Our blogs

Year 6 Blog Friday 31st March 2023

Date: 31st Mar 2023 @ 1:02pm

Welcome to our Year 6 blog.

On Thursday, we had a super time celebrating World Book Day with a special assembly about Tyrus Wong, the Chinese American immigrant who was responsible for the creation of Disney’s Bambi. Please see the pictures of the great outfits on our Year 6 gallery.

On Friday, Year 4 surprised us with a visit to show their excellent adventure stories based on Adolphus Tips. We then showed our persuasive adverts to buy a house – super writing by all! Please see the pictures on the Year 6 gallery.

We have attached a new online safety guide 'What Parents and Carers Need to Know about Age-Inappropriate Content'. Please Read.

REMINDER

For the last week of orienteering (weather depending), please bring in extra trainers (preferably old ones) that you do not mind getting dirty and a plastic bag to keep them in.

Our learning in Year 6 this week:

• In Maths, we learnt to work out mode, median, range and mean in a set of data. We also practised how to convert length, mass and capacity with different reasoning questions.
• In English, our main character, Michael, and his family have recently moved to a new house with an estate agent showing them around. We used this to learn formal persuasive ways to speak and become an estate agent to sell a fictional house.
• In RE, we learnt about Jesus’ journey through Holy Week, discussing how He must have felt and why Jesus sacrificed himself. We then created an information page about what happened.
• In PE, we used our school grounds map (created by cross curriculum orienteering) to find hidden letters around the school to form the secret message. We made sure we orientated the map correctly all the way around the course.
• In History, we investigated the Maya timeline by plotting events in chronological order. We learnt where and when they lived and the main events that happened during the Maya era.
• In French, to round off our learning about the geography of France, we read a classic French poem, Dans Paris by Paul Eluard. We then wrote togetherin the same style. - Dans Longton. The children's pronunciation of new French words is impressive - great phonics, Y6. 
• In Science, we completed the investigation involving burning crisps to see how much energy they contain. The children then used the results to say what they had found out and to evaluate the investigation, explaining how it could be improved. You would be amazed how much black smoke comes off one crisp - most off-putting!

Home Practice all relates to this week’s learning. These are the tasks needed to be completed:

Reading

• Please keep reading every day to build up stamina. A great idea is to read 20-30 pages a day (you can read more) in one sitting, as this will build up your ability to read at length for long periods of time.

Spellings (challenge words)

• Sumdog (Year 6 Sp 2 wk 7 Challenge words 3)

average, awkward, correspond, forty, interrupt, lightning, occur, relevant, sacrifice, excellent, recognise, sincere, sufficient, variety, vehicle

The main spellings will be the ones above, but as we are consolidating our learning of spelling strategies and spelling rules, Sumdog has included these 5 below in the online challenge.

(according, bargain, develop, equip, physical)

Maths challenges:

• Counting:
  • This week, please practise counting in 90s and 900s
  • For example, start at 2 360 and count up to 2 960 and back again
  • 2 360, 2 450, 2 540 etc           2 960, 2 870, 2 780, etc 
  • Also, start at 8 800 and count up to 17 800 and back again
  • 8 800, 9 700, 10 600, etc 17 800, 16, 900, 16 000, etc

• Sumdog (Squared and cubed numbers)
  • This challenge will help recognise squared and cubes numbers. Remember – squared numbers are numbers multiplied by itself twice (3 squared = 3 x 3; 4 squared = 4 x 4)

Cubed numbers are numbers multiplied by itself three times

( 3 cubed = 3 x 3 x 3; 4 cubed = 4 x 4 x 4)

• Sumdog (Volume using cubes and formula)

This week, use your knowledge of times tables and the volume formula (length x width x height) to solve the questions quickly. Some will be word problems so try not to rush them – aim for accuracy.

Year 2 Blog Friday 31st March 2023

Date: 31st Mar 2023 @ 1:01pm

A very exciting week in Year 2, the children looked amazing in their World Book Day costumes. Have a look at the photo gallery! We did a lot of reading and listened to a selection of stories being read by the authors. In English, the children wrote about their favourite books and characters, remembering to use capital letters and full stops, also interesting adjectives. We started reading one of our new books, Fox by Margaret Wild and Ron Brooks. It was about the Australian outback, with lots of new vocabulary to learn. We will also be reading the Tin Forest by Helen Ward and Wayne Anderson and The Whales’ Song by Dyan Sheldon and Gary Blyth. These are all stories with a wild theme. In Maths, we have moved on to measuring length in cm with a ruler. The children took care to measure lines and shapes accurately with their rulers. In RE, we learnt about Palm Sunday. In Science, we sorted different materials on a Venn diagram. In P.E, we did ball skills and small games outside. The children learnt more about French phonics this week, looking at the sound 'un'. They enjoyed a song and dance with lots of 'un' words in, then practised reading and writing words in French containing this grapheme. Well done, year 2. Great understanding!

Outdoor Learning

Some of us used our skills of using tools safely to make a hedgehog using a wood slice, nails and screws.

We chose some of own learning in the lodge and the nature area. Some of us planted seeds including dill, coriander and basil. We hope that we are going to have plenty of plants growing when we return after the Easter holiday.

Reading

In Year 2, children should read for at least 15/20 minutes every night and talk about the book. This will help with understanding the text and learning new words.

Reading books are changed every Wednesday. You will receive 2-4 books depending on their length, they should last the week, if you read a little each night. However, if you need to change a book at any other time, we will change it as needed.

Reading resources:

Oxford Owl – This resource has an exciting range of carefully levelled books to help children learn to read and really enjoy it.

If parents and children decide to use this resource, we ask they access phase 5 books. Go to https://www.oxfordowl.co.uk/ and select ‘my class login’. Scroll down to the ‘eBook Library for Letters & Sounds’. You could also explore the rest of the site and read books from the Oxford Owl eBook library or listen to audio books.

Username: sto2

Password: 1234

Resources for questioning your child while they are reading - https://www.literacyshedblog.com/uploads/1/2/5/7/12572836/ks1_reading_vipers.pdf

In addition to this, reading a good bed time story to your child is so worthwhile and really helps towards a lifelong love of reading.

Spelling

Please practise these spellings for your quiz on Thursday (01.04.23). A sheet will go home every Friday with the spelling list on. This is for home practise only and can be kept with you.

You will have a Sumdog challenge on these words to complete by Thursday 01.04.23.

This week’s spellings:

Words ending – er/est. Including two words from the Year 1/2 spelling list.

nicer             fastest

later             oldest   

rider             cleanest

writer           father

bravest         class

Maths

Great effort learning your division facts for the 2x tables in order.

Next week for our quiz (Thursday 01.04.23) we will be learning the division facts for the 2x table in a random order.

Count in 2’s forwards and backwards, see how quickly you can go, but it must still be accurate. Challenge yourself and go past 100. Chant/sing the division facts for the x2 table. Ask an adult to quiz you on them in a random order.

You will have a 2x table and division facts challenge on Sumdog to complete by Thursday 01.04.23.

Here are some links to other maths games/apps the children can play to help them learn their number facts.

Topmarks.co.uk also have and English section for phonics/spellings games. If you explore the site you will find lots of different games that are relevant to Year 2.

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

https://whiterosemaths.com/resources/1-minute-maths

(I believe this app is free to download.)

https://www.topmarks.co.uk/maths-games/5-7-years/counting

https://www.topmarks.co.uk/maths-games/5-7-years/multiplication-and-division

Sumdog

Log in at www.sumdog.com

For our D.T project next week, we will be making vehicles. Please could you send in any small boxes (no bigger than a shoe box) for your child to use. I do have some spares but not enough for everyone!

Have a lovely weekend.

Year 2 Team.

We have attached a new online safety guide 'What Parents and Carers Need to Know about Age-Inappropriate Content'. Please Read.

Year 3 Friday 31st March 2023

Date: 31st Mar 2023 @ 8:06am

Welcome to your Friday Blog!

This week we have finished our RE topic on Listening and Sharing and our PSHE learning on communities. The children's ideas and contributions have been wonderful and we have had some really rich discussions in class. 

In English this week we have written our reports on the bullfight using some fantastic vocabulary and sentence openers. We have just reached the part of the story when Antonio's home is bombed by fighter planes. We will be exploring his thoughts and feelings in the week ahead. 

In maths this week we have been revisiting our column addition and subtraction. We also learned how to estimate totals using rounding to the nearest 100 and the nearest 10. Everyone did really well with this and showed brilliant reasoning. 

As part of our Ancient Egypt topic, we are looking at the Egyptian gods and how they were depicted in wall art. We learned all about Ra, Sekhmet and Bastet and why the Ancient Egyptians prayed to them. Below we have attached a video we watched about some of the other Egyptian gods. There were over 2000! We practiced sketching them ahead of our fabric art next week.

