St Oswald's Catholic Primary SchoolOur blogs
Year 4 Blog Thursday 19th October 2023
Date: 19th Oct 2023 @ 8:37am
Welcome to the Year 4 Blog
We have had a brilliant half term in Year 4! We have worked really hard and already made good progress in our learning. Our teachers want to thank us for being such fun and enthusiastic learners and said we should all feel very proud of ourselves.
Our learning this week:
In English, we wrote 2 poems. One of our poems was based on Hamster Hamster by Joseph Coelho who is the children’s laureate. We used the structure of Hamster Hamster to write a poem about a class pet – describing it as either charming and loveable, or nasty and ferocious! We also read a poem by Ian Bland and used this as inspiration to write our own poem about a topic of our choice. We were very proud of our poems which included a chorus and rhyming words. We performed these to the class and some of us even performed them in Golden Assembly.
In Maths, we interpreted data and solved one step questions using information in a table. In addition, we presented and interpreted data used in pictograms.
In RE, we read Mark 1: 14-20. This passage tells of Jesus calling his Apostles. We discussed how Andrew, Simon, James and John might have felt when Jesus called them and talked about the meaning of the Kingdom of God.
In French, we continued with our pets topic. To help learn the vocabulary, we used our word bank from last week and listened to the ‘Les Animaux’ song again. We also learnt how to say if and how many pets we have.
In Music, we videoed our final performance of the Mambo Cup Rhythm. We learnt all the actions to the song Just like a Roman and started to learn a new song Roman Numerals.
In Art, we finished our ‘telling a story through sketching’ topic. We tried our best to include shading so that our pictures looked more ‘3D’.
In History, we learnt how the Roman Empire expanded. We also looked at the uniform worn by Roman legionaries (supplied by the Museum Loans Service) and learnt the Roman names for the different weapons and parts of the uniform. Some of us were lucky enough to try on the Roman uniform and appreciate how heavy the body army was!
As it is half term, there is no Home Practice. However, please try and read every single day as this really helps unlock your learning.
Thank you to everyone who came to Parent’s Evening this week. It was lovely to see you and we hope you enjoyed looking at your child’s work.
We hope you have a peaceful and relaxing holiday and look forward to seeing you all again on Monday 30th October 2023.
The Year 4 Team
Year 5 Blog Thursday 19th October
Date: 19th Oct 2023 @ 8:19am
Happy Half Term!
What an amazing first half term we have had in Year 5. We have done so much learning and have settled so well into Year 5.
This week we finished reading our novel Goth Girl. We wrote our own epilogue for the story to tell the reader what the characters are doing a year in the future.
We have also been looking a poetry this week. We read a poem called - Please Don't Feed the Animals.
Please do not feed the ostriches
sandwiches
or the polar bears
éclairs.
Do not offer the wombats
kumquats
or the rattle-snakes
fruit-cakes.
Remember that piranhas
are not allowed bananas
or partridges
sausages.
Never approach a stork
with things on a fork
or the bustard
with a plate of custard.
No leopard
likes anything peppered
and meerkats
dislike Kit Kats.
Remember that grapes
upset apes
and meringues
do the same for orang-utans.
Most importantly– do not feed the cheetah
your teacher.
We practised performing this poem thinking about actions and which words to emphasize. We then made a list of nouns for precision. These are specific names of things e.g. Poddle instead of dog, Black Mamba instead of snake, Siamese instead of cat, etc. We found that these made the poem interesting and funny. We then used these nouns to write our own poem following the same structure as the model. Finally, we performed our poems using actions. They were incredible!
In maths we have continued looking at different methods to add and subtract. One of the methods we have practised this week is counting on to find the difference. This was a bit tricky but we did lots of practice.
This week in our French lesson we completed the rest of our Review sheet, which included the vocabulary for sports, hobbies and the weather. The children had to write down and say which was their favourite sport, which hobby they like, which hobby they love and what the weather was like today. Year 5 have worked hard this half term recapping a lot of vocabulary and completing both review sheets. Next half term, we will be ready to have some new sessions about ‘emotions’ (after we’ve learned about French Halloween!).
In music we learnt a new rap, Fresh Prince of Bel Air. We learnt more about strong beats, clapping along to the song Crazy Glue. We made a video of our final performance of Sailor Sailor on our recorders.
Have an amazing, happy, safe half term.
You all deserve a rest you have worked so hard!
Please try to keep up with the reading and Sumdog is still available to practise spellings and times tables.
Year 6 Blog Thursday 19th October 2023
Date: 19th Oct 2023 @ 8:09am
Welcome to the Year 6 weekly blog.
On Thursday, Mr Pickles came to share his story of the highest mountain in the world, Mount Everest. He talked about his adventure to base camp 1, the flight and what it was like to be there. The pupils had lots of great questions to ask him. Thank you so much Mr Pickles!
This week’s learning in Year 6:
- In Maths, we learnt how to partition numbers to help us solve multiplication questions quicker. This helped to double any number, including numbers with thousandths, quickly.
- In English, we had a visit from Dawn Robertson, an English specialist, who taught the poetry to the class. The poem was ‘The Fight of the Year’ by Roger McGough, which inspired us to create our own ‘versus’ poem, with some being read out at Golden Assembly.
- In Art, we completed out topic, ‘2D drawing to 3D making’ by using recycled cardboard to attach to our dogs so they could stand. We then invited a few classes to see our gallery and wrote up an evaluation of what they thought. You can see the final pictures here.
- In PE, we concluded our invasion games topic of Netball with a mini intra competition within the class. We focused on the main strategies of: keeping in space, feinting and communication.
- In Geography, we learnt about what it was like to live in the Himalayas before writing down questions to ask Mr Pickles, a mountaineer expert.
- In Music, we sang the song Happy and discussed the structure (the way the different sections of music are organised). We learnt about music with 2 beats in a bar, then practised listening to music and clapping beat 1 and clicking beat 2. We videoed our final performance of Sunny Sounds on our recorders, reading notation with no note names written on.
- In French, we completed the sessions about The Time in French. We created our own help sheet with key vocabulary and phrases to use when telling the time in French. This included heures = hours, midi = noon, minuit = midnight, quart = quarter, moins = less (quarter to), demie = half, soir = evening, apres-midi = afternoon, matin = morning. The children were then able to complete a range of listening, reading and writing activities to show they have understood the vocabulary from this topic. Next half term, we will be ready to have some new sessions about our daily routine (after we’ve learned about French Halloween!) as well as starting our Cultural Understanding project where the children will be creating a presentation about French Culture. We will be deciding our groups and chosen topics in the first session.
Home Practice
As it is half term this week, I have just three activities for you to practice.
Reading – Use your Home Reading to read as much as you can over the holidays.
Maths challenges:
- Sumdog (Times Tables A1 wk 7)
- Each child has their own tables target which they should know. The Sumdog challenge may relate to their target but this week we have focused on x3, x6, x9 which will be great practice for the future.
This week there are 150 questions to answer.
Overnight Homework
- The reading task, which is stuck in your book.
HAVE A SUPER HALF TERM EVERYONE!
Year 1 Blog - Thursday 19th October
Date: 18th Oct 2023 @ 3:43pm
Welcome to your last blog of this half term.
English
This week we have been learning through the story of Winnie the Witch. We learnt about her house, her family and her pet cat, Wilbur. Our ingredients for our magic potions were very imaginative. We also learnt about rhyming words and we drew a story map. We worked together in small groups to design a new house for Winnie.
As part of our poetry day celebrations we learnt a poem called The Grass House by Shirley Hughes. We devised all the actions ourselves and performed it as a class in Golden Assembly. Ask your child if they could perform it for you.
Phonics
Some of us have been learning about words such as string, spring and splat where we have to say each sound.
Some of us have learnt au in launch and a_e in cake.
We have been learning to write tricky words.
Click here for a spooky tricky word song.
Maths
We have been using practical equipment to learn about subtraction. The whole is 12, we subtract 5, how many are left? 7 and 5 are the parts and 12 is the whole. We recorded this in a number sentence.
Please practise counting in 1s, 2s, 5s and 10s.
We have also been learning about the number bonds which make 10.
Sing the number bond song. Click here.
Science
This week, we learnt how to keep our bodies healthy. We watched a cool video about how washing our hands keeps us clean and free from germs. We then did a 'germs' experiement to show that germs do not like clean hands, they run away from them! We also did a Joe Wicks video to raise our heart rates.
