Year 3 Friday Blog 6th January 2023

Date: 6th Jan 2023 @ 12:21pm

Welcome back to your Friday Blog and a Happy New Year!

This week everyone has settled back into school really well, ready for a busy term of exciting learning.

In our English this week, we finished the Post Box Mystery by Robert Swindells. It had a very exciting ending and we wrote our own newspaper article, reporting on the alien incident. On Friday we had a go at word processing these and publishing them onto our proud wall. Well done Year 3! Next week we will start our new novel, The Butterfly Lion by Michael Morpurgo.

In Maths we have continued learning about telling the time, this time in one minute intervals. This is always a tricky concept to learn and it takes a lot of practice to get it right. Here is the online resource we used this week if you want to have a look at home.

In our PSHE we started our families topic. We read the classic story Love You Forever by Robert Munsch and discussed what makes a family special.

We also continued our Geography topic, looking at physical geography of the North West of England. We used digital maps to explore the region and found lakes, rivers, hills, forests and much more.

Home Practice

Continue to read every night for at least 15 minutes. The regular reading you have been doing is showing in the progress your children have been making in all areas of the curriculum!

This week we have been learning how to use adverbs in our writing. Your spellings this week are

loudly    quietly      carefully     sadly       quickly       slowly      

  happily      bravely       slowly    clearly              

We have sent home some times tables practise booklets to have a go at as well as the Sumdog challenges. Do what you can. Regular practice will help your children achieve fluency in their number facts.

Have a lovely weekend!

The Year 3 Team

Year 5 Blog Friday 6th January 2023

Date: 5th Jan 2023 @ 7:29pm

Happy New Year! 

Welcome to your first Friday Blog of 2023. 

It has been a great week back and so lovely to see each other again. 

Even though we have only been back at school for 3 days we have done so much exciting learning. 

We started our new class novel in English. It is called Street Child by Berlie Doherty. The novel is set in the Victorian times so we have spent this week learning about different aspects of Victorian life. This will help us as we continue to read the novel. So far we have found out about conditions for street children including the types of jobs they did to earn enough money for food, workhouses, illnesses and diseases and The Industrial Revolution. We have found it all so fascinating and can't wait to read more and find out more. 

To fit in with our novel we are going to start our new history topic in the coming weeks. We are going to be learning about the history of Lancashire and Preston during the Victorian times. See if you can find some facts or photographs of Preston or Lancashire in the past, it will be interesting to find out how these places have changed over the years. 

In maths we have been learning about multiples and factors. We have found it really interesting to look at the patterns and to identify how we can spot a multiple of a certain number. One of the most exciting things we found out is how to recognise a multiple of 3. 

Here are some examples. 

54 is a multiple of 3 because 5 + 4 = 9 and 9 is a multiple of 3. 

51 is a multiple of 3 because 5 + 1 = 6 and 6 is a multiple of 3. 

144 is a multiple of 3 because 1 + 4 + 4 = 9 and 9 is a multiple of 3. 

In PE we ran 6 laps of the infant and junior playgrounds! This was to prepare us for cross country running which we will be starting next week. Don't forget to bring in some old trainers and spare socks for cross country running next week. After our 6 laps we did some tag rugby and some gymnastics. Everybody worked so well in their teams and pairs. 

In French, we played a game of Trapdoor to practise speaking. This involves working with a partner who had chosen the items given by Pere Noel (Father Christmas) and the other person had to guess what was on their list. Then we returned to the topic of Meals and meal times that we started before Christmas. We read a text in French and answered questions in English to show our understanding. 

Home Practice 

Research

Find some facts and photographs of Preston and Lancashire in the past. Bring these to school so we can see how these places have changed over the years. 

Remember

Don't forget to bring in some old trainers and spare socks for PE next week. 

Reading

Read out loud to somebody every day for 20 minutes. Focus on reading with expression - using different voices and taking note of punctuation. 

Times Tables

You have been given your tables target for your test next week. Practise every day. 

Counting

Count out loud in 25s from 0 to 250. 

0          25          50          ...

Count out loud in 50s from 0 to 500.

0          50          10          ...

Count out loud from 500 back to 0.

500          450          400          ...

Sumdog

Complete the Sumdog challenges:

Times tables

Maths Challenge

Spelling Challenge 

Spellings

Here are your spellings this week. They don't follow a rule or pattern however they do all have at least one pair of double letters. Practise your spellings every day using different strategies that we use in class. 

               accommodate          accompany          according          aggressive          apparent             appreciate                                                                                                                                                                                                       attached           committee          communicate          community          embarrass   

                         exaggerate          harass       immediately          interrupt 

Have a super weekend. 

Year 1 Blog- Friday 6th January 2023

Date: 5th Jan 2023 @ 9:56am

Happy New Year to everyone!

We hope you all had a lovely Christmas. We would like to thank you for your thoughtful cards and presents- we really appreciate all your support.

In English we will be learning through traditional tales- our stories will include Hansel and Gretel and The Elves and the Shoemaker.

We will continue our Red Rose Mastery Maths learning, starting with money.

In Science we will be learning about everyday materials and their properties.

Our first topic in R.E. is Special People. 

We are looking forward to all our learning in all our subjects.

This week we learnt about Braille. We are going to look out for Braille when we are out and about.

Please continue to read with your child every night for at least 10 minutes. 

Year 4 Blog Friday 16th December 2022

Date: 20th Dec 2022 @ 7:52am

Year 4 Blog

Friday 16^th December 2022

We've had a lovely last week of term in Year 4 with lots of Christmas activities.

