Year 1 Blog- Friday 11th November

Date: 10th Nov 2022 @ 9:58am

Welcome to your Friday blog. This morning we had a minute silence for Remembrance Day.

English

This week we have been learning through the story of Traction Man. He changes his outfits depending on his mission! Some of us even became Traction Man.....or Traction Girl! The pictures in the story are very detailed and we described the one where Traction man is diving in the sink.

Phonics

We have been learning about alternative pronunciations, o as in mother,

Maths

We have been doing some checks to show our skills and knowlege about all the learning we have been doing.

R.E.

We continued to learn about the sacrament of baptism. We watched a video of a baptism and drew our own version in our books.

P.E.

We learnt about mirroring in PE. This is where you copy a partner. We made up our own robot dance moves and copied each other.

French

We looked at French customs for Remembrance Day.  French people add cornflowers to their wreaths as well as poppies because the blue reminds them of the soldier's uniforms. We made a wreath with red poppies and blue cornflowers to remember.

I.C.T.

We learnt about the artist Pier Mondrain and copied his artwork on the laptops. We learnt to use the line tool on paintz.app and made our own versions.

History

We began our toys topic in history this week. We focused on old-fashioned toys, such as yo-yos, dominoes, tiddlywinks and kaleidoscopes. We had the chance to play with them and choose our favourite.

Next Friday, the children will be allowed to bring one of their toys into school to represent 'new' toys. A letter will come home on Monday regarding this.

See some photos. Click here.

Science

We continued to look at animals and how to group them. We learnt about mammals, fish, birds, reptiles and amphibians. We then compared the animals with questions such as: can all birds fly? Do all mammals have 4 legs?

P.S.H.E.

We read the story - All about families. We compared families and spotted the differences.

Outdoor Learning

This week we have been building shelters. We used ropes, tarps, pegs and clips. We showed great determination, resilience and team work. We used our knowledge of knots to secure the ropes. We built shelters in both our sessions this week to see if we could improve on our first attempt. The shelters kept us dry when there was a bit of rain!

Sumdog challenges

Phonics - split digraph i_e OR oa words

Maths - one-step word problems

Practise counting in 2s, 5s and 10s. Start at different numbers. Count forwards and backwards.

Please read every night for at least 10 minutes- it really makes all the difference!

Year 5 Blog Friday 11th November

Date: 9th Nov 2022 @ 8:34am

Happy Friday

We have had a fantastic and very busy week in Year 5. 

On Monday we carried out a sensory evaluation of Greek food as part of our DT project. We used words to describe the appearance, smell, texture and taste of feta cheese, olives, pita bread and tzatziki. We then gave each food product a star rating out of 5. We will use this evaluation when we plan our own Greek snack. You can see us in action here. 

On Tuesday we were proud to take part in our Friendship Assembly. Everybody was brave, respectful, hardworking, dedicated and motivated and felt proud to show off our friendships in Year 5. 

On Wednesday we went swimming in our pyjamas! This was to learn ways we can help other people if we see them in trouble in the water. 

On Thursday we went on our school trip to Rock and River. We had the best day! Here is a photo gallery of our day. 

In maths this week we have been practising the written method (column) for addition. This has included adding numbers with more than four digits and numbers with two decimal places. Next week we will be using the written method to subtract. Knowing your number facts is so important to be able to use this method successfully. 

This week we have completed our RSE lessons. We started our lessons by coming up with ground rules, these were:

1. We can giggle if we feel embarassed
2. We can talk to each other and parents
3. We can ask questions

Everybody showed great maturity during our lessons, listening carefully and asking thoughtful questions. We gained an understanding of the emotional and physical changes we go through as we grow and develop. 

Home Practice 

Reading 

Please read out loud to somebody every night for 20 minutes. Look at how paragraphs are used - how does the author split up the writing? 

Spelling

Here are your spellings this week. These are some of the words you need to know by the end of Year 5. They don't follow a rule or pattern. 

accommodate          accompany          according          achieve          aggressive          amateur          ancient 

          apparent          appreciate          attached          available          average          awkward          bargain          bruise 

Number Practice 

As we have been looking at the column method for addition and subtraction this week, it is crucial that you are quick and confident with your number facts. Please go on Hit the Button and have a go at each activity on the Number Bonds page. Continue practising until you can answer the questions quickly without having to do any counting or working out. 

Hit the Button

Sumdog

Complete the Sumdog challenges

Have an amazing weekend! 

Year 4 Blog - Friday 4th November 2022

Date: 4th Nov 2022 @ 4:45pm

Year 4 Blog

Friday 4^th November 2022

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 wrote a chapter from another person’s point of view trying to include vocabulary from the novel and lots of thoughts and feelings.  In addition, we wrote questions about a chapter and planned a book review.

In Maths, we finished our statistics unit. We learnt how to interpret data and solve questions using information in a table, and also presented and interpreted data using pictograms.  Following this, 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 and decimal numbers together, including exchanging. 

In Science this week, we carried out an environmental survey to look at the impact humans have on the landscape and how this can impact living organisms. We found out that the best place for wildlife in our school is the nature area.  

In RE, we explored how we are all unique and different.  We understood that we should treat each other as we would like to be treated and designed a poster to explain this. We also wrote our own set of Golden Rules to live by, and chose a reading from the Bible which we felt celebrated the uniqueness of each of us.

In History, we learnt more about life in the Roman Army and wrote an account as if we were a Roman Legionary - we tried to include as much historical information and detail as possible.

In PE, we practised our dodgeball skills in preparation for the competition in a few weeks time.

In PSHE, we thought about a skill or character strength we would like to develop. We then set a goal for our own development.

