Our blogs

Skylarks W.B. 23.11.20, by Miss Beattie

Date: 19th Nov 2020 @ 8:24am

Hi everyone and welcome back to our weekly blog 😊

Looking ahead to next week, we will be spending lots of time making props and rehearsing for our Christmas Play which we cannot wait to share with you virtually.

In maths we will be making connections between addition and subtraction by looking at inverse operations. We will also use our knowledge of these operations to solve tricky problems.

In our writing lessons, we will be using our plans from last week to help us write a newspaper article announcing Annie Edson Taylor’s arrival to Niagara Falls to carry out her daredevil feat. We will also continue to build on our knowledge of fronted adverbials.

In topic, we will be using our map skills to develop our locational knowledge of Northwich. We will be using OS maps and six-figure grid references to identify different features of the local area.

In our reading lessons next week, we will continue to explore our new text ‘Goodnight Stories for Rebel Girls’. Our focus remains on drawing inferences based on information stated and implied, including characters’ thoughts, feelings and motives. We will also begin to make comparisons between the various inspirational woman we have read about.

Our spellings for the quiz on Friday 27^th November will be the first 10 spellings from the Year 5/6 statutory word list:

accommodate, accompany, according, achieve, aggressive, amateur, ancient, apparent, appreciate, attached

These spellings are a lot trickier than previous spellings as they do not follow a particular spelling rule and simply need to be learnt. Please reassure your child that these words will continue to be revised for the next 2 years in school and that they can only try their best 😊

Have a lovely weekend everyone!

If you have any questions of queries please do not hesitate to contact me via the school admin email address or telephone 😊

Miss Beattie

12/11/2020 Swallows Class Blog, by Miss Gillam

Date: 12th Nov 2020 @ 9:36pm

Hello everyone! Welcome back to Swallows class blog.

It was wonderful to speak to so many of you on Tuesday during our parents evening phone calls. Please do not hessitate to contact me if you have any futher questions or concerns.

We have had yet another fantastic week in Swallows class.  We continued to learn how to use column addition and subtraction to solve a range of problems during our maths lessons. Can you answer the questions below in your reading diary?

28 + 13 =  ____    25 + 18 =  _____    19 + 8 =  _____

We loved writing diaries, letters and descriptive sentences about the charactes in our story ‘Troll Swap’ this week. We had lots of fun getting the glockenspiels out during our music lesson and we enjoyed completing our decorated wooden crosses and taking them over to the Cenetaph on Remembrance Day. Have you been to see the end result of our whole school remembrance project yet?

Read Write Inc

Your child will be coming home with a Speed Sound book this Friday. Instructions for how to use the book are on the first page. These books can stay at home. It would help if  your child could practice speed reading and writing these sounds as often as possible. It is important that any incorrect pronunciation is re-modelled where approriate both in school and at home. We appreciate your support with this.

In addition to this, your child has brought home a Read Write Inc bookmark which corresponds with their current RWI group this week. Please continue to speed read and write these words to help with fluency.

Spellings

Please use your 'Look-Cover-Write-Check’ whiteboard to learn these spellings at home.

because  behind   both  break  busy

New sounds

Next Week

We will continue to focus our writing on the fantastic story ‘Troll Swap’ next week. We will continue to write letters from Mum and Dad asking Tabitha to come home and we will describe our own new Character. We will orally re-tell our new story with partnets, focussing on getting the sequencing and vocabulary right. In Maths we will be focusing on written methods for subtraction this week. We will solve problems involving two 2 digit numbers.

Home Reading

Thank you to everyone who has been reading at home this week. Swallows were thrilled to notice that we had more children than ever completing their three read challenge AGAIN last week. Keep it up! We have had lots of diaries signed and consequently the children have been given raffle tickets for our special reading raffle. Will we beat our record once again next week?

Please contact me via the school admin email address or give me a ring if you need me, I am always here to discuss any questions or queries. 

Have a great weekend Swallows!

Many thanks J

Miss Gillam

Starlings blog 12.11.20, by Mrs O'Marah

Date: 12th Nov 2020 @ 9:23pm

Hello lovely Starlings and welcome to this week's blog. 

What another busy week we have had in class. 

Thank you for all of the recyclable materials, the children had a wonderful time working collaboratively to make their very own Boris robots as part of our Heartsmart PSHE work. 

We were also thrilled to welcome Teddy back to class on Monday, we missed him last week because of the INSET day. 

Science 

This week we have started our new topic of work all about animals. We identified and named common animals and matched them to their animal group including mammals, reptiles, fish, amphibians and birds. 

Maths 

We continued with our power maths work this week and have looked at counting more and less, counting and comparing groups of objects and comparing numbers. 

Next week we will be learning to order objects and numbers in ascending and descending order, order numbers using ordinal positions like first, second and third, and using a number line to support this.  

English 

This week we started our new unit of Writing work based on our new book 'Nibbles the book monster' by Emma Yarlett. Our focus for this unit of work will be to make inferences and predictions about what we are reading, and to write a diary entry in role as Nibbles. 

This week we have made a wanted poster and made predictions about the story. We used our phonics knowledge to spell words independently. 

Next week we will be retelling popular fairy tale stories like Goldilocks and the Three Bears and Little Red Riding Hood and talking about how the main characters feel. 

Phonics and Spelling 

Don't forget, each Friday we will be having a spelling quiz. Words to learn are found in reading diaries on the sticker, and use the spelling practise whiteboards sent home last week to practise. 

This week in phonics, we have focused on:

Pink group

Sounds focus: u_e, aw 

Book: 'Scruffy Ted'

Green group 

Sounds focus: oo, ar 

Book: 'Six fish' 

Yellow group

Sounds focus: e, au 

Book: 'A mouse in the house'

Orange group

Sounds focus: u_e, aw 

Book: 'Follow me' 

Red group

Sounds focus: b, d, p, j

Book: 'Got Him'

Speed sound book: your child will be coming home with a speed sound book this Friday (13th November). Instructions for how to use the book are on the first page. These books can stay at home. It would help your child if you practise speed reading these sounds with them as often as possible. It is important that any incorrect pronunciation is remodelled where appropriate, both in school and at home. Thank you, as always for your support with learning at home, we really do appreciate it! 

Have a lovely week

Mrs. O'Marah, Mrs. Judge, Mrs. Esling and Mrs. Southern 

Y3 Wk Beg 16.11.20, by Mrs Rice

Date: 12th Nov 2020 @ 7:56pm

Hi Everyone

I am really looking forward to our parents evening calls tomorrow, thank you so much for using our new system to book. 

We have had a fabulous week together in Swallows class. Thank you so much for your Pennies for Pudsey, your donations are greatly appreciated, we will get busy counting and let you know how much we have raised. Our two highlights have been decorating our wooden crosses for Remembrance Day and taking them over to church, they look beautiful. The children were so respectful whilst we were making and laying them at church. We have also had a fantastic virtual workshop from Mr Trevor, a Stone Age visitor who taught us lots about how the Stone Age people lived. I have been really proud of our children. We are exploring how to make tints and shades in art using pastells in order to create stunning versions of Stone Henge for the front cover of our Topic books. 