R.E.
We continued to learn about belonging and learnt that we all belong to our school church. We started to learn about a baptism and who is present. We labelled a picture of a baptism and talked about what happens.
Art
On Monday, we painted a physical version of our digital sunflower (from Computing last week). We hung these around the classroom as they were great!
Then on Thursday, we sketched different objects from around the classroom. We started by sketched toy animals and then we chose our own object to sketch.
French
We recapped the numbers 1-10 again. We then counted our Pirate friends’ treasure and matched some counting cards with their coins or parrots to the correct digit. We could all do this in French with each other! We have worked really hard this half term, recapping and learning French Greetings and numbers 1-10. Next half term, we will be ready to have some new sessions about classroom labels, family, fruits, colours and farm animals (after we’ve learned about French Halloween!).
Music
We did some warm up games, clapping rhythms of our favourite foods. We sang Hey You, learning all the actions and choosing which instruments to play. We played the boom whackers to Incy Wincy spider.
Forest School
This week we used a new piece of equipment,our Kelly Kettle. We talked about being safe around the fire. We went into the nature area to collect sticks and twigs to fuel our fire. We made sure the twigs were dry and not too big. The water didn't take long to get warm and we all enjoyed some delicious hot chocolate.
In our other session we had a go at building shelters. We used ropes, traps, tent pegs, mats and clasps. We showed amazing teamwork and resilience as well as great communication.
Home Practice (Sumdog)
Phonics - Split a_e words OR ee words OR tricky words
Maths - Problem questions
Counting - Practise counting in 1s, 2s, 5s and 10s, forwards and backwards from different numbers,
Thank you to everyone who came to Parents' Evening. We enjoyed talking to you about your child. Thanks also for all your brilliant support.
Have a lovely half term and we'll see you on Monday 30th October.
Year 6 Blog Friday 13th October 2023
Date: 13th Oct 2023 @ 3:57pm
Welcome to the Year 6 weekly blog.
This Friday, Year 6 had a taster day at All Hallows’. We were treated to a scavenger hunt around the school, science lesson with bunsen burners and a PE lesson in the huge PE hall. Everyone enjoyed the high school with one of the main highlights being the canteen food. You can see our pictures of the day here.
This week’s learning in Year 6:
- In Maths, we practised different addition and subtraction strategies, and learnt how to efficiently use the written method to add and subtract large numbers.
- In English, we have been recapping our learning of how to use speech marks in stories. We used them to create a dialogue between Karl and Dr. Kalmenius, that moved the story forward and was blended with action.
- In Art, we collaged our 2D drawings and stuck them to corrugated card. We are now ready to attach them to cardboard to transform them into 3D models. The pictures of our artwork so far are here.
- In PE, due to the weather, we worked on using a range of tactics to beat an opponent in various games in the hall.
- In PSHE, we learnt about mental health for World Mental Health Day (Tuesday). We explored the difference between physical and mental wellbeing and the three ways we can help someone to improve their mental health: to move, to sleep and to eat well.
- In Geography, we learnt what life is like on a mountain. We researched three key areas: climate, mountain life and avalanches. One amazing fact we found was that one tenth of the world’s population live on mountains.
Home Practice
Please complete the following tasks by next Wednesday:
Reading – Use your Home Reading to read every night for 30 minutes. You also have a Reading Journal/Diary that must be used for the title of the book and any reading challenge chosen.
- You may change your book any day between Monday and Wednesday
Spellings (-ant -ent words)
- Sumdog (Spellings A1 wk 6)
- hesitant, instrument, distant, relevant, inhabitant, permanent, arrogant, comment, tolerant, important, obedient, innocent, independent, frequent, vacant.
Maths challenges:
- Counting:
- This week we have been counting in steps of 8, 80 and 800 Try to do the same out loud or with paper.
- Draw a line with some marks on it like I do in class. You could write the numbers as you count up or down, then double check it to make sure you have said the correct numbers.
- g. Start with different numbers and count up 10 times then back again in 8s:
5, 13, 21, 29, 37, 45, 53, 61, etc
and in 80s:
13, 93, 173, 253, 333, 413, etc
Start at a different number and count up 10 numbers and down again but this time in 800s:
456, 1256, 2056, 2856, 3656, 4456 etc
- Sumdog (Times Tables A1 wk 6)
- Each child has their own tables target which they should know. The Sumdog challenge may relate to their target but this week we have focused on x3, x4 and x6, which will be great practice for the future.
- (Every Tuesday there is a tables test).
- Sumdog (Sumdog Contest)
- From the 13th October to the 19th, Sumdog are hosting a contest. We have entered and so have Year 7 from All Hallows. Therefore, we are competing against Year 7 to see who will become top dog.
- Attempt to complete 100 questions at least.
Year 3 Friday 13th October 2023
Date: 13th Oct 2023 @ 12:47pm
Welcome to your Friday Blog
We have had a great week in Year 3 this week. It was lovely chatting to you all about your children's learning at parents evening and I look forward to speaking to the reast of you next week. THe children are very excited to show off their learning.
This week we we have been reading deeper into the Ice Palace and learning how to add description and suspense into our writing. We have also been working hard on our presentation and sentence structure.
In Maths we have been learning about the perimeter of 2D shapes and started our topic on statistics. We have inroduced bar charts and compared these to the different charts we have met already.
In RE we have started our new topic on Promises which will look at Baptism. The children came up with some lovely contributions about how they keep promises and why their actions are important.
We are coming to the end of our Art topic exploring charcoal. This week we used the pictures from our novel as inspiration, looking again at light and dark when creating a scene. Check out our gallery.
Home Practice
Keep up with the fantastic home reading. Here is a link to some Year 3 recommended reads if you want to extend your home libraries. You can also find our reading VIPERS in our galleries that will help you with your questioning when listening to your child read.
On Sumdog we have entered the class into the lancashire contest. This will run all week and cover a range of topics. We have also set some times tables practice on the x2, x5 and x10. With these focus on speed as well as accuracy.
Here are your home spellings for this week
Have a lovely weekend
The Year 3 team
Year 2 Blog Friday 13th October
Date: 12th Oct 2023 @ 6:22pm
Year 2 have had a great week of learning.
Little reminder this week:
- Please sign up for parents evening, the sheets are at the office to secure your time slot.
In Maths, we have started subtraction and addition. We have used part whole models for adding a single digit to a two digit number. The children have also learnt to use a bar model to show addition and subtraction. In English the children have read ‘The bear and the piano’. We have written descriptions about the forest and re-told the story using great ideas. In English we have also looked at creating our own poem for national poem day. In Art this week we have used resist wax crayons and special water-colours to create autumn leaves. In Geography we have learnt more about the 4 seasons in the UK and looked at how trees will change in each season. In PSHE we have started our new topic on ‘Bullying’. We have learnt what bullying means and the difference between not being kind and bullying.
Forest School
In our first session we practised tying a simple overhand knot. We used strawberry laces. We tied them to a paper straw and then ate the lace!
In the nature area we found interesting natural objects and tied these to a stick using the knot we had practised. Our own Autumn mobile was created!
Great perseverance was shown.
For our second session we made our own choices. On one day we went into the nature area and explored, made dens, found mini beasts and played games. On the other day we went around the log circle for our child- initiated learning.
Home Practice
Reading
In Year 2, children should read for at least 15 minutes every night and talk about the book. This will help with understanding the text and learning new words.
You could look in a thesaurus and see what other words have the same meaning as the one you have found.
Please date, sign and leave a small comment when you have read with your child and make it clear that you have finished a book, then we know we can change it. For Example - 14.09.22 Max’s Box. Read to page 6, really enjoying the book or good sounding out of tricky words or struggled with the word – because/finished the book. MG.
Reading books are changed every MONDAY. You will receive 2-4 books depending on their length, they should last the week, if you read a little each night. However, if you need to change a book at any other time, we will change it as needed.
Spellings
Please practise these spellings for your quiz on Wednesday (18.10.23). A sheet will go home every Wednesday with the spelling list on. This is for home practise only and can be kept with you.
Here are the spellings for this week:
put door
push floor
pull poor
full find
our kind
Maths
At home, can you count in 2s up to 30 forwards and backwards?
Try and challenge yourself to start at 3 and count in twos.
