St Oswald's Catholic Primary SchoolOur blogs
Year 5 Blog Friday 5th May 2023
Date: 3rd May 2023 @ 9:40am
Happy Friday and welcome to your Friday blog.
Although we have only had a four day week, we have still done lots of exciting learning!
in English we have been using The Highway as inspiration to write our own poem.
We included certain features which we thought made the poem exciting and helped to create an image in the reader's mind. Here are some of the features we included:
Metaphor - an imaginative way of describing something by referring to something else which is the same in a particular way.
For example, The road was a ribbon of moonlight over the purple moors.
Simile - an expression including the words "like" or "as" to compare one thing with another.
For example, His heart was beating as fast as a horse galloping across the cobbles.
Speech - spoken words from a character.
For example, "One kiss my bonny sweetheart."
Onomatopoeia - the use or creation of a word that imitates, resembles, or suggests the sound that it describes.
For example, Tlot-tlot went the horse's hooves.
In maths we were dividing decimal numbers and solving measures problems. We also learnt about reflecting shapes. Everybody did such a fantastic job!
In DT we used cereal boxes and pencils to practise making our cam toy. A cam toy has a sliding or rotating piece which we will be making ourselves. Some of you even practised some more at home - well done! Don't forget to bring in a shoe box or cereal box next week to make our final cam toy. We will be taking these to Year 1 one afternoon for them to play with.
We started our new PSHE topic. Throughout the topic we will try to answer the question 'How can drugs common to everyday life affect health?' We started by talking about we already know about the topic. Then we looked at some common everyday drugs and their risks and effects.
We will be learning about common everyday drugs including nicotine, alcohol, caffeine and medicines, laws surrounding drugs and that some drugs are legal whilst others are illegal, and risks associated with different drugs.
On Wednesday we had our session with Gareth the sports journalist. We wrote about the first time a woman beat a man at a professional darts competition.
We loved celebrating the coronation on King Charles. We all dressed in red, white and blue and went onto the field for a picnic and a sing and dance. You can see us enjoying the coronation here.
Home Practice
Reading
Read out loud to somebody every day for 20 minutes. Look out for new words, use the context and a dictionary to find their meaning.
Spelling
Here are your spellings this week.
happened hurried grabbed worried adventurous disastrous enormous fabulous famous generous jealous mischievous smiled danced behaved
Times Tables
You have been given your new tables target. Please practise every day.
Sumdog
Times Tables Challenge
Maths Competition - you have been put into these teams:
Gryffendor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, Slytherin
Spelling Challenge
Reminders
Don't forget to bring in a shoe box or a cereal box for our DT project.
Happy Long Weekend
Date: 28th Apr 2023 @ 4:13pm
It was great to see everyone back in school, looking lovely in their summer uniforms and ready to learn. Year 2 have worked so hard this week and it is really showing in the work they are producing. In English, we have worked on reading comprehension and started our Aladdin topic by describing the market place using noun phrases. For example, bustling market, ornate lanterns, and silk robes with golden trims. In Maths, we are working on addition and subtraction with exchange. The children know to represent tens and ones as lines and dots and how to exchange one ten for ten ones. In RE, we have started our topic - Spread the Word which focuses on Pentecost. In Science, we were observing the signs of Spring by drawing and labelling what we saw on our nature walk. We spent time in PE getting ready for Sports Day. In French, the children began to learn some French phonics by adding actions to sounds to help them remember. They segmented the colour words and thought about the sounds in the words. Getting ready for beginning to write French in year 3 - well done Year 2! We learnt some weather phrases too. In Geography, we learnt about simple human and physical geographical features. This term, we are very lucky to have Mrs Robinson (Art Lead) come into class on Thursday afternoons to teach Australian Art and Textiles. The children thoroughly enjoyed printing and painting with different tools and their art work was amazing! Have a look in the Gallery section.
Reading
In Year 2, children should read for at least 15/20 minutes every night and talk about the book. This will help with understanding the text and learning new words.
Reading books are changed every Wednesday. 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.
Reading resources:
Oxford Owl – This resource has an exciting range of carefully levelled books to help children learn to read and really enjoy it.
If parents and children decide to use this resource, we ask they access phase 5 books. Go to https://www.oxfordowl.co.uk/ and select ‘my class login’. Scroll down to the ‘eBook Library for Letters & Sounds’. You could also explore the rest of the site and read books from the Oxford Owl eBook library or listen to audio books.
Username: sto2
Password: 1234
Resources for questioning your child while they are reading - https://www.literacyshedblog.com/uploads/1/2/5/7/12572836/ks1_reading_vipers.pdf
In addition to this, reading a good bed time story to your child is so worthwhile and really helps towards a lifelong love of reading.
Spelling
Please practise these spellings for your quiz on Friday (05.05.23). A sheet will go home every Friday with the spelling list on. This is for home practise only and can be kept with you.
You will have a Sumdog challenge on these words to complete by Friday 05.05.23.
This week’s spellings:
Add –es to verbs and nouns ending in ‘y’ (Rule – take off the y and add -ies). Including two words from the Year 1/2 spelling list.
fly parties
flies lady
copy ladies
copies plant
party path
Maths
Next week for our times tables quiz (Friday 05.05.23) we will be learning the 3x table in order.
Count in 3’s forwards and backwards, see how quickly you can go, but it must still be accurate. Chant/sing the x3 table. Ask an adult to quiz you on them in order. Write them down in different colours to help you remember them.
You will have a 3x table challenge on Sumdog to complete by Friday 05.05.23.
Here are some links to other maths games/apps the children can play to help them learn their number facts.
Topmarks.co.uk also have and English section for phonics/spellings games. If you explore the site you will find lots of different games that are relevant to Year 2.
https://www.topmarks.co.uk/maths-games/hit-the-button
https://whiterosemaths.com/resources/1-minute-maths
(I believe this app is free to download.)
https://www.topmarks.co.uk/maths-games/5-7-years/counting
https://www.topmarks.co.uk/maths-games/5-7-years/multiplication-and-division
Sumdog
Log in at www.sumdog.com
The Summer Term Overviews are now on the class page to have a look at.
We would really appreciate some kitchen roll tubes for our Art lesson. Many thanks.
Have a lovely Bank Holiday Weekend.
Year 2 Team.
Year 4 Blog Friday 28th April 2023
Date: 28th Apr 2023 @ 4:00pm
Year 4 Blog
Friday 28th April 2023
Welcome to the first blog of the Summer Term. It has been lovely to see everyone again this week and although it’s been a little bit chilly the sun has been shining a little bit! Here’s what we have been learning this week:
In English, we learnt how to identify, select and effectively use pronouns. We also wrote a description of the water goddess and the ‘Ceremony of the Full Moon’ using our senses and vocabulary from the novel.
In Maths, we learnt how to find fractions of numbers using a bar model split into equal parts. We used counters to share an amount equally and then found unit (eg 1/3 1/4 1/5) and non-unit (eg 2/3 ¾ 2/5) amounts. Following this, we used bar modelling to help add and subtract fractions with the same denominator.
In RE, we started our new topic – New Life. We listened to a story and then talked about our own experiences of feeling a bit miserable or something upsetting us, and then something happened which brightened our day and made us feel alive. We also considered what we learnt from the experience and how good news changed the way we felt.
In French, we learnt lots of different ways of spelling the 'ay' sound which I thought was difficult, but the children proved me wrong! Then we looked again some artwork by Matisse and described them. Some children excelled themselves - super French writing Y4! Next week, we'll make our own picture in the style of Matisse.
