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Year 4 Blog Friday 10th November 2023

Date: 9th Nov 2023 @ 1:10pm

Welcome to your Friday blog

Here’s what we have been learning this week:

In English, we have been learning more about subordinating conjunctions – how to identify them in a sentence and where to use them.  We learnt an acronym to help us remember some subordinating conjunctions (AWhITEBUS) and also made ‘human sentences’. We had great fun changing the words around and adding punctuation where needed so that the sentence started with the subordinate clause and was still grammatically correct.

In Maths, we revised and learnt more about the formal written method of subtraction.  We used this to subtract 4 digit numbers from 4 digit numbers, including when zero was used as a place holder.  In addition, we identified missing numbers in column subtraction calculations. We were very proud of our efforts, especially when we needed to include exchanging!

In RE, we learnt about Judaism. We watched a video which developed our understanding about the rules of the Jewish faith and the Torah.

In History, we learnt more about the Roman Army – especially the formations used when in battle. We re-enacted some of these and also had a closer look at the Roman Legionary armour which was on loan from the library. You can see some pictures of us looking at this here.   

In French, we continued with our pets topic. We started the lesson by writing the correct word on our whiteboard for the picture that had been drawn and then listened to Mr French ‘Les animaux’ song again. We then wrote sentences in our books to show each character’s response for ‘Tu as des animaux?’. We used the sentence stem ‘Oui, j’ai (number) (animal) et (number) (animal)’ each time, remembering to check the spellings and whether it needed to be plural.

In Art, we continued with our topic of ‘Exploring Pattern’. We were given a ‘rule’ and then needed to adhere to the rule in order to create a pattern. You can see us in action here.

In Music, we started to learn Au Clair de la Lune on our recorders, using the notes we already know – B A and G. We also started to rehearse the songs for our Reconciliation day on Monday 4^th December.

Home Practice

Reading

Please read for 20 minutes each evening to an adult at home.  Make sure you discuss the story and the characters.  Find the meaning of any new words too.  Reading every night will help you read more fluently and with understanding. 

Counting

This week, please practise counting in 8’s.

For example, start at 0 and count up to 96 and back again 

0  8  16  24     etc                             96  88  80   etc

Then count in 80’s

For example, start at 0 and count to 960 and back again

0   80   160   240  etc                         960   880   800  etc

Maths - Times tables and number facts

Please practise your individual tables target for your test next week. Ask someone at home to test you on your tables – can you recall them quickly and accurately?

You can practise your tables on Hit the Button and timestables.co.uk

Please also practise your number facts. It has become evident that many of you are finding this tricky when you have been completing your written addition and subtraction.

You can practise your number facts on Hit the Button

It is crucial that you learn all of your table facts and your number facts as this will help you with many aspects of maths.

Spellings

Your spellings next week are all taken from the Year 3 / 4 Statutory word list.

length          popular        strange        breathe       difficult

guard           mention        probably      therefore    build

disappear     guide           natural         recent         though        

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 8 times tables
• A challenge based on the formal written method of column subtraction – please note this only goes up to 3 digit subtract 3 digit numbers

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

The Year 4 Team

Year 1 Blog - Friday 10th November 2023

Date: 8th Nov 2023 @ 5:26pm

Welcome to your Friday blog. Thank you for supporting the Poppy appeal.

English

This week we have been learning through the story of Bob. Bob is an astronaut who works on the moon. We discussed all the jobs Bob has to do in his day. We wrote sentences describing Bob . We also designed and labelled a rocket. We made a poster asking for any information about aliens (Bob doesn't believe aliens exist!) Bob visited us and we asked him questions about his day.

On Thursday morning all the infants had a special treat. We were visited by an author called Rachel Walmsley. She read her book to us and some of us even went out to the front of the hall to wear a pair of animal ears.

We had a great time and she was very impressed with all our listening ears!

Phonics

Some of us have been learning about syllables in words. We clapped them, for example, garden has 2 syllables, gar and den, so we clapped twice. We clapped out the syllables in our names and other words such as paintbrush, lunchbox.

Some of us have continued to learn the split digraphs - split digraph u_e making an oo sound in rule and yoo sound in cute.

We have also been practising reading our tricky words. Please practise reading these at home. These words need to be recognised on sight.

If your child can read them, practise writing them. When your child has mastered their words, ask us for some more.

Maths

This week we have been learning how to measure mass by weighing using a pan balance. We compared the mass of two objects.

We have been learning about 2-D and some 3-D shapes and their properties. 

R.E. 

We first learnt about two Jewish leaders - Abraham and Moses. We learnt about the promises that they made to God and how they are important to Jewish people.

Then, we learnt all about the symbols seen at a baptism. We identified the symbols and tried to explain what they represent.

On Monday, we were visited by Bishop Tom Neylon. He came to see us in our classrooms and was impressed with our learning.

P.E.

We recapped how to move like a robot and then played robot relays. We had to move across the room like a robot in a certain environment, such as a robot in space or a robot going through a narrow tunnel! We then took it in turns to travel like a robot and we had to copy the leader of the line.

P.S.H.E.

We identified the special people in our lives and drew a picture of them. We explained why they are special and what they do for us.

Computing

We used the laptops and iPads to drag and drop items. This was quite easy for us so then we tried to complete simple coding exercises.

History

We started our toys topic by investigating some toys from the past. Miss Fisher brought in some of her favourite toys from her childhood and we became history detectives, deciding what materials they were made from and whether the toys could move or not.

Next week we will be investigating present day toys, so please remember to bring one of your toys into school on Thursday 16th November.

Art

We explored the art technique of printing using paint. Half of us had a go at sponge printing using pre-cut sponges. The rest of the class will have a go next week.

Forest School

In our first session we made popcorn. We made sure that we could remember Firey Fox's fire safety rules.

We watched as the adult made the fire and lit it using a flint and steel. We cooked the popcorn in a special pan and described the changes we could see. It was delicious!

In our second session we listened to a story called "Robin's Winter Song". It was about the changing seasons. We discussed how we can look after the birds in Winter. In our nature area we made bird feeders on skewers by threading fruit and cheerios. This activity developed our fine motor skills and our concentration. We hung them in the trees as high up as we could. 

We also had time for our own play.

French

We recapped how to respond to ‘Comment ҫa va?’. We listened to and joined in with the Lingobox Learning ‘French ҫa va song’. We learned how to say ‘ҫa va très bien’, ‘ҫa va bien’, ‘comme ci, comme ҫa’ and ‘ҫa va mal’. We also decided which phrase we would use for different scenarios.

Music

We started to learn the first three songs for our Nativity. We clapped, tapped and played the rhythms on our instruments.

Home Practice (Sumdog)

Phonics - qu words OR compound words OR split i_e words

Maths - 2D and 3D shapes

Counting - Practise counting in 1s, 2s, 5s and 10s, forwards and backwards from different numbers. For example, start at 20 and count in 5s to 50: 20, 25, 30...

Year 6 Blog Friday 3rd November 2023

Date: 3rd Nov 2023 @ 3:47pm

Welcome to the Year 6 weekly blog.

We have had a busy first week back:

On Wednesday the juniors were invited to Mass to celebrate All Saints Day. The Year 6’s chosen to read out did a super job.

On Thursday, we had a visit from some of the local police to help us understand what commitment is like for those working in the police force. We were very lucky to meet a responder, traffic officers and a police dog trainers. The Year 6s had a super time metting the all and asking lots of great questions. You can see the gallery here.

This week’s learning in Year 6:

• In Maths, we have learnt and practised how to solve large multiplication questions using the grid method. Most of this week’s home practice has been focused on this to enable the children to become as efficient as possible so they can answer a four-digit x two-digit question in less than two minutes.

• In English, we read a suspense scene from Clockwork which inspired us to write the next suspense chapter. We worked on setting the scene with personification, expressing the character’s thoughts and using short sentences wisely.

• In PE, we introduced a sport we have not played in a while – volleyball. We learnt the main rules, practised serving and how to pass to each other. We need to work on tactics next week and the importance of positioning.

