Year 6 Blog Friday 13th January 2023

Date: 13th Jan 2023 @ 3:31pm

Welcome to the Year 6 blog.  This Friday, our football A team headed to Poolfoot Farm Sports & Leisure Complex in Thornton-Cleveleys for the Lancashire Football Finals. This is the first time we have ever achieved this, and thanks to the hard work from everyone, they achieved runners-up in the shield finals of the competition. A fantastic achievement!

REMINDER

For our PE lessons this half term, which will include cross country 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 have learnt to find fractions of amounts using our multiplication facts, and converted between fractions, decimals and percentages.
• In English, we are nearing the completion of Private Peaceful. This week we have learnt to use new vocabulary to describe a deadly gas attack scene and used various sentence structures to write an action scene.
• In RE, we learnt that there are seventy-three books in the Bible, forty six in the Old Testament and twenty-seven in the New Testament. We used our school Bibles to look up references to decide what genre the writing was and a short summary of them.
• In Geography, we began our mapping work by relating our previous learning of mountains to discuss whether we would live near a volcano. We discussed the advantages and disadvantages of living near one.
• In PSHE, we explored how people on social media can create identities which can affect the way other people perceive them.
• In PE, we divided the class into learning new tactics in an invasion game and prepped our gymnastics routine for our final lesson next week.
• In Computing, we began a new topic of 3D modelling, using Tinkercad, a web-based 3D modelling application. Each child has their own private log in to save work, which we will be adapting over the next 5 weeks.
• In French, we recapped weather and clothes words using the story Quel temps fait-il, Berthe? We answered questions about the text to show our understanding.
• In Science, we looked for patterns between an object, the position of the light source and the size of the shadow. We also used our knowledge of how light travels to explain why shadows are always the same shape as the object. 

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

• Reading – Continue to read every night for 30 minutes. You can now change your book on any day – in Year 6 we aim to change it every week.

• Spellings (challenge words)
  • Sumdog (Spellings -silent letters and unstressed letters)

answer, favourite, bruise, actually, build, guarantee, certain, guard, definite, library, difference, muscle, exercise, doubt, environment.

• Maths challenges:
  • Counting:
    • This week we have been counting in fraction steps. 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.
    • Start with these numbers: 4/5, 4 1/5, 3 ½ , 8 ½ and count up 10 times then back again in one fifth and then two fifths:

4/5, 1 1/5, 1 3/5, 2, 2 1/5 , 2 3/5, etc

and in 2 ½ :

3 ½, 6, 8 ½, 11, 13 ½, 16, etc

• Number facts:
  • To help your maths even more, please continue to learn your numbers facts, 6 + 8 = 14, 8 + 7 = 15.
  • The best way to do this is to simply have someone in your home quiz you with questions like (8 + 6, 6 + 5, 3 + 8, 5 + 9, etc)
  • Then get them to change the place value of these digits (0.8 + 0.6, 0.06 + 0.05, 0.3 + 0.8, etc)

• Sumdog (Times tables Sp1 wk 2)
  • This week, to see how confident the children are with the lower times tables, I have set a challenge for x4, x5, x6 and x7. Try to focus on speed as well as accuracy again this week.

• Sumdog (Adding and subtracting fractions)
  • For this challenge, you may need a pencil and paper to make quick jottings, especially if you have a question with same multiples, e.g. ½ + ¼ Remember that you need to convert the fractions to have the same denominator.
  • Therefore, ½ = 4/8
  • The question is then 4/8 + 1/4 = 5/8
  • Do not try to complete each question or game quickly, focus on getting as many correct as possible.

Year 4 Blog Friday 13th January 2023

Date: 13th Jan 2023 @ 12:53pm

Year 4 Blog

Friday 13^th January 2023

Welcome to this week’s blog. Here is a summary of our learning this week:

In English, we started our new novel, The Amazing Story of Adolphus Tips by Michael Morpurgo. We began by exploring the pictures on the cover, reading the blurb and looking inside the book. We found many similarities between this novel, Kensuke’s Kingdom, and other books we have read by Michael Morpurgo (for example, Toro Toro and the Butterfly Lion).  We also collected words and phrases to describe Lily, the main character, and then wrote a character description.

In Maths, we learnt more about division.  We consolidated the chunking method and also learnt how to record a remainder.  In addition, we investigated dividing numbers by 10 and completed some word problems. We also started our time topic. Time is a tricky concept and needs lots of practice.  Why not ask someone at home to help you tell the time – you might find this resource helpful if you want to practise at home.

In PE, we started swimming lessons.  Our first week went very well - we are looking forward to building our stamina and becoming more confident in the water over the coming weeks.

In French, we revisited all our learning from September to remind us what we have learnt. We know all the singular parts of the verb etre and how to make an adjective feminine if necessary. We looked at how to pronounce words with an and en in them and practised listening and reading in French

In RE, we started our new topic ‘Community’.  We discussed the different communities we belong to, as well as the advantages and demands of being part of a community.  Following this, we considered how the apostles felt when Jesus chose them to help him in his work.

In PSHE we started our ‘respect’ topic.  We considered how people’s behaviour affects us, and others, including online.

We also completed our DT project this week. This involved:

• sketching, labelling and annotating our design
• making the model, including the circuit and switch
• evaluating our final product

You can see some pictures of our finished models here.

Home Practice

Reading

Please read out loud to somebody for 20 minutes each evening.  Focus on fluency and understanding, taking notice of punctuation. Remember to discuss the story with an adult.