On Monday, we were entertained by All Hallow’s who performed a musical showcase. During the week, we also enjoyed: exchanging cards during the 'Grand Christmas Post', wearing our Christmas jumpers and eating a delicious Christmas lunch. On Thursday afternoon, we took part in a Christingle service in church which reminded us that Jesus is the light of the world.

In addition, this week we also made Christmas cards and calendars, created a podcast in computing and learnt more about Antarctica and the Arctic Circle, including their similarities and differences. We are certainly ready for a rest!

Well done for all your hard work Year 4 - have a happy and relaxing Christmas and New Year.  We look forward to seeing your bright, smiley faces again on Wednesday 4^th January 2023.

Have a lovely Christmas break.

The Year 4 Team.

Year 5 Blog Friday 16th December

Date: 19th Dec 2022 @ 10:20am

Happy Friday, Happy Christmas and a Happy New Year to you all.

We had a wonderful week in school. 

We finished Room 13 and loved it. We then wrote a persuasive piece of writing to go in a holiday brochure trying to persuade people to go and stay at the Crow's Next Hotel. This wasn't easy as we know all of the secrets about the Crow's Nest. We used different types of sentences and vocabulary. We even read some of our adverts to Mrs Mulgrew and she said she would definitely go to the hotel. 

We can't wait to start our new class novel in January, it is called Street Child. 

We loved seeing some children from All Hallow's on Monday, they treated us to a musical showcase including some Christmas songs we could join in with. 

On Thursday we enjoyed the Christingle in church, we were very impressed with how well the Year 6 children read. It was also a special golden assembly for Mrs Sullivan on Thursday. We celebrated her time teaching at St Oswald's with songs, memories, cards, gifts and a video. 

Now it is time to relax, spend time with friends and family and have lots of fun. 

Have a great Christmas and we can't wait to see you all in 2023. 

The Year 5 Team. 

Year 2 Blog Friday 16th December 2022

Date: 16th Dec 2022 @ 2:28pm

We've had a lovely week in Year 2, with lots of Christmas fun. The children enjoyed Christmas post, dinner and jumper day. We enjoyed going to Church for our Christingle service.

I'd like to say a huge well done to everyone for working so hard this term, have a great rest and enjoy spending time with your family and friends. We'll see you fresh and ready for learning in the new year.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year (2023).

Year 2 Team

Year 1 Blog Friday 16th December 2022

Date: 16th Dec 2022 @ 2:17pm

What an amazing term we've had together. We have thoroughly enjoyed seeing the children grow and achieve their goals!

We've been very busy this week - Christmas jumper day fun, singing carols, finishing our Harvey Slumfenburger story, making a Christmas snowflake and making our DT Christmas cards. We're ready for a rest!

Thank you for all of your hard work and we will see you in 2023.

We hope you have a lovely Christmas and a very happy new year.

The Year One team.

Year 3 Blog Friday 16th December

Date: 16th Dec 2022 @ 2:14pm

Happy Christmas Everyone!

We have had a great week in school this week. We had our Christmas post, Christmas lunch and finished our DT and Computing topics. 

In Maths we started learning to tell the time to 5 minutes and had a go at  telling the time in 1 minute intervals. We will revisit this in the new year.

In English we read a bit further in the Postbox Mystery. We found our that the postbox had been invaded by some aliens. We wrote some great descriptions using our newspaper sentences. 

We had a great time creating our football stadiums / shell structures in DT. We had to work as a team with a project manager, construction supervisor, tape dispenser, photographers and builders. Everyone worked well in their roles and made some super constructions. Great work Year 3! Have a look at our designs here.

On Wednesday we explored temperature on our winter walk. Mrs Quilliam was very impressed with everyones questions and scientific vocabulary.

On Friday we completed our animation topic with some great final pieces. Everyone used their skills to create a stop frame animation with their own toys. Here are some of the final videos.

Over the holidays make sure to continue to read and access the Sumdog learning platform. 

Here is the latest edition of the Learning Times, created by our Year 6 class.

Have a lovely break and we wish you all a peaceful Christmas

The Year 3 Team

Year 6 Blog Friday 16th December 2022

Date: 16th Dec 2022 @ 12:37pm

Our last week in December has been very exciting, filled with Christmas carols sang to the parents, Christmas jumper day and the Christingle, which was led very well by the Year 6s!

Learning Times for this term has finally been completed, edited and published. Thank you to Year 6 for working hard on this. You can view the edition here online. 

On Tuesday, we had a visit from Lancashire Adult Learning who led a workshop for our Year 6 with parents / grandparents. The campaign aims to help those in a care home who are lonely this Christmas. The gallery here, Year 6 Cards for Kindness, shows how super the cards were that both the children and adults made. If you managed to make it on Tuesday, thank you for coming!

On Thursday, we celebrated Mrs Sullivan and her 31 years as a teacher here. The children and adults sang her favourite songs, reminisced over lovely memories and presented her with hand-made cards from each class. We hope you enjoy your retirement Mrs Sullivan; Year 6 will miss you!

Our learning in Year 6 this week:

• In our Design and Technology topic of sewing, we completed the planning, prepping, sewing and adding the finishing touches to our project. Please see the pictures here on our website for their brilliant work.
• In PE, we have been working on creating a range of team strategies to outwit an opposing team. We then practiced them in various invasion games.
• In Maths, we used various problem-solving skills to solve Math questions as a group.
• In English, we learnt how Tommo and Charlie’s relationship as brothers became stronger as they headed off to France to fight in the Great War. 
• In History, we investigated what life was like for people at home when the Great War began and how propaganda had an affect on them.
• In Art, we learnt a new skill of printing, with paint and polystyrene to create our Christmas cards. You can view this super artwork by clicking on this link, Year 6 Printing Art.