• In PSHE, we discussed ways of helping ourselves and others when faced with difficult challenges. We then related this learning to what we can do in two weeks at Robinwood.

• In Geography, we learnt about Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay, who were the first two men to reach the top of Mount Everest in 1953. We planned and created a biography of Edmund Hillary, which focused on the main achievements in his life.

• In French, it was Halloween! We completed a French wordsearch with Halloween vocabulary and translated each word into our books. We discussed whether some facts about Halloween in Fracne were vrai o faux. We also matched some statements to the correct Halloween character.

• In Music, we began a half term of jazz on the glocks by learning a new piece called Bacharach Anorak. We learnt to play the head or tune. We started to learn the song Jazz is cool and explored music with 3 beats in a bar.

Home Practice

Please complete the following tasks by next Wednesday:

Reading – Use your Home Reading to read every night for 30 minutes. You also have a Reading Journal/Diary that must be used for the title of the book and any reading challenge chosen.

• You may change your book any day between Monday and Wednesday

Spellings (-ant, -ance words)

• Sumdog (Spellings A2 wk 1)
  • assistant, assistance, arrogant, relevant, important, importance, appearance, extravagant, hesitant, reluctant, nuisance, hindrance, ignorance, resistant, restaurant.

Maths challenges:

• Counting:
  • This week we have been counting in whole number steps of 50, 90 and 900. Try to do the same out loud or with paper.
  • Draw a line with some marks on it like I do in class. You could write the numbers as you count up or down, then double check it to make sure you have said the correct numbers.
  • g. Start with different numbers and count up 10 times then back again in 50s:

233, 283, 333, 383, 433, 483, 533, etc

and in 90s:

233, 323, 413, 503, 593, 683, 773, 863, etc               

Start at a different number and count up 10 numbers and down again but this time in 900s:

740, 1640, 2540, 3440, 4340, 5240, 6140, 7040, etc   

• Sumdog (Times Tables A2 wk 1)
  • This week’s focus is on x3, x5, x7 times tables.

• Sumdog (Times/divide whole numbers and decimals)
  • These questions are practice of the work we have done recently. Work through as many as you can as they will help hugely for next week’s learning.

Year 3 Blog Friday 3rd November 2023

Date: 3rd Nov 2023 @ 3:41pm

Welcome to your Friday Blog

We have had a great week back in Year 3 this week and the children have been very keen to continue their learning.

In English, we have been concentrating on the use of interesting vocabulary, using adjectives to add more detail to our writing and to show feeling and similes to describe landscapes.  We have used clues from the text and our imaginations to write predictions as to what we think might happen next in the story.  Now we have finished reading the book, we are looking forward to using these ideas to help write our own story.

In Maths we have completed our work on bar charts and begun to look at addition and using formal written methods.

In Science we have begun our topic on rocks and soils and in PSHE we are looking at keeping safe in the home and school; our bodies; hygiene; medicines and household products.  The children showed a good awareness recognising hazards that may cause harm or injury and what they should do to reduce risk and keep themselves (or others) safe.

In French, it was Halloween! We discussed whether some facts about Halloween in France were vrai o faux, we learned some vocabulary for typical Halloween things and were able to write the correct French word and English meaning for each picture in our books. We then played ‘What’s missing?’ and also had a chance to complete a French wordsearch with the Halloween vocabulary.

Home Practice

On Sumdog there are spelling and maths challenges.  Your spellings for this week are:

after, father, improve, hour, eye, would, whole, many, busy, people.

Don’t forget to keep up with the fantastic home reading. Here is a reminder of the link to some Year 3 recommended reads if you want to extend your home libraries.

Have a lovely weekend!

The Year 3 team

Year 2 Blog Friday 3rd November 2023

Date: 2nd Nov 2023 @ 3:38pm

A great week back in Year 2, well done to everybody for working so hard and following the Golden Rules.There were lots of people on gold and triple gold (Mrs Wood was so pleased). It was also lovely to hear about your holiday and see how ready and excited you are about our new learning this term. Have a happy and safe weekend celebrating Bonfire Night, we will look forward to hearing all about it on Monday.

In English, we have started new novels, The Owl Who Was Afraid of the Dark by Jill Tomlinson and The diary of a Killer Cat by Anne Fine. The children read aloud so well and did great comprehension work, retrieving information and answering some tricky questions. They also worked on adjectives to describe the main characters and wrote a description of Plop, the owl. Great phonics and spelling work, we can see a big improvement. Keep up the super work and effort!

Forest School

This week we did some whittling with vegetable peelers. We used balsa wook as it is very soft. We made sure we used the peelers safely and we made some interesting shapes. We had to persevere as it took a few tries to get the hang of it.  In the future, we will use these new skills to make objects out of sticks.

In our other session we played a hiding game in the nature area then made some yarn dolls. We needed to use our knot tying skills and we came up with some very imaginative creations. We helped each other and showed perseverance and concentration.

Reading

In Year 2, children should read for at least 15 minutes every night and talk about the book. This will help with understanding the text and learning new words. You could look up any new words in a dictionary and practise alphabetical order with your child (a great skill to learn).

Please date, sign and leave a small comment when you have read with your child and make it clear that you have finished a book, then we know we can change it.

Reading books are changed every MONDAY. 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.

Spellings

Please practise these spellings for your quiz on Wednesday (08.11.23). There is also a Sumdog challenge to complete which will help with learning these words. A sheet will go home every Wednesday with the spelling list on. This is for home practise only and can be kept with you.

old                    every

cold                  great

gold                  break

hold                  steak

told                    pretty

In Maths, we have moved on to learning about 2-D shape. The children have been naming and describing the properties of shapes and classifying them in venn diagrams. They have been introduced to quadrilaterals, four sided shapes, including squares and rectangles. Remember we call corners vertices now!

Counting

At home, count in 10s up to 100 forwards and backwards. Challenge yourself and count past 100, see how far you can go!

Sumdog

You will have a 2-D shape and spelling challenge to complete by next week.

Log in at www.sumdog.com

In RE, the children have finished their Signs and Symbols topic about Baptism and will be moving on to learn about Judaism next week. To mark All Saints Day, some of the children did a Saints scavenger hunt, they answered quiz questions in groups and thought about who their favourite Saint is.

In PSHE, the children discussed bullying and produced a super poster. In Geography, they worked on the saesons of the UK and talked about appropriate clothing depending on what season it was. This week in French, it was Halloween! We discussed whether some facts about Halloween in France were vrai o faux, we learned some vocabulary for typical Halloween things and were able to match the French words to the correct English meaning and then played ‘What’s missing?’. We also had a chance to choose a Halloween character and complete a ‘colour by number’ in French.

In Art, the children created firework paintings with different textures and materials. In PE, we saw some amazing dancing to a firewok song. The children moved like real fireworks with so much energy and enthusiasm. In History, the children heard the Gunpowder Plot story and sequenced pictures to retell that story. In Music, we started a unit of work based on The Great Fire of London. Learnt the first song, Here in Pudding Lane. Then we played the rhythm on our instruments. We listened to Waltz of the flowers and Russian Dance by Tchaikovsky.

Reminders

Our PE day is FRIDAY.

Our BOOK CHANGE day is MONDAY.

SPELLING QUIZ is on WEDNESDAY.

We will be starting our DT project very soon - Tudor Houses. Please could you send in two small cardboard boxes for next Friday. Examples: tissue boxes, shoeboxes or small cereal boxes. We will have some spares in school but the more we can get the better. Thank you.

Have a great weekend,

Year 2 Team.

Year 4 Blog - Friday 3rd November 2023

Date: 2nd Nov 2023 @ 12:56pm

Welcome to the Year 4 blog and another busy half term. We have worked our socks off this week and are very proud of our learning.  

In English, we concentrated on evaluating how Michael’s feelings and emotions changed throughout a chapter. We also identified and underlined main and subordinate clauses in sentences. We hope to develop our understanding of subordinate clauses and begin to use these within our independent writing.