Sumdog
You will have a addition challenge and a spellings challenge to be completed by next week.
Log in at www.sumdog.com
Our PE day is going to be FRIDAY.
Our BOOK change will be MONDAY.
You will get SPELLINGS on WEDNESDAYS and a quiz will be the following WEDNESDAY.
SumDog challenges will be set every FRIDAY.
Year 5 Blog Friday 13th October 2023
Date: 12th Oct 2023 @ 5:49pm
Happy Friday and welcome to your Friday Blog.
We have had a brilliant week in Year 5.
In English we finished writing our letter as Maltravers from Goth Girl. Our aim was to persuade a character to come to our party. We then spent some time editing and thinking about how well we met our objective. Everybody did such a great job that we are going to go and read them to Year 6 next week. We also learnt what a pronoun is. A pronoun is word used to replace a noun, usually to avoid repetition e.g., he, she, it, they, yours, theirs. Next week we are going to be writing our own epilogue for Goth Girl. An epilogue tells the reader what the main characters are doing in the future e.g., one year later. See if any of your books at home have an epilogue.
In maths we have been using different strategies to add and subtract mentally. When we see a question we ask ourselves:
Do I know the answer?
Can I work it out in my head?
Do I need a jotting?
Do I need to use a written method?
We practised using partitioning on a number line to add and subtract numbers up to thousands and numbers with decimal places. Here is an example of the partitioning strategy.
Another strategy we practised is called bridging. This is where you add or subtract to get to the next multiple of 10, 100 or 1,000 and then add or subtract the rest. Here is an example.
In geography we did some atlas work where we were using the contents page and the index to find out various things about the UK. We looked at the countries which make up the UK, their capital cities, where they are in relation to each other, which countries they border, etc.
In PSHE we celebrated World Mental Heath Day. We looked at the meaning of wellbeing. We defined it as: Looking after and feeling good in your body and mind. We then thought about ways we can look after our physical and mental wellbeing and the main things we came up with were:
Move - get moving every day
Sleep - get plenty of rest and sleep
Eat - eat a balanced diet and drink plenty of water
In PE we used all of the throwing and catching skills we have been practising to play some small games of netball. The focus was on passing the ball around and getting into space so that our opponent couldn't get it and to have the best chance at scoring. See us in action here.
Home Practice
Reading
Read out loud every day for 20 minutes.
Have a look at your school book and any of your books at home, do any of them have an epilogue at the end? If you find any, bring them in to show the class.
Counting
Count out loud in 0.01 (hundredths):
From 7.67 to 7.87 7.67 7.68 7.69 7.7 7.71 ...
From 120.09 to 120.29 120.09 120.1 120.11 120.12 120.13 ...
From 8.15 to 7.95 8.15 8.14 8.13 8.12 8.11 ...
Times Tables
Please practise your own individual target. Some of you have been given the target to find one quarter on a number. Please relate this your 4 times tables.
Spelling
Here are your spellings this week. They are plurals. You need to know the rules for changing singular words ending in a -y into plurals.
party - parties
worry - worries
potato - potatoes
baby - babies
try - tries
city - cities
library - libraries
cemetery - cemeteries
community - communities
dictionary - dictionaries
Sumdog
Times Tables Challenge
Spelling Challenge
Lancashire Competition
Have a happy weekend!
Year 4 Blog Friday 13th October 2023
Date: 12th Oct 2023 @ 1:22pm
Welcome to your Friday blog.
This week in English, we read the part of the novel where Kensuke meets Michael for the first time, and Kensuke shows his anger and frustration at Michael for lighting a fire. After reading this extract, we planned and wrote a diary account as if we were Kensuke. We attempted to include lots of thoughts, feelings and emotions in our writing rather than just retelling the story. In addition, we also wrote a poem this week which we performed in class – we had great fun writing this!
In Maths, we drew bar charts. We needed to use a scale which was appropriate to the numbers involved as well as accurately draw the bars on the chart. In addition, we interpreted data and solved one-step questions using information in a bar chart.
In PSHE, we recapped the things we have discussed so far to help build our self-esteem, such as: what we are good at, what our friends think we are good at, our achievements and our strengths. We then discussed how it feels if we make a mistake or do something difficult. To help overcome these challenges, we decided which skills we want to develop and explained why.
In Science, we wrote a definition of a habitat and shared examples of different habitats already known to us. We then recapped how animals can only survive in certain habitats.
In French, we started the topic Pets. We revised the French words for some common pets and played some memory games to match the pairs using French vocabulary.
In RE, we started our new topic ‘Called’. We considered our feelings when we are chosen to do something as well as recalling times we have been chosen.
In Geography, we defined a river and discussed its features. In addition, we also made a list of both examples and non-examples of a river.
In Computing, we explored Keynote. We discovered what it could be used for and investigated adding slides, backgrounds and text to our presentations.
Home Practice
Reading
Please read for 20 minutes each evening to an adult at home. Make sure you discuss the story and the characters. Find the meaning of any new words too. Reading every night will help you read more fluently and with understanding.
Counting
This week, please practise counting in 50’s and 25’s.
For example, start at 0 and count up to 750 and back again
0 50 100 150 etc 750 725 700 etc
For example, start at 0 and down up to 425 and back again
0 25 50 75 etc 425 400 375 etc
Times tables
Please practise your individual tables target for your test next week on. Ask someone at home to test you on your tables – can you recall them quickly and accurately?
Remember you can also practise your tables playing Hit the Button and timestables.co.uk
It is crucial that you learn all of your table facts as this will help you with many aspects of maths.
Spellings
Next week’s spellings all have the k sound spelt ch.
ache anchor Christmas school choir
echo scheme chorus chemist chemistry
chemical chaos character chameleon chasm
Sumdog challenges
You have been set 3 challenges on Sumdog:
- A spelling challenge based on the spellings above
- A times tables challenge based on the 2, 5 and 10 times tables
- A challenge based on interpreting and solving questions using bar charts, pictograms and tables
Please make sure you log on and have a go! Little and often is the key to success!
Thank you to everyone who came along to Parent’s Evening this week. It was lovely to see you and we hope you enjoyed looking at your child’s work.
Have a great weekend
The Year 4 Team
Reception Blog - Friday 13th October 2023
Date: 12th Oct 2023 @ 8:46am
This week in Reception, we started our week learning all about the primary colours. We looked at the three primary colours, red, yellow and blue and learnt a song about them. During our choosing time we explored mixing colours with paint and food colouring to see what they made.
Our story this week has been Jack and the Beanstalk. We have looked at the characters in the story, what new treasure the Giant might have and what we would buy if we had all those golden eggs like Jack. We have also been exploring our outdoor area to look for clues as we had had a visitor from the story.
In maths, we have been looking at the numbers 6 and 7. We have also been recognising numicon and making numbers with them.
In Phonics this week, we have been recapping the sounds we have learnt so far; s, a, t, p, i ,n, m, d, g. We have been recognising them in games, blending them in words and looking at them in a sentence too.
We have continued to learn about our senses this week, using our sense of taste. We tasted different foods that we could not see and talked about what they tasted like.
On fab Friday, we had Forest School with Mrs Corbett. We created a home for an animal. We discussed what a home needs; to provide shelter from the weather, warmth, protection from predators, space, food and water. We had our own soft toy to make a home for. We used natural materials to make our animal home and worked in small groups and had some brilliant discussions.
Then in the afternoon we continued with our RE and the creation story. We each made our own pictures of what God created.
Another great week Reception!
Please note that we have the final parents evening session on Tuesday 17th October. If you have not booked an appointment, just go to the school office.
Year 1 Blog - Friday 13th October 2023
Date: 10th Oct 2023 @ 5:43pm
Welcome to your Friday blog.
English
We have been learning through the stories of Percy The Park Keeper. We built new houses for the animals out of Lego and described them. We wrote about how Percy helps the animals in his park. There are many stories about Percy and we had a good look at all of them. We also wrote descriptions about what kind of person Percy is.
Phonics
We have all been revising all our Phase 3 sounds.
Some of us have been learning about words that have separate sounds, such as plants and frost.
Some of us have been learning about ph as in elephant and ew as in screw.
Maths
We have been using part whole models to solve addition and subtraction number sentences. We used our maths manipulatives (such as cubes and counters) in the part whole models and then wrote the corresponding number next to them.