On Thursday we had a brilliant St Oswald's World Book Day. You all looked great in your costumes and we had a visit from Mrs Novak who shared some of her Revolting Rhymes.We had a wonderful world Assembly reading a story about an artist called Tyrus Wong who worked for Disney. The story was called Paper Son and it explored the challenges he overcame as a Chinese immigrant. Check out our gallery!

In Science, we looked at the plant investigation we set up last week where different plants are deprived of one of the requirements for growth eg light, water.  We took measurements and recorded our observations. Then we learnt how water and nutrients are transported around the plant. We set up another investigation to dye celery stalks and white flowers to prove that water/dye travels up the stem to the leaves and flowers. We'll see what happens over the next few days. 

We have attached a new online safety guide 'What Parents and Carers Need to Know about Age-Inappropriate Content'. Please Read.

Home Practice

The reading bug has hit Year 3. It was lovely to see everyone bringing in their books this week and swapping them with their friends. Also a huge thank you to Holly who brought in some Roald Dahl books for the class!

Keep reading your school books at home every night for at least 15 minutes.

We have set some number fact practice to improve fluency this week. These might seem a bit easier than normal but we have noticed that some need to increase their speed and accuracy with their number bonds to 20.

Spellings this week all begin with the prefixes super-  or auto-. There is a sumdog challenge with these words. Do what you can.

supermarket

superstar

supersonic

supervision

superhero

superimpose

autograph

automatic

autobiography

automated

autocue

automation

Have a great weekend

The Year 3 Team

Year 5 Blog Friday 31st March

Date: 30th Mar 2023 @ 6:43pm

Happy Friday and welcome to your Friday Blog. 

It has been a wonderful week in Year 5. 

We have done lots of exciting learning. 

In French, the children used all their learning from the last few weeks to write a paragraph about the planets in French. They did an amazing job! I'm so proud of them and can't wait for you to see the end result. I'm sure you will be just as impressed with the standard of their writing!

In maths we have been identiying factors of numbers, learning about prime numbers, and multiplying a two-digit number by another two-digit number. 

A factor is a number that divides another number leaving no remainder, or a number you can multiply by to give a number. 

For example:

1, 2, 3 and 6 are factors of 6. 

1 x 6 = 6      2 x 3 = 6           

A prime number is a number with only two factors, one and itself. 

For example:

2 is a prime number because its only factors are 1 and 2.

7 is a prime number because its only factors are 1 and 7.

9 is not a prime number because its factors are 1, 3 and 9. 

In English we have been writing a battle scene between Peter and The White Witch from The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. Our focus was to set the scene for the battle where the reader worries for Peter. Next we will describe the battle from Peter's point of view. We have found this very exciting and everybody has done such a brilliant job so far. 

On Thursday we had our very own St Oswald's World Book Day. It was great to see everybody in their costumes and talk about our favourite characters and books. We used World Book Day as inspiration for our art lesson where we created our own imaginary world behind wardrobe doors. It was great to see such creative ideas. 

You can see us celebrating the wonderful world of reading here. 

We continued with our PSHE topic all about communicating safely online. So many of the children are now messaging, video chatting, sending videos and chatting on games. It is so important to always be kind online and make sure parents know exactly what the children are doing whilst online. 

In our PSHE lesson we thought about all of the different ways we can communicate online including:

SMS (text message)

Online messaging (e.g. What's App)

Social media (e.g. Instagram Facebook)

Gaming (e.g. Roblox)

Video calling (e.g. FaceTime)

We then spoke about things that can be shared online, who we communicate with, age restrictions and how to make sure we are being responsible. 

The children were very open and enjoyed talking about their experiences online. 

We have attached a new online safety guide 'What Parents and Carers Need to Know about Age-Inappropriate Content'. Please Read.

Home Practice

Reading

Read out loud every day for 20 minutes. 

Look out for words that are written in a different way for example IN CAPITAL LETTERS,  in bold or in itallics. Talk about why they are written in this way. 

Spelling

Here are your spellings which you will be tested on after Half Term so please practise next week.

bicycle          centre          decide          describe           exercise          experience          experiment          extreme          increase              library          medicine          mention          minute          occasion          occasionally  

Counting

Count out loud in:

2s from 2 to negative 20.

2, 0, -2, -4, ...

3s from 1 to negative 17.

1, -2, -5, -8, ...

30s from 32 to 302. 

32, 62, 92, 122, 152, ...

Times Tables

You have been given your new tables target. Please practise every day. 

I'm sure you have noticed how often we use our times tables in maths - all the time!

Sumdog

Wow, what an amazing effort in the Sumdog compeition this week! Well done everybody. 

Times Tables Challenge

Spelling Challenge

Maths Competition 

DT

Please bring in a cereal box next week to use in our DT lesson. We are going make a prototype (practise version) of our toy for Year 1. 

Have an amazing weekend all you amazing children :) 

Year 1 Blog - Friday 31st March

Date: 29th Mar 2023 @ 5:44pm

Welcome to your final Friday blog of March.

This week we have also attached a new online safety guide 'What Parents and Carers Need to Know about Age-Inappropriate Content'. Please Read.

English

This we we started to write our own version of the story, Scaredy Squirrel Has A Birthday Party. We had so many decisions to make...where to hold the party, things which might spoil the party, ideas for small talk, extra items which might be needed in an emergency! Scaredy Squirrel thinks of everything!

We role played being Scaredy Squirrel talking about his party.

We will read our books to other classes when we have finished them.

Phonics

Some of us were learning about or as in fork and oi as in coin. Some of us were learning or as in door, walk, roar and core.

Click here to sing some phonics songs.

Maths 

We started looking at division problem questions that required us to share objects equally. We started with halving numbers and then built up to sharing into more groups (e.g. share 10 apples between 5 children). We quickly realised that we can easily halve even numbers but it isn't easy to halve odd numbers.

We made sure that we did lots of counting together to check our answers!

Click here to play Hit the Button - click halves to 10.

R.E.

We focused on Palm Sunday and learnt about Jesus being welcomed by people with palm leaves. We made our own welcome banner for Jesus and role played welcoming Him. Then, we learnt the Easter story, focusing on the lead up to Jesus' crucifixion.

P.S.H.E.

After recapping how we can earn money, we learnt about how we can save money. We thought about where our money can be kept safely - a piggy bank, a purse, with adults, and then we learnt about bank accounts and how we can keep large amounts of money safe. We then made a poster about how, and where, we can save our money.

P.E.

This week, we tried throwing and catching with larger, lighter balls. This was quite tricky outside but we quickly learnt to come closer to our partners to stop the ball from being dropped. We then played a game of throwing and catching rounders to improve our teamwork skills.

Computing

We did some tricky learning this week on the laptops! We learnt how to drag and drop objects into sorting groups using the trackpad. We learnt that we had to click with one finger and move another finger - at the same time.

History

We learnt about two very significant inventors - The Wright Brothers. We learnt that they invented the first aeroplane and made the first flight possible. We compared past aeroplanes to present day planes and then wrote about why the brothers are significant. We even tried to make our own paper aeroplanes!

Art

We sketched a story map of our favourite stories on World Book Day.

French

We listened to La legende des Cloches de Paques - the story of the Easter Bells. In France, they say that the bells fall silent at Easter because they have gone to Rome to be blessed. They return on Easter Sunday, dropping chocolate eggs in gardens for children to find. We practised some vocabulary related to Easter with a hunt the word game. 

Outdoor Learning

Some of us used our skills of using tools safely to make a hedgehog using a wood slice, nails and screws.

We chose some of own learning in the lodge and the nature area. Some of us planted seeds including dill, coriander and basil. We hope that we are going to have plenty of plants growing when we return after the Easter holiday.

World Book Day

All of your outfits were absolutely amazing! The children looked incredible. Thank you also to the two mums who came in to read to the children, the children loved it!

Home Practice

Phonics -  or words/ore words

Maths -  Addition and subtraction

KEEP READING EVERY NIGHT!

EVEN MORE CHILDREN THAN LAST WEEK CHANGED THEIR READING BOOKS SEVERAL TIMES! THIS IS BRILLIANT AND IT IS REALLY HAVING A GREAT IMPACT ON THEIR PROGRESS.

READING BOOKS WILL BE CHANGED ON THURSDAY NEXT WEEK.

Year 3 Friday 24th March 2023

Date: 24th Mar 2023 @ 4:04pm

Welcome to your Friday blog.

This week we have been working hard on our writing presentation and enjoyed reading our new story, Toro! Toro! We have also been exploring our Ancient Egypt learning and writing our own hyroglyphics.

