Reception Blog - Friday 15th December 2023

Date: 15th Dec 2023 @ 12:44pm

Thank you for coming to see our Nativity. The children were fantastic and we are very proud!

Phonics -  We revisited the sounds and tricky words we learnt this term.

Maths - We practised counting to and from 10, and we made 10 using different practical equipment.

Drawing Club- We learnt about the Christmas Story. We then drew our favourite picture from it.

R.E.

We learnt about the Three Kings and how they heard of Jesus' birth. We then made our own gifts for baby Jesus.

Understanding the World

We had a visit from the Dogs Trust. Sam taught us how to be safe around dogs and how to treat them well so that they have a happy life.

We had a great assembly on Friday. Jacob came from Rock Steady and we joined in as he played the drums, bass guitar and a keyboard. If you would like your child to join up please see the letter your child has brought home today for more details.

Expressive Art and Design

We made our junk model toys and evaluated them by saying what we liked about them.

Forest School

We made a story stick by knotting and tying ribbon. We attached a bell onto the stick by using a wire. We used our imagination to say what out stick could do!

Finally, as part of the Co-op campaign, each child in Reception has come home with a reflective arm band tonight. This is for safe walking in the dark.

Year 6 Blog Friday 15th December 2023

Date: 15th Dec 2023 @ 8:21am

Welcome to our Year 6 weekly blog.

Home Practice

Reading – Please read for up to 30 minutes a night and complete your reading task.

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

Maths challenges:

• Counting:
  • This week we counted in decimals steps
  • Draw a line with some marks on it
  • Start with these numbers: 13.06 and 27.873 and count back 10 times then back up in 0.3s:

13.06, 13.36, 13.66, 13.96, 14.26, etc

and in 0.03s:

13.06, 13.09, 13.12, 13.15, 13.18, etc

• Number facts:
  • Please continue to learn your numbers facts, 9 + 7 = 16, 5 + 11 = 16.
  • This will help with questions with different powers of 10:
    • 90 + 70 = 160, 900 + 700 = 1600, 0.9 + 0.7 = 1.6
    • 09 + 0.07 = 0.16

• 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 21^st. The questions will be based on your Sumdog level and will vary across many topics.

REMINDER:

• Bring in spare trainers and socks for our last cross-country session next week.

On Wednesday, we celebrated a special Robinwood assembly for Year 5.  We shared our favourite activities, named the challenges we overcame and showed our Robinwood video.

On Thursday, we had a visit from the ‘Dogs Trust’ who came in to talk about how to keep safe around other people’s dogs.

On Friday, we had a visit from ‘Rock Steady’. Jacob, the performer, showed us how to play drums, guitar, bass guitar, electric keyboard and how to use our vocal chords to combine into a rock band. 

• In Maths, we learnt how to find percentages of numbers. Percent is defined as ‘out of 100’ and they are very easily related to fractions. We used hundredth fractions and bar models to help us solve questions.

• In English, following a visit from Year 3 last week who showed off their amazing writing of the wordless book, ‘Journey’ by Aaron Becker, we decided to return the favour. Year 6 created their own version of the wordless book, ‘Quest’, which is the sequel to Journey and showed our super writing on Friday. You can see the pictures here.

• In RE, we wrote a Christmas prayer related to what Christians expect at this time of year.

• In Design and Technology, we began our final design for our Christmas tree decoration using thread and needles. It has been great to see everyone develop their stitching skills this week. Check out the final pictures here.

• In Science, we learnt about the digestive system and how food travels from our mouth, through the oesophagus into the stomach, through the intestines and out as a stool.

• In Art, we learnt about Kate Deciccio, an activism artist. We were inspired to create our own activism art in the bold and colourful design of Romero Britto.

Have an amazing weekend!

Year 3 Friday 15th December 2023

Date: 15th Dec 2023 @ 8:17am

Welcome to your Friday blog

What a busy week we've had in Year 3! Santa Dash, stop motion animation, a visit from the Dogs Trust and an amazing workshop with the Rock Steady music company.

Home Practice

Keep reading every night with an adult or on your own. Talk about what you have read and explore new books, magazines and newspapers.

We have set two Sumdog challenges, one is practising division and the other is based on your times table target. We have seen a big improvement in fluency with times tables this week. Keep up the good work!

Your Spellings this week will have the dis prefix 

dislike     disuse     disown     disarm     dismay     disconnect     discover     disagree      disappoint     disappear     disengage     displease     disinfect     disable

Reminders

On Wednesday, we are having our Christmas Jumper day and our Grand Christmas post!

This week we have enjoying our Postbox mystery and used the story to write some brilliant newspaper reports. DIAMONDS STOLEN BY ALIENS!

In maths we have learnt how to use grouping to solve division problems. We noticed that our answer was always how many groups there were.

We also developed our own stop frame animations using toys from Reception. Have a look in our gallery.

In history we learnt how people in the Neolithic period started to farm and rear animals. We also learnt why they built stone circles - to track the seasons to help them grow their crops.

Have a lovely weekend

The Year 3 team!

Year 5 Blog Friday 15th December 2023

Date: 14th Dec 2023 @ 4:59pm

Happy Friday and welcome to your Friday blog

Home Practice

Reading

Read out loud every day for 20 minutes. Talk about your impression of each character. 

Spelling

Everybody has brought home their own spellings this week. Please practise using one of the strategies we have used in class. One of the favourite strategies was trace, copy, replicate. 

There is also a Sumdog challenge to practise the words you need to know by the end of Year 5. 

Counting

Count out loud in:

12s from 0 to 144 and back again.          12, 24, 36, ...

9s from 0 to 108 and back again.             9, 18, 27, ... 

6s from 0 to 72 and back again.                6, 12, 18, ...

Times Tables

Please practise the 12x table or your own individual target. 

Sumdog

Times Tables Challenge

Spelling Challenge

Maths Competition

Reminders

On Thursday 21st December we will be having our Australian themed celebration. Children are invited to come in Australian themed clothing. Please see the letter brought home last week for more information.

After Half Term, children will need spare shoes and socks for cross country in PE. 

Maths

We learnt about multiples, factors and common factors. 

12 is a multiple of 4. 

4 is a factor of 12. 

3 is a common factor of 12 and 15. 

English

We used The Highwayman poem to create our own booklet, we also created some artwork to go with it. 

RE

We learnt about Advent and Christmas for Christians and created posters. 

PSHE

We started our new topic - What decisions can people make with money?

We spoke about:

Ways to spend money

Ways to earn money

Ways to save money

Influences 

Have a super weekend. 

Year 4 Blog Friday 15th December 2023

Date: 14th Dec 2023 @ 4:44pm

Welcome to your Friday blog

Home practice

Reading

Please read for 20 minutes each evening to an adult at home.  Reading every night will help you read more fluently and with understanding.

Spellings

The spellings are from the Year 3 / 4 list.

address       decide         answer         describe      believe

perhaps       disappear     continue       suppose       though

thought       important    different     February     height

Counting

This week, please practise counting in 11’s. 

