Newsletter Issue 14
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Friday 14th December 2012
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Dear Parent/Carer,
Well, what a busy week we have had. Nursery and Reception have chatted to Santa via satellite link, Key Stage 1 have visited the pantomime, Year 5/6 have hosted a South American carnival event, our team point winners have relaxed with a cinema afternoon and many of us enjoyed a delicious Christmas dinner. Compliments to Debbie and her team of very talented chefs! Next week will no doubt, be even busier. I am very much looking forward to the Performances and party celebrations….. I do love Christmas!
Performances
Before all performances next week, the PTA will be serving tea, coffee and mince pies. This will warm your cockles before the children melt your hearts with their performances! Bring along some spare change and support the PTA.
Borrowed clothes
We appear to be low on spare clothes for the children, especially boy’s clothes. If you have recently borrowed some clothes following the sickness bug, would you please return them. Also, if you have spare clothes that we can keep and use that you no longer need, we will gladly take them off your hands. Thanks.
After School Clubs
We have had a fantastic term of after school and lunchtime clubs and these are now finished for this term. Clubs will not be running next week. Many amazing outcomes have been created, from the drama performances and ICT to the recorder compositions, the choir songs to the stunning sewn baubles, the artwork to the Christmas card designs used by Leeds Children’s Services, the funky dances to the school magazine blog, the gymnastics displays to the beautiful cards….our children have had a huge amount of extra-curricular choices. Next term, clubs will run from Thursday January 17th. I can’t wait to see what we are able to produce next term.
Head lice
A case of head lice has been brought to our attention. As everyone knows, they can spread from child to child very easily so please be vigilant and check your child’s hair regularly. Be sure to treat the lice properly and let us know, if you suspect your child has head lice. Thank you!
Assessed writes
All teaching staff have been involved in writing moderations this week. We have looked collaboratively at each and every child’s writing and I have to say, it has been a joy! The improvement in children’s handwriting and punctuation has been very encouraging and the older children are writing with real maturity and control. Your child will bring home their assessed write to share with you (including the feedback) so that you can support your child to make the necessary improvements. Through rewriting the piece, the children will drive their own success.
Christmas date reminders –PLEASE NOTE ANY AMENDMENTS OR CHANGES
18/12/12- 2:00 p.m – 3:00 p.m Year 3/ 4 Christmas Production
19/12/12- 10:00 a.m. Nursery Christmas Production
19/12/12- Nursery Christmas party
19/12/12- 2:00 p.m- 3:00 p.m KS1 Christmas Production
19/12/12- 6:00 p.m- 7:00 p.m LKS2 Christmas Production
20/12/12- KS1 and UKS2 Christmas Parties
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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- 11:00 a.m.- 12:00 p.m Reception Production
21/12/12- 11:00 a.m. Nursery Christmas Production
21/12//12- LKS2 and Reception Christmas Party
21/12/12- 2:00 Year 5/6 Christmas Service and carol singing
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Have a great weekend….Wrap up nice and warm!
Mrs Dale
NEWS ROUND UP
This week has yet again been very festive! The children have made you a wonderful calendar so hopefully you can cross a calendar off your Christmas list. They have also sewn a fantastic Christmas decoration for your tree. We have practised our nativity every day this week and the children are true superstars it is looking fabulous. We can’t wait to show you it and I have no doubt that it will bring a tear to your eyes.
THIS WEEK
In literacy this week we have been learning about the different seasons; spring, summer, autumn and winter and what we expect to see in each season. This week we had a special video conference with Santa. The children were so excited; it was really wonderful to see. We showed him one of our fabulous Christmas decorations and sung him one of our nativity songs, as you can imagine he was very impressed.
NEXT WEEK
Next week is the final week of this half term. The children will be making salt dough Christmas decorations. Most of the week will be taken up by watching the different productions in school and practising and performing our nativity. The children are doing really well at performing the nativity (they are superstars) but so they become more confident please practise their lines and the songs with them at home. We will also be having our Christmas party on the Wednesday morning (1st half of the week) and on Friday afternoon (2nd half of the week) afternoon so please send your child into school with their party clothes and if possible send them in with some yummy food to share with their friends. Please can the girls bring in sweet snacks and the boys bring in savoury snacks.
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 the lines for the Nativity! The singing is coming along really well, but really need your support in learning lines.
Thank you for your continued support.
Mrs Steel and the Nursery team
Reception newsletter
NEWS ROUND UP
This week has yet again been very festive! The children have written and made some gorgeous Christmas cards for you which we hope you will like. They have also made you a wonderful calendar representing all the different seasons in the year, so hopefully you can cross a calendar off your Christmas list.
We have practised our nativity every day this week and the children are true superstars, it is looking fabulous. We can’t wait to show you it and I have no doubt that it will bring a tear to your eyes.