In English we have met Uncle Juan the Matador and Antonio has gone to his first Corrida. We wrote some responses as Antonio, exploring his feelings and what we would have done in his shoes. We also have planned a report on the bullfight ready for next week. Everyone has worked hard this week to make their writing look beautiful on the page.

In Maths we have been revisiting our column addition and subtraction. A lot of our learning from last term was remembered and lots of good reasoning was explained along the way. We also revisited our angles learning and learned all about parallel and perpendicular lines. 

Year 2 Blog Friday 24th March 2023

Date: 24th Mar 2023 @ 3:59pm

A great week Year 2, everyone has been working so hard. In English, we have finished our novel, The Owl who was Afraid of the Dark by Jill Tomlinson. The children described Plop using alliteration. They also planned and wrote some lovely spring poems, using their senses to gather more creative ideas. In Maths, we have continued our work on measure by ordering the mass of objects and weighing classroom items. Our new topic in Science is Everyday Materials, we thought about what we already know about materials and asked questions about what we would like to find out. We learnt about the countries and capital cities of the United Kingdom in Geography. The children worked in groups during PE and put together small dances using the elements of fire, water, earth and air. The children began their learning journey into French phonics this week, looking at the sound 'un'. They enjoyed a song and dance with lots of 'un' words in, then practised reading and writing words in French containing this grapheme. Well done, year 2. Great understanding! This week's highlight was a visit from the firefighters. They talked to the children about fire safety at home. We were so impressed with the children's questions and they even got to dress up in some fire gear.     

Outdoor Learning

This week we did a variety of learning. One of our sessions was learning how to use the hammers and screwdrivers safely. We are then applying these new skills to make a hedgehog. We also made Spring wreaths out of willow. This week was the Spring or Vernal Equinox when there is about the same amount of hours of light and dark.

We took advantage of the sunnier weather on Friday to make shadow faces. 

If we didn't do one of the sessions we will catch up next week.

Reading

In Year 2, children should read for at least 15/20 minutes every night and talk about the book. This will help with understanding the text and learning new words.

Reading books are changed every Wednesday. You will receive 2-4 books depending on their length, they should last the week, if you read a little each night. However, if you need to change a book at any other time, we will change it as needed.

Reading resources:

Oxford Owl – This resource has an exciting range of carefully levelled books to help children learn to read and really enjoy it.

If parents and children decide to use this resource, we ask they access phase 5 books. Go to https://www.oxfordowl.co.uk/ and select ‘my class login’. Scroll down to the ‘eBook Library for Letters & Sounds’. You could also explore the rest of the site and read books from the Oxford Owl eBook library or listen to audio books.

Username: sto2

Password: 1234

Resources for questioning your child while they are reading - https://www.literacyshedblog.com/uploads/1/2/5/7/12572836/ks1_reading_vipers.pdf

In addition to this, reading a good bed time story to your child is so worthwhile and really helps towards a lifelong love of reading.

Spelling

Please practise these spellings for your quiz on Friday (31.03.23). A sheet will go home every Friday with the spelling list on. This is for home practise only and can be kept with you.

You will have a Sumdog challenge on these words to complete by Friday 31.03.23.

This week’s spellings:

Words ending - ed. Including two words from the Year 1/2 spelling list.

turned            chopped

played             tried   

jumped            cried

walked              last

stopped            past

Maths

Great effort learning your 2x tables in a random order. Keep up the fantastic work!

Next week for our quiz (31.02.23) we will be learning the division facts for the 2x table in order. You will have a 2x division facts poster to help you learn them.

Count in 2’s forwards and backwards, see how quickly you can go, but it must still be accurate. Challenge yourself and go past 100. Chant/sing the division facts for the x2 table. Ask an adult to quiz you on them in order.

You will have a 2x table and division facts challenge on Sumdog to complete by Friday 31.03.23. There will also be a challenge on measure.

Here are some links to other maths games/apps the children can play to help them learn their number facts.

Topmarks.co.uk also have and English section for phonics/spellings games. If you explore the site you will find lots of different games that are relevant to Year 2.

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

https://whiterosemaths.com/resources/1-minute-maths

(I believe this app is free to download.)

https://www.topmarks.co.uk/maths-games/5-7-years/counting

https://www.topmarks.co.uk/maths-games/5-7-years/multiplication-and-division

Sumdog

Log in at www.sumdog.com

Remember we will be dressing up on Thursday 30^th March for St Oswald’s World Book Day.

Have a lovely weekend.

Year 2 Team.

Year 4 Blog Friday 24th March 2023

Date: 24th Mar 2023 @ 3:54pm

Year 4 Blog

Friday 24^th March 2023

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

In English, we published our adventure stories choosing either to hand write them or use a word processor.  We also designed a sleeve (the front and back cover) and wrote the blurb to tempt others to read our story.  We are looking forward to sharing our stories with Year 6 next week.

In Maths, we learnt how to accurately double a number with ones and tenths and also solved grid multiplication problems - this required identifying missing numbers in a calculation.  Many of us found this tricky as we are still not confident with our times tables.  We also started our new topic - division. We began by halving numbers with all even digits followed by halving numbers with some odd digits!

In French this week, we learnt that feminine nouns usually end with the letter e. This helped us decide whether we need un or une as a determiner. Then we recapped the shape words and began to look at the work of Matisse, a French artist, and tried to spot the shapes he used.

In Science, we began the topic of Sound by thinking about what we already knew. then we did a carousel of activities designed to make vibrations visible. By the end of the lesson, we had learnt that sound is caused by vibrations.

In Art, we explored different fonts of the first letter of our names on the ipads. We then copied some that we liked into our Art Books. We will be using all the ideas we have explored to design our own illuminated letter next week.

In RE, we finished our ‘Giving and receiving’ topic with a beautiful class Collective Worship.

In Geography, we looked at a map of the UK and located our local coastline (Lancashire and Merseyside).  We then gave a title to the map and used colour to indicate where our local coastline is.

During our swimming lesson, we practised swimming lengths in different strokes. We have all made lots of progress with our swimming over the past 9 weeks. Our last swimming lesson will be next Wednesday.

We have also added a guide on how to promote kindness when online. Have a look below.

Home Practice

Reading

Please read out loud to somebody for 20 minutes each evening. Try retelling what you have read to someone else.  Remember to focus on fluency and understanding, and add some expression to your reading too.

Counting

This week, please practise counting in 100's

For example, start at 600 and count back to 2400 and back again

600  700   800  etc                 2400   2300   2200     etc

Times tables

You should know your individual tables target.  These will be tested next Wednesday (29^th March 2023). 

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

Please practise your tables each night as this will help you in lots of different aspects of maths and many of you are finding them tricky to apply in different contexts.

Spellings

Here are next week’s spellings. You will be tested on these next Friday (31^st March 2023).

quarter             purpose       enough         bicycle         experience

exercise            knowledge    special         appear         breadth

busy                  calendar       favourite     opposite      particular   

Sumdog challenges

You have been set 2 challenges on Sumdog:

• A spelling challenge based on the spellings above.
• A times tables challenge based on the 2, 4, 6 and 8 times tables

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

As there are only 2 Sumdog challenges this week, please take a little time to practise doubling and halving number as we have been learning about this in class.  You can practise this on Hit the Button. Click on ‘play game’ then select either halves or doubles. Good luck!

Another app for practising tables and number facts is One Minute Maths from White Rose.  It is free to download from the AppStore and PlayStore. There are lots of excellent games you can play which will help you brush up your mental maths skills.  Please do your best to access this fabulous free resource!  Knowing your tables and number facts off by heart is crucial and will help you in many different areas of maths.

Have a relaxing weekend

The Year 4 Team

Reception Blog - Friday 24th March 2023

Date: 24th Mar 2023 @ 3:30pm

Our favourite part of this week was our school trip!

We talked about growing plants and keeping them healthy. We planted our own plants and worked together to help each other. After lunch we recycled our packaging and left over food and we even put some in the wormery!

Then it was time for games; a boat race and den building.

Year 6 Blog Friday 24th March 2023

Date: 24th Mar 2023 @ 12:53pm

Welcome to our Year 6 blog.

This week, people from the Fire Service came to give Year 6 a fire safety talk. We learnt valuable safety tips on how to keep safe at home and on the road.

On Friday, Year 6 were invited to mass, where we prayed and learnt about the stations of the cross.

Please find attached the latest guidance regarding the use of Whatsapp. As you are aware, the age restriction on the platform is 16.

REMINDER

For our PE lessons this term, which will include rugby and orienteering (weather depending), please bring in extra trainers (preferably old ones) that you do not mind getting dirty and a plastic bag to keep them in. You may take them home each week, if you prefer to clean them.

