for?

How could they be improved?

We walked sensibly and safely to the park and when we arrived we thought about the following questions:

1. Is there a playground?
2. Are there places to sit down?
3. How many rubbish bins can you see?
4. Is there an area to walk dogs?
5. How does the park keep people and animals safe?
6. Why do you think the council want to change this green space?
7. How did we stay safe during our fieldwork?

Help at home: Talk with your child about other green spaces in your local environment. What are they used for? Could they be improved?

Help at home with phonics

Please support your child to practise and reinforce the phonemes and graphemes we have been learning in our phonic sessions. More information and support can be found on the Little Wandle website – https://www.littlewandlelettersandsounds.org.uk/resources/for-parents/

We have read and written these words. Add sound buttons.

We have read and written these sentences. Can you spot any tricky words? Can you read these sentences fluently?

The toads feel so cool.

The boot on my right foot is too hard.

I can see foxes in the car lights.

We can go down to the town on the bus.

We have practised tricky words. Can you spot the tricky part of the word?

• no
• go
• so
• my
• by
• to
• into
• out
• the

We have spelt words. Can you write these words? Can you use the correct phonemes?

• right
• hard
• took
• hear

20.10.23

Please practise ready for a spelling quiz on Thursday 26 October 2023.

• are
• ask
• be
• by
• come
• do
• for
• friend
• full
• go

Reading: Tom Palmer

This year, some children at school attended an online workshop with author Tom Palmer. Tom Palmer has been in touch to let us know about some local events he is attending in half term.

Message from Tom

For children and families – I am also coming to Leeds on Thursday 2 November 2023 :
*       Farsley Book Festival – 10am-11am more here
https://trumanbooks.co.uk/event/flf-kids-day
*       Chapel Allerton Library – 2pm
*       Pudsey Community Hub and Library – 4pm

Geography – using grid references.

Geography – our year 3 and year 4 children have been learning how to use grid references using easting and northing coordinates. We were able to find places of interest on an Ordnance Survey map using a 4-figure grid reference. We looked in detail at OS maps of Harewood, Golden Acre Park, Ilkley and Wetherby – it was lovely to hear some of the children’s stories from when they have visited some of these places.

Help at home – Ask your child about easting and northing lines on an Ordnance Survey map – what do they tell us, and which is vertical and which is horizontal? Can they remember the rule we use when finding a grid reference? Which other subjects would we need to use grid references?

Geography Fieldwork

For the next park of our Geography learning, we ventured out of school to carry out some fieldwork in our local area.

Before fieldwork, geographers start with a question they want to find an answer to. Our question was “ What is the local ‘green’ space (Sandringham Park) used for and how could it be improved?

Wetherby Town Council owns and maintains most of the parks and open, green space recreational facilities in Wetherby, including Sandringham Park. Sandringham Park is a ‘Field in Trust’ green space which means
that it is protected so that it will be available for the people of Wetherby forever. However, this park is looking very tired and the council are planning to update it.

A green space is open-area reserved for parks and other “green areas”, including plant life, woodlands, water features other kinds of natural environment.
“Our forest school is a green space,” commented Athena.

Together, we mapped the route from school to the park and then we discussed how we would stay safe whilst outside of school.

We will cross the road at the zebra crossing.  Daisy

We will stay with our partner.  Woody

Don’t walk too close to the road.  Ariella

Stay with your group and adult. Poppy

Concentrate and listen to instructions. – Alexa

The children spent some time looking around the green space. Then, in groups, the class asked and answered some questions.

1. Is there a playground? Yes, but it has been damaged. – Millie
2. Are there places to sit down? Yes, but I think there should be more picnic benches. – Oly
3. How many rubbish bins can you see? We counted 5 bins but there was lots of rubbish on the floor. – Ellis

4. Is there an area to walk dogs? Yes

5. Does the park have anything that keeps children and animals safe? Yes, there are railings around the playground and a gate. Dogs are not allowed into the paly area. – Harry

6. Why do you think the council want to change this green space? Because it is very unsafe and there is a lot of damage. People can’t enjoy it now!  Alfie

I think there should be swings for people who have to use wheelchairs. Everybody should be able to use the park. – Freddy

Henri’s Scissors

Henri’s Scissors

What a busy and fun filled week we have had! We have been learning about the artist Henri Matisse using the book Henri’s Scissors. Our word of the week was ‘artist’ we did a fantastic job telling other adults that ‘an artist is someone who paints or draws’. Great work everyone!

We have also spent some time making our own pieces of artwork in the style of Matisse’s The Snail, we talked about the different shapes and colours we could see.

On Tuesday afternoon we spent time with Jamie Knight, who showed us his amazing football skills! We had a great time and discovered we have some super football skills ourselves!

Phonics

This week the children have learnt the phonemes (the sound a letter makes) h, f, b and l. 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 ‘the’ the tricky bits in this word is the ‘th’ and the ‘e’.

We also loved our grown ups coming to watch us on Thursday, it was so much fun sharing our learning with them.

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 or poem was Leaves are Falling

Leaves are falling, leaves are falling,

One fell on my nose.

Leaves are falling, leaves are falling,

One fell on my toes.

Leaves are falling, leaves are falling,

One fell on my head.

Leaves are falling, leaves are falling,

Yellow, Orange, Red.

Maths

This week we have been building on our Subitising skills, when we can say the number without counting the objects. We also have continued working on our skills to say the number of sounds that we can hear when somebody claps or drums a beat, without needing to count.

Finally, we have looked closely at small quantities of up to 4 cubes and talked about how the quantity is still 4 even if we put the cubes together in different ways. Great work everyone!

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 and will be sent home each Friday. Please support your child by practising their new sounds and reading skills at home.

Help at home

We are developing our model making area and will be re-launching it as a ‘Waste Innovation’ area so the children can show off their creative side. To make this area work we would really like the usual donations of cereal boxes, yoghurt pots, tubes (no toilet roll tubes please), bottles, bottle tops. But to enhance it further we would also love any old keys, beads (from broken necklaces), buttons, wool, corks or fabric. Anything that the children might find interesting. All donations throughout the year would be greatly appreciated, and just think of the wonderful models the children can bring home!

Next week our book of the week is Leaf Man, please can we ask for some donations of leaves. We are going to be creating our own leaf pictures and making leaf rubbings, so the more leaves we get the better!

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.

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

Football Skills with Jamie Knight

On Tuesday, we enjoyed an assembly from the freestyle footballer Jamie Knight and we had a workshop with him where he taught us how to do some of his football skills. Have a look at some of the fun we got up to!