For example, start at 0 and count up to 132 and back again

0   11   22   33     etc                          132   121   110   etc

Times tables and Number facts

Please practise your individual tables target to help you learn them and become more fluent. 

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

Please also practise your number facts. 

You can practise your number facts on Hit the Button

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

Sumdog challenges

• A spelling challenge – based on the Year 3 / 4 spellings listed above
• A times tables challenge based on the 11 times tables
• A multiplication and division challenge - based on the 3, 4 and 8 times tables

In English, we learnt what alliteration meant (the repetition of a sound at the beginning of two or more neighbouring words).  We then wrote a poem which included alliteration.

In Maths, we learnt the formal written method of division – chunking.  We practised the chunking method when there was no remainder left, and when there was.

In RE, we discussed the meaning of Advent (Advent means arrival) and how Christians prepare for Jesus’ birth during Advent. In addition, we learnt about Gaudete Sunday which is the third Sunday of Advent (Gaudete means rejoice) and listened to Philippians 4: 4-9 which reminds us to be joyful at this time.

In Science, we looked at diagrams of circuits and decided whether a circuit was complete or incomplete. We then made the circuits and explained why they would or would not work.

In our PSHE lesson, we identified situations as inclusion or discrimination and then produced our own Clips video on the ipads to explain / show the difference.

This week we were also:

• involved in the Santa Dash - many thanks for all your sponsor money
• visited by the Dogs Trust - Sam and Duke taught us how to keep ourselves safe around dogs
• visited by Rock Steady - a rock band who will be providing 'Rock band' tuition after February half term (a letter has been sent home today)

Have a look at the DT gallery of our finished ‘Iron’ models.

Have a relaxing weekend

The Year 4 Team

Year 1 Blog- Friday 15th December 2023

Date: 12th Dec 2023 @ 5:27pm

Thank you for coming to see our Nativity. The children all performed beautifully-there was great energy in church!

Home Practice

Phonics -  ch words OR ew words OR ur words

Maths - Quarters

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

Reading - Please try to read each night, it makes a big difference!

English

We read the story 'Harvey Slumfenburger's Christmas Present'. We talked in partners about all the different ways that Father Christmas travelled to deliver Harvey's present. We then drew pictures and labelled them.

Phonics

Some of us have been revising oo as in zoo, ue as in glue and we learnt ew as in screw.

Some of us have been learning that the ch digraph can make a variety of sounds - ch in church, c in chorus and sh in chef.

Maths

We continued our fractions learning by exploring quarters. We made quarters using coloured paper and identified quarters in shapes.

Click here to see some photos.

R.E.

We recognised how Mary and Elizabeth waited for the arrival of their babies. We acted out the sharing of the good news.

DT and Art

We printed our Christmas card and made our mechanism so that it could move. Some of us made a slider card and some of us made a lever card.

Forest School

We chose our own learning; there was shelter building, mud cooking, worm hunting, twig crafting, imaginative role playing and  leaf identifying. We found some snails and wanted to find out if they were hibernating.

Click to see some photos.

Dogs Trust

We has a visit from Sam. She taught us how to be safe around dogs and how to treat them well so that they have a happy life.

Rock Steady

We had an amazing assembly on Friday. We watched and joined in with Jacob as he played the drums, bass guitar and a keyboard. We nearly lifted the roof off with our singing! Please see the letter your child has brought home today for more details.

Year 2 Blog - Friday 8th December 2023

Date: 8th Dec 2023 @ 12:56pm

Welcome to your Friday Blog

Home Practice

Reading

Read out loud every day for 15 minutes and discuss the book with an adult.

Please 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.

Handwriting

Please write the following words to practise your joined up lead-ins. 

the          and           it          he        she      into

Can you write each word in a sentence?

Counting

Count out loud in:

1s from 0 to 100 and back again             1, 2, 3, 4………

2s from 0 to 24 and back again                0, 2, 4, 6, 8………

 Sumdog

Statistics and Times Table Challenge

 Reminders

Santa Dash is next week – remember your sponsor forms and Santa hats.

Yellow Hamper – Year 2 are still collecting for the Yellow Hamper. If you have anything to donate please bring something in by next Friday. Thank you.

Nativity is Tuesday 12th December at 2pm and 6.30pm.

Maths

We have been learning about fractions. This week we have been finding a half and quarter of shapes and objects.

English

We have been reading The Grinch and other Christmassy stories. 

We have been writing about the Year 2 Elf this week and everything that he has been up to. 

RE

We have been learning about how we can prepare for Christmas as a Christian. We have written beautiful songs to God like Mary did when Angel Gabriel told her the news that she was going to have a baby. Father Michael came to visit us on Friday and shared a prayer about Mary.

Science and PSHE

This week in Science we have been learning about healthy eating. We sorted foods into the correct proportions and designed our own healthy lunch.

Forest School

We made a Christmas decoration using a piece of willow. We made it into a triangle shape and fastened it together with wire. We persevered as sometimes tying the knots was tricky.  While we were making our decorations, Mrs O'Neill boiled water in the kelly Kettle to make hot chocolate.

Click here for photos.

Year 6 Blog Friday 8th December 2023

Date: 8th Dec 2023 @ 8:19am

Welcome to Year 6's weekly blog.

Home Practice

Reading – Please read for up to 30 minutes a night and complete your reading task.

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

Spellings 

• Sumdog (A2 wk 6 silent letters)
  • guide, history, knee, know, lamb, often, parliament, recognise, rhyme, sign, separate, surprise, vegetable, weight, wrong.

Maths challenges:

• Counting:
  • This week we have been mainly counting in fractions.
  • Draw a line with some marks on.
  • Start with these numbers: 6 1/7 and 13 2/6 and count back 10 times.  Then count back up in sevenths:

6 1/7, 6, 5 6/7, 5 5/7, 5 4/7, etc

and in two sixths:

13 2/6, 13, 12 4/6, 12 2/6, 12 11 4/6, etc

• Number facts:
  • Please continue to learn your number facts eg. 9 + 7 = 16, 5 + 11 = 16.
  • This will also help with questions with different powers of 10:
    • 90 + 70 = 160, 900 + 700 = 1600, 0.9 + 0.7 = 1.6
    • 09 + 0.07 = 0.16

• Sumdog (Times Tables A2 wk 6)

• Sumdog (Add and subtract fractions A2 wk 6)
  • For this week’s challenge, most of the questions will have ‘bars’ to help you add and subtract. Try not to guess the answers, but look for patterns – most of the questions are very similar. If it becomes too tricky, please let me know.

REMINDERS:

• CHRISTMAS HAMPER – This year, our class are collecting ‘PINK’ items to create a Christmas hamper. You can bring in biscuits, drinks, chocolates, etc. Thank you to everyone who has brought in items already. We have one more week to collect.
• PE - Bring in your spare trainers and socks for our cross-country session next week.
• DESIGN & TECHNOLOGY - Next week we will be continuing with our design and technology project, ‘sewing’. I have enough felt, ribbon, thread and needles for everyone, but if you wish to decorate it further with your own felt, thread or even buttons then you may bring them in on Monday 11^th (You do not have to go out and buy anything – this is just in case anyone has items in their house they would like to use to enhance their Christmas tree decoration.)
• Monday 11^th December is also our PTFA Sponsored Santa Dash, so you may wear a Christmas hat, Santa beard or even a full Santa outfit, if you wish. Please send your sponsor money in an envelope.