Our learning in Year 6 this week:

• In Maths, we learnt how to interpret pie charts using our knowledge of fractions. We also found the properties of 3D shapes – faces, edges and vertices – and created nets for them.
• In English, we began our new story, Skellig, and met the main character Michael, who has just moved house. We learnt how to write an internal monologue using thoughts and feelings.
• In RE, we began our new topic, Death and New Life, where we discussed the loss of a friend, relative or a teacher they once had, and how we deal or have dealt with it.
• In PE, we worked in small teams to navigate our way through different coned maps to try to complete two courses of orienteering. The children had to use math skills to figure out which direction to move in.
• In History, we learnt more about the Ancient Maya using 10 clues around the classroom. We worked in pairs to discuss what these findings mean, to help us understand what life might have been like for a Mayan.
• In Art, we researched the Mayan masks, created an information page about all their use and used different media (pastels and charcoal) to create them.
• In French, we learnt that feminine nouns usually end with the letter e. This helped us decide whether we need un or une as a determiner. Then we looked at the vocabulary for countries and nationalities and how to make the adjectives agree with the subject of the verb. For example, They (feminine) are Italian would need to be feminine plural. Tricky stuff! We finished by giving our opinions in French about a very popular song In France - we didn't like it much!
• In Science, we continued our learning about healthy diets by burning different brands of crisps to demonstrate that calories are the amount of energy in food. We talked about the effect of eating more calories than we use up on our bodies. We used the data from the investigation to explain what we had found out.

Home Practice all relates to this week’s learning. These are the tasks needed to be completed:

Reading

• Please keep reading every day to build up stamina. A great idea is to read 20-30 pages a day (you can read more) in one sitting, as this will build up your ability to read at length for long periods of time.

Spellings (challenge words)

• Sumdog (Year 6 Sp 2 wk 5 Challenge words)

available, according, conscious, familiar, muscle, determined, identity, competition, existence, suggest, develop, explanation, privilege, symbol, immediately

Maths challenges:

• Counting:
  • This week, please practise counting in 80s and 800s
  • For example, start at 780 and count up to 1580 and back again
  • 780, 860, 940 etc           1580, 1500, 1420, etc 
  • Also, start at 6 900 and count up to 14 900 and back again
  • 6 900, 7 800, 8 600, etc 14 900, 14, 000, 13 200, etc

• Sumdog (Multiples of 6, 7, 9, 25, 1000)
  • This challenge will help to develop your counting skills.

• Sumdog (3D shapes with nets Sp2 wk 5)

This week, use the learning of 3D nets we have done this week to quickly identify nets of 3D shapes. The most important ones to get correctly are cube and cuboid. Good luck!

Year 1 Blog - Friday 24th March 2023

Date: 23rd Mar 2023 @ 8:13pm

Welcome to your Friday blog!

English

This week we have been learning through the stories of Scaredy Squirrel. He is scared of everything! He rarely leaves his house in the nut tree.

We discussed and wrote about our fears. We made a list of disdvantages of never leaving our house. We wrote a fact file about Scaredy Squirrel and we also planned a timetable of our perfect day-Scaredy Squirrel likes to know exactly what's going to happen.

We are going to write our own Scaredy Squirrel books next week.

Phonics

Some of us have been revisiting or as in horn and ai as in rain. Some of us have been learning ar in rather and half, plus u in wood and could.

Maths

We have been answering even trickier problem questions about multiplication. This required us to count in 2s, 5s and 10s whilst also reading the writing!

We also practised our times tables on Topmarks.

Click here to play the game.

R.E.

We continued to learn about how we can change. We focused on Ash Wednesday and how it is the beginning of Lent. We revisted our Lenten promises to check that we are keeping them and then wrote about how we can make good changes to our lives.

P.E.

We practised throwing at targets this week. It was very tricky due to the wind knocking our targets over. We also practised throwing and catching in bigger groups, which meant that we had to concentrate more. 

Science

We conducted a transparency experiment to see how many household objects were transparent. We used the torches to test this and we found that actually, many objects are either opaque or translucent.

.

History

After recapping our learning about Florence Nightingale, we learnt about another significant nurse - Edith Cavell. We quickly realised that she was very similar to Florence as she also helped soldiers during the war (WW1) and trained other women to be nurses. We then wrote our own ideas as to why Edith is a significant person.

D.T.

We made our healthy smoothies. We had so much fun. We learnt to cut safely and use the blender. Some of us liked our smoothies, some did not!

Outdoor Learning

This week we did a variety of learning. One of our sessions was learning how to use the hammers and screwdrivers safely. We are then applying these new skills to make a hedgehog.

We also made Spring wreaths out of willow. This week was the Spring or Vernal Equinox when there is about the same amount of hours of light and dark.

We took advantage of the sunnier weather on Friday to make shadow faces. 

If we didn't do one of the sessions we will catch up next week.

Computing

We practised our Sumdog learning on the laptops and iPads.

French

 We checked up on our French beans to see how they are growing - some are almost ready for giants at the top!  We listened to a poem about the life cycle of plants and added actions to show our understanding. We finished with a song and a story. 

Home Practice

Phonics -  or and ai words

Maths -  days of the week and months of the year

KEEP READING EVERY NIGHT!

SOME CHILDREN ARE CHANGING THEIR READING BOOKS SEVERAL TIMES A WEEK! THIS IS BRILLIANT AND IT IS REALLY HAVING A GREAT IMPACT ON THEIR PROGRESS.

Year 5 Blog Friday 24th March 2023

Date: 23rd Mar 2023 @ 7:35pm

Happy Friday and welcome to your blog. 

We have had a great week this week. 

In English we have been acting as journalists and writing newspaper reports about the return of spring to Narnia. We have focussed on using journalistic language and writing direct and indirect quotes. 

Direct quotes use inverted commas (speech marks) and say exactly what the person said. 

Mr Beaver, a resident of Narnia who witnessed Father Christmas’ arrival, told our reporter, “I saw him with my own eyes, he was on a sleigh and had presents!”

Indirect quotes do not include inverted commas and are a summary of what the person said.

Lucy, a human who came to Narnia from Spare Oom, reported that she has noticed that the weather is much warmer since her arrival here and that she has even seen flowers and blue sky. 

In maths we have been learning rules of divisibility. We now know how to quickly identify if a number is divisible by 10, 100, 2, 50, 25, 3, or 9. We found it fascinating. 

Divisible by means you can divide  by that number with no remainders. 

We have started our new topic in PSHE. It is all about communicating safely in person and online. We focussed our lesson on showing empathy and thinking about how other people feel. This topic is extremely important as many children communicate with their friends online and need to understand how to do so safely and responsibly. 

It is important to be kind in person and online. We have added a little guide below for you to read.

In geography we continued with our learning about North America. We were surprised by all of the different climate zones within North America. We used atlases to think about what the climate would be like in different countries such as Jamaica compared to Greenland. 

In French, we learnt some conjunctions that will help improve our French writing. Then we looked at the construction of sentences using these words. The children's ability to spot the nouns, verbs and adjectives in French, understand adjectival agreement and their pronunciation is impressive! Well done year 5. I look forward seeing to your finished pieces about space over the next two weeks!

On Friday afternoon we presented our research about space to the class. You can see us in action here. 

We also planted some potatoes so we can observe them over time and learn about the life cycle. See us planting here. 

Home Practice

Reading

Read out loud to somebody every day for 20 minutes. 

Talk about what the characters are thinking and feeling. 

Spelling

Please continue to practise the spellings from the blog last week, we will also do some more practice in class. 

misjudge          mismanage          misconduct          

discontinue          dishonest          disloyal          disobey          discourage          

inconvenient          incapable          inaccurate          inadequate          inappropriate 

Remember if you want an extra challenge, you can choose some of the spellings from the Year 5 and 6 spelling list. 

Year 5 and 6 spellings

Times Tables

Please continue to practise your tables every day ready for your tables test next week. 

Count

Draw a straight line either vertically or horizontally. Use this as a number line to count:

From 15 through zero to negative 15 in 1s. 

From 12 through zero to negative 12 in 2s. 

From 10 through zero to negative 11 in 3s. 

Counties of England

Have a go at naming and locating the counties of England.

Test people at home too :)

Counties of England quiz

Sumdog

Well done to everybody who took part in the challenges and competitions. Amazing work. 

Maths Competition - I have split you up into random teams named Red, Yellow, Green, Blue. There will be a treat for the winning team. 

Times Table Challenge

Spelling Challenge 

Have a wonderful weekend! 