THIS WEEK
In literacy this week we have been learning about the different seasons; spring, summer, autumn and winter and what we expect to see in each season. This week we had a special video conference with Santa, the children were so excited it was really wonderful to see. We showed him one of our fabulous Christmas cards and sung him one of our nativity songs and as you can imagine he was very impressed. This week in phonics we have learnt the diagraphs ur
NEXT WEEK
Next week is the final week of this half term. The children will be making salt dough Christmas decorations and sewing their own tree decoration. Most of the week will be taken up by watching the different productions in school and practising and performing our own nativity. The children are doing really well at performing the nativity, they are superstars. To ensure they become even more confident please practise their lines with them at home and the songs which can be found on the foundation stage blog. We will also be having our Christmas party on the Friday afternoon, so please send your child into school with their party clothes and if possible send them in with some yummy food to share with their friends. Please can the girls bring in sweet snacks and the boys bring in savoury snacks. Thank you.
HOW YOU CAN HELP US
· Please listen to your child’s fabulous reading once a day and comment in their reading record.
· Please practise counting to 100 and recognising and writing numbers to 30 with your child.
· 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.
Thank you for your continued support.
Miss Lambert, Miss Pyatt and the Reception Team
Key Stage 1
Home Learning:
Bug Club has been up and running for nearly four weeks now and it is proving to be a great way for the children to really enjoy and feel incentivised around reading at home. So many children have told us all about the dragons and tree houses they’re building with the points earned from answering comprehension questions and honestly the progress seen in the children who are accessing it regularly is profound. For this week’s home learning we would like for the children to sign in to their Bug Club page and choose 3 books to read before answering the questions on it. We aren’t asking for a book review (although should your child want to wow us with one, then we wouldn’t say no!) just that you record what they have read in their reading records with a comment on how they accessed it. We will ‘mark’ this home learning by checking which books have been read and how many attempts they needed to answer the questions through our Bug Club login and they will receive a certificate if they take part in the 3 book challenge…Get reading!
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News:
KS1 theatre trip!
After sharing a delicious early Christmas lunch together we set off to the theatre. Our trip to the theatre was such fun and provided some light relief for all after a busy first term. As predicted the children did not fail to make us proud with their behaviour, grown up attitudes and enthusiasm for the whole afternoon. With some top acting tips stored, all our KS1 actors returned with renewed vigour for our performance of The Fairytale Nativity Show next week. I’m sure that we will be (semi) professional by then!
Costume call out!
We are all very aware of just how lucky we are to have such supportive parents and carers in our key stage and so would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone for sending in some truly fantastic costumes for our play. The children are going to look amazing!
If your child hasn’t brought in their costume this week, the deadline to ensure at least one dress rehearsal in lieu of our first performance is Monday 17th December.
Tickets for our performance:
There will not be tickets for our Christmas performances because they would most certainly have sold out causing untold disappointment for all affected. Whichever date suits you best, come on down and enjoy!
KS1 party
Thursday 20th December, KS1 are having a party to see out term one with a bang. Children will be able to get changed into their best boogie clothes at lunchtime and are allowed to bring in party food and/or some juice – nothing fizzy though. Any donations of paper cups and plates for the event will be gratefully received.
Literacy
The creative crafts from last week’s home learning have spilled over into our literacy this week, seeing us follow instructions for making our own class Christmas decorations. Year 1 have conquered making a snowman garland, embellishing their designs with much needed hats, scarves and of course, sequins. Year 1-2 have made some very cute looking ‘Dangling Reindeer’ – the name bestowed by the instruction book, not us! While Year 2 have made some beautiful, imprinted foil birds. The start of the week saw us focusing on our speaking and listening skills; playing barrier games where one child describes in detail a picture for another child to draw as precisely as possible. This was not only really fun for the children but also just as interesting for us as teachers to watch how they used just their words and knowledge of positional vocabulary to fulfil the challenge. Discussions took place around the language used: time connectives, ‘bossy’ verbs (draw, pick up, tie, cut) and adverbs (neatly, carefully) for clearer descriptions, before we drew numbered diagrams and added written instructions. Next week sees us swapping our written instructions between classes to try and make one another’s decorations before Mrs Dale and Miss Hinton come in to judge the best, most Christmassy classroom!
Numeracy
We have been trialling a new format throughout our consolidation of addition and subtraction where, by the end of the whole class teach the children assess their ability to access the different levels of challenge we have looked at and choose an appropriate traffic light colour to go into group learning with. This is a very mature ask of all the children in the key stage but as the week progressed the children definitely became more confident in selecting the right pitch for themselves (whether it be a lower OR higher challenge) and was a great way of reinforcing our motto: “If you get it wrong it’s OK because then you’re really learning”. All in all, it’s been a great week centred around adding more than 2 numbers together and word problems focusing on ‘find the difference’ and ‘how many more’ style questions – both of which were a sticking point during assessment week.