On Thursday, we had a very special performance of the Snow Queen by the Quantum Theatre. Thank you to the PTFA for funding the event!

On Friday, we had a visit from the South Ribble Sports Coaches who led a ‘Dance Festival’ for every class in the school. You can see our dance moves here on our St Oswald's TV

In Maths, we have been learning how to find fractions of numbers using bar models. We created two bars: one for the whole and one for the fraction. As an example, to find ¾ of 264, we would find one quarter of 264, which is 66. Then we need three of these, so 66 x 3 = 198.

In English, we learnt how to use emotive language and wrote a diary entry in role. We discussed the impact of word choice and how to use show not tell to describe our emotions.

In RE, we wrote a diary entry from Mary’s perspective about her expectations of becoming the mother of Christ.

In Design and Technology, we began our project - sewing a Christmas tree decoration.  We evaluated last year’s work, designed our own decoration, and practised two types of hand sewing techniques: running stitch and overstitch.

In Art, we learnt about Romero Britto. He is a Brazilian artist, painter, serigrapher and sculptor who combines elements of cubism, pop art and graffiti painting in his work. He is know for using vibrant colour and bold pattern as a visual expression of hope and happiness.

Have a super weekend everyone!

Year 3 Friday 8th December 2023

Date: 8th Dec 2023 @ 8:00am

Welcome to your Friday Blog

Home Practice

This week everyone has changed their book at least once. The reading bug is alive and well in Year 3!

Continue with your regular home reading and make sure you explore new authors, there are some fantastic new books out there.

For your online practice, we have set 2 multiplication challenges. Everyone was given their own times tables target to practise this week (check your Sumdog challenge). Make sure you know them inside out!

Keep up with your counting practice. It will help with your times tables recall. x3,x4,x8

Your home spellings this week all end with -ly. We explored this spelling pattern this week and tried to use more -ly words in our writing.

completely, bravely, slowly, quickly, unusually, carefully, finally, totally, weekly, vividly, truthfully, successfully

Reminders

Next Wednesday is our final swimming lesson. Steve has been so impressed with the progress everyone has made and will treat us to a fun swim! Please don't forget your swimming kit!

Our annual Santa Dash is on Monday. Bring a Santa hat or costume. (We will have some spare)

In English we started our new novel, The Post Box Mystery by Robert Swindells. This is a classic mystery novel and the children are really enjoying it so far.

In maths we have been using the grid method to solve missing number problems and word problems. We have seen an improvement in the children's times tables speed and accuracy. Well done Year 3!

On Thursday we were treated to a live production of the Snow Queen. The children were stunned by the show. A brilliant theatre experience!

In history this week we have been using evidence and our interpretation skills to find out what the people in the paleolithic and mesolithic ages ate. We also created our own cave art using collage and stencilling skills. Have a look in our gallery.

On Friday we had our very own dance festival at St Oswald's! Check out our gallery. The video should be on StOswaldsTV soon!

Have a great weekend

The Year 3 Team

Year 5 Blog Friday 8th December 2023

Date: 7th Dec 2023 @ 1:05pm

Welcome to your Friday Blog

Home Practice

Reading

Read out loud every day for 20 minutes. Look at how speech is punctuated. 

Spelling

Here are your spellings this week. Some of them are homophones, this mean they sound the same but have different meanings. You need to know how to spell these words as well as their meaning. 

led          lead          steel          steal          alter          altar          allowed          passed         

aisle          bridal          bridle          occupy          occur          opportunity          parliament 

Counting

Count out loud in:

3s from 0 to 36 and back again         0, 3, 6, ...

8s from 0 to 96 and back again         0, 8, 16, ...

7s from 0 to 84 and back again         0, 7, 14, ... 

Times Tables

Practise your tables target every day.

Make sure you know the square numbers up to 144 and the square root. 

1 x 1 = 1

2 x 2 = 4

5 x 5 = 25

Sumdog

Spelling Challenge

Tables Challenge

Maths Competition in teams

Reminders

Everybody has brought home a letter about an Australian themed celebration we will be having in Year 5 on Thursday 21st December.

Start thinking about what you want to wear for the celebration. 

Maths

We have been learning about multiples and divisibility. 

A multiple is a number made by multiplying two whole numbers greater than one. 

English

We have been reading The Highwayman poem. 

We have been learning about famous highwaymen and finding the meaning of new words by exploring their context in the sentence. 

RE

We have been learning about Advent. We talked about how Christians are waiting in hope during Advent for the coming of Jesus, and how we can use the period of Advent to do good deeds and remember Jesus. 

All Hallows PE day

The children were fantastic taking part in various sports including football, dance, netball, handball, basketball, etc. 

You can see our gallery on the Year 5 class page. 

Reception Blog - Friday 8th December 2023

Date: 7th Dec 2023 @ 12:49pm

Drawing Club, Phonics and Maths

This week has been assessment week.

R.E.

We have been learning about the importance of the manger after listening to a different version of the Nativity story. We used the manger to role play the Nativity story.

Understanding the World

We discussed toys from the past and toys which we have now. We compared toys and recognised how they are similar and different.

Expressive Arts and Design

We had a whole school dance festival on Friday. 

We had yoga with Hannah, we went up the snowy mountain and met the colour monster! Then we all learnt how to do Christmas tree breathing.

We designed our own toys, ready to make next week!

Forest School

We made a story stick by knotting and tying ribbon. We attached a bell onto the stick by using a  pipe cleaner. We used our imagination to say what out stick could do!

Year 4 Blog Friday 8th December 2023

Date: 6th Dec 2023 @ 5:21pm

Welcome to your Friday blog

Home practice

Reading

Please read for 20 minutes each evening to an adult at home.  Reading every night will help you read more fluently and with understanding.

Spellings

Here are your spellings for next week

caught         experiment            increase       particular    separate

certain        extreme                interest       peculiar       special

complete      famous                  island           potatoes      thought

Counting

This week, please practise counting in 9’s. 

For example, start at 0 and count up to 108 and back again

0   9    18    27     etc                          108   99   90   etc

Times tables

Please practise your individual tables target for your test next week.  You can practise your tables on Hit the Button and timestables.co.uk

Number facts

Please practise your number facts on Hit the Button

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

Sumdog challenges

• A spelling challenge
• A times tables challenge
• A multiplication challenge

English

We retold a chapter of the novel in the first person – as if we were the Iron Man.

Maths

We consolidated our learning of the grid method and revised mental strategies of multiplication.

RE

We discussed how Christians prepare for the coming of Jesus in December.

History

We wrote about life in the Roman Army using historical vocabulary which we learnt whilst on our trip.

On Friday, South Ribble Sports Coaches visited and taught each class a dance. Have a look at our dance moves on St Oswald's TV.