You will have also noticed that there is no Sumdog being set for the Christmas break so you can have a rest and come back fresh and ready for the exciting learning in January!

BUT please keep reading as much as possible – like I always say, ‘It is the number one thing that will unlock all your future learning!’

Reception Blog - Friday 16th December 2022

Date: 16th Dec 2022 @ 11:55am

We have had a fantastic last week in Reception, from Christmas crafts to Christmas jumper day, carol singing, Christmas lunch and much more!

A big well done to every child for all of their hardwork this term! 

Lots of rest and family time and we will see you in 2023!

The Reception Team

Here is the new edition of our Learning Times.

Year 2 Blog Friday 9th December 2022

Date: 9th Dec 2022 @ 4:20pm

A really magical week in Year 2, well done to everyone. The Nativity was amazing and the children did excellent singing and acting. We have been busy doing Christmas crafts during Art. In English, the children re-told a story from the perspective of a toy robot. They learnt to use the first person (I, me and myself). In Maths, we have moved on to the fractions topic. We looked at halves and quarters and folded a square to demonstrate this. In French, we listened to the legend of St Nicholas, the patron saint of children. He brings treats to many European children who leave their shoes out for him on the 6^th December. We made a Christmas card with some shoes on to remind us of the story. During Forest School, the children made some great nature Christmas decorations.

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.

We will not issue school reading books over the Christmas Holiday, so you can enjoy any books you have at home, get for Christmas or you may even want to visit the library.

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

Spelling

There will be no spellings to learn for next week.

However, you will have a Sumdog challenge on common words to complete by next Friday 16.12.22.

You could also have a look at your Year 1/2 common exception word list.

Maths

At home, count forwards and backwards in halves. For example, one half, two halves, three halves, four halves, five halves etc. We did this in class so well. Notice when you have a whole (two halves).

You will have a 2x, 5x, 10x and 3x tables and a fractions (finding halves) challenge on Sumdog to complete by Friday 16.12.22.

Sumdog

Log in at www.sumdog.com

Please send book bags in for collection next week. We will hold on to them over Christmas.

Remember, Wednesday is Christmas jumper/dinner/post day.

Have a lovely weekend.

Year 2 Team.

Year 4 Blog Friday 9th December 2022

Date: 9th Dec 2022 @ 4:10pm

Year 4 Blog

Friday 9^th December 2022

We have had another great week in Year 4.

In English, we imagined we were the owner of a restaurant and designed a menu specifically for the Iron Man who loves eating metal.  We included alliteration in the titles of the dishes along with a description which used lots of adjectives and mouth-watering phrases! In addition, we were introduced to the Space-Bat-Angel-Dragon.  We used evidence from the text to write a detailed character description which included similes.

In Maths, we finished our multiplication topic by consolidating the different strategies we have learnt and using bar models to help solve word problems. Many of us found this tricky but we persevered.  

In RE, we continued our ‘Gift’ topic. We learnt that God sent Jesus as a gift for everyone, and were introduced to the prophet Isaiah who was waiting for the coming of the Messiah.  In addition, we learnt about the third Sunday of Advent, known as Gaudete Sunday.

In French, we described the jumper that we designed last week using a conjunction to extend the sentence and including a negative sentence. They look great! Fantastique, Y4.

In PE, as part of our invasion games unit, we practised our hockey skills. We practised the skills of stopping the ball, turning and then pushing the ball to our partner. Following this, we played a mini tournament. 

This week, we have also painted Christmas trees in the style of Monet and enjoyed listening to the drumming showcase on Thursday afternoon. We were all very impressed with the drummers and some of us now feel inspired to have a go at drumming ourselves! 

Home Practice

Reading

Please read for 20 minutes each evening to an adult at home.  Make sure you discuss the story and predict what you think will happen next.

Counting

This week, please practise counting in 0.1’s and 12’s.  

For example, start at 0.6 and count up to 2.3 and back again

0.6   0.7   0.8     etc                            2.3   2.2   2.1   etc

Now have a go at counting in 12’s

Start at 0 and count to 144 and back again

0   12   24   36   etc                             144   132   120  etc                      

Times tables

As we have had a tables test on all tables this week, we will not have a tables test next week. However, you should know your individual tables target and these will be tested after Christmas. 

Remember you can also practise your tables playing Hit the Button and timestables.co.uk

Spellings

This week, the children have worked extremely hard on their spellings as they have also been tested on all the words on the Year 3/4 Spelling list.  Therefore, there will be no spellings to learn for next week.

Sumdog challenges

You have been set 2 challenges on Sumdog:

• A times tables challenge based on the 12 times tables
• A times table challenge based on the 3, 4 and 8 times tables (this is revision of Year 3 learning and involves missing numbers)

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

Have a super weekend

The Year 4 Team

Year 3 Blog Friday 9th December

Date: 9th Dec 2022 @ 3:42pm

Welcome to your Friday Blog

This week we have enjoyed watching the Nativity performance, enjoyed our Christmas Bingo and watched an amazing drumming masterclass from year 4 and 5. 

In our English this week we have been exploring the features of a news report. We wrote our own reports of the Postbox Mystery and shared them with Year 6 who have also been writing news articles. Have a look at our gallery here.

In our maths we have been learning to solve divisions with remainders. This proved very tricky and is a difficult concept to grasp. Have a go at your Sumdog challenges and division practice to help with understanding. 