Counting

This week, please practise counting in 7’s.  

For example, start at 0 and count up to 84 and back again

0   7  14  21  etc                        84   77   70   etc

Now have a go at counting in 8’s

Times tables

You should know your individual tables target.  These will be tested next Wednesday (18^th January 2023). 

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

Spellings

This week’s spellings all have the ending -ture.

mixture       capture        feature        moisture      adventure

nature         picture        vulture         future         torture

sculpture     creature      fracture      furniture     temperature

These spellings will be tested next Friday (20^th January 2023).

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 times tables
• A time challenge – telling the time on digital and analogue clocks

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 super weekend

The Year 4 Team

Reception Blog - Friday 13th January 2023

Date: 13th Jan 2023 @ 12:48pm

We have had a great week starting our new topic of Julia Donaldson and the story of Zog. This week we have been retelling the story using story props, it was lots of fun! We have also been using our sounds to write short words on our own in Phonics.

In maths, we have been subitising when looking at different amounts. Then we have put these amounts in order, creating our own numberlines.

In Phonics we have done the sounds: x, y, z and zz and we have learnt new games to help us with our learning, called 'read, read, run' and 'phonic detectives.'

Year 3 Blog Friday 13th January 2023

Date: 12th Jan 2023 @ 4:06pm

We have had another great week in Year 3! 

In English, we have started reading The Butterfly Lion By Michael Morpurgo. We are really enjoying this book and are learning lots of new ways to write our sentences. We have been using ideas from the story and stealing some fantastic vocabulary. Well done Year 3!

In Maths we have been exploring 3D Shape. We have been lusing our mathematical vocabulary to describe our shapes (faces, edges and vertices) and used artstraws to make prisms, cubes, pyramids and lots more. We also started our new topic on place value and number this week. We have set two challenges on Sumdog, one to recap on our shape learning and one to prepare for next week's lessons on place value and subtraction.

We also started our new RE topic on Journeys. We discussed what our journey through the year looks like and what special events we look forward to. We also linked this to our PSHE learning on families. The children came up with some really thoughtful ideas about family and special times.

In Geography we started our new topic on Africa. In this topic we will be looking at three countries. Egypt, Ghana and South Africa. This week we used our atlases to locate these countries on the map and described their location using the points on the compass. We also created some new bookmarks using african prints as inspiration.

Home Practice 

Read out loud to somebody for 20 minutes, tell them all about the different characters and places in your stories.

Spellings

Practise your spellings every night. This week, your spellings have the -ness and -ment suffixes.

happiness     loudness    sloppiness     darkness    sadness    enjoyment    disappointment    excitement    improvement

Counting

Counting out loud is a great way to embed number fluency. 

Count out loud in 10s from 81 to 181.

Count out loud in 4s from 0 to 48.

Count out loud in 2s from 40 to 20. 

Times Tables 

This week we have told the children their times table focus this week. You can use the times tables training on Sumdog and this will also pinpoint weaker areas.

In class we are continuing to practice the 8 times table. Here is a song we have been learning, with a little help from Adele.

Sumdog

Access the Sumdog challenges and training. These are essential to practise and prepare for what we are learning in school. 

You will be tested on your spelling and times tables next Friday. 

Have a lovely weekend.

Year 1 Blog- Friday 13th January 2023

Date: 12th Jan 2023 @ 10:12am

Welcome to your Friday blog!

Englsh

This week we stared learning all about traditional tales. We talked about the features of these stores - there might be magic, talking animals, good characters, bad characters.

We listened to the story of Hansel and Gretel. We used great vocabulary to describe the witch. We illustrated and wrote a description of the witch on a poster.

Phonics

We have been learning about all the different sounds which make ee as in tree, y as in Bobby, ey as in turkey, ie as in field, e as in behave, e-e as in Steve. 

Maths

We have been learning about coins and their value. We have been finding out how many 1ps are the same value as each coin up to 20p. We have been finding out the total when we buy two or more items. We have been explaining how we found the totals.Let your child have a look at any coins you have at home.

We have also been counting forwards and backwards in2s, 5s and 10s. This knowledge has helped us when working out the values of a group of coins, how many 2ps are the same value as 10p? how many 5ps are the same value as 20p?

R.E.

We have started our new topic of 'Special People'. We explored what makes someone special and we identified our special people. We learnt that it doesn't have to be someone in our family.

P.E.

We had our second gymnastics lesson and we built upon the learning from last week. We learnt how to do a tuck jump, egg roll, frog jump and bunny hop.

See our great pictures here.

P.S.H.E.

We started to learn about how we can stay healthy. We looked at food, medicines and exercise and how we need to choose to live healthily. We identified things that are good for our bodies and things that are not so good for our bodies.

Computing

We focused on typing this week and the term 'digital writing' - how we can write digitally. We learnt about Word and how to type our names in a Word document.

Art

We learnt about mixing primary colours together. We experimented as a table and found out which secondary colours can be made.

Geography

We loved learning about the U.K. this week! We starting learning about the 4 countries that make up the UK and then we drew pictures of different places that we have been to. We had examples such as The Lake District and Blackpool.

We also used the atlases to find China ready for Chinese New Year! See our pictures here.

Science

We started our topic of materials. We learnt what a material was and how to identify them. We focused on 6 main materials - wood, water, plastic, rock, metal and glass.