Please look in our gallery at the pictures of our Reconciliation on Monday and Wednesday's trip to Lancaster City Museum.

It's the Santa Dash on Monday - remember to bring your Santa hat!

Please remember your cardboard box and any decorations your need for DT next Friday. Please don't bring these items in before Friday 15th December.

Have a lovely weekend

The Year 4 Team

Year 1 Blog - Friday 8th December 2023

Date: 6th Dec 2023 @ 11:11am

Home Practice

Phonics -  wh words OR ea (e sound) words OR oi words

Maths - counting in tens

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

Reading - Please try to read each night, it makes a big difference!

English

We read the story of Traction Man Meets Turbo Dog. We have written sentences about the story.

Phonics

Some of us have been revising w as in win and learning wh as in whizz. Some of us have been learning ea in bread and the short uh in after.

Maths

We have been learning about fractions of a whole.

We have been counting in 2s, 5s and 10s from different starting numbers.

R.E.

We have recognised the importance of the advent wreath and the liturgical calendar.

Science

We have identified what animals need to survive.

Forest School

We made a Christmas decoration using a piece of willow. We made it into a triangle shape and fastened it together with wire. We persevered as sometimes tying the knots was tricky. While we were making our decorations, we made hot chocolate with marshmallows in the Kelly Kettle.

Click here for photos.

Year 2 Blog - Friday 1st December

Date: 1st Dec 2023 @ 4:18pm

We have had a great week of learning in Year 2. We have been working hard to learn all our songs for the nativity – we have some brilliant singers. We have had a big focus this week on reading at home. Well done to the children who have read more than their 3 weekly books this week. It makes such a huge difference to the children’s learning reading every night. Keep it up! In English the children have been writing non-chronological reports about Cats and Owls. In Maths, we have continued our statistics topic, looking at different tables and graphs and how number is shown using these tables and graphs. The children have also learnt how to complete a tally chart. In DT the children have constructed, painted and designed their Tudor houses – they look fab! In Science we wrote about autumn and also spoke about what you would need to survive on a trip to Mars. You’ll be pleased to know a lot of children said ‘mum and dad’! Yesterday we had a fire satefy lesson from Penwortham Fire and Rescue team. The children listened really well to the talk and did brilliant role play in a fire situation. 

Forest School

We made clay faces. First, we collected natural items in the nature area. We found berries, twigs, leaves, stones and moss. We worked the clay into a circle shape and found a tree with rough bark as we discovered the clay stuck better to these trunks. We designed our own clay face. There was great imagination and creativity shown. 

In our second session we chose our own learning. We built shelters and hammocks, designed and made booby traps, cooked some delicious muddy food and tied knots. we didn't mind the very cold weather. We showed amazing imagination, teamwork, perseverance, resilience and determination. 

Reading

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

Reading books are changed every Monday. However, if you need to change a book another time, we will change it as needed.

For every book your child reads they will receive 10 DOJOS in class.

Please 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.

Spelling

Please practise these spellings for your quiz on Wednesday. A sheet will go home every Wednesday 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 next Wednesday.

This week’s spellings are (30.11.23): these will be last spellings for the term.

Again                     Christmas

Half                       Mr

Money                   Mrs

Parents                 everybody

Sure                      even

Maths

At home, count forwards and backwards in 2s to 24. Start at different numbers each time. For example, start counting forwards from 12 or backwards from 20. Look at how this relates to the 2x table.

Practise 2-, 5-, 10- and 3-times tables on a game called Hit the Button. Follow this link: https://www.topmarks.co.uk/maths-games/hit-the-button

You will have a graphs, charts and tables challenge on Sumdog to complete by next Friday.

Sumdog

Log in at www.sumdog.com

Reminders:

Santa Dash - wear Santa's hat, beard or coat on Monday 11th December. Fill in your sponsor form and bring it back to school.

Raffle tickets, £1 a ticket or £5 a booklet.

Year 2 are making a 'yellow' class hamper. If you have anything yellow to donate, please bring it in to school.

Have a great weekend.

Year 2 Team.

Year 3 1st December 2023

Date: 1st Dec 2023 @ 4:09pm

Welcome to your Friday Blog!

Well done to everyone for their fantastic Advent Assembly! Everyone spoke and sang so clearly. What a lovely way to start the Advent season.

This week we finished our Journey stories. The children worked so hard on these, making their writing look beautiful and making their sentences flow together. Year 1 and Year 6 were amazed when we visited them. We got some great tips from Year 6! Super effort by everyone. Have a look in our gallery.

In Maths we have been learning to use the grid method to multiply teen numbers. Year 3 have shown great understanding with this. It is so important that we know our times tables fluently. It really helps with applying our new strategies when we know them! Keep practising!

In history we have been learning a little more about life during the Palaeolithic and Mesolithic periods. We explored some Mesolithic artefacts and talked about the difference between geologists and archaeologists. Have a look at your knowledge organiser below. We will be meeting all theses facts in the coming weeks.

This week in French, we continued with learning the numbers to 20. The children remembered these very well! We recapped numbers to 10 using the Learn French Through Music song, which got faster each time. We also matched the numbers 11-20 to the correct word and listened to the Alain le Lait song to help us.

In music, we sang We will rock you, the Stone Age song, accompanying with rhythms on stones. We sang the song from last lesson, Hey Ho Nobody home, and clapped the rhythm from notation, using Ta, Ti-Ti and Ta-ah. We practised our Carols for Christmas – Starry Night and O little town of Bethlehem. We finished with a new rhythm game – Don’t tap this one back.

On Monday we investigated some new mechanisms and designed a new one using 2 loose pivots and one fixed pivots. We also learned how to use a bridge to improve our linkage.

Home Practice

Continue to read regularly and talk about what you have read.

You can access all our counting songs by clicking on the view all blogs on the class 3 page. This week we have set a x8 times table challenge and a multiplication challenge for you to practise. You will know a lot of these already. Try and remember the trickier ones!

Your home spellings this week all end in -il or -al. There isn't a specific rule for these so see what patterns you can spot. We have been very impressed with the improved spelling this term.

gerbil, devil, evil, anvil, pencil, fossil, medal, metal, coastal, material, hospital, animal

Have a fantastic weekend

The Year 3 team

Year 4 Blog - Friday 1st December 2023

Date: 1st Dec 2023 @ 1:14pm

Welcome to this week’s blog.

Year 4 Notices

Year 4 Reconciliation Day – Monday 4^th December. Parents are invited to attend the service in church at 2.15pm.

Class Hamper – each class has a colour theme to make up Rainbow Hampers for the PTFA Grand Christmas Raffle. Please donate what you can over the next 2 weeks. Year 4’s colour is blue – please donate anything blue that you can eat, drink, blue luxury items etc. 

Trip to Lancaster City Museum – Wednesday 6^th December. Please bring a packed lunch in a named carrier bag, but please do not send lunch boxes or flasks as all waste will be disposed of after lunch. Full school uniform must be worn together with a coat or jacket. 