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 (9^th November 2022). 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 prefixes in-, il-, im- or ir-.  You have also brought a paper copy home with you, so that you can practise these during the week.  Please remember to use neat joined up writing and check them very carefully once you have written them! We will be practising these spellings in class too. Your test will be on Friday 11^th November 2022.

inactive       incapable     incredible    inaccurate

immature     immobile      impossible    impatient

irregular      irrational     irresistible  irresponsible

illegal           illiterate      illogical        illegible

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

The Year 4 Team

Year 2 Blog Friday 4th November 2022

Date: 4th Nov 2022 @ 4:18pm

Year 2 have had a fantastic week back after the half term holiday. They are all enthusiastic and enjoying their learning. In English, we have read three books already, Not Now, Bernard by David McKee, The Lion In The Meadow by Margaret Mahy and There’s NO Such Thing as a Dragon by Jack Kent. The children compared these stories and wrote a detailed book review. They also wrote conversations between the characters and did some super comprehension work. We have finished the addition and subtraction unit in Maths and have moved on to Shape. The children named 2-D shapes and talked about their properties. They were introduced to the word quadrilateral (4 sided shapes) and reminded that corners are called vertices. In RE (Journey in Love - RSHE), the children learnt about communities and how we can contribute in a positive way to the community we live in. We also talked about staying safe and meeting God in our community through school and Church. The Great Fire of London is our History topic this half term. We looked at London now and in the past. The skeleton pictures using art straws looked fantastic and the weather has been quite good for Forest School. Please could children keep wellies in school all week and remember warm/waterproof coats for when they are doing out-door learning.

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.

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 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 (11.11.22). 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 11.11.22.

This week’s spellings:

after                chute

never                want    

Chris                 wash

school                paper

chef                  friends

Maths

At home, count in fives forwards and backwards to 60 or 100. Notice how we count in fives when telling the time on a clock, it’s just like a circular number line. Talk about time, focusing on O’clock, half past, quarter past, 5 past, 10 past, 20 past and 25 past.

You will have a 2x, 5x and 10x tables and shape challenge on Sumdog to complete by Friday 11.11.22.

Sumdog

Log in at www.sumdog.com

Have a lovely weekend. Enjoy the fireworks!

Year 2 Team.

Year 3 4th November 2022

Date: 4th Nov 2022 @ 4:02pm

Welcome back to your Friday blog. We have had a fantastic week back in school and started lots of new learning and exciting topics.

We have been writing our Quest adventure stories this week and on Friday afternoon we visited Reception and Year 1 to read our stories. Everyone made a huge effort all week to make their writing look beautiful on the page and used some fantastic sentences to excite the reader. We have been working hard on sentence structures this week and found out different ways to develop our ideas. 

This week we have started our Geography learning. We have been exploring maps and will be studying our local area and Lancashire. We looked at differntly scaled maps and talked about what human features we could find. We spotted cities, towns, villages, motorways, airports and much more! 

In maths we have been practising all our strategies and learned when we need to use formal written methods. We have sent home some times tables practice sheets as we will be focused on Multiplication and division from next week on. When practising times tables at home work on recall and speed as well as accuracy. The Sumdog times tables training is a great way to practice the individual times tables the children need to work on.

In French this week we have been learning the vern etre - to be. It was tricky but everyone gave it a good go. We finished with some spooky halloween songs.

We have also started our new computing topic on animation. Today your child will have brought home their first attempt at flip book animating. Everyone did very well at improving their designs as we struggled at first. Great perserverance Year 3! Next week we will be using the iPads to create our own stop frame animations!

Home Practice

Continue to read every night for at least 20 minutes. We have seen a huge improvement in everone's reading habits during silent reading time. Well done!

Spellings - This week we have been learning how to spell our homophones. A little practice every night does the trick. For these words, writing them in short sentences is a good way to remember them in the right context.

their   there     our     are    to  too   two   break    brake   were     where

Continue to access the Sumdog platform for a little time everyday. We are seeing huge improvements in accuracy across all maths skills. Keep it up!

We have set a 3 digit number challenge as well as a times table practice. Do your best!

Have a super weekend and enjoy the fireworks! And remember to keep safe.

The Year 3 team.

Year 6 Blog Friday 4th November 2022

Date: 4th Nov 2022 @ 3:36pm

Welcome to Year 6 weekly blog.

For our first week back after half term, Year 6 have been working very hard and have remembered the importance of being of being good role models for our school. This was evident as a few of our Year 6s led St Oswald’s All Saint’s Mass on Tuesday.

This week, we had two visitors to our class. On Wednesday, Gareth Walker visited, who is a Sports Journalist with over 20 years’ experience of working on National Newspapers and founder of Literacy Kicks. He will be working with Year 6 to help teach them how to be a Sports Journalist over the next six weeks.

On Friday, Father Michael visited us to discuss how he became a priest and what it means to commit yourself to your faith. The children asked super questions and learnt a great deal. Thank you for visiting us, Father.

This week’s learning in Year 6:

• In Maths, we have been improving our fraction addition and subtractions strategy by using common multiples. We also looked at various strategies to work out multiplication questions mentally.
• In English, we completed Clockwork by creating our own alternative ending, which had to include suspense writing tools: short sentences, different senses and exciting vocabulary.
• In RE, we completed our topic of ‘Vocation and Commitment’ by interviewing Father Michael about being a priest and how he was ordained.
• Our ‘Mountains’ topic in geography continued, with research into three tectonic disasters (volcanoes, tsunamis and earthquakes) which the children will present next week.
• In PE, we concluded one invasion games topic (Tag Rugby) by evaluating our performance in small game of 4 v 4. We also started a new topic through the sport of Hockey, where the same strategies and tactics (of Tag Rugby, Netball and Handball) will be used, but with the added skill of holding and running with a stick.
• In French this week, we looked at how to say the sound 'an/am/en/am' then we began learning to read, pronounce and write weather phrases. 
• In Science this week, we used our knowledge of the characteristics of invertebrates to create our own new species. We challenged a partner to classify our newly-discovered creature, giving their reasons why. Then we used natural materials to make a collage picture of our new invertebrate.

Home Practice

Please try to complete the following tasks by next Wednesday:

Reading – Use your Home Reading to read every night for up to 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 (Spellings of Autumn 1)

• Sumdog (Autumn 1 mixed spellings wk 6)
  • politician, magician, electrician, optician, musician, technician, Egyptian, vision, session, decision, permission, compassion, expression, progression, impression.
  •  

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)

• Sumdog (Multiply 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.