Year 2 Blog Friday 17th March 2023

Date: 17th Mar 2023 @ 3:57pm

Another great week of learning in Year 2. The children had a super time at ‘Bring Yer Wellies’ and learnt so much about plants and planting. They also had an amazing time den building, boat racing and playing racing games in teams. The weather did not spoil our day! Year 2 were also highly praised for their listening skills and lovely manners. I’m very proud of everyone. Freddy Fit visited school and the children enjoyed a PE session with him, which always includes load music, high energy and big smiles. In English, the children planned and wrote fabulous recounts about their trip, including time connectives. In Maths, we have nearly finished the multiplication and division topic. The children have been solving word problems where they need to share group or multiply to find answers. They have been drawing simple pictures to help them do this. In Art, we have painted tulips and used forks to give texture. In Music, the children played the ukuleles. In French, we recapped the vocabulary for family members then we made a card for Mother's Day.  We wrote a sentence inside about how wonderful our mothers are - I hope the children can tell you what it means and maybe read it! 

Reading

In Year 2, children should read for at least 15/20 minutes every night and talk about the book. This will help with understanding the text and learning new words.

Reading books are changed every Wednesday. You will receive 2-4 books depending on their length, they should last the week, if you read a little each night. However, if you need to change a book at any other time, we will change it as needed.

Reading resources:

Oxford Owl – This resource has an exciting range of carefully levelled books to help children learn to read and really enjoy it.

If parents and children decide to use this resource, we ask they access phase 5 books. Go to https://www.oxfordowl.co.uk/ and select ‘my class login’. Scroll down to the ‘eBook Library for Letters & Sounds’. You could also explore the rest of the site and read books from the Oxford Owl eBook library or listen to audio books.

Username: sto2

Password: 1234

Resources for questioning your child while they are reading - https://www.literacyshedblog.com/uploads/1/2/5/7/12572836/ks1_reading_vipers.pdf

In addition to this, reading a good bed time story to your child is so worthwhile and really helps towards a lifelong love of reading.

Spelling

Please practise these spellings for your quiz on Friday (24.03.23). A sheet will go home every Friday with the spelling list on. This is for home practise only and can be kept with you.

You will have a Sumdog challenge on these words to complete by Friday 24.03.23.

This week’s spellings:

Words ending - ing. Including two words from the Year 1/2 spelling list.

reading            taking

talking             swimmimg   

being                running

singing              after

coming              fast

Maths

Great effort learning your 2x tables in order.

Next week for our quiz (24.02.23) we will be learning the 2x table in a random order.

Count in 2’s forwards and backwards, see how quickly you can go, but it must still be accurate. Challenge yourself and go past 100. Chant/sing the x2 table. Ask an adult to quiz you on them in a random order.

You will have a 2x table challenge on Sumdog to complete by Friday 24.03.23. There will also be a doubling and odd/even challenge to complete.

Here are some links to other maths games/apps the children can play to help them learn their number facts.

Topmarks.co.uk also have and English section for phonics/spellings games. If you explore the site you will find lots of different games that are relevant to Year 2.

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

https://whiterosemaths.com/resources/1-minute-maths

(I believe this app is free to download.)

https://www.topmarks.co.uk/maths-games/5-7-years/counting

https://www.topmarks.co.uk/maths-games/5-7-years/multiplication-and-division

Sumdog

Log in at www.sumdog.com

Have a lovely weekend.

Year 2 Team.

Year 4 Blog Friday 17th March 2023

Date: 17th Mar 2023 @ 12:57pm

Year 4 Blog

Friday 17^th March 2023

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

In English, we wrote our own adventure story about Lily from the novel.  We concentrated on quality rather than quantity, proof-reading carefully, editing, and making improvements to our writing.  We are very proud of our stories and will be publishing and reading them to Year 6 next week.  

In Maths, we learnt more about multiplication.  We found factor pairs of numbers using our times tables and consolidated our learning about the grid method. Many of us found this tricky as we are not confident with our times tables!

In French this week, we learnt how to change masculine adjectives into their feminine form, then we used these feminine adjectives to write a card for a special lady to tell her how amazing she is! I hope the children can read and translate for you.

In Science, we used our understanding of changing state to design a machine to speed up evaporation. There were some great ideas and good scientific understanding - well done year 4

In Art, we sketched different gerberas in a variety of pencil grades. We chose different parts of the flower to sketch and then experimented with shades and tints – choosing one colour and investigating how to make it lighter.  We put all our ideas together and hope you enjoy seeing the finished product this weekend.

In RE, we made links between parts of the Mass (for example The Lord’s Prayer and the Sign of Peace) and the religious symbols and steps involved in religious actions and worship.

We were also lucky to have an extra PE session with Freddie Fit this week. As well as keeping us active, Freddie also told us the importance of exercise, water intake and eating healthily.

Home Practice

Reading

Please read out loud to somebody for 20 minutes each evening.  Focus on fluency and understanding. Try and add some expression to your reading too.

Counting

This week, please practise counting in decimal tenths

For example, start at 0.7 and count up to 2.1 and back again

0.7   0.8   0.9  etc                 2.1   2.0   1.9    etc

Then have a go at counting in fractional tenths

For example, start at 7/10 and count upto 2 1/10 and back again

7/10   8/10  9/10  etc           2 1/10   2 0/10   1 9/10   etc

Times tables

You should know your individual tables target.  These will be tested next Wednesday (20^th March 2023). 

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

Please practise your tables each night as this will help you in lots of different aspects of maths.

Spellings

Here are next week’s spellings. You will be tested on these next Friday (24^th March 2023).

invention           action          digestion     creation       calculation

direction           completion   expression   confession    admission

progression       discussion    possession   procession   permission  

Sumdog challenges

You have been set 3 challenges on Sumdog:

• A spelling challenge based on the spellings above.
• A times tables challenge based on the 7 8 9 10 11 and 12 times tables
• A recognising and using factor pairs challenge

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

Another app for practising tables and number facts is One Minute Maths from White Rose.  It is free to download from the AppStore and PlayStore. There are lots of excellent games you can play which will help you brush up your mental maths skills.  Please do your best to access this fabulous free resource!  Knowing your tables and number facts off by heart is crucial and will help you in many different areas of maths.

Have a super weekend

The Year 4 Team

Reception Blog - Friday 17th March 2023

Date: 17th Mar 2023 @ 12:54pm

This week we have finished our story of Jack and the Beanstalk. We have done great sequencing of the story pictures and retold the whole story using actions.

In Maths we have continued with more addition, looking at one more and less than a number and looking at the part, part, whole model, were you can split a number up and investigate what it makes.

In French this week, we began to learn the vocabulary for family members then we made a card for Mother's Day. We also enjoyed the story of Jacques et les haricots magiques (Jack and the Beanstalk) in French, joining in with the repetitive parts. 

We had PE with Freddy Fit, at first we talked about healthy eating and how to keep our bodies healthy. Then we did dancing, exercises and a game.

We also looked at how the chicks have changed since we saw them last week. They now have feathers!! After this we made our own chick lifecycles and talked about what happens.

Year 3 Friday 17th March 2023

Date: 16th Mar 2023 @ 8:46pm

Happy St Patrick's Day and Welcome to your Friday blog

This week we have enjoyed reading our story Toro, Toro and learned lots about bullfighting. We wrote some information texts using what we learned to write our sentences. We also wrote a lovely piece as Antonio, the main character, when he learned that his best friend, Paco the bull might have to fight in the corrida.

In Maths we learned all about angles and 2D shapes. We revisited our learning on right angles and remembered our 2d shapes from last term.

In our History learning this week we learned all about Ancient Egyptian society and what jobs people had at that time. We also investigated some Ancient Egyptian wall art and tried to identify the people in the picture. It was interesting to work as historians and use our evidence and interpretations.

In PSHE we further explored diversity and community with the Premier League's Primary Stars programme. We loooked at some vocabulary and described what these words meant to us.

In Science, we looked at the results of the investigation to find out which soil is best for growing different kinds of seeds. We've realised that sand does not have any organic matter in it and the seeds have not grown so this must be important for germination. We then continued to research the functions of each plant part. Finally we had a visit from the chicks - amazing!

We also had a great time with Freddie Fit this week. He taught us all about keeping a balanced diet and an active lifestyle. You can see our pictures on the school Twitter.

Home Practice

Keep up with the regular reading with your children. We are meeting a lot of texts in our curriculum this term and reading fluency is key to accessing lots of new learning.

We have set some new challenges on Sumdog today. Some of you are still not aceassing the platform regularly. If you'd like some help with accessing Sumdog, let is know and we will help where we can. 

Continue to count with your children at home. Sing our songs and quiz your child. What number comes next? What is the missing number?