• A subordinate clause starts with a subordinating conjunction.
• A conjunction is a word, or words, used to connect two clauses together. Words such as: although, because or when.
• These are all examples of subordinating conjunctions

In Maths, we started our new unit – Addition and Subtraction. We began by revising the formal written method of addition and used this to add 4 digit numbers together, including exchanging.  We then extended our learning to identify missing digits in column addition calculations, and adding three numbers together with four digits.

In RE, we read a passage of the Bible during which Jesus called Andrew, Simon, James and John to help him deliver the ‘Good News’. Some of us were then chosen to be ‘hotseated’ as an apostle.  We gave some very thoughtful and interesting responses which gave an insight into how the apostles may have been feeling about their mission.

In Art, we started our new topic ‘Exploring Pattern’. We started by making a sensory drawing using a needle. We were very proud of our finished drawings – have a look at some of them here.

In Science, we created our own classification keys to help identify different animals. We also finished our ‘Living Things’ topic with a lesson about environmental changes. We discussed natural changes and changes caused by humans, and explained the impact of changes on habitats and the animals that live there.  

In P.S.H.E., we started our Relationships topic 'Play the right way and inclusion'. We wrote down what we thought respect means and discussed what it involves. We watched a video and identified the positive attitudes and behaviours shown, especially when in a team. We also discussed what happens and what it feels like when people show respect / don't show respect.  

In French, we discussed whether some facts about Halloween in France were vrai o faux (true or false). We learned some vocabulary for typical Halloween things and were able to write the correct French word and English meaning for each picture in our books. We then played ‘What’s missing?’ and ‘Guess Who?’.

In Music, we started to learn the song Mama Mia and played some warm up games. Following this, we recapped the notes we learnt on the recorders in year 3 – B A and G.

Home Practice

Reading

Please read for 20 minutes each evening to an adult at home.  Make sure you discuss the story and the characters.  Find the meaning of any new words too.  Reading every night will help you read more fluently and with understanding. 

Counting

This week, please practise counting in 4’s.

For example, start at 0 and count up to 48 and back again 

0   4   8   12     etc                             48   44   40   etc

Then practise counting in 8’s.

For example, start at 0 and down up to 96 and back again

0   8  16  24  etc                                  96  88  80   etc

Times tables

Please practise your individual tables target for your test next week on Wednesday. Ask someone at home to test you on your tables – can you recall them quickly and accurately?

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

It is crucial that you learn all of your table facts as this will help you with many aspects of maths.

Spellings

Your spellings next week all have the i sound spelt y. 

gym             myth            pyramid       symbol         synonym

mystery       Egypt          system         lyrics           hymn 

gymnastics   typical         cylinder       physical       oxygen

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 4 and 8 times tables
• A challenge based on the formal written method of column addition – please note this only goes up to 3 digit plus 3 digit numbers

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

Have a great weekend - stay safe if you go to a bonfire.

The Year 4 Team

Reception Blog - Friday 3rd November 2023

Date: 2nd Nov 2023 @ 10:38am

This week in Reception, we started our week learning all about Bonfire Night and doing some Bonfire art pictures!

Our story this week has been What's in the Witch's Kitchen. The children have loved taking the story into their learning, going into the Witch's lair to make their own potions. During drawing club time the children have drawn their own witch and drawn their own witch's kitchen.

In maths, we have been looking at 2D shapes (circle, square, rectangle and triangle) We have been spotting them in our classroom and around school and we have been finding them in games and repeating patterns.

In phonics this week, we have been learning the ck, e and u sounds. We have used lots of games to help us with this. A big thank you to everyone that attended our phonics night. We hope that you have found this useful. Any questions, please do not hesitate to get in touch.

This week in French, we recapped and practised some French greetings. We did this by saying bonjour or au revoir to the appearing and disappearing pirates, by listening to a French greetings song, and by using finger puppets to talk to greet each other as new characters.

In PSHE this week, we have been learning about germs and how they spread. We have talked about covering our noses and mouths when sneezing and coughing and washing our hands regulary.

This week we have started our new topic all about people who help us. We have talked about all of the different people who help us, and we were fortunate enough to have the Police come and visit this week. The children loved seeing the cars and equipment that they use. We even got to go in the cars and set the sirens off and finished our session seeing three police dogs!

On Friday we had Yoga and Forest school.We created a home for an animal. We discussed what a home needs; to provide shelter from the weather, warmth, protection from predators, space, food and water. We had our own soft toy to make a home for. We used natural materials to make our animal home and worked in small groups and had some brilliant discussions. 

We also talked about living in Longton and went on google earth to see all of the different things we see on our way to school, for example; zebra crossings, traffic lights and bus stops.

Year 5 Blog Friday 3rd November 2023

Date: 2nd Nov 2023 @ 8:28am

Happy Friday and welcome to your Friday Blog. 

It has been a lovely week back after Half Term, so nice to all be back together again doing lots of exciting learning. 

In English we started our new class novel - Room 13 by Robert Swindells. We are absolutely loving it. We have been looking at ways the author builds suspense to make the reader feel nervous and scared. We have been practising some of these techniques and will be writing our own suspense stories next week. Here are some of the ways we have identified to build suspense:

Short sentences to make the reader panic.

Longer, more detailed sentences to give the reader chance to reflect.

Show don't tell sentences where we talk about the character's actions to show the reader that they are scared.

Writing about an abandoned setting to make the reader worry for the main character.

In maths we have been practising different mental strategies for addition and subtraction. We then looked at a range of calculations and chose the most efficient strategy. This week we have been practising:

Reordering the numbers to make the calculation easier, for example 27 + 15 + 3 + 14 we reordered to 27 + 3 + 15 + 14 as we spotted that we can use number bonds to ten to quickly calcuate 27 + 3. 

Compensation. This is where you round a number to the nearest multiple of 10, 100 or 1000 to make it easier to add or subtract. You then add or subtract the difference. 

This week in French, it was Halloween! We completed a French wordsearch with Halloween vocabulary and translated each word into our books. We discussed whether some facts about Halloween in France were vrai o faux. We practised some of the Halloween vocabulary again and played ‘What’s missing?’ to help remember them.

In music we started a new jazz piece on the glocks, Three note bossa, looking at the structure and learning related vocabulary. We enjoyed a new song, Try Everything. We explored music with 2 beats in a bar.

Our trip to Rock and River was incredible. We loved doing zip line, climbing tower, low ropes course, air bag jump and going out on the lake in canoes. Check out the gallery on the Year 5 page to see us in action. 

Home Practice

Reading

Please read out loud to an adult every day for 20 minutes. Retell the story in your own words. 

Counting

Count out loud in 10s from:

217 to 417 and back again          217, 227, 237

509 to 709 and back again          509, 519, 529

899 to 1099 and back again        899, 909, 919

Spelling

Here are your spellings this week. They do not follow a rule or pattern so you need to practise at home. 

accommodate          accompany          according          achieve          aggressive          amateur          ancient          apparent          appreciate          attached          available          average          awkward          bargain          bruise 

Sumdog

Spelling Challenge

Times Tables Challenge

Maths Competition in teams

Have a fantastic weekend and please be safe if you are going to a bonfire.

Year 1 Blog - Friday 3rd November 2023

Date: 2nd Nov 2023 @ 8:25am

Welcome to your first blog of the Autumn 2 half term.

English

This week we have been learning through the story of Aliens Love Underpants. We designed and described a pair of pants. We drew our own alien and described it in simple sentences. We wrote lists, found out some facts about space in non-fiction books and drew our own alien story plan.

Solar System facts song. Click here.

Phonics

Some of us have been learning about words such as scruff and string. 

Some of us have been learning about the split digraphs - e_e in Steve, i_e in slime and o_e in stone.

Sing a split e-e song.Split i-e song.Split o-e song.

Maths

We started our measurement topic and learnt about different ways that we can measure length and height. We learnt that we can even measure objects using our body! 

We then learnt how to measure mass using the balance scales. We used the words heavier and lighter to compare the mass.

Science

This week, we went searching for animals around the school grounds. We quickly found that the rain was forcing the animals to hide, so we didn't see a lot!

P.E.

