Living and Learning – I can assess my own risks

In Living and Learning, we’re learning about staying safe. This week, our statement is:

We began by discussing some key vocabulary:

danger – a cause of harm or injury
safety – keeping free from harm or danger
risk – the possibility of something dangerous happening

We spent some time thinking about times we’ve been exposed to risk, how we assessed them and the measures we took to stay safe? We thought specifically about our recent trip to Lotherton Hall.

Risk – getting lost

How did we stay safe? – stayed with our group

Risk – crossing the road

How did we stay safe? – checked for cars, walked in pairs with adult supervision

Risk – animals biting us

How did we stay safe? – not poking our hands through the railings

Risk – slipping on ice in the playground

How did we stay safe? – walking

How can we stay safe at home?

Here are some top tips from the children for staying safe at home:

Stay away from cleaning products. Ask a trusted adult for help. Woody

Don’t play near fire. Poppy

Keep soap away from your eyes. Vallan

Don’t touch plugs. Alfie

Only use sharp knives with adult supervision. Ariella

Help at home by trying this hazard detective game.

Can you come up with top 5 tips for staying safe at home?

Dinosaur Roar!

We’ve been reading Dinosaur Roar this week in Nursery and finding out about dinosaurs.

Can you remember some of the dinosaurs from the story?

“Dinosaur weak, dinosaur strong, dinosaur short or dinosaur very, very long”

We made a volcano in our sand tray, painted dinosaurs using frozen paint and made dinosaur footprints using Playdough.

Next week, we’ll start some new learning about weight. We will be using words such as heavy, light, heavier and lighter to compare different objects.

Help at home: You could continue this learning at home by asking questions during everyday activities.

Which bag from the supermarket is heaviest/ lightest? Which toy is lighter? Can you find something that is lighter than the bottle of milk? Can you find something that is heavier than a packet of crisps?

Forest School

We had so much fun in our forest school session and have been showing our friends new to Nursery what it’s all about.

Year 5 multi sports

Our Year 5 children visited Wetherby High School this afternoon to take part in a multi sports events. We tried lots of new sports/activities and developed new skills. We have some very talented children!

As usually, our children behaved really well and represented our school magnificently.

Update

Another very busy week in Year 5 and 6. Here are some highlights and key messages:

Light

Following on from our light topic in science last half term, we had a Zoom meet with lighting engineer, James Martin. He spoke to us about how crucial lights are in our busy world but also how he works hard to ensure we are using light effectively. We discussed light pollution and how that can impact wildlife and how blue lights, from our devices, can inhibit sleep and cause fatigue and stress.

Help at home – ask your child about how lighting at a swimming pool is carefully considered to ensure safety to all. Can your child reduce the amount of blue light exposure they experience before bed?

Maths – fractions

Converting between mixed numbers and improper fractions is sometimes tricky but it is becoming second nature to us. The children can use this knowledge to answer multi step problems and clearly explain their reasoning.

Help at home – Provide some fractions for your child to add and subtract, can they talk you through the process? Year 6 children, complete fraction pages of your revision booklet.

For some useful games, visit – https://www.sheppardsoftware.com/mathgames/menus/fractions.htm

Writing

We are in the process of writing a narrative including speech and action. The children have really impressed with their knowledge of dialogue and the key points to remember when punctuating speech:

– inverted commas to open and close direct speech

– direct speech starts with a capital letter

– punctuate your direct speech before closing inverted comma (, ! ? .)

– separate direct speech from reporting clause with punctuation

– new speaker, new line

Help at home – Can your children write using speech at home? Maybe they could write a conversation you have had at home or something they have seen on the television. Try to include a variety of ‘said verbs’, such as boomed or whispered.

Reading

Please continue to hear your child read at home on a regular basis. Children have a reading record with a variety of activities for them to complete. Please ensure reading records are in school every Friday.

Maths

Since coming back in January, we’ve been exploring the numbers from 10 to 20. We’ve focused on understanding these “ten and a bit” numbers by breaking them down into tens and ones, showing how each number consists of one ten and additional ones. We’ve also practiced identifying one more and one less than these numbers.

Today, we extended this learning by working with “ten and a bit” numbers on a number line. Using flashcards numbered 10 to 20, we ordered them, then turned them upside down and thought about where each number would fall on the number line. Finally, we shuffled them and selected three random numbers and arranged them in order from smallest to largest.

Living and Learning: Safety and Risks

Year One Class News: Exploring Risks!