In PE, we started our striking and fielding topic. We started by practising throwing and catching both underarm and overarm and the played a mini game similar to cricket. We will be developing our fielding and batting skills over the coming weeks!
In Science, we carried out a practical experiment around the school to help us recognise that vibrations from sounds travel through a medium to the ear. We were surprised to find out that sound travels best through a solid, then a liquid and then a gas! Look at some of our experiments here.
In Geography, we recapped some of our findings from the Formby trip. We will be creating a PowerPoint to highlight the impact of climate change on our local coastline. This is a work in progress and will take a few weeks to complete.
In PSHE, we described how someone could respond to, and manage feelings in different circumstances. We read different scenarios and discussed how the main character might be feeling and what they might do and say at the time. Finally, we thought about who the character could talk to after the situation. This was an interesting and thought-provoking discussion – well done Year 4.
In Art, we painted some pictures for our parent assembly.
Have a look at our Summer Term Class Overview to see what else we will be learning this term.
Home Practice
Reading
Please read out loud to somebody for 20 minutes each evening. Look out for speech marks and pronouns when you are reading. Look carefully at the punctuation used with inverted commas and think carefully about what noun the pronoun has replaced.
Spellings
Here are this week’s spellings. You will be tested on these words next Friday (5th May 2023).
corrode corrosion intrude intrusion
conclude conclusion comprehend comprehension
suspend suspension decide decision
erode erosion expand expansion
Counting
This week, please practise counting in fractions
Start at ½ and count up to 10 and back again
½ 1 1 ½ etc 10 9 ½ 9 etc
Start at 1/3 and count up to 4 and back again
1/3 2/3 1 1 1/3 4 3 2/3 3 1/3 3 etc
Times tables
You will be tested on your tables target next Wednesday (3rd May 2023). Please practise every day. Remember you can practise your tables playing Hit the Button and timestables.co.uk
Please also practise the ‘Multiplication Tables Check’ on timestables.co.uk
Sumdog challenges
You have been set 2 challenges on Sumdog:
- A spelling challenge based on the spellings above
- A times tables challenge based on all the tables
AND a class competition based on adding and subtracting fractions – have fun!
Please make sure you log on and have a go! Little and often is the key to success!
Another app for practising tables and number facts is One Minute Maths from White Rose. It is free to download from the AppStore and PlayStore. There are lots of excellent games you can play which will help you brush up your mental maths skills. Please do your best to access this fabulous free resource! Knowing your tables and number facts off by heart is crucial and will help you in many different areas of maths.
Have a lovely Bank Holiday weekend
The Year 4 Team
Reception Blog - Friday 28th April 2023
Date: 28th Apr 2023 @ 1:04pm
Date: 28th Apr 2023 @ 11:04am
Welcome back to the Summer Term
We have a very busy term of learning ahead! You can see all of our Summer topics on our class curriculum overview on the class page.
In English this week we have started our new book, The Deathwood Letters by Hazel Townson. The story is written in letter format, following the correspondence between Damien Drake, a young boy who lives with his family on a huge estate, Deathwood Hall, and Frankie, a girl who lives in a run down part of town. They strike up a strong friendship and we have noticed some strange goings on already. We have written some letters in reponse to the characters and created a fact file on Deathwood Hall.
In Maths we have been learning about equivalent fractions and how to add and subtract fractions from a whole. Everyone has shown great undersatnding and used what they already know about fractions to solve problems. We have set a bumper fractions challenge on Sumdog. Do your best with these.
In Art we have added paste to our Egyptian fabric designs. Everyone took great care when applying their paste and we seen some fantastic designs come to life. Next week we will dye our fabric and see how they turn out. Have a look in our gallery.
In History we learned all about the afterlife and how the Egyptians prepared the bodies. We learned all about canopic jars and how they were welcomed into Paradise.
In PSHE we started our new topic on healthy eating and what a balanced diet looks like. Everyone had some great ideas and drew on their prior science learning on food groups.
Home Practice
Well done to everyone who continued reading over the Easter holidays. 20 minutes every night with your school books will help improve comprehension and fluency.
We have set 2 maths challenges on Sumdog, one on fractions and one on x4 and x8 tables.
Practice counting regularly with your child as well. Regular reviews of the number system will help build understanding and number fluency. Sing our songs, play what comes next, count forwards and backwards in numbers and fractions.
Spelling
We will be revisiting all our suffix rules this week. We have set a Sumdog challenge looking at the 'drop the e add the suffix' rule.
decided
taking
serving
writing
making
driving
shaking
baked
famed
giving
tiled
stored
using
dancer
server
Year 6 Blog Friday 28th April 2023
Date: 28th Apr 2023 @ 9:18am
Welcome to our first Year 6 blog of the Summer Term. It has been great to see the children back in their summer uniforms. They have all come back with a super attitude after having two weeks off and have done brilliantly with all the tricky tasks set this week. Keep up the hard work Year 6!
Also, Year 6’s learning this week:
- In Maths, we have been learning how to solve problems with our place value knowledge by making sure we underline the important parts of the question and to check our answers. We have also learnt about ratio (the relation of one quantity to another) and proportion (which is a number, a share or a part of something in relation to a whole – like portions).
- In English, we have written an explanation text, a story and a poem using a range of conjunctions and noun phrases. We have also been improving our grammar knowledge by revisiting the names of all the word classes.
- In History, we continued our learning of the Maya civilisation by interpreting evidence from a range of artefacts.
- In PE, we began our striking and fielding unit through the sport of cricket, and focused on our bowling skills, both underarm and overarm.
- In Music, we have started a unit of living composers: people composing music who are alive now. This week we looked at Anna Meredith and began composing our own raps.
- In French, we began to learn about the Cafe culture in France and used dictionaries to look up any unknown words to help us read a cafe menu. We were pleasantly surprised how much we could understand without having to look up the words - great progress y6!
- In Science, we learnt about medicines and drugs - how they are helpful but can also be dangerous. We have a talk next week from a hospital pharmacist who will talk about her job role and answer the children's questions about medicines and drugs so we prepared for that. We have now learnt about many different ways of making healthy lifestyle choices - we will put all our learning together next week to conclude this topic.
Home Practice all relates to this week’s learning. These are the tasks needed to be completed:
- Reading – Continue to read every night for 30 minutes. It is important to keep reading, right up until the end for the year.
- NO SPELLING LIST THIS WEEK (We will be recapping our knowledge of the Year 5/6 spellings). Next week’s test will be on a random 15 spellings from this list so please look through those which you need to practise on.
- NO SUMDOG – please complete the sheets that have been given, by Monday.
- Maths challenges:
- Counting:
- This week we have been counting in 60s and 600s
- Start with 225 or 850 or 575
- Then count up in 60s ten times and back again
- 225, 285, 345, 405, 465, 525, 585, etc
- Then count up and back in 600s
- 850, 1450, 2005, 2650, 3250, 3850, etc
- Number facts:
- To help your maths even more, please continue to learn your numbers facts, 17 – 9 = 6, 15 – 8 = 7.
- The best way to do this is to simply have someone in your home quiz you with questions like (13 – 5, 18 – 9, 16 – 8, 15 - 9, etc)
- Then get them to change the place value of these digits (1.3 – 0.5, 1.8 – 0.9, 1.6 – 0.8, 1.5 – 0.9, etc)
- Counting:
Date: 27th Apr 2023 @ 10:11am
Welcome to your first Summer Term blog!
