Staying safe week
d:side – staying safe online.
Today, we had a visit from Dave from d:side.
Dave talked to us about how to stay safe online. Firstly, he discussed posting things online and how it is important that we think carefully before we share. He taught us that once we have posted something online, it is there forever and can’t be deleted. This may lead to problems for us now and maybe in the future. We know we must tell a trusted adult if we are unsure about what to post.
This is called our digital footprint.
Tommy-Lee Y4
If you share, do it with care.
Share smart, share safe, share kind.
d:Side Dave
Dave went on to talk to us about social media. Most of the social media platforms have a guidance age-rating of 13, whereas WhatsApp has a guidance age-rating of 16. He recommended that we make our social media private and use safe sites, such as YouTube Kids.
Some things are age appropriate, some things are age inappropriate.
Shae Y3
Finally, Dave spoke to us about gaming and why games have a particular age rating. He introduced the PEGI (Pan-European Game Information) age rating system.
He explained that games such as Roblox and Minecraft are age rating 7 and why games such as Fortnite (age rating 12) and Call of Duty (age rating 16) have higher age rating and are not appropriate for younger children.
Help at home – How is your child keeping themselves safe online? Are accounts private? What date of birth is assigned to the account? Are we checking with an adult before we post something online?
Staying Safe Week
The Dogs Trust – staying safe with dogs.
Today, Mrs Hill from the Dogs Trust joined us to talk to us about how to stay safe around dogs.
We learnt three important rules when approaching a dog:
- Ask the owner for permission to stroke the dog.
- With your hands by your side, ask the dog if they are happy to be stroked.
- Calmly approach the dog and stroke gently from the side.
Mrs Hill taught us how to stay safe if a dog comes towards us:
- Cross our arms across our chest.
- Look the other way.
- Lift our arms higher if we feel that the dog may jump up to our face.
We then worked as ‘Doggie Detectives’. We thought about how dogs might feel in a variety of different scenarios and how to make the situation best for the dog and the people involved.
There are lots of children in our class who either have a dog(s) or see dogs regularly around our community. We learnt so much that we can’t wait to share with people back home.
Help at home – Ask your child about important rules when approaching a dog or if a dog approaches them. How can we keep ourselves safe? What actions can we avoid to keep a dog calm? What do The Dogs Trust do?
Safety Week: Road Safety/Library Visit
It’s Safety Week in school!
This morning, Year 1 walked down to Wetherby Library. This was a great opportunity to learn about staying safe when crossing a road. Before we set off, we shared safety suggestions about walking through the town and crossing the road.
It was an absolute pleasure to escort the children to the library this morning and they were a credit to our school!
Hold your partner’s hand.
Wear a hi-vis jacket.
Stay in a line so that other people can pass.
Stop at the roadside and look both ways.
Cross at the crossing and NEVER between parked cars.
Look and listen at all times.
At the library, the class enjoyed some stories read by Mark (the librarian).
The children had time to choose some books, relax and read them.
Over the summer break, the library is holding a Reading Challenge event.
Join the Marvellous Makers Summer Reading Challenge at your local library!
For more information please visit https://wearechildfriendlyleeds.com/2024/06/25/join-the-marvellous-makers-summer-reading-challenge-at-your-local-library/
Yo-ho a Pirates life for me!
This week our focus story has been ‘Pirates love Underpants’ by Claire Freedman.
We’ve been practicing our best pirate voices and searching for treasures around school.
We made our own pirate maps and thought about the locations we could hide our treasure for our friends to find. The pirates left one for us to follow, it lead us straight to forest school. We followed the directions and found the pirates treasure!
Although sneaky pirate Miss Harvey kept pinching our treasure so we had to chase after her!
Help at home: Can you draw your own treasure map? Hide some treasure around your house and see if your grown-ups can follow the directions on your map!
If you have any photos of your treasure maps, please send them in so we can have a look at them during ‘snack and chat’.
stjamesnursery@spherefederation.org
Our garden has been busy growing our peas and runner beans for a while now and the children were so excited when I told them the peas were ready!
We picked some, washed them and then enjoyed them during our ‘snack and chat’. They were delicious and very sweet.
Have a lovely weekend everyone!
Miss Ward, Miss Harvey and Miss Feldman
Living and Learning – Brilliant Bodies
In Living and Learning, we’ve been learning about identity and body image.
We’ve been thinking about the physical and personal features that make each and every one of us special. We spent some time considering how our names and appearance form part of our identity, including an interesting discussion about how life might look different if we were nameless and all looked the same…
- How would we make friends?
