Newsletter Issue 11
|
Friday 23rd November 2012
|
Dear Parent/Carer,
I have had many opportunities to walk around our lovely school this week. I welcomed interested parents who wanted to see Robin Hood in preparation for choosing a suitable school for their child. All seemed very impressed and many commented on how happy the children were in their learning. I also had the chance to carry out some observations with the Headteacher of Oulton Primary, who also commented on what a lovely feel the school has and how brilliantly engaged our learners are. It has made me feel very proud.
Operation Christmas Child
In total, we received a whopping 112 shoeboxes in support of the Operation Christmas Child appeal. Thank you wholeheartedly to everyone who has taken the time to put the boxes together. Along with the Poppy appeal, Children in Need and this appeal, your generosity has been incredible.
Christmas Fayre
One last plea from the PTA- We have been overwhelmed by the donations and everything is coming together wonderfully. We still need to ask one last time for bottle donations. If you have any of the following, please feel free to send them our way- Shampoo, beans, spaghetti, shower gel, or alcohol. Dig deep everyone!
Photography Club
This week, in Photography club we welcomed graphic designers, Sally and Michael who offered advice on how to make a fabulous professional looking Christmas card, using our Ipad applications. We are very excited because somebody’s design is going to be chosen (after some expert tweaking by Michael), to be on the front of every Christmas card sent out by Leeds Children’s Services. Robin Hood were recommended by Art Forms, Leeds to represent the city in designing the cards as we are well known city wide for our incredible creative skills and engagement with the arts. Another proud moment for me!
James Driver
I mentioned a few weeks ago that James is due to have his operation on 29th November. Well, that time has quickly come and we will all be wishing James Good Luck over the next few days as he prepares for his stay in hospital from Wednesday. We will be continuing to support James’ Wish to Walk charity on Sunday December 16th when there will be many members of the community volunteering their time to pack bags at Morrisons in Rothwell to raise money. If any of you can and would like to give a couple of hours of your time to help out, please approach Mrs Mistry. In the meantime, Good Luck James….from all of us!
Our new reading area
Many of the children have really enjoyed exploring and utilising our new Reading
Christmas date reminders
1/12/12 10:30a.m- 12:30p.m Christmas Fayre
18/12/12 2:00 p.m – 3:00 p.m Lower Key Stage 2 Christmas Production
19/12/12 10:00a.m Nursery Christmas Production
19/12/12 2:00p.m-3:00p.m KS1 Christmas Production
19/12/12 6:00p.m- 7:00p.m LKS2 Christmas Production
20/12/12 KS1 and UKS2 Christmas Parties
|
20/12/12 6:00p.m-7:00p.m KS1 Christmas Production
20/12/12 7:00 p.m- 8:00p.m Choir Concert at
20/12/12 11:00a.m- 12:00 p.m Reception Production
21/12/12 10:00a.m Nursery Christmas Production
21/12/12 LKS2 and Nursery Christmas Party
21/12/12 2:00p.m Year 5/6 Christmas Service and carols round the tree
|
Have a really lovely weekend everybody!
Mrs Dale
Nursery newsletter
NEWS ROUND UP
This week was our final week of celebrating Diwali. We ended the week with some gorgeous Indian food (thanks to all our lovely and supportive parents), a bit of Bangrah music and some amazing Bollywood dancing from the children. A truly wonderful time was had by all and it was an experience that will have helped consolidate all the things the children have learnt over the last two weeks.
THIS WEEK
This week we have been learning about all the different ways Hindu’s prepare for Diwali and the children prepared for our own Diwali celebration by decorating the diva lamps they made last week and making some yummy coconut barfi for us all to try at our Diwali party. In literacy we have been reading and learning about the story of Rama and Sita so the children are becoming more confident in retelling stories. The children have been busy bees in numeracy this week. They have looked at all the names of the different shapes and have thought about their properties. The children are improving and becoming more confident at tuning into and recognising animal and environmental sounds and the whole nursery team is very impressed with their progress.
