Hobby Half Day
What a great way to finish a very long half term. All the children from Year 1 to Year 6 were mixed up into new groups and they went off to do one of many activities for the afternoon on Friday. There were all sorts going on: iJamming, drumming, candle making and glass painting to name just a few. As I went round, there was a great atmosphere and all the children were chatting and learning together. Thanks to Mrs Maver for organising it and thanks to all the staff who led a workshop.
Have a great half term!
Goodbye, Year 5
I was very nervous on 04 September (it seems a long time ago now) jumping from Year 1 to Year 5. I knew that the class were one of the most enthusiastic in school after teaching them four years ago but the trepidation – note the wow word, Y5 – was still setting in. At the end of the half-term, I can now say that I have enjoyed every minute of teaching this class again. The enthusiasm and fantastic learning behaviours made my decision so worthwhile and I would like to thank all of you for making my job so enjoyable and easy!!
Make sure you keep up the great start you have made for Mr Owen and I’ll be checking up on your progress after such a great start!
Enjoy your half term; you deserve a good rest. See you on Monday 05 November.
Outdoor maths
The children are learning to recognise and write numerals whilst playing skittles.
Bringing the past into the present
Our class novel “Street Child” is continuing to provide many opportunities for us to learn in different ways. A lot of the drama recently done in Y5 has looked at mood and feelings which will enable the children to include these aspects in their writing. Here is some of the drama being photographed by the children on our iPads. They then uploaded the photo into an app and annotated it with how they felt the characters felt.
Pieces of Art
Year 3 and Year 4 have been piecing together different sections of art. There are five paintings of art to put together and each child gets one piece of one painting.
They now have to find someone else who has a piece of their painting. However, they are not allowed to show it to anyone else. They must use their knowledge of colour, shape and other art techniques to describe what they see. After that, they have to assemble the pieces into the correct place.
Finally, we discuss the paintings and say how artists create subtle effects.
- “You can tell the motorbike is moving because of the blurry lines and the scarf is in the air.” (Sam, Year 3)
- “This painting has lots of action in. You can tell because the black lines show movement.” (Isra, Year 4)
Foooooooore!
Year 4 have a visitor today from Cookridge Hall Golf Club. We’re trying some golf swings. Thankfully, all the balls are made out of sponge so we won’t be smashing any windows!
“It’s great fun and it also helps our coordination.” (Harris, Year 4)
“It’s harder than it looks!” (Abigail, Year 4)
Paul, who led the session, commented: “Out of the hundred schools I’ve been to, this one is the most well-behaved.”
Well done, Year 4!
Phase 2 Phonics
This week, we’ll begin Phase 2 of Letters and Sounds. In this phase, children will continue practising what they have learned from phase 1, including ‘sound-talk’. They will also be taught:
- the phonemes (sounds) for a number of letters (graphemes),
- which phoneme is represented by which grapheme, and
- that a single phoneme can be represented by more than one letter, for example, /ll/ as in b-e-ll.
They will be using pictures and hand movements to help them remember these.
VC and CVC words
C and V are abbreviations for ‘consonant’ and ‘vowel’. VC words are words consisting of a vowel then a consonant (e.g. am, at, it) and CVC words are words consisting of a consonant then a vowel then a consonant (e.g. cat, rug, sun). Words such as tick and bell also count as CVC words – although they have four letters, they have only three sounds. For example, in the word bell, b = consonant, e = vowel, ll = consonant.
Now the children will be seeing letters and words, as well as hearing them. They will be shown how to make words using magnetic letters, how to read (blend) little words and how to segment words into individual sounds.
These will be simple words made up of two phonemes, for example, am, at, it, or three phonemes, for example, cat, run.
Tricky words
They will also learn several tricky words: the, to, I, go, no. Children will still be practising oral blending and segmenting skills daily. They need plenty of practice at doing this.
Saying the sounds
Your child will be taught how to pronounce the sounds (phonemes) correctly to make blending easier. Sounds should be sustained where possible (e.g. sss, fff, mmm) and, where this is not possible, ‘uh’ sounds after consonants should be reduced as far as possible. Try to avoid saying ‘buh’, ‘cuh’ etc.
Ways you can support your children at home
- Magnetic letters Buy magnetic letters for your fridge. Find out which letters have been taught – have fun finding these with your child and place them on the magnetic surface.
- Making little words together Make little words together, for example, it, up, am, and, top, dig, run, met, pick. As you select the letters, say them aloud: ‘a-m – am’, ‘m-e-t – met’.
- Make or buy an alphabet poster
- Buy whiteboards and pen These are a good way for children to try out spellings and practise their handwriting.
- Remember to have fun!
Let’s play dress up
Having found a few outfits, some of the children decided to dress up as Victorian servants. They really look the part.
Class assembly
Well done Year 1! I was very proud of you. Thank you to all the parents and visitors who attended today’s performance.
We loved hearing your views; here are a few: ‘Lovely production’, ‘Enjoyed the class telling the story’ and ‘Wonderful to watch.’
Talking about transport…
…this afternoon we split into groups to talk about the many things the children have learned from their talk time discussions at home.