- How would we know who to play with at playtime?
- How would you get someone’s attention?
- How would your family know you were you?
It’s important to know that we’re all unique. It’s something worth celebrating!
It would be boring if everyone liked the same things. It’s good to share each others’ successes and interests.
Not everyone can be good at everything but everyone is good at something.
It can be hard to celebrate our physical features – sometimes, we feel insecure about the way we look. The children showed mature understanding of the physical features they can and can’t change and spent some time complimenting one another. We discussed appropriate ways to respond to compliments; a simple ‘thank you’ or a compliment in return.
Finally, we took a moment to celebrate ourselves and our brilliant bodies.
Help at home by discussing our living and learning statement with your child:
I know that people I see in the media don’t always reflect real life.
Is it healthy to compare ourselves to the people we see in the media?
Living and Learning
Body image
In Year 3 and 4 this week, we have thought about our bodies and about how they might change. Changes in our body can occur through a variety of reasons, some things we can influence and some things we can’t.
The children wrote down their thoughts and we had some in depth discussions about their ideas. The children were very mature and spoke with respect whilst building on each other’s ideas.
We then focussed on ourselves and wrote down three things that we are good at. We shared our strengths and found that others had the same strengths too. Children understood that even though we are all different in many ways, we can all share similar attributes.
Help at home – Ask your child what they are good at. Can you make opportunities to do something they are good at? How will we change over time? Are there any changes we can/can’t influence? How do you feel about that?
Nell Bank School Trip
Our next school trip is on Tuesday, please see below the kit list for a Day Visit to Nell Bank.
Clothing
Practical outdoor clothing- long trousers please as we will be walking through long grass and will be outside for most of the day.
Trainers
Hat
Waterproof coat
Gloves
Wellies
Packed Lunch
Including a filled drinks bottle
It is hungry work being outside!
If you have any questions please come and catch a member for the team.
Thank you
Mrs. Kendrew
Super Sewers
We have some fantastic sewers in Year 1.
The children have learnt some new vocabulary in their design and technology lessons.
- felt: a kind of cloth made from wool
- needle: a thin piece of metal or plastic with a point at one end and a hole or eye for thread in the other, used in sewing
- thread: a long, thin strand of cotton used in sewing or weaving
- over stitch: a stitch that circles the edge of a piece of fabric
After designing their product (a puppet), it was time to start making. It was amazing to see great resilience when threading a needle and tying a knot!
We are sure you’ll agree that the stitching is incredible!
Clean Up
We have had fun this week using our focus book Clean Up by Nathan Bryon and Dapo Adeola. The children have been wonderful talking about the messages in this book.
Our word of the week was pollution the children have really enjoyed using this during their learning.
“The girl cleaned up the pollution like in the other story (Somebody Swallowed Stanley) to save the turtle.”
“I saw some rubbish on the way to school that is pollution.”
Poetry Picnic
This week our poem was Five Little Peas
Five Little Peas
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!
The classroom Challenges this week have been
- to write a thank you message to the clean up crew.
- to cut out the parts of the turtle and put it together.
- to copy and continue a pattern.
- to work as a team like the clean up crew and recycle something.
Sports Day Fun
WOW! what a great time we had, sports day was so much fun! We had a great time showing our super physical skills. We loved our book themed races and it was great to cheer on our friends and grown ups as they raced.
Next week our focus book is The Snail and the Whale by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler.
Reminders and Notices
PE– Is on Wednesday please send your child to school wearing their PE kit and trainers they can fasten themselves.
Forest School– Is on Thursday please send your child to school in their PE kit with their forest school water proofs and wellies in a labelled plastic bag.
Please can you send your child to school with a sun hat and sun cream already applied.
Waste Innovation– Please don’t forget to send in any donations for us to be creative.
Have a happy and healthy week and please don’t forget to email any pictures from home to stjames@spherefederation.org thank you as always for your support.
Mrs. Kendrew, Mrs. Rippon and Miss. Feldman.
Maths
Identifying angles
We have had a fantastic maths lesson this morning, searching for and identifying angles. We found right angles, acute angles and obtuse angles. The children were fantastic when using the correct names for each angle and could clearly tell me how they know what type of angle it was.
Help at home – can you find any right angles, acute angles or obtuse angles at home or in your garden. How do you know it is a right angle? How do you know it is an acute angle? How do you know it is an obtuse angle? Can you draw them and put them in order of size? How many quarter turns make a right angle?