Newsletter Issue 16 |
Friday 13th January 2012
|
Dear Parent/Carer,
We have had a fantastic first full week back after the Christmas Break. Learning is in full swing and the children are well and truly involved in their new topics.
Mad Science
Key Stage 2 started the week with a visit from “Nuclear Nick”, who brought our Monday assembly to life with his impressive Science experiments. The children will have the opportunity to sign up to a “Mad Science” after school club by completing the booking form. Please see Mrs Holland at the front desk if your child is interested in signing up for this club.
Clubs
We have had a tremendous turn out for the after school clubs this week. We are very fortunate at Robin Hood to have staff who are dedicated to using their talents in providing high quality after school learning. We do ask if your child has decided that they do not want to attend a club for which they have signed up, that you inform the member of staff who leads the club. Thank you.
GTPs
Welcome to Nina Cheetham and Tony Wilcox, who are joining us this half term as part of the Graduate Teaching Program. They are a valuable addition to our team. Miss Cheetham is working in Miss Hinton’s class and Mr Wilcox is working in Miss Mees’ class.
Success for an ex pupil
Year 5/6 enjoyed a fantastic Drama day at the West Yorkshire Playhouse last week. We thoroughly enjoyed the performance of Annie. Miss Gascoigne’s class were treated to a performance by one of our ex pupils, Paige Tye, who was playing a prominent role as one of the orphans. We were so impressed by her dancing, singing and acting and even got the chance to leave a card of encouragement in her dressing room!
Year 6 parent consultations
Next week, the Year 6 teachers will be conducting Parent Meetings. We are always very proud of the fantastic relationship we have with parents and know that this will be a purposeful opportunity to talk through progress, next steps and how we can support each other in enabling the children to be the very best that they can be.
Have a great weekend,
Mr Wilson
Nursery Newsletter
NEWS ROUND UP
The children have had a fabulous week in Nursery. The children have been talking about their own pets and have shown that they are very responsible pet owners, sharing some very important ideas about how we look after our pets.
THIS WEEK
We have been designing our very own pet carriers. The children worked collaboratively to draw their ideas, and then used their plan to create their model. The outcome was incredible so please take a look at the blog to see the finished results.
In Numeracy the children have been looking at addition, adding 2 small groups together to find the total, and in Literacy we have been focusing on our pencil control and letter formation, whilst designing our very own pet posters!
NEXT WEEK
The children will be visited by Zoo Lab. This fabulous visit will allow the children to meet some interesting small animals and provide an opportunity for the children to handle some cuddly pets too! We will be using the visit to support the learning in the setting and to develop our knowledge around small animals. Please could you inform us if your child has any allergies to small animals.
How you can help us
Please return your child’s reading record and name writing book on a Wednesday (Group 1) or Friday (Group 2).
Encourage your child to spot words, letters and numbers in the environment.
Provide opportunities for writing e.g. making a list when visiting the supermarket, drawing pictures and labelling, making letter shapes in flour / foam / water etc.
Find time to colour with your child. Maybe buy a new colouring book and enjoy colouring the picture together, thinking about colour choice, keeping inside the lines and keeping the pencil direction going the same way.
We are running very low on spare clothing especially for boys, and in particular trousers. If anyone is able to donate their child’s clothes that they have out grown we would be very grateful.
Also now that the children have settled into Nursery confidently, could we please ask that they no longer bring in toys from home.
Many thanks for your continued support
Have a super weekend.
Miss Bradshaw and the Nursery team
RECEPTION NEWS ROUND UP
This week we have had another 'pet - tastic' week in Reception and the children continue to amaze us with their attitudes and their independence. Well done! If you are one of the few children who can't yet fasten up your own coat, please can you keep practising this at home. Thank you!
THIS WEEK
We have been learning all about Pets and their habitats. The children have created some fabulous pet carriers which they have designed and built to their own specifications. I am sure that Miss Bradshaw will be relieved to know that if she has to take her pet cat to the vets, she can rely on Reception to design a safe way of carrying him!
In numeracy we have been sorting pets by different criteria and we have been investigating the most popular pets. We have then put this information on a tally chart and even produced some graphs using the 2Simple programme.
NEXT WEEK
We have an exciting visit on Monday with the Zoolab visiting us. http://www.zoolabuk.com/content/animal-handling-workshops.html
They are going to run a pet workshop in the morning where the children will find out about the different types of pets that people have, what they like to eat and how to care for them. There will even be the opportunity to hold and stroke the pets!
If your child has any allergies that you feel may be affected by this experience, please let Miss Lambert or Mrs Steel know as soon as possible. Thank you
We will also be identifying some mystery farm animals sounds, learning the song Old Macdonald has a Farm and creating some super habitats for our farm display.
HOW YOU CAN HELP US
Please continue to support your child by engaging with our blog and by completing and handing in their home learning on a Monday morning. We have noticed some amazing reading going on in Reception, so next week we will be carrying out our assessments and hopefully moving some children onto the next reading band. The children who have made amazing progress in their reading do read at home every day for about five minutes!
Thank you for your support
KS1 Newsletter
It has been another fantastic week in Key Stage 1 and the children have been busy, busy, busy learning lots of new facts about the Rainforest. Please check out the KS1 blog for pictures of the posters the children have created!!!
Home Learning
The KS1 team have been very impressed with the home learning the children have produced. These have gone up on display in the classroom and been shared among the other classes. We would like to thank you, parent/carers, for your continued support in creating fantastic posters/fact files/PowerPoints at home. The children are always very excited to show off their creations on a Monday morning, which is so nice to see.