We also started to learn about fact families and how the same three numbers can be swapped around to form another number sentence.
P.E.
As it was raining, we went inside and learnt how to play benchball. Everyone used their listening ears brilliantly and joined in with the throwing and catching.
R.E.
We started our new RE topic about belonging. We wrote sentences about what it means to belong to a group and then drew pictures of how Jesus helped others to belong by showing them love.
Art
We focused on the spiral shape within shells this week. We sketched a picture of a shell from the board and then used a real shell to see the difference. It was great to see such amazing focusing!
Computing
We made our own sunflower digital art using on dots. We used the paintbrush tool for the dots instead of simply using the fill tool.
Geography
We learnt about ordnance survey symbols and how they are important on maps. We found out that maps need pictures because words would take up too much space! We drew our own maps on big sheets and stuck on some symbols with glue.
Science
We conducted our own investigation to answer the question: do people with bigger feet have bigger hands? We found out that sometimes they do, but not all of the time, as one of us had the biggest feet and someone else had the biggest hands.
Forest School
In our first session we practised tying a simple overhand knot. We used strawberry laces. We tied them to a paper straw and then ate the lace!
In the nature area we found interesting natural objects and tied these to a stick using the knot we had practised. Our own Autumn mobile was created!
Great perseverance was shown.
For our second session we made our own choices. On one day we went into the nature area and explored, made dens, found mini beasts and played games. On the other day we went around the log circle for our child- initiated learning.
Parents' Evening
It was lovely to speak to you if you had an appointment on Thursday this week
We are looking forward to our appointments next Tuesday.
Home Practice (Sumdog)
Phonics - ow words OR wh words OR th words
Maths - subtraction
Counting - Practise counting in 1s, 2s, 5s and 10s, forwards and backwards from different numbers,
Year 2 Blog Friday 6th October 2023
Date: 6th Oct 2023 @ 3:38pm
Year 2 have had a brilliant week of learning. Thank you so much to everyone who has brought something in for the harvest collection – our box is overflowing!
Few reminders this week
– Please send wellies in for forest school, it is getting very wet and muddy.
- Please sign up for parents evening, the sheets are at the office to secure your time slot.
In Maths, we have started our topic of measuring. We have looked at length and mass using rulers and balance scales. We have continued our novel ‘Paddington’ by Michael Bond. The children have retold the story of Paddington and wrote a set of instructions for making a marmalade sandwich. The children have also been writing in past and present tense. In RE this week the children have written lovely psalms about God’s Love. In Computing we learnt about the different rules for using I.T. In Art this week we have used metallic wax crayons and water colours to create autumn leaves.
Forest School
In our first session we made roll up pizzas. We talked about how to be safe around the fire. In the nature area we made our own pizzas using a wrap, tomato sauce, ham, garlic, onions, basil and cheese. We rolled our pizza up and wrapped it in foil. The first groups pizzas got a bit well done as they were cooked on the grill. We cooked all the other pizzas in the Dutch oven so that we could move the pizzas away from the direct flames.
The pizzas were delicious! We also had plenty of time for child-initiated learning in the nature area.
In our second session some of us were outside making dens, climbing trees, cooking with mud and finding all kinds of creatures. Our sessions on Thursday were in the lodge where great imagination and creativity were shown.
Home Practice
Reading
In Year 2, children should read for at least 15 minutes every night and talk about the book. This will help with understanding the text and learning new words.
You could look in a thesaurus and see what other words have the same meaning as the one you have found.
Please date, sign and leave a small comment when you have read with your child and make it clear that you have finished a book, then we know we can change it. For Example - 14.09.22 Max’s Box. Read to page 6, really enjoying the book or good sounding out of tricky words or struggled with the word – because/finished the book. MG.
Reading books are changed every MONDAY. You will receive 2-4 books depending on their length, they should last the week, if you read a little each night. However, if you need to change a book at any other time, we will change it as needed.
Spellings
Please practise these spellings for your quiz on Wednesday (11.10.23). A sheet will go home every Wednesday with the spelling list on. This is for home practise only and can be kept with you.
Here are the spellings for this week:
one love
once where
ask friend
come school
some house
Maths
At home, can you count to 100 from 0 forwards and backwards?
Can you have a go at counting in 10s to 100? Try and challenge yourself to go backwards in tens too.
Sumdog
You will have a compare/order measurements challenge and a spellings challenge to be completed by next week.
Log in at www.sumdog.com
Our PE day is FRIDAY.
Our BOOK change is MONDAY.
You will get SPELLINGS on WEDNESDAYS and a quiz will be the following WEDNESDAY.
SumDog challenges will be set every FRIDAY.
Have a lovely weekend
Year 6 Blog Friday 6th October 2023
Date: 6th Oct 2023 @ 3:13pm
Welcome to the Year 6 weekly blog.
This Friday, Year 6 led the Harvest Festival Mass – thank you to everyone for bringing in items for the Penwortham foodbank. The Year 6’s did a fantastic job with their speaking parts and their amazing dancing. You can see the pictures here.
This week’s learning in Year 6:
- In Maths, we have learnt how to use the partitioning, bridging and copensation strategies for both addition and subtraction. Next week, we will learn a few more before deciding which strategies are most appropriate for different questions.
- In English, our novel, ‘Clockwork’ inspired us to write an internal monologue of grumpy Karl. We worked on improving our punctuation to help create small, medium and long sentences.
- In Art, we continued our topic of ‘2D drawing to 3D making’, by enlarging our silhouette dogs onto A2 paper using a grid method. Next week, we will be collaging them to add texture.
- In PE, we continued our dance topic of ‘heroes’ by using different levels, directions, positions and contact to create a paired routine. You can see the gallery here.
- In RE, we read the story of the 'Prodigal Son’, and studied artwork from Rembrandt, Murillo and Guercino on how they interpreted the story.
- In French, we reviewed how to say where we live, what our favourite subjects in school are, what our favourite sports are and which hobbies we love. The children used their help sheets to say their responses to each other.
Home Practice
Please complete the following tasks by next Wednesday:
Reading – Use your Home Reading to read every night for 30 minutes. You also have a Reading Journal/Diary that must be used for the title of the book and any reading challenge chosen.
- You may change your book any day between Monday and Wednesday
Spellings (Homophones)
- Sumdog (Spellings A1 wk 5)
- whether, weather, groan, grown, advice, advise, practise, practice, rain, reign, wail, whale, prey, pray, aloud, allowed.
Maths challenges:
- Counting:
- This week we have been counting in decimal steps of 0.1, 0.2 and 0.25 Try to do the same out loud or with paper.
- Draw a line with some marks on it like I do in class. You could write the numbers as you count up or down, then double check it to make sure you have said the correct numbers.
- g. Start with different numbers and count up 10 numbers then back again in 0.1:
5, 5.1, 5.2, 5.3, 5.4, 5.5, etc
and in 0.2:
6.5, 6.7, 6.9, 7.1, 7.3, 7.5, 7.7, etc
Start at a number with two decimal places like 8.12 and count up 10 numbers and down again:
8.12, 8.32, 8.52, 8.72, 8.92, 9.12, etc
Now try to count in 0.25 from 7 and 23 and 54:
7, 7.25, 7.50, 7.75, 8, 8.25, etc
- Sumdog (Times Tables A1 wk 5)
- Each child has their own tables target which they should know. The Sumdog challenge may relate to their target but this week we have focused on 4s and 8s, which will be great practice for the future.
- (Every Tuesday there is a tables test).
- Sumdog (Add / Subtract A1 wk 5)
- This challenge should be quite simple but the main aim is to answer these questions mentally quickly, which will aid us in our learning next week.
Reception Blog - Friday 6th October 2023
Date: 6th Oct 2023 @ 12:58pm
This week in Reception, we started our week doing Art. This week we have focussed on still art. We have to draw and colour a display that was in class. All of our work has been hung up in our classroom for you to see on Parents Evening.
Our story this week has been The Three Billy Goats Gruff. We have looked at the characters and setting. Then we drew new animals that could cross the bridge. When we have been outside choosing, the children then had a challenge to build their own bridges using our construction cupboard. We had lots of fantastic sturdy bridges and the children loved testing them out, to see if the bridges were strong enough to hold people.
In maths, we have been looking at the numbers one to five, making them in different ways and recognising them. However this week we have discussed taking amounts away.
