RE: Welcoming New Life
In RE lessons, the children have been learning about how different religions welcome newborn babies. Firstly, we studied the Christian methods and discussed baptisms and christenings. Following this, we looked at the Muslim celebration Aqiqah and found out that it is tradition to shave a newborn babies head.
Reading with prosody
Throughout the day, the children have many opportunities to read and be read to. As part of our daily sessions, we focus on using prosody. The children are quite accustomed to this skill now and can confidently add expression, where appropriate, to really bring their reading to life. The class have listened to lots of prosody being modeled by the adults so why not try this at home?
This week’s poem was yet another chance to showcase this important reading skill.
Help at home by listening to the poem being read by Mrs Freeman. Ask your child if they can hear some prosody being used and can they read the poem to you using their own expressive voices?
Prosody is the rhythmic and intonational aspect of speech that manifests as expressive reading. It comprises timing, phrasing and intonation, and helps to convey meaning and add ‘life’ to reading.
Human and Physical Geography at Forest School
Human and Physical Geography
In geography this week we have been learning about the difference between human and physical. The children have been identifying both physical and human features within our landscape.
Human Geography
Human features include buildings, roads, street lamps, canals, train tracks etc. Parts of the environment that have created by humans.
Physical Geography
Physical features include hillsides, mountains, coastlines, rivers etc. Parts of the environment that have occurred naturally.
Geography and Forest School
This week the children collected different items from the woods which they then used to create their own environments. This included digging rivers, planting trees and building hills!
The children then identified physical and human features of their own creations.
Some of the children also got stuck in with litter picking and clearing the area to keep it safe.
Forest School is Back!
Forest School is back and we have been learning about plants in Science
Science
In year one the children have been learning about plants. At the start of the term, each child planted their own sunflower and we have been eagerly observing them grow.
The children in class have been monitoring the sunflowers and making sure they have everything they need – light, water, oxygen.
Evergreen and deciduous trees
The children have also been learning about the difference between evergreen and deciduous trees. They can now identify specific features of an evergreen tree and a deciduous tree:
Evergreen
- Keep their leaves all year round.
- Leaves have a waxy coating.
- Leaves can often be spikey or sharp.
Deciduous
- Lose their leaves in Autumn.
- Have colourful leaves and blossom.
- Leaves are often flat and fragile.
Forest School
The children have been extremely excited to get outside for this term’s Forest School. On Friday afternoon’s, they will spend the whole afternoon outside in our own forest. Here they enjoy learning about nature, getting stuck in with outdoorsy crafts and generally getting mucky.
Reading Skill: Inference
The children were presented with some images and they had to find clues in order to answer a question. The class were asked to explain their thinking as they worked.
- We need to find clues to get some answers.
- We need to add those clues to what we already know or have read.
- There can be more than one correct answer.
As the children grow up, they will gain more knowledge and experience of the world around them (and the vocabulary to go with this) and this will help them make inferences effectively.
Here is another picture.
- What is the dad doing?
- Why is the girl standing behind him?
- Why is she dragging a kite on the floor?
- Has she said anything to him? Does he know she’s there?
- How is she feeling? What is she thinking?
- Do you think this has happened before? Why/why not?
- Why is the kite coloured bright red, but everything else is in dull colours?
A couple more examples of excellent inference skills.
Living and Learning: I know the importance of sleep.
Our living and learning statement for this week was:
I know the importance of sleep.
As well as individual class living and learning sessions, the whole school attended our ‘Tuesday Viewsday‘ collective worship to learn more together. We discussed the role of sleep in our lives and it’s importance/lack of importance both personally and collectively (the world).