This week we have started to design and construct our sports stadiums. Everyone has been using their skills to evaluate their designs and decide what 3D shell structures will be best to add to their design. Next week we will be assembling our final construction. Super DT Year 3!

In French, we used bilingual dictionaries to look up nouns to write a letter to pere Noel. We managed really well to change the definite article (le,la or les) to an indefinite article (un, une or des). Tres bien, Y3!

Home Practice

Continue to read every night for at least 15 minutes. 

Check out our Sumdog challenges. This week we are practising our x3.x4 and x8 related facts. Continue to access the Sumdog Training tool. We have recently reset everyones account so that they are challenged on their hard skills.

In our spellings, the children have worked hard this week to use simple words to construct compound words. This strategy will help children to spell longer words more accurately. Here are your home spellings for this week.

mouse   trousers    fountain    grouse    hound     browse    trowel    powder     shower     tower     howl    blackout

We are revisiting our OU and OW sounds as some of us aren't fluent with these just yet. We have added a few extra ones to have a go at on Sumdog.

Have a great weekend

The Year 3 Team

Reception Blog - Friday 9th December 2022

Date: 9th Dec 2022 @ 11:46am

A big well done to all of Reception for their first school Nativity this week. The children did amazing and sang their hearts out. 

This week we have been making presents out of numicon, writing letters to Father Christmas, singing carols, looking at the change in the weather and making all of our Christmas crafts to bring home next week!

Year 6 Blog Friday 9th December 2022

Date: 9th Dec 2022 @ 8:16am

Welcome to Year 6 weekly blog.

Congratulations to our Year 5/6 Football team who came second in the South Ribble finals on Tuesday. They have worked incredibly well as a team, helping to reach the Lancashire Finals for the first time ever for St Oswald’s.

Also on Tuesday, the juniors were very lucky to see the infant nativity in church. We thought they did an amazing job and sang beautifully.  You can also see the Nativity video here.

On Friday, eleven of our children volunteered to be carol singers at this month's Caritas lunch at St Teresa's church. They did a brilliant job singing for the parish. 

Our learning this week:

• In Maths, we have been learning how to solve word problems by highlighting the important information, finding the numbers and working out what the calculation is.
• In English, we have had our last lesson with Gareth Walker, who has been teaching us how to be a sport journalist. We have used the skills he has taught us to create this term’s edition of the Learning Times, which will be available next week.
• In PE, we used this term’s learning of invasion games tactics to play small sided games of hockey. The most important thing we learnt is to move into space to gain a better advantage against an opponent.
• In PSHE, we learnt how important sleep is for a healthy lifestyle and discovered ways of improving our own sleep.
• In French, we wrote a story called Qui a tue le pere Noel? Who killed Father Christmas, based on a game of Cluedo. Fantastique, y6!
• In Science, we carried out a carousel of activities to prove that light travels in straight lines. 
• In Design and Technology, we began our final design for our Christmas tree decoration using tapestry thread and needles. It has been great to see everyone develop their stitching skills this week.

Home Practice

Please try to complete the following tasks by next Thursday:

1. Reading – Please read up to 30 minutes a night, complete your reading task and change your book one last time.
2. Maths challenges:

• Sumdog (Lancashire Sumdog Winter Wonderland Contest))
  • This week’s Sumdog contest is once again against Year 7 from All Hallows’. Try your best to get as many questions completed before next Thursday 15^th The questions will be based at your Sumdog level and will vary across many topics.

No spellings for home practice:

• Due to a double sitting of spellings this week, no spellings are to be completed as ‘Home Practice’. Although, we will be recapping our learning of our spellings this term, in class.

Year 1 Blog-Friday 9th December

Date: 9th Dec 2022 @ 7:40am

Welcome to your Friday blog. We hope you enjoyed our Nativity. All the children did so well. You can watch it again on St Oswald's TV.

English

This week we have been learning through a story about a little boy who lives in a hut on top of the Roly Poly Mountain which is far, far away. Father Christmas has forgotten to deliver Harvey's present so he goes on a treacherous journey involving planes, scooters, jeeps and other modes of transport! We planned our own story and we are going to be finishing it next week. We have been been very careful with our writing.

Maths

We have been learning about one half of a shape and that they are equal parts of a whole.

We have also been counting in 2s,5s and 10s.

 R.E.

We learnt about the Advent wreath and which candles are lit on which week. We coloured in our own version and labeled each candle.

DT and Art

We painted our Christmas cards ready for next week where we will add on our mechanism - either a slider or a lever. We used a printing technique to apply our paint.

History

We learnt about timelines - what they teach us and how we read them. Then, we predicted what we think future toys will look like. There were some great ideas!

See our pictures here.

Science

We learnt about what animals need to survive. We then compared this to what they want and the difference between the two. We delved deeper into the 4 main needs - food, air, water and shelter and wrote about each one.

Outdoor Learning

This week it has been so cold but we don't mind! We started our session by looking at our shadows and we also talked out the full moon we'd seen. We played some running games to keep warm.

We made some Christmas decorations using braches of willow. We used willow because it is so flexible and we could easily make it into a shape.We tied knots in the wool to decorate our willow. We showed great perseverance and imagination.

P.E.

We continued with our robot dance. One group has completely finished! We will show each other our dances next week.

Sumdog challenges

Phonics - ea/e_e words OR oi words

Maths - 2D and 3D shape recap

Practise counting in 2s, 5s and 10s. Start at different numbers. Count forwards and backwards.

Please read for at least 10 minutes every night.

Year 5 Blog Friday 9th December 2022

Date: 7th Dec 2022 @ 9:47am

Happy Friday and welcome to your Friday Blog. 