Maths Training

For further maths work, please visit the ‘Maths Training’ section which you can find in the tasks box on the left of the main screen. This will enable your child to push their learning further with the skills that Sumdog has given them, following the diagnostic test, which they completed in the first week of school.

Reception Blog - Friday 4th November 2022

Date: 4th Nov 2022 @ 3:36pm

We have had a great week of spooky learning in Reception this week!

We have been doing the story of Funnybones, we have all retold the story and had a go at writing some words from the story. 

In maths we have been doing lots of counting to 10 and back. We also looked at different ways to make 5, it was even more fun doing it with spooky shapes!

We have enjoyed being very creative, making skeleton pictures, firework paintings, spider hats and learning a song dance all about the bones in the body.

We had a fantastic stay and play on Thursday. A big thank you for coming and joining in with your child's learning.

Have a lovely and safe weekend with the bonfire celebrations and we will see you on Monday!

Year 1 Blog- Friday 4th November 2022

Date: 3rd Nov 2022 @ 10:01am

Welcome to your Friday blog.

It has been lovely to see the children back in school this week after half term.

English

We have been learning through the story of Aliens Love Underpants. It is a rhyming story and we enjoyed spotting all the rhyming words. We designed our own pants and read some fiction and non-fiction books about Space. We drew our own alien and wrote about it. We tried really hard to make our writing look beautiful on the page. 

Phonics

We have been learning about split digraphs, o-e as in mole and u-e as in cube.

Sing a song. Click here.

Maths

We have been learning about 2D and 3 D shapes. we have been using vocabulary such as vertices, sides and faces to describe them.

R.E.

We have been focusing on our 'Journey in Love' topic. We talked about how our families love us and how it is important to say 'please' and 'thank you' to them for looking after us. We wrote a lovely thank you prayer to a special person in our lives.

P.E.

We started our dance P.E. lessons this week! We are going to be performing a dance in small groups, pretending to be a robot. We did some robot dances together and heard the music that we are going to use for our final dance.

I.C.T.

We started learning about digital painting in computing - how we can paint, on a laptop. We used the paintz.app website again to paint portraits of ourselves.

See our pictures here.

Science

We started learning about animals and went outside to see if we could find any around school. We managed to find lots of worms, woodlice and birds. Some of us even used our imagination and found our plastic animals and identified them!

See our pictures here.

History

 We learnt all about Guy Fawkes and the Gunpowder Plot. We talked about his reason why he made the plot and started learning the 'Remember, Remember the fifth of November' song.

Art

 We made some amazing fireworks based on the Gunpowder Plot. We chose the medium that we wanted to use, either paint, pastels, pencil crayons or tissue paper.

Outdoor Learning

We go outside whatever the weather and we had to dodge a bit of rain this week! We don't mind though- it just makes us more resilient!

We went for a walk to look at the changes,much of the fungi we have spotted previously has gone. We collected leaves, berries and sticks on our walk. We used these to make a picture. Our pictures showed great imagination-there were flowers ,trees, faces, even a football shirt!

We also had a competition to see who could make the biggest leaf pile.

We went in the nature area. We chose to do different things. There was tree wrapping, bridge building, leaf threading and even zip wire making. We are showing that we can apply skills which we have learned in previous sessions.

French

We listened to a Halloween song. Then we did head, shoulders, knees and toes in French to revise words for parts of the body.  We played some games involving skeletons to help us remember the words!

Sumdog challenges

Phonics - split digraph a_e OR th words

Maths - 2D and 3D shape

Practise counting in 2s, 5s and 10s. Start at different numbers. Count forwards and backwards.

Please read every night for at least 10 minutes- it really makes all the difference!

Year 5 Blog Friday 4th November 2022

Date: 3rd Nov 2022 @ 8:38am

HAPPY FRIDAY

We have had a wonderful first week back after Half Term.

We started our new novel in English. It is called Room 13 by Robert Swindells and we are absolutely loving it! This week we have been using different types of sentences to write a suspense story. 

We started our new topic in DT. We were given our design brief, it is:

Design, make and evaluate a Greek snack for an athlete for after an ancient Olympic event.

We have researched traditional Greek food and ingredients. In future lessons we will be sampling some Greek food to find out what we like, learning about the ancient olympics, planning our own Greek snack, practising the techniques needed to make our snack, and then making and evaluating our snack. 

In maths we have been learning different methods to add and subtract mentally. It is so important that we know our number facts to help us with this. 

In French this week, we continued to learn to tell the time in French, learning how to say all the 5 past times. We are doing really well with this now! Tres bien, Y5!

Home Practice 

Reading

Read at home every night for 20 minutes. Tell somebody what you know about verbs, nouns and adjectives. Try to identify them in your reading. 

Spelling

Your spellings this week all have an apostrophe. 

These spellings have an apostrophe for contraction. This means words have been put together and then a letter has been replaced by an apostrophe:

couldn't          don't          isn't          you're          won't          haven't          aren't          didn't          they're          it's          

These spellings have an apostrophe for possession. This means that something belongs or that something is connected to something else. 

brothers'          brother's          children's          child's          women's

Counting 

Count out loud:

Tenths from 1.6 to 2.6 

1.6, 1.7, 1.8, ...

Hundreths from 12.57 to 12.67 

1.57, 1.58, 1.59, ...

Ten thousands from 66,975 to 106,975

66,975          76,975          86,975          ...

Play on Hit the Button and practise number bonds. This will help you in our maths learning. 

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

Sumdog

Complete the Sumdog challenges. 

Next week we will start a Sumdog Club at play times, this is to help any of you who struggle to go on at home :)

In order to help you prepare for your DT project, look out for Greek food in supermarkets - see if you can try some or even go out for a meal at a Greek or Mediterranean restaurant. 

We look forward to performing our friendship assembly to parents on Tuesday 8th November at 2.40pm. 

Have a lovely weekend. If you are going to a bonfire or celebrating Bonfire Night, please be safe and careful. 

Reception Blog - Thursday 20th October 2022

Date: 20th Oct 2022 @ 4:01pm

We have had the most fantastic week this week!

We have been learning all about the story Kipper's Birthday. We have made our own party invitations, birthday cards, party hats and we have we have done our own shopping list for our own party.