English
This week, we have been reading the story 'I want my hat back' by Jon Klassen. We met a bear who had lost his hat who then used his detective skills to realise that actually, he had seen his hat! We predicted what was going to happen in the story, we drew our own hats, we made missing posters for the hat and used speech bubbles to write what was being said by each character.
Then, we read 'We found a hat' and compared it to the first story.
Phonics
We have been learning about oar and our is roar and pour.
Click here to sing some phonics songs.
Maths
We focused on parts and wholes in number sentences. We learnt that the parts add together to make a whole. Then we looked at the inverse, making the subtraction number sentences using same numbers. We had to remember that the whole comes first!
Click here to play a fact families game.
R.E.
We recapped the Easter story and talked about how Easter Sunday, and Jesus' ascension, is not the end. We read about Peter telling everyone to spread the Good News and wrote about how we can continue to change for the better.
P.S.H.E.
We recapped different forms of money before learning about distinguishing between needs and wants. We defined both of them and sorted objects into each category.
P.E.
We started practising for our sports day, which is on the 11th of May at 2:15.
We practised the relay race and the egg and spoon race together.
Computing
We had an online safety session regarding the internet. We looked at some rules to follow and practised being safe on the internet. We used the NatGeo website to learn about a country of our choice.
Science
We went outside for a lovely nature walk! We spotted lots of different plants and flowers and sketched them in our science books. We learnt a lot of new plant names!
History
We started to learn about seaside holidays, both in the past and the present. We compared the two and stuck pictures into our books under each column.
Art
We had two separate art lessons this week. Our first was a lovely lesson drawing Earth pictures for World Earth Day. Then in our second lesson, we started our Digital Media topic. This is where you create art online. We Googled images of the seaside and sketched what we could see in our sketchbooks.
French
We recapped animals words and began to learn some phrases for the weather through games and a story.
Outdoor Learning
This week four of the groups leant about fire safety. We watched a fire being started by Mrs Corbett using a flint and steel. We toasted marshmallows-they were yummy!
The last group will do this session next week.
We also checked how our plants are growing and put some of them in bigger pots.
Our summer term class and subject overviews are live on the school website. Please look on the year 1 page and the separate curriculum pages to see what we are learning about.
Don't forget that it is Bank Holiday on Monday. We will see you on Tuesday.
Home Practice
Phonics - au and aw words
Maths - counting practise
KEEP READING EVERY NIGHT!
Date: 26th Apr 2023 @ 9:41am
Happy Friday and welcome to your Friday Blog.
We have had a brilliant week back after the Easter holidays. Everybody has worked so hard and has shown that they are ready for the Summer Term.
In English we have been reading a poem called The Highwayman by Alfred Noyes. We are working towards writing our own version of the poem. Before writing our own poem we needed to find out:
What is a highwayman?
Who is Dick Turpin?
What do some of the words mean in the poem?
We have been finding the answers to all of these questions in order to help us understand the poem.
You can see us in action here.
We did some extra writing on Wednesday afternoon with a sports journalist. He taught us all about what it means to be a sports journalist and we had a go at writing our own match reports on the England v England women's Euro finals. Gareth, who is a sports journalist, was extremely impressed and said that the children in year 5 are very talented.
In maths we have been mutlitplying and dividing by 100 and 1,000 and then using these skills to convert measures.
1kg = 1,000g
1km = 1,000m
1L = 1,000ml
1m = 100cm
In geography we have continued with our learning about North America.
We learnt about The Great Pacific Garbage Patch. This is the largest accumulation of ocean plastic in the world. We spoke about what has caused this amount of plastic to be in this place, and what we can do to help.
One of the main things we can do is reduce, resuse and recycle.
In French, we learnt how to pronounce the 'qu' sound, then we began to learn the vocabulary of sport. We learnt how to use an online dictionary to look up unknown words and talked about the pros and cons of a book v online dictionary. Well done, as always, Y5.On Wednesday afternoon we
In science we looked at the potatoes that we planted and observed how they have changed. We couldn't believe how many leaves had grown out of the soil. We have now covered the leaves with more soil and compost as we want the plant to focus on the potatoes and not the leaves.
Thank you to everybody who looked after the potatoes so well over the Easter holidays.
We have also taken some cuttings of different plants including thyme, basil, rosemary, coriander, parsley and chives. We have planted these cuttings in some soil and are going to see if they are able to grow roots and turn into new plants.
If you would like to see what exciting learning we will be doing this term, you can have a look on our class page on the school wesbite here.
Home Practice
Reading
Well done to so many of you who kept up with your reading over the Easter holidays!
Please read out loud to somebody every day for 20 minutes. Retell what you have read in your own words.
Spelling
Here are your spellings this week.
You need to know how to spell each word and also what it means. Try writing out sentences with the spellings in.
you're your there their they're there's theirs where were we're
vegetable temperature secretary recognise pronunciation
Counting
Count out loud in 1.1s:
From 5.7 to 15.6
5.7 6.8 7.9 9 ...
From 3.6 to 13.5
3.6 4.7 5.8 6.9 ...
From 21.3 to 31.2
21.3 22.4 23.5 24.6 ...
Times Tables
You will be given your new tables target next week, please practise every day.
Sumdog
Maths Competition
Times Tables Challenge
Spelling Challenge
Have a nice long weekend :)
Year 1 Blog-Thursday 6th April
Date: 6th Apr 2023 @ 5:29pm
Welcome to your final Friday blog of the Spring term. We had a great Easter assembly with some lucky children winning an Easter egg in the raffle.
English
This week we read our Scaredy Squirrel books to the children in Year 3 and Reception. Everyone loved our stories and we got some really good feedback.
We had a few days learning from a story called The Tiny Seed by Eric Carle. The seed has a journey starting in Autumn and ending up in Summer as an enormous flower.
We learnt about life cycles. We also wrote instructions to tell someone how to plant a seed.
Phonics
Some of us have been learning about al as in walk, talk, chalk and some of us have been learning more tricky words.
Maths
We have been doing lots of assessments this week.
R.E.
We learned more about the Easter story. We went to church on Tuesday to watch Year 6 perform their Easter presentation. We loved joining in with the singing and the prayers.
P.E.
We practised our fundamental skills outside.
Art
We all made an Easter card by collaging an egg shape.
French
We listened to La legende des Cloches de Paques - the story of the Easter Bells. In France, they say that the bells fall silent at Easter because they have gone to Rome to be blessed. They return on Easter Sunday, dropping chocolate eggs in gardens for children to find. We practised some vocabulary related to Easter with a hunt the word game.
Outdoor Learning
We have all made our hedgehog now using hammers and screwdrivers.
We did some more planting- carrots and foxgloves.
We went in the nature area and found new types of flowers growing, snails,woodlice, spiders ,ants and worms.
We wish you all a happy, holy and peaceful Easter.
Year 6 Blog Thursday 6th April 2023
Date: 6th Apr 2023 @ 2:07pm
Welcome to the last Year 6 blog this spring term. We are so pleased with everyone’s effort throughout the term! This week, we led a church service based on Holy Week and were invited to church again by Father, where we learnt more about the stations of the cross, and what it means for Christians.
Also, Year 6’s learning this week:
- In Maths, we learnt that algebra means ‘the reunion of broken parts’, what algebra symbols mean and how to solve them. We also improved our learning on how to add, subtract, multiply and divide fractions.