In Phonics this week, we have learnt three new sounds; m, d and g. We have sent some words in your child's bag to have a go at blending to read. Please use the video sent via seesaw last week an an example for blending to read.
We have continued to learn about our senses this week, using our sense of touch. For this, an item was in a bag and we had to touch it without looking, saying what we could feel. We got alot of brilliant vocabulary from this; spikey, hard, wet, soft being a few.
This week in our French lesson we practised saying bonjour and au revoir to each other. We did this with our favourite game, the pirates, with the song ‘Deux Petite Oiseaux’ and with Pierre the teddy. We then learned how to say how we are feeling… ‘ҫa va bien’ for I am well, ‘comme ci, comme ҫa’ for I am ok and ‘ҫa va mal’ for I am not well.
On fab Friday, we had yoga with Hannah or Forest School with Mrs Corbett. In Forest School we were in the lodge doing stick wrapping and in yoga, we were climbing a rainbow and continuing with our breathing exercises. We talked about how people are different in PSHE, from our skin, hair colour and even the clothes we wear.
Then in the afternoon we looked at the Harvest Fesitval and what we do it for. We then went to Church to celebrate the Harvest Festival with the whole school.
Another great week Reception!
Please note that we have parents evening coming up next week and the following week, if you have not booked an appointment, just go to the school office.
Year 4 Blog Friday 6th October 2023
Date: 6th Oct 2023 @ 8:53am
Welcome to your Friday blog.
Another brilliant week of learning in Year 4.
In English, we drew and labelled the island Michael found himself on. We used description from the text and tried to use some of the same vocabulary to help us describe the island in detail. In addition, we looked at the features of a diary in preparation for planning and writing our own diary account.
In Maths, we measured and drew lengths as properties of 2D shapes. We practised measuring lines and sides of shapes, and then compared their lengths including numbers to one decimal place. We did a brilliant job and were really proud of our achievements. Later in the week, we calculated the perimeter of a rectilinear shape including finding the length of missing sides. Our learning was fantastic and we showed an excellent understanding. However, we needed to ensure we added the numbers given accurately!
In RE, we finished our topic about people / families with a beautiful class collective worship led by 4 of the children. We wrote thoughtful responses about what it means to us to be part of God’s family.
In History, we became archaeologists this week! We looked at various Roman artefacts and considered what we thought they were, what they were made of and what it told us about the Romans.
In Science, we reviewed our learning so far. Then, we introduced a new way to group animals – according to whether they are a vertebrate or an invertebrate (vertebrates have a spine, invertebrates do not).To show our understanding, we sorted some animals according to which group they belonged to and explained the difference.
In French, we reviewed how to say how many siblings we have, as well as say the date and our birthdays.
In PE this week, we focussed on chest passes and teamwork skills. We took turns to pass and receive the ball and put these skills into a game of netball.
In PSHE, we learnt to recognise and appreciate our differences. We made a tally of the things we had in common with others in the class and highlighted any differences. It became clear that even though we have a lot of things in common with our friends, we are also all individuals and unique.
In Art, we continued with our topic of telling a story through sketching.
On Friday afternoon we went to church for the Harvest Festival. It was a lovely celebration and reminded us that crops have been gathered from the field. It also enabled us to reflect and show gratitude for the food we enjoy every day. Many thanks for all your generous contributions. These will be taken to a local foodbank.
Home Practice
Reading
Please read for 20 minutes each evening to an adult at home. Make sure you discuss the story and the characters. Find the meaning of any new words too. Reading every night will help you read more fluently and with understanding.
Counting
This week, please practise counting in 5’s
For example, start at 0 and count up to 60 and back again
0 5 10 15 etc 60 55 50 etc
Notice that the unit is always 5 or 0
For example, start at 8 and count upto 83 and back again
8 13 18 etc 83 78 73 etc
Notice that the unit is always 8 or 3
Times tables
Please practise your individual tables target for your test next week on Wednesday. Ask someone at home to test you on your tables – can you recall them quickly and accurately?
Remember you can also practise your tables playing Hit the Button and timestables.co.uk
It is crucial that you learn all of your table facts as this will help you with many aspects of maths.
Spellings
Your spellings this week are from the Year 3 / 4 spelling list. You will be tested on them next Wednesday. Please practise them every evening.
appear continue grammar material possible
suppose breadth different group medicine
accident century February pressure surprise
Sumdog challenges
You have been set 3 challenges on Sumdog:
- A spelling challenge based on the spellings above
- A times tables challenge based on the 2, 5 and 10 times tables
- A maths challenge calculating the perimeter of rectilinear shapes
Please make sure you log on and have a go! Little and often is the key to success!
Have a great weekend
The Year 4 Team
Year 3 Friday 6th October 2023
Date: 6th Oct 2023 @ 8:07am
Welcome to your Harvest Blog!
We have had a great week of new learning in Year 3 this week and had a lovely harvest celebration in church on Friday.
In English we started our new novel, The Ice Palace by Robert Swindells. It is an enchanting tale of a boy called Ivan and an evil being called Starjik. We have looked at descrpition this week and using lots of different verbs to add feeling to our writing.
On Thursday we celebreated National poetry day looking at the poetry of Michael Rosen and his poem On The Move Again. The theme of this years celebration was Refuge. We wrote some lovely poems on welcoming refugees and listened to stories and poems on displaced people.
In Maths we have been looking at shape and measurement, learning all about right angles, metres, centimetres and milimetres. We also have been partitioning measurements eg. 94mm = 9cm 4mm, 152cm = 1m 52cm. We have set a challenge looking at length, weight and volume. Have a go and try your best.
In RE we finished our Homes topic and created some lovely posters on a recipe for a happy family. Have a look in our galleries.
In Science we learned all about the major food groups and what makes up a healthy diet. We looked at the Eatwell plate and talked about what makes up our favourite meals.
This week in our French lesson we reviewed the greetings we have learned so far. This included bonjour, salut, bonsoir, monsieur, mademoiselle, madame, au revoir and à bientôt. We listened to the ‘comment tu t’appelles?’ song from Basho & Friends and then practised a conversation with our partners to ask and say their name. We then learned how to ask and say how we are feeling… Ça va trés bien / Ça va bien / Ça va moyen / Ça va mal.
Home Practice
We have been very impressed with all the book changing that has been happening this term. We have seen lots of progress in everyone's reading. Keep it up!
On Sumdog this week we have set 3 challenges. Do what you can with these. If you finish or find them too tricky, you can access Sumdog Training which will set questions to practice weaker skills.
Your spellings this week are on the linked air/are/ear sounds. Your spelling challenges include unknown and tricky words to encourage your children to apply strategies we have taught in school. They also include your home spellings as it is also important your children learn to memorise some words to increase their spelling fluency.
We have introduced a new song this week to help learn your 4 times tables. Have a sing along at home to practice counting in 4s.
Have a lovely weekend
The Year 3 Team
Year 1 Blog - Friday 6th October 2023
Date: 5th Oct 2023 @ 5:09pm
Welcome to your first Friday blog of October.
English
We continued our learning through the story of Dogger. We read to the end of the story and were relieved it had a happy ending. We wrote instructions about how to look after our toys, we wrote shopping lists and set up our own toy stall. We also wrote sentences about our favourite part of the story and wrote in role as Dave saying thanks to Bella for rescuing Dogger. This story really helped us to think about how we treat each other and our belongings.
Phonics
Some of us have been learning words in Phase 4 such as slap and swim - we need to say each sound individually before blending them together.
Some of us have been learning wh in whizz, ph in phonics and ew in chew.
Maths
We have been learning about addition. We have been using part whole models to support our learning. Looking at the above model, one part is 5, the whole is 12, the other part is 7.
In our counting we have practised counting in 1s, 2s, 5s and 10s.
We have also been learning all the number bonds which make 10, 0+10, 1+9, 2+8 and so on. We investigated the patterns in these number bonds and sang some songs which help us to remember them.
Friends of 10 song. Click here.
R.E.
We finished our families topic by writing our own prayers to God and Jesus. We also thought about the people in our families that are special to us. We drew pictures of them and labelled them.
Science
We had so much fun in science this week! We used our sense of smell to guess what was in the cups. We pulled some funny faces when we smelt the cup with vinegar in!
P.S.H.E.