French

We began to learn the words for some fruit. We enjoyed doing the conga to a fruity song - J'aime les fruits!

Outdoor Learning

One of our sessions this week was making forest faces with clay and natural materials. We worked in the nature area and we were careful to avoid standing on the new plants which are starting to grow. We found stones, tiny twigs, moss, spinning jennies and different types of leaves to make the features on our faces. We gave them a name as well. We also had some free play and decided what we wanted to do.

Our other session was making a magic wand. We used wire for the first time-we threaded it though the bells, as wool or ribbon would not go through the tiny hole. We then practised tying knots in ribbon and wool- we showed great perseverance until we were successful!

Click here to see some of our Outdoor Learning

Fairtrade

We had a visit from Mrs Greenlees. She came to talk to us about what Fairtrade is and how we can help the farmers by supporting Fairtrade.

Home Practice

Phonics - common exception words

Maths - money challenges

Please continue to read for at least 10 minutes every night with your child, it really will make all the difference to your child's progress.

Year 5 Blog Friday 13th January

Date: 11th Jan 2023 @ 9:44am

Happy Friday and welcome to your Friday Blog. 

A huge well done to the children who completed their research about Lancashire and Preston in the past and about the Victorian times. Some really interesting facts and photographs! 

This week we have continued to read our class novel Street Child. We have used our research to write a non-chronological report about life in the Victorian times in London. A non-chronological report gives information to the reader about a certain topic and can be written in any order. We looked at examples of non-chronological reports to find out what we would need to include. We included:

• Title
• Interesting introduction
• Sub-headings and paragraphs 
• Facts and figures
• Pictures and diagrams

Everybody did a really fantastic job and will be sharing their non-chronologival report with somebody at home to teach them all about life in Victorian London. We also shared our reports with year 3 who said they were really interesting and informative. 

We finished our current history topic on Ancient Greece by learning all about the Ancient Olympics. We used primary sources of evidence to find clues about the Ancient Olympics in Greece and then made posters with our findings. We looked at images of clay pots which had paintings of the Ancient Olympics. We looked at these to find out who could compete, what sports they competed in and what clothes they wore.

You can see us being historians in our gallery here. 

We will start our history topic about the Victorians next week. The topic is called Local history in the Victorian times. 

We also finished our current science topic about forces. We carried our a pattern seeking investigation by making and investigating different levers. Our aim was to find out if a longer lever made the job easier or harder. We found out that the longer the lever, the easier the job. The shorter the lever, the harder the job.

You can see us investigating here.

On Friday we were introduced to our new science topic - Earth and space. We can't wait to learn more! 

In maths we have been learning about factors and square numbers. We used counters to find factor pairs and then identified square numbers by finding out which factors pairs created a square. 

Home Practice 

Remember

Don't forget to bring in some old trainers and spare socks in a carrier bag for PE next week. Bring them on Monday so your PE kit is in school all week. 

Reading

Read out loud to somebody every day for 20 minutes. Look out for new words and find their meaning.  

Times Tables

You have been given your tables target for your test next week. Practise every day. 

Counting

Count out loud in 1,000s from 76,101 to 86,101. 

76,101         77,101          78,101          ...

Count out loud in 30s from 0 to 360.

0          30          60          ...

Count out loud in 40s from 0 to 480.

0          40          80          ...

Spellings 

Here are your spellings this week. They all end with -able, -ible, -ably, -ibly. 

possible          possibly          incredible          incredibly          sensible          sensibly          reliable          reliably          respectable

          respectably          agreeable          agreeably          probable          probably          enjoyable 

Sumdog

Complete the Sumdog challenges:

Times tables

Maths Challenge

Spelling Challenge 

Have a super weekend. 

Year 2 Blog Friday 6th January 2023

Date: 6th Jan 2023 @ 3:37pm

Year 2 have settled back so well, even though it has only been three days, it feels as though we have done a full week! Well done everyone, it’s great that so many of you have been on triple gold and the house point chart is full! In English, the children wrote a recount about their Christmas holiday and told me all about the things they did at home. I saw great sentence openers and vocabulary also the handwriting was fantastic. We have nearly completed our fraction topic in Maths. We looked at halves/quarters of shapes and amounts and learnt that two quarters = one half. In French this week, we learnt about how French people celebrate La fete des rois - The Feast of the Kings. It involves a special cake with a charm hidden inside. Whoever finds the charm in their slice is crowned the King or queen for the day. The children wrote about this and decorated crowns for the new French display. We started our new topic in R.E – Books. We explored all the books we know about at home and school and will learn more about the Bible. We dedicated today to D.T and spent the whole day making Tudor houses (linked to The Great Fire of London History topic last term). The children were so creative and their constructions were amazing. They worked with great care and thought. Well done Year 2.

Reading

New reading books will be issued next week.

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.

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 - 14.11.22 Max’s Box. Read to page 6, really enjoying the book or finished the book. MG.

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 (13.01.23). 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 13.01.23.

This week’s spellings:

door             mind

floor             kind    

poor              behind

because         child

find                children

Maths

This term we will start doing a times table quiz every week alongside our weekly spelling quiz. The children have brought home a sheet with the 10x table on it. This is to learn for next week’s quiz on Friday 13.01.23. The sheets are to be kept at home, no need to send them back in. You may find we repeat the same times tables some weeks this is to make sure the children fully know and have learnt their times tables thoroughly. We will also learn the corresponding division facts for our weekly times table quiz.