In maths we have been looking at ordering numbers, lots of counting and finding missing numbers on a numberlne.

We went for our first trip to Longton Park. The children were very well behaved and had big smiles on their faces the whole time.

We went into Church and joined in with the Harvest Celebration.

We finished our half term looking at the Artist Wassily Kandinsky, the children loved making their own circle art drawings!

Have a lovely half term with lots of rest and we will see you on Monday 31st October for our spooky learning!

Year 6 Blog Friday 20th October 2022

Date: 20th Oct 2022 @ 3:44pm

Welcome to Year 6 weekly blog.

On Monday, alongside the Juniors, Year 6 performed ‘Down in the Valley’ with recorders to our first live performance of the year.

On Tuesday, Mr Kimmins, a firefighter, came to be interviewed to help us understand our RE topic ‘Vocation and Commitment’ better. After school, the Athletics team showed excellent determination and teamwork and won the Indoor Athletics competition for our local area. We are looking forward to competing again in the South Ribble finals.

Wednesday saw the South Ribble Coaches deliver ‘Young Leaders’ training to the whole class. We split into groups to devise our own new activities, which will help the infants develop their fundamental skills during future lunch times.

Also, the football league concluded at Hutton this week. The A team and B team gave excellent performances with the best teamwork play we have seen so far this season. After a tough three weeks of games, the results are in.

Results for A team:

St Oswald’s A 3 – 0 Little Hoole A

Play Off game St Oswald’s A 1 – 0 Howick A

A team finished 1^st. Congratulations A team!

Results for B Team:

St Oswald’s B 0 – 1 St Leonards

Play Off game St Oswald’s B 1 – 2 Ashbridge

B team finished 4^th. An excellent effort everyone!

This week’s learning in Year 6:

• In Maths, we learnt how to explain the column addition and column subtraction method and discussed when to use it best.
• In English, we have learnt that three separate timelines are occurring in Clockwork and how the writer has combined them to create an exciting ending.
• In RE, we interviewed Mr Kimmins, a firefighter of over 23 years. The children’s questions gave some super responses and we now have a better understanding of why people commit to such a demanding job. Please see our Year 6 gallery where we pretended to be firefighters ourselves.
• In PE, we continued developing our evaluating skills with various activities in both athletics and rugby. Working in small groups, we discussed how we can give positive feedback to each other.
• In Music, we concluded our unit of recorders with a live performance in the Music Showcase, with the song ‘Down in the Valley’.
• In Science, we researched an invertebrate group and presented the information in the form of a poster, explaining the characteristics of a particular group.

Home Practice

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

Reading – Please read as much as possible over this period. Some of you have taken an extra book. I cannot stress enough how little and often reading can make a difference and, with 10 days off school, that could be 300 potential minutes of reading that would benefit you massively.

Spellings (Spellings of Autumn 1)

• Sumdog (A2 wk 1-tion, -sion, -ssion) Only 45 questions to answer (deadline is 04.11.22)
  • direction, collection, addition, action, rotation, creation, punctuation, subtraction, division, television, discussion, session, mission, percussion, profession

Maths

• Sumdog (Times Tables wk 7) 150 questions to answer (as the deadline is 04.11.22)
  • 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 a mixture of x4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9s.

Year 4 Blog Thursday 20th October 2022

Date: 20th Oct 2022 @ 2:39pm

Year 4 Blog

Thursday 20^th October 2022

Year 4 have had a great half term! They have worked hard and already made good progress in their learning. Being part of the Harvest celebration in church was also a highlight of the week.

Our learning this week:

In English, we used words to describe Kensuke’s personality.  We then used these words in complex sentences to explain our thinking. We also wrote a message in a bottle as if we were the character Michael.  As space was limited, we had to ensure we chose our words carefully.

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

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 this week, we learned how to ask a question in French just by changing the intonation in our voices. We listened to, read and spoke sentences and questions, using the correct intonation.  We practiced reading words with silent final consonants too.

In PE, we warmed up by running around the track.  We then finished our invasion games unit by playing a netball tournament.  It was fantastic to see the children putting into practice the skills they had learnt – brilliant Year 4!  

In History, we learnt about the 4 main formations the Roman Army used. We learnt their names, how they were formed and what they were used for (eg fighting against cavalry or advancing against the enemy).  We also got into groups to make the formations, using our history books as shields!

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.

We hope you have a peaceful and relaxing holiday and look forward to seeing you all again on Monday 31st October 2022.

The Year 4 Team

Year 3 Blog Thursday 20th October

Date: 20th Oct 2022 @ 1:05pm

Happy Half term everyone!

Well done for completing your first half term in the Juniors. We have had a busy half term with lots of fantastic learning! We learned all about Stone Age Britain in History, texture and shade in Art, friendships in PSHE, health and nutirion in Science and so much more. We have been adding lots to our proud wall and made huge improvements in our handwriting and presentation.  

Today we have braved the elements and taken our learning outside. We created some leaf animals using the vast selection of leaves around our school grounds. Have a look here.

We also have finished reading our Diary of a Killer Cat story and had a look at the wordless story Quest by Aaron Becker. The children wrote some fantastic words to go with the story. Super descriptions and action everyone! You can watch the story here.

In Science this week, we consolidated our learning about staying healthy by making a poster to show what we've learnt. Then we moved on to the start of the next topic on Skeletons and Muscles. We researched and labeled a human skeleton. Fascinating!

We also explored inside a computer monitor as we have been learning about digital devices this term. We opened it up and had a good look inside. We heard some fantastic vocabulary and ideas, have a look here. We have some future engineers in our class! Well done Year 3.

Have a great half term and well see you all next Monday!

Keep reading and training on Sumdog! 

The Year 3 Team!

Year 1 Blog - Thursday 20th October

Date: 20th Oct 2022 @ 10:03am

Welcome to the final blog of this half term. All the children have settled in so well and have definitely earned a rest!

English

This week our learning has been through a story about a witch called Winnie and her cat Wilbur. Winnie puts a few spells on Wilbur - some are more successful than others!