Here is a summary of our learning from the week:

In maths we have been looking at angles. We have been measuring and drawing angles using a protractor. We have also been naming angles. We then moved on to measuring lengths accurately in cm and mm and then using the measurements to find the perimeter of shapes. 

Here is a really great website to practise drawing and measuring angles. We have had a go in class too. 

https://www.visnos.com/demos/basic-angles

In English we have been working on a persuasive piece of writing to persuade people to go and stay at the Crow's Nest Hotel. We decided who we wanted to try to persuade and then looked at different types of sentences and words we could use to persuade our target audience. 

In RE we have started our new topic. It is called Advent/ Christmas - Loving. 

So far we have learned about the Advent Wreath and what each candle represents. We have also thought about what it was like for people waiting in hope for the coming of the Messiah. We read some scripture which was of the different things the prophets told people to give them hope and to help them live in the way God wanted whilst they were waiting for the coming of Jesus. We then thought of ways we could give people hope if they were finding things difficult and needed encouragement. 

We have finished our DT topic by evaluating our Greek snack. We thought about how our snack met its purpose, how authentic it was and how we would improve or change it if we made it again. 

We had our final swimming lesson on Wednesday. Steve was very impressed with the progress we have all made so he treated us to a fun week. We played some games and listened to Christmas music. We also got our certificates for the Advanced Water Satefy Award, Water Safety Award, and 10 or 25 metres. 

In French, we drafted our own version of the Saving of Christmas story, using bilingual dictionaries to look up any nouns we needed. We managed really well to change the definite article (le,la or les) to an indefinite article (un, une or des). Tres bien, Y5! They'll look great as soon as they're finished!

Home Practice

Reading

Read out loud to somebody every night for 20 minutes. Talk about what you have read and discuss the meaning of new words. 

Counting

Count out loud in:

7s from 0 to 84 and back again.           7          14            21          ...

5s from 0 to 60 and back again.           5           10          15           ...

30s from 0 to 360 and back again.        30         60          90          ... 

Times Tables

Please practise the division facts for the times table you are on:

2 x 3 = 6 so 6 ÷ 2 = 3 and 6 ÷ 3 = 2

Spellings

This week you have all done such a fantastic job in your spelling test - you were tested on over 200 words! 

Because you have worked so hard, there are no new spellings this week. 

Please continue to practise the spellings from last week and you will be tested on these next week. 

graph          graphics          autograph          automobile          automatic          headphones          microphone         

      telescope          television          telegram          telepathy          position          solution 

Have a wonderful happy weekend! You are all amazing. 

Year 2 Blog Friday 2nd December 2022

Date: 2nd Dec 2022 @ 3:59pm

Another fabulous week in Year 2 and it’s beginning to feel a lot like Christmas, especially after our Santa Dash this afternoon and all the effort the children are putting into our Nativity rehearsals. In English, we wrote letters to Father Christmas, using neat handwriting, capital letters and full stops, joining words and exciting vocabulary. In Maths, we learnt about block graphs, pictograms, tables and tally charts. The children are getting very good at understanding the data and answering questions. We read the story of the Angel Gabriel visiting Mary and thought about what they said to each other. In French this week, Year 2 recapped some animal words through a song, repetition of vocabulary with actions and a game. They also managed to say their own sentences about pets for the first time! Tres impressionant, Y2! In Art, we designed Christmas Trees in the style of Mondrian, next week we will paint them. This week’s highlight was the trip to the library, the children had a great time listening to a story, searching for books and doing a craft activity, well done everyone.

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.

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 - 14.11.22 Max’s Box. Read to page 6, really enjoying the book or finished the book. MG.

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 (09.12.22). 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 09.12.22.

This week’s spellings:

chew             argue

grew              suit    

huge              fruit

cute              jumped

untrue           stopped

Maths

At home, count in 3’s forwards and backwards. Write it down and spot any patterns that help you remember. When we count in 3’s, the numbers we say are actually the 3x table.

You will have a 2x, 5x, 10x and 3x tables and a tables and tally chart challenge on Sumdog to complete by Friday 09.12.22.

Sumdog

Log in at www.sumdog.com

Please sing Nativity songs at home with the actions.

Nativity Performances Tuesday 6^th December at 2pm and 6.30pm.

Have a look at the gallery section, you will see some Santa Dash and Library Trip photos.

Have a lovely weekend.

Year 2 Team.

Year 4 Blog Friday 2nd December 2022

Date: 2nd Dec 2022 @ 3:40pm

Year 4 Blog

Friday 2^nd December 2022

Welcome to your Friday blog. Here’s what we have been learning this week:

In English, we learnt what alliteration was and then wrote sentences using our names and alliteration.  Following this, we wrote animal poems which again used alliteration.

In Maths, we learnt how to double numbers efficiently. In addition, we learnt how to multiply using the grid method, and started to reason using the grid method by identifying missing numbers in a calculation. 

In RE, we started our new topic ‘Gift’ during which we will explore God’s gift of love and friendship in Jesus.  We started the topic by listening to a story and writing our own ‘recipe’ which showed what we look for in our ideal friend.  We also described how Christians prepare during Advent for the coming of Jesus.

In French, we designed a Christmas jumper ready to describe it next week.

In Science, we tested materials and classified them as conductors or insulators of electricity. We then thought carefully about how to explain the results.

In PE, as part of our invasion games unit, we practised our hockey skills. Our hockey skills included dribbling, passing and intercepting the ball. 

In Computing, we practised recording sound, editing it and then tried moving sections of audio using the ‘time shift’ tool. We then started planning our own podcast. 

