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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.

See our pictures here.

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.

Click here for photos.

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 6^th 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 12^th 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

You can see us rounding here. 

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!

Year 6 Blog Friday 22nd September 2023

Date: 22nd Sep 2023 @ 3:50pm

Welcome to the Year 6 weekly blog.

This week we have focused on our speaking and listening skills when having class discussions or working in groups. We also focused on presenting our work to be made as neatly as possible, with regular handwriting sessions to help.

On Thursday, Year 3 and Year 6 were fortunate to be invited to attend Mass for a Reception blessing.  

The 'Meet the Teacher' slides are attached to this blog, for anyone who missed the evening. 

This week’s learning in Year 6:

• We have learnt how to round numbers to the nearest tenth, whole number and a million, where we used number lines to represent our understanding. We then used counters to add or subtract any power of ten from any number.

• In English we learnt how to describe settings, using well chosen noun phrases with a mixture of prepositions and personification.

• In Geography, our topic of Mountains continued with research on one of the 6 following mountains: Mount Everest, Ben Nevis, Mount Fuji, Mount Kilimanjaro, Mount Ararat and K2. Each group then delivered a short presentation on their chosen mountain.

• In PE, we split into small teams to work on the 3 main strategies we have been focusing on: find a space, communication and simple pass.

• In Art, we continued our topic, ‘2D Drawing to 3D Making’, by sketching a silhouette of a dog, focusing on proportion. We will scale up on large sheets next week.

• In French, we used our review sheets to practise responding to key questions: ‘comment ?a va?’, ‘comment tu t’appelles’, ‘quel âge as-tu?’, ‘quelle est ta couleur préférée?’, ‘as-tu des frères et soeurs?’ and ‘tu as des animaux?’. We also recapped how to say the date and our birthdays, using a help sheet with the days of the week, numbers 1-31, the months and how to say the years.

• In Science, we developed our knowledge of classification by grouping animals using a classification key.

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 (ei / ie words)

• Sumdog (ie / ei wk 3)
• chief, shield, receipt, receive, friend, patient, weigh, weird, protein, deceive, belief, ancient, medieval, glacier, mischievous,

Maths challenges:

• Counting:
  • This week we have been counting in decimal steps of 100, 100 and 250 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.
  • Start with different numbers and count up 10 numbers then back again in 100:

645, 745, 845, 945, 1 045, 1 145, etc

and in 200:

645, 845, 1 045, 1 245, etc          

Start with different numbers and count up and back in 250s:

1 850, 2 100, 2 350, 2 600, etc    

• Sumdog (Times Tables - week 3)
  • 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, 4s and 5s, which will be great practice for the future. (Every Tuesday there is a tables test).

• Sumdog (Place Value - week 3)
  • This week’s learning is to round numbers to different powers of 10.
  • 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 3 Friday 22nd September 2023

Date: 22nd Sep 2023 @ 12:55pm

Welcome to your Friday Blog

We have had an amazing week of learning in Year 3. Everyone is showing a brilliant attitude to everything we do and we are very impressed! We are really improving our listening skills and independent learning. Keep up the hard work!

We have been looking at descriptive writing this week. We visited the Twit's home and garden and wrote some fantastic descriptions. Everyone has been trying to improve their handwriting and presentation, remembering to write on the lines and form our letters correctly. It makes a huge difference when our writing looks beautiful!  Amazing effort everyone!

In our maths learning this week we have been learning how to add and subtract 10s and 100s to three digit numbers. Next week we will be learning new strategies to add and subtract. Make sure you go on the Sumdog challenge as it is a warm up for the coming week's learning. 

In Science this week we explored the muscles in the arm and investigated how muscles can contract and relax and sometimes work in pairs.

Did you know there are over 600 muscles in the human body!

In Art we looked at chiaroscuro, which is an Italian art form exploring light and dark. We used our charcoal to create depth and form in our pieces. Check out our gallery.

In PE we practised our throwing and catching as well as feinting passes as part of our invasion games topic. We learned lob, chest and bounce passes and discussed when was best to use each. Have a look in our galleries.