We wrote potion recipes, drew our own haunted houses, matched rhyming words together, wrote Halloween stories and read the other Winnie stories.

 We will have one more day on this learning when we come back to school on Monday 31st October!

Phonics

This week we have been learning about oe as in toe,au as in launch and the split digraph a-e as in cake.

Sing Jake the Snake. Click here.

Maths

We have been learning about how to solve problem questions using addition and subtraction. There has been a lot of reading to do but we worked really hard! 

We have also been singing lots of maths songs.

R.E.

We started to learn about the sacrament of baptism. We looked at who is present at a baptism and labelled them in a picture.

P.E.

We went outside for PE this week! We had 3 different activities - dribbling a football, throwing beanbags into hoops and jumping over hurdles. We ended the lesson with a relay race around the daily mile track!

Outdoor Learning

We have enjoyed the beautiful Autumn weather this week when we've been outside. We did some stick wrapping. We practised tying knots and carefully wrapping our wool around a stick. We are still finding different fungi and noticing changes every time we go for a walk.

All the children get involved so well. They show great team working skills as well as great communication and resilience.

Music

We were practising for our Harvest festival in music. We practised the songs ready for church and then played the glocks altogether.

Science

We learnt about a scientist called Linda Brown Buck who taught others about how we smell. We did our own smell tests and guessed what was in the pots. We had a lot of correct answers!

See our pictures here.

Computing

We learnt about being safe when using the laptops and iPads. We talked about how we look after them and then made our own 'how to be safe' posters.

PSHE

We had a lovely circle time talking about two separate topics - personal space and positive affirmations. We talked about when to give each other space and when we need to be close together (e.g. carpet time). We ended the lesson go round saying a positive 'I am...' sentence about ourselves. We had 'I am a good friend', 'I am a good listener' and 'I am a great tidier'. It was lovely!

We all sat really golden in church for our harvest celebration. We listened to the prayers which the Year 6 children read and joined in with all the singing. Thank you for all your kind donations.

Home Practice

We would like you to read, read and then read a bit more !

Have a great half term break! Thank you for all your brilliant support.

Year 2 Blog Thursday 20th October 2022

Date: 19th Oct 2022 @ 1:59pm

Year 2 have had a really fantastic first half term, I am very pleased with how hard everyone has worked and how much progress has been made already. In English, the children researched facts and wrote their own Pet Information Sheet. They also focused on sentence structure and handwriting. In Maths, we continued our work on addition and subtraction with a focus on number bonds and their related facts and we added two, two-digit numbers. In R.E we looked at what happens at a Baptism. Celebrating Harvest in Church was a real highlight this week. The children produced colourful line art and sang beautifully during Music. I hope you all enjoy the Halloween Disco and have a lovely half term holiday. I’ll look forward to seeing you when we get back to school.

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 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 (04.11.22). A sheet will go home every Friday with the spelling list on. This is for home practise only and can be kept with you.

It will really help your children’s writing if they can spell the common words they use frequently in class. Attached are the Year 1 and 2 common exception words. Knowing sounds (phonics) will not help with these words, they just need to know them by memory/sight. Learning five or six of these words at a time will really help. Write them down and pin them up on the fridge or wall. We work on these in class as well and the children are tested (quiz) on them before Christmas.

You will have a Sumdog challenge on these words to complete by Friday 04.11.22.

This week’s spellings:

music                shield

human               head    

snow                  bread

grow                  laughed

field                  because

Maths

At home, play the ‘follow me’ counting game. We have played this in class! Count to a hundred forwards or backwards taking it in turns to say each number. As you get better try to go faster. You could play the game counting in 2’s, 5’s, 10’s or 3’s.

You will have a 2x, 5x and 10x tables and a subtraction challenge on Sumdog to complete by Friday 04.11.22.

Sumdog

Log in at www.sumdog.com

Thanks for bringing wellies in for Forest School. After Half Term, It would be great if they can be left in school as the children will be doing it at different times in the week come rain or shine!!

Have a lovely Half Term break.

Year 2 Team.

Online Safety Update

Date: 19th Oct 2022 @ 1:52pm

Welcome to your latest Online Safety Update

At St Oswald's, we regularly discuss online safety with the children to find out what they are experiencing in their online spaces. We find out what new games and platforms are trending and if any of our children have worries or concerns about what they experience online. A lot of children continue to access YouTube so we have added a refresher guide on the platform. 

In the guide, you'll find tips on a number of potential risks such as connecting with strangers, inappropriate content and high visibility.

We have also spotted that some children have the new FIFA 23 football game for the PlayStation and XBox. Gaming has changed massively in the past few years with social connection now becoming an integral part of the gaming experience. We have added the latest guide for this game also. 

Below you will find a link to join the National Online Safety platform and gain free access to a huge range of videos, resources and support.

http://nationalonlinesafety.com/enrol/st-oswald-s-catholic-primar-school-pr45eb

Year 4 Blog Friday 14th October 2022

Date: 14th Oct 2022 @ 4:35pm

Year 4 Blog

Friday 14^th October 2022

Year 4 have had such a busy week! Lots of learning, a trip to Lancaster City Museum and we also attended Mass at church on Friday morning.   

In English, we investigated subordinating conjunctions and used these to write sentences about Kensuke.  In addition, we wrote Michael’s thoughts and feelings at the start and end of a chapter.

In Maths, we calculated the perimeter of rectilinear shapes when we had to work out missing sides using known dimensions.  Following this, we started a new unit - statistics. The topic began by calculating addition facts to 10 when numbers to one decimal place were involved (eg 4.7 + 5.3 = 10).

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 PE, we warmed up with a train run.  We then practised our dodgeball skills again in preparation for the tournament which is coming up soon.

In Art, we drew our own mosaic designs following on from our investigation last week.  We experimented with different colours and different designs, which ranged from pictures of specific things (eg a flower) to patterns which we found appealing.

In History, we learnt what Roman Legionaries wore and what equipment they carried. We also looked at these items in the classroom. Have a look at our pictures in the gallery.