In Geography, we learnt more about the North and South Poles and their similarities and differences.    

On Monday, we spent the day with Father Michael and the catechists preparing for our Reconciliation. Throughout the day, we considered what ‘reconciliation’ means and how when we say sorry, we should mean it. Following this, we took part in a Celebration of Reconciliation and came forward to Father Michael or Father John to say sorry for one thing.  Many thanks to all the parents and family members who have supported Year 4 on this journey and who came to the service on Monday afternoon.

We finished our week with a ‘Santa Dash’.  You can see some pictures here.

Home Practice

Reading

Please read for 20 minutes each evening to an adult at home.  Make sure you discuss the story and predict what you think will happen next.

Counting

This week, please practise counting in 4’s and 25’s.  

For example, start at 0 and count up to 48 and back again

0   4   12   16     etc                            48   44    40   etc

Now have a go at counting in 25’s

Start at 0 and count to 250 and back again

0   25   50   75   etc                            250   220   200  etc                      

Times tables

Please practise your individual tables target for your test next week on Wednesday (7^th December 2022) 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

Spellings

Your spellings next week practise adding suffixes beginning with vowel letters to words of more than one syllable (eg -ing, -er, -en, -er). Your test will be on Friday 9^th December 2022.

forgetting   excelling      excelled       regretting   regretted

upsetting     beginning     beginner      recapping     recapped

travelling     traveller      travelled      forbidding   forbidden   

Sumdog challenges

You have been set 3 challenges on Sumdog:

• A spelling challenge based on the spellings above (Please note, not all the words are on Sumdog)
• A times tables challenge based on the 2, 4 and 8 times tables
• A challenge based on multiplying 2 and 3 digits by 1 digit

(eg 32 x 8          30 x 8 = 240     2 x 8 = 16       240 + 16 = 256

Use the grid method which we have practised in class this week for 3 digit multiplications)

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

Have a super weekend

The Year 4 Team

Reception Blog - Friday 2nd December 2022

Date: 2nd Dec 2022 @ 2:18pm

We have had a great week this week!

We have been on a trip to Longton Library. We lisened to a story about the Fire service, then we made our own Fireman or Firewoman bookmark. We had great manners, listening to the story so well.

We also had a visit from a Paramedic this week. Mr Brown came into speak to us about his job. We got to hear all of the stories about his job and what his equipment is for - even trying some of it out ourselves. We all know to call 999 if someone is poorly.

We finished this week with our sponsored Santa Dash! the whole school took part together on the playgroud!

Next week we start the Jolly Christmas Postman and our Christmas crafts. Don't forget our Nativity on Tuesday!

Year 6 Blog Friday 2nd December 2022

Date: 2nd Dec 2022 @ 1:01pm

Welcome to Year 6 weekly blog.

This week the athletics team continued their winning streak by becoming champions of South Ribble! An excellent achievement, which means another trip to the Lancashire finals. We will update you soon on when that will take place.

Also, the Santa Dash was on Friday. The whole class completed a very quick mile, and then supported the infants really well. Thank you to everyone for any sponsorship money raised.  

Our learning this week:

• In Maths, we have learnt how to use our times tables knowledge to quickly divide with partitioning.
• In English, we have learnt the structure of persuasive writing, by analysing, planning and writing our own. We became Mrs Peaceful, from our Private Peaceful novel, trying to persuade the Colonel to not shoot Bertha the dog.
• In PE, we were able to be outside for both athletics and invasion games. We worked on our baton changes in athletics and how we pass and receive in hockey.
• In History, our World War I topic continued with investigating sources from the past to uncover what life was like on the front line. We listened to audio files, read letters from soldiers and explored pictures of the trenches.
• In RE, we used the hymn of Maranatha to help understand the meaning of Advent and how Christians prepare for the coming of Jesus. We then created our own Advent calendar filled with positive actions to do, people to think about and prayers to say each morning of Advent.
• In French this week, we played Cluedo (in French!) to guess who killed Pere Noel. Next week, we will write a story in French based on the game.
• In Science, we checked on the food that's going nicely mouldy to see if our predictions were correct. Then we revisited all our learning about Classification before moving on to our new topic about Light. We began by recapping what we recalled from Y3, understanding that light comes from a source, that we need light to see and explaining what darkness is.
• In Design and Technology, we continued our topic of sewing by learning new skills of the running stitch and over stitch.

Home Practice

Please try to complete the following tasks by next Wednesday:

Reading – Please read up to 30 minutes a night and complete your reading task.

• You may change your book any day between Monday and Wednesday

Spellings 

• Sumdog (A2 wk 6 -ough words)
  • though, although, rough, tough, through, cough, nought, brought, ought, thought, fought, plough, dough, enough, thorough

Maths challenges:

• Counting:
  • This week we have been counting in decimal steps again.
  • Start with these numbers: 7.5, 2.46, 19.05 and count up 10 times then back again in 0.3:

7.5, 7.9, 8.2, 8.5, 8.8, 9.1, etc

and in 0.03:

7.5, 7.53, 7.56, 7.59. 7.62, 7.65 etc

• Number facts:
  • To help your maths even more, please continue to learn your numbers facts, 6 + 8 = 14, 8 + 9 = 17.
  • The best way to do this is to simply have someone in your home quiz you with questions like (8 + 6, 6 + 5, 3 + 8, 5 + 9, etc)
  • Then get them to change the place value of these digits (0.8 + 0.6, 0.06 + 0.05, 0.5 + 0.9, etc)

• Sumdog (Times Tables A2 wk 6)

• Sumdog (Fractions, Decimals and Percentages)
  • This challenge will help cement the knowledge of equivalent fractions to decimals to percentages. Hopefully this task will be straight forward so we can build on this learning next week. Please get in touch if it becomes too tricky.