Our Spellings this week are

decided  

taking

serving

writing

making

driving

shaking

baked

famed

giving

tiled

stored

using

dancer

server

Have a fantastic weekend and a Happy Mother's Day for Sunday 

Year 5 Blog Friday 17th March

Date: 16th Mar 2023 @ 3:41pm

Happy Friday and Happy St. Patrick's Day.

We have had another great week in Year 5.

We have been very active. We did netball in PE and enjoyed our session with Freddy Fit on Wednesday. 

In French we learnt how to change masculine adjectives into their feminine form, then we used these feminine adjectives to write a card for a special lady to tell her how amazing she is! I hope the children can read and translate for you.

In English we have started to plan a newspaper report. The newspaper will be written to the creatures of Narnia informing them that the White Witch has started to lose her powers. This has meant that Father Christmas and summer have both returned to Narnia after years of being forbidden. We hope our newspaper reports will make the creatures feel excited and hopeful. So far we have looked at some examples of happy news stories to identify their features and some good words. 

Here are some of the words we picked out:

decades          species          spectacular          temperature          significant          impact          legendary          record          environment          impact          discovered

Next week we are going to be looking at writing quotes using the correct punctuation, and then planning and writing our newspaper article. 

In maths we have been practising different mental methods to add and subtract four-digit numbers and numbers with decimal places. The strategies we have practised include bridging, counting on and compensating.

One of the most important things when doing these methods to solve a calculation is that we know our numbers facts. Have a practise on Hit the Button to get quicker and more confident. 

Number Bonds: Hit the Button 

In geography we have started to investigate and try to answer this question:

What makes North America such a diverse continent? 

We found out the meaning of some key words. 

Diverse - showing variety 

Continent - continuous mass of land

We also thought about the continents we have studied in other year groups and identified ways that each of the continents is diverse. We thought about the climate, geographical features like mountains, rivers and lakes, oceans, land use, and jobs and products made and sold. 

We are excited to learn more about the diversity in North America. 

Did you know that it is the third largest continent? 

Lenten Promises

We are still spending the season of Lent thinking about how we can become better people. So many people have brought in money and donations for the Foxton Centre and Barnardo's and are really spending their time thinking of people less fortunate than themselves. 

Foxton Centre

Barnardo's

Home Practice

Reading

Read out loud every night for 20 minutes. Retell what you have read in your own words. 

Also, look out for the way speech is punctuated, this will help with your writing next week. 

Spelling

Here are your spellings this week. Practise every night. Ask somebody at home to test you so you know which you need to focus on. 

These spellings all have the prefix mis-, dis-, or in-

misjudge          mismanage          misconduct          

discontinue          dishonest          disloyal          disobey          discourage          

inconvenient          incapable          inaccurate          inadequate          inappropriate 

Newspaper articles

If you can, read some magazines and newspaper articles. Look out for some good vocabulary to use in your own writing.

Number 

Play on Hit the Button to become quicker and more confident with your number facts. 

Hit the Button

Times tables

Practise your times tables every day. Say them out loud, write them down, ask people at home to test you. 

Sumdog

Times Tables Challenge

Number Challenge

Spelling Competition 

Have a happy weekend! 

Year 6 Blog Friday 17th March 2023

Date: 16th Mar 2023 @ 10:40am

Welcome to our Year 6 blog.

This week, our Athletics team headed to Blackpool to compete in the Lancashire Finals against 14 other schools. After a very tense and exciting afternoon, St Oswald’s achieved their first ever win, becoming the top athletics team in Lancashire. An amazing achievement that could not have been accomplished without a full team effort.

Also, we were lucky to welcome back Freddy Fit on Wednesday, who put us through paces with hoopla-hooping, speed jumping and lots of dancing - thank you Freddy Fit!

REMINDER

For our PE lessons this term, which will include rugby and orienteering (weather depending), please bring in extra trainers (preferably old ones) that you do not mind getting dirty and a plastic bag to keep them in. You may take them home each week, if you prefer to clean them.

Our learning in Year 6 this week:

• In Maths, we learnt how to read and interpret different bar charts, pictograms and timetables. We practised using number lines as a great way to find the difference between two times or adding/subtracting with time.
• In English, we learnt how to write a formal letter of complaint so we could complain to the governments who are yet to ban wild animals in a circus. We learnt different formal language phrases, no contractions to be used and how to structure it so we did not come across rude.
• In RE, we concluded our Unity topic by analysing the ‘Prayer for Peace’, which is read out by the priest before we offer each other the sign of peace. We linked different phrases to various stories we have learnt over the passed few weeks and to bible passages we have learnt in other topics. 
• In PE, the weather was awful, giving us the opportunity to complete our athletics lessons, which helped us to evaluate how well we have improved individually during this unit.
• In Computing, we completed a 3D model of our dream house, using a range of shapes to make it unique. We then evaluated what went well and what needed improving next time.
• In Art, we learnt about pointillism, a technique of painting using small dots of colour applied in patterns to form an image. George Seurat and Paul Signac developed the technique in 1886. We trialled this with cotton buds and then applied this new knowledge to create our Mother’s Day cards.
• In French we learnt how to change masculine adjectives into their feminine form, then we used these feminine adjectives to write a card for a special lady to tell her how amazing she is! I hope the children can read and translate for you.
• In Science, we began to look at how to make healthy lifestyle choices and the effect they have on our bodies. The children researched the different food groups and designed a day's healthy meals to provide a balanced diet.

Home Practice all relates to this week’s learning. These are the tasks needed to be completed:

Reading

• Please keep reading every day to build up stamina. A great idea is to read 20-30 pages a day (you can read more) in one sitting, as this will build up your ability to read at length for long periods of time.

Spellings (challenge words)

• Sumdog (Year 6 Sp 2 wk 4 Unstressed letters)

accommodate, accompany, amateur, bargain, bruise, definite, desperate, environment, excellent, government, guarantee, immediate, leisure, neighbour, nuisance

Maths challenges:

• Counting:
  • This week, please practise counting in 70s and 700s
  • For example, start at 650 and count up to 1350 and back again
  • 650, 720, 790, etc              1350, 1280, 1210, etc 
  • Also, start at 5 400 and count up to 12 400 and back again
  • 5 400, 6 100, 6 800, etc     12 400, 11, 700, 11 000, etc

• Sumdog (Multiply / Divide by 10/100/1000)
  • This challenge will help to develop speed in this area.

• Sumdog (Timetables Sp2 wk 4)

This week, use the learning of timetables to answer various questions linked to time. Do not worry about speed on this task, just try to get as many accurate as possible.  

Year 1 Blog Friday 17th March 2023

Date: 16th Mar 2023 @ 10:24am

Welcome to your Friday blog!

English 

We practised our readings for the special assembly. We tried very hard to lift the writing off the page by speaking slowly, clearly and so that our voice could be heard by our audience. 

We read a new story called Farmer Duck which featured a very lazy farmer. We pretended to be the farmer and wrote a letter of apology to the animals.

Phonics

We have been learning the oi sound as in coin and and as in toy.

Click here to sing a song.

Maths

We have started to learn about multiplication. We've been focusing on doubles to 10 and some of us to 20! We then moved onto solving word problems. It was a lot of reading but we loved it!

R.E.

We started to learn about our new topic of Change. We looked at how seasons change and then how much we have changed since September. We had a giggle at the blog pictures from September and wrote about a skill that we have learnt since being in year 1.

P.S.H.E.

We learnt about where money can come from, focusing on the most common source - a job! We looked at different jobs and talked about what those people might spend their money on.

We even role played pretending to be a baker, a teacher, a dentist and even a builder!

Computing

We focused on grouping objects by their properties (for example - by size, shape and colour). We then went on a colour hunt and found 3 objects that were the same colour.

We also enjoyed practising our learning on Sumdog.

D.T.

We started to think about the smoothies that we would like to make. We chose the fruit that we wanted and then planned how we were going to make the smoothie.

We then tasted lots of different fruits that we wouldn't normally eat, such as grapefruit and tomatoes.

Outdoor Learning

This week we either made a worry doll, a forest eye or had some free choice in the nature area.

French

We  we learnt the vocabulary for family members then we made a card for Mother's Day.  We also enjoyed the story of Jacques et les haricots magiques (Jack and the Beanstalk) in French, joining in with the repetitive parts. We checked up on how our French beans are growing. No giants to see yet!

Home Practice

Phonics -  oi and oy words

Maths -  one step problems

KEEP READING EVERY NIGHT!

Thank you to everyone who came to our Mother's Day assembly. We hope you have a lovely Mother's Day!