​​​​​​          

Next week we will be continuing to add 3 digit numbers in a variety of ways, looking at crossing the tens and hundreds boundary. We are ejoying our new story, Seal Surfer by Michael Foreman. We have made sensible predictions using clues from the text, identified noun phrases and introduced prepositions of place, time and cause. We continue to collect and explore new and exciting vocabulary such as perilous, determined and segregation.

Please continue to read with your child daily and help them to recall their three times tables, your support is always greatly appreciated and so valuable to the children.

Our spellings this week continue to focus on how a prefix can alter the meaning of a root word. We have introduced the children to term 'antonym' eg able/unable.

disobey, disadvantage, disconnect, inactive, incredible, informal, unlock, unhappy, unsafe and unkind. 

Please contact me via the school admin email address or give me a ring, I am always here to discuss any questions or queries. 

Have a great week, many thanks

Mrs Rice 

Toucans week ending 13.11.20, by Mrs Whittingham

Date: 12th Nov 2020 @ 4:26pm

Week ending the 13^th November

It was great to talk to parents on the phone this week to let you know how your wonderful children are doing in class.

Another busy week in Toucans with the start of our Cello and Violin lessons for this year. We also visited the cenotaph, by the church, to lay our Remembrance crosses.

Homework

Thank you for supporting your child with their homework this week.

Remember they can mark their Maths work themselves at home (answers are in the back of the books). However, we would still like them to bring in their books every Thursday to check that they have done the homework and if they need any help with particular questions, Mr Beswick will be able to work with them before we return the books to the children on the Friday.

Maths Homework

Pages 4 and 5 Negative Numbers and Roman Numerals due in on Thursday 19^th November

Spellings to be tested on Friday 20^th November

Words ending in er, ing, y, ed, ant, tion

Trader, making, grimy, persuaded, creating, tickled, appreciated, observant, fading, creation

Curriculum

In Maths we will begin our work on Fractions by simplifying fractions, placing them on a number line and comparing and ordering them.   

In English we will be editing and using ICT to publish our information texts on Black heroes. We will also begin our new guided reading and comprehension lessons

In RE we will start our new topic on Christian Community. We will look at how Christians worship and how they come together as part of a community.  

In Science, we will continue with our topic Light exploring sources and how light travels.

Home Reading

Thank you to everyone who has been reading at home. We have had lots of diaries signed and consequently the children have been receiving their first raffle tickets for our reading draw.

We have been enjoying quiet reading time in class this week so the children have the opportunity to immerse themselves in their new books.

Our PE day is Friday so please send your child to school wearing their PE kit on that day.

Kind regards,

Mrs Whittingham, Mrs Downing and Mr Beswick

Week beginning 16th November, by Mrs Evans

Date: 12th Nov 2020 @ 1:52pm

Welcome to Goldfinches' Weekly Blog. 

  Star of the week: Congratulations to Amelia.

 Top Table: Congratulations to Jai.

  Home Reading

Wow! Well done to so many of you reading regularly at home – you are really impressing me with how much progress you are making.

Spellings

Spelling focus: words with the pre-fix ‘anti’

antifreeze, antiseptic, antisocial, anticlockwise, anticlimax, antibiotic, antibody, antidote, antibacterial, antigravity

Spelling tests are on Fridays. The spellings will be glued into your child’s diary every week.

  Times Tables

3x table and moving onto the 6x table.

Try playing Hit the Button for your times tables this week.

https://www.topmarks.co.uk/maths-games/hit-the-button

TTRockstars- Let’s see how many Y4 rock stars we can get on the leader board! Login details are on a sticker in your child’s diary. https://ttrockstars.com/

  This week we have…

Writing...enjoyed inferring ideas about the new character Hannah in our new book, creating a plan and writing our own 5-point story. Next week we will explore the first part of the book Gorilla by Anthony Browne and use drama to support our ideas. We will learn about Gorillas and how to extend our sentences using fronted adverbials.

Shared Reading: We love our 50 Animal Stories book and have enjoyed reading and discussing the story of the Three Billy Goats Gruff. Next week we will read animals tales from different parts of the world and focus on questioning.

Maths: Next week we will be counting in 25s and exploring negative numbers.

PE: PE will continue to be on Mondays and Fridays with Mr Ault. Dodgeball and Netball at the moment.

PHSCE: We have explored the idea of fixed and growth mindset this week using this lovely clip to help explain our very scientific word ‘Neuroplasticity’.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2zrtHt3bBmQ  Can you think of any Growth Mindset examples?

Geography: We have worked so hard in teams to create some wonderful posters about Modern Greece. I am so proud of how beautiful the presentation is.

Science: We have really enjoyed investigating circuits in our electricity topic with more wonderful examples of great teamwork and shared ideas.

Music: Learning the Pulse to Mama Mia by Abba was a lot of fun this week.

 If you haven’t yet done so, please return the Teddy permission slip or e-mail the school office to give your permission for your child to spend time with Teddy when he is in school.

 Anti-Bullying week. 16^th-20^th November. This year the theme is ‘United Against Bullying’. On Monday 16^th November your child can come to school wearing Odd Socks if they would like to. This is to celebrate and highlight the fact that everybody is unique.

We are collecting copper coins to fill a Pudsey Bear for Children In Need. Please send any spare coins into school with your child.

Finally, thank you all for your continued support, please e-mail or phone the school office if you would like to contact me about anything.

Mrs Evans

Skylarks W.B. 16.11.20, by Miss Beattie

Date: 12th Nov 2020 @ 7:50am

Hi everyone and welcome back to our weekly blog 😊

It was wonderful to speak to so many of you yesterday during our parents evening phone calls. I would like to reiterate that if you have any further questions or queries please do not hesitate to get in contact.

Next week in our writing lessons we will be recapping our knowledge of fronted adverbials. We will begin by writing fronted adverbials to describe Annie Edson Taylor and will then use these to help us plan and write a letter in role as her friend. Our other big focus in our writing lessons is taking account of the audience and purpose for which we are writing and so we will be practicing using an informal tone when we write our letters.

In maths, we will be consolidating our understanding of column method for both addition and subtraction. We will also look carefully at mental strategies for these operations, and practice deciding which method is most appropriate for the question.

In our reading lessons next week, we will continue to explore our new text ‘Goodnight Stories for Rebel Girls’. Our focus remains on drawing inferences based on information stated and implied, including characters’ thoughts, feelings and motives.

In our topic lesson next week, we will be thinking about ‘ourselves’. The children will create an autobiography which will become the starting point for our study of where we live.

In science, the children will be set a task to plan an investigation that answers the following question: Which material is the best thermal insulator to keep a lunch box cold?

Our spellings for the quiz on Friday 20^th November will continue to look at words with the silent letter b:

climb, subtle, bomb, lamb, doubted, plumber, crumbling, numbing

Reminder: On Monday, we will be holding our school council election in Skylarks Class. If the children wish to be considered for school council, they should prepare a short speech to present to their classmates explaining why they want to represent our class. We will then hold a vote to elect two children😊

Have a lovely weekend everyone!

If you have any questions of queries please do not hesitate to contact me via the school admin email address or telephone 😊

Miss Beattie

Week beginning 9th November, by Mrs Evans

Date: 6th Nov 2020 @ 4:45pm

Welcome to Goldfinches' Weekly Blog. 

Another hard working week for Goldfinches who have shown enjoyment and enthusiasm in their learning.

  Star of the week: Congratulations to Mason J.

