Living and Learning: know how to STOP bullying!
We kicked off anti-bullying day with our odd socks to celebrate that we are all unique and different.
What is unique?
We discussed the meaning of the word ‘unique’.
I am unique because there is no one else like me that has my personality or looks.
Nobody has my hair, my eyes, my nose, or my smile. Nobody draws like me, paints like me, sings like me, or dances like me.
I am unique because God made me and wanted me to look and act exactly like I do now.
We explored our school definition of bullying by looking at what some of the words meant.
What is bullying?
We’re all able to make a choice in how we behave towards others. We can choose to be kind or helpful, or we could act in a way that is mean and unkind.
What is bullying behaviour?
Bullying is a type of unkind behaviour, such as being mean to others on purpose. Sometimes, people who bully others may be feeling sad or angry and might take their negative feelings out on other people.
What are the different types of bullying?
Our school definition reminds us of the different types of bullying – physical (hurting our body), emotional (hurting our feelings) or cyber bullying (online).
How can you STOP bullying?
We used our weekly circle time to think about the role we all have to STOP bullying. Year 1 had some great suggestions.
Our main message is Start Telling Other People!
You can stop bullying by…
saying STOP to the bullies and if they don’t stop, tell an adult – Harry
being kind to people and not hurting others – Poppy
being resilient and saying STOP – Vincent
ignoring the bully, walk away – Athena
How can you get help?
The children were reminded about where/who to ask for help.
Who could you tell?
The children were reminded about who they could speak to if the need arose.
- Safeguarding team – Miss Beatson, Mrs Freeman, Mrs Small and Miss Walshaw.
- Any other members of staff
- A trusted adult
- Someone in your family
- Friends
- Childline (0800 1111)Write a worry slip and put it in your class Living and Learning Box
Start Telling Other People.
Help at home:
Discuss our school definition of bullying with your child. Do they know the difference between falling out and bullying, and between a one-off situation and something that’s happened more than once?
Anti-bullying
On Monday, we acknowledged Anti-bullying week by wearing odd socks and learning about how we can help to stop bullying.
The children learnt many key messages, including what ‘banter’ is and how it can be percieved. We learnt about how friends speak to each other and how to be an ally for someone who is being bullied.
Here are some pictures of the children creating work to demonstrate their understanding:
Help at home – ask your child about the STOP acronyms. Can they remember our school bullying definition? Who can we speak to if we are being bullied? What is the Childline phone number?
Binny’s Diwali
Binny’s Diwali
Welcome to Autumn 2! This half term our theme is light and dark.
We have covered so many important events and topics this week…
On Monday we spent the day learning about St James, we listened to the story about how Jesus chose James to be one of his special friends. James was a fisher man and Jesus told him to put down his net and follow him. James became a ‘fisher of men’ instead. The children had a few challenges to complete to help them with their understanding.
Bonfire Night
On Tuesday we talked about Bonfire night, the children enjoyed talking about their own experiences and how they celebrated at home or out and about. In the construction area the children were challenged to build a replica of the Houses of Parliament.
Diwali
We talked about the festival of light, called Diwali. Our focus book was Binny’s Diwali by Thrity Umrigar.
We also found out about the festival through watching cbeebies-My first festival and Jo Jo and Gran Gran. The children were challenged to make their own Mehndi patterns on the funky fingers table, make rockets in the Waste Innovation Workshop and Diya lamps in the Playdough Factory.
Our word of the week is: Festival
Remembrance Day
We talked about Remembrance Day and the meaning behind each poppy. Lots of children wore poppy items to school and could speak about the meaning.
On Friday we used all of your kind donations (thank you!) to create a penny trail. The children enjoyed starting the trail for the rest of the school to follow on.
Phonics
This week the children have focused on the diagraphs ff, ll, ss and the single phoneme j.
We’ve also learnt the tricky word; as
Tricky words are words that should be read by sight. We start by identifying which part of the word is ‘tricky’. In as, the ‘s’ is tricky because it makes the /z/ sound.
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 Breezy Weather
Breezy weather. Freezy weather.
When the leaves fall, we all fall together.
Breezy weather. Freezy weather.
When the wind blows, we huddle together.
Maths
In Maths, we’ve been using our fingers to identify 5. We used the peas in a pod song-
‘Five little peas in a pea pod pressed,
One grew, two grew, so did all the rest.
They grew and they grew and they did not stop,
Until one day the pod went pop!’
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
Next week we’ll be celebrating World Nursery Rhyme Week. If you would like to, we’d love to share a recording of them telling their favourite nursery rhyme in class. Please send your emails to stjameseyfs@spherefederation.org
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
Wednesday we have our Maths Stay and Learn session from 2.20pm-3.00pm
Mrs. Kendrew, Mrs. Rippon and Miss. Feldman
Living and Learning: Me and My Money
We have had a very busy, money themed, week. The children have been learning the value of coins and notes, sorting coins into groups, discussing different charities, making money boxes, enjoying a song (with prosody) and laying a penny trail in the playground.