NEXT WEEK
Ho ho ho! It’s that time of year again when we all start the countdown to when Santa is going to visit us. Next week we will be beginning our learning about Christmas celebrations. On Monday our classroom will have been transformed into a winter wonderland, with a Santa’s grotto and a North Pole area. We will have a fabulous time decorating our tree, discussing what we mean by advent and then discussing what else we need to do to prepare for Christmas. In topic we are going to be making our exciting advent calendar which we will open each day in December. In Maths we will be practising counting all the way to ten so please try and practise this with your child beforehand at any opportunity. We will be beginning our song practise and proper rehearsals for the nativity next week so please support your child in learning their lines and the songs.
HOW YOU CAN HELP US
· Please listen to your child’s fabulous reading once a day and comment in their reading record. Please feel free to drop in and change their books when you pick them up.
· Please practice counting to 10 and beyond with your child at any opportunity. Please also practise writing and recognising the numbers 1-6 with them. If your child can do both of these then please help them go even further.
· Please practise writing the first letter of your Child’s name and if they can do this try going even further with them.
· Please practise singing our nativity songs with your child. These can be found on the foundation stage blog.
Have an amazing weekend.
Mrs Steel and the Nursery Team
Reception newsletter
NEWS ROUND UP
This week was our final week of celebrating Diwali. We ended the week with some gorgeous Indian food (thanks to all our lovely and supportive parents), a bit of Bangrah music and some amazing Bollywood dancing from the children. A truly wonderful time was had by all and it was an experience that will have helped consolidate all the things the children have learnt over the last two weeks. Our certificate number just keeps on rising! This week we had one more certificate than last week so our number is now 20 which is amazing! There were lots of children that were only one off and the improvement in all the children is clear, so please keep encouraging your child to learn their sounds and words. We want even more certificates this week!
THIS WEEK
In literacy this week we have been learning about all the different ways Hindu’s prepare for Diwali and the children prepared for our own Diwali celebration by making and decorating diva lamps as well as making some yummy coconut barfi for us all to try at our Diwali party. This week has been challenging for the children in phonics as we have introduced the diagraphs (2 letters together but that only make 1 sound e.g. ch, sh, th and ng) but the children rose to the challenge and really embraced it, me and Miss Lambert are very proud of them all. The sounds we concentrated on this week were; ch, sh, th and ng and our key words were the tricky words; he, she, we, me, be and was. The children have been busy bees in numeracy this week, they have been working out what is two more than a given number, have looked at the names and properties of shapes as well as investigated the lines of symmetry in rangoli patterns.
NEXT WEEK
Ho ho ho! It’s that time of year again when we all start the countdown to when Santa is going to visit us. Next week we will be beginning our learning about Christmas celebrations. On Monday our classroom will have been transformed into a winter wonderland, with a Santa’s grotto and a North Pole area. We will have a fabulous time decorating our tree, discussing what we mean by advent and then discussing what else we need to do to prepare for Christmas. In topic we are going to be making our exciting advent calendar which we will open each day in December. In Maths we will be learning the 12 days of Christmas song and thinking about ordinal numbers i.e. 1st, 2nd and 3rd. We will be beginning our song practise and rehearsals for the nativity so please support your child in learning their lines and the songs that can be found on the foundation stage blog. Our sounds of the week are; ai, ee, igh and oa and our words are the next set of tricky words; you, all, they, are, my and her.
HOW YOU CAN HELP US
· Please listen to your child’s fabulous reading once a day and comment in their reading record.
· Please practise and recap the sounds we have already learnt.
· Please help your child practise their letter formation. Please remember that Hairy Letters is fantastic.
· Please support your child in accessing the bug club website. We have seen how many have accessed it so far so well done to those children!
· Please help your child learn their nativity lines if they have been given some and please all learn the nativity songs with your child.
· We will be asking for the nativity costumes to be sent in the week beginning the10th of December, if you have any questions or queries about this then please come and ask us.
We hope you have a fun filled weekend.
Miss Lambert, Miss Pyatt and the Reception Team
Key Stage 1
Home learning
The children in KS1 have been learning all about subtraction this week. Please practise some take away sums at home. It’s important that your child is familiar with the following vocabulary: take away, subtract, how many are left, how much less is…than…difference between, how much more is…than…how many more to make….