- In English, we used our Skellig story to help learn how to answer reading questions of retrieval and inference using the text as evidence.
- In PE, we completed our orienteering unit with an intra competition in pairs trying to find the points hidden around the school grounds.
- In History, we learnt how the Maya were so successful, with clever farming and building structures using limestone and obsidian as their main resource. We summarised our findings in the style of a historian.
For the Easter holidays, I have included a ‘Suggested Revision Guide’ that has extra home practice sheets to use as you please. All documents have been given to you in a folder.
The Easter holidays are to rest, relax and enjoy time with your family. The documents I have included in the folder are for those who wish to do some extra practice during the two weeks, for just a small amount of time each day. It is not a requirement to complete everything but little and often of reading, maths revision, grammar and spelling revision will go a huge way when you return on Monday 24th April. Please bring in any work and revision in on that day so I can advise on what to do next.
Enjoy your Easter break!
Year 2 Blog Thursday 6th April 2023
Date: 6th Apr 2023 @ 1:50pm
Year 2 have had a truly excellent Spring Term, they have worked so hard and have made so much progress in their learning. A huge well done to everyone in class and you definitely deserve a good rest over the Easter Holiday. I hope you have lots of fun with family and friends and enjoy your Easter eggs!
In D.T, we designed, made and evaluated our vehicles which were really good and extremely creative. All the vehicles worked well and hopefully you will be able to play with them at home. Look at the vehicles gallery to see your cars!
In R.E, we read the Easter story and the children retold it in their own words with beautiful illustrations. We also went to Church and enjoyed a lovely service prepared by Year 6.
During Easter, read and enjoy as many books as you can. Try to keep reading daily!
I will issue new spellings and times tables in the Summer Term on Friday 28th April.
There are two Sumdog challenges on 3x tables and comparing and ordering numbers.
Outdoor Learning
We have all made our hedgehog now using hammers and screwdrivers.
We did some more planting- carrots and foxgloves.
We went in the nature area and found new types of flowers growing, snails,woodlice, spiders ,ants and worms.
Have a great holiday and see you in the Summer Term - remember it's summer uniform!
Year 2 Team
Date: 6th Apr 2023 @ 1:49pm
Welcome to your Year 3 blog!
This week we have finished our novel Toro, Toro, written by Michael Morpurgo. It was an amazing book! We enjoyed travelling with Antonio on his adventure on the run from Franco's army and on his quest to find Paco the bull. We wrote some brilliant recounts from the story as Antontio and a book review using some examples from real book critics.
In Maths we have been learning how to read bar charts and pictograms and used these to solve problems. It has been tricky in parts but we've remembered our statistics learning from Autumn really well.
We had a lovely celebration in Church on Tuesday. Year 6 led a very thoughtful Easter liturgy and Year 3 joined in brilliantly with their singing.
On Thursday we planned out fabric designs using hieroglyphics and Egyptian art. Next term we will apply our paste and dye to complete our designs. Have a look at our gallery.
In French, we learnt how to make animal nouns plural. We read some short texts and matched the words to the correct picture, then some of us were able to draw our own animals picture and write a sentence to describe it, using the correct plural form of the noun.
We have had a lovely half term and seen lots of progress in all areas of our curriculum.
We are looking forward to next term!
Have a lovely Easter break and keep reading!!
The Year 3 team.
You can find the latest edition of our school Newspaper, The Learning Times in our galleries.
Reception Blog - Thursday 6th April 2023
Date: 6th Apr 2023 @ 12:56pm
What a wonderful week we have had this week. Mrs Stone has returned from maternity leave and has enjoyed getting to know all of the children.
Throughout the week we have been learning about the Easter story and drawing pictures of what happened. We have recapped the numbers from 11-20, ordering them and matching them to eggs.
We have enjoyed using our outside area much more this week as the weather has been warmer. We have been watching our frog spawn change and we even went on a little walk to our school pond to have a go at pond dipping!
Towards the end of the week we had our stay and play, with lots of Easter/spring crafts and activities - a big thank you to everyone who came. The children really enjoyed sharing their learning with you.
We hope that everyone has a lovely Easter break and we will see you in 2 weeks!
Year 4 Blog Thursday 6th April 2023
Date: 6th Apr 2023 @ 8:21am
Happy Easter and Happy Easter Holiday
We have had a fantastic last week of term in Year 4. The sunshine on Monday and Tuesday really helped too!
Here is a brief overview of this week’s learning:
In English, we revised the rules for writing dialogue. We then discussed different words for ‘said’ and how Lila and the chief pirate (Rambashi) might speak. Following this, we write a scene which included dialogue between these two characters.
In Maths, we practised our mental addition and subtraction skills. We learnt and refined the strategies of bridging through 10, and compensating using a number line.
In RE, we learnt more about Holy Week and completed a beautiful piece of work in our books which showed our understanding of Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter Sunday. We also took part in a class worship which was led by some of the children in Year 4.
In DT, we finished our sewing projects. We also evaluated our creations, describing what we felt went well, what didn’t go so well, and whether the product was fit for purpose. You can see some pictures of our finished items here.
On Tuesday afternoon, we also took part in an Easter Liturgy in church which was led by Year 6.
Well done for all your hard work this term Year 4. We hope you have a lovely Easter Holiday - make sure you enjoy yourselves and spend time having fun with your friends and families.
We look forward to seeing you again on Monday 24th April 2023 in your summer uniforms.
Please remember to keep reading over the holiday!
The Year 4 Team.
Year 5 Blog Thursday 6th April
Date: 6th Apr 2023 @ 7:52am
Happy Easter and Happy Half Term!
We have had a great Half Term.
We had a brilliant time on our school trip to Judge's Lodgings on Tuesday. We experienced life in a Victorian classroom and as a Victorian servant. Here is a gallery of our trip.
We absolutely loved reading The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and can't wait to find out what our class novel will be after the holidays.
Please try to keep reading during Half Term - you might even be able to do some reading outside if it gets sunny.
The Sumdog challenges and competition will continue too - get your team to the top of the leaderboard.
But most importantly, have fun, spend time with friends and family, and rest!
Reminders
Please bring in a shoe box and a cereal box for out DT work after Half Term.
Please continue to collect for The Foxton Centre and Bardarndo's.
The CEO from the Foxton Centre will be visiting us after Half Term to collect our donations. It might be a nice idea to donate some Easter Eggs if you get too many or find some in the sale.
Have a wonderful Easter!
Reception Blog - Friday 31st March 2023
Date: 31st Mar 2023 @ 1:04pm
This week we have continued our learning all about minibeasts as we have been adding mini beasts to our bug hotel, it is very full now!
In science and writing we have been learning all about frog lifecycles, making our own, writing about them and even watching our frog spawn change over the past two weeks. We have also been to check on our bean plants to see how they have been growing in the different areas we left them. The ones in class have grown the most so far.
In maths we have been looking at one more and one less than a number - we have been doing this practically outdoors, jumping along numberlines to solve the questions.
In French, we listened to La legende des Cloches de Paques - the story of the Easter Bells. In France, they say that the bells fall silent at Easter because they have gone to Rome to be blessed. They return on Easter Sunday, dropping chocolate eggs in gardens for children to find. We also learnt a traditional French nursery rhyme about a rabbit - Mon petit lapin a bien du chagrin.
In music we have continued with the story Handa's surprise and made our own African music.