 Top Table: Congratulations to Lola .

  Home Reading

Please continue to support your child to read at home. This can be a mixture of them reading independently, reading to you and you reading to them.

Spellings

Spelling focus: words from the Y3/4 Statutory word list

We are beginning spelling tests on Fridays. The spellings will be glued into your child’s diary every week.

  Times Tables

3x table and moving onto the 6x table.

Keep an eye out in diaries for your child’s progress stickers. As last year we will work through the Bronze (in order) Silver (mixed up) and Gold (Division facts) for each times table.

TTRockstars- Let’s see how many Y4 rock stars we can get on the leader board! Login details are on a sticker in your child’s diary.

https://ttrockstars.com/

  This week we have…

Writing...enjoyed using a report about Usain Bolt to help us draft our own report about Katherine Johnson. Next week we will begin our new unit of work and a new book.

Shared Reading: We have loved finishing ‘Seen and Not Heard’ and writing a book review about it. Next week we will begin a new book. Your child will have a sticker with the theme for reading in their diary on Tuesdays.

Maths has been all about place value activities- adding 10, 100, 1000, comparing 4-digit numbers and next week will continue with this theme.

We have been enjoying mindfulness time to relax, colour and listen to mindful meditation and lots of our Goldfinches are really improving in their fitness during our daily track time.

History: We had so much fun using a kitchen roll timeline to turn back time all the way back to the Stone Age. We nearly ended up in Mrs Aston’s office it was so long!!!

ART: we have practised blending water colours and using acrylic paint on top to create our stunning Remembrance crosses for a beautiful display in church.

Computing: We loved working together to use the Sketch Nation App to find out which genre of games Goldfinches like best.

Parents Evening: Please use School Spider to sign up for a time for a Parents’ evening phone call on Thursday 12^th November.

 If you haven’t yet done so, please return the Teddy permission slip or e-mail the school office to give your permission for your child to spend time with Teddy when he is in school.

 Anti-Bullying week. 16^th-20^th November. This year the theme is ‘United Against Bullying’. On Monday 16^th November your child can come to school wearing Odd Socks if they would like to. This is to celebrate and highlight the fact that everybody is unique.

We are collecting copper coins to fill a Pudsey Bear for Children In Need. Please send any spare coins into school with your child.

Finally, thank you all for your continued support, please e-mail or phone the school office if you would like to contact me about anything.

Mrs Evans

Y3 Wk beg 9.11.20, by Mrs Rice

Date: 5th Nov 2020 @ 10:25pm

Hi

I hope that everyone is safe and well. Thank you for making your parents evening bookings on line for Fiday 13th November, I'm really looking forward to speaking to everbody. If you haven't made an appointment yet, please have a look on School Spider to see which times are still available. 

Now that we have settled back into school life so well, we are going to return to our weekly spellings each Friday. The children were really excited when I showed them the list and said "We haven't done this for ages!"

Our spellings for this week are based on the prefixes dis and in. 

disagree, disappear, disapprove, dishonest, dislike, incapable, incorrect, invisible, incomplete, independent

We have started our addition and subtraction work of three digit numbers in Maths. I am really proud of how the children are tackling trickier problems and showing perseverance. We are continuing to explore rapid recall of multiplication and division facts of the three times tables. 

In Science, the children are learning how we see things, how light travels and how shadows are formed. We will be investigating how to make the biggest shadow and why the shadows change size during the day. 

In our reading lessons, the children have thoroughly enjoyed reading Lights On Cotton Rock by David Litchfield (if you're looking for a Christmas stocking filler, they have absolutely loved this story.) This week, we will be exploring our likes and dislikes of the story, any questions we still have and patterns across the text that we have spotted. 

Thank you for continuing to read with your children at home, please may I remind everyone that homework at the minute is daily reading (three comments in reading diaries equals a raffle ticket) Times Tables Rock Stars and now, weekly spellings. Thank you for your continued support with this.

This week, we will be celebrating Remembrance Day by laying our wooden crosses at The Cenotaph. We will also be collecting Pennies for Pudsey on Friday 13th for Children in Need. Just copper coins please, we have a laminated Pudsey that we would like to cover in pennies. 

If you have any questions or worries, please contact me via the office admin email or give me a call at school. It feels so very strange still, not being able to chat to you all each day. Your children remain a delight to teach. We are having a wonderful time together in Robins class. This half term, we have lots of exciting Christmas activities planned for the children, some magical moments will be recorded and sent home to you, watch this space...! 

Many thanks

Mrs Rice and Mrs Brennan

5/11/20 - Swallows Class Blog, by Miss Gillam

Date: 5th Nov 2020 @ 10:16pm

Hello SUPER Swallows!

Welcome back to our weekly blog. I hope you all had a restful half term full of fun and precious family time together. It has been wonderful to have you back in school this week, I am sure you have all grown! Thank you for coming back to school so sensibly, I can tell you are all ready for another half term of super learning.

This week we have enjoyed decorating wooden crosses in prearation for Remembrance Day next week. In writing, Swallows loved describing Tabitha Lumpet and compared her to the very naughty ‘Horrid Henry’. Swallows even got to watch a short clip of the cartoon during their writing lesson!  We then wrote some brilliant letters to Grandma using the conjunction ‘because’ to help us to exaplain how the characters might be feelings in the story. In Maths, we used our knowledge of place value to add and subtract two digit numbers. I wonder if your Swallow could use column addition to show you how to solve a tricky problem using just a pencil and piece of paper?

 63 + 5=  ____ 54 + 20= _____ 42 + 14=___

Swallows enjoyed working in their new Read Write Inc groups this week and are excited to show you their brand new books.

Next week your child will be coming home with a Read Write Inc bookmark that corresponds with their current RWI group. Please continue to speed read and write these words to help with fluency.  In addition to this, 5 common exception words will be sent home in diaries to learn each week. Please use the 'Look-Cover-Write-Check' whiteboard provided to learn these spellings at home.  Each child will be given their own spelling board and pen, these can be kept at home. The children will complete a spelling quiz in school each Friday. Children will then tick and dot against their spelling list to let you know which words they need to continue to learn.

Next Week

We will continue to focus our writing on the fantastic story ‘Troll Swap’ next week. We will write a diary entry as Tabitha, write letters from Mum and Dad asking Tabitha to come home and describe our own new Character. In Maths we will continue to use written methods to solve addition and subtraction problems to 100. We will then move on to adding three 1 digit numbers, three 2 digit numbes and we will solve addition and subtraction word problems.

Home Reading

Thank you to everyone who has been reading at home this week. Swallows were thrilled to notice that we had more children than ever completing their three read challenge last week. Keep it up! We have had lots of diaries signed and consequently the children have been given raffle tickets for our special reading raffle. Will we beat our record once again next week?

Reminder

Parents Evening phone calls will take place next Tuesday 10^th November for Swallows class. If you haven’t already, please log on to School Spider to book your appointment time. If you have any problems doing this, please contact the school office who will assist you.

Finally, incase you missed it last week, here is a link to our very own YouTube video showcasing our talented Swallows playing the ukulele. We hope you enjoy listening to us play. 

https://youtu.be/S2PaNbQbKzA 

I look forward to speaking to you all next Tuesday during our Parents Evening telephone calls.