We started our new dance unit this week. We are going to be learning how to dance like a robot! We copied some videos and practised moving around the room like a robot.

R.E.

We continued to learn about a baptism. We watched a video of a real baptism and drew our own pictures of one. We then talked about how a baptism is important in Christian life.

Computing

We learnt about a new word - technology. We learnt what that meant and went on a technology hunt around the classroom.

History

We learnt all about Bonfire Night and Guy Fawkes. We then made our own firework pictures using either pastels or chalk on black card. They looked so good!

Art

We went outside to collect different leaves and made our own leaf rubbings. We made sure that we chose different leaves, that were flat and dry.

French

This week in French, it was Halloween! We discussed whether some facts about Halloween in France were vrai o faux, we learned some vocabulary for typical Halloween things and were able to match the French words to the correct English meaning. We then had a chance to choose a Halloween character and complete a ‘colour by number’ in French.

Music

We started to learn a new song, Rhythm in the way we walk. Looked at what is a rhythm, clapped and copied rhythms with hands, then with tambourines and tambours.

We then listened to The Nutcracker by Tchaikovsky.

Forest School

This week we did some whittling with vegetable peelers. We used balsa wook as it is very soft. We made sure we used the peelers safely and we made some interesting shapes. We had to persevere as it took a few tries to get the hang of it.  In the future, we will use these new skills to make objects out of sticks.

In our other session we played a hiding game in the nature area then made some yarn dolls. We needed to use our knot tying skills and we came up with some very imaginative creations. We helped each other and showed perseverance and concentration.

Home Practice (Sumdog)

Phonics - ear words OR igh words OR split e_e words

Maths - Measurement

Counting - Practise counting in 1s, 2s, 5s and 10s, forwards and backwards from different numbers,

Reception Blog - Friday 19th October 2023

Date: 19th Oct 2023 @ 4:57pm

This week in Reception, we started our week with some spooky Halloween crafts; painting pumpkins and making spider hats. 

Our story this week has been The Magic Porridge Pot. We have looked at the characters in the story, the setting and different versions of it. Then throughout the week, we have been making our own magic porridge, potions and designing our own wizard's shop! We even wrote our sounds next to our drawings.

In maths, we have been looking at the numbers 8, 9 and 10. We have also been recognising numbers, putting them in order and finding different ways to make 5 with the numicon.

In phonics this week, we have been learning the o, c and k sounds. We have used lots of games to help us with this.

In music, we started the lesson with the Hello song and This is music time. Then we played a guessing game. After that we played some copying games with our bells, using the song Love Somebody. 

This week in our French lesson we recapped the numbers 1-6 again. The children counted out loud and joined in with the Number Song in French, which got faster each time. We then used some counting cards to count up to 6 and then mixed up. Each group did really well with this. Reception have worked really hard this half term, recapping and learning French greetings and numbers 1-6. Next half term, they will be ready to have some new sessions about classroom instructions, colours and Christmas.

We did some running races and throwing and catching in PE.

We were also invited to the Year 6 Art Gallery this week. They have been doing some Art around scaling up and made their own dog park. The children loved going to each piece of artwork, telling the Year 6 children what they liked best about their art.

This week we have also been learning about poetry. The children made up their own group poem about the sea. Every day we have practiced it and then we performed it as a class infront of the whole school in Golden Assembly. It was amazing!!

We just want to say a big well done to all of the children for this half term. They have settled extremely well and we cannot wait to get started with more learning after our half term break.

Have a great holiday everyone!

Please note that we have two phonics sessions for parents from 3.30-4.30 on the 1st and 2nd of November. If you would like to sign up to these, just see Mrs Rothwell in the School Office.

Year 2 Blog Thursday 19th October

Date: 19th Oct 2023 @ 3:32pm

Year 2 have had a brilliant week of learning.

Thank you to everyone who came to parents evening, it was great to meet you all.

In Maths, the children have added three 1 digit numbers, spotting number bonds and adding on. In English the children have continued to read ‘The bear and the piano’. We have also had a focus on poem writing and performing this week. The children performed a brilliant poem called ‘The fantastic Five’. In Geography we have learnt more about the 4 seasons in the UK and looked at the seasons through our windows. In PSHE we have looked at the different types of bullying, including: verbal, cyber, social and physical. In History we have looked at objects from the Great Fire of London. In Computing we have focused on online safety. In RE the children have been thinking about the signs and symbols of baptism. The children have drawn a beautiful baptism candle.

French - This week in our French lesson we recapped the numbers 1-10 again. The children counted out loud and joined in with the Number Song in French, which got faster each time. We then counted our Pirate friends’ treasure and matched some counting cards with their coins or parrots to the correct digit. The children could all do this in French with each other! As an extra challenge, the children had to choose the correct digit for the French word. This wasn’t in order and they had a choice of four different options. Year 2 did very well! They have worked really hard this half term, recapping and learning French Greetings and numbers 1-10. Next half term, they will be ready to have some new sessions about days of the week, months of the year, weather, clothes and classroom instructions and labels (after we’ve learned about French Halloween!).

Music - We sang In my hands In my feet In my heart, with actions, and learnt to clap the rhythms. We also played the rhythms from the song on tambours and tambourines. We enjoyed our final performance of You are my sunshine on the boom whackers. 

Forest School

This week we used a new piece of equipment,our Kelly Kettle. We talked about being safe around the fire. We went into the nature area to collect sticks and twigs to fuel our fire. We made sure the twigs were dry and not too big. The water didn't take long to get warm and we all enjoyed some delicious hot chocolate.

In our other session we had a go at building shelters. We used ropes, traps, tent pegs, mats and clasps. We showed amazing teamwork and resilience as well as great communication.

Home Practice

Reading

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

You could look in a thesaurus and see what other words have the same meaning as the one you have found.

Please date, sign and leave a small comment when you have read with your child and make it clear that you have finished a book, then we know we can change it. For Example - 14.09.22 Max’s Box. Read to page 6, really enjoying the book or good sounding out of tricky words or struggled with the word – because/finished the book. MG.

Reading books are changed every MONDAY. 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.

Spellings

Please practise these spellings for your quiz on Wednesday (02.11.23). A sheet will go home every Wednesday with the spelling list on. This is for home practise only and can be kept with you.

Here are the spellings for this week:

mind                   climb

behind                 most

child                    only

wild                     both

children               because

Maths

At home, can you count in 5s up to 60 forwards and backwards?

Try and challenge yourself to count up to 100.

Sumdog

You will have an addition challenge and a spellings challenge to be completed by next week.

Log in at www.sumdog.com

Our PE day is going to be FRIDAY.

Our BOOK change will be MONDAY.

You will get SPELLINGS on WEDNESDAYS and a quiz will be the following WEDNESDAY.

SumDog challenges will be set every FRIDAY.

Year 3 Thursday 19th October

Date: 19th Oct 2023 @ 2:01pm

Welcome to your weekly blog.

This week we have worked hard on our final artworks, using light and shadow to make some moody scenes. We showed these to Year 6 looked at their fantastic dog sculptures.

In English we have been enjoying the mysterious story The Ice Palace and following Ivan's journey through the ice forest. We will find out what happens in the next 2 weeks. This week we have been writing description and remembering our full sentences and careful spelling.

In our maths have been learning about bar charts and how we can use these to show information and solve problems. 

This week in our French lesson we finished our greetings conversation that we started writing in our books last week. This included saying hello, hi or good evening to someone, asking how they are, saying how they are, asking their name, saying their name, saying goodbye, see you later or nice to meet you. The children then completed a range of listening, reading and writing activities to show they have understood the vocabulary from this topic. Next half term, we will be ready to have some new sessions about numbers 1-20 (after we’ve learned about French Halloween!).

We also wrapped up our Science topic all on the human body and nutrition. We had a Kahoot! quiz and remembered lots of our learning from the past few weeks.

In our geography this week we investigated topographical maps which showed how high the land is in different areas. We explored the 3 peaks challenge and found lots of peaks from around the UK.

Home practice

Over half term continue to read regularly and access the Sumdog learning platform little and often.