During our Living and Learning lesson, the class thought about the difference between a need (something we must have in order to stay alive) and a want (something we would like to have, but we don’t need it in order to stay alive).
Help at home
Watch the Money Matters video clip and have a discussion at home about how we get and use money, where money comes from, the difference between needs and wants, budgeting and saving. Take the quiz at the end to see how much you can remember about using money.
Remember, remember the fifth of November
This week in nursery the children were very excited to talk about bonfire night and the fireworks they saw. We created our own fireworks pictures using wax crayons and black paint, we then scraped marks into the paint to reveal the bright colours underneath.
We also remembered those who served in the war. The children explored our remembrance themed tuff tray, through the poppy fields – we even tried on some war helmets, they were really heavy!
As part of our phonics learning, we’ve introduced the letter ‘s’ this week. At this point in Nursery, children are learning to HEAR the sounds in words. We took turns to pull some objects out of a bag that all started with the letter ‘s’. There was… a snake, sock, spoon, and even a sausage! We talked about the ‘s’ sound that we could hear at the start of each word. In Nursery, we focus on our listening skills. We’re not learning about letter formation just yet, that will come later in your child’s phonics journey.
Here is a link to a video to show you how we pronounce the letter sounds that we will be learning over the next half term. (The video is to help show how to pronounce each letter clearly, using the pure sound. Children don’t need to be able to recognise the grapheme (letter) yet, although they might begin to.)
Help at home: What can you find at home that begins with the letter ‘s’? Go on a sound hunt together and look for some…. ssssssocks, ssssssslippers, sssssssoap. We often exaggerate the sound at the beginning of the word when we’re first learning to listen for initial sounds and then we repeat the word afterwards, saying it as it should be. Sssssocks, socks.
What’s happening next week?
- It’s ‘Odd Socks Day‘ on Monday so your child might like to wear odd socks for the day to celebrate what makes us all unique and spread kindness!
- Friday is a non-uniform day as we’ll be taking part in some spotty Children in Need fun!
- It’s been much colder outside this week and some children have been a bit chilly whilst playing outside. As we spend lots of time in our outdoor area, please make sure that your child has a warm coat, a hat and some gloves to wear. Don’t forget to add names!
Nursery rhyme of the week – We’ll be singing lots of popular rhymes as it’s World Nursery Rhyme week! If you’d like to send us an email with your child’s favourite rhyme and we’ll try to sing it at Nursery next week.
Sound of the week – T for tiger and teapot!
Have a happy and healthy weekend!
Miss Ward and Miss Harvey
Forest School
At Forest School today, the children have created pieces of art using the natural materials in the woodland area. We have had a great time working together and being creative, all whilst respecting the environment around us.
Me and My Money
What a busy week we have had in the Year 3/4 classroom. We have learnt so many useful skills when dealing with money. We have learnt: the best ways when looking after our money, the many ways of spending money, the advantages and disadvantages of borrowing money (eg. mortgages) and why people use and donate to charities.
On Tuesday, we were very lucky to welcome members of staff from Yorkshire Building Society. With their help, we used a budget to plan a party and made spending choices based on our priorities, needs and
wants.
Help at home – Speak to your child about the importance of spending money wisely and seeking value for money. Help them to set up a way of saving (piggy bank or money jar).
Me and My Money Themed Week
As part of our Me and My Money themed week we have been doing lots of different activities around money.
In English, we looked at how money is am important part of most people’s lives and the difference between using money to buy something we need and something we want. We also discussed where money comes from e.g. earning or being given and how people make different choices about how to save and spend their money. We also talked about where we can keep our money e.g. a bank or a money box and how some places are safer than others.
In Maths, we’ve been looking at the different coins and their value. We have been comparing the value of coins and making different values in a variety of ways.
We’ve also been comparing the value of some everyday products by ordering them from the least to the most valuable. We used our new oracy target which is building on the views of others, to have a respectful discussion.
Thank you for the coin donations for our penny trail. We enjoyed adding them to the trail this morning.
Help at home: Watch the Money Matters video clip and have a discussion at home about how we get and use money, where money comes from, the difference between needs and wants, budgeting and saving. Take the quiz at the end to see how much you can remember about using money.
Helping out our environment
To end the last half-term, Years 5 and 6 decided to write a letter to Miss Beatson in hope to transform our school gardening area into a fresh, healthy space. This came about from our Geography topic – we had been working hard in learning the importance of plants, trees and green spaces around us.
Thankfully, our letters were a huge success! We spent an afternoon in the lovely rain, getting our hands dirty and working as a team to improve a part of our school. The children thoroughly enjoyed this challenge and we’re really proud of our achievement. Here’s some photos below of the garden area, before and after the transformation!
Mad About Materials!