Please also read the weekly newsletter which has lots of information about upcoming events before Christmas.  Many thanks

Year 4 Learning

In English, we started our new novel - The Iron Man by Ted Hughes.  We made predictions about the book by looking carefully at different front covers and reading the blurb on the back.  We also discussed which cover was the most effective in helping us with our predictions.

In Maths, we partitioned numbers to mentally multiply

Eg 45 x 3          40 x 3 = 120     

                          5 x 3 = 15

120 + 15 = 135

We then learnt how to double any number up to 4 digits using partitioning.

Finally, this week, we revised the written method of multiplication – the grid method.  Many of us understood the method very quickly, however we need to make sure we can recall our times tables quickly and accurately.

In RE, we started our new topic ‘Gift’ during which we will explore God’s gift of love and friendship in Jesus.  We started the topic by listening to a story and writing our own ‘recipe’ which showed what we look for in our ideal friend.

In French, we started our new topic of ‘At my house’ = ‘Chez moi’ and focused on describing where we live. We learned ‘Où habites-tu?’ = Where do you live? / ‘J’habite’ = I live / ‘dans une maison’ = in a house / ‘dans un appartement’ = in an apartment / ‘en ville’ = in a city / ‘à la compagne’ = in the countryside / ‘à la mer’ = by the seaside / ‘à la montagne’ = in the mountains. We then matched the correct pictures to each phrase.

In Music, we continued to learn Au Clair de la Lune on our recorders. We then practised the Carols for Christmas – Starry Night and O little town of Bethlehem. Following this, we sang our class song Mama Mia and completed the Silver Challenge which involved listening and playing back what we heard on our recorders. Finally, we attempted to play We wish you a Merry Christmas on the Boomwhackers.

In History, we learnt more about the Roman Army and the reasons why it was so successful:

• They only accepted the strongest soldiers
• They had advanced and effective equipment
• They used fighting formations
• They had top training
• They never accepted defeat

In PSHE, we learnt about discrimination and inclusion.We defined the words, gave examples of each, and discussed how we feel when these things happen.

In Science, we focussed on creating a simple circuit with the challenge of using different components (for example a buzzer, motor or bulb). We then drew a diagram for each one in our books. We also discussed reasons why a circuit might not work and the steps to follow to check all of the components.

In our dance session in PE, we worked with a partner to create a superhero sequence. In handball, we combined all invasion games skills to play games in teams. We especially focussed on passing and defending.

We also enjoyed some outdoor learning on Thursday afternoon. We used leaves and other natural items to make various different creations – from leaf letters to leaf Christmas trees. Have a look at our leaf gallery.

Year 4 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 25’s. 

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

0   4   12   16     etc                            48   44    40   etc

Now have a go at counting in 25’s

Start at 0 and count to 250 and back again

0   25   50   75   etc                            250   220   200  etc                      

Times tables

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

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

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

You can practise your number facts on Hit the Button

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

Spellings

Here are your spellings for next week

they            weigh           eight           grey            sleigh

young           touch           blood           trouble        country

does            chef            brochure      parachute    machine

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 multiplying 2 and 3 digits by 1 digit

(eg 32 x 8          30 x 8 = 240     2 x 8 = 16       240 + 16 = 256

Use the grid method which we have practised in class this week for 3 digit multiplications)

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

The Year 4 Team

Reception Blog - Friday 1st December 2023

Date: 1st Dec 2023 @ 12:59pm

We started our week with our new story, Supertato. We made our own Supertato's using potatoes and playdough. Later in the week, we made our own stories with these. During drawing club this week, we have created our own plan to catch the evil pea. The children have had lots of fabulous ideas!

This week, we have also looked at different kinds of vegetables, we have talked about what they are liked and we peeled and chopped them to help with our fine motor skills. We then used the ingredients to make our own soup. It was delicious and warmed us up after our frosty winter walk!

In phonics this week, we have been learning the digraphs ff, ss and ll.

In maths, we have been looking at number bonds to 5. We have used the numicon to help us explore the different ways.

This week in French, we recapped and practised numbers 1-6. We used the KidsTV123 Numbers Song in French to sing along and introduced the numbers up to 10! We made the song slower and faster to join in. We also counted the pirate’s treasure and identified the numbers on the flashcards.

In Music, we have continued to learn the songs for our Christmas Nativity. Now we can sing all of them.

We were lucky this week to have two visitors to come in school. A big thank you to Mrs Webb for coming in and talking to the children all about being a detective, and to Farmer John, for coming in with his tractor and talking to us all about being a farmer.

On Friday we had Yoga and Forest school. During yoga with Hannah, we went into a snowy forest and learnt mountain breathing. In Forest School with Mrs Corbett, we made bird feeders using apples and bird seeds.

Lastly, during RE this week, we have looked at the Nativity story, specifically the part where the Angel visits the shepherds and the shepherds visiting Jesus. The children did some beautiful pictures of this.

Year 6 Blog Friday 1st December 2023

Date: 1st Dec 2023 @ 8:23am

Welcome to our Year 6 weekly blog.

This week, we were visited by fire fighters who gave a talk to Year 6 about:

Fire safety – we learnt to:

Not to play with matches, how to stop, drop and roll, electrical safety and the importance of having a fire plan at home.

Road sense – Always:

Look out for cyclists, be visible to other road users, wear seat belts and cycle helmets.

REMINDER:

Please bring in your spare trainers and socks for our cross-country session next week.

Our learning this week:

• In Maths, we learnt how to add and subtract fractions with various denominators. We are using our times tables knowledge to become much quicker at these.

• In English, we learnt how to write a persuasive letter, to try to persuade Mr Mears to have extra play. We used formal sentence openers, emotive language and a range of modal verbs.

• In PE, we began our cross-country topic. The children did a super job of running the full distance. They will be working on improving their personal best time over the next few weeks.

• In Music, we continued to play Bacharach Anorak on the glocks, improvising at the right time. We composed with the song ‘Meet The Blues’ using notes C Bb G and F on the glocks. We sang the song Jazz is cool, discussing the texture and singing in groups. We finished by practising the Carols for Christmas – Starry Night and O little town of Bethlehem.

• In French, we caught up with our Cultural Understanding Project. With our groups, we started researching our chosen topics for our Christmas in France presentation. This will continue next week and should be ready to present to the class the following week.

• In Science, we completed a fair test to see which exercise would increase our heart rate the most. We discussed the results and learnt how to conclude our findings.

• In RE, we learnt that Advent is a time of joyful expectation. They wrote their own Advent expectations which were turned into an Advent wreath. We also started our Advent calendar, where each child wrote a prayer or an act of kindness that everyone in Year 6 must do during this festive period.

Home Practice

Please try to complete the following tasks by next Wednesday:

Reading – Please read up to 30 minutes a night and complete your reading task.