Have a wonderful weekend J

Miss Gillam

Starlings blog 5.11.20, by Mrs O'Marah

Date: 5th Nov 2020 @ 9:12pm

Hello Starlings and welcome back to our class blog page. 

We hope you had a lovely half term together and are ready for an exciting and busy term ahead in school. We are so impressed with the way the children have come back to school with a positive and eager attitude to learning. 

Spellings and Phonics 

Next week your child will be coming home with a Read Write Inc bookmark that corresponds with their current RWI group. Please continue to speed read and write the words on the bookmark to help with fluency. 

In addition to this, 5 common exception words will be sent home in diaries to learn each week. Please use the 'Look-Cover-Write-Check' whiteboard provided to learn these spellings at home.  Each child will be given their own spelling board and pen, these can be kept at home. The children will complete a spelling quiz in school each Friday. Children will then tick and dot against their spelling list to let you know which words they need to continue to learn. 

This week in phonics our focus has been: 

Orange group

Sounds focus: i_e, o_e 

Book: 'I think I want to be a bee' 

Pink group

Sounds focus: i_e, o_e 

Book: 'In the Sun' 

Green group

Sounds focus: ow, oo

Book: 'My dog Ned' 

Yellow group

Sounds focus: tious, cious 

Book: 'Danny and the Bump a Lump'

Red group

Sounds focus: d, p, b

Book: Jam 

Writing 

In our English lessons this week the children have planned and written their own adventure story using the structure of the Lost and Found story. We have introduced our own animal and main characters. It has been lovely to see the vast improvement in the children's focus when writing sentences. 

Maths 

This week we started our work on Power Maths. Power Maths is a scheme of work we use all across the school and the children have amazed us with their concentration and focus when using the power maths books. This week we have focused on counting groups of objects and counting forwards and backwards to 10. Next week we will be counting one more and one less, comparing groups and numbers of objects. 

Science 

Thank you so much for completing your weather diaries over the half term holiday! We have used these in our science lesson this week to help us to make a block graph to show the weather during Autumn. 

Have a lovely and safe weekend. 

Mrs. O'Marah, Mrs. Judge, Mrs. Esling and Mrs. Southern 

Toucans week ending 6.11.20, by Mrs Whittingham

Date: 5th Nov 2020 @ 5:03pm

Week ending the 6^th November

It was lovely to see our children back after a restful half term. This week we have been preparing for Remembrance Day by decorating crosses. We have been doing lots of work around this as it is the beginning of our Conflict topic. Over the next few weeks we will be finding out more facts about World War 1.

Homework

The children will now receive a copy of their weekly spellings in their diaries on a Friday and I will also put them on our weekly blog. Spelling tests will take place on a Friday starting on Friday 13^th November.

Also on Friday, the children will receive a CGP Maths books which they will use weekly to complete a Maths activity. Each week the children will have 2 pages to complete. I will tell the children and we will also include these on our weekly blog. The children can mark their own work at home (answers are in the back of the books). However, we would still like them to bring in their books every Thursday to check that they have done the homework and if they need any help with particular questions, Mr Beswick will be able to work with them before we return the books to the children on the Friday.

Spellings to be tested on Friday 13^th November

Words ending in ed, ing, est, er

asking, jumped, fastest, hunter, shouted, nearer, lightest, yawning, sprinting, rusted

Maths Homework

Pages 2 and 3 Ordering Numbers, due in on Thursday 12^th November

Curriculum

In Maths we will be looking at the properties of numbers and will begin our coverage of fractions.  

In English we will be editing and using ICT to publish our information texts on Black heroes.   

In RE we will start our new topic on Christian Community. We will look at how Christians worship and how they come together as part of a community.  

In Science, we will continue with our topic Light exploring sources and how light travels.

Home Reading

Thank you to everyone who has been reading at home. We have had lots of diaries signed and consequently the children have been receiving their first raffle tickets for our reading draw.

We have been enjoying quiet reading time in class this week so the children have the opportunity to immerse themselves in their new books.

Our PE day is Friday so please send your child to school wearing their PE kit on that day. Mr Ault will also be running an after school club for Year 6s after school on a Friday.

Kind regards,

Mrs Whittingham, Mrs Downing and Mr Beswick

Skylarks W.B. 9.11.20, by Miss Beattie

Date: 5th Nov 2020 @ 8:11am

Hi everyone and welcome back to our weekly blog 😊

I hope you all had a restful half term and enjoyed spending time together at home.

The children have had a great few days back in school!

Next week in our writing lessons we will be putting ourselves into the shoes of a spectator who watched Annie Edson Taylor carry out her daredevil stunt at Niagara Falls. We will plan and write our own first-person account of that day, using photographs to help us visualise what we might see, hear and feel. We will also complete a character profile for Annie herself, drawing inferences about her thoughts, feelings and actions.

In maths, we will continue to consolidate our knowledge of column method for addition and subtraction. We will also use rounding to help us estimate and check our answers.

On Wednesday, we will be reflecting on Remembrance Day. We will gain an understanding of why it is celebrated and use this to help us write an acrostic poem. We will also visit the Cenotaph as a class to lay our Remembrance Crosses that we have made.

In our reading lessons next week, we will begin to explore our new text ‘Goodnight Stories for Rebel Girls’ which we will be using for the whole of this half term. We will be focussing on drawing inferences based on information stated and implied, including characters’ thoughts, feelings and motives.

Our first spelling quiz will take place next Friday 13^th November. Your child will stick their spellings into their diary tomorrow (Friday) so that they can practice them at home. The children will also practice applying this spelling rule in school during our focussed spelling lessons.

Our spellings for the quiz will look at words with the silent letter b:

thumb, numb, crumb, debt, doubt, limb, combed, tomb

Parents Evening phone calls will take place next week, Wednesday 11^th November (for Skylarks Class). If you haven’t already, please log on to School Spider to book your appointment time. If you have any problems doing this, please contact the school office who will assist you.

On Monday 16^th November, we will be holding our school council election in Skylarks Class. If the children wish to be considered for school council, they should prepare a short speech to present to their classmates explaining why they want to represent our class. We will then hold a vote to elect two children.

Our PE day is still on a Monday so please send your child to school in their PE kit on this day.

I look forward to speaking to you all next week during our Parents Evening phone calls 

Miss Beattie

Week beginning 2nd November, by Mrs Evans

Date: 23rd Oct 2020 @ 8:04am

Welcome to Goldfinches' Weekly Blog. 

Another hard working week for Goldfinches who have shown enjoyment and enthusiasm in their learning.

  Star of the week: Congratulations to Francesca.

 Top Table: Congratulations to Jake.

Diaries- please support your child to bring their diary into school every day.

  Home Reading

We have given out lots of raffle tickets at the end of this half term- ready to go into the whole school raffle ticket jar. Please continue to support your child to read at home. This can be a mixture of them reading independently, reading to you and you reading to them.

This week we have continued to assess the children in their reading in class.

Spellings

Spelling focus: words from the Y3/4 Statutory word list

Believe, bicycle, breath, breathe, build, busy, business, calendar, caught, centre

Each week we will be playing spelling games in class, learning spelling rules in our lessons and also practising them through handwriting.

  Times Tables

3x table and moving onto the 6x table.

Keep an eye out in diaries for your child’s progress stickers. As last year we will work through the Bronze (in order) Silver (mixed up) and Gold (Division facts) for each times table.

