Science: We are biologists!
In our next science unit, we are biologists. Biology is the study of living things.
In this week’s lesson, we dissected a flower called Alstroemeria. We labelled the different parts and discussed which of them make up the male and female reproductive systems. Have a look at our work:
Help at home: Label the different parts of the flower.
Living and Learning: Relationships
Over the past 3 weeks, we have had a plethora of RSE lessons covering a range of topics. This week, we talked about relationships and what makes them healthy as well as families and what makes ours different and unique.
To start, we defined a relationship as “the way in which two or more people or things are connected, or the state of being connected” and then talked about the different relationships we have in our lives. Then, we discussed healthy and unhealthy relationships and thought about how we could support and improve them. Here are a few ideas:
- being kind, considerate and respectful
- being honest
- listening to each other
- respecting personal space, boundaries and privacy
- accepting others’ differences
We then talked about similarities and differences between our families and focused in our why our families are important to us. Here are a few responses. Families provide:
- love
- care
- support
- food
- shelter
- safety
Help at home: Talk with your child about the different relationships they have.
Living and Learning – Healthy me and my body.
We’ve been learning about our bodies in Year 3.
How are females and males different?
We came up with lots of ideas about how they are different but actually decided that many females and males have loads of similarities. For example; favourite colours, hobbies, hair colour.
One thing we decided that is definitely different is the body parts.
Year 3 were very mature and discussed how animals (including humans) have different bodies for different reasons. For example, females can produce milk for their young whether they are a cow or a cat.
It’s important that we know the names of our body parts and that they belong to us. We reminded ourselves of the NSPCC pants rule:
Help at home by naming as many body parts as possible! How many can you name?
Living and Learning – Body Image
We kicked off our new topic in Living and Learning by talking about body image.
We first made a human scale in the hall to show how confident we are with different things. One side of the hall was ‘most confident’ and the opposite being ‘least confident’. This showed us how different we all are ‘inside’.
We then thought more generally and came up with these ideas of how we’re different:
Some of these things we can’t change, could change or will change over time. Here’s what we decided!
Living and Learning: relationships
For the last few weeks, our Living and Learning lessons and circle times have been all about happy and healthy relationships between our friends, peers and families.
Here, we thought about what makes a family.
A family can be three people or four people. It just matters that you LOVE them!
A family is a group of people and they love each other.
A family is people who are combined together.
You can show you care for your family by loving them as much as you love yourself and be kind and respectful.
Family respect you, take care of you and show you kindness and love.
Sometimes, you might have fall outs but you will come back together.
We read some texts about how not all families are the same and that is ok. The children also enjoyed sharing special members of their family.
The Great big book of families by Mary Hoffman
What is a healthy relationship? What does a good friend do? What should I do if I’m not happy with a friendship? These were all questions we considered as we moved onto thinking about friendships.
Consent is also part of this relationships learning. We have already learnt about consent in terms of permission seeking when online but here we thought about it when we are with others. We practised showing how we give and don’t give consent and how we can also change our mind if we want to.
We will continue to use this text to support learning about consent.
Finally, you will have seen the children have brought home the NSPCC Pants Underwear rule. We revisit this important learning every year.
Help at home: read the NSPCC pants underwear rule with your child/children and think about how this keeps you safe. This parent guide is available too.
Orienteering
Recently, as part of the Leeds Well Schools Partnership, some of our Year 5 and 6 children participated in a come and try orienteering event at Potternewton Park.
After being briefed on the rules and how to complete the orienteering challenge, they set off with their partner armed with a map of the site to find the first check point. Then, it was back to the start to hand over to the other pair in their team for them to find check point two and so on until all twelve markers had been found.
The children worked brilliantly in their teams encouraging and supporting each other especially up the hill back to the handover station.
Well done to all the children for representing the school so well and developing these great skills.
It was really fun but the hill was challenging.
We got to work with a partner and in a team so it was good to work together.
We didn’t give up.
We learnt how to use the map to find different places.
Transition
As the weather becomes brighter and we near the end of the academic year you may be thinking about your child’s next steps as they journey into Year 1. Moving to Year 1 is perhaps a less significant change for children, and that’s because we’re a happy and healthy place to learn where we all know each other.
A zoom meeting for parent’s starts our transition process, here you will meet the Key Stage 1 staff and find out about the Year 1 curriculum.
The zoom meeting is on Tuesday 25th June 6-7 for all reception parents. Please follow the link that will be emailed to you.
The next step is for your child to spend some time in the Year 1 classrooms. They’ll meet the teachers and join in with the learning, they’ll get a taste of what it’s like to be in Year 1. The whole-school transition, later in July, completes the process, by spending a morning with their new class teacher.
This is a really exciting time of year, moving on and taking those next steps whilst continuing to strengthen the effective learning behaviours they have established in Reception.
Thank you Miss Parwani!
Today was Miss Parwani’s last day of teacher training with us in Year 1. She has done a brilliant job and the children have loved having her in the class. We are sad to see her go but we had a really fun afternoon saying goodbye in the sunshine!
All the children wrote a message in her goodbye card and I was really impressed with her kind and thoughtful they all were.
She will now move on to the next stage of her teaching journey as an ECT and we wish her all the best going forward.
Thank you Miss Parwani!
Summer2: Week3
This week, has been a busy fun filled week.
We have started practising our dance around the May Pole ready for the summer fair. The children have been inspired by videos of others doing it and were very excited to get started themselves.
PE
During PE lessons, we have been practisig some of the different sports day activities. Please see your child’s sports day team below. Your child will need to come to school wearing their team colour tshirt on the day.
Handwriting
We have been recapping the letters a and g this week in handwriting.
We have also been practsing forming the letters m and n.
Maths
During maths this week, we have been looking at counting up to 20 objects.
Help at home: by getting different amounts of objects upto 20. Support your child with counting them.
Living and Learning:
The children were talking about consent during this weeks living and learning session. We discussed the importance of being asked for consent before taking a picture. The children understood that it’s their right to say no if they don’t want one taken.
We also talked about stop means stop. You have the right to say stop if you don’t like something.
If someone was being unkind I would tell them to stop.
If someone tried to hurt me I would say stop.
Poetry Picnic
We have been performing our poem this week with musical instruments. The children enjoyed selecting which instrument they would like and following the beat of the poem.
Sports Day
I have attached the groups for sport day. Please ensure your child comes in a plain tshirt that is their team colour.
Living and Learning: PANTS (the underwear rule)
In Living and Learning this week, we have discussed the NSPCC’s underwear rule and talking about the acronym PANTS.
More information about the Underwear Rule, including a short film and a parent guide can be found here including a parent guide for you to follow up this learning at home.