This week in our Living and Learning lesson, Year One took a closer look at risks! We began by revisiting what we mean by danger and safety and explored the meaning of taking risks. The children shared examples of risks they take in everyday life, identifying some around school and at home.

In the classroom, we discussed how small actions like leaving items on the floor or chairs out can create risks and how we can avoid them to keep our classroom happy and healthy. At home, we focused on the kitchen, considering risks such as touching a hot oven or spilling water.

The children also worked together to order different risks by level—low or high. We discovered that some risks, like going up stairs or making a drink, depend on other factors.

Here are some thoughtful comments:
Gracie: “It depends what type of drink you’re making. Is it hot or in a glass?”
Luna: “There could be different hazards in the garden, like a wasp.”
Jolyon: “Going up and down stairs is more dangerous when you’re younger.”

Well done, Year One!

Help at Home

Click here to play an educational game about identifying risks around your own home!

Living and learning: I know that some drugs can be harmful.

In our living and learning sessions so far, we have been learning about drugs. So far, we’ve found that drugs are substances that change the way the mind and body works. We’ve also discussed that some drugs can be helpful to our bodies, but some can be harmful, too.

This week, Year 3 had discussions on everyday drugs within our households and how to keep safe around them.

In our house, we have a cupboard with a lock on and only mum and dad go in if we need medicines.

Lots of drugs like Calpol have lids on that don’t open if really young children get hold of them to keep them safe.

In the next session, we looked into some drugs that may be harmful to our bodies – alcohol, smoking and vaping.

Children were tasked with reading some social scenarios surrounding these drugs and they had to decide in groups whether they agreed, disagreed or were unsure of the outcome. The class performed extremely well in this task, and were very honest with parts they were unsure of (our Christian Value this half-term is honesty). We found that the majority of children were very confident with age restrictions and legal/illegal scenarios, but were less confident on drug usage, and what to do in scenarios where others might be around these drugs.

We will pick this up further in our circle time discussion on Monday, as I’d like to ensure all children feel happy, healthy and confident with this knowledge, so they can stay safe and not worry.

Help at home:

If your child does have any worries about any context in these sessions, allow them to share this with you. Perhaps go through some everyday drugs and medicines in your household – you could talk about how they are used correctly to help our bodies.

Lost and Found

We have had another fantastic week looking at our focus book Lost and Found by Oliver Jeffers.

Our word of the week has been climate and we have been geographers. We have looked at the globe again and talked about the equator being the hot line.

Phonics

Spring 1 week 2  has focused on the digraphs oo, oo, ar, or

We’ve learnt the tricky words; was, you, they

Tricky words are words that should be read by sight.

In class we have also been

Poetry Picnic

Each week we will be learning a new poem. We will recite this poem each day. By saying the poem out loud, we can focus on the sounds and rhythm of each word or line. We talk to the children about how this can help us become better readers. This week’s poem is called I can build a snowman

I can build a snowman,
I can build it high.
I can build a snowman,
Up into the sky.

Maths; the staircase pattern

In Maths, we’ve been looking at counting and ordinality- specifically, the ‘one more’ relationship that creates ‘the staircase pattern’.

We were introduced to the concept by the Numberblocks, before moving on to create our own staircase patterns in small groups.

Have a happy and healthy week and  thank you as always for your support.

Mrs. Kendrew, Mrs. Rippon and Mr. Smith.

Geography – How are mountains formed?

In Geography this half-term, we are learning about natural disasters with a particular focus on volcanoes and earthquakes.

We have been fascinated to learn about the layers of the Earth and tectonic plates.  On Thursday we investigated how mountains are formed.  The children were challenged to read an explanation of how volcanoes can form mountains and to draw a picture that they could use to describe the process.

Help at home – Can your child use a picture to explain this process to you?

Writing – using conjunctions

In writing, we have been working hard to fix squashed sentences.

On Friday, we used our understanding of main clauses and subordinate clauses to use subordinating conjunctions. We used this image to help us recall some of the most popular subordinating conjunctions:

We used subordinating conjunctions to write sentences about natural disasters (linking to our learning in Geography).  I think you will be particularly impressed with Alara’s sentences as she has used a subordinate conjunction in the middle of one sentence and a different subordinate conjunction at the start of the other sentences.

Help at home – if your child is interested in learning some alternative subordinating conjunctions, you could use this song from Grammasaurus to give them other ideas they could use in their writing https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FK2Gyto5gTQ

Next week we will begin writing our diary entry about escaping from a volcanic eruption so there will be plenty of opportunities to show off all that we have learned about coordinating and subordinating conjunctions.