Lower Key Stage 2 Newsletter
We have had another fun filled week of exciting learning in 3/4! The children have blown us away with their amazing persuasive adverts during literacy and their fantastic calculation strategies in numeracy, whilst tackling tricky word problems. We have also been busy with rehearsals for our Christmas production and have been blown away with the children’s superb acting, singing and dancing. This year’s show is absolutely fantastic and we strongly recommend, you come along to see all of or amazing, talented children in 3/4. Our performances are on Tuesday 18th December 2:00pm – 3:00pm and Wednesday 19th December 6:00pm – 7:00pm. We would like to thank everyone who has sent in jam jars, we will be using them next week during our Christmas activities to create some festive lanterns.
Home Learning
For the children’s home learning we would like you to continue to encourage your child to read at home as much as possible and record this reading in their reading records. If your child is part of bug club please encourage them to keep collecting points by reading their allocated books and completing the quizzes. Thank you for your support with helping the children to learn their spellings every week. We are really pleased with those who practice hard to get 10/10. We would also like to thank you for supporting your child with improving their star write challenges, we have been very pleased to see the children are not simply copying their writing, but are thinking about how to make it better by reading the target their teacher has set them. We feel this support from you at home is valuable in ensuring your child makes progress, so thank you for working with us on this.
Literacy
This week the children have been learning how to change both nouns and adjectives into adverbials by adding ly. Why don’t you ask your child to teach you to play the adverb game, where you have to guess the adverb being used to describe a noun e.g. eating quickly, driving carefully and reading loudly.
Topic
In our topic sessions this week, the children have written some persuasive advertisement posters about our Christmas production. Everyone has worked really hard with their drawings and has used their beautiful colouring skills to decorate these, ensuring we are colouring in, in the same direction.
Numeracy
This week the children have been using written strategies to solve word problems including both addition and subtraction. The children have gained great confidence when using column subtraction to borrow tens and carry tens over when adding. Please ask your child to show you some examples of these; they will blow your socks off. If you visit our fantastic 3/4 blog there are lots of great numeracy games involving both addition and subtraction games to play on.
Spellings to be tested on Tuesday 8th January (the children already have their spellings for this Monday)
Group One
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Group Two
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locking
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thief
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sucking
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thieves
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rocking
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leaf
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ticking
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leaves
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picking
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half
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checking
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halves
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shocking
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wolf
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ringing
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wolves
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banging
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knife
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mixing
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knives
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Have a lovely weekend!
Team 3/4
UKS2 News Roundup:
· This week, our achiever is all the children in Year 5/6 for their fantastic attitude and enthusiasm during our South American Carnival on Tuesday! All the children made us really proud when they showed off all their learning from the last half term – well done everybody!
· Dates for your diary
Monday 17th December: Year 6 visit to Rodillian to watch their pantomime. We will be leaving school at 11am and return before the end of the school day. Please make sure you have a packed lunch.
Thursday 20th December: Christmas Party. Donations of cakes, crisps, biscuits or sugar free drinks are welcomed. Lunch will be as usual. Remember to bring your party clothes!
Friday 21st December: Christmas Service and Carols Around the Tree led by Year 5/6
Numeracy:
· This week, the children have been solving multi-step Christmas problems, including solving riddles to Christmas jokes by solving clues and also solving ‘Calcograms’ where the children needed to use a calculator to solve further clues – lots of festive fun in Numeracy!
· In mental maths we have been focussing on all of our times tables. If you would like any further practise, visit http://robinhood56.blogspot.co.uk/ and click on Numeracy. There is a link to ‘Hit the Button’ which is being used to practise all times tables. There are also lots of free iPad apps to help with times tables – Multiple Wipeout is a particular favourite of ours.
Literacy:
· In Literacy, the children have been writing travel guides to persuade people to visit Lapland ! The children have been applying all the features we have been learning about over the last few weeks, including: adjectives, adverbs, figurative language, prepositions and super sentence starters.
· SPELLINGS – we will be testing the children on 20 random spelling from this half term and a new set of spellings will be sent home to learn over the Christmas holidays.
Other areas of the curriculum:
· In Topic, we have been making South American masks and have been busy baking Alfajores, a traditional South American biscuit, for our carnival on Tuesday – these outcomes were a lovely finishing touch to our carnival and everybody had lots of messy fun making them!
· In ICT, the children have been continuing to develop their South American documentaries using iMovie ready to show at our Carnival!
· In Spanish, we have been practising our Christmas songs in preparation for the Carols Around the Tree.
In Music, 5/6B have completed and recorded their own compositions of traditional Christmas songs using Garageband. 5/6M have been continuing to play the notes B, A, G and C using the recorder! 5/6G have been playing a ‘Fruit Salad Samba’ using percussion with Mr Major – some of you were lucky enough to watch a short performance of this at our carnival!
· In Science, we have been exploring the theories of evolution and adaptation in all living organisms.
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