During our trip to Lancaster City Museum, we met Marcus, a Roman Legionary, and found out much more about the life of a Roman Soldier.  Year 4 had a fantastic day and learnt a lot of interesting facts about the Romans. The children’s behaviour was superb too – they were excellent ambassadors for the school. You can see lots of pictures of our trip in the gallery.

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 and 40’s.

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

0   4   8   12     etc                             48   44   40   etc

For example, start at 0 and down up to 480 and back again

0   40   80   120  etc                           480   440   400  etc

Times tables

Please practise your individual tables target for your test next week on Thursday (20^th October 2022).  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.  You have also brought a paper copy home with you, so that you can practise these during the week.  Please remember to use neat joined up writing and check them very carefully once you have written them! We will be practising these spellings in class too. Your test will be on Thursday 20^th October 2022.

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 2 and 4 times tables
• A challenge based on calculating the perimeter of rectilinear shapes – this is repeated from last week as it consolidates this tricky area of maths

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

Year 2 Blog Friday 14th October 2022

Date: 14th Oct 2022 @ 4:13pm

A fantastic week in Year 2, well done to everyone for working so hard and enjoying their learning. In English, we looked at the key features of information texts. We are almost ready to plan and write our own pet information sheets. The children are enjoying our new topic in Maths, addition and subtraction. They were working out missing numbers and we had a chance to play some maths games. In Science, we carried out a survey on how many creatures we found under a log/rock and coloured in a bar chart to show our findings. We learnt about the five oceans of the world in Geography. See how many you can remember! Year 2 have been singing their harvest songs so well in preparation for Tuesday’s celebration in Church. The words to one of them is above. I’m sure you could sing it to someone at home!

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 while reading.

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

Reading resources:

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

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

Username: sto2

Password: 1234

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

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

Spelling

Please practise these spellings for your quiz on Thursday (20.10.22). A sheet will go home every Friday with the spelling list on. This is for home practise only and can be kept with you.

It will really help your children’s writing if they can spell the common words they use frequently in class. Attached are the Year 1 and 2 common exception words. Knowing sounds (phonics) will not help with these words, they just need to know them by memory/sight. Learning five or six of these words at a time will really help. Write them down and pin them up on the fridge or wall. We work on these in class as well and the children are tested (quiz) on them before Christmas.

You will have a Sumdog challenge on these words to complete by next Friday 20.10.22.

This week’s spellings:

mind                front

find                 rice    

only                 face

open                many

other               work

Maths

At home, count forwards in threes. Start at 0 and count up to 36. Write them down and spot any patterns.

You will have a 2x, 5x and 10x tables and an addition/subtraction challenge on Sumdog to complete by next Thursday 20.10.22.

Sumdog

Log in at www.sumdog.com

Thank you for all the harvest donations.

Have a lovely weekend.

Year 2 Team.

Year 3 Friday Blog 14th October 2022

Date: 14th Oct 2022 @ 3:54pm

Welcome to your Friday blog

It was lovely meeting you all this week and talking about how well everyone has settled into Year 3. We have seen huge progress in everyone's attitude and good learning behaviours. Well done Year 3!

This we week have continued reading the Diary of a Killer Cat and wrote some fantastic diary entries. We also explored caves and wrote some fantastic stories about a dramatic cave rescue. The children have used some fantastic vocabulary in their writing this week. Well done!

We have also seen massive improvements in everyone's presentation and handwriting. We had to show this off to all our visitors, so here is a peak at our Proud Wall.

In our maths learing we have been learning how and when to use the formal written method for addition and subtraction. Everyone found this at little tricky at first but with some super listening and concentration we cracked it. We will continue to practise this next week.

In our Science learning we have been exploring the health benefits of regular and varied exercise. The children made some super posters to link their learning this week with their work on a varied diet and nutrition so far. We will publish these next week!

In French, the children have been learning how to say he and she (il and elle) and how to prounce some new words. Tres bien Year 3! Our language leaders have also been fantastic asking their French questions to the children every morning and to the adults on Monday and Tuesday. Be ready to show off your French next week!

On Friday we visited Fr Michael for morning mass. The children were fantastic and sat beautifully throughout their first mass in the juniors.

We also continued to explore texture in our Art learning this week. We looked at 3 natural materials nad had a go at rectreating them in our sketch books. Great effort!

Home Practice

This week we have set a high frequency/common words spelling challenge on Sumdog. This is to further embed these words and increase spelling accuracy when writing at length.

The children will still be tested on the oo, ue, ew, u_e words on Friday.

used    refused     rulers    loose    moose    rescue    glued    cruel    grew    screw

It was lovely to hear about all the great reading that is going on at home. 20 minutes a night will make a huge difference to your child's learning journey at St Oswald's and beyond. Keep it up!

We have sent home a x3 spelling sheet for practice as well as the sumdog challenges. These are optional but a good way to improve number fluency.

Please also practise counting regularly to build up number fluency.

Count forwards and backwards in 3s, 30s, 5s, 50s.

Have a fantastic weekend

The Year 3 Team

Year 6 Blog Friday 14th October 2022

Date: 14th Oct 2022 @ 1:43pm

Welcome to Year 6 weekly blog.

This week, Year 6 had a super time on their taster day at All Hallows’ school. They enjoyed burning crisps in Science, playing a handball tournament in PE and designing a moving robot in Computing. Please view our pictures in the Year 6 gallery.

Also, the football league continued at Hutton this week. The A team played really well with a great win and draw, which has set them up for a tense last week as we head towards the play offs. As for the B team, they are working incredibly well together and managed to win one and lose one. Please do not forget that the last week of football is at Hutton, Wednesday 19^th October at 3.45pm – 5pm.