In computing this week we explored different digital devices and what they can be used for. We debated whether it was best to use a digital or non digital devices in different scenarios.

Home Practice

Keep changing your books regularly and read for at least 15-20 minutes every night! 

Well done to everyone who completed their Sumdog challenges and even had some time to practise on the Sumdog Training. Three new challenges have been added today. Remember, little and often every night will benefit your children with their learning in school.

Try and do a little counting at home as well. This will promote number fluency and understanding. There are lots of counting games here at ictgames.com that we use in school. You will also find lots of counting songs on YouTube.

We have given out your home spellings to practice for next week's test. In our spelling lessons this week we have been revisiting our spelling strategies. We have been breaking our words into syllables to help us spell more accurately and using what we already know to spell new words.

Here are your spellings for this week.

Have an amazing weekend!

The Year 3 Team

Reception Blog - Friday 22nd September 2023

Date: 22nd Sep 2023 @ 12:54pm

We started our week doing drawings of some autumn treasures the children have been bringing in to class, for our Art topic; 'what can we see?' Whilst doing these drawings we talked about how the conkers felt and how different the shells were.

In phonics this week, we have been doing the s, a and t sounds. We have been learning the songs that go with the sounds, the rhymes to write them and having a go at writing them ourselves.

The Drawing Club has been lots of fun this week. We have been doing the story of the Little Red Hen. One of our challenges was to design our own disgusting bread and the other was to create a bad character to come and steal the bread. The children loved creating these and did some fantastic codes to go with their drawings.

In Maths we have focussed on a different number each day, from 1-5. What that number looks like and how to make it. Together we made posters for each number, for our wall in class.

Miss Whiting came in for French this week and we recapped bonjour and learnt our new word, au revior for goodbye. The children have loved saying this to each other every day. In Music with Mrs Winter we were using the maracas to find a beat. The children loved finding the beat whilst singing the name song. They even performed it to each other at the end, fantastic!

We have also had PE and did lots of throwing and catching.

In RE we have been talking about how special we are. We used a treasure box to see our reflection, talk about how God loves us and how we are special. We then made our own faces out of material for our worship table.

To finish our week it was Fab Friday. Each child took part in either Yoga or Forest School. We also had PSHE where we talked about missing people when we are at school. The children had lots of ideas on how to make themselves feel better about this. These included playing with our friends and painting. We then looked at our Understanding the World past and present topic, Ourselves. We shared the book 'Once There Were Giants.' The children loved seeing the young girl growing up throughout the story, relating some of the scenarios to themselves. We then watched a video of Mrs Robinson's and Mrs Stone's children and how they have grown since they were babies.

Another fantastic week Reception, well done!

Year 2 Blog Friday 22nd September 2023

Date: 21st Sep 2023 @ 4:24pm

We have had a brilliant week of learning in Year 2 this week. Thank you to everyone who came to ‘Meet the Teachers’ on Tuesday evening, it was great to see so many of you. Our harvest box has arrived in class, thank you if you have already brought something in for the harvest festival. You still have a few weeks – Harvest festival is Friday 6^th October.

In Maths, we have continued our learning of Place Value. We have looked at partitioning one and two digit numbers. We have also learnt how to exchange using tens and ones. In English the children have written super poems all about autumn. The children came up with great ideas about what autumn is like, used talk partners to share their ideas and focused on beautiful handwriting in their presentation.  In RE this week the children have written lovely Psalms and created a beautiful picture to go with them. In History the children have compared London today and London in 1666. They looked at the similarities and differences and wrote what they found. In Computing we discussed what we thought about the use of I.T around our school. The topic for Science this half term is Living things and their Habitats. For Science this week, the children have compared things that are alive, not alive and never been alive. 

Forest School

In our first session we read a story about Firey Fox which explained how we need to behave around a fire.  We watched the fire being lit then collected apples which had fallen off the trees in the nature area. We cored them and cut them into segments. We dipped them in sugar and cinnamon and then toasted them of the fire. Yummy! We were sheltered from the rain in our new fire pit area.

