Autumn 2: Week 5
Phonics
This week, we recapped all of the phase 2 phonemes. We also practiced reading words with ‘s’ at the end.
Help at home: Can your child read the following words?
ships, bags, cats, pots, cups, pins, digs
We’ve learnt all of the phase 2 tricky words. Tricky words can be challenging because we can’t sound them out – we just have to know them by sight.
Help at home: Have fun finding tricky words around your house.
How to play:
- Write the phase 2 tricky words on pieces on paper.
- Stick them up around your house.
- How many can you find? Don’t forget to read them!
- You could race someone at home.
Poetry Picnic
Each week, we learn a new poem. We recite the poem each day. Click here to watch this week’s poem.
Owl babies
This week, we’ve been reading Owl Babies by Martin Waddell.
We drew a picture of our favourite part and retold the story using words and actions.
Click on the links below to watch some of us.
Video 1
Video 2
Video 3
Stamps!
Next week, we’ll be learning all about what happens to our post when reading the story ‘The Jolly Christmas Postman’. To enhance your child’s learning experience, we will be writing and then posting a postcard home.
If you would like your child’s postcard to be posted through the Royal Mail please provide a stamp in a named envelope by Thursday 14 December.
It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas…
This morning, we got to decorate the school Christmas tree in the hall. We had so much fun!
Reminder!
Don’t forget to attend a learning journey drop in next week! We look forward to sharing your child’s books.
Have a happy and healthy weekend.
Maths – 2-D shapes
This week in Maths we learnt all about 2-D shapes. We learnt the names and properties of simple 2-D shapes and different ways we can sort them. Mr McGriffiths tried to trick by turning the shapes around and making them bigger and smaller but we were not fooled. We know that if a shape has 3 sides and 3 corners then it must be a triangle!
We also drew round the shapes to make different pictures on paper. This shape work carried on in our art this week where we used tissue paper shapes to create a background for our prints. We are very excited to see how they will turn out!
Help at home by spotting 2-D shapes at home.
Living and Learning: What is a feeling?
This week during Living and Learning, we talked about feelings.
What are feelings?
‘A feeling is our emotional state, or our reaction to something. Feelings are important because they help us to manage different situations and look after ourselves. Feelings and emotions are about our minds but we might
also experience them in our bodies.’
What feelings might we have?
We drew ourselves and thought about the different feelings that we might have during the day. For example, feeling sleepy in the morning, overjoyed at break time and determined during a test! Our feelings change throughout the day depending on our experiences.
How can we manage our feelings?
We decided what some good and not so good feelings might be and how we can manage these. Sometimes bad things happen and we need to have some self-care techniques to look after ourselves. Here’s some things that we thought would make ourselves feel good:
- talk to someone
- read a book
- have some quiet time
- get into bed
- take some deep breaths
- hug our teddies
- do some colouring
- go cycling
Feelings are normal and part of life but as long as we have these strategies in place, we will feel much better overall! Help at home by encouraging your child to practise some of these techniques when they are not feeling so good. Take some deep breaths, get some fresh or talk to someone!
Write it like a poet!
Today, Year 3 had a visitor from the British Library. We learnt a lot about the British Library like what they do, how they are different to a “normal” library and where they are based. Luckily for us, they have a base in Boston Spa!
The British Library have a copy of every single book, newspaper, magazine or even leaflet that has been published in Britain. They want to keep a record of all of these so that in years to come, people can look back and see what things were like over the years!
We read a few poems, picked a part the vocabulary and discussed what we liked and disliked about them. Then it was our turn to write our own poems. It can be quite tricky just to sit down and write a poem so we played lots of games to help us generate some ideas.
Some of us wrote about our day, our emotions, a hobbie we like or just something random! The children really enjoyed it and were desperate to share their writing at the end.
Help at home by playing the word association game. Start with ‘apple’ and see what word the other person can think of that links to it!
Reading – to summarise
This week’s reading skills lessons have been about summarising.
Help at home by discussing the R2s for summaries!
We’ve been thoroughly enjoying our class novel: Holes by Louis Sachar. Today’s task was a little different to normal – we had to summarise the main points of the chapter using small key pictures.
Take a look how we got on!
Challenge your child to retell the chapter to you using the summaries above!
Leeds diving
Leeds Schools Sport Association Cross Country
A number of children have recently represented school and competed in the Leeds Schools Sport Association Cross Country races.
The date of the next race is Saturday 02 March 2024 at Woodhouse Grove.
In the meantime, have a look at our physical activity guide to see how to get involved in athletics.
Write like a poet workshop
Year 5 had a visitor this morning from the British Library to do a ‘write like a poet’ workshop. We started off by introducing ourselves with actor voices and actions.
We then spent some time talking about the British Library and found out that they have a copy of every book that has ever been published (magazines – with toys included – and newspapers too). In addition, we found out that robots look after all of their books so, of course, we too became robots ready to look after the books.
Then, we looked at how poems need to change over time. The author James Berry wrote “ You will need to revise it, make it better, polish it, make it better, make it become into the shining spirit of your idea. And making.”
The children practised their oracy skills: fluency and pace; voice projection; and tonal variation.
Next, we looked at poet Grace Nichols. We discussed unknown vocabulary and talked about the meaning of the poem. We identified that the whole poem is a metaphor! The disco is actually describing our solar system.
The children then had a brilliant time playing word association to help prepare them for their own poems. We battled 1 vs. 1.
After the excitement, we had a relaxing time writing our very own first draft of a poem.
Help at home: Find and read 3 poems from different poets.
Art: Henry Moore and Thomas J Price
Year 5 have linked their Art learning with their Geography skills. To start off, the children looked at the inspiration of some of our focus artists: Henry Moore and Thomas J Price. The children found out that Henry Moore was inspired by nature and used the curves in his sculptures to depict the Yorkshire countryside. Whereas, Thomas J Price is inspired by urban life and has lots of his work displayed in cities. We then used atlases to find where the artists grew up and marked these on our maps.
Help at home: Find out where our other featured artist, Barbara Hepworth, grew up and the inspiration for her sculptures.
Food Technology: leek and potato soup
On Thursday, Year 4 ventured to the Space to take part in their first food technology lesson this year. We made leek and potato soup – a simple and healthy recipe for the winter months!
The first part of this recipe needed us to chop onions, leeks and potatoes. We talked about how to use a knife safely including keeping the ends of your fingers tucked in and holding the knife and vegetable firmly.
After perfecting our chopping skills, we boiled all the vegetables and potatoes with some stock and then blended it together using a hand blender.
Overall, our soup was a big success! Some children even came back for fourth and fifth servings!
Help at home: by asking your child how they stay safe when chopping using a knife.