TTRockstars- Please encourage t 10-15 minutes on this a few times a week as this is an excellent way of helping to embed times table knowledge. Let’s see how many Y4 rock stars we can get on the leader board! Login details are on a sticker in your child’s diary.

https://ttrockstars.com/

  PE

At the moment, PE lessons are on Mondays and Fridays. Please send your child to school in their PE kit on these days.

For safety long hair must be tied back, earrings removed (by the child) or covered with tape.

Mr Ault’s club is also available for Year 4 Goldfinches on Friday mornings 8am-8.40am

This week we have…

...enjoyed finishing our English book ‘Counting on Katherine’ and recapping using speech punctuation. We have imagined the sights sounds and feelings the astronauts of Apollo 13 would have experienced and created a timeline of the life of Katherine Johnson. Today we are writing a letter from Katherine’s point of view to inspire others. After half term we will complete this unit by writing a fact file about Katherine.

Shared Reading: We have loved exploring more of the story ‘Seen and Not Heard’ and creating our own role plays about what the Twins might have said.

Maths has been all about place value activities and Roman Numerals.

We have been enjoying mindfulness time to relax, colour and listen to mindful meditation and lots of our Goldfinches are really improving in their fitness during our daily track time.

Science: we had great fun exploring how to make a simple circuit and were so pleased when our bulbs lit up!

ART: We used work by the artist Henri Matisse (2 Dancers) to inspire our own ideas and created some gorgeous paintings.

Parents Evening: Please use School Spider to sign up for a time for a Parents’ evening phone call on Thursday 12^th November.

 Whilst we have been off, Teddy has returned to school. If you haven’t yet done so, please return the Teddy permission slip or e-mail the school office to give your permission for your child to spend time with Teddy when he is in school.

INSET: Please remember Monday 2nd November is an INSET day.

Finally, thank you all for your continued support, please e-mail or phone the school office if you would like to contact us.

Mrs Evans

22.10.20 Swallows Class Blog, by Miss Gillam

Date: 22nd Oct 2020 @ 9:53pm

Hello everyone!

We have reached the end of the half term and our lovely little Swallows have absolutely smashed it! Thank you all for your hard work and determination so far this academic year. Swallows are the most fantastic team and Mrs Elson and I could not be prouder of our fun, creative and determined super learners.

We hope the children all have a lovely rest over half term as they have worked so hard over the past 8 weeks.

As you are aware, Swallows class have been learning to play the ukulele during their music lessons this half term. We wanted to create a video to showcase their outstanding learning. Here is a link to our very own YouTube video. We hope you enjoy listening to us play. 

https://youtu.be/S2PaNbQbKzA 

As we look ahead to the first week back after the holidays, we will be continuing to focus our writing on the fantastic story ‘Troll Swap’. We will be writing our own diary entries as Tabitha, writing letters to Timothy from the trolls and using drama to consider what the characters could be thinking and saying about each other.

In Maths we will continue to focus on using our knowledge of place value to add and subtract 2 digit numbers. Swallows loved using column addition to solve problems this week and particularly liked the speed and simplicity of the written method.

Swallows will enter new Read Write Inc groups after the half term. Please watch out for a sticker in your child’s diary informing you of their new group and Read Write Inc teacher.

Home Reading

Thank you to everyone who has been reading at home this week. We have had lots of diaries signed and consequently the children have been given raffle tickets for our special reading raffle. We have enjoyed a consolidation week in our Read Write Inc lessons this week and will be bringing home two new reading books tomorrow. Please remember the importance of rereading texts for fluency.

Spellings

Thank you so much for taking the time to learn your spellings at home this half term. We have attached a breakdown of personalised spellings in your reading diary this week. Please continue to learn any highlighted words from the list over the next week weeks. Here are some fun ways of making learning spellings more fun at home.

Cloud Writing

Say a target spelling word and then your child has to write the word in the air whilst saying each letter aloud. The movements can be as big and as exaggerated as he or she wants. The bigger the movements, the more fun they’ll have!

Lily Pad Spellings

 A fun and physical way to reinforce target spellings. Write all the letters of the alphabet on pieces of paper or sticky notes and lay them out (in any order) on the floor like lily pads on a pond. Say a word for your child to spell and they then have to step from one letter to the next spelling out the word correctly. If he or she gets a letter wrong, pause at the incorrect letter and remind him or her of what letter should come next. Then, start again from the beginning of the word. This can be made into a game by giving a point every time a word is spelt correctly or a time limit within which he or she has to spell the word, i.e. 30 seconds. Alternatively, allow your child to hold the spelling words and test you to see if you spell them correctly. This will help your child to think of the letters sequentially as they check if you are stepping on the correct letters in the correct order.

Chalk Words

Use chalk to write your spelling words on your driveway or on an area of outside paving. With our typical British climate, it isn’t long until the words will be washed away by the rain ready to start again. Children love this activity as it allows them to write where they wouldn’t normally be allowed to!

Words on your Back!

A fun and sometimes ‘tickly’ way to learn words. Sit with your back facing your child and ask them to write one of his or her spelling words on your back. If spelt correctly, he or she gets a point. If spelt incorrectly, provide the spelling on paper or say each letter aloud so your child can write it on your back correctly. Allow your child to check if you can spell the word correctly too by swapping roles.

Spell-Leader

Pretend to be a cheerleader and spell out the words by saying the letters individually and then the word altogether. Use a high cheer for tall letters (like t, l, h, etc.), put hands on hips for letters that sit within the line (a, e, n, c, etc.) and a low cheer for letters that drop below the line (y, g, j, etc.). You could even buy or make pom-poms to make it really authentic!

Spell Text

Many children love to use phones and tablet computers so why not let them practise their spellings on them? Ask your child to write all their spellings in a text or as message and send it back to yourself or another phone owner within the household. Check the spellings once sent. Encourage them to re-send any that they get wrong. Alternatively, you could ask your child to text or message a silly story with their target spelling words in. They often love the opportunity to engage with technology and write nonsense stories!

When we return to school, you will receive an email asking you to book a parent-teaching phone call using School Spider. Swallows phone calls will take place on Tuesday 10^th November. Our appointments will be 10 minutes long and will take place between 8:30am and 5:45pm. Please don’t worry about booking your slot yet, you will receive more information about this when we return to school after the half term.

Unfortunately one of our lovely Swallows lost a PE hoodie during our lesson with Mr Ault last Friday afternoon. It would help enormously if you could all double check to ensure that your child has the correct hoodie at home. Thank you for your help with this. 

Wishing everyone a happy, healthy half term break.  We can’t wait to see you smiling faces ready for another half term of laughs and learning.

Lots of love from

Miss Gillam & Mrs Elson

Starlings blog 23.10.20, by Mrs O'Marah

Date: 22nd Oct 2020 @ 9:51pm

Hello lovely Starlings, you have made it to the end of your first half term of Year One! Hurray! 

What superstars you have been. We couldn't be more proud of how you have faced every day with a smile on your face and a determination to try your best. Your writing, maths work, phonics, team-work and kindness has blown our socks off and we cannot wait to see what the next half-term will bring! 

Here's a little snapshot of what we have been up to this week for you at home. 