In come and see we learnt all about the Easter story, the children asked some brilliant questions and could retell parts of the story. We used the Easter story as our art this week, making pictures of what happened.
And on Friday afternoon, we had our last Tots on Tyres session with Mrs Cookson.
Next week our learning will be all about Easter and Spring. We will also welcome Mrs Stone back from her maternity leave!
Year 4 Blog Friday 31st March 2023
Date: 31st Mar 2023 @ 1:03pm
Year 4 Blog
Friday 31st March 2023
Welcome to your Friday blog.
Everyone looked fabulous on Thursday when they dressed up for World Book Day! You can see some pictures of us in our costumes here.
It’s been another very busy week in Year 4 – here’s what we have been learning:
In English, we started our new novel, The Firework Maker’s Daughter by Philip Pullman. We looked carefully at the front cover and made predictions about the plot and themes of the novel. In addition, we were introduced to some key characters, Lila, Chulak, Hamlet and Lalchand. We used evidence from the text to describe the main character, Lila. We also read the stories we had published to both Year 5 and Year 6. You can see some pictures of our story telling here.
In Maths, we practised division using partitioning (mental division) and using the formal written method of chunking, both without and with a remainder. Many of us found this tricky, again because we are not yet confident with our tables.
In French this week, we looked at some paintings by Matisse and expressed our opinions of them. We then read some French sentences and decided which sentences applied to which work of art. After Easter, we will make our own collage in the style of Matisse and describe it in French.
In RE, we started our new topic - Self-discipline. We discussed what this means and how we need to be especially self-disciplined throughout Lent.
In Geography, we looked carefully at a map of our local coastline (Lancashire and Merseyside). We then used ‘Digimaps’ to find features found on our local coastline and labelled these on our maps. In addition, we provided a key to the symbols.
In PSHE, we matched feelings to a scale of intensity and identified strong feelings. We also described different feelings and how they may be experienced in the body.
In DT, we practised 3 different stitches (running stitch, back stitch and over stitch). We then planned and designed the product we wanted to make (a purse, pencil case or phone holder). This included drawing, labelling and annotating our design on a planning sheet. Next, we collected the resources needed and made our product. You can see pictures of us in action here. Next week, we will be evaluating our creations to consider what we felt went well, what didn’t go so well, and whether our product is fit for purpose.
It was our last swimming lesson this week. We have thoroughly enjoyed our lessons and have all made lots of progress with our swimming. Well done to all of Year 4!
Home Practice
Reading
Please read out loud to somebody for 20 minutes each evening. Try retelling what you have read to someone else. Remember to focus on fluency, understanding, and adding expression to your reading.
Counting
This week, please practise counting in hundredths
For example, start at 0.01 to 0.17 and back again
0.01 0.02 0.03 etc 0.17 0.16 0.15 etc
Then start at 2.56 and count to 2.75 and back again
2.56 2.57 2.58 etc 2.75 2.74 2.73 etc
Times tables
You should know your individual tables target. These will be tested next Wednesday (5th April 2023).
Remember you can also practise your tables playing Hit the Button and timestables.co.uk
Please practise your tables each night as this will help you in lots of different aspects of maths and many of you are finding them tricky to apply in different contexts.
Spellings
As we had a big spelling test this week, we will spend next week revising spellings we have previously learnt. We will be practising these each day in class. There will be no spelling test next week!
Sumdog challenges
You have been set 2 challenges on Sumdog:
- A tables challenge - using place value and known facts to multiply and divide mentally
- A division challenge - dividing by 2, 4, 5 and 6
Please make sure you log on and have a go! Little and often is the key to success!
As there are only 2 Sumdog challenges this week, please take a little time to practise doubling and halving numbers again. You can practise this on Hit the Button. Click on ‘play game’ then select either halves or doubles – choose any of the games, they are all good practise! Good luck!
Another app for practising tables and number facts is One Minute Maths from White Rose. It is free to download from the AppStore and PlayStore. There are lots of excellent games you can play which will help you brush up your mental maths skills. Please do your best to access this fabulous free resource! Knowing your tables and number facts off by heart is crucial and will help you in many different areas of maths.
Have a relaxing weekend
The Year 4 Team
We have attached a new online safety guide 'What Parents and Carers Need to Know about Age-Inappropriate Content'. Please Read.
Year 6 Blog Friday 31st March 2023
Date: 31st Mar 2023 @ 1:02pm
Welcome to our Year 6 blog.
On Thursday, we had a super time celebrating World Book Day with a special assembly about Tyrus Wong, the Chinese American immigrant who was responsible for the creation of Disney’s Bambi. Please see the pictures of the great outfits on our Year 6 gallery.
On Friday, Year 4 surprised us with a visit to show their excellent adventure stories based on Adolphus Tips. We then showed our persuasive adverts to buy a house – super writing by all! Please see the pictures on the Year 6 gallery.
We have attached a new online safety guide 'What Parents and Carers Need to Know about Age-Inappropriate Content'. Please Read.
REMINDER
For the last week of orienteering (weather depending), please bring in extra trainers (preferably old ones) that you do not mind getting dirty and a plastic bag to keep them in.
Our learning in Year 6 this week:
- In Maths, we learnt to work out mode, median, range and mean in a set of data. We also practised how to convert length, mass and capacity with different reasoning questions.
- In English, our main character, Michael, and his family have recently moved to a new house with an estate agent showing them around. We used this to learn formal persuasive ways to speak and become an estate agent to sell a fictional house.
- In RE, we learnt about Jesus’ journey through Holy Week, discussing how He must have felt and why Jesus sacrificed himself. We then created an information page about what happened.
- In PE, we used our school grounds map (created by cross curriculum orienteering) to find hidden letters around the school to form the secret message. We made sure we orientated the map correctly all the way around the course.
- In History, we investigated the Maya timeline by plotting events in chronological order. We learnt where and when they lived and the main events that happened during the Maya era.
- In French, to round off our learning about the geography of France, we read a classic French poem, Dans Paris by Paul Eluard. We then wrote togetherin the same style. - Dans Longton. The children's pronunciation of new French words is impressive - great phonics, Y6.
- In Science, we completed the investigation involving burning crisps to see how much energy they contain. The children then used the results to say what they had found out and to evaluate the investigation, explaining how it could be improved. You would be amazed how much black smoke comes off one crisp - most off-putting!
Home Practice all relates to this week’s learning. These are the tasks needed to be completed:
Reading
- Please keep reading every day to build up stamina. A great idea is to read 20-30 pages a day (you can read more) in one sitting, as this will build up your ability to read at length for long periods of time.
Spellings (challenge words)
- Sumdog (Year 6 Sp 2 wk 7 Challenge words 3)
average, awkward, correspond, forty, interrupt, lightning, occur, relevant, sacrifice, excellent, recognise, sincere, sufficient, variety, vehicle
The main spellings will be the ones above, but as we are consolidating our learning of spelling strategies and spelling rules, Sumdog has included these 5 below in the online challenge.
(according, bargain, develop, equip, physical)
Maths challenges:
- Counting:
- This week, please practise counting in 90s and 900s
- For example, start at 2 360 and count up to 2 960 and back again
- 2 360, 2 450, 2 540 etc 2 960, 2 870, 2 780, etc
- Also, start at 8 800 and count up to 17 800 and back again
- 8 800, 9 700, 10 600, etc 17 800, 16, 900, 16 000, etc
- Sumdog (Squared and cubed numbers)
- This challenge will help recognise squared and cubes numbers. Remember – squared numbers are numbers multiplied by itself twice (3 squared = 3 x 3; 4 squared = 4 x 4)
Cubed numbers are numbers multiplied by itself three times
( 3 cubed = 3 x 3 x 3; 4 cubed = 4 x 4 x 4)
- Sumdog (Volume using cubes and formula)
This week, use your knowledge of times tables and the volume formula (length x width x height) to solve the questions quickly. Some will be word problems so try not to rush them – aim for accuracy.
