Farm visit & Easter

As you all know, a mobile farm visited us on Monday. It was an amazing experience for all the children. They got to see a wide range of farm animals. Once we’d been introduced to all of the different animals, we got a chance to take a closer look. We were able to stroke them, brush them and, play fetch with Meg the sheepdog. 

This week, the children had fun completing Easter chilli challenges.

On Wednesday morning, the children were very excited when they saw some Easter treats in their baskets!
 I hope you all have a fantastic half-term and a lovely Easter. Don’t forget to email me some pictures of what you get up to!
I look forward to seeing you all again on Tuesday 19 April!

Happy Easter

Our week began with a visit from some beautiful farm animals and the children really enjoyed the opportunity to see them up close. The children particularly enjoyed stroking the animals.

Our oracy target this half term has been clarity of pronunciation. The children have been practising reading their poem using a clear voice and voice projection. On Thursday, at the Easter Service all the children did a fantastic job reading their parts of the Easter poem.

Today, during PE we did some Easter yoga. Afterwards, we made an Easter basket and a chocolate crispy cake.

We hope you all have a wonderful holiday. Take care and we look forward to seeing you all on Tuesday, 19th April.

Happy Easter!

We can’t quite believe where the last term has gone. We’ve all been so busy learning that the time seems to have flown by!

Our week began with a visit from some beautiful farm animals and the children really enjoyed the opportunity to see them up close (some were brave enough to give the animals a gentle stroke). On Monday afternoon, we took our decorated eggs to the hall and had a chance to look at some of the other entries by the older children in the school. Congratulations to all of the winners – there were some fabulous ideas and it must have been difficult to judge them.

We’ve been doing lots of Easter-inspired learning this week and the children have created some fabulous Easter egg designs using collage materials. Each day, the children have been finding named paper eggs hidden around the classroom (this gives them a chance to recognise their own name and think about the initial sound they can hear). We’ve continued to focus on the number four in our maths sessions and have been concentrating on rhyming words in our phonics. As always, there has been a lot of mark-making in the classroom (and outside, too) and some of the children are beginning to write some or all of their name using their developing skills.

It’s been a very strange end to the term as the weather has turned colder again but we hope you all have a wonderful holiday. Take care and we look forward to seeing you all on Tuesday, 19th April.

RE: Why do Christians call the day Jesus died ‘Good Friday’?

We have been learning about Holy Week and the events that led up to the crucifixion of Jesus Christ on Good Friday.

Why is it called Good Friday when a bad thing happened? James

As much as the focus may be on eating chocolate and enjoying the Bank Holiday, for many, Easter is actually all about remembering the crucifixion of Jesus. The crucifixion of Jesus happened on a Friday and is now commemorated on Good Friday.

But where did the day get its name?

But why is it called ‘good’ when it was the day someone died? Evie

What is the origin of Good Friday?

According to the Bible, on the evening before Good Friday (Maundy Thursday), Jesus told his disciples to expect his death during what’s known as the Last Supper.

Christians believe that the day of Christ’s crucifixion was good in its way, because it was the start of his resurrection (which happened on Easter Sunday) and also the day he died for our sins.

Easter is very important in the ‘Big Story’ of the Bible. Jesus showed that he was willing to forgive all people, even for putting him on the cross.
• Christians believe Jesus builds a bridge between God and humans.
• Christians believe Jesus rose from the dead, giving people hope of a new life.

At the beginning of each new RE topic, we always consider a question.

         THE BIG QUESTION     

Is forgiveness easy?

It depends on what has happened.

I think we should forgive others.

It isn’t easy because some people do bad things.

I have forgiven a person before and it was easy to do.

Today, we had an Easter themed RE morning. The children enjoyed completing their sewing and making hot cross buns – which smelt delicious!

We would like to say a huge Well Done to the children who have worked very hard this term.

Enjoy the Easter break but go easy on the chocolate! 

Living and Learning: First Aid

This week, the children have been learning about some basic first aid. We began with a question.

What is first aid?

It is when you hurt yourself.

Helping someone who can’t breathe.

Looking after a person when they are sick.

First aid is basic knowledge about how to help people who are suddenly sick (illnesses) or hurt (injuries or body damage). For example, first aid is used at accidents to help an injured person until they receive medical treatment (help by doctors, nurses or ambulances). 