Phonics 

In RWI this week, our groups have worked on the following: 

Green Group

Sounds focus: ay, ee, igh

Book: 'On the Bus' 

Orange Group

Sounds focus: ea, oi, a_e

Book: 'Playday'

Pink Group

Sounds focus: ea, oi, a_e

Book: 'Tab the Cat'

Red Group 

Sounds focus: 'Special friends' ch, th, sh

Book: 'Pin it on'

Yellow Group 

Sounds focus: ear, ure, tion

Book: 'In the Park'

Maths 

In Maths this week we have used the langauge First, Then and Now to introduce the concept of number sentences for the inverse operations of adding and subtracting. 

We know that if we have 3 first, then we add 2 more, we now have 5 

3 + 2 = 5 

This also works in the inverse, or opposite:

If we have 5 first, then 2 leave, now there are 3

5 - 2 = 3 

English

In English we have plotted the main beginning, middle and end events of the 'Lost and Found' story ready for planning and writing our own stories after half term. We are still working hard on applying the sounds we learn in phonics to our writing, and remembering finger spaces, capital letters and full stops. 

Science 

We have started learning about the weather and we have used weather symbols to draw and describe what the weather is like. We will repeat this for each season and compare what the weather is like in each season. 

For half-term, we would like you to complete a weather diary please. This will support our science learning for next week. There is a copy in your book bag. 

We cannot wait to see your refreshed, happy and smiling faces after your well-deserved rest.

Enjoy and stay safe! 

Mrs. O'Marah, Mrs. Judge, Mrs. Esling and Mrs. Southern

Toucans week ending the 23rd October, by Mrs Whittingham

Date: 22nd Oct 2020 @ 3:40pm

We hope the children all have a lovely rest over half term as they have worked hard over the past 8 weeks.

In Maths we will be looking at the properties of numbers and will begin our coverage of fractions.  

In English we will be focusing on developing our reading skills through answering questions relating to inference.  

In RE we will start our new topic on Christian Community. We will look at how Christians worship and how they come together as part of a community.  

In Science, we will continue with our topic Light exploring sources and how light travels.

Home Reading

Thank you to everyone who has been reading at home. We have had lots of diaries signed and consequently the children have been receiving their first raffle tickets for our reading draw.

We have been enjoying quiet reading time in class this week so the children have the opportunity to immerse themselves in their new books.

Our PE day is Friday so please send your child to school wearing their PE kit on that day. Mr Ault will also be running an after school club for Year 6s after school on a Friday.

Topic – Conflict

After half term, we will begin to investigate our History and Geography topic – Conflicts. We will start by finding out more about the Battle of Hastings and then look at World War 1 and 2.

Wishing everyone a lovely half term, best wishes from

Mrs Whittingham, Mrs Downing and Mr Beswick

W.B. 2.11.20, by Miss Beattie

Date: 22nd Oct 2020 @ 9:20am

Hi everyone and welcome back to our weekly blog 😊

I can’t believe we are at the end of the first half term! I want to start by saying how lovely it has been to hear our school filled with laughter again over the past 8 weeks. I also want to say a big well done to all of Skylarks class who have worked incredibly hard and are ready for a relaxing half term.

As we look ahead to the first week back, we will be starting our new class text ‘Queen of the Falls’ in our writing lessons. We will begin by using picture clues to predict what the text might be about and will then explore the story page by page. We will also write our own postcards from the foot of Niagara Falls thinking about the audience and purpose for which we are writing.

In Maths we will be putting our knowledge of place value to the test by solving problems using the skills we acquired during the first half term. We will also begin to look at formal written methods for addition (column method).

In RE will begin our new topic by looking at Titles. We will first explore titles that we give each other, for example, Mum, Dad, friend and teacher. We will then use bible verses to help us learn about the different titles given to Jesus.

Our PE day will continue to be on a Monday next half term so please send your child to school in their PE kit on this day.

Spellings will be sent home with your child during week 1 and our spelling quiz will begin the week after.

When we return to school, you will receive an email asking you to book a parent-teacher phone call using School Spider. Skylarks phone calls will take place on Wednesday 11^th November. Please don’t worry about booking your slot yet, you will receive more information about this when we return to school after the half term.

Wishing you all a wonderful weekend and a fun-filled half term!

Miss Beattie and Mrs Hulse 😊

Y3 Wk beg 19.10.20, by Mrs Rice

Date: 16th Oct 2020 @ 10:58am

Hi Everyone

What a fabulous week we have had! The children have been so engaged in their learning this week, it has been fantastic to see. I am really proud of the passion the children are showing for their writing, as we further explore the Space Race and Moon Landing in 1969. The children are beginning to plot the key events in Katherine Johnson's life in preparation for writing a biography about her. We will be using noun phrases, a variety of conjunctions and the correct tense. 

The children are making excellent predictions, connections and inferences in our reading lessons as we read more of our gorgeous story, Lights on Cotton Rock. We are also loving sharing Stig of the Dump together as we discover what life was like in The Stone Age in preparation for our topic after the holidays. We have explored our understanding of The Trinty in RE and discussed how other people view us. The children produced some beautiful work in this lesson. 

Next week in Maths we will begin addition of three digit numbers using partitioning, practical equipment and eventaully the column method. We are continuing our learning, understanding and recall of the three times tables and we have seen great progress with this already. Thank you so much for the work that you are doing at home with the children, it really makes a difference.

Please may I add a gentle reminder that reading at home regularly remains an expectation for the children and greatly benefits thier progress and love of books. Three comments in their diary enables the children to enter our reading raffle. 

Mrs Brennan and I feel like we have won the lottery with our class. We are so so proud of their efforts and attitude towards school, coming into school each day to teach your children is a real pleasure. They are also making Mr Ault happy with thier football and netball skills. 

I am attaching the Y3/4 spelling words from the National Curriculum for you to have as flash cards at home. These words are the expectation for the end of Y4 so please don't panic as they are quite tricky. I just thought it would be useful for you to have these. We will be working on Y3 spelling patterns in class from now on which include:

Prefixes dis, in, super, sub, re and anti.

Suffixes ous, ly, ion and ian.

Homophones (words that sound the same but are spelt differently with a different meaning eg knight/night)

As always, please ask if you have any questions or worries via the admin email or give me a call in school. 

Thank you for your continued support

Mrs Rice and Mrs Brennan

Week beginning 19th October, by Mrs Evans

Date: 16th Oct 2020 @ 10:32am

Welcome to Goldfinches' Weekly Blog. 

Another hard working week for Goldfinches who have shown enjoyment and enthusiasm in their learning.

  Star of the week: Congratulations to Lola.

 Top Table: Congratulations to Brooke.

Diaries- please support your child to bring their diary into school every day.

  Home Reading

Well done to so many of you who are reading at home regularly. We are collecting lots of raffle tickets already! Please continue to support your child to read at home. This can be a mixture of them reading independently, reading to you and you reading to them.

This week we have continued to assess the children in their reading in class.

Spellings

Spelling focus: words with the prefix ‘re’

Rewrite, redecorate, recycle, rearrange, replace, redo, refresh, replay, reheat

Each week we will be playing spelling games in class, learning spelling rules in our lessons and also practising them through handwriting.

  Times Tables

3x table and moving onto the 6x table. You will see a sticker in their diary to keep you informed of your child’s progress. We are using our busy time in the mornings to practise the times tables in lots of different ways.