Have a lovely, well earned rest and we will see you next half term.

The Year 3 team

Year 4 Blog Thursday 19th October 2023

Date: 19th Oct 2023 @ 8:37am

Welcome to the Year 4 Blog

We have had a brilliant half term in Year 4! We have worked really hard and already made good progress in our learning.  Our teachers want to thank us for being such fun and enthusiastic learners and said we should all feel very proud of ourselves.

Our learning this week:

In English, we wrote 2 poems. One of our poems was based on Hamster Hamster by Joseph Coelho who is the children’s laureate. We used the structure of Hamster Hamster to write a poem about a class pet – describing it as either charming and loveable, or nasty and ferocious! We also read a poem by Ian Bland and used this as inspiration to write our own poem about a topic of our choice. We were very proud of our poems which included a chorus and rhyming words. We performed these to the class and some of us even performed them in Golden Assembly. 

In Maths, we interpreted data and solved one step questions using information in a table. In addition, we presented and interpreted data used in pictograms. 

In RE, we read Mark 1: 14-20. This passage tells of Jesus calling his Apostles.  We discussed how Andrew, Simon, James and John might have felt when Jesus called them and talked about the meaning of the Kingdom of God. 

In French, we continued with our pets topic. To help learn the vocabulary, we used our word bank from last week and listened to the ‘Les Animaux’ song again. We also learnt how to say if and how many pets we have.

In Music, we videoed our final performance of the Mambo Cup Rhythm. We learnt all the actions to the song Just like a Roman and started to learn a new song Roman Numerals.  

In Art, we finished our ‘telling a story through sketching’ topic.  We tried our best to include shading so that our pictures looked more ‘3D’.

In History, we learnt how the Roman Empire expanded. We also looked at the uniform worn by Roman legionaries (supplied by the Museum Loans Service) and learnt the Roman names for the different weapons and parts of the uniform. Some of us were lucky enough to try on the Roman uniform and appreciate how heavy the body army was!

As it is half term, there is no Home Practice. However, please try and read every single day as this really helps unlock your learning.

Thank you to everyone who came to Parent’s Evening this week.  It was lovely to see you and we hope you enjoyed looking at your child’s work. 

We hope you have a peaceful and relaxing holiday and look forward to seeing you all again on Monday 30^th October 2023.

The Year 4 Team

Year 5 Blog Thursday 19th October

Date: 19th Oct 2023 @ 8:19am

Happy Half Term!

What an amazing first half term we have had in Year 5. We have done so much learning and have settled so well into Year 5.

This week we finished reading our novel Goth Girl. We wrote our own epilogue for the story to tell the reader what the characters are doing a year in the future. 

We have also been looking a poetry this week. We read a poem called - Please Don't Feed the Animals.

Please do not feed the ostriches

sandwiches

or the polar bears

éclairs.

Do not offer the wombats

kumquats

or the rattle-snakes

fruit-cakes.

Remember that piranhas

are not allowed bananas

or partridges

sausages.

Never approach a stork

with things on a fork

or the bustard

with a plate of custard.

No leopard

likes anything peppered

and meerkats

dislike Kit Kats.

Remember that grapes

upset apes

and meringues

do the same for orang-utans.

Most importantly– do not feed the cheetah

your teacher.

We practised performing this poem thinking about actions and which words to emphasize. We then made a list of nouns for precision. These are specific names of things e.g. Poddle instead of dog, Black Mamba instead of snake, Siamese instead of cat, etc. We found that these made the poem interesting and funny. We then used these nouns to write our own poem following the same structure as the model. Finally, we performed our poems using actions. They were incredible! 

In maths we have continued looking at different methods to add and subtract. One of the methods we have practised this week is counting on to find the difference. This was a bit tricky but we did lots of practice. 

This week in our French lesson we completed the rest of our Review sheet, which included the vocabulary for sports, hobbies and the weather. The children had to write down and say which was their favourite sport, which hobby they like, which hobby they love and what the weather was like today. Year 5 have worked hard this half term recapping a lot of vocabulary and completing both review sheets. Next half term, we will be ready to have some new sessions about ‘emotions’ (after we’ve learned about French Halloween!).

In music we learnt a new rap, Fresh Prince of Bel Air. We learnt more about strong beats, clapping along to the song Crazy Glue.  We made a video of our final performance of Sailor Sailor on our recorders. 

Have an amazing, happy, safe half term. 

You all deserve a rest you have worked so hard!

Please try to keep up with the reading and Sumdog is still available to practise spellings and times tables. 

Year 6 Blog Thursday 19th October 2023

Date: 19th Oct 2023 @ 8:09am

Welcome to the Year 6 weekly blog.

On Thursday, Mr Pickles came to share his story of the highest mountain in the world, Mount Everest. He talked about his adventure to base camp 1, the flight and what it was like to be there. The pupils had lots of great questions to ask him. Thank you so much Mr Pickles!

This week’s learning in Year 6:

• In Maths, we learnt how to partition numbers to help us solve multiplication questions quicker. This helped to double any number, including numbers with thousandths, quickly.

• In English, we had a visit from Dawn Robertson, an English specialist, who taught the poetry to the class. The poem was ‘The Fight of the Year’ by Roger McGough, which inspired us to create our own ‘versus’ poem, with some being read out at Golden Assembly.

• In Art, we completed out topic, ‘2D drawing to 3D making’ by using recycled cardboard to attach to our dogs so they could stand. We then invited a few classes to see our gallery and wrote up an evaluation of what they thought. You can see the final pictures here.

• In PE, we concluded our invasion games topic of Netball with a mini intra competition within the class. We focused on the main strategies of: keeping in space, feinting and communication.

• In Geography, we learnt about what it was like to live in the Himalayas before writing down questions to ask Mr Pickles, a mountaineer expert.  

• In Music, we sang the song Happy and discussed the structure (the way the different sections of music are organised). We learnt about music with 2 beats in a bar, then practised listening to music and clapping beat 1 and clicking beat 2. We videoed our final performance of Sunny Sounds on our recorders, reading notation with no note names written on.  

• In French, we completed the sessions about The Time in French. We created our own help sheet with key vocabulary and phrases to use when telling the time in French. This included heures = hours, midi = noon, minuit = midnight, quart = quarter, moins = less (quarter to), demie = half, soir = evening, apres-midi = afternoon, matin = morning. The children were then able to complete a range of listening, reading and writing activities to show they have understood the vocabulary from this topic. Next half term, we will be ready to have some new sessions about our daily routine (after we’ve learned about French Halloween!) as well as starting our Cultural Understanding project where the children will be creating a presentation about French Culture. We will be deciding our groups and chosen topics in the first session.

Home Practice

As it is half term this week, I have just three activities for you to practice.

Reading – Use your Home Reading to read as much as you can over the holidays.

Maths challenges:

• Sumdog (Times Tables A1 wk 7)
  • Each child has their own tables target which they should know. The Sumdog challenge may relate to their target but this week we have focused on x3, x6, x9 which will be great practice for the future.

This week there are 150 questions to answer.

Overnight Homework

• The reading task, which is stuck in your book.

HAVE A SUPER HALF TERM EVERYONE!

Year 1 Blog - Thursday 19th October

Date: 18th Oct 2023 @ 3:43pm

Welcome to your last blog of this half term.

English

This week we have been learning through the story of Winnie the Witch. We learnt about her house, her family and her pet cat, Wilbur. Our ingredients for our magic potions were very imaginative. We also learnt about rhyming words and we drew a story map.  We worked together in small groups to design a new house for Winnie.

As part of our poetry day celebrations we learnt a poem called The Grass House by Shirley Hughes. We devised all the actions ourselves and performed it as a class in Golden Assembly. Ask your child if they could perform it for you.

Phonics

Some of us have been learning about words such as string, spring and splat where we have to say each sound.

Some of us have learnt au in launch and a_e in cake.

We have been learning to write tricky words.

Click here for a spooky tricky word song.

Maths

We have been using practical equipment to learn about subtraction. The whole is 12, we subtract 5, how many are left? 7 and 5 are the parts and 12 is the whole. We recorded this in a number sentence.