We learnt about the word 'privacy' in our online safety lesson this week and how it is not always safe to share our private information. We talked about being safe on the internet and what to do if we are unsure how to act online.
Computing
We used Paintz.app to create our own Kandinsky circles. We learnt how to use the shape tool to form the circles and then we filled them in.
Have a go at making a picture on Paintz here.
Geography
We learnt a new word this week - route. We talked about how we all take different routes to school, some of us live far away and some live close to school. We also found that a car is the most popular form of transport when getting to school. We then drew our own map routes in our books.
P.E.
We put our hopping and jumping skills into practise and played hopscotch on the playground. We also practised running fast and underarm throwing.
Music
We practised the Harvest songs ready for Church. We love joining in with the actions!
French
This week we reviewed the greetings we have learned so far. We did this with our favourite game with the pirates, with the song ‘Deux Petite Oiseaux’ and with the song ‘Comment tu t’appelles?’ from Basho and Friends. These helped us practise how to say ‘bonjour, au revoir and je m’appelle’. We then learned to say how we are feeling using ‘ҫa va bien’ for I am well, ‘comme ci, comme ҫa’ for I am ok and ‘ҫa va mal’ for I am not well.
Forest School
In our first session we made roll up pizzas. We talked about how to be safe around the fire. In the nature area we made our own pizzas using a wrap, tomato sauce, ham, garlic, onions, basil and cheese. We rolled our pizza up and wrapped it in foil. The first groups pizzas got a bit well done as they were cooked on the grill. We cooked all the other pizzas in the Dutch oven so that we could move the pizzas away from the direct flames.
The pizzas were delicious! We also had plenty of time for child-initiated learning in the nature area.
In our second session some of us were outside making dens, climbing trees, cooking with mud and finding all kinds of creatures. Our sessions on Thursday were in the lodge where great imagination and creativity were shown.
Harvest
Thank you so much for all your kind donations for the harvest. We had a lovely celebration in church and enjoyed singing all the songs.
Harvest Samba song. Click here.
Don't forget to book your Parents' Evening appointment (in the folder outside of the office) if you haven't already.
Home Practice (Sumdog)
Maths - Number bonds to 20
Phonics - ew words OR er words OR sh words
Counting - Count in 1s and 10s forwards and backwards from different starting numbers.
The log in for Sumdog is on a white laminated card in the reading book bag.
Please try to read every night, even just for five minutes!
Year 5 Blog Friday 6th October 2023
Date: 4th Oct 2023 @ 7:19pm
Happy Friday and welcome to your Friday Blog.
It has been another fun week filled with lots of exciting learning.
In English we have been looking at techniques used to persuade and have used these to write a persuasive letter from the character in Goth Girl called Maltravers. We have written a letter from Maltravers trying to persuade creatures to come to his party. Some of the things we included in our letters were:
Sentence starters to link each paragraph such as:
Firstly,
Secondly,
In addition to this,
Another good reason for ...
Even more importantly,
Finally,
We have also tried to flatter the reader by telling them that they are very special, amazing, beautiful, etc.
In maths we have been counting in 10s, 100s, 1000, 10000s, and 100000s. We have been using these skills to complete number sequences.
In history we were looking at Britannia (England) at the end of the 4th century. During this time the Roman Empire was weakening. We learnt that groups like the Picts and Scots had taken over an area called Gaul, which was a region of Western Europe. This meant that Britannia was receiving less money from Rome and therefore the Roman soldiers were refusing to defend the land. In our next history lesson we will find out what happened next, did the Roman Empire fall? Who then ruled Britain?
We started our new topic in RE called Life Choices. We started the topic by thinking about friendship and the commitment it takes to be a good friend. We spoke about considering the needs of our friends as well as our own needs. We then filled each other's page with what makes them a good friend. It was lovely to see everybody smile when reading the reasons people thought of them as a good friend.
In computing we have been looking at different search engines and also learning about how to do specific searches so that we get the information that we want. We learnt that some search engines give us more ads than others and we also learnt that you need to include exactly what you want to search for e.g. Sale, Greater Manchester rather than just Sale. We have also done some vector drawing on the Ipads. A vector drawing is a drawing made up of lines and shapes.
Home Practice
Reading
Read out loud every day for 20 minutes. Talk about what you know about the different characters.
Counting
Count out loud in:
10s from 123,785 to 123,885 123,785 123,795 123,805 ...
10s from 324,584 to 324,684 324,584 324,594 324,604 ...
10s from 711,296 to 711,396 711,296 711,306 711,316 ...
Times Tables
Please practise your tables target every day.
Spellings
Here are your spellings this week. They are homophones. This means that they look or sound the same but have different meanings. You need to know how to spell these words and also their meanings. This will be part of your spelling test on Tuesday.
isle aisle aloud allowed affect effect herd heard past passed there their they're
Sumdog
Maths Competition in teams
Times Tables Challenge
Spelling Challenge
Have a happy and hopefully sunny weekend.
Year 3 Friday 29th September 2023
Date: 29th Sep 2023 @ 3:52pm
Welcome to your Friday Blog
We've had an amazing week in year 3 this week. We've learned lots of new things in maths, Science and Geography.
In English we have finished reading our book and written our own stories, describing how Muggle Wump outwitted the Twits. We published these and read them to Year 1. Have a look in our galleries.
In maths we have been learning to add and take away on a number line. We found this tricky, especially bridging through the next 10. We have set a number facts challenge on Sumdog to practise number facts to 20.
In Geography we learned about the physical features of the UK and how maps differ from satellite imagery. We used Google maps and atlases to investigate some of the main physical features in Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and England.
In Science we explored some animal skeletons and tried to identify the different bones. We also learned the difference between vertebrates and invertebrates.
Home Practice
Continue to read every night. The children are getting much better at remembering to change their books. Well done Year 3!
All the spellings this week have the 'or/aw/au/ore/oor' sounds. Unfortunately we are unable to set a spelling challenge on Sumdog this week so please have a go at some of the other practice ideas on the card.
We have set 2 Sumdog challenges this week. One will cover number facts to 20 and the other will be to practice your times tables.
Have a lovely weekend
The Year 3 team
Year 2 Blog Friday 29th September 2023
Date: 29th Sep 2023 @ 3:45pm
Well done Year 2 – what a great week we have had. Thank you for all your harvest food collections, our box is almost full. The harvest festival is in church Friday 6th October at 2.30pm. Just a small reminder to please label all clothes including coats – thank you.
Maths
In Maths, we have continued our learning of Place Value. We have looked at one more and one less, ten more and ten less. The children have also rounded to the nearest 10. In English our novel has been ‘Paddington’ by Michael Bond. The children have written bear descriptions, sequenced the story and focussed on using conjunctions in sentences and stories. In RE this week the children have written a lovely prayer thanking God for the new day. In Computing we looked at I.T in the world around us. It’s used for traffic lights, speed cameras and many other things. In P.E this week the children are playing games which involve throwing, catching and moving. In Art this week we have collected leaves from outside and carefully drawn them with handwriting pens including all the small details we could see. In Geography, the children have learnt the months of the year and seasons. We looked at which months were in each of the 4 seasons.
Forest School
In our first session we went into the nature area to find animals which have been woven out of willow. These animals were kindly bought by the parents of the Year 6 leavers. We looked carefully to see how the willow had been woven to make different patterns and shapes.
We then had a go at making our own. The first thing to master was how to twist the willow to make a circle as they can be joined together to make the body and head of different animals. We talked about how the younger, green willow is easier to work with as it contains more water than the brown willow.
Some of us made crowns, necklaces, fish and glasses. We really persevered.
For our second session we investigated spinning jennies, also known as helicopter seeds. We talked about how the seeds are dispersed by the wind. We went out to look for them and found plenty on our field. We then made dragonflies with the spinning jennies, pipe cleaners and beads. We made lots of other things as well-bracelets, worry dolls, forest eyes and butterflies.
Home Practice
Reading
In Year 2, children should read for at least 15 minutes every night and talk about the book. This will help with understanding the text and learning new words.
You could look in a thesaurus and see what other words have the same meaning as the one you have found.
Please date, sign and leave a small comment when you have read with your child and make it clear that you have finished a book, then we know we can change it. For Example - 14.09.22 Max’s Box. Read to page 6, really enjoying the book or good sounding out of tricky words or struggled with the word – because/finished the book. MG.