By the end of Year 2, children should know fully the x2, x5, x10 and x3 tables and the corresponding division facts. This will really help with their learning when they move up to the juniors.

At home, count in 10’s forwards and backwards, try starting from 20 or 40 or 70 not always 0. Write it down and spot any patterns that will help you remember. Challenge yourself and go past 100 or start from a different number like 4, 14, 24, 34, 44, and 54! When we count in 10’s from 0, the numbers we say are actually the 10x table.

You will have a 10x table and a fractions challenge on Sumdog to complete by Friday 13.01.23.

Sumdog

Log in at www.sumdog.com

Have a lovely weekend. Year 2 Team.

Year 6 Blog Friday 6th January 2022

Date: 6th Jan 2023 @ 1:06pm

Welcome to our first blog of 2023. It has been a short week but we have managed to fit in quite a bit of work, which the children have responded very well to.

On Friday, the juniors celebrated The Feast of Epiphany in church with Father Michael. Well done to those in Year 6 who did the readings and bidding prayers.

REMINDER

For our PE lessons this half term, which will include cross country 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.

Our learning in Year 6 this week:

• In Maths, we we learnt how to find common multiples and common factors of numbers. We used this knowledge to add and subtract fractions with different denominators.
• In English, we continued our novel, Private Peaceful, by improving our reading skills, retrieval and inference, to gain information about the new character Sergeant Horrible Hanley. We also learnt to describe an action scene using the scene of how Tommo and Charlie rescued their Captain.  
• In RE, we started our new topic, Sources, by discussing the impact that books have on our lives. We asked ourselves whether books can enrich our lives, have they ever inspired us, and is there a book that changed the way we perceive the world.
• In History, we used sources to predict what happened from the start of the World War I to the end. We then learnt about the Treaty of Versailles and how USA, Britain and France felt towards Germany and whether we felt it was harsh or fair decision.
• In PSHE, we discussed what social media is, how it can affect our lives positively and negatively.
• In French, we recapped telling the time in French to prepare for the Question of the week : Quelle heure est-il?
• In Science, we continued our learning about light, investigating how we see a light source, then how we see objects. Finally, we were able to draw a ray diagram correctly. We also looked at all the vocabulary associated with light - you can't explain what you know if you don't have the right words to do it!

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

• Reading – Continue to read every night for 30 minutes. You can now change your book on any day – in Year 6 we aim to change it every week.

• Spellings (challenge words)
  • Sumdog (Spellings -cial / -tial)

official, artificial, partial, confidential, essential, crucial, glacial, spatial, judicial, financial, beneficial, substantial, social, controversial, racial

• Maths challenges:
  • Counting:
    • This week we have been counting in whole numbers steps. 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.
    • Start with these numbers: 400, 165, 5000 and count up 10 times then back again in 25:

400, 425, 450, 475, 500, 525, etc

and in 250:

400, 650, 900, 1150, 1400, etc

• Number facts:
  • To help your maths even more, please continue to learn your numbers facts, 6 + 8 = 14, 8 + 7 = 15.
  • The best way to do this is to simply have someone in your home quiz you with questions like (8 + 6, 6 + 5, 3 + 8, 5 + 9, etc)
  • Then get them to change the place value of these digits (0.8 + 0.6, 0.06 + 0.05, 0.3 + 0.8, etc)

• Sumdog (Times tables Sp1 wk 1)
  • This week, to see how confident the children are with the lower times tables, I have set a challenge for x3, x4, x5 and x6. Try to focus on speed as well as accuracy.

• Sumdog (Multiples and Factors – part 2)
  • For this challenge, see if you can use the learning from this week to answer questions on various multiples, common multiples, factors and common factor questions.

Year 4 Blog - Friday 6th January 2023

Date: 6th Jan 2023 @ 1:00pm

Year 4 Blog

Friday 6^th January 2023

Welcome to the first blog of 2023 – it has been lovely to see everyone again this week. We’ve only been back 3 days, but what a busy 3 days we’ve had!

In English, we tried to use lots of different sentences (simple, compound and complex) in our writing.  We wrote about our first day back after the Christmas holidays and all the strange things that had happened in our classroom and to the teachers. 

In Maths, we started our new topic – division.  First, we used our knowledge of place value and multiplication facts to divide larger numbers (eg 540 ÷ 6).  Following this, we divided 2-digit numbers using the chunking method when there was no remainder.  Many of us found this tricky, but knowing our table facts really helped.

In PE, we practised our dodgeball and bench ball skills, as well as working as a team. Have a look at us in action! Remember, next week we will start swimming lessons on a Wednesday afternoon!

In Science, we made and tested a circuit. Following this, we made and evaluated switches.  We needed to have a good understanding of which materials conducted electricity and how a switch worked. You can see some of our switches here.

In Geography, we created a double page spread about the causes and impact of climate change along with ideas about how we can stop or limit climate change.  In addition, we carried out an experiment to see the effect of climate change on glaciers. You can see some pictures here.

Home Practice

Reading

Please read out loud to somebody for 20 minutes each evening.  Make sure you discuss the story and predict what you think will happen next.

Counting

This week, please practise counting in 4’s and 8’s.  

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

0   4  8  12  etc                         48   44   40   etc

Now have a go at counting in 8’s

Start at 0 and count to 96 and back again

0   8   16   24   etc                     96   88    80  etc                      

Times tables

You should know your individual tables target.  These will be tested next Wednesday (11^th January 2023). 