Results for A team:

St Oswald’s A 1 – 1 Howick A

St Oswald’s A 4 – 1 Whitefield B

Results for B Team:

St Oswald’s B 4 – 2 Cop Lane B

St Oswald’s B 0 – 2 Middleforth

This week’s learning in Year 6:

• In Maths, we have continued investigating different strategies for addition and subtraction using ‘compensation’ and ‘finding the difference’ to then decide on which strategy is the appropriate for different questions.
• In English, an evil character (Dr Kalmenius) has dramatically entered our novel, ‘Clockwork’. We then described this character and attempted different ways of entering him into a story. We then created a play script to practise our spoken language skills in front of the class.
• In RE, we started our new topic of ‘Vocation and Commitment’ by discussing the jobs that require these values. We then created questions for a firefighter that we will be interviewing next week.
• Our ‘Mountains’ topic in geography continued with a look into how mountains were formed and are still forming. We learnt that the tectonic plates that surround the Earth have moved to create various mountains over millions of years.
• In PE, we focused on developing the children’s evaluation skills. We discussed what to look out for (e.g. various tactics to outwit an opponent) and whether these were successful. If they were not, we changed them and tried again.
• In Music, we practised with recorders this week as we prepared for our ‘Music Showcase’, which is at 2.45pm in the hall, Monday 17^th October 2022.
• In French, we recapped the months of the year and learnt the vocabulary for the four seasons.
• In Science, we created an interview with Carl Linnaeus, the ‘father’ of classification, and we sorted the characteristics of different classes of vertebrates and invertebrates.

Home Practice

Please try to complete the following tasks by next Wednesday:

Reading – Use your Home Reading to read every night for up to 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 (Spellings of Autumn 1)

• Sumdog (Autumn 1 mixed spellings wk 6)
  • discussed, usually, happiness, unavailable, changeable, comfortably, dependable, horrible, impossible, incredible, possible, difference, preferred, reference, transfer

Maths challenges:

• Counting:
  • This week we have been counting in decimal 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 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 a mixture of x4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9s.
  • (Every Tuesday there is a tables test).

• Sumdog (Estimating addition / subtraction)
  • These questions will focus on rounding, which we have done these past few weeks. The questions will eventually seem quite simple once you realise that you do not need the exact answer, just the estimate. This practice will help with next week’s learning.

Maths Training

For further maths work, please visit the ‘Maths Training’ section which you can find in the tasks box on the left of the main screen. This will enable your child to push their learning further with the skills that Sumdog has given them, following the diagnostic test, which they completed in the first week of school.

Reception Blog Friday 14th October

Date: 14th Oct 2022 @ 12:32pm

This week we have been doing the story The Three Little Pigs. We have listened to different versions of the story and talked about how they have been different, we have retold the story using puppets, drawn story maps, made pig biscuits, written instructions and made our own roleplay masks. Whilst we have been choosing in our areas we have been building lots of different houses.

In maths we have been looking at the numbers 5,6 and 7. We have counted and made the numbers in different ways using numicon.

In PE we have been doing lots of throwing and catching. 

In PSHE we made our own friendship bracelets and chose to give them to our friends in class. We also have started looking at Baptisms in our RE.

When we have been looking at Autumn we have been sorting the different coloured leaves and talking about how they have changed even more.

What a busy week! Next week our story is Kipper's Birthday!

Year 1 Blog- Friday 14th October 2022

Date: 13th Oct 2022 @ 9:56am

Welcome to your Friday blog.

It was lovely to see all of you at parents' evening. Thank you for coming.

English

This week we have been learning through the story of Percy the Park Keeper. He had a big job to do when all the animals lost their homes after the storm.

We designed parks, wrote about what jobs we'd like to do when we grow up and imagined what we'd be able to see, smell, touch and feel during a storm. We are getting really good at sharing our learning and talking about it.

Phonics

We have been learning ph as in phew, wh as in whistle and ew as in stew.

Maths

We have been learning about subtraction using the part whole model. We have been writing the number sentences in different ways. We have also been singing some number songs. We have also looked at all the ways to make 10.

Play a subtraction game. Click here.

R.E.

We talked about Jesus and how he shows love to other people.

Geography

We looked at pictures of Longton in the past and we wrote about how it has changed.

P.S.H.E.

We compared ourselves to our friends in terms of what we look like, what we like to do and what we like to eat.

French

Everyone made either a green leaf or an orange leaf and used it to join in with a leaf poem.

Music

We practised our songs for our Harvest celebration. We played some of the instruments.

Art

We sketched half a leaf and then did a handprint which formed the leaves on a tree.

P.E.

We were running fast between cones.

We did some rolling in gymnastics

Outdoor Learning

This week we have been building obstacle courses. Our ideas were really imaginative and our team work was superb. We had to test our course to make sure it was safe and we demonstrated our couse to everyone-then we all had a go! There was balancing, jumping, and even some limbo! Some of the courses even had a name!

Our other session was about making a stick person. We talked about finding forked sticks and we went into our nature area to see what we could find. We used elastic bands, string and pipe cleaners to attach the sticks together. Some of us leart a technique called lashing to securely fasten the sticks.

Home Practice

Sumdog Challenges

Phonics-ph words

Maths- Number bonds to 20

Please read for at least 10 minutes every night.

Next week we will change the reading books on Thursday so please make sure they are in school.

Please use your new Sumdog password to log in.

Year 5 Blog Friday 14th October

Date: 12th Oct 2022 @ 9:34am

Happy Friday everybody.

It was lovely to see everybody for parent's evening this week. The children felt so proud to show off their work, they really have been working very hard. 

We have had a lovely week in Year 5. We painted our Jo Quigley style cityscapes on Monday and have displayed them proudly in our classroom. You can see us working on our masterpieces in our gallery here. 

We have started our new topic in RE. It is called Life Choices. So far we have thought about how to maintain friendships and what our mission is in life. Everybody produced some beautiful work. 

In PSHE we spoke about stereotypes. We found it interesting to talk about gender stereotypes and came up with sentences to break those stereotypes. Here are some examples we came up with:

Boys and girls can play football.

Boys and girls can be vets.

Boys and girls can be good at English. 

In English we have finished reading our novel Goth Girl. We absolutely loved it and produced excellent work from it. We ended our learning about Goth Girl by writing an epilogue. We chose some of our favourite characters and wrote about what they would be doing in the future. There were lots of fantastic ideas. We will be starting our new novel on Monday...