Some of us had a go at starting a fire using a flint and steel.

The weather was beautiful for our second session. We went on a leaf hunt and found as many different leaves as we could. We used shape cutters to make holes in the leaves. We had many ideas about how to develop our learning by glueing, colouring, sewing and investigating pattern.

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 (27.09.23). 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:

I                  has

is                was

be                you

he                your

his              they

Maths

At home, can you count forwards and backwards in twos? Start at 0 and count up to 24. Challenge yourself and go to 36!

Sumdog

You will have a place value and 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.

If you haven't already brought wellies in for Forest School, please bring them in next week.

Have a good weekend.

Year 2 Team

Year 1 Blog Friday 22nd September 2023

Date: 21st Sep 2023 @ 3:35pm

Welcome to your Friday blog.

English

We continued to learn about the Large Family through the story 'A Piece of Cake'.

The Large Family were struggling to stay healthy as they were tempted by a cake given to them by Granny! We drew our own cakes, sorted healthy and unhealthy food, wrote about what the characters were saying, read the Large Family books and wrote sentences about how they were being healthy.

Click here to watch some Large Family videos.

Phonics

Some of us have been recapping phase 3 oi in coin and ear in dear and some of us have learnt phase 5 ea in leaf and oy in toy.

Click here to sing the oi song.

Click here to sing the oy song.

Maths

We learnt about how numbers are made up of tens and ones. We made numbers using bundles of straws, base ten and ten frames. we had a go at marking our own work as this helps us to understand the learning.

We practised counting in 1s, 2s, 5s and 10s.

R.E.

We learnt all about being a part of God's family. We wrote about how God takes care of us and drew some lovely pictures of Him watching over us.

P.E.

We practised running fast and skipping. This was quite tricky but we persevered. We learnt that it isn't always the girls who are better at skipping, the boys are too.

Science

We learnt all about the human body and our different body parts, such as leg, arm, foot, knee and elbow. We drew around our bodies and labelled each body part. We even played a game of 'Miss Fisher says' (SImon says!) and sang head, shoulders, knees and toes.

Art

We continued learning about the spiral pattern and focused on snails. We drew our own snail shell and used oil pastels to emphasise the colour. They looked great!

P.S.H.E.

We have been celebrating our similarities and differences this week! We read a lovely story together called 'The same but different too'. Listen to the story here.

We played a game, similar to 'Guess Who' where we had to describe someone in our class using 'This person has...' sentences. It was a lot of fun!

Geography

We learnt all about school's address this week and what an address tells us. We found school on Google Maps and answered some questions such as 'how do you get to school?'

Computing

We used the iPads to practise digital painting on Paintz. This time, we made our own version of Piet Mondrian's abstract art. We used the straight line and fill tools to do this.

Forest School

In our first session we read a story about Firey Fox which explained how we need to behave around a fire.  We watched the fire being lit then collected apples which had fallen off the trees in the nature area. We cored them and cut them into segments. We dipped them in sugar and cinnamon and then toasted them of the fire. Yummy! We were sheltered from the rain in our new fire pit area.

Some of us had a go at starting a fire using a flint and steel.

The weather was beautiful for our second session. We went on a leaf hunt and found as many different leaves as we could. We used shape cutters to make holes in the leaves. We had many ideas about how to develop our learning by glueing, colouring, sewing and investigating pattern.

Home Practice (Sumdog)

Phonics - ff, ll, ss, zz sounds OR oi words OR oy words

Maths - Count blocks and objects (within 10)

Counting - Count in 1s forwards and backwards from different starting numbers. Try to go beyond 20.

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!

Thank you to everyone who came to the meet the teacher. Our PowerPoint presentation is below.

Year 5 Blog Friday 22nd September 2023

Date: 21st Sep 2023 @ 3:33pm

Happy Friday and welcome to your Friday Blog. 

Thank you to everybody who came to Meet the Teacher last week, if you couldn't make it don't worry, the slideshow is attached to this blog with all of the information you need. 

It has been another amazing week, we didn't let then rain dampen our spirits. 