Please practise counting in 1s, 2s, 5s and 10s.

We have also been learning about the number bonds which make 10.

Sing the number bond song. Click here.

Science

This week, we learnt how to keep our bodies healthy. We watched a cool video about how washing our hands keeps us clean and free from germs. We then did a 'germs' experiement to show that germs do not like clean hands, they run away from them! We also did a Joe Wicks video to raise our heart rates.

R.E.

We continued to learn about belonging and learnt that we all belong to our school church. We started to learn about a baptism and who is present. We labelled a picture of a baptism and talked about what happens.

Art

On Monday, we painted a physical version of our digital sunflower (from Computing last week). We hung these around the classroom as they were great!

Then on Thursday, we sketched different objects from around the classroom. We started by sketched toy animals and then we chose our own object to sketch.

French

 We recapped the numbers 1-10 again. We then counted our Pirate friends’ treasure and matched some counting cards with their coins or parrots to the correct digit. We could all do this in French with each other! We have worked really hard this half term, recapping and learning French Greetings and numbers 1-10. Next half term, we will be ready to have some new sessions about classroom labels, family, fruits, colours and farm animals (after we’ve learned about French Halloween!).

Music

We did some warm up games, clapping rhythms of our favourite foods. We sang Hey You, learning all the actions and choosing which instruments to play. We played the boom whackers to Incy Wincy spider. 

Forest School

This week we used a new piece of equipment,our Kelly Kettle. We talked about being safe around the fire. We went into the nature area to collect sticks and twigs to fuel our fire. We made sure the twigs were dry and not too big. The water didn't take long to get warm and we all enjoyed some delicious hot chocolate.

In our other session we had a go at building shelters. We used ropes, traps, tent pegs, mats and clasps. We showed amazing teamwork and resilience as well as great communication.

Click here for photos.

Home Practice (Sumdog)

Phonics - Split a_e words OR ee words OR tricky words

Maths - Problem questions

Counting - Practise counting in 1s, 2s, 5s and 10s, forwards and backwards from different numbers,

Thank you to everyone who came to Parents' Evening. We enjoyed talking to you about your child. Thanks also for all your brilliant support.

Have a lovely half term and we'll see you on Monday 30th October.

Year 6 Blog Friday 13th October 2023

Date: 13th Oct 2023 @ 3:57pm

Welcome to the Year 6 weekly blog.

This Friday, Year 6 had a taster day at All Hallows’. We were treated to a scavenger hunt around the school, science lesson with bunsen burners and a PE lesson in the huge PE hall. Everyone enjoyed the high school with one of the main highlights being the canteen food. You can see our pictures of the day here.

This week’s learning in Year 6:

• In Maths, we practised different addition and subtraction strategies, and learnt how to efficiently use the written method to add and subtract large numbers.

• In English, we have been recapping our learning of how to use speech marks in stories. We used them to create a dialogue between Karl and Dr. Kalmenius, that moved the story forward and was blended with action.

• In Art, we collaged our 2D drawings and stuck them to corrugated card. We are now ready to attach them to cardboard to transform them into 3D models. The pictures of our artwork so far are here.

• In PE, due to the weather, we worked on using a range of tactics to beat an opponent in various games in the hall.

• In PSHE, we learnt about mental health for World Mental Health Day (Tuesday). We explored the difference between physical and mental wellbeing and the three ways we can help someone to improve their mental health: to move, to sleep and to eat well.

• In Geography, we learnt what life is like on a mountain. We researched three key areas: climate, mountain life and avalanches. One amazing fact we found was that one tenth of the world’s population live on mountains.  

Home Practice

Please complete the following tasks by next Wednesday:

Reading – Use your Home Reading to read every night for 30 minutes. You also have a Reading Journal/Diary that must be used for the title of the book and any reading challenge chosen.

• You may change your book any day between Monday and Wednesday

Spellings (-ant -ent words)

• Sumdog (Spellings A1 wk 6)
• hesitant, instrument, distant, relevant, inhabitant, permanent, arrogant, comment, tolerant, important, obedient, innocent, independent, frequent, vacant.

Maths challenges:

• Counting:
  • This week we have been counting in steps of 8, 80 and 800 Try to do the same out loud or with paper.
  • Draw a line with some marks on it like I do in class. You could write the numbers as you count up or down, then double check it to make sure you have said the correct numbers.
  • g. Start with different numbers and count up 10 times then back again in 8s:

5, 13, 21, 29, 37, 45, 53, 61, etc

and in 80s:

13, 93, 173, 253, 333, 413, etc               

Start at a different number and count up 10 numbers and down again but this time in 800s:

456, 1256, 2056, 2856, 3656, 4456 etc    

• Sumdog (Times Tables A1 wk 6)
  • Each child has their own tables target which they should know. The Sumdog challenge may relate to their target but this week we have focused on x3, x4 and x6, which will be great practice for the future.
  • (Every Tuesday there is a tables test).

• Sumdog (Sumdog Contest)
  • From the 13^th October to the 19^th, Sumdog are hosting a contest. We have entered and so have Year 7 from All Hallows. Therefore, we are competing against Year 7 to see who will become top dog.
  • Attempt to complete 100 questions at least.

Year 3 Friday 13th October 2023

Date: 13th Oct 2023 @ 12:47pm

Welcome to your Friday Blog

We have had a great week in Year 3 this week. It was lovely chatting to you all about your children's learning at parents evening and I look forward to speaking to the reast of you next week. THe children are very excited to show off their learning.

This week we we have been reading deeper into the Ice Palace and learning how to add description and suspense into our writing. We have also been working hard on our presentation and sentence structure.

In Maths we have been learning about the perimeter of 2D shapes and started our topic on statistics. We have inroduced bar charts and compared these to the different charts we have met already.

In RE we have started our new topic on Promises which will look at Baptism. The children came up with some lovely contributions about how they keep promises and why their actions are important.

We are coming to the end of our Art topic exploring charcoal. This week we used the pictures from our novel as inspiration, looking again at light and dark when creating a scene. Check out our gallery.

Home Practice

Keep up with the fantastic home reading. Here is a link to some Year 3 recommended reads if you want to extend your home libraries. You can also find our reading VIPERS in our galleries that will help you with your questioning when listening to your child read.

On Sumdog we have entered the class into the lancashire contest. This will run all week and cover a range of topics. We have also set some times tables practice on the x2, x5 and x10. With these focus on speed as well as accuracy.

Here are your home spellings for this week

Have a lovely weekend

The Year 3 team

Year 2 Blog Friday 13th October

Date: 12th Oct 2023 @ 6:22pm

Year 2 have had a great week of learning.

Little reminder this week:

• Please sign up for parents evening, the sheets are at the office to secure your time slot.

In Maths, we have started subtraction and addition. We have used part whole models for adding a single digit to a two digit number. The children have also learnt to use a bar model to show addition and subtraction. In English the children have read ‘The bear and the piano’. We have written descriptions about the forest and re-told the story using great ideas. In English we have also looked at creating our own poem for national poem day. In Art this week we have used resist wax crayons and special water-colours to create autumn leaves. In Geography we have learnt more about the 4 seasons in the UK and looked at how trees will change in each season. In PSHE we have started our new topic on ‘Bullying’. We have learnt what bullying means and the difference between not being kind and bullying.

Forest School

In our first session we practised tying a simple overhand knot. We used strawberry laces. We tied them to a paper straw and then ate the lace!

In the nature area we found interesting natural objects and tied these to a stick using the knot we had practised. Our own Autumn mobile was created!

Great perseverance was shown.

For our second session we made our own choices. On one day we went into the nature area and explored, made dens, found mini beasts and played games. On the other day we went around the log circle for our child- initiated learning.

Home Practice

Reading

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

You could look in a thesaurus and see what other words have the same meaning as the one you have found.

Please date, sign and leave a small comment when you have read with your child and make it clear that you have finished a book, then we know we can change it. For Example - 14.09.22 Max’s Box. Read to page 6, really enjoying the book or good sounding out of tricky words or struggled with the word – because/finished the book. MG.