We have been practising different strategies in maths for adding and subtracting. We have been focussing on using mental methods and some jottings like number lines. It is really important that we know our number bonds to 100 as we progress with our learning. For example:

51 + 49 = 100

100 = 33 + 67

100 - 22 = 78

69 = 100 - 31 

Also, the football league continued at Hutton this week. The A team played really well with a great win and draw, which has set them up for a tense last week as we head towards the play offs. As for the B team, they are working incredibly well as a team and managed to win one and lose one. Please do not forget that the last week of football is at Hutton, Wednesday 19^th October at 3.45pm – 5pm.

Results for A team:

St Oswald’s A 1 – 1 Howick A

St Oswald’s A 4 – 1 Whitefield B

Results for B Team:

St Oswald’s B 4 – 2 Cop Lane B

St Oswald’s B 0 – 2 Middleforth

Home Practice

Reading

Read out loud to somebody at home for 20 minutes every night. Look out for new words, discuss their meaning, try to use them in sentences. 

Counting

Count out loud in:

10s from 123,456 to 123, 556

123,456          123,466          123,476

0.1s from 6.78 to 7.78

6.78          6.88          6.98

100s from 457,812 to 458,812 

457,812          457,912        458,012 

Times Tables

You will be given a new times tables target next week. Practise every night using a variety of methods. 

Spelling 

Here are your spellings for next week. You will be tested on the plural spelling of the words so you need to know whether to add -s, -es, or -ies. We will be practising in class too. Try to spot patterns and rules. See if you can think of other words which follow the same patterns and rules. 

bus - buses

balloon - balloons

party - parties

worry - worries

school - schools

potato - potatoes

cup - cups

box - boxes

patch - patches

try - tries

lunch - lunches

meal - meals

baby - babies

hiss - hisses

city - cities

Sumdog

Complete the Sumdog challenges:

Times tables challenge

Maths challenge 

Spelling challenge 

Have a great weekend. 

Year 2 Blog Friday 7th October 2022

Date: 7th Oct 2022 @ 3:59pm

Year 2 have been great this week, full of enthusiasm and joy for learning. They really are becoming super learners! In English, we have moved on to non-fiction writing. We are looking at information texts and letters. The children wrote sentences that were made-up (fiction) and fact (non-fiction). They are trying hard to always sit their letters on the line and do neat handwriting with lead-ins. We will be writing our own letters and information texts about pets. In Maths, the children have been measuring length and weight (mass). They learnt about metres and centimetres, measuring objects/lines with rulers, some of them even got the trundle wheels out to measure the playground. Everyone enjoyed using the balance scales to measure objects around the classroom. In Art, we used collage to create Pablo Picasso style portraits. In Geography the children located the seven continents on a map and learned facts about each one. We love to sing the continents song! We looked at microhabitats during our Science lesson. Outdoor learning has been very popular. Year 2 will be doing this every week so please could your child always have a coat and a pair of wellies that can be kept in school.

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 find the meaning of new words by looking them up in a dictionary. A great skill for your child to learn. We will be doing this in class soon.

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 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 (14.10.22). A sheet will go home every Friday with the spelling list on. This is for home practise only and can be kept with you.

It will really help your children’s writing if they can spell the common words they use frequently in class. Attached are the Year 1 and 2 common exception words. Knowing sounds (phonics) will not help with these words, they just need to know them by memory/sight. Learning five or six of these words at a time will really help. Write them down and pin them up on the fridge or wall. We work on these in class as well and the children are tested (quiz) on them before Christmas.

You will have a Sumdog challenge on these words to complete by next Friday 14.10.22.

This week’s spellings:

ride                flute

white              cube   

stone              cute

home               again

rule                 thought

Maths

At home, count to 100 forwards and backwards. Ask questions like, what is one/two/five or ten more/less than_? The blank _ could be any number up to 50 or 100. This will help with next week’s learning on addition and subtraction.

You will have a 5x and 10x tables, and another measure challenge on Sumdog to complete by next Friday 14.10.22.

Sumdog

Log in at www.sumdog.com

It's our Harvest celebration next week and we would appreciate some tins or packets of food for our collection, which will be donated to the Penwortham foodbank.

Have a lovely weekend.

Year 2 Team.

Year 3 Friday 7th October 2022

Date: 7th Oct 2022 @ 3:51pm

Welcome to your Friday Blog

Happy World Smile Day!

We have had a great week in Year 3! Everyone has been woring hard on their listening skills and their independent learning. We have had some outdoor learning in between the showers and been practising our dodgeball skills with Mrs Cookson. 

In our English we have been reading The Diary of a Killer Cat. The children have enjoyed hearing about Tuffy's antcis and what he thinks about everything. We have had some great writing about the story. We wrote letters to an animal shelter to take Tuffy off our hand and we learned about speech sentences and speech marks.

In Maths we have been learning about bar graphs and pictograms. The children have been very good at showing their information on bar graphs and using them to answer questions. A huge well dont everyone who entered the Sumdog Lacashire competition. Our class finished 4th in Lancashire with a score of 251! Amazing effort Year 3!

In our Art learning this week we have been exploring texture in our outdoor area. Have a look at some of our work here. 

On Thursday we celebrated National Poetry Day. As we are learning about friendship in our PSHE learning. We read lots of friendship poems and used our learning so far to write our own poems. We then performed them to eachother in our outdoor theatre. Have a look here.

This week we have been learning about how computers are connected. We learned about servers, network switches and wireless access points. Once we had looked at how networks pass information around we had a go ourselves and shared messages and sound files through Seesaw. We thought about where the messages went before they came onto our iPads. Super learning Year 3!

Home Practice

This week we have noticed most children in the class could improve their recall speed of number facts to 10 and 20. We have been using the number bonds to 10 to solve trickier problems and to be fluent, the children have to be quick and accurate. We have sent home a sheet to practise these number facts. Have a go.

Hit the button is a great game for practising number facts and times tables. Click the picture below to access the game.

We have also set a number fact Sumdog challenge and a statistics challenge to help embed the learning from this week.

This week in our spelling we have been focussing on how we can use our phonics knowledge to help spell words. The children have been revisiting their vowel sounds and looking carefully to make sure all our letters are in the right places. Here are your words for this week.

light    might    flight     cried    spied     dried     chime     spike     stride    compile

Have a lovely weekend

The Year 3 Team!