Year 2 Blog Friday 31st March 2023
Date: 31st Mar 2023 @ 1:01pm
A very exciting week in Year 2, the children looked amazing in their World Book Day costumes. Have a look at the photo gallery! We did a lot of reading and listened to a selection of stories being read by the authors. In English, the children wrote about their favourite books and characters, remembering to use capital letters and full stops, also interesting adjectives. We started reading one of our new books, Fox by Margaret Wild and Ron Brooks. It was about the Australian outback, with lots of new vocabulary to learn. We will also be reading the Tin Forest by Helen Ward and Wayne Anderson and The Whales’ Song by Dyan Sheldon and Gary Blyth. These are all stories with a wild theme. In Maths, we have moved on to measuring length in cm with a ruler. The children took care to measure lines and shapes accurately with their rulers. In RE, we learnt about Palm Sunday. In Science, we sorted different materials on a Venn diagram. In P.E, we did ball skills and small games outside. The children learnt more about French phonics this week, looking at the sound 'un'. They enjoyed a song and dance with lots of 'un' words in, then practised reading and writing words in French containing this grapheme. Well done, year 2. Great understanding!
Outdoor Learning
Some of us used our skills of using tools safely to make a hedgehog using a wood slice, nails and screws.
We chose some of own learning in the lodge and the nature area. Some of us planted seeds including dill, coriander and basil. We hope that we are going to have plenty of plants growing when we return after the Easter holiday.
Reading
In Year 2, children should read for at least 15/20 minutes every night and talk about the book. This will help with understanding the text and learning new words.
Reading books are changed every Wednesday. 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.
Reading resources:
Oxford Owl – This resource has an exciting range of carefully levelled books to help children learn to read and really enjoy it.
If parents and children decide to use this resource, we ask they access phase 5 books. Go to https://www.oxfordowl.co.uk/ and select ‘my class login’. Scroll down to the ‘eBook Library for Letters & Sounds’. You could also explore the rest of the site and read books from the Oxford Owl eBook library or listen to audio books.
Username: sto2
Password: 1234
Resources for questioning your child while they are reading - https://www.literacyshedblog.com/uploads/1/2/5/7/12572836/ks1_reading_vipers.pdf
In addition to this, reading a good bed time story to your child is so worthwhile and really helps towards a lifelong love of reading.
Spelling
Please practise these spellings for your quiz on Thursday (01.04.23). A sheet will go home every Friday with the spelling list on. This is for home practise only and can be kept with you.
You will have a Sumdog challenge on these words to complete by Thursday 01.04.23.
This week’s spellings:
Words ending – er/est. Including two words from the Year 1/2 spelling list.
nicer fastest
later oldest
rider cleanest
writer father
bravest class
Maths
Great effort learning your division facts for the 2x tables in order.
Next week for our quiz (Thursday 01.04.23) we will be learning the division facts for the 2x table in a random order.
Count in 2’s forwards and backwards, see how quickly you can go, but it must still be accurate. Challenge yourself and go past 100. Chant/sing the division facts for the x2 table. Ask an adult to quiz you on them in a random order.
You will have a 2x table and division facts challenge on Sumdog to complete by Thursday 01.04.23.
Here are some links to other maths games/apps the children can play to help them learn their number facts.
Topmarks.co.uk also have and English section for phonics/spellings games. If you explore the site you will find lots of different games that are relevant to Year 2.
https://www.topmarks.co.uk/maths-games/hit-the-button
https://whiterosemaths.com/resources/1-minute-maths
(I believe this app is free to download.)
https://www.topmarks.co.uk/maths-games/5-7-years/counting
https://www.topmarks.co.uk/maths-games/5-7-years/multiplication-and-division
Sumdog
Log in at www.sumdog.com
For our D.T project next week, we will be making vehicles. Please could you send in any small boxes (no bigger than a shoe box) for your child to use. I do have some spares but not enough for everyone!
Have a lovely weekend.
Year 2 Team.
We have attached a new online safety guide 'What Parents and Carers Need to Know about Age-Inappropriate Content'. Please Read.
Date: 31st Mar 2023 @ 8:06am
Welcome to your Friday Blog!
This week we have finished our RE topic on Listening and Sharing and our PSHE learning on communities. The children's ideas and contributions have been wonderful and we have had some really rich discussions in class.
In English this week we have written our reports on the bullfight using some fantastic vocabulary and sentence openers. We have just reached the part of the story when Antonio's home is bombed by fighter planes. We will be exploring his thoughts and feelings in the week ahead.
In maths this week we have been revisiting our column addition and subtraction. We also learned how to estimate totals using rounding to the nearest 100 and the nearest 10. Everyone did really well with this and showed brilliant reasoning.
As part of our Ancient Egypt topic, we are looking at the Egyptian gods and how they were depicted in wall art. We learned all about Ra, Sekhmet and Bastet and why the Ancient Egyptians prayed to them. Below we have attached a video we watched about some of the other Egyptian gods. There were over 2000! We practiced sketching them ahead of our fabric art next week.
On Thursday we had a brilliant St Oswald's World Book Day. You all looked great in your costumes and we had a visit from Mrs Novak who shared some of her Revolting Rhymes.We had a wonderful world Assembly reading a story about an artist called Tyrus Wong who worked for Disney. The story was called Paper Son and it explored the challenges he overcame as a Chinese immigrant. Check out our gallery!
In Science, we looked at the plant investigation we set up last week where different plants are deprived of one of the requirements for growth eg light, water. We took measurements and recorded our observations. Then we learnt how water and nutrients are transported around the plant. We set up another investigation to dye celery stalks and white flowers to prove that water/dye travels up the stem to the leaves and flowers. We'll see what happens over the next few days.
We have attached a new online safety guide 'What Parents and Carers Need to Know about Age-Inappropriate Content'. Please Read.
Home Practice
The reading bug has hit Year 3. It was lovely to see everyone bringing in their books this week and swapping them with their friends. Also a huge thank you to Holly who brought in some Roald Dahl books for the class!
Keep reading your school books at home every night for at least 15 minutes.
We have set some number fact practice to improve fluency this week. These might seem a bit easier than normal but we have noticed that some need to increase their speed and accuracy with their number bonds to 20.
Spellings this week all begin with the prefixes super- or auto-. There is a sumdog challenge with these words. Do what you can.
supermarket
superstar
supersonic
supervision
superhero
superimpose
autograph
automatic
autobiography
automated
autocue
automation
Have a great weekend
The Year 3 Team
Date: 30th Mar 2023 @ 6:43pm
Happy Friday and welcome to your Friday Blog.
It has been a wonderful week in Year 5.
We have done lots of exciting learning.
In French, the children used all their learning from the last few weeks to write a paragraph about the planets in French. They did an amazing job! I'm so proud of them and can't wait for you to see the end result. I'm sure you will be just as impressed with the standard of their writing!
In maths we have been identiying factors of numbers, learning about prime numbers, and multiplying a two-digit number by another two-digit number.