Please create some word problems which include one of the vocabulary choices listed above, then ask your child to make up some questions for you so they can practise using the correct mathematical vocabulary (and you can brush up on your maths skills!). Try a mixture of:
· Units-Unit (e.g. 7 take away 5 is…)
· Tens and Units take away Units (e.g. 24 minus 8 is…)
· Tens and Units take away Tens and Units (e.g. 12 less than 26 is…)
|
News
Christmas dinner
This will be on Wednesday 12th December so if you haven’t brought your slip and money in please do so by Monday 26th November.
Our amazing KS1 blog
Mrs Mistry updates the KS1 blog every week with examples of our learning. You can also find a copy of the newsletter on there as well as details of certificate winners and achievers. It’s well worth a look! Please visit the school website: http://www.robinhood.leeds.sch.uk/homepage/
Literacy
This week the children have been introduced to a new class book ‘Where the Wild Thing Are’ (Year 2), ‘Gorilla’ (Year 1/2) ‘We’re going on a Bear Hunt’ (Year 1). The children have read the story and retold it to their partner in class before retelling the events in a drama sequence. The staff were very impressed with the drama skills and the additional actions the children added. The children are continuing to explore the story mountain looking at the Opening, Build-up, Climax, Resolution and Ending, and discussing the crucial elements for a great story. The children have used the structure of their class book to write their own version by changing one element (the setting or the character). The children are SO creative – particularly with all the drama activities we have tried. Have a go at hot-seating your child as one of the characters, they are budding actors!
Next week the children will continue re-telling their class book but will focus on the Climax and Resolution before finishing the week writing their own books! A selection of these books will be made available in the new Reading Area for the whole of the school to sit and enjoy! Please continue to use the ‘Bug Club’ account and read the books provided, if you child sees an amazing word choice in the books they read ask them to ‘Magpie’ the ideas and use them in their own writing. ‘Story Time’ is also another great way to introduce new word choices and vocabulary…..so remember to read lots!
Numeracy
This week the children have been introduced to subtraction and discussed what happens to the answer with a subtractions, it gets smaller. The children have used a number of strategies to help with their subtraction such as: using fingers, counting back, using the hundred square and partitioning the biggest number to then take away the smallest. The children have blown us away with how quickly they have picked up all our methods for subtraction. Please support your child with the Home Learning this week to further embed your child’s understanding of subtraction and the language involved.
The children will continue with their subtraction unit next week but will be focusing on word problems, so the completion of the Home Learning will support your child in class. The children will also be looking at missing numbers and how to solve a problem when one of the numbers is missing.
Topic - Sewing
If you need a hole sewing up, or a button sewing on – your child can do it for you now (nearly!) We have sewn some beautiful hand puppets of Jack and the Beanstalk characters. The children’s imagination, technique and sheer will to succeed has led to some fantastic outcomes. Please check out the pictures on the blog.
Lower Key Stage 2 Newsletter
We have had yet another amazing week in LKS2 full of exciting and inspiring learning. The children have blown us away with the fantastic and imaginative inventions they’ve designed with the brief to improve people’s lives. We have had teleporters, robots that clean your houses, machines that can make you breakfast, pens that write for you and much more. We look forward to showing off both the children’s designs and the final prototypes of these inventions at our ‘Great Exhibition’ on Friday 23rd November at 3:15 in your child’s classroom.
Home Learning
Well done to all of those children who have been put on our new Bug Club scheme and managed to log on and read their first eBooks online. Every week there will be a selection of new books for you to enjoy and some fun and exciting quizzes and follow up activities to complete. It is really useful for us to be able to track the children’s progress each time they visit the site and reward them for all of their hard work. This week your child would have received a photocopy of their writing from the previous week’s star write challenge and an exercise book. This is something we will be sending home on a weekly basis for you and your child to read through. Please discuss the teachers comment and new target set with your child and then give them the opportunity to redraft their writing incorporating the new target. We think this is a fantastic opportunity to share the amazing writing that your child is doing and for you to help support them with their next steps.
Literacy
We have continued to develop our superb writing techniques to persuade the reader this week. After evaluating their previous letters to Prince Albert
Numeracy
This week in numeracy the children have been learning different mental strategies for addition and subtraction. The children have been trying really hard to find number bonds, doubles and halves, and pairs of multiples of 5 and 50 that total 100. They have been racing against time to improve the speed of their calculations and we have been really impressed by their focus and determination. Next week we will be consolidating our new mental strategies and then applying them to different mathematical concepts.