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

Spellings

This week’s spellings all have the g sound, but it is spelt gu.

guide           guitar          guard           guest           guardian

guess           guilt            guinea          guile            guarantee

guilty           guild            guitarist      guillotine      guaranteed

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 3, 4 and 8 times tables

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

As you have only been given 2 Sumdog challenges, please practise 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 super weekend

The Year 4 Team

NEXT WEEK IN DT we are hoping to design and make our own ‘Iron creature’, based on the Iron Man.  If you need anything for your design, such as a cardboard tube, box or tub, please bring these in to school.  In addition, you may wish to bring any ‘decorations’ into school too. School will provide cups, tin foil, some decorations, card and paper, along with the electrical circuit components.

Reception Blog - Friday 6th January 2023

Date: 6th Jan 2023 @ 12:47pm

We have had a great first week back in school.

All of the children have remembered all of our routines and have enjoyed telling us all about their Christmas holidays.

This week we have started our new mini topic of Winter. We have been making snow villages and winter scenes. We have done the j, v and w sounds in phonics and learnt the tricky words 'he' and 'she', doing lots of games to help us remember them.

We have also been making a junk model castle for our small world area, all taking turns in helping each other, ready for our Julia Donaldson topic starting next week and the story Zog.

For this term, we will collect reading book bags in on a Monday, change them and hand them back out on a Tuesday.

Year 3 Friday Blog 6th January 2023

Date: 6th Jan 2023 @ 12:21pm

Welcome back to your Friday Blog and a Happy New Year!

This week everyone has settled back into school really well, ready for a busy term of exciting learning.

In our English this week, we finished the Post Box Mystery by Robert Swindells. It had a very exciting ending and we wrote our own newspaper article, reporting on the alien incident. On Friday we had a go at word processing these and publishing them onto our proud wall. Well done Year 3! Next week we will start our new novel, The Butterfly Lion by Michael Morpurgo.

In Maths we have continued learning about telling the time, this time in one minute intervals. This is always a tricky concept to learn and it takes a lot of practice to get it right. Here is the online resource we used this week if you want to have a look at home.

In our PSHE we started our families topic. We read the classic story Love You Forever by Robert Munsch and discussed what makes a family special.

We also continued our Geography topic, looking at physical geography of the North West of England. We used digital maps to explore the region and found lakes, rivers, hills, forests and much more.

Home Practice

Continue to read every night for at least 15 minutes. The regular reading you have been doing is showing in the progress your children have been making in all areas of the curriculum!

This week we have been learning how to use adverbs in our writing. Your spellings this week are

loudly    quietly      carefully     sadly       quickly       slowly      

  happily      bravely       slowly    clearly              

We have sent home some times tables practise booklets to have a go at as well as the Sumdog challenges. Do what you can. Regular practice will help your children achieve fluency in their number facts.

Have a lovely weekend!

The Year 3 Team

Year 5 Blog Friday 6th January 2023

Date: 5th Jan 2023 @ 7:29pm

Happy New Year! 

Welcome to your first Friday Blog of 2023. 

It has been a great week back and so lovely to see each other again. 

Even though we have only been back at school for 3 days we have done so much exciting learning. 

We started our new class novel in English. It is called Street Child by Berlie Doherty. The novel is set in the Victorian times so we have spent this week learning about different aspects of Victorian life. This will help us as we continue to read the novel. So far we have found out about conditions for street children including the types of jobs they did to earn enough money for food, workhouses, illnesses and diseases and The Industrial Revolution. We have found it all so fascinating and can't wait to read more and find out more. 

To fit in with our novel we are going to start our new history topic in the coming weeks. We are going to be learning about the history of Lancashire and Preston during the Victorian times. See if you can find some facts or photographs of Preston or Lancashire in the past, it will be interesting to find out how these places have changed over the years. 

In maths we have been learning about multiples and factors. We have found it really interesting to look at the patterns and to identify how we can spot a multiple of a certain number. One of the most exciting things we found out is how to recognise a multiple of 3. 

Here are some examples. 

54 is a multiple of 3 because 5 + 4 = 9 and 9 is a multiple of 3. 

51 is a multiple of 3 because 5 + 1 = 6 and 6 is a multiple of 3. 

144 is a multiple of 3 because 1 + 4 + 4 = 9 and 9 is a multiple of 3. 

In PE we ran 6 laps of the infant and junior playgrounds! This was to prepare us for cross country running which we will be starting next week. Don't forget to bring in some old trainers and spare socks for cross country running next week. After our 6 laps we did some tag rugby and some gymnastics. Everybody worked so well in their teams and pairs. 

In French, we played a game of Trapdoor to practise speaking. This involves working with a partner who had chosen the items given by Pere Noel (Father Christmas) and the other person had to guess what was on their list. Then we returned to the topic of Meals and meal times that we started before Christmas. We read a text in French and answered questions in English to show our understanding. 

Home Practice 

Research

Find some facts and photographs of Preston and Lancashire in the past. Bring these to school so we can see how these places have changed over the years. 

Remember

Don't forget to bring in some old trainers and spare socks for PE next week. 

Reading

Read out loud to somebody every day for 20 minutes. Focus on reading with expression - using different voices and taking note of punctuation. 

Times Tables

You have been given your tables target for your test next week. Practise every day. 

Counting

Count out loud in 25s from 0 to 250. 