We discussed some scenarios where someone may have suffered sprains, allergic reactions, cuts and bruises, burns, broken bones and asthma attacks.

The children thought about people who are trained to deliver first aid and how this can save lives.

For their activity, the class designed their own first aid leaflets. These were written for younger children and we are hoping to give a few to our Reception Class to pin up in their classroom.

It sometimes seems that there’s no end of scrapes that children can get into. But would your child know what to do if one of their friends had an accident or emergency?

Our eggcellent start to the week!

Years 3 and 4 enjoyed an eventful start to the week.

Our Monday morning involved a visit from a mobile farm! We saw and learnt about lots of different animals and even got to stroke them. Although, I think Meg the dog was the most popular!

In the afternoon we enjoyed seeing all the amazing entries from our egg decoration competition.  The teachers had a very difficult job choosing the winners and runners up for each class! There were some really creative designs so thank you to everyone who got involved.

Living and Learning: health and prevention

Our Science and Living and Learning lessons have been all about microbes, handwashing, the importance of sleep and the use of antibiotics in keeping us healthy and treating illness.

We have talked about how microbes can be harmful but also how some can be good for us. We have set up an experiment about growing mould. We are testing to see which conditions encourage the growth of mould.

Washing our hands is really important. All the children could all talk about this, with our experiences of Covid-19.

This week, the children learnt about antibiotics and how this medication can help to make our bodies feel better when we have a bacterial infection.

Antibiotics are special medicines used to treat bacterial diseases, such as meningitis, tuberculosis and pneumonia. They do not harm viruses or fungi. Some antibiotics stop the bacteria reproducing and others kill the bacteria.

Throughout their lesson, the children found out about the discovery of Penicillin and which illnesses can be treated using antibiotics.

• Understand that most common infections get better on their own through time, bed rest, hydration and healthy living
• Understand that if antibiotics are taken, it is important to finish the course
• Understand that antibiotics treat bacterial infections only
• Understand that they should not share antibiotics or other medicines that are prescribed by a doctor or healthcare professional

Here’s a quick family quiz.

Easter egg competition

It was great to see how creative the children had been when decorating the eggs. There were some amazing ideas – it made the judging very difficult! Well done.

This week’s bible story

Jesus is friends with Zacchaeus: Luke 19: 1-10

Have you ever heard the story of Burglar Bill – Bill goes out every night. Getting into houses through open windows and taking things. Until one night, Bill found a baby, and that changed his whole life …

There is a Bible story about a man who stole from other people. He took extra money when he gave them their tax bills and became very rich on all the money that he stole. Zacchaeus was a little man and that small people can’t see in crowds. Read the story of Zacchaeus to find out what happened to him.

Reflection:

Jesus loved everyone when he lived on the earth. It didn’t matter how bad people were, Jesus was always there for those who needed him. This is true for us too – no one is so bad that God doesn’t love them. And the more time we spend with God – praying, thinking about him, finding out about him, the more we want to be like Jesus; kind, helpful and good. Just like Zacchaeus, Burglar Bill changed his ways and tried to be more like Jesus by loving those around him. Even though Burglar Bill and Zacchaeus made the wrong choice, God forgave them and continued loving them.

Prayer:

Dear God,

Thank you that Jesus loved Zacchaeus even when he wasn’t making the right choices. Help us to love all of those around us.

Amen

Week beginning 28 March 2022

It’s the final week before our Easter break. Here are a range of resources linked to what is happening in class. Don’t forget to get in touch with your class teacher if you need support.

Maths

Follow this sequence of maths learning which is linked to algebra.

Lesson 1: video, worksheet, answers

Lesson 2: video, worksheet, answers

Lesson 3: video, worksheet, answers

Lesson 4: video, worksheet, answers

Lesson 5: video, worksheet, answers

Lesson 6: video, worksheet, answers

Lesson 7: video, worksheet, answers

Lesson 8: video, worksheet, answers

Lesson 9: video, worksheet, answers

Lesson 10: video, worksheet, answers

You don’t have to print the worksheet. Your child can write or draw their answers on paper. Your child’s learning will be most effective if you sit with them to pause the clip and check / praise / support your child as the clip moves on.