In maths we have been looking at rounding numbers to the neartest 10, 100, 1000 and 10000. We did this by placing numbers on a number line and identifying what they were closer to. Everybody did an amazing job! 

In English we have been describing a setting to intrigue the reader. We wanted the reader to read our setting description and ask themselves questions like:

What is behind the door?

What was the noise?

Why is it so dark?

What is at the end of the corridor?

We also learned some new vocabulary to include in our writing. See us in action here. 

Everybody did a really great job! 

In computing we have been looking at different types of systems. We identified that a system is a set of things working together to make something happen. All systems have inputs, processes and outputs. We thought about how computer systems work such a sensors in traffic lights, Amazon lockers, washing machines, etc. 

In PE we have been mastering our throwing and catching skills including chest pass, bounce pass, and shoulder pass. We have also been thinking about how to outwit an opponent and how to communicate effectively with our team. We put these skills to practise playing various netball games, it was great fun and everybody was a great team player. 

This week in French we used our review sheets to practise responding to key questions: ‘comment ?a va?’, ‘comment tu t’appelles’, ‘quel âge as-tu?’ and ‘quelle est ta couleur préférée?’. The children did very well to remember some of these. We also started to look at how to say the name of family members and whether we have any brothers or sisters. We listened to ‘Ma Famille’ song to help us.

In geography we were looking at key facts about the UK. We then used an atlas to label the capital cities, seas and oceans of the UK.  We found this quite tricky but we will keep practising. 

You can learn more about the UK and other places on this website, everybody has a login. 

Click on:

Explore the world

Places

Europe

United Kingdom 

https://www.oddizzi.com/teachers/explore-the-world/places/europe/united-kingdom/

You can see what we have been up to in art in our gallery here. 

Home Practice

Geography

Go onto this website, everybody has been given a login. Read more about the UK and also have an explore of the website, what else can you find out?

To find out about the UK click on:

Explore the world

Places

Europe

United Kingdom

https://www.oddizzi.com/teachers/explore-the-world/places/europe/united-kingdom/

Reading

Read out loud to an adult every day for 20 minutes. Talk about whether it is written in the present tense or the past tense and how you know. 

Present tense: an action that is happening right now or in the current moment e.g. she is running, he is ready, they listen, I like it.

Past tense:  an action that has already happened or used to happen e.g. she was running, she ran to the shop, he was ready, they listened well, I used to like it. 

Counting

Count out loud in:

0.1s from 5.12 to 7.12                               5.12     5.22     5.32

0.01s from 76.23 to 76.43                         76.23     76.24     76.25 

100,000s from 135, 609 to 935, 609         135,609     235,609     335,609 

Times Tables

Please practise your own target every day. 

Spelling

Your spellings this week all have a silent letter. Please practise every day, play close attention to the silent letters, how can you remember them? 

doubt          island          lamb          solemn          thistle          knight          thumb          numb          autumn          whistle          muscle          build          February

Sumdog

Maths Competition - individually this time instead of teams

Times Tables Challenge

Spelling Challenge 

Have a happy and fun weekend 

Year 4 Blog Friday 22nd September 2023

Date: 21st Sep 2023 @ 8:54am

Welcome to your Friday blog. We have had a very busy week in Year 4! Here’s what we have been learning:

In English, we continued reading our class novel ‘Kensuke’s Kingdom’.  We discussed Michael’s personality and then wrote a character description, attempting to use different sentence openers. In addition, we looked at the features of an informal letter. Next week we will be planning and writing our own letter from Michael to his best friend Eddie Dodds.

In Maths, we practised rounding numbers to the nearest 10 and 100. We also investigated adding and subtracting 1, 10, 100 and 1000 from 4 digit numbers. This was especially tricky when we needed to bridge the tens and hundreds.

In RE, we heard the story of Esau and Jacob. We discussed their differences and how Jacob managed to get God’s blessing!

In Computing, we refined our symmetrical patterns by accurately rotating, resizing and recolouring different shapes.