0          25          50          ...

Count out loud in 50s from 0 to 500.

0          50          10          ...

Count out loud from 500 back to 0.

500          450          400          ...

Sumdog

Complete the Sumdog challenges:

Times tables

Maths Challenge

Spelling Challenge 

Spellings

Here are your spellings this week. They don't follow a rule or pattern however they do all have at least one pair of double letters. Practise your spellings every day using different strategies that we use in class. 

               accommodate          accompany          according          aggressive          apparent             appreciate                                                                                                                                                                                                       attached           committee          communicate          community          embarrass   

                         exaggerate          harass       immediately          interrupt 

Have a super weekend. 

Year 1 Blog- Friday 6th January 2023

Date: 5th Jan 2023 @ 9:56am

Happy New Year to everyone!

We hope you all had a lovely Christmas. We would like to thank you for your thoughtful cards and presents- we really appreciate all your support.

In English we will be learning through traditional tales- our stories will include Hansel and Gretel and The Elves and the Shoemaker.

We will continue our Red Rose Mastery Maths learning, starting with money.

In Science we will be learning about everyday materials and their properties.

Our first topic in R.E. is Special People. 

We are looking forward to all our learning in all our subjects.

This week we learnt about Braille. We are going to look out for Braille when we are out and about.

Please continue to read with your child every night for at least 10 minutes. 

Year 4 Blog Friday 16th December 2022

Date: 20th Dec 2022 @ 7:52am

Year 4 Blog

Friday 16^th December 2022

We've had a lovely last week of term in Year 4 with lots of Christmas activities.

On Monday, we were entertained by All Hallow’s who performed a musical showcase. During the week, we also enjoyed: exchanging cards during the 'Grand Christmas Post', wearing our Christmas jumpers and eating a delicious Christmas lunch. On Thursday afternoon, we took part in a Christingle service in church which reminded us that Jesus is the light of the world.

In addition, this week we also made Christmas cards and calendars, created a podcast in computing and learnt more about Antarctica and the Arctic Circle, including their similarities and differences. We are certainly ready for a rest!

Well done for all your hard work Year 4 - have a happy and relaxing Christmas and New Year.  We look forward to seeing your bright, smiley faces again on Wednesday 4^th January 2023.

Have a lovely Christmas break.

The Year 4 Team.

Year 5 Blog Friday 16th December

Date: 19th Dec 2022 @ 10:20am

Happy Friday, Happy Christmas and a Happy New Year to you all.

We had a wonderful week in school. 

We finished Room 13 and loved it. We then wrote a persuasive piece of writing to go in a holiday brochure trying to persuade people to go and stay at the Crow's Next Hotel. This wasn't easy as we know all of the secrets about the Crow's Nest. We used different types of sentences and vocabulary. We even read some of our adverts to Mrs Mulgrew and she said she would definitely go to the hotel. 

We can't wait to start our new class novel in January, it is called Street Child. 

We loved seeing some children from All Hallow's on Monday, they treated us to a musical showcase including some Christmas songs we could join in with. 

On Thursday we enjoyed the Christingle in church, we were very impressed with how well the Year 6 children read. It was also a special golden assembly for Mrs Sullivan on Thursday. We celebrated her time teaching at St Oswald's with songs, memories, cards, gifts and a video. 

Now it is time to relax, spend time with friends and family and have lots of fun. 

Have a great Christmas and we can't wait to see you all in 2023. 

The Year 5 Team. 

Year 2 Blog Friday 16th December 2022

Date: 16th Dec 2022 @ 2:28pm

We've had a lovely week in Year 2, with lots of Christmas fun. The children enjoyed Christmas post, dinner and jumper day. We enjoyed going to Church for our Christingle service.

I'd like to say a huge well done to everyone for working so hard this term, have a great rest and enjoy spending time with your family and friends. We'll see you fresh and ready for learning in the new year.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year (2023).

Year 2 Team

Year 1 Blog Friday 16th December 2022

Date: 16th Dec 2022 @ 2:17pm

What an amazing term we've had together. We have thoroughly enjoyed seeing the children grow and achieve their goals!

We've been very busy this week - Christmas jumper day fun, singing carols, finishing our Harvey Slumfenburger story, making a Christmas snowflake and making our DT Christmas cards. We're ready for a rest!

Thank you for all of your hard work and we will see you in 2023.

We hope you have a lovely Christmas and a very happy new year.

The Year One team.

Year 3 Blog Friday 16th December

Date: 16th Dec 2022 @ 2:14pm

Happy Christmas Everyone!

We have had a great week in school this week. We had our Christmas post, Christmas lunch and finished our DT and Computing topics. 

In Maths we started learning to tell the time to 5 minutes and had a go at  telling the time in 1 minute intervals. We will revisit this in the new year.

In English we read a bit further in the Postbox Mystery. We found our that the postbox had been invaded by some aliens. We wrote some great descriptions using our newspaper sentences. 

We had a great time creating our football stadiums / shell structures in DT. We had to work as a team with a project manager, construction supervisor, tape dispenser, photographers and builders. Everyone worked well in their roles and made some super constructions. Great work Year 3! Have a look at our designs here.

On Wednesday we explored temperature on our winter walk. Mrs Quilliam was very impressed with everyones questions and scientific vocabulary.

On Friday we completed our animation topic with some great final pieces. Everyone used their skills to create a stop frame animation with their own toys. Here are some of the final videos.