Maths Training

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 the diagnostic test, which they completed in the first week of school.

Year 5 Blog Friday 2nd December 2022

Date: 2nd Dec 2022 @ 8:39am

Happy Friday and Happy December 

We have had a great week in Year 5. 

In English we have really enjoyed continuing our story Room 13. It is getting really scary now and we still haven't found out what is hidden inside Room 13. We have spent the week writing our own scary story about one of the characters from Room 13. She is called Ellie-May, she isn't the main character in Room 13 but she is in our stories. Everybody has done a really fantastic job at using excellent vocabulary and different sentence structures to scare the reader. 

In maths we have been looking at angles. We have been measuring angles and also naming them as:

Acute angle - less than 90 degrees

Right angle - 90 degrees

Obtuse angle - more than 90 degrees and less than 180 degrees

Reflex angle - more than 180 degrees and less than 360 degrees

Your Sumdog challenge this week will give your more practice of angles. 

We made our Greek snacks in DT. The teamwork shown by everyone was incredible. The pitta breads made by everybody were delicious. We used lots of skills like chopping, slicing, mixing, weighing, measuring, kneading, rolling and shaping. 

Following on from our DT learning about Greek food, we continued with our history topic about Ancient Greece. This week we were looking at Ancient Greece on a timeline and comparing it with the Ancient Egyptian civilisation. We have already started to identify some similarities. We then looked at some of the Greek myths and legends including Hercules. We watched some of the movie whilst making notes, we read some books about Greek myths and legends and then we wrote our own version of the story of Hercules. One thing we all noticed was that there are many different variations of the Greek myths and legends. We understand that this is because the stories were told thousands of years ago and passed on verbally. We can't wait to learn more about Ancient Greece - we are especially excited to learn about the history of the Olympics. 

Home Practice 

Reading

Read out loud to somebody every night for 20 minutes. Speak about what has happened and what you think will happen next. 

Spelling

You have brought your spellings home this week. See if you can spot any patterns in the spellings and find any more spellings which follow the same patterns. 

Practise your spellings in a different way each night. Use the strategies we do in class. 

graph          graphics          autograph          automobile          automatic          headphones          microphone         

      telescope          television          telegram          telepathy          position          solution 

Counting

Count out loud in:

2.5s from 0 to 25                    2.5       5       7.5        ...

6s from 0 to 60                        6         12       18       ...

7s back from 84 to 0                84       77       70       ...

Times Tables

Please practise all of your times tables this week. If there is a particular one you find difficult, focus on that one. 

Sumdog

There are 3 Sumdog challenges to complete:

Spelling

Maths

Times tables 

Have a fantastic weekend 

Year 3 Friday Blog 2nd December 2022

Date: 1st Dec 2022 @ 9:13pm

Welcome to your Friday Blog!

We have had a brilliant week in Year 3. Everyone was a amazing on Thursday afternoon at our Advent parent assembly. Well Done Year 3!

This week we have also enjoyed reading The Postbox Mystery by Robert Swindells. We have been working hard on our sentence writing this week and added some more pieces to our Proud Wall. 

In maths we have been looking at division and been practising our grid method learning from last week. Well done to everyone who has been practising these at home. There has been some great understanding and explanations in our class this week!

In PE we have been learning some new hockey skills including passing, dribbling and trapping the ball. This is part of our invasion games learning. Have a look at our gallery here.

In RE we started our new topic for Advent. It is called Visitors will look at family, preparations and the Christmas story.

We also revisited our computing learning on Friday. We learned how to use onion skinning to make our animations run smoothly. Next week, can we have some toy models to create our final stop frame animations. Two characters and one prop max. This can be a toy car or a train or small setting.

Home Learning

Continue to read regularly for 15-20 minutes every day. Here is a helpful poster for ways you can help your child with their reading.

Maths - We have set 2 Sumdog challenges. One looking at the relationship between multiplication and division and one on our x8 times tables. We can see lots of regular practice is going on at home and it is making a huge difference for everyone in our maths lessons. 

Have a look at our counting by 8 song here.

Your home spellings this week are...

playtime     birthday       breakfast     ballroom      cupcake     chairman    

sunflower        dishcloth    doorway     patchwork

We will be learning how to use words we know to spell compound words. Practise these on Sumdog or by having a go of some of them activities on your spelling sheet.

In school we have been learning how to use syllables more effectively in our writing and looking carefully when we spell our words. We are seeing a great improvement in our spelling. Well done Year 3!

Unfortunately we have had an issue with our printer in school and are unable to print out the spellings and maths sheets. We will send these out on Monday.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Year 1 Blog - Friday 2nd December 2022

Date: 30th Nov 2022 @ 3:47pm

Welcome to your Friday blog!

English

This week we have been learning through the story of Bob and his best ever friend. His friend is an alien dog called Barry. We drew and described some alien pets-we got ideas from a fabulous picture of the pet shop Bob visits. We wrote captions about all the things Bob and his pet could do together. We also made posters advertising Bob's trips to the moon.

Maths

We have started to learn about fractions and used our existing knowledge of part-whole models to understand them. We learnt that fractions are made up of parts and whole and that these parts are usually of equal size. We starting exploring halves in shapes.

Phonics

We have been learning alternative pronunciations, a as in alien and a as in was. We already know a as in act.

R.E.