Reading books are changed every MONDAY. You will receive 2-4 books depending on their length, they should last the week, if you read a little each night. However, if you need to change a book at any other time, we will change it as needed.
Spellings
Please practise these spellings for your quiz on Wednesday (04.10.23). A sheet will go home every Wednesday with the spelling list on. This is for home practise only and can be kept with you.
Here are the spellings for this week:
me so
we by
she my
no here
go there
Maths
At home, can you count forwards and backwards in tens from any given number? Here are few you could start with; 22, 35, 71, 44.
Sumdog
You will have a more/less than number challenge and a spellings challenge to be completed by next week.
Log in at www.sumdog.com
Our PE day is going to be FRIDAY.
Our BOOK change will be MONDAY.
You will get SPELLINGS on WEDNESDAYS and a quiz will be the following WEDNESDAY.
SumDog challenges will be set every FRIDAY.
Have a great weekend.
Reception Blog - Friday 29th September 2023
Date: 29th Sep 2023 @ 10:35am
This week in Reception, we started our week doing Art. We collected a specific set of coloured items (Red, blue or yellow) we had to place them in a tray and then draw the items, afterwards we had to colour the items in the correct colours.
Our story this week has been The Three Little Pigs. We have focussed on the setting of the story, creating bad characters, sturdy houses and thinking of a new ending for the story. These were all fantastic!
In maths, we have been looking at the numbers one to five, making them in different ways, recognising them and putting two amounts together and counting how many how we have then.
In Phonics this week, we have learnt three new sounds; p, i and n. We have sent some words in your child's bag to have a go at reading. A video has been sent on seesaw for how you can help your child.
We have also been learning all about our senses this week. We have been smelling different things and saying what we thought they were. We have also been on a senses walk around the school to see what we can hear and see.
This week in our French lesson, we practised saying bonjour and au revoir to each other. We did this with our favourite game, with the pirates and with the ‘Deux Petite Oiseaux’ song from last week. We also used a teddy, Pierre to pass around the circle and saying bonjour to him and each other.
On fab Friday, we had yoga with Hannah or Forest School with Mrs Corbett. In Forest School we went on a leaf hunt and found leaves of different colours, shapes and sizes. We then used shape cutters to make shapes in the leaves. We stuck the shapes on lolly sticks so they didn't blow away.
We talked about what we could do if we felt worried about something and who we could tell, in PSHE. After this we all got to look at our baby photos that were sent in. We talked about how we are different now. We also had a little visit from Mrs Brown who brought in her little boy, Teddy, We all talked about how he was different to us.
Then in the afternoon we looked at the Creation Story for RE and how God created the Earth. We looked at how God created night and day, the sky, sea and land.
We are still collecting items for the Harvest Festival all next week.
Year 4 Blog Friday 29th September 2023
Date: 29th Sep 2023 @ 8:25am
Welcome to your Friday Blog
Year 4 have worked hard this week with many children getting on triple gold! What a super achievement!
Our learning this week:
In English, we planned and wrote a letter from Michael to his best friend Eddie. We tried to ensure that our letters were friendly and chatty, included different sentences openers and our ideas followed on from each other. We also extended our learning about co-ordinating conjunctions and practised using them in sentences. In addition, we played 'spelling countdown' to practise our new spellings - see us in action here!
In Maths, we used numberlines to add and subtract numbers when we needed to bridge 10 and 100. In addition, we practised measuring and drawing lengths as properties of 2D shapes.
In RE, we learnt about the wisdom of Solomon and how the Book of Proverbs in the Bible is attributed to him. We then read some proverbs and considered how we could apply them to our everyday lives.
In Geography, we learnt about the importance of the water cycle. We then labelled a diagram to help with our understanding.
In Science, we started the lesson by describing an animal’s key features. In groups, we wrote down what we could see from a picture and then presented our thoughts to the class. We then decided which category the animal belonged to - mammal, fish, bird, reptile or amphibian / carnivore, herbivore or omnivore.
In French, we celebrated ‘European Day of Languages’. We shared any languages we knew, any which we have been learning and any which we would like to learn. We listened to a few languages being spoken, suggested which language it was and worked out what each word meant. We also watched some videos of children speaking in another language.
In PE this week, we continued with our netball skills. We focussed on our chest pass and teamwork skills, and played a game of 'Pepper Pot' which involved us taking turns to pass and receive the ball.
In PSHE, we identified positive things about ourselves and our achievements. After talking to our partner, we walked around the class and shared what we thought our friends' personal achievements / attributes / strengths / skills are. Finally, we shared how this has made us feel and how it feels to be proud.
Home Practice
Reading
Please read for 20 minutes each evening to an adult at home. Make sure you discuss the story and the characters. Find the meaning of any new words too. Reading every night will help you read more fluently and with understanding.
Counting
This week, please practise counting in 10’s and 100’s
For example, start at 256 and count up to 406 and back again (counting in 10's)
256 266 276 etc 406 396 386 etc
Notice that the ones digit does not change
For example, start at 278 and down up to 1878 and back again (counting in 100's)
278 378 478 etc 1878 1778 1678 etc
Notice that the ones digit and the tens digit do not change
Times tables
Please practise your individual tables target for your test next week on Wednesday. Ask someone at home to test you on your tables – can you recall them quickly and accurately?
Remember you can also practise your tables playing Hit the Button and timestables.co.uk
It is crucial that you learn all of your table facts as this will help you with many aspects of maths.
Spellings
Your spellings this week are all homophones. You will be tested on them next Wednesday. Please practise them every evening.
main mane piece peace fair fare
plane plain there their they’re
here hear heel heal
Sumdog challenges
You have been set 3 challenges on Sumdog:
- A spelling challenge based on the spellings above
- A times tables challenge based on the 3 times tables
- A maths challenge adding and subtracting 10, 100 and 1000 from 4 digit numbers
Please make sure you log on and have a go! Little and often is the key to success!
The Year 4 Team
Year 6 Blog Friday 29th September 2023
Date: 28th Sep 2023 @ 7:32pm
Welcome to the Year 6 weekly blog.
Having completed their first month, the Year 6s have been praised for their lunch duty roles: helping the infants with drinks, supporting them during their play times and even creating some games to play with them. Excellent work Year 6!
The Reading Ambassadors have started their leadership role of reading with the infants. They made a great impression on the infant staff and are looking forward to more reading time in the coming weeks. The Science Ambassadors and School Councillors have also received their team from the votes in Year 3, 4 and 5.
On Thursday, the football team had their second week of games with the following results:
- A team lost against Little Hoole and drew against Ashbridge
- B team won against Little Hoole B and lost against Hoole St Michaels
- We only have one match left which will conclude on Thursday 12th October. A letter will be sent out soon as a reminder.
Harvest Festival – please continue to bring in food items for the Harvest Festival which will be celebrated in Mass next Friday at 2:30pm.
This week’s learning in Year 6:
- In Maths, we have been learning how to recognise calculations that require mental partitioning e.g. 6, 584 – 2, 360 or 873 + 350 and how to use this strategy where appropriate.
- In English we began our new novel, ‘Clockwork’ by Phillip Pullman. We learnt about one of the characters, Karl, and used the text as evidence to describe his personality.
- In Geography, we learnt how to describe the 10 features of a mountain: summit, slope, face, tree line, snow line, outcrop, valley, ridge, foot and plateau.
- In PE, we began our new dance topic of ‘heroes’ by using our facial expressions and body tension to display our super powers.
- In RE, we read a passage from Titus 3: 4-8, which was a letter from St Paul telling the people how powerful God’s love is. We replied with a thank you letter as Titus to St Paul.
- In Science, we learnt how to classify trees based on their specific characteristics: veins (netlike or parallel), shapes (hand-shapes, spear shaped, heart shaped or round), arrangement (simple of compound) and edges (smooth, toothed or lobed).
- In French, we celebrated ‘European Day of Languages’. The class shared any languages which they know, any which they have been learning or any which they would like to learn. Some children shared their favourite word in their language and discussed how they have learned that it. We then listened to a few languages being spoken, suggested which language it was and worked out what each word meant. We also watched some videos of children speaking in another language. We then spent some time answering quiz questions about European countries, including their outlines from a map, their iconic symbols and their traditional foods.
Home Practice
Please complete the following tasks by next Wednesday:
Reading – Use your Home Reading to read every night for 30 minutes. You also have a Reading Journal/Diary that must be used for the title of the book and any reading challenge chosen.