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

Spellings 

• Sumdog (A2 wk 5 challenge words)
  • 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 fractions.
  • Draw a line with some marks on it like I do in class.
  • Start with these numbers: 2 1/4, 14 3/4, 5 1/5 and count up 10 times then back again in two quarters:

2 ¼, 2 ¾, 3 ¼, 3 ¾,  etc

and in three fifths:

5 1/5, 5 4/5, 6 2/5, 7, 7 3/5etc

• Number facts:
  • To help your maths even more, please continue to learn your numbers facts, 7 + 8 = 15, 4 + 7 = 11.
  • 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 A2 wk 5)

• Sumdog (Square numbers)
  • Remember that multiplication can be shown thrown arrays. When an array makes a perfect square (2 by 2, 3 by 3, 4 by 4, etc) then we have a square number (4, 9, 16, etc). Try to work through these questions quickly, which will help for next week’s learning.

Year 5 Blog Friday 1st December

Date: 29th Nov 2023 @ 4:59pm

Happy Friday and Happy December.

Welcome to your Friday Blog. 

On Wednesday, we brought home a sheet of paper with a list of things that we need for our DT work. 

Our DT brief is to design, make and evaluate a Greek snack. 

We have decided as a class to make pitta breads. School will provide the ingredients for everybody to make the pitta bread. 

Most children decided they wanted to include something along with the pitta bread. This is what they need to bring in from home, for example: feta cheese, olives, salad, tzatziki, etc. The children also wrote a list of utensils we will need. Anything that we can borrow would be much appreciated, but if not, don't worry. 

We will be making our Greek snack in school on Monday 4th December. 

In Geography this week, we used maps and our knowledge of the UK to plan a trip for somebody coming to England. Our trip had to include a flight to our closest airport, a visit to our local area and some local attractions, and finally a visit to the closest capital city to us and some points of interest. Everybody's knowledge of the UK was very impressive and we came up with some exciting sounding trips. 

In History, we have been learning about the Anglo Saxons. We discussed why we thought the Anglo Saxons settled in Britain. Some of the reasons we discussed included:

They settled in Britain to fight the Britons after they were left weak. 

They were invited to help out when the Romans left the Britons vulnerable to attack. 

They came because the land in Britain was better for growing crops. 

They came for a better life where there would be more opportunity to earn money. 

In RE we have started our new topic Advent.

Advent is a time to remember God’s promise to send a Messiah. It is about waiting in joyful hope for the coming of Jesus at Christmas. 

In Maths we have been naming, measuring, and drawing different angles including:

Acute angles - between 0 and 90 degrees. 

Right angles - 90 degrees.

Obtuse angles - between 90 and 180 degrees.

Reflex angles - between 180 and 360 degrees.

Home Practice

DT

Don't forget to bring in anything from home that you want to use in DT. 

We will make our pitta breads on Monday 4th December. 

Reading

Please read out loud every day for 20 minutes.

Counting

Count out loud in:

9s from 0 to 108 and back again      9, 18, 27, ...

90s from 0 10 1,080 and back again      90, 80, 270, ...

25s from 0 to 500 and back again      0, 25, 50, ...

Visnos angles

Test somebody at home on their angles knowledge. 

Visnos angles website

Times Tables

Please practise your tables target every day. 

Next week in maths we will be using our times tables - you will find it much easier if you are quick and confident with your tables. 

Spellings

Your spellings will be uploaded onto the blog next week. In the meantime, they are on the Sumdog challenge and on the sheet you brought home on Wednesday, so try to practise every day. 

Sumdog

Spelling Challenge

Times Tables Challenge

Maths Competition 

Have a happy weekend, enjoy your Advent calendars 

Year 1 Blog - Friday 1st December 2023

Date: 28th Nov 2023 @ 6:19pm

Welcome to your Friday blog.

English

We started learning through a new book, TRACTION MAN IS HERE by Mini Grey. Traction Man goes on all kinds of adventures around the house.

Will he escape the clutches of Evil Professor Spade?

Will his trusty friend Scrubbing Brush come to the rescue?

What happens when the Scissor Shark reaches them?

We discussed all the very detailed pictures in the book and drew the characters-even the most ordinary scrap of bacon in the sink is a character in this story! Traction Man wrote us a letter and asked us about our favourite parts of the story. 

We made puppets and used different voices. We told part of the story to our class using the puppets.

We wrote sentences describing what was happening in the pictures. We read our sentences out to the class. We are trying so hard to include finger spaces, capital letters and full stops in our writing. 

Listen to and watch the story here.

Tricky word song. Click here. Practise writing these words.

Phonics

Some of us have been revising oo as in zoo and learning ue as in glue.

Some of us have been learning ow in snow, and ie in chief.

Maths

We started the week by investigating how we could sort objects by different criteria. We learnt the phrase 'in common' to see what was the same about each group.

Then we started our fractions topic. We learnt the words 'part' and 'whole' in the context of fractions, rather than number. We made a house, which was our whole, then identified the windows, doors and roof as being parts of the whole house. We even learnt the word 'denominator' which was quite hard to say! We focused on sharing equally between two people, which meant that we were finding a half.

R.E.

We had a final baptism respond session to celebrate all of the learning that we have done this half term. We recapped why baptisms are important, the symbols used in a baptism and listened to the Bible passage about Jesus' baptism again. We coloured in a picture of a baptism and took them home.

History

This week, we explored the toys that our caregivers (parents and who looks after us) used to play with when they were younger. We looked at Polly Pockets, Tamagotchi, Trolls and Hungry Hippos to name just a few. We thought about whether we would want to play with them now or not. Then we got the chance to play with some toys from the museum. We recognised that these toys were older than our parents' toys because they were made out of wood.

If your child was in the history lesson this week, they will have come home with a sheet to fill out with your help. This is all about their older relatives' (Grandmas/Grandads) favourite toy when they were little. We will be exploring even older toys next week.

Please only fill this out if you can. Do not worry if you will not be seeing grandparents before next Thursday.

Science

Year 1 were so lucky to have Mrs Robinson teach our science lesson this week! She was so impressed with how much everyone has grown up.

We learnt about lifecycles and how animals change and grow over time. We focused on the lifecycle of a butterfly and drew pictures of the changes.

D.T.

We made our own simple slider using the story of The Gingerbread Man. The characters from the story could chase the gingerbread man!

Art

We used pencils to draw flowers onto the foreground of our handprint pictures. Then to make them stand out, we went over our lines with sharpies and whiteboard pens.

Computing

We had a technology safety lesson all about how to behave when using the laptops and iPads in school. We made our own posters to teach others about what to do and what not to do.

French

This week in French, we recapped the colours we learned in last lesson.The children remembered these very well and some children remembered that the t in vert and violet, the c in blanc and the s in gris are not pronounced. After watching and saying which colour parrot flew past, we coloured in the pictures of the parrots and feathers on the pirate hats to show the right colour. We finished the lesson with a game of Splat! Fastest person to point to the colour we heard.

Music

We continued to learn the songs for our Christmas Nativity. We played the rhythms on the claves and wood blocks.

Forest School

We made clay faces. First, we collected natural items in the nature area. We found berries, twigs, leaves, stones and moss. We worked the clay into a circle shape and found a tree with rough bark as we discovered the clay stuck better to these trunks. We designed our own clay face. There was great imagination and creativity shown. 