Over the holidays make sure to continue to read and access the Sumdog learning platform. 

Here is the latest edition of the Learning Times, created by our Year 6 class.

Have a lovely break and we wish you all a peaceful Christmas

The Year 3 Team

Year 6 Blog Friday 16th December 2022

Date: 16th Dec 2022 @ 12:37pm

Our last week in December has been very exciting, filled with Christmas carols sang to the parents, Christmas jumper day and the Christingle, which was led very well by the Year 6s!

Learning Times for this term has finally been completed, edited and published. Thank you to Year 6 for working hard on this. You can view the edition here online. 

On Tuesday, we had a visit from Lancashire Adult Learning who led a workshop for our Year 6 with parents / grandparents. The campaign aims to help those in a care home who are lonely this Christmas. The gallery here, Year 6 Cards for Kindness, shows how super the cards were that both the children and adults made. If you managed to make it on Tuesday, thank you for coming!

On Thursday, we celebrated Mrs Sullivan and her 31 years as a teacher here. The children and adults sang her favourite songs, reminisced over lovely memories and presented her with hand-made cards from each class. We hope you enjoy your retirement Mrs Sullivan; Year 6 will miss you!

Our learning in Year 6 this week:

• In our Design and Technology topic of sewing, we completed the planning, prepping, sewing and adding the finishing touches to our project. Please see the pictures here on our website for their brilliant work.
• In PE, we have been working on creating a range of team strategies to outwit an opposing team. We then practiced them in various invasion games.
• In Maths, we used various problem-solving skills to solve Math questions as a group.
• In English, we learnt how Tommo and Charlie’s relationship as brothers became stronger as they headed off to France to fight in the Great War. 
• In History, we investigated what life was like for people at home when the Great War began and how propaganda had an affect on them.
• In Art, we learnt a new skill of printing, with paint and polystyrene to create our Christmas cards. You can view this super artwork by clicking on this link, Year 6 Printing Art.

You will have also noticed that there is no Sumdog being set for the Christmas break so you can have a rest and come back fresh and ready for the exciting learning in January!

BUT please keep reading as much as possible – like I always say, ‘It is the number one thing that will unlock all your future learning!’

Reception Blog - Friday 16th December 2022

Date: 16th Dec 2022 @ 11:55am

We have had a fantastic last week in Reception, from Christmas crafts to Christmas jumper day, carol singing, Christmas lunch and much more!

A big well done to every child for all of their hardwork this term! 

Lots of rest and family time and we will see you in 2023!

The Reception Team

Here is the new edition of our Learning Times.

Year 2 Blog Friday 9th December 2022

Date: 9th Dec 2022 @ 4:20pm

A really magical week in Year 2, well done to everyone. The Nativity was amazing and the children did excellent singing and acting. We have been busy doing Christmas crafts during Art. In English, the children re-told a story from the perspective of a toy robot. They learnt to use the first person (I, me and myself). In Maths, we have moved on to the fractions topic. We looked at halves and quarters and folded a square to demonstrate this. In French, we listened to the legend of St Nicholas, the patron saint of children. He brings treats to many European children who leave their shoes out for him on the 6^th December. We made a Christmas card with some shoes on to remind us of the story. During Forest School, the children made some great nature Christmas decorations.

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.

We will not issue school reading books over the Christmas Holiday, so you can enjoy any books you have at home, get for Christmas or you may even want to visit the library.

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

Spelling

There will be no spellings to learn for next week.

However, you will have a Sumdog challenge on common words to complete by next Friday 16.12.22.

You could also have a look at your Year 1/2 common exception word list.

Maths

At home, count forwards and backwards in halves. For example, one half, two halves, three halves, four halves, five halves etc. We did this in class so well. Notice when you have a whole (two halves).

You will have a 2x, 5x, 10x and 3x tables and a fractions (finding halves) challenge on Sumdog to complete by Friday 16.12.22.

Sumdog

Log in at www.sumdog.com

Please send book bags in for collection next week. We will hold on to them over Christmas.

Remember, Wednesday is Christmas jumper/dinner/post day.

Have a lovely weekend.

Year 2 Team.

Year 4 Blog Friday 9th December 2022

Date: 9th Dec 2022 @ 4:10pm

Year 4 Blog

Friday 9^th December 2022

We have had another great week in Year 4.

In English, we imagined we were the owner of a restaurant and designed a menu specifically for the Iron Man who loves eating metal.  We included alliteration in the titles of the dishes along with a description which used lots of adjectives and mouth-watering phrases! In addition, we were introduced to the Space-Bat-Angel-Dragon.  We used evidence from the text to write a detailed character description which included similes.

In Maths, we finished our multiplication topic by consolidating the different strategies we have learnt and using bar models to help solve word problems. Many of us found this tricky but we persevered.  

In RE, we continued our ‘Gift’ topic. We learnt that God sent Jesus as a gift for everyone, and were introduced to the prophet Isaiah who was waiting for the coming of the Messiah.  In addition, we learnt about the third Sunday of Advent, known as Gaudete Sunday.

In French, we described the jumper that we designed last week using a conjunction to extend the sentence and including a negative sentence. They look great! Fantastique, Y4.

In PE, as part of our invasion games unit, we practised our hockey skills. We practised the skills of stopping the ball, turning and then pushing the ball to our partner. Following this, we played a mini tournament. 