- You may change your book any day between Monday and Wednesday
Spellings (silent letters)
- Sumdog (Silent letters A1 wk 4)
- doubt, climb, guitar, whistle, knight, autumn, thistle, debt, solemn, science, hymn, wriggle, answer, island, dumb.
Maths challenges:
- Counting:
- This week we have been counting in fraction steps of ¼ and 2/4 Try to do the same out loud or with paper.
- Draw a line and some marks on it like I do in class. You could write the numbers as you count up or down, then double check it to make sure you have said the correct numbers.
- g. Start with different numbers and count up 10 numbers then back again in halves:
2 ¼ , 2 2/4, 2 ¾, 3, 3 ¼ , etc
and as improper fractions:
¾, 4/4, 5/4, 6/4, 7/4, 8/4, etc
Start at 13 and count up 10 numbers and down again:
13, 12 ¾, 12 2/4, 12 ¼, etc
Now try in 2/4 with these numbers:
8 8 2/4, 9, 9 2/4, 10, 10 2/4, etc
- Sumdog (Times Tables A1 wk 4)
- Each child has their own tables target which they should know. The Sumdog challenge may relate to their target but this week we have focused on 3s, 6s, which will be great practice for the future. (Every Tuesday there is a tables test).
- Sumdog (Decimals A1 wk 4)
- This week’s learning is to make decimals into equivalent fractions e.g. 2/10 = 0.2, 4/10 = 0.4, 35 /100 = 0.35.
- Also, the challenge will include rounding decimals to the nearest whole number.
- For further maths work, please visit the ‘Maths Training’ section which you can find in the tasks box on the left of the main screen. This will enable your child to push their learning further with the skills that Sumdog has given them, following a recent diagnostic test.
Year 5 Blog Friday 29th September 2023
Date: 28th Sep 2023 @ 3:51pm
Happy Friday and welcome to your Friday Blog.
It has been a brilliant week in Year 5.
In English we have read some more of our novel Goth Girl. The main character Ada has joined a club called the Attic Club and made some new friends. She has also met lots of strange creatures. We have looked at some character descriptions from Goth Girl and also from Fantastic Beasts. We have used these as a model to write our own description of a strange character.
One of the things we focussed on was using sentences with a relative clause.
Relative clauses add extra information, we used relative clauses starting with the relative pronoun which.
Here are some examples we came up with:
Its wide mouth, which is filled with razor sharp teeth, is usually grinning.
Its most distinctive feature is the purple horn in the centre of its forehead which flashes when it senses danger.
In maths we have continued practising rounding to the nearest 10, 100, 1000, and 10000. We have done lots of practice with number lines for this. We have also been finding 10, 100, 1000 and 10000 more or less than a number. We used place value counters and charts to help with this.
We needed to know the value of each digit and that:
100,000 = ten 10,000s
In art we used different pencils to make a strong drawing. We got some old maps and drew a picture on them. We used different pencils, marks, and shading to try to make our picture stand out. We were in competition with the maps. We won! They were amazing.
In science we planned and carried out a fair test using paper aeroplanes. We spoke about what a fair test is and knew that we could only change one thing at a time. We then came up with a question we wanted to answer. Here are some of the questions we tested:
Which shape paper aeroplane goes the furthest?
Which material paper aeroplane goes the furthest?
Which type of throw makes the paper aeroplane go the furthest?
Which size paper aeroplane goes the furthest?
We had great fun testing out our paper aeroplanes outside and then recording our findings in a table, we were then able to answer our question.
You can see us in action here.
In RE we have been thinking about our qualities and talents, and talking about how we can use these to be a good role model. We came up with lots of ideas and Year 5 really are setting a great example to the younger children around school.
In PE we came up with our own games to practise throwing and catching skills including shoulder pass, chest pass, bounce pass, ready position, and outwitting an opponent. Once we had practised our own game, we taught it to another group and gave feedback. It was amazing to see everybody work together as a team and use their patience and communication skills to teach another group.
Home Practice
Art
Please bring in any of the following that you have at home to use in art next week:
Old maps
Old books
Old newspaper
Reading
Read out loud every day for 20 minutes. Look at how speech is used, what punctuation do you notice?
Counting
Count out loud in:
1s from 701,999 to 702,020 and back again 701,999 702,000 702,001 ...
1s from 324,999 to 325,020 and back again 324,999 325,000 325,001 ...
1s from 865,999 to 866,020 and back again 865,999 866,000 866,001 ...
Times Tables
Please practise your tables target every day.
Spelling
Here are your spelling this week, they all end in -able or -ible.
horrible terrible possible edible reversible invincible adorable forgivable enjoyable valuable breakable impossible respectable
Sumdog
Maths Competition - in teams
Times Tables Challenge
Spelling Challenge
Have a weekend filled with smiles!
Year 1 Blog - Friday 29th September 2023
Date: 26th Sep 2023 @ 11:10am
Welcome to your Friday blog.
English
We started to read the story Dogger, up until the point where Dave has realised that his toy dog Dogger is missing! We are so excited to finish the story next week. I wonder what will happen?
We predicted what was going to happen to Dogger, we wrote about how the characters were feeling, we made lost posters of Dogger and drew amazing pictures of the story so far.
Phonics
Some of us have been learning the trigraphs ure as in cure and air as in chair. Some of us have been learning the phase 5 digraph ue in both blue and argue, ir in girl and aw in claw.
Maths
This week we have been learning about representing numbers using tens and ones. We used practical equipment to make the numbers. We also learnt about one more .We have been singing many counting songs and practised starting at a number and counting forwards and backwards in 1s,2s,5s and 10s. We use the displays around our classroom to check our learning.
R.E.
We have focused on God in our RE lessons. We watched some lovely videos showing the beautiful world that God created and wrote sentences about how we can look after God's world.
P.E.
This week, we focused on bouncing a ball. We learnt how to hold the ball correctly and how to bounce a ball with two hands. We then practised bouncing whilst moving in a straight line and bouncing to each other.
Science
This week, we learnt all about the five senses that humans have - sight, smell, hearing, taste and touch. We matched up the senses to the body part that we use for it. We then took it in turns to put our hand in Miss Fisher's feely bag. We weren't allowed to look but we used our touch to describe what we felt. Everyone else was able to guess what they were.
Geography
We used our knowledge of senses to go on a fieldwork walk around school. We went in the outdoor area, on the playground and in the nature area to see what we could hear, smell, touch and see.
Art
Since the weather was great on Friday, we went outside and drew spirals with chalk. We made a tripod out of sticks to see if we could make an even better circle!
French
We celebrated ‘European Day of Languages’. We discussed what the day was about, who can participate, why we have the celebration and what ways we can celebrate other languages and why this is important. The class shared any languages which they know, any which they have been learning or any which they would like to learn. We then learned how to say hello and goodbye in French, German, Italian and Spanish.
P.S.H.E.
We started our online safety learning by learning about the word 'permission'. We talked about what it meant to give permission and how we need to ask to access online content when at home.
Computing
We learnt about the artist Henri Matisse and how he used shapes in his artwork. We used Paintz.app to recreate his artwork.
Forest School
In our first session we went into the nature area to find animals which have been woven out of willow. These animals were kindly bought by the parents of the Year 6 leavers. We looked carefully to see how the willow had been woven to make different patterns and shapes.
We then had a go at making our own. The first thing to master was how to twist the willow to make a circle as they can be joined together to make the body and head of different animals. We talked about how the younger, green willow is easier to work with as it contains more water than the brown willow.
Some of us made crowns, necklaces, fish and glasses. We really persevered.
For our second session we investigated spinning jennies, also known as helicopter seeds. We talked about how the seeds are dispersed by the wind. We went out to look for them and found plenty on our field. We then made dragonflies with the spinning jennies, pipe cleaners and beads. We made lots of other things as well-bracelets, worry dolls, forest eyes and butterflies.
Thank you for all of your Harvest donations, our box will be in class until Friday the 6th of October.
Home Practice (Sumdog)
We have only set a maths sumdog challenge this week. Please watch the phonics to practise your sounds.
Maths - One more and one less
Counting - Count in 1s and 10s forwards and backwards from different starting numbers.
The log in for Sumdog is on a white laminated card in the reading book bag.
Please try to read every night, even just for five minutes!