PE: Rugby skills
This half-term in PE, we’re focusing on developing our rugby skills. We began by getting familiar with the rugby ball—practicing throwing, catching, and bouncing. Working in pairs, we passed the ball to each other, improving our coordination and teamwork. To build awareness of space, we also played a game of piggy in the middle, challenging us to think strategically and move effectively.
Living and Learning: MindMate
This half term our Living and Learning lessons are based around the MindMate learning themes of emotions and friendships.
Our first lesson was based around strong emotions and exploring and describing how it feels to be sad/unhappy.
We thought about how others might express feelings of unhappiness and if they did feel unhappy, to practise asking, and listening to, others about what makes them unhappy.
We reinforced that everyone feels sad or unhappy at times and that’s natural.
In our circle time, on the same theme, the children suggested some things to do if they were feeling sad.
Would it help if…
- you walked away from the situation making you sad
- you talked to a friend or a trusted adult
- you wrote down how you felt
- you read a book
- you went for a walk
- you did some exercise like dancing
As part of this lesson, we did a mindfulness exercises taken from this website – mindful hearing.
Help at home – ask your child what they might do if they were feeling unhappy or if a friend was feeling unhappy.
Water Safety Week
This week is Water Safety Week.
We have been discussing how we can stay safe in and around water and reading some of the websites below.
https://www.rlss.org.uk/staying-safe-in-on-and-around-the-water
Help at home – Read through the webpages with your child.
Food technology – pasta bake
Our children have been busy in the kitchen today. They have been creating a very tasty pasta bake.
They have been draining through a colander, peeling, chopping using a claw grip, crushing garlic, tearing herbs and seasoning to taste.
Help at home – Encourage your child to help in the kitchen. Can they show you some of the skills they have learnt today?
The Train Ride
What a busy first week back it has been for team Reception! Our topic this half term is Let’s Go, Let’s Grow and our first focus book was The Train Ride by June Crebbin.
Our word of the week has been destination– the place someone is going.
We have also been historians this week and sorted out old and new trains. We looked at pictures of the early steam locomotive- Robert Stephenson’s Rocket. We compared it to the trains we use today.
Phonics
Spring 2 week 1 has been a review of phase 3 sounds: ai, ee, igh, oa, oo, ar, or, ur, oo, ow, oi, ear, in words and sentences. We review tricky words daily.
Tricky words can be just that-tricky! We’ve previously introduced a few fun games you can play at home to practice tricky words.
Help at home– Play Bingo with your child using the game sent home, we love playing this game in school.
Reminders and Messages
Wednesday 5th March- Class Trip to The National Railway Museum.
World Book Day 2024- Thursday 06 March Please join us in the classroom, where you can relax and read books with your child. We’d also like your child to share their favourite book with their friends. Please send your child into school with their favourite book and please ensure the book is named. As stated on the school calendar, this not a dressing up year.
Have a happy and healthy week and thank you as always for your support.
Mrs. Kendrew, Mrs. Rippon, Mrs. Small and Mr. Smith.
New learning begins…
I have been really impressed with how Year 3 have returned to school after the half-term break. The children are engaged, focussed and excited to learn, making our classroom a very happy and healthy place to achieve and believe.
A quick look into some subjects this half-term…
Writing
This half-term, the children will be learning how to write persuasively. We are aiming to write to our school leaders to persuade them to include/add/buy something new for school. If these pieces are successful, then maybe one idea might even come true! We are also working on some grammar skills, such as adjectives, nouns and pronouns. The children are doing well with identifying these skills in sentences.
Topic – computing
This half-term, we are programmers! We will be writing code and instructions whilst de-bugging and problem solving along the way. So far, we have looked at identifying objects that are and are not computers. We have concluded that:
Computers are electronic devices that can input, process and output data.
Science – light
Our first science lesson started ‘brightly’ with an objective of finding out which sources of light are natural or artificial (man made). We also looked at some non-examples of light sources that people may often confuse, such as mirrors and the moon.
Help at home:
Have a look around your homes with your child. See if you can find some examples of computers and artificial light sources. Also, you could talk with your child about the things they would like to see more of at school. Hopefully, this will provide good stimulus for their writing!
Learning from David and Goliath
This week in RE, Year One have been learning about David and Goliath. We explored how David’s faith in God gave him the strength and bravery to defeat Goliath. The children reflected on how this story links to our Christian values of perseverance and courage, reminding us that with faith and determination, we can overcome challenges—no matter how big they seem!
Jolyon – “David showed courage because he fought the giant!”
Isaac – “He persevered even though he only had five stones and a slingshot.”
Gracie – “David didn’t give up!”
Reading – The Lorax
In reading, we’re enjoying The Lorax by Dr Seuss. The Lorax is an engaging story with strong themes, told amusingly by way of rhyme. The children have enjoyed exploring the messages in The Lorax about environmental crisis and activism, building on our geography learning from last half term.
One of our favourite reading activities is ‘hot-seating’ in which children play the parts of characters from a story and answer questions. This is a brilliant platform for practising inference skills.
The children really impressed me; questioning, inference, acting – I saw it all!
We made sure to look the part…
Help at home by encouraging your child to think of some questions they’d like to ask characters in their favourite story. Take it in turns to step into character and have a go at answering the questions…
TTRS
Did you know that every week, Year 5 and Year 6 have the chance to feature on our TTRS Wheel of Fame in Achieve and Believe assembly. The lucky winner of the Wheel of Fame challenges a teacher for the ultimate honour of winning the TTRS trophy!
What does my child need to do?
Play 15 minutes of TTRS games in the week leading up to the Friday (when we check how much each child has played.) We recommend little and often. 3 minutes per day every school day might be easier to achieve than doing it all in one go.
Why does it matter?
If children know their times tables they will find the rest of the maths we learn in school much easier. This is true from Year 3 but is particularly important in Year 4 where we learn column multiplication and learn more about fractions.
Questions?
If you have any questions or need any help do let me know. Send me an email / call the school office / speak to me at pick-up. If you don’t like your child to use electronic devices at home let me know and I can provide alternative ways for them to practise their times tables.
I can’t wait to see even more of our superstars on the Wall of Fame and challenging (and answering faster than) teachers in Achieve and Believe!
Writing
We are preparing to write a spooky story based on the online video: Alma.
https://www.literacyshed.com/alma.html
The children were instantly hooked in and have shown lots on enthusiasm towards their work.
As we work towards our final written piece, we have been learning how to link clauses using dashes, semi-colons and colons.
How to use dashes:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lCg860btDfg
How to use semi-colons:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XcpaQc8VbU8
How to use colons:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s2iYA1sQUZQ
Here are some examples of our work:
She looks at the doll – the doll stares back. Honey.
Alma stared at her Doppel-ganger; the doll looked back at her with a creepy smile. Amelia.
Alma tried the door – it was bolted shut. How would she get in? Madeleine.
Alma looked at the clone; it glared at her like it was ready to fight. Kamile.
The chalkboard, filled with names, determined the next victim – Alma wrote her name beautifully. Summer.
As she peered through the frosty window, the doll-twin stared at her – it was as if they knew each other. Valerie.
The doll was an exact relica of her: green eyes, blue hat, pink gilet and red scarf. Chloe.
Alma knew she was alone; so she thought. Aubree.
Help at home – Ask your child to describe when they would use a dash/semi-colon/colon. Can they give an example? Role play them teaching you how to use them. Write spooky sentences using this week’s spellings.