We started our 'waiting' topic and explored the meaning of waiting - is it hard or easy? Then we wrote about a time that we have had to wait and then learnt about the liturgical calendar in relation to Advent.

P.S.H.E.

We read an interesting story about about some billy goats who used their phones to intimidate a troll. We learnt that it was a twist on the Three Billy Goats story. We talked about how it was not a good choice to be mean and how our actions have consequences. We wrote our own postitive texts, that included messages such as "you are amazing" and "I am sorry, please could I be your friend?".

D.T.

We finished planning our Christmas card by writing the instructions that we will need to follow. We then wrote the messages to go inside our cards. We thought really carefully about the message and who we would like to give our card to!

Science

We built upon our knowledge from the past few weeks and learnt about how certain animals grow and change. We learnt about life cycles, especially that of a butterfly, and compared it to a human's life. We then drew our own examples of life cycles.

Computing

Our next artist focus was Georges Seurat. We learnt that his artwork was wholly made up of dots. We had a go at creating our own digital sunflower using just the paintbrush and adding dots. It was hard not to use the fill button on our paintings!

Art

We painted our own Christmas trees using the style used by Helen Frankenthaler. We learnt that our painting didn't have to be perfect - it will always be a work of art.

Outdoor learning

Our first session this week started with some active games to keep us warm! We then went on a Winter scavenger hunt. We looked for lichen on a tree, a hole in a tree, a leaf skeleton, a tree stump and shadows amongst other things-we are getting really good at spotting changes.

Our second session started with some free play in the nature area. Everyone had amazing ideas for games and we showed  great imagination and co-operation.

We then revisited an activity we have tried before- making obstacle courses! We used what learnt last time and made really challlenging courses which involved balancing, jumping, running and throwing. Great team work was shown and medals were awarded-made of sticks and leaves of course!

Santa Dash

We had great fun doing our santa dash. The children all looked amazing. Please send in your sponsor money.

Nativity

We are looking forward to performing our nativity in church next Tuesday. We have been trying so hard to learn the songs and actions.

Home Practice

Sumdog challenges

Phonics - high frequency words OR ow words

Maths - halves

Practise counting in 2s, 5s and 10s. Start at different numbers. Count forwards and backwards.

Please read every night for at least 10 minutes.

Year 6 Blog Friday 25th November 2022

Date: 25th Nov 2022 @ 4:08pm

Welcome to Year 6 weekly blog.

We have had a fabulous week getting back to our curriculum, following Robinwood last week. As we had missed one of our sports journalist sessions, Gareth Walker came for an extra visit to help us understand how an editor edits a journalist’s work before we then created our own. We will be using what we have learnt to help create articles for the upcoming Learning Times.

Our learning this week included:

• In Maths, we have learnt to use bar models to find percentages of numbers and continue to use the grid method for up to four-digit by two-digit numbers.
• In English, we have read more of our novel, Private Peaceful, and inferred main characters words and actions to help us write in role.
• In PE, we focused on net/wall and gymnastics this week. In net/wall, we introduced the children to using better accuracy with the sport of table tennis. In gymnastics, we used the paired sequences from last week and applied them to different apparatus focusing on good transitions and slow and accurate movements.
• In History, we began our new topic on World War I with an introduction of how it started and who was involved. Out topic will delve into what life was like for people living during this time.
• In RE, we looked at the expectations of ourselves now and in the future, what expectations we have of others, and what it’s like when people let others down.
• In French, we used a dictionary to look up the meanings of adverbs of frequency (sometimes, always, never etc) then we read some sentences about the climate in different seasons in the Alps and in Marseille - two contrasting locations in France. Some of us were able to continue by writing about the climate in England in French - fantastique! 
• In Science, to hone our working scientifically skills, we looked at some investigation plans and worked out what kind of graph the scientists would draw to show their results. We then recapped our learning about Classification as we are coming to the end of this topic. Finally, we looked at the food we set up to grow mould last week and checked to see if our predictions were correct. 
• In Design and Technology, we began our new topic of sewing by evaluating last year’s products before designing our own, which we will create in the coming weeks.

Home Practice

Please try to complete the following tasks by next Wednesday:

Reading – Please read up to 30 minutes a night and complete your reading task.

• You may change your book any day between Monday and Wednesday

Spellings 

• Sumdog (A2 wk 5 -ent, -ence)
  • persistent, persistence, violent, violence, intelligent, intelligence, inconvenient, inconvenience, obedient, obedience, conference, difference, conscience, reference, excitement

Maths challenges:

• Counting:
  • This week we have been counting in decimal steps.
  • Draw a line with some marks on it like I do in class.
  • Start with these numbers: 7.5, 3.9, 25.4 and count up 10 times then back again in 0.7:

7.5, 8.2, 8.9, 9.6, 10.1 etc

and in 2.5:

7.5, 10, 12.5, 15, 17.5, etc

• Number facts:
  • To help your maths even more, please continue to learn your numbers facts, 7 + 8 = 15, 4 + 7 = 11.
  • The best way to do this is to simply have someone in your home quiz you with questions like (8 + 6, 6 + 5, 3 + 8, 5 + 9, etc)
  • Then get them to change the place value of these digits (0.8 + 0.6, 0.06 + 0.05, 0.3 + 0.8, etc)

• Sumdog (Times Tables A2 wk 5)

• Sumdog (Adding and subtracting fractions)
  • This challenge will help to cement the learning we have done with adding and subtracting fractions. Try to work through them quickly as they now should be easier to answer. Let me know if you find this tricky and we can work on this together.

Maths Training

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 the diagnostic test, which they completed in the first week of school.