Reading books are changed every MONDAY. 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.

Spellings

Please practise these spellings for your quiz on Wednesday (18.10.23). A sheet will go home every Wednesday with the spelling list on. This is for home practise only and can be kept with you.

Here are the spellings for this week:

put                            door

push                         floor

pull                           poor

full                           find

our                            kind

Maths

At home, can you count in 2s up to 30 forwards and backwards?

Try and challenge yourself to start at 3 and count in twos.

Sumdog

You will have a addition challenge and a spellings challenge to be completed by next week.

Log in at www.sumdog.com

Our PE day is going to be FRIDAY.

Our BOOK change will be MONDAY.

You will get SPELLINGS on WEDNESDAYS and a quiz will be the following WEDNESDAY.

SumDog challenges will be set every FRIDAY.

Year 5 Blog Friday 13th October 2023

Date: 12th Oct 2023 @ 5:49pm

Happy Friday and welcome to your Friday Blog.

We have had a brilliant week in Year 5.

In English we finished writing our letter as Maltravers from Goth Girl. Our aim was to persuade a character to come to our party. We then spent some time editing and thinking about how well we met our objective. Everybody did such a great job that we are going to go and read them to Year 6 next week. We also learnt what a pronoun is. A pronoun is word used to replace a noun, usually to avoid repetition e.g., he, she, it, they, yours, theirs. Next week we are going to be writing our own epilogue for Goth Girl. An epilogue tells the reader what the main characters are doing in the future e.g., one year later. See if any of your books at home have an epilogue. 

In maths we have been using different strategies to add and subtract mentally. When we see a question we ask ourselves:

Do I know the answer?

Can I work it out in my head?

Do I need a jotting?

Do I need to use a written method?

We practised using partitioning on a number line to add and subtract numbers up to thousands and numbers with decimal places. Here is an example of the partitioning strategy.

Another strategy we practised is called bridging. This is where you add or subtract to get to the next multiple of 10, 100 or 1,000 and then add or subtract the rest. Here is an example. 

In geography we did some atlas work where we were using the contents page and the index to find out various things about the UK. We looked at the countries which make up the UK, their capital cities, where they are in relation to each other, which countries they border, etc. 

In PSHE we celebrated World Mental Heath Day. We looked at the meaning of wellbeing. We defined it as: Looking after and feeling good in your body and mind. We then thought about ways we can look after our physical and mental wellbeing and the main things we came up with were:

Move - get moving every day

Sleep - get plenty of rest and sleep

Eat - eat a balanced diet and drink plenty of water

In PE we used all of the throwing and catching skills we have been practising to play some small games of netball. The focus was on passing the ball around and getting into space so that our opponent couldn't get it and to have the best chance at scoring. See us in action here. 

Home Practice

Reading

Read out loud every day for 20 minutes. 

Have a look at your school book and any of your books at home, do any of them have an epilogue at the end? If you find any, bring them in to show the class.

Counting

Count out loud in 0.01 (hundredths):

From 7.67 to 7.87                  7.67      7.68      7.69      7.7      7.71      ...

From 120.09 to 120.29          120.09      120.1      120.11      120.12      120.13      ...

From 8.15 to 7.95                   8.15      8.14      8.13      8.12      8.11      ...

Times Tables

Please practise your own individual target. Some of you have been given the target to find one quarter on a number. Please relate this your 4 times tables.

Spelling

Here are your spellings this week. They are plurals. You need to know the rules for changing singular words ending in a -y into plurals. 

party - parties

worry - worries

potato - potatoes

baby - babies

try - tries

city - cities

library - libraries

cemetery - cemeteries

community - communities

dictionary - dictionaries

Sumdog

Times Tables Challenge

Spelling Challenge

Lancashire Competition 

Have a happy weekend! 

Year 4 Blog Friday 13th October 2023

Date: 12th Oct 2023 @ 1:22pm

Welcome to your Friday blog.

This week in English, we read the part of the novel where Kensuke meets Michael for the first time, and Kensuke shows his anger and frustration at Michael for lighting a fire. After reading this extract, we planned and wrote a diary account as if we were Kensuke.  We attempted to include lots of thoughts, feelings and emotions in our writing rather than just retelling the story. In addition, we also wrote a poem this week which we performed in class – we had great fun writing this!

In Maths, we drew bar charts.  We needed to use a scale which was appropriate to the numbers involved as well as accurately draw the bars on the chart.  In addition, we interpreted data and solved one-step questions using information in a bar chart. 

In PSHE, we recapped the things we have discussed so far to help build our self-esteem, such as: what we are good at, what our friends think we are good at, our achievements and our strengths.  We then discussed how it feels if we make a mistake or do something difficult. To help overcome these challenges, we decided which skills we want to develop and explained why.  

In Science, we wrote a definition of a habitat and shared examples of different habitats already known to us. We then recapped how animals can only survive in certain habitats. 

In French, we started the topic Pets. We revised the French words for some common pets and played some memory games to match the pairs using French vocabulary.

In RE, we started our new topic ‘Called’. We considered our feelings when we are chosen to do something as well as recalling times we have been chosen.  

In Geography, we defined a river and discussed its features. In addition, we also made a list of both examples and non-examples of a river.

In Computing, we explored Keynote. We discovered what it could be used for and investigated adding slides, backgrounds and text to our presentations.

Home Practice

Reading

Please read for 20 minutes each evening to an adult at home.  Make sure you discuss the story and the characters.  Find the meaning of any new words too.  Reading every night will help you read more fluently and with understanding. 

Counting

This week, please practise counting in 50’s and 25’s.

For example, start at 0 and count up to 750 and back again 

0   50   100   150     etc                             750   725   700   etc

For example, start at 0 and down up to 425 and back again

0   25   50   75  etc                                  425   400   375  etc

Times tables

Please practise your individual tables target for your test next week on. Ask someone at home to test you on your tables – can you recall them quickly and accurately?

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

It is crucial that you learn all of your table facts as this will help you with many aspects of maths.

Spellings

Next week’s spellings all have the k sound spelt ch.

ache             anchor         Christmas              school          choir

echo            scheme        chorus                   chemist       chemistry

chemical       chaos           character              chameleon    chasm

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 2, 5 and 10 times tables
• A challenge based on interpreting and solving questions using bar charts, pictograms and tables

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

Thank you to everyone who came along to Parent’s Evening this week.  It was lovely to see you and we hope you enjoyed looking at your child’s work.

Have a great weekend

The Year 4 Team

Reception Blog - Friday 13th October 2023

Date: 12th Oct 2023 @ 8:46am

This week in Reception, we started our week learning all about the primary colours. We looked at the three primary colours, red, yellow and blue and learnt a song about them. During our choosing time we explored mixing colours with paint and food colouring to see what they made.

Our story this week has been Jack and the Beanstalk. We have looked at the characters in the story, what new treasure the Giant might have and what we would buy if we had all those golden eggs like Jack. We have also been exploring our outdoor area to look for clues as we had had a visitor from the story.

In maths, we have been looking at the numbers 6 and 7. We have also been recognising numicon and making numbers with them.

In Phonics this week, we have been recapping the sounds we have learnt so far; s, a, t, p, i ,n, m, d, g. We have been recognising them in games, blending them in words and looking at them in a sentence too.

We have continued to learn about our senses this week, using our sense of taste. We tasted different foods that we could not see and talked about what they tasted like.

On fab Friday, we had Forest School with Mrs Corbett. We created a home for an animal. We discussed what a home needs; to provide shelter from the weather, warmth, protection from predators, space, food and water. We had our own soft toy to make a home for. We used natural materials to make our animal home and worked in small groups and had some brilliant discussions.

Then in the afternoon we continued with our RE and the creation story. We each made our own pictures of what God created.

Another great week Reception!

Please note that we have the final parents evening session on Tuesday 17th October. If you have not booked an appointment, just go to the school office.

Year 1 Blog - Friday 13th October 2023

Date: 10th Oct 2023 @ 5:43pm

Welcome to your Friday blog.