This week, we have also painted Christmas trees in the style of Monet and enjoyed listening to the drumming showcase on Thursday afternoon. We were all very impressed with the drummers and some of us now feel inspired to have a go at drumming ourselves! 

Home Practice

Reading

Please read for 20 minutes each evening to an adult at home.  Make sure you discuss the story and predict what you think will happen next.

Counting

This week, please practise counting in 0.1’s and 12’s.  

For example, start at 0.6 and count up to 2.3 and back again

0.6   0.7   0.8     etc                            2.3   2.2   2.1   etc

Now have a go at counting in 12’s

Start at 0 and count to 144 and back again

0   12   24   36   etc                             144   132   120  etc                      

Times tables

As we have had a tables test on all tables this week, we will not have a tables test next week. However, you should know your individual tables target and these will be tested after Christmas. 

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

Spellings

This week, the children have worked extremely hard on their spellings as they have also been tested on all the words on the Year 3/4 Spelling list.  Therefore, there will be no spellings to learn for next week.

Sumdog challenges

You have been set 2 challenges on Sumdog:

• A times tables challenge based on the 12 times tables
• A times table challenge based on the 3, 4 and 8 times tables (this is revision of Year 3 learning and involves missing numbers)

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

Have a super weekend

The Year 4 Team

Year 3 Blog Friday 9th December

Date: 9th Dec 2022 @ 3:42pm

Welcome to your Friday Blog

This week we have enjoyed watching the Nativity performance, enjoyed our Christmas Bingo and watched an amazing drumming masterclass from year 4 and 5. 

In our English this week we have been exploring the features of a news report. We wrote our own reports of the Postbox Mystery and shared them with Year 6 who have also been writing news articles. Have a look at our gallery here.

In our maths we have been learning to solve divisions with remainders. This proved very tricky and is a difficult concept to grasp. Have a go at your Sumdog challenges and division practice to help with understanding. 

This week we have started to design and construct our sports stadiums. Everyone has been using their skills to evaluate their designs and decide what 3D shell structures will be best to add to their design. Next week we will be assembling our final construction. Super DT Year 3!

In French, we used bilingual dictionaries to look up nouns to write a letter to pere Noel. We managed really well to change the definite article (le,la or les) to an indefinite article (un, une or des). Tres bien, Y3!

Home Practice

Continue to read every night for at least 15 minutes. 

Check out our Sumdog challenges. This week we are practising our x3.x4 and x8 related facts. Continue to access the Sumdog Training tool. We have recently reset everyones account so that they are challenged on their hard skills.

In our spellings, the children have worked hard this week to use simple words to construct compound words. This strategy will help children to spell longer words more accurately. Here are your home spellings for this week.

mouse   trousers    fountain    grouse    hound     browse    trowel    powder     shower     tower     howl    blackout

We are revisiting our OU and OW sounds as some of us aren't fluent with these just yet. We have added a few extra ones to have a go at on Sumdog.

Have a great weekend

The Year 3 Team

Reception Blog - Friday 9th December 2022

Date: 9th Dec 2022 @ 11:46am

A big well done to all of Reception for their first school Nativity this week. The children did amazing and sang their hearts out. 

This week we have been making presents out of numicon, writing letters to Father Christmas, singing carols, looking at the change in the weather and making all of our Christmas crafts to bring home next week!

Year 6 Blog Friday 9th December 2022

Date: 9th Dec 2022 @ 8:16am

Welcome to Year 6 weekly blog.

Congratulations to our Year 5/6 Football team who came second in the South Ribble finals on Tuesday. They have worked incredibly well as a team, helping to reach the Lancashire Finals for the first time ever for St Oswald’s.

Also on Tuesday, the juniors were very lucky to see the infant nativity in church. We thought they did an amazing job and sang beautifully.  You can also see the Nativity video here.

On Friday, eleven of our children volunteered to be carol singers at this month's Caritas lunch at St Teresa's church. They did a brilliant job singing for the parish. 

Our learning this week:

• In Maths, we have been learning how to solve word problems by highlighting the important information, finding the numbers and working out what the calculation is.
• In English, we have had our last lesson with Gareth Walker, who has been teaching us how to be a sport journalist. We have used the skills he has taught us to create this term’s edition of the Learning Times, which will be available next week.
• In PE, we used this term’s learning of invasion games tactics to play small sided games of hockey. The most important thing we learnt is to move into space to gain a better advantage against an opponent.
• In PSHE, we learnt how important sleep is for a healthy lifestyle and discovered ways of improving our own sleep.
• In French, we wrote a story called Qui a tue le pere Noel? Who killed Father Christmas, based on a game of Cluedo. Fantastique, y6!
• In Science, we carried out a carousel of activities to prove that light travels in straight lines. 
• In Design and Technology, we began our final design for our Christmas tree decoration using tapestry thread and needles. It has been great to see everyone develop their stitching skills this week.

Home Practice

Please try to complete the following tasks by next Thursday:

1. Reading – Please read up to 30 minutes a night, complete your reading task and change your book one last time.
2. Maths challenges:

• Sumdog (Lancashire Sumdog Winter Wonderland Contest))
  • This week’s Sumdog contest is once again against Year 7 from All Hallows’. Try your best to get as many questions completed before next Thursday 15^th The questions will be based at your Sumdog level and will vary across many topics.

No spellings for home practice:

• Due to a double sitting of spellings this week, no spellings are to be completed as ‘Home Practice’. Although, we will be recapping our learning of our spellings this term, in class.