A factor is a number that divides another number leaving no remainder, or a number you can multiply by to give a number.
For example:
1, 2, 3 and 6 are factors of 6.
1 x 6 = 6 2 x 3 = 6
A prime number is a number with only two factors, one and itself.
For example:
2 is a prime number because its only factors are 1 and 2.
7 is a prime number because its only factors are 1 and 7.
9 is not a prime number because its factors are 1, 3 and 9.
In English we have been writing a battle scene between Peter and The White Witch from The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. Our focus was to set the scene for the battle where the reader worries for Peter. Next we will describe the battle from Peter's point of view. We have found this very exciting and everybody has done such a brilliant job so far.
On Thursday we had our very own St Oswald's World Book Day. It was great to see everybody in their costumes and talk about our favourite characters and books. We used World Book Day as inspiration for our art lesson where we created our own imaginary world behind wardrobe doors. It was great to see such creative ideas.
You can see us celebrating the wonderful world of reading here.
We continued with our PSHE topic all about communicating safely online. So many of the children are now messaging, video chatting, sending videos and chatting on games. It is so important to always be kind online and make sure parents know exactly what the children are doing whilst online.
In our PSHE lesson we thought about all of the different ways we can communicate online including:
SMS (text message)
Online messaging (e.g. What's App)
Social media (e.g. Instagram Facebook)
Gaming (e.g. Roblox)
Video calling (e.g. FaceTime)
We then spoke about things that can be shared online, who we communicate with, age restrictions and how to make sure we are being responsible.
The children were very open and enjoyed talking about their experiences online.
We have attached a new online safety guide 'What Parents and Carers Need to Know about Age-Inappropriate Content'. Please Read.
Home Practice
Reading
Read out loud every day for 20 minutes.
Look out for words that are written in a different way for example IN CAPITAL LETTERS, in bold or in itallics. Talk about why they are written in this way.
Spelling
Here are your spellings which you will be tested on after Half Term so please practise next week.
bicycle centre decide describe exercise experience experiment extreme increase library medicine mention minute occasion occasionally
Counting
Count out loud in:
2s from 2 to negative 20.
2, 0, -2, -4, ...
3s from 1 to negative 17.
1, -2, -5, -8, ...
30s from 32 to 302.
32, 62, 92, 122, 152, ...
Times Tables
You have been given your new tables target. Please practise every day.
I'm sure you have noticed how often we use our times tables in maths - all the time!
Sumdog
Wow, what an amazing effort in the Sumdog compeition this week! Well done everybody.
Times Tables Challenge
Spelling Challenge
Maths Competition
DT
Please bring in a cereal box next week to use in our DT lesson. We are going make a prototype (practise version) of our toy for Year 1.
Have an amazing weekend all you amazing children :)
Year 1 Blog - Friday 31st March
Date: 29th Mar 2023 @ 5:44pm
Welcome to your final Friday blog of March.
This week we have also attached a new online safety guide 'What Parents and Carers Need to Know about Age-Inappropriate Content'. Please Read.
English
This we we started to write our own version of the story, Scaredy Squirrel Has A Birthday Party. We had so many decisions to make...where to hold the party, things which might spoil the party, ideas for small talk, extra items which might be needed in an emergency! Scaredy Squirrel thinks of everything!
We role played being Scaredy Squirrel talking about his party.
We will read our books to other classes when we have finished them.
Phonics
Some of us were learning about or as in fork and oi as in coin. Some of us were learning or as in door, walk, roar and core.
Click here to sing some phonics songs.
Maths
We started looking at division problem questions that required us to share objects equally. We started with halving numbers and then built up to sharing into more groups (e.g. share 10 apples between 5 children). We quickly realised that we can easily halve even numbers but it isn't easy to halve odd numbers.
We made sure that we did lots of counting together to check our answers!
Click here to play Hit the Button - click halves to 10.
R.E.
We focused on Palm Sunday and learnt about Jesus being welcomed by people with palm leaves. We made our own welcome banner for Jesus and role played welcoming Him. Then, we learnt the Easter story, focusing on the lead up to Jesus' crucifixion.
P.S.H.E.
After recapping how we can earn money, we learnt about how we can save money. We thought about where our money can be kept safely - a piggy bank, a purse, with adults, and then we learnt about bank accounts and how we can keep large amounts of money safe. We then made a poster about how, and where, we can save our money.
P.E.
This week, we tried throwing and catching with larger, lighter balls. This was quite tricky outside but we quickly learnt to come closer to our partners to stop the ball from being dropped. We then played a game of throwing and catching rounders to improve our teamwork skills.
Computing
We did some tricky learning this week on the laptops! We learnt how to drag and drop objects into sorting groups using the trackpad. We learnt that we had to click with one finger and move another finger - at the same time.
History
We learnt about two very significant inventors - The Wright Brothers. We learnt that they invented the first aeroplane and made the first flight possible. We compared past aeroplanes to present day planes and then wrote about why the brothers are significant. We even tried to make our own paper aeroplanes!
Art
We sketched a story map of our favourite stories on World Book Day.
French
We listened to La legende des Cloches de Paques - the story of the Easter Bells. In France, they say that the bells fall silent at Easter because they have gone to Rome to be blessed. They return on Easter Sunday, dropping chocolate eggs in gardens for children to find. We practised some vocabulary related to Easter with a hunt the word game.
Outdoor Learning
Some of us used our skills of using tools safely to make a hedgehog using a wood slice, nails and screws.
We chose some of own learning in the lodge and the nature area. Some of us planted seeds including dill, coriander and basil. We hope that we are going to have plenty of plants growing when we return after the Easter holiday.
World Book Day
All of your outfits were absolutely amazing! The children looked incredible. Thank you also to the two mums who came in to read to the children, the children loved it!
Home Practice
Phonics - or words/ore words
Maths - Addition and subtraction
KEEP READING EVERY NIGHT!
EVEN MORE CHILDREN THAN LAST WEEK CHANGED THEIR READING BOOKS SEVERAL TIMES! THIS IS BRILLIANT AND IT IS REALLY HAVING A GREAT IMPACT ON THEIR PROGRESS.
READING BOOKS WILL BE CHANGED ON THURSDAY NEXT WEEK.
Date: 24th Mar 2023 @ 4:04pm
Welcome to your Friday blog.
This week we have been working hard on our writing presentation and enjoyed reading our new story, Toro! Toro! We have also been exploring our Ancient Egypt learning and writing our own hyroglyphics.
In English we have met Uncle Juan the Matador and Antonio has gone to his first Corrida. We wrote some responses as Antonio, exploring his feelings and what we would have done in his shoes. We also have planned a report on the bullfight ready for next week. Everyone has worked hard this week to make their writing look beautiful on the page.
In Maths we have been revisiting our column addition and subtraction. A lot of our learning from last term was remembered and lots of good reasoning was explained along the way. We also revisited our angles learning and learned all about parallel and perpendicular lines.
Home Practice
Continue to read every night for at least 15 minutes.
Check out our Sumdog challenges. This week we are practising our addition and subtraction. Continue to access the Sumdog Training tool. We have recently reset everyones account so that they are challenged on their hard skills. Well done on those who are practising regularly, we have seen a massive improvement in tables accuracy!
In our spellings, the children have been revisiting our spelling rules for past tense verbs. Knowing these rules will help your children to spell words more accurately. Here are your home spellings for this week.
begged
swimming
wrapping
snapped
splitting
grabbing
sitting
shopping
dripped
topped
skipped
skipping
wrapped
begging
snapping
We are also revisiting our OO,EW and U-E sounds spelling as some of us aren't totally accurate with these just yet.