In our second session we chose our own learning. We built shelters and hammocks, designed and made booby traps, cooked some delicious muddy food and tied knots. we didn't mind the very cold weather. We showed amazing imagination, teamwork, perseverance, resilience and determination. 

Thank you for all the items which you have sent in for the orange Christmas hamper-it's looking like a great prize already!

Home Practice (Sumdog)

Phonics - ue words OR ow (oa sound) words OR ow words

Maths - halves

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

Reading - Please try to read each night, even for just five minutes, it makes a big difference!

Year 6 Blog Friday 24th November 2023

Date: 24th Nov 2023 @ 4:07pm

Welcome to Year 6 weekly blog.

We have had a fabulous week getting back to our curriculum, following Robinwood last week. On Thursday, we were invited by Reception to meet Mr Brown, a paramedic, who came with his ambulance to show the children what his job entails, how he helps people in the community and what equipment he uses.

On Friday morning, Father invited Year 6 to Mass. Father Michael was wearing red to celebrate the Mass for the Feast of the Martyrs. Thank you for the invite, Father!

Also, two teams competed this week: Volleyball team and another Football team. It was our first ever volleyball competition and the 8 that took part did a super job representing the school with two wins and two losses – an excellent achievement for our first time. As for the football team, they were unfortunate to win a game at Priory High but had a great time working together.

Our learning this week:

• In Maths, we learnt how to compare and simplify fractions using multiples and factors. We then learnt to use common multiples and factors to quickly find equivalent fractions.

• In English, we have read more of our novel, Private Peaceful, and inferred main characters words and actions to help us write in role.

• In PE, we began our indoor athletics topic focusing on finding a baseline of the standing long jump, triple jump, vertical jump and speed bounce. We will be working on our techniques to improve our personal best.

• In History, we continued our topic of ‘Crime and Punishment’. This week, we learnt about the Anglo-Saxon period and as there was no police force back then, every group of 10 people in the village were named a ‘tithing’ and if anyone within that tithing committed a crime, it was up to the other 9 to bring them to the ‘trial of ordeals’ – even chasing them down the street. Also, if one person in the tithing group did not chase, then they were sentenced to the ‘trial by ordeal’ too.

• In Science, we created a fair test to see which exercise would increase our heart rate the most. We discussed the variables, what we would keep the same, our predictions, method and results.

Home Practice

Please try to complete the following tasks by next Wednesday:

Reading – Please read up to 30 minutes a night and complete your reading task.

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

Spellings 

• Sumdog (A2 wk 6 -ough words)
  • though, although, rough, tough, through, cough, nought, brought, ought, thought, fought, plough, dough, enough, thorough

Maths challenges:

• Counting:
  • This week we have been counting in decimal steps.
  • Draw a line with some marks on it like I do in class.
  • Start with these numbers: 7.5, 3.9, 25.4 and count up 10 times then back again in 0.7:

7.5, 8.2, 8.9, 9.6, 10.1 etc

and in 2.5:

7.5, 10, 12.5, 15, 17.5, etc

• Number facts:
  • To help your maths even more, please continue to learn your numbers facts, 7 + 8 = 15, 4 + 7 = 11.
  • 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 A2 wk 4)

• Sumdog (Common multiples)
  • This challenge will help to practise the learning we have done this week. Try your best to use your times tables knowledge to answer them quickly.
  •  

Year 3 Friday 24th November 2023

Date: 24th Nov 2023 @ 3:44pm

Welcome to your Friday Blog

We have had a fantastic week of learning this week in Year 3. 

In English, we have started writing our own versions of the Journey, story by Aaron Becker. We have been focusing on presentation this week as well as sentence structure. Next week we hope to take our stories to year one and year six and publish them to the website.

In maths, we will be learning new multiplication strategies, including using partitioning to help us with trickier problems. Everyone is showing great understanding with this this is down to great listening and concentration in class. Well done Year 3!

In music, we started with a new song, Hey Ho Nobody home. We looked at how the rhythm was written and clapped the rhythm from notation. We learnt to sing thethird verse of We will rock you, the Stone Age song, accompanying with rhythms on stones. We discussed the different parts of the song – verse, chorus and instrumental. We played a rhythm game – Forbidden Rhythm. We began to learn carols for Christmas – Starry Night and O little town of Bethlehem.

We have also been practising our assembly this week. We have given out everyone a line to practice over the weekend. We are looking forward to to perform on Friday.

In art, we have been completing our collages based on the story journey by Aaron Becker. Have a look at our gallery which shows some of our artwork and the pictures we have used for inspiration.

This week we also completed our RSHE and RE topics. In RSHE we looked at friendships and how we can mend broken ones. We also finished our Baptism learning. Next week we will begin our topic on Advent and Preparations.

Home Practice

Continue to read every night. We have seen amazing progress in everyone's reading this term. Well done Year 3!

All the spellings this week have the le or el spelling pattern. Remember to use all your strategies to help you spell your words independently.

apple, bottle, candle, middle, bubble, giggle, vowel, tunnel, squirrel, tinsel, travel, camel

We have set 2 Sumdog challenges this week. One will cover number facts  and the other will be to practice your multiplication strategies.

Have a lovely weekend

The Year 3 Team

Reception Blog - Friday 24th November 2023

Date: 24th Nov 2023 @ 11:15am

We started our week using our bodies to make art, using our hands. We had to paint our hands and print them onto the paper. Later in the week, when the paper was dry, we drew flowers over them in black pen. Our pictures look fantastic and we have stuck them up in the butterfly room.

For the Drawing Club this week, we have done the story Farmer Duck. We talked about what we might see on a farm, learnt about what a farmers job is and designed our own tractor.

In phonics this week, we have been learning the new sounds f and l.

In maths, we have been looking at one more and one less than a number. To do this we have played a game, moving our tokens down the line, talking about which we could see that was one more than a number and one les than a number.

This week in French, we recapped the colours. Rouge = red, bleu = blue, jaune = yellow, orange = orange, vert = green, and rose = pink. We could say all of the colours and point to the right ones!

We continued to learn the songs for our Christmas Nativity. We sang the first five songs again and started to learn the next two, then played the rhythms on the maracas. Please see the school newsletter about all information regarding the nativity. There will be two performances in Church and we provide the costumes.

In PSHE this week, we have continued to talk about healthy foods after the visit from Freddy Fit. We looked at the green rainbow drop eating his fruits and vegetables to make him big and strong and how to have a balanced meal. Having sweets and sugar as a special treat.

We were lucky this week to have Mr Brown come and visit us with an ambulance. The children learnt all about his job and how he helps people. We also got to go into the ambulance and see all of the equipment he uses.

For PE this week we have done some throwing and catching and jumping and balancing. Then we continued with Tots on Tyres with Mrs Cookson.

On Friday we had Yoga and Forest school. During yoga with Hannah, we went back over the colour monster, using our feelings to help us. 

In Forest School with Mrs Corbett, we made bird feeders using apples and bird seeds.