Year 4 Blog Friday 10th March 2023

Date: 10th Mar 2023 @ 4:04pm

Year 4 Blog

Friday 10^th March 2023

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

In English, we started to plan and write our own story.  First, we drew a story map and discussed our story with different partners. We made tweaks and amendments to our story maps and then produced a more comprehensive plan.   We will be writing our stories next week and publishing them, so that we can share them with Year 6.

In Maths, we learnt the effect of dividing a number by 100, and placed hundredths on a number line which helped with our understanding of comparing and ordering decimals. We also started our multiplication topic and began by learning about number sequences.

In French this week, we began to learn the vocabulary for shapes, noticing which are masculine and which are feminine. Then we revised masculine and feminine colours, coloured some shapes and chose the correct colour word to go after the noun.

In PSHE, we discussed ways to make ourselves feel good every day, and what to do if something feels not so good.  We then recorded lots of the ideas we had shared in our books.

In our swimming lesson, we practised personal survival.  We learnt how to tread water, what to do if we fell into water, and how to keep afloat lying on our back.  This was another invaluable lesson which we hope will help us to keep safe around water.

We started our Geography topic ‘Climate change and its impact on the environment’ this week with a visit to Formby Beach and Southport Eco Centre. You can see some pictures of our trip here. Although it was cold and snowing, we made the most of learning in the outside environment – we had a very interesting trip and learnt lots of new things. Over the next few weeks, we will be using the information we learnt during our trip and finding out more about the impact of climate change on our local coastline.

We were also lucky to have 2 visitors this week.  On Wednesday morning, we were joined by our Japanese visitors who told us a story about ogres.  We then used chopsticks to pick up soya beans – some of us found this quite tricky.  You can see some pictures here.

In addition, on Friday afternoon, Stuart Rowson (a local author and ex CBBC producer of ‘Bedtime Stories’) visited the school.  He gave an assembly, read extracts from his book, and held a question and answer session. This was very interesting and gave us some great ideas for our own story.

Home Practice

Reading

Please read out loud to somebody for 20 minutes each evening.  Focus on fluency and understanding. Try and add some expression to your reading too.

Counting

This week, please practise counting in tenths  

For example, start at 2.56 and count up to 4.16 and back again

2.56   2.66   2.76  etc           4.16   4.06   3.96    etc

Times tables

You should know your individual tables target.  These will be tested next Wednesday (15^th March 2023). 

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

Spellings

Here are next week’s spellings. You will be tested on these next Friday (17^th March 2023).

physician           optician       magician       electrician   magician

musician            politician      extension     collision        confusion    

explosion           division        exclusion      conclusion     invasion       

Sumdog challenges

You have been set 3 challenges on Sumdog:

• A spelling challenge based on the spellings above.
• A times tables challenge based on the 7 and 9 times tables
• A dividing 1 and 2 digit numbers by 10 and 100 challenge

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

Please keep practising your times tables as much as you can.  Knowing your tables off by heart is crucial and will help you in many different areas of maths.

Using Hit the Button can also help you practise your number bonds.  Please have a go at brushing up your number bond skills, so that you can recall them quickly and accurately.

Have a great weekend

The Year 4 Team

Year 2 Blog Friday 10th March 2023

Date: 10th Mar 2023 @ 4:03pm

A very busy week in Year 2, the children have thoroughly enjoyed their learning. In English, we are continuing our work on instructions but we have also started a new novel, The Owl who was Afraid of the Dark by Jill Tomlinson. We thought about and planned a poem about the dark which we will write next week. In Maths, we looked at division as grouping and sharing and solved tricky problems that sometimes had remainders. In French, we recapped the vocabulary for family members and drew and labelled our families. We saw that some letters have accents on and that these change the sound of the letter. We have started our dance topic in PE. The children moved so well as the elements of Earth, Fire, Water and Air. In RE, we discussed the different parts of Mass and labelled pictures with sentences, using religious words and phrases. The children looked at what happens to our bodies when we exercise for Science. The highlight of the week was when the Japanese students came to teach a lesson about stories in Japan. The children made ogre faces with card and coloured paper. They also learnt a Japanese dance that the whole school performed in Golden Assembly. A new author, Stuart Rowland came to talk to the children this afternoon. He used to work on Cbeebies and CBBC. He was very interesting and good fun to listen to.

Forest School

This week we have done a variety of learning, some outside and some in the lodge . All of us planted a range of seeds which we are going to look after. We practised tying knots in strawberry laces which we could then eat!

Some of us did some den building and some of us listened to the legend of Guatemalen worry dolls and had a go at making our own using sticks, wool and fabric.

Reading

In Year 2, children should read for at least 15/20 minutes every night and talk about the book. This will help with understanding the text and learning new words.

Reading books are changed every Wednesday. You will receive 2-4 books depending on their length, they should last the week, if you read a little each night. However, if you need to change a book at any other time, we will change it as needed.

Reading resources:

Oxford Owl – This resource has an exciting range of carefully levelled books to help children learn to read and really enjoy it.

If parents and children decide to use this resource, we ask they access phase 5 books. Go to https://www.oxfordowl.co.uk/ and select ‘my class login’. Scroll down to the ‘eBook Library for Letters & Sounds’. You could also explore the rest of the site and read books from the Oxford Owl eBook library or listen to audio books.

Username: sto2

Password: 1234

Resources for questioning your child while they are reading - https://www.literacyshedblog.com/uploads/1/2/5/7/12572836/ks1_reading_vipers.pdf

In addition to this, reading a good bed time story to your child is so worthwhile and really helps towards a lifelong love of reading.

Spelling

Please practise these spellings for your quiz on Friday (17.03.23). A sheet will go home every Friday with the spelling list on. This is for home practise only and can be kept with you.

You will have a Sumdog challenge on these words to complete by Friday 17.03.23.

This week’s spellings:

/l/ sound spelt ‘le’ at the end of words, following a consonant. Including two words from the Year 1/2 spelling list.

table             muddle

apple            people   

little              bottle

kettle            pretty

middle           beautiful

Maths

Great effort learning your division facts for the 5x tables in a random order. It was tricky but everyone tried so hard.

Next week for our quiz (17.02.23) we will be learning the 2x table in order. The children have brought home a 2x table poster to learn.

Count in 2’s forwards and backwards, see how quickly you can go, but it must still be accurate. Challenge yourself and go past 100. Chant/sing the x2 table. Ask an adult to quiz you on them in order.

You will have a 2x table challenge on Sumdog to complete by Friday 17.03.23. There will also be a challenge including multiplication, repeated addition and arrays.

Here are some links to other maths games/apps the children can play to help them learn their number facts.

Topmarks.co.uk also have and English section for phonics/spellings games. If you explore the site you will find lots of different games that are relevant to Year 2.

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

https://whiterosemaths.com/resources/1-minute-maths

(I believe this app is free to download.)

https://www.topmarks.co.uk/maths-games/5-7-years/counting

https://www.topmarks.co.uk/maths-games/5-7-years/multiplication-and-division

Sumdog

Log in at www.sumdog.com

Remember it’s our trip to ‘Bring Yer wellies’ on Tuesday 14^th March. Packed lunches are provided. The children should wear tracksuit bottoms and suitable footwear and their usual shirt/tie/jumper/cardigan. Remember a warm coat as it could be very cold!

Have a lovely weekend.

Year 2 Team.

Reception Blog - Friday 10th March 2023

Date: 10th Mar 2023 @ 12:55pm

On Monday we came into school with clues about our story, after some investigations we discovered that it was for the story Jack and the Beanstalk. Again, we have been using pictures to retell the story which we are half way through and we have talked about speech bubbles and what they are for, writing our own for the characters from thestory.

In Science, we talked about seeds and plants - what are they, where do they come from, what do we need to do to help a seed grow? The children gathered seeds from fruits and chose some to plant. They also decided where to put them to see what difference it makes if they are in a cold/warm place, light/dark, soil/no soil. We'll wait patiently to see if they grow! We have also built our own minibeast hotel together. We searched for minibeasts and where they live and what they like to live near and made our own. Next week will will go on a minibeast hunt and put some in ours.

In Maths we have been looking at addition. We have done lots of talking about what addition means and what happens. The children know to get the amounts, push them together and count how many there are.

In French this week, we read the story of La Petite Poule Rousse (Little Red Hen) to bring together our learning of animal words. The children joined in with the repetitive parts and some were able to give the words for the animals without prompting - super remembering!

In Come and See we have started our topic of growing, which fits perfectly with our topic at the moment. Together we have looked at Spring and what we can see in spring, we have also been painting and drawing pictures of daffodils. We have also been to look in Year 1 at their chick eggs, we talked about how to care for chick eggs, then on Friday once they had hatched we got to see the chicks. Over the next week we will see how they change as they grow.