Have a great weekend
The Year 3 Team
Year 2 Blog Friday 24th March 2023
Date: 24th Mar 2023 @ 3:59pm
A great week Year 2, everyone has been working so hard. In English, we have finished our novel, The Owl who was Afraid of the Dark by Jill Tomlinson. The children described Plop using alliteration. They also planned and wrote some lovely spring poems, using their senses to gather more creative ideas. In Maths, we have continued our work on measure by ordering the mass of objects and weighing classroom items. Our new topic in Science is Everyday Materials, we thought about what we already know about materials and asked questions about what we would like to find out. We learnt about the countries and capital cities of the United Kingdom in Geography. The children worked in groups during PE and put together small dances using the elements of fire, water, earth and air. The children began their learning journey into French phonics this week, looking at the sound 'un'. They enjoyed a song and dance with lots of 'un' words in, then practised reading and writing words in French containing this grapheme. Well done, year 2. Great understanding! This week's highlight was a visit from the firefighters. They talked to the children about fire safety at home. We were so impressed with the children's questions and they even got to dress up in some fire gear.
Outdoor Learning
This week we did a variety of learning. One of our sessions was learning how to use the hammers and screwdrivers safely. We are then applying these new skills to make a hedgehog. We also made Spring wreaths out of willow. This week was the Spring or Vernal Equinox when there is about the same amount of hours of light and dark.
We took advantage of the sunnier weather on Friday to make shadow faces.
If we didn't do one of the sessions we will catch up next week.
Reading
In Year 2, children should read for at least 15/20 minutes every night and talk about the book. This will help with understanding the text and learning new words.
Reading books are changed every Wednesday. 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.
Reading resources:
Oxford Owl – This resource has an exciting range of carefully levelled books to help children learn to read and really enjoy it.
If parents and children decide to use this resource, we ask they access phase 5 books. Go to https://www.oxfordowl.co.uk/ and select ‘my class login’. Scroll down to the ‘eBook Library for Letters & Sounds’. You could also explore the rest of the site and read books from the Oxford Owl eBook library or listen to audio books.
Username: sto2
Password: 1234
Resources for questioning your child while they are reading - https://www.literacyshedblog.com/uploads/1/2/5/7/12572836/ks1_reading_vipers.pdf
In addition to this, reading a good bed time story to your child is so worthwhile and really helps towards a lifelong love of reading.
Spelling
Please practise these spellings for your quiz on Friday (31.03.23). A sheet will go home every Friday with the spelling list on. This is for home practise only and can be kept with you.
You will have a Sumdog challenge on these words to complete by Friday 31.03.23.
This week’s spellings:
Words ending - ed. Including two words from the Year 1/2 spelling list.
turned chopped
played tried
jumped cried
walked last
stopped past
Maths
Great effort learning your 2x tables in a random order. Keep up the fantastic work!
Next week for our quiz (31.02.23) we will be learning the division facts for the 2x table in order. You will have a 2x division facts poster to help you learn them.
Count in 2’s forwards and backwards, see how quickly you can go, but it must still be accurate. Challenge yourself and go past 100. Chant/sing the division facts for the x2 table. Ask an adult to quiz you on them in order.
You will have a 2x table and division facts challenge on Sumdog to complete by Friday 31.03.23. There will also be a challenge on measure.
Here are some links to other maths games/apps the children can play to help them learn their number facts.
Topmarks.co.uk also have and English section for phonics/spellings games. If you explore the site you will find lots of different games that are relevant to Year 2.
https://www.topmarks.co.uk/maths-games/hit-the-button
https://whiterosemaths.com/resources/1-minute-maths
(I believe this app is free to download.)
https://www.topmarks.co.uk/maths-games/5-7-years/counting
https://www.topmarks.co.uk/maths-games/5-7-years/multiplication-and-division
Sumdog
Log in at www.sumdog.com
Remember we will be dressing up on Thursday 30th March for St Oswald’s World Book Day.
Have a lovely weekend.
Year 2 Team.
Year 4 Blog Friday 24th March 2023
Date: 24th Mar 2023 @ 3:54pm
Year 4 Blog
Friday 24th March 2023
Welcome to your Friday blog. Here’s what we have been learning this week:
In English, we published our adventure stories choosing either to hand write them or use a word processor. We also designed a sleeve (the front and back cover) and wrote the blurb to tempt others to read our story. We are looking forward to sharing our stories with Year 6 next week.
In Maths, we learnt how to accurately double a number with ones and tenths and also solved grid multiplication problems - this required identifying missing numbers in a calculation. Many of us found this tricky as we are still not confident with our times tables. We also started our new topic - division. We began by halving numbers with all even digits followed by halving numbers with some odd digits!
In French this week, we learnt that feminine nouns usually end with the letter e. This helped us decide whether we need un or une as a determiner. Then we recapped the shape words and began to look at the work of Matisse, a French artist, and tried to spot the shapes he used.
In Science, we began the topic of Sound by thinking about what we already knew. then we did a carousel of activities designed to make vibrations visible. By the end of the lesson, we had learnt that sound is caused by vibrations.
In Art, we explored different fonts of the first letter of our names on the ipads. We then copied some that we liked into our Art Books. We will be using all the ideas we have explored to design our own illuminated letter next week.
In RE, we finished our ‘Giving and receiving’ topic with a beautiful class Collective Worship.
In Geography, we looked at a map of the UK and located our local coastline (Lancashire and Merseyside). We then gave a title to the map and used colour to indicate where our local coastline is.
During our swimming lesson, we practised swimming lengths in different strokes. We have all made lots of progress with our swimming over the past 9 weeks. Our last swimming lesson will be next Wednesday.
We have also added a guide on how to promote kindness when online. Have a look below.
Home Practice
Reading
Please read out loud to somebody for 20 minutes each evening. Try retelling what you have read to someone else. Remember to focus on fluency and understanding, and add some expression to your reading too.
Counting
This week, please practise counting in 100's
For example, start at 600 and count back to 2400 and back again
600 700 800 etc 2400 2300 2200 etc
Times tables
You should know your individual tables target. These will be tested next Wednesday (29th March 2023).
Remember you can also practise your tables playing Hit the Button and timestables.co.uk
Please practise your tables each night as this will help you in lots of different aspects of maths and many of you are finding them tricky to apply in different contexts.
Spellings
Here are next week’s spellings. You will be tested on these next Friday (31st March 2023).
quarter purpose enough bicycle experience
exercise knowledge special appear breadth
busy calendar favourite opposite particular
Sumdog challenges
You have been set 2 challenges on Sumdog:
- A spelling challenge based on the spellings above.
- A times tables challenge based on the 2, 4, 6 and 8 times tables
Please make sure you log on and have a go! Little and often is the key to success!
As there are only 2 Sumdog challenges this week, please take a little time to practise doubling and halving number as we have been learning about this in class. You can practise this on Hit the Button. Click on ‘play game’ then select either halves or doubles. Good luck!
Another app for practising tables and number facts is One Minute Maths from White Rose. It is free to download from the AppStore and PlayStore. There are lots of excellent games you can play which will help you brush up your mental maths skills. Please do your best to access this fabulous free resource! Knowing your tables and number facts off by heart is crucial and will help you in many different areas of maths.
Have a relaxing weekend
The Year 4 Team