Lastly, during RE this week, we have looked at the whole Nativity story, talking about who came to see Jesus when he was in the stable. The children enjoyed ordering the pictures from the story.

Year 2 Blog Friday 24th November 2023

Date: 24th Nov 2023 @ 11:11am

Year 2 had a wonderful time at the library. The librarian read three Christmas stories and the children got to vote for their favourite, there was a clear winner! They also made Christmas cards and explored the library, choosing books that they would like to borrow. Everyone had lovely manners and were very respectful. In English, we did a drama workshop in the hall with Mrs Wood. We have a lot of budding actors and actresses and it was lovely to see everyone joining in with confidence and being creative. The nativity play is going to be amazing this year! In Maths, we have started our new topic - graphs, charts and tables. The children have been reading, understanding and answering questions about pictograms and block charts. It has been RSHE week, we learnt about communities, how to keep safe and meeting God in our community. In History, the children completed The Great Fire of London by making a timeline (chronological order) of everything they have learnt. In Art, we learnt about printing and produced some lovely prints. The count down to Christmas is definitely starting, learning Christmas songs, practising for the Nativity play and getting ready for all the Christmas fun.

Forest School

This week we cooked bread on a stick. We remembered our rules about how to keep safe around the fire. Mrs Corbett had already made the dough out of flour, sugar and water. We had to find a suitable stick that was long enough and strong enough to hold the dough. We rolled our ball of dough into a long sausage shape and wrapped it securly around our stick. We cooked the bread in the embers of the fire. We noticed it changed colour as it was cooking. We had to be patient.When it was cooked we put jam, chocolate spread or butter on it. It was delicious!

All of us had a go at the cooking and some of us had an extra session. We chose our own learning in the nature area.

Reading

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

We had a great time at the library. Everyone, spotted books that they would like to borrow. Maybe, you could visit the library again and borrow the books you saw.

Reading books are changed every Monday. However, if you need to change a book another time, we will change it as needed.

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

Reading resources:

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

Go to https://www.oxfordowl.co.uk/ and login. Explore the site and enjoy reading 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 Wednesday. A sheet will go home every Wednesday with the spelling list on. This is for home practise only and can be kept with you.

It is useful to write the words down on the spelling sheet, but also to call the words out and spell them out loud using the letter sounds or names. Other ideas include breaking the words up and writing them down in different colours (people). You could look for words within words (whole)or think of your own ways to remember the word for example, spell it aloud using a tune or song.

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

This week’s spellings are (22.11.23 – 29.11.23):

could                     many

would                    clothes 

should                   busy

whole                    people

any                       water

Maths

At home, count forwards and backwards in 3s to 36. Start at different numbers each time. For example, start counting forwards from 12 or backwards from 30. Look at how this relates to the 3x table.

Practise 2-, 5-, 10- and 3-times tables on a game called Hit the Button. Follow this link: https://www.topmarks.co.uk/maths-games/hit-the-button

You will have a graphs, charts and tables challenge on Sumdog to complete by next Friday.

Sumdog

Log in at www.sumdog.com

Reminders:

Santa Dash - wear Santa's hat, beard or coat on Monday 11th December. Fill in your sponsor form and bring it back to school.

Raffle tickets, £1 a ticket or £5 a booklet.

Year 2 are making a 'yellow' class hamper. If you have anything yellow to donate, please bring it in to school.

Have a great weekend.

Year 2 Team.

Year 4 Blog Friday 24th November 2023

Date: 24th Nov 2023 @ 8:55am

Welcome to this week’s blog.

Year 4 Notices

Reconciliation - If your child is following the Reconciliation program at church, they will have come home with a leaflet, ‘Celebrating the Sacrament of Reconciliation at home’. Please discuss and share this information with your child.

Year 4 Reconciliation Day – Monday 4^th December. Parents are invited to attend the service in church at 2.15pm.

Class Hamper – each class has a colour theme to make up Rainbow Hampers for the PTFA Grand Christmas Raffle. Please donate what you can over the next 3 weeks. Year 4’s colour is blue – please donate anything blue that you an eat, drink, blue luxury items etc.

Please also read the weekly newsletter which has lots of information about upcoming events before Christmas. 

Year 4 Learning

In English, we discussed the 4 different types of sentences - statements, questions, commands and exclamations. We then wrote questions about a chapter of the novel. We tried our best to ensure that the questions were punctuated properly (using capital letters where appropriate and question marks) and required more than a ‘yes or no’ answer. In addition, we planned  a book review of the novel Kensuke’s Kingdom.  We will be writing this next week.

In Maths, we revised multiplying by 10 and 100. We then used this knowledge to multiply using related facts.

Eg 3 x 40        3 x 4 = 12       So 3 x 40 = 120 as it is 10 times larger

6 x 900           6 x 9 = 54      So 6 x 900 = 5400 as it is 100 times larger

When a number is multiplied by 10, all the digits move one place to the left

When a number is multiplied by 100, all the digits move two places to the left.

In addition, we learnt how to multiply using compensating (eg using 20 x 6 to help calculate 19 x 6).

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 Science, we started the lesson by identifying some electrical appliances and what they use electricity for: heating/cooling, light, movement or sound. We then constructed a simple circuit and named the parts. We discovered that to make a simple circuit work, the components needed to be in a loop. We also drew a diagram of this in our books.

In P.S.H.E., we continued with our Relationships unit of 'Play the Right Way and Inclusion'. This session was about the right to privacy. We started the lesson by discussing what we thought this meant and checking our ideas against the given definition. We then discussed some situations where a confidence or secret should be kept and where it should not be kept. Finally, we discussed when it is the right thing to tell a trusted adult.  

The right to privacy means - the right not to have one’s personal matters disclosed or publicised / to be left alone / for certain things not to be disclosed

In P.E., we started our rotation of Rugby and Dance. We used our previously taught Invasion Games skills and tactics to play some games of tag rugby. We also explored movement and communicating a character to portray a superhero. We focused on facial expressions and gestures to communicate emotions.

Year 4 Home Practice

Reading

Please read for 20 minutes each evening to an adult at home. Many of you are still not doing this and reading really is the key to unlocking learning.

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. 

English

Next week, you will be writing your own book review of Kensuke's Kingdom. We have already planned this in class. However, over the weekend please jot down some interesting describing words you would like to use in your writing.  This will make your review more interesting to read and showcase some vocabulary of your own.

Counting

This week, please practise counting in 6’s.

For example, start at 0 and count up to 72 and back again 

0   6   12   18     etc                             72   66   60   etc

Please also count in 3’s

For example, start at 30 and count upto 60 and back again

30   33   39 etc                                  60   57   54   etc

Times tables

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

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

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

You can practise your number facts on Hit the Button

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

Spellings

Your spellings next week are from the Year 3 / 4 Statutory list

busy            business      exercise      imagine        opposite

regular        calendar       experience   important    ordinary

remember    caught         circle           forward       library

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 3 and 6 times tables
• A challenge based on multiplying by 10 and 100, as well as using known facts to work out other multiplications (eg 30 x 6, use 3 x 6 = 18, then multiply by 10)

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

The Year 4 Team