Topic
The children have been working super hard to finish their Victorian zoetrope’s and thaumatropes, and have continued the whole class effort in creating a ride from a Victorian fair ground using the K-nex. The children have also designed a new invention of their very own that will improve people’s lives. We are looking forward to making these next week.
Spellings to be tested on Monday 26th November (the children already have their spellings for this Monday)
Group One
|
Group Two
|
zoo
|
happened
|
food
|
exclaimed
|
boots
|
suggested
|
moon
|
whispered
|
roots
|
manufactured
|
broom
|
stated
|
spoon
|
questioned
|
shampoo
|
explained
|
tooth
|
identified
|
balloon
|
recalled
|
Reminders
· Next week the children are making their own inventions. Could you please bring in any cereal boxes, egg boxes, plastic bottles or yoghurt pots.
· Please can you also bring in any jam jars. We are starting to collect them in preparation for our Christmas lanterns.
· This week’s achiever is Millie Booth for her amazing Incan god model, which she made out of clay – her attention to detail was incredible. We can’t wait to see how it looks when it’s been painted! Well done, Millie!
· Thank you to the children in Year 6 who have ensured that the necessary papers have been in school this week for our Splat the SATs session. This has enabled us to share answers as well as discuss the knowledge needed and strategies used to answer the questions. The Reading
· The shoeboxes for the 2012 Operation Christmas Child appeal were collected this week. A massive thank you to those in Year 5/6 who brought in a shoebox which will be given to a disadvantaged child in Europe . With your help, we managed as a school to collect 112 shoeboxes!
Reminders:
· For PE, please ensure that you have a plain white T-shirt and black or blue shorts. Pumps can be worn though trainers are not suitable as the focus is gymnastics.
· Home Learning: The children have brought home their diary entry about a day in Rio de Janeiro
· Planners will be signed and stamped every Monday morning so please make sure they are in school on this day. Aim for at least 4 reading entries each week to earn stickers for your bookmark.
Numeracy:
- This week in Numeracy, the learning focus has been on decimal numbers. The children have been developing skills in ordering and comparing decimals as well as counting on and back in tenths.
- Times Tables Practice: Hit the Button is a game which is used during the daily mental maths sessions. A link to this can be accessed by visiting http://robinhood56.blogspot.co.uk/ and clicking on Numeracy.
- Next week, the focus is on applying all the skills we have been learning about over the last few weeks to some ‘I’m a Celebrity’ numeracy questions. There will be bush tucker trials where the children will need to solve equations to win!
Literacy:
- The focus this week has been on fables. The children began the week by reading a number of fables and identifying their features. They have then improved the opening to the fables of The Hare and the Tortoise and The Boy Who Cried Wolf by adding description including adverbs, adjectives and figurative language. Next week, the children will be planning and writing their own fable.
- Practise Punctuation: We will be focusing on using speech marks in writing. You can find out the rules by watching the film clip at http://www.bbc.co.uk/learningzone/clips/speech-marks/9122.html
· Home Learning: The spelling focus this week is homophones (words which sound the same as each other but are spelt differently) threw, through, guessed, guest, herd, heard, allowed, aloud, peace, piece
Other areas of the curriculum:
- In Topic, the children have been researching information about The Incas in order to produce a leaflet about this ancient civilisation. They have also been identifying the features of Inca gods and using these to design their own god. The children have then used clay to mould and sculpt their design. The next step will be to paint their Inca god.
- In PE this week, the children have been using core skills in gymnastics including balances, jumps and rolls to develop a sequence in pairs and groups of four.
- The focus in ICT has been to review and select film footage which can be used in a documentary which compares
- This week in Spanish, the children have been using their Spanish vocabulary to have a conversation about buying a CD.
- In Music, 5/6M have been using the notation B, A and G when playing the recorder. They have performed a number of songs which have included these notes. 5/6B have read sheet music and used a Touch Instrument on Garageband to play the notes. 5/6G have been creating samba music using a variety of percussion instruments!
No comments:
Post a Comment