In PSHE, we recapped our ground rules and then discussed what we thought ‘self-esteem' meant. After watching a video, we shared and wrote down our ideas about how we can boost our self-esteem. Some suggestions were: be confident in the things you do, keep practising, believe in yourself, be positive, try to achieve new things and don't give up.

In Science, we continued our topic Living Things and their Habitats and learnt how we can group animals in different ways. We recapped the five animal groups and their features: Fish, Mammals, Amphibians, Reptiles and Birds.

In PE, we continued with our netball skills, practising a chest pass and thinking about our footwork. We then applied these skills in a match.

This week in French we used our review sheets to practise responding to key questions: ‘comment ?a va?’, ‘comment tu t’appelles’, ‘comment ?a s’écrit?’, ‘quel âge as-tu?’ and ‘quelle est ta couleur préférée?’. We also started to learn how to say names of family members, for example, brother and sister.

In Art, we had a brief look at the work of Shaun Tan. We also made our own 'scene' and gave it a title. Following this, we practised sketching our scene carefully in our sketch books. Over the coming weeks, we will be exploring how we can create sequenced imagery to share and tell stories.  Have a look at us hard at work sketching in the gallery.

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 100’s – draw a line and some marks on it like I do in class. You could write the numbers down as you count up.  When you count down, cover the numbers up, say the number, then reveal what you have got written down to check you’ve said the correct number.

Count in 100’s

For example, start at 0 and count up to 1500 and back again 

0   100   200   etc                      1500   1400   1300   etc

For example, start at 278 and down up to 1878 and back again

278    378    478           etc              1878   1778   1678   etc

Times tables

You should have been given your times table target this week. Please therefore practise your times table in preparation for your test next week.  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

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.

It is crucial that you learn all of your table facts as this will help you with many aspects of maths.

Spellings

Next week, our spellings will involve revisiting and revising the possessive apostrophe with singular proper nouns. Therefore, there will be no spellings to learn. Instead, we will practise this spelling rule each day in class. You will be tested on this rule next Wednesday.  

Sumdog challenges

You have been set 2 challenges on Sumdog:

• A maths challenge adding and subtracting numbers mentally
• A times tables challenge based on the 5 and 10 times tables

Please make sure you log on and have a go!  Little and often is the key to success!

Have a fabulous weekend

The Year 4 Team

Year 5 Blog Friday 15th September

Date: 15th Sep 2023 @ 3:57pm

Happy Friday and welcome to your Friday Blog. 

It has been our first full week in Year 5 and it has been fantastic. 

We loved our well earned Golden Time on Friday. 

Golden Time Gallery. 

In English we have been reading our class novel Goth Girl. We studied the main character Ada and then described our own character. 

We have also been looking at proper nouns and common nouns. 

A proper noun is the name of a specific person, place or thing, it usually has a capital letter. 

Spain, Primark, KitKat, Lucy. 

A common noun is the name for a type of person, place or thing. 

country, shop, chocolate, girl. 

In maths we have been using place value to order and compare numbers with hundreds of thousands and thousandths. 

We started our new science topic on forces. We investigated to answer the question, What is a force?

We used playdough, toy cars, ramps, and magnets to answer this question. 

We found that a force is a push or pull that can:

Make something move, speed something up, slow something down, change the shape of something, or change the direction of something. 

You can see us in action here. 

In RE we spoke all about our qualities and how we were made to be like God. 

We came up with some qualities like:

I am honest

I am humble

I am positive

I am passionate

I am thoughtful. 

Home Practice

Reading

Please read out loud every day for 20 minutes. Try to identify proper nouns and common nouns. 

Spelling

All of your spellings have the letter string -ough. They make a different sound in different words. Please practise in different ways every day. 

bough          cough          dough          enough          bought          plough          though          thought          through          thorough          rough          although          brought 

Counting

Count out loud in:

6s from 0 to 72 and back again          0, 6, 12, ...

7s from 0 to 84 and back again          0, 7, 14, ...

12s from 0 to 144 and back again       0, 12, 24, ...

Times tables

Please practise your tables target every day. 

Sumdog

Times Tables Challenge

Spelling Challenge

Maths competition

Have an amazing weekend!