As last year we will work through the Bronze (in order) Silver (mixed up) and Gold (Division facts) for each times table.

TTRockstars- Please encourage t 10-15 minutes on this a few times a week as this is an excellent way of helping to embed times table knowledge. Let’s see how many Y4 rock stars we can get on the leader board! Login details are on a sticker in your child’s diary.

https://ttrockstars.com/

  PE

At the moment, PE lessons are on Mondays and Fridays. Please send your child to school in their PE kit on these days.

For safety long hair must be tied back, earrings removed (by the child) or covered with tape.

Mr Ault’s club is also available for Year 4 Goldfinches on Friday mornings 8am-8.40am

This week we have…

...enjoyed more of our English book ‘Counting on Katherine’ and recapping using speech punctuation. We had fun finding out about John Glenn who was the first and oldest astronaut in space.

Shared Reading: We have oved exploring more of the story ‘Seen and Not Heard’ and making inferences about the Shiverhawk Children.

Maths has been all about place value activities based around 4 digit numbers. Next week we will learn about Roman Numerals.

We have been enjoying mindfulness time to relax, colour and listen to mindful meditation and lots of our Goldfinches are really improving in their fitness during our daily track time.

No Outsiders: we continued to discuss the story ‘Dogs Don’t do Ballet’ which helped us think about how to be assertive and stand up for what we believe in.

ART: Next week we will be using work by the artist Henri Matisse to inspire our own ideas. Please send an old (named) t-shirt to school on Monday.

 Whilst we have been off, Teddy has returned to school. If you haven’t yet done so, please return the Teddy permission slip or e-mail the school office to give your permission for your child to spend time with Teddy when he is in school.

Finally, thank you all for your continued support, please e-mail or phone the school office if you would like to contact us.

Mrs Evans

Starlings blog 16.10.20, by Mrs O'Marah

Date: 15th Oct 2020 @ 10:29pm

Hello starlings and welcome back to our weekly blog. 

We have had another very busy week in class this week and we are so proud of all the hard work completed again. 

Phonics

This week we have updated the Read Write Inc phonics assessments so please look out for a label in your child's reading diary which gives information about your child's new phonics group. New groups will begin on Monday 19th October so books for that corresponding colour will be sent home on Friday 23rd October. This week's book will be for your current group. 

Red group

Sounds focus: review of set 1 sounds including n, g, p and k

Book: 'Let's Swim'

Pink group 

Sounds focus: oa, ew, ire

Books: 'Beep! Beep! Clocks and watches 

Green group

Sounds focus: ir, ou, oy

Book: 'What am I?'

Yellow group 

Sounds focus: ew, ire 

Book: 'Do we have to keep it?' 

Silver group

Sounds focus: review of set 1 sounds 

Book: Sound blending book 4 

Gold group

Sounds focus: special friends 'ch' and 'sh'

Book: Daily ditties 

English

This week we have continued to read our story 'Lost and Found'. We have turned our role play corner into a post office to fit with our book and we are enjoying writing using describing words. We have written labels for lost animals, written fact files for different animals and used our senses to describe the waves from the story's storm scene. We are working very hard on using our phonics knoweldge to spell words in our writing. 

Next week we will work on sequencing the events of the story and write sentences to suppport our understanding of this. We will also read some non-fiction books about animals to help us to choose an animal that we could replace the penguin in the story with. 

Maths 

We have progressed onto using our part, part, whole work to help us to build and write number sentences using addition and subtraction. We are using the bar model to help us with this. We have also explored the language of 'not' for subtraction. 

For example we looked at images and stories and asked "There are 6 people. 2 people are wearing coats. How many are not wearing coats?" 

Next week we will continue to explore addition and subtraction. We will learn and use the language of "first, second, third, then and next" to support our work and we will begin to explore the concept of addition and subtraction being 'inverse operations'. 

Science 

We have completed an Autumn scavenger hunt and made our own seasonal windows to describe. This has helped us to explore seasonal changes. We have also started a weather diary to collect data about what the weather is like every day. Next week we will interpret the data to answer questions about the seasons.

Help needed! 

Straight after half term we will be working on making a 'Boris' robot as part of our PSHE, Heartsmart work. To do this we will need lots of recycled items from your homes, such as cereal boxes, kitchen foil tubes, milk bottles, food cartons. Please collect some of these items and bring them into school on or before Friday 23rd October. This will allow enough quarantine/resting time to make the items safe to re-use after the half term. Thank you in advance.

Have a lovely week! 

Mrs. O'Marah, Mrs. Judge, Mrs. Esling and Mrs. Southern.

15.10.20 Swallows Class Blog, by Miss Gillam

Date: 15th Oct 2020 @ 9:45pm

Hello everyone,

Yet again, we have had another brilliant week of learning in Swallows class this week. Can you believe we are looking ahead to the final week of this half term already? The children have made a super start in Year 2 and have made Mrs Elson and I very proud with both the work that they have produced and their super attitudes towards their learning.

Some highlights from the week include writing our own space diaries, uncovering our brand new story ‘Troll Swap’ and spending lots of extra time running around our golden mile track. We also had lots of fun using Lego to represent key events from our Bible story this week.

Next week we will be describing characters, writing letters and completing lots of role-play activities focusing on character during our writing lessons. Our Maths lessons will continue to focus on using addition and subtraction number facts to check calculations. We will experiment with making number bonds to 100 and finding 10 more and 10 less than any number up to 100.

It has been lovely to see so many children complete their 100 square as part of their homework this week. Please continue to focus on reading, writing and ordering number to 100 at home next week. I have attached a selection of missing number problems in your child’s diary this week. Please encourage them to count forwards and backwards to find the missing numbers. If you notice any number reversal, it would help if you could model the correct formation of each number, allowing your child to ‘fix’ their own work.

Read Write Inc

We have enjoyed an exciting non-fiction focus during our Read Write Inc session’s this week. Can your Swallow teach you the difference between a fiction and non-fiction text? If you are unsure, use this video to help you. https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/topics/z2yycdm/articles/zty8xfr

Throughout the week we have been assessing the children’s phonic knowledge. Next week you will find a sticker in your homework diary informing you of your new Read Write Inc group. We will begin working in these groups after the half term break.

When reading at home, please encourage your Swallow to continue to take note of the punctuation when reading. Try and match your reading pace and tone to reflect each punctuation mark. For example, pause for a comma. For a full stop, pause a little while longer or take a big breath before you start the next sentence. If there is an exclamation mark, make sure you shift to a quicker and more imperative/louder tone. For a question mark, raise your tone on the word just prior so it sounds like you are asking a question.

Challenge: Can you undress a sentence?

Write down a sentence from a book your child is reading but take out all the punctuation marks. Ask them to try and punctuate the sentence, then compare with the sentence in the book. You can then read over the punctuated sentence with them, making sure to pause and inflect different tones to account for each punctuation mark. This could be evidenced in your homework diary or attached on a post-it or scrap of paper.

New Sounds and Spellings

 Home Reading

Thank you to everyone who has been reading at home this week. I am loving giving out more raffle tickets than ever at the moment! Please remember that the children are allowed to record their own reading but it must be signed by an adult to count towards our reading challenge.  Read Write Inc books are changed each Friday and bedtime story books are changed each Tuesday and Thursday. Reading your own/library books still counts towards your three reads so please let us know of any additional reading that you are completing throughout the week.