Children put forward some fantastic points of view to debate both sides of the importance of sleep – here’s some of the quotes:
‘I think sleep is important because it gives our brain a chance to rest so that we can do well in school the next day.’ (JC, Year 6)
‘Sleep is important for us to switch off and not think about things for a while. If we didn’t sleep, we would all just be tired and moody.’ (FJ, Year 2)
‘I don’t think sleep is important because it wastes time. We could be doing other things that we like instead of sleeping.’ (NE, Year 5)
‘Sleep can be important if you have a job, but if you don’t have a job or something to get up for, you’re wasting time in your life that you could use to help others or find something that you enjoy.’ (JS, Year 5)
Help at home:
Discuss the importance of sleep for a healthy, happy lifestyle with your child. Does your child know what a good amount of sleep is? Explore their thoughts on what might happen if they don’t get enough sleep, or they sleep too much!
Living and Learning: We know the importance of hand washing.
This week, the children learnt about the importance of hand washing with Mrs Bald. Whether it’s after going to the toilet, before eating or when you’re preparing food, washing your hands with soap and water is one of the easiest ways to prevent the spread of germs!
First, the class identified high usage areas where germs may build up.
- door handles
- toilet flush
- pencils
- hands
- tables
- carpet
- light switches
The children put flour on their hands and then touched different surfaces to see how easily germs spread.
But how does soap really work?
When you wash your hands, the soap breaks down the outer layer of germs which means they can’t survive. The pieces of broken down germs are then surrounded in a soapy bubble-like shield. After washing your hands for at least 20 seconds, you then rinse the soap away with water. When the soap is washed down the drain, you wash the germs away with it!
The soap and pepper experiment
The children conducted an experiment to show how soap breaks
down germs.
The class filled a bowl with water (the water represents your skin). Next, black pepper (the germs) was sprinkled onto the surface of the water.The children applied soap to their fingers and submerged them in the water. The soap reacted with the water causing the pepper to repel. This demonstrated how soap affects germs.
Mrs Bald was very impressed with the knowledge and learning attitudes shown by all of the children.
Why not try this at home?https://www.wateraid.org/uk/sites/g/files/jkxoof211/files/2021-10/wateraid-soap-pepper-experiment.pdf
Help at home by using the questions below. Can your child tell you about the pepper experiment?
Points for discussion
• When should we wash our hands? How long for?
• Why is using soap so important?
• What would happen if we didn’t use soap?
We read with prosody!
Throughout the day, the children have many opportunities to read and be read to. As part of our daily sessions, we focus on using prosody. The children are quite accustomed to this skill now and can confidently add expression, where appropriate, to really bring their reading to life. The class have listened to lots of prosody being modeled by the adults so why not try this at home?
This week’s poem was yet another chance to showcase this important reading skill.
Help at home by listening to the poem being read by Mrs Freeman. Ask your child if they can hear some prosody being used and can they read the poem to you using their own expressive voices?
Prosody is the rhythmic and intonational aspect of speech that manifests as expressive reading. It comprises timing, phrasing and intonation, and helps to convey meaning and add ‘life’ to reading
Mass in Maths
This week, the children have been introduced to mass for the
first time. They started by holding different objects to compare them, using the language of “heavier” or “lighter”. Then, the class used balance scales
to check their comparisons and showed a good understanding that
the heavier object is lower on the balance scale.
Next, the children used a variety of resources (cubes, stones and sticks) to measure the mass of an object.
The class learnt that when a scale is balanced, objects have the same mass.
The mass of my stone is equal to the mass of 10 sticks. Vincent
The mass of the water bottle is equal to the mass of 9 cubes. Malcolm
Help at home
Look at the websites below with your child. Collect items from around the home, or outside, to compare mass.
RE – Why does Easter matter to Christians?
In RE lessons, we have been asking a BIG question!
“Why does Easter matter to Christians?
Easter is a very special time for Christians when they remember the last week in the life of Jesus and their most important belief—that he came alive again after his death.
Ask your child about this question. Can they tell you why Easter is such an important time of year for Christians?
To complete this learning, we created an Easter Garden. The children named all of the religious symbols in the garden and could say what each one represented.
We would like to wish all of our children and their families a very happy and healthy Easter break.
Help at home by going on a walk and look for signs of Spring. Look out for blossom, buds, new leaves appearing. Talk about how these are all signs of new life.