In Art, we have continued with the story of the Hungry Caterpillar, this week looking at the butterfly and its colours. we have made our own collage butterflies.

We also had a lesson aboout the Japanese festival of Tanabata, which is all about dreams and wishes. Together we made our own dreams and wishes and put them on a bamboo tree.

On Friday, it was time to say goodbye to our Japanese student who has been with us the past two weeks. In the hall during Golden assembly we all performed 'The Swallow' dance which we have been learning with them. 

Year 6 Blog Friday 10th March 2023

Date: 10th Mar 2023 @ 12:55pm

Welcome to our Year 6 blog.

This week, our Japanese visitors taught a lesson on proverbs with the game, ‘Karuta’ using matching cards.  Please see the Year 6 gallery and the fun we had playing it.

This Friday we were very lucky to welcome Stuart Rowson, a producer on CBBC and CBeeBies, and now an author of his new book, 'Issy and the Tumble Thunder'. He read part of his book out to us and answered some of our great questions. 

REMINDER

For our PE lessons this term, which will include rugby and orienteering (weather depending), please bring in extra trainers (preferably old ones) that you do not mind getting dirty and a plastic bag to keep them in. You may take them home each week, if you prefer to clean them.

Our learning in Year 6 this week:

• In Maths, we learnt how to find the perimeter of rectangles, squares and rectilinear shapes by finding all the length of each side and adding them together. We have also been improving our x fraction strategies using bar models to explain.
• In English, we have written as a tiger expressing our terrible treatment at the circus, and what a typical day is like.
• In RE, we continued our topic of ‘Unity’ by analysing St Paul’s letter (Romans 12:3-10) to then create a stained-glass window of what unity means to us.
• In PE, we continued our focus on improving our individual performance with throwing, jumping and running in athletics.
• In History, we researched four ancient civilisations: Ancient Egyptians, Ancient Sumer, Ancient Indus Valley and The Shang Dynasty to compare what they have in common. We discussed how they all lived near rivers and the benefits that these can bring: more crops, plants for medicine, protection, cleanliness, drinking water and growing farm animals.
• In Computing, we analysed three 3D models of houses, chose our objects and combined them to planned our own 3D model of a dream house using tinkercad. Next week, we will complete them, take photos and upload to the Year 6 gallery.
• In French, we recapped how to conjugate the verb etre, to be, with a game before using the correct form of the verb to say what nationality various people are. Getting ready for High School with this great French grammar, Year 6!
• In Science, we planned and carried out a comparative test to find out how different forms of exercise affect our pulse rate. We identified all the variables and chose which one to change and which to measure. We understood that we needed to repeat the readings to ensure the data is more accurate. We then used the scientific vocabulary to explain our findings. We will move on next week to learning about how exercise and life style choices affect our health.

Home Practice all relates to this week’s learning. These are the tasks needed to be completed:

Reading

• Please keep reading every day to build up stamina. A great idea is to read 20-30 pages a day (you can read more) in one sitting, as this will build up your ability to read at length for long periods of time.

Spellings (challenge words)

• Sumdog (Year 6 Sp 2 wk 3 Prefix dis-, un-, im-)

disadvantage, disappear, disappoint, discovered, dishonest, unacceptable, unachievable, unbelievable, uncomfortable, unforgivable, immature, impatient, impolite, impartial, impossible

Maths challenges:

• Counting:
  • This week, please practise counting in fraction steps of 2/5 and ¼
  • For example, start at 1/5 and count up to 3 1/5 and back again
  • 1/5 , 2/5 , 3/5, etc 3 1/5,  3 , 2 4/5  etc 
  • Also, start at ¼ and count up to 6 ¼ and back again
  • ¼, 2/4,    ¾, etc           6 ¼,    6,       5 ¾ , etc

• Sumdog (Times tables Sp 2 wk 4)
  • Keep working on your fluency and speed with this challenge.

• Sumdog (Perimeter Sp 2 wk 4)

This week, remember that perimeter is the total distance around a shape. Therefore, make sure you add all the sides you see. (Be careful with different units).

Year 1 Blog-Friday 10th March 2023

Date: 10th Mar 2023 @ 12:46pm

Welcome to your Friday blog!

English

We don't want to give away any spoilers but this week we have been learning through the book, My Mum. We have been trying super hard to make our writing look beautiful on the page. We have made a picture of our mums and written prayers-all will be revealed at the assembly next week!

Phonics

We have been learning the ow sound as in drought and and as in underground.

Click here to sing a song.

Maths

We have continued to learn about money. We can now recognise all the coins and the notes. We used the coins to make different amounts by having a cafe set up in the classroom.

R.E.

We had a lovely final lesson all about special meals. We had a pretend Holy Communion with juice and bread and spoke about how Holy Communion and The Last Supper relate to each other.

P.S.H.E.

We started to learn about money - what it is, what it is used for and how we can pay for items. This linked perfectly to our maths lessons! We talked about deciding how to pay - whether to pay for items using coins, notes, a contactless card or a chip and pin card.

.

Art

We sketched roses and the copied our sketch onto card. We then coloured in the sketch by painting really carefully.

D.T.

We learnt about flow diagrams and how food gets to our plate. We learnt that some food is hardly changed (e.g. fruit) and how some are changed a lot! (e.g. cereal and crisps).

Science

We were so excited on Monday when the eggs were delivered to our classroom. They were in an incubator and we waited very patiently until Thursday when the chicks started hatching out! By the time we arrived in school on Friday morning we had nine chicks hatched out of nine eggs!

We then transferred the chicks into a large container with a heater and we will have them in our class until next Thursday.

We wrote about what the chicks need so they can grow well.

Japanese Lesson

Yuitchi and his students taught a really exciting lesson about ogres. We made masks like the ones used in the story. 

We have loved having Akane in our classroom for the last 2 weeks, she will be missed!

Outdoor Learning

This week we have done a variety of learning, some outside and some in the lodge . All of us planted a range of seeds which we are going to look after. We practised tying knots in strawberry laces which we could then eat!

Some of us did some den building and some of us listened to the legend of Guatemalen worry dolls and had a go at making our own using sticks, wool and fabric.

French

We learnt how to name the parts of a plant in French and checked to see if our French beans had begun to germinate. We also began to learn the vocabulary for family members through songs and a story.

Stuart Rowson

We were extremely lucky to hear from Stuart Rowson who worked for the BBC, particularly Cbeebies. He told us all about his new book, that we can borrow from the school library!

Home Practice

Phonics - ow and ou words

Maths -  sequencing events

KEEP READING EVERY NIGHT!

We look forward to seeing you all at our Mother's Day assembly on Thursday 16th March at 2.40 pm.

Year 3 Friday 10th March 2023

Date: 9th Mar 2023 @ 4:15pm

Welcome to your Friday Blog

What a fantastic week of learning we have had. Our Japanese visitors have been amazing and taught us so much about their culture. On Tuesday we learned all about the traditon of Mamemaki, where houses ward off evil spirits by chasing away an ogre called Setsubun with soy beans. We also used chopsticks to count our age in soy beans. It was great fun. Have a look at our photos here. On Friday we performed a dance called The Swallow - ???. Check it our in our galleries.

Our Japanese students now return to Japan. We would like to wish Minori well and give her a huge thank you!

In English we have finished our novel, journey to Jo'burg. We thoroughly enjoyed this story as a class and created some lovely pieces of work. Next week we start Toro, Toro by Michael Morpurgo, a tale about the relationship between a young boy and his bull Paco. 

In Maths we have been reading scales and solving problems with capacity and volume. We used our estimating and rounding skills to explain our thinking. Everyone has really improved with their use of mathematical vocabulary in their explaining. Well done Year 3!

In our History learning we learned all about when the Ancient Egytpian era began and how to order event chronologically using BCE and CE. We learned about common time and how archeologists can date artefacts by how close they are to the surface. Here is some of the key vocabulary we will meet in the coming weeks.

era, artefact, chronology, scribe, hieroglyphs, polytheistic, obelisk, temple, preserve, prepare,

pyramid, chamber, Egyptologist, chariot, invade, bronze, archer, trade, expand, monarchy, empire

Home Practice

Continue to read your school books and have a go with your questioning. Practising these skills will ensure your children continue to improve as readers.

On your Sumdog challenges this week we have set times tables practice and an addition and Subtraction challenge. 

Keep practising you timestables on Sumdog and one minute maths.

Your spellings this week have the -ce spelling pattern.

absence

advice

arrogance

balance

ceiling

cemetery

confidence

difference

influence

produce

received

sacrifice

 

Have a great weekend

 

The Year 3 Team