Reminders

• Please ensure that your child has a labelled jumper and coat in school each day. They each have a labelled tray where they can store their belongings safely.
• Please ensure that lip balm is only sent into school for medicinal purposes. As we are trying to encourage the children to keep their hands away from their mouths as much as they can, lip balm can often cause problems in the classroom.

Finally, thank you all for your continued support, please e-mail or phone the school office if you would like to contact us. Please remember that although we are not able to talk on the gate, we are always here if you need us.

Miss Gillam & Mrs Elson

Skylarks W.B. 19.10.20, by Miss Beattie

Date: 15th Oct 2020 @ 8:00am

Hi everyone 😊

Welcome back to our weekly blog!

Can you believe we are looking ahead to the final week of this half term? I certainly can’t! The children have made a super start in Year 5 and have made me very proud with how they have adjusted to our new routines and the work that they have produced.

Next week

Next week, we will be putting the finishing touches on our magazine articles. The children have worked extremely hard on these over the past couple of weeks and should be very proud of their work.

In maths we are coming to the end of our place value lessons, however this will of course run throughout our other maths topics this year. We will be looking specifically at patterns and sequences next week.

In our topic lessons we will be revising our Year 4 topic ‘Ancient Rome’. The children will be sharing and recording what knowledge they can remember by writing an acrostic poem.

In RE we will continue to look at various verses from ‘The Sermon on the Mount’. We will be thinking about the relevance of these teachings for Christians today.

On Friday we will have an art day where we will put our knowledge of tint, tone and shade into practice. We will be sketching and painting our own flowers inspired by Georgia O’Keeffe.

Home Reading and Times Tables

Please continue to read with your child at home, this can be a mixture of them reading aloud to you and them reading independently. Please remind your child to write in their diary and have it signed by an adult in order to earn a reading raffle ticket in school. A huge well done to the children who are earning raffle tickets on a weekly basis! 😊

PE

Just a little reminder that PE is currently on a Monday so please send your child to school in their PE kit on this day. As the weather is getting colder, please ensure that your child will be warm enough throughout the school day. Black or navy tracksuit bottoms and leggings are allowed. 

Thank you so much for your continued support. If you need anything at all please do not hesitate to get in contact via the office, either by phone or email.

Have a lovely weekend everyone!
 

Miss Beattie

Toucans week beg. 19.10.20, by Mrs Whittingham

Date: 14th Oct 2020 @ 5:07pm

This week the children have been finding out about their roles for the coming academic year – head students and team captains. They will also find out shortly who will be the Eco-officers, health ambassadors, pupil parliament members, librarians etc.

Assessments – the children are beginning to do some baseline assessments for year 6. We have not made a big deal of these in class and don’t want the children to worry about them at all. For this reason, we have just been doing them alongside our normal lessons.

In Maths we are continuing our work on long division and revising our basic number operations through mental arithmetic activities.

In English we are continuing to work on our book ‘Of Thee I Sing’. Over the next week we will be using it to inspire some persuasive writing.

In RE our topic is Diversity and we have been working in pairs to research a different religion and to present information about places of worship, scared texts, festivals etc. Next week we will be presenting our facts to the class so we can all learn more about these different religions.

In Science, our Topic is Light and we are exploring our own questions around this subject.  

Home Reading

Thank you to everyone who has been reading at home. We have had lots of diaries signed and consequently the children have been receiving their first raffle tickets for our reading draw.

We have been enjoying quiet reading time in class this week so the children have the opportunity to immerse themselves in their new books.

Our PE day is Friday so please send your child to school wearing their PE kit on that day. Mr Ault will also be running an after school club for Year 6s after school on a Friday.

Kind regards

Mrs Whittingham, Mrs Downing and Mr Beswick

8.10.20 Swallows Class Blog, by Miss Gillam

Date: 8th Oct 2020 @ 10:48pm

Hello everyone,

What has made you smile this week?

We have had another fun, creative and challenging week of learning in Swallows class this week. Some highlights from the week include helping 'Discovery Dog' to create his own teabag during our science lesson, creating our own gratitude jars and teaching Teddy how to count in multiples of three.

Next week we will be introducing a brand new story ‘Troll Swap’ during our writing lessons. Our Maths lessons will focus on using addition and subtraction number facts to check calculations. We will then use this knowledge to help us to compare number facts. Our History and Geography learning will focus on understanding how planes and cruise ships changed the way we travel today.

Read Write Inc

In Read Write Inc we have continued to focus on using ‘Fred in our head’ to help us to read at speed. When reading at home, please encourage your Swallow to take note of the punctuation when reading. Try and match your reading pace and tone to reflect each punctuation mark. For example, pause for a comma. For a full stop, pause a little while longer or take a big breath before you start the next sentence. If there is an exclamation mark, make sure you shift to a quicker and more imperative/louder tone. For a question mark, raise your tone on the word just prior so it sounds like you are asking a question.

Challenge: Can you undress a sentence?

Write down a sentence from a book your child is reading but take out all the punctuation marks. Ask them to try and punctuate the sentence, then compare with the sentence in the book. You can then read over the punctuated sentence with them, making sure to pause and inflect different tones to account for each punctuation mark. This could be evidenced in your homework diary or attached on a post-it or scrap of paper.

Next week will be our special non-fiction focus week during our Read Write Inc sessions.

New Sounds and Spellings

Please remember that we complete a spelling quiz each Friday during our Read Write Inc session. In order to meet the expected standard in Year Two, the children need to be able to both read and spell these words. 

Well done to so many of you who are reading at home regularly. We have given out more raffle tickets than ever this week. Keep it up!  Please continue to support your child to read at home. This can be a mixture of them reading independently, reading to you and you reading to them. Mrs Elson and I are loving reading your comments and really appreciate the effort that is being put in to support your child with their reading at home.

Maths Homework

Can you create your own 100 square at home? Using your hundred square to help you, can you find one more and one less than a range of numbers up to 100?

Eg. 1 more than 70 = ?   1 less than 90 = ?

Counting both forwards and backwards regularly is a vital part of our Maths learning in school at the moment. We want the children to be able to read, write and order numbers to 100 with ease. The more the children count, the more familiar these numbers will become. Please remember than counting backwards is not trickier, we just tend to do it less.

• Can you count forwards from 34?  (34  35  36....)
• Can you count backwards from 72? (72  71  70 ...)
• Can you count on from 48?
• Can you could back from 26? 

http://ictgames.com/rangeArranger/

Here is a lovely game where you can order number blocks from the smallest to the largest. Can your Swallow explain how they know which is the largest/smallest number using their knowledge of place value to help them? How many tens and how many ones?

Reminders

• Please ensure that your child has a jumper and coat in school each day. They each have a labelled peg and tray where they can store their belongings safely.
• Please ensure that lip balm is only sent into school for medicinal purposes. As we are trying to encourage the children to keep their hands away from their mouths as much as they can, lip balm can often cause problems in the classroom.
• If you haven’t yet done so, please return the Teddy permission slip or e-mail the school office to give your permission for your child to spend time with Teddy when he is in school.

Finally, thank you all for your continued support, please e-mail or phone the school office if you would like to contact us.

Miss Gillam & Mrs Elson