Practise times tables on Times Table Rockstars, too. Email the class teacher if you need your child’s login and password details.

(Suggested time: 30 minutes of Maths and 15 minutes of Rockstars daily)

Spelling

Look on the homework page to find this week’s spellings. They should choose some past spellings that they feel less confident with. Your child should complete one task each day.

• Day 1: Generate more words linked to the spelling pattern or ‘rule’. You could look out for the words in the book you’re reading at home, or any other text, like a website linked to our science topic of Living Things and their Habitat.
• Day 2: Practise the spellings using two of the ideas in our Super Spelling Strategies guide. (Set yourself and others at home a challenge of using some of the words when you’re speaking, too!)
• Day 3: Write separate sentences, each containing one of the spellings. (Don’t forget to show off really neat handwriting and make sure you sentence starts with a capital letter and ends with a full stop, exclamation mark (!) or question mark (?).
• Day 4: Repeat Task 2 or 3.
• Day 5: Get an adult at home to test you on your spellings. Practise any you spell incorrectly – you could write them out carefully until you’re sure.

(Suggested time: 15-20 minutes daily)

Reading fluency.

This is the text we’re using in school. It’s some top tips to stay safe online.

In school, we generally follow this sequence:

• Day 1: Read the text aloud with your child listening. Read it clearly and slowly, pointing to each word as you read. Have a chat about any unfamiliar words.
• Day 2: Read aloud each sentence (a full short sentence or part of a longer sentence), and have your child read it back to you. Do this ‘echo reading’ for the whole text.
• Day 3: Read the text and talk about the effect of the punctuation on how you read it – pauses for full stops and expression for exclamations (!) or questions (?). Your child reads the text aloud.
• Day 4: Read together with expression (just like you practised on Day 3).
• Day 5: Your child reads independently and fluently.

(Suggested time: 15 minutes daily)

Reading comprehension

We’ll be using this RIC text in class to practise comprehension skills. RIC stands for:

• Retrieve: finding information in a text
• Interpret: using clues in the text to unlock information
• Choice: thinking about the author’s choice of words, techniques or organisation that make the text interesting and enjoyable to read

This half term we’ll be reading a range of fiction and non-fiction texts about computing and online safety. Here’s a series of lessons based on A Career in Computer Games by Anthony Horowitz. There’s a whole series of lessons, but start at Lesson 1 and work through, doing one (or maybe even two) each day. If you’re self-isolating in your second week, try these poetry lessons on The British by Benjamin Zephaniah (Suggested time: 30 minutes daily)

Writing

In writing, be learning how to write a set of instructions for a computer game. Follow these lessons on instructional writing. There’s a whole series of lessons, but start at Lesson 1 and work through, doing one (or maybe even two) each day. (If you’re self-isolating in your second week, stick with the series of lessons you’ve already started and aim to complete the full series.)

(Suggested time: 30-40 minutes for each)

Topic

Our topic this half-term is computing.

Follow these lessons on selection in quizzes from Oak Academy. Follow the lesson sequence. It has 6 lessons so you could do three a week.

 (Suggested time: 30-40 minutes)

Science   

Last half term our topic was evolution.

These six lessons from Oak National Academy link closely to what we’ve been doing in class last half term. Start at Lesson 1 and work through, doing two or three in the week. If you’ve previously completed one of these lessons, have a go at the ones you haven’t completed yet.

If Science really motivates your child, you could also use look at these lessons all about practical Science.

(Suggested time: 30-45 minutes)

PE

Don’t forget to do some daily exercise!

Do two or three of these Five Minute Moves from Joe Wicks each day – spread them across the day as if they were playtimes, maybe!

Try working through this series of 25 lessons from the Association for Physical Education – do two or three in the week.

(Suggested time: 5 minutes daily, plus 30 minutes for the longer PE lessons)

Extra stuff…

As an extra (or as an alternative, if this helps to motivate your child)…

Geography isn’t a topic-driver this half-term, but you could brush up on your locational knowledge – something that was missed when schools closed earlier this year. You could explore some online maps and try to memorise some new countries, capitals, rivers and mountain ranges. These three lessons about Europe are worth checking out.

What about some Living and Learning? While you’re away from school, you could check out these lessons on money!