English

We have been learning through the stories of Percy The Park Keeper. We built new houses for the animals out of Lego and described them. We wrote about how Percy helps the animals in his park. There are many stories about Percy and we had a good look at all of them. We also wrote descriptions about what kind of person Percy is.

Phonics

We have all been revising all our Phase 3 sounds.

Some of us have been learning about words that have separate sounds, such as plants and frost.

Some of us have been learning about ph as in elephant and ew as in screw.

Maths

We have been using part whole models to solve addition and subtraction number sentences. We used our maths manipulatives (such as cubes and counters) in the part whole models and then wrote the corresponding number next to them. 

We also started to learn about fact families and how the same three numbers can be swapped around to form another number sentence.

P.E.

As it was raining, we went inside and learnt how to play benchball. Everyone used their listening ears brilliantly and joined in with the throwing and catching.

R.E.

We started our new RE topic about belonging. We wrote sentences about what it means to belong to a group and then drew pictures of how Jesus helped others to belong by showing them love.

Art

We focused on the spiral shape within shells this week. We sketched a picture of a shell from the board and then used a real shell to see the difference. It was great to see such amazing focusing!

Computing

We made our own sunflower digital art using on dots. We used the paintbrush tool for the dots instead of simply using the fill tool.

Geography

We learnt about ordnance survey symbols and how they are important on maps. We found out that maps need pictures because words would take up too much space! We drew our own maps on big sheets and stuck on some symbols with glue.

Science

We conducted our own investigation to answer the question: do people with bigger feet have bigger hands? We found out that sometimes they do, but not all of the time, as one of us had the biggest feet and someone else had the biggest hands.

Forest School

In our first session we practised tying a simple overhand knot. We used strawberry laces. We tied them to a paper straw and then ate the lace!

In the nature area we found interesting natural objects and tied these to a stick using the knot we had practised. Our own Autumn mobile was created!

Great perseverance was shown.

For our second session we made our own choices. On one day we went into the nature area and explored, made dens, found mini beasts and played games. On the other day we went around the log circle for our child- initiated learning.

Parents' Evening

It was lovely to speak to you if you had an appointment on Thursday this week

We are looking forward to our appointments next Tuesday.

Home Practice (Sumdog)

Phonics - ow words OR wh words OR th words

Maths - subtraction

Counting - Practise counting in 1s, 2s, 5s and 10s, forwards and backwards from different numbers,

Year 2 Blog Friday 6th October 2023

Date: 6th Oct 2023 @ 3:38pm

Year 2 have had a brilliant week of learning. Thank you so much to everyone who has brought something in for the harvest collection – our box is overflowing!

Few reminders this week

        – Please send wellies in for forest school, it is getting very wet and muddy.

• Please sign up for parents evening, the sheets are at the office to secure your time slot.

In Maths, we have started our topic of measuring. We have looked at length and mass using rulers and balance scales. We have continued our novel ‘Paddington’ by Michael Bond. The children have retold the story of Paddington and wrote a set of instructions for making a marmalade sandwich. The children have also been writing in past and present tense. In RE this week the children have written lovely psalms about God’s Love. In Computing we learnt about the different rules for using I.T. In Art this week we have used metallic wax crayons and water colours to create autumn leaves.

Forest School

In our first session we made roll up pizzas. We talked about how to be safe around the fire. In the nature area we made our own pizzas using a wrap, tomato sauce, ham, garlic, onions, basil and cheese. We rolled our pizza up and wrapped it in foil.  The first groups pizzas got a bit well done as they were cooked on the grill. We cooked all the other pizzas in the Dutch oven so that we could move the pizzas away from the direct flames.

The pizzas were delicious! We also had plenty of time for child-initiated learning in the nature area.

In our second session some of us were outside making dens, climbing trees, cooking with mud and finding all kinds of creatures. Our sessions on Thursday were in the lodge where great imagination and creativity were shown.

Home Practice

Reading

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

You could look in a thesaurus and see what other words have the same meaning as the one you have found.

Please date, sign and leave a small comment when you have read with your child and make it clear that you have finished a book, then we know we can change it. For Example - 14.09.22 Max’s Box. Read to page 6, really enjoying the book or good sounding out of tricky words or struggled with the word – because/finished the book. MG.

Reading books are changed every MONDAY. 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.

Spellings

Please practise these spellings for your quiz on Wednesday (11.10.23). A sheet will go home every Wednesday with the spelling list on. This is for home practise only and can be kept with you.

Here are the spellings for this week:

one                          love

once                        where

ask                         friend

come                       school

some                      house

Maths

At home, can you count to 100 from 0 forwards and backwards?

Can you have a go at counting in 10s to 100? Try and challenge yourself to go backwards in tens too.

Sumdog

You will have a compare/order measurements challenge and a spellings challenge to be completed by next week.

Log in at www.sumdog.com

Our PE day is FRIDAY.

Our BOOK change is MONDAY.

You will get SPELLINGS on WEDNESDAYS and a quiz will be the following WEDNESDAY.

SumDog challenges will be set every FRIDAY.

Have a lovely weekend

Year 6 Blog Friday 6th October 2023

Date: 6th Oct 2023 @ 3:13pm

Welcome to the Year 6 weekly blog.

This Friday, Year 6 led the Harvest Festival Mass – thank you to everyone for bringing in items for the Penwortham foodbank. The Year 6’s did a fantastic job with their speaking parts and their amazing dancing. You can see the pictures here.

This week’s learning in Year 6:

• In Maths, we have learnt how to use the partitioning, bridging and copensation strategies for both addition and subtraction. Next week, we will learn a few more before deciding which strategies are most appropriate for different questions.

• In English, our novel, ‘Clockwork’ inspired us to write an internal monologue of grumpy Karl. We worked on improving our punctuation to help create small, medium and long sentences.

• In Art, we continued our topic of ‘2D drawing to 3D making’, by enlarging our silhouette dogs onto A2 paper using a grid method. Next week, we will be collaging them to add texture.

• In PE, we continued our dance topic of ‘heroes’ by using different levels, directions, positions and contact to create a paired routine. You can see the gallery here. 

• In RE, we read the story of the 'Prodigal Son’, and studied artwork from Rembrandt, Murillo and Guercino on how they interpreted the story.

• In French, we reviewed how to say where we live, what our favourite subjects in school are, what our favourite sports are and which hobbies we love. The children used their help sheets to say their responses to each other.

Home Practice

Please complete the following tasks by next Wednesday:

Reading – Use your Home Reading to read every night for 30 minutes. You also have a Reading Journal/Diary that must be used for the title of the book and any reading challenge chosen.

• You may change your book any day between Monday and Wednesday

Spellings (Homophones)

• Sumdog (Spellings A1 wk 5)

• whether, weather, groan, grown, advice, advise, practise, practice, rain, reign, wail, whale, prey, pray, aloud, allowed.

Maths challenges:

• Counting:
  • This week we have been counting in decimal steps of 0.1, 0.2 and 0.25 Try to do the same out loud or with paper.
  • Draw a line with some marks on it like I do in class. You could write the numbers as you count up or down, then double check it to make sure you have said the correct numbers.
  • g. Start with different numbers and count up 10 numbers then back again in 0.1:

5, 5.1, 5.2, 5.3, 5.4, 5.5, etc

and in 0.2:

6.5, 6.7, 6.9, 7.1, 7.3, 7.5, 7.7, etc           

Start at a number with two decimal places like 8.12 and count up 10 numbers and down again:

8.12, 8.32, 8.52, 8.72, 8.92, 9.12, etc        

Now try to count in 0.25 from 7 and 23 and 54:

7, 7.25, 7.50, 7.75, 8, 8.25, etc

• Sumdog (Times Tables A1 wk 5)
  • Each child has their own tables target which they should know. The Sumdog challenge may relate to their target but this week we have focused on 4s and 8s, which will be great practice for the future.
  • (Every Tuesday there is a tables test).

• Sumdog (Add / Subtract A1 wk 5)
  • This challenge should be quite simple but the main aim is to answer these questions mentally quickly, which will aid us in our learning next week.