This weeks Home Learning is a Numeracy focus continuing the learning on 2D shapes. Please hand the pictures and books in on Monday 16th January.
Fund Raising event
Home Learning
The KS1 team have been very impressed with the home learning the children have produced. These have gone up on display in the classroom and been shared among the other classes. We would like to thank you, parent/carers, for your continued support in creating fantastic posters/fact files/PowerPoints at home. The children are always very excited to show off their creations on a Monday morning, which is so nice to see.
This weeks Home Learning is a Numeracy focus continuing the learning on 2D shapes. Please hand the pictures and books in on Monday 16th January.
Fund Raising event
As part of our ‘Rainforest’ topic this half term, the children have learnt about deforestation and the global effects and the destruction of habitats. This half term the children will be creating a stuffed animal and animal art pictures which they will be producing in order to sell at a fund raising event, using the money raised to adopt an endangered animal. During the next two weeks the children will be writing an invitation to send home, to invite you to the event which will be held on Thursday 2nd February at 2:15pm - 3:00pm. We hope you can support our quest to adopt an endangered animal and continue to celebrate the children's learning.
Numeracy
This week in Numeracy the children have continued to look at 2D and 3D shapes, discussing the properties using the language face, edge, vertices, corner, side. They have continued to sort the shapes according to their properties and discuss the reason for their groupings. Across the week the children have been investigating the concept of symmetry and how to find the line of symmetry.
During the mental maths sessions the children have continued to develop their addition skills and quick recall of addition facts. Please continue to support your child at home giving them 2 single digit numbers to add together.
Next week the children will continue to look at symmetry, finding more than one line of symmetry within a shape and discussing how they know it is symmetrical (both sides of the shape are the same). The children will investigate which shape has the most lines of symmetry and why. The children will progress onto looking at tessellation and how shapes can fit together without leaving any gaps to create a pattern. Keep checking out the KS1 blog for examples of these!!
Literacy
This week in Literacy the children have written an invitation to their Mr Men character (Mr Greedy Year 1, Mr Strong Year 1/2, Mr Silly Year 1). The children have structured their invitation to include the following:
Literacy
This week in Literacy the children have written an invitation to their Mr Men character (Mr Greedy Year 1, Mr Strong Year 1/2, Mr Silly Year 1). The children have structured their invitation to include the following:
Opening paragraph - telling the character what they are being inviting to and why they should come. The children have used enticing phrases such 'You can't afford to miss this party' 'You won’t believe your eyes....'
Events Paragraph - telling the character about the games which they will play when they come to the party using verbs (describing words) and adverbs (describing the verb).
Boring details - Telling the reader the Date, Time, Place, Telephone Number.
Boring details - Telling the reader the Date, Time, Place, Telephone Number.
Close - where the children beg their character.
Each class will have a party on Monday and hope to see their Mr Men character there! If the children want to bring in some party clothes they are welcome to do so. The children need to come to school in their school uniform and can get changed when the party starts.
LKS2 Newsletter
Another exciting and lively week has taken place in year 3/4. We started the week by recreating our very own evacuation to the countryside. The children investigated what they would need to pack in their suitcase and re-enacted scenes from the train station. We even created our very own freeze frames, imagining how the children must have been feeling at that time.
To celebrate the end of the war we will be holding our very own VE day party in the hall to share our fantastic outcomes from the unit with parents and carers. This will be held on Tuesday 7th of February at 2:30pm, in the school hall. We will be asking the children to be dressed in traditional 1940's outfits.
Literacy
After recreating the scene at the train station, the children have imagined what their journey on the train would have been like, who their host families were and made a prediction about what their new life in the country was like. The children have been using a variety of Ozzy Openers, Violet Vocabulary, Captain Connectives and Pete Punctuation. As part of our WW2 topic, the children have begun to publish their writes and create their very own journal. The children's presentation has been beautiful and we are very excited to see the finished outcome and share them with you at our VE Day celebration next month.
After recreating the scene at the train station, the children have imagined what their journey on the train would have been like, who their host families were and made a prediction about what their new life in the country was like. The children have been using a variety of Ozzy Openers, Violet Vocabulary, Captain Connectives and Pete Punctuation. As part of our WW2 topic, the children have begun to publish their writes and create their very own journal. The children's presentation has been beautiful and we are very excited to see the finished outcome and share them with you at our VE Day celebration next month.
Numeracy
This week we have continued to look at units of measurement for length. The children have applied their understanding of conversions and have been finding the perimeters of simple and compound shapes. We are continuing to have a HUGE push on the children's times tables recall. Please practise times tables with your child, up to 12x12 as this will support their multiplication skills next half term. This game is a fun way to practice your times table skills.
This week we have continued to look at units of measurement for length. The children have applied their understanding of conversions and have been finding the perimeters of simple and compound shapes. We are continuing to have a HUGE push on the children's times tables recall. Please practise times tables with your child, up to 12x12 as this will support their multiplication skills next half term. This game is a fun way to practice your times table skills.
This week we have also begun our Art, ICT and PE sessions. We have been very impressed, as always, with the children's superb listening skills.
Please ensure your child has a warm, outdoor PE kit in school. 3/4T and 3/4N on Tuesdays, 3/4M on Thursdays.
Have a great weekend
Year 3/4 team
UKS2 News Roundup:
- Congratulations to the Year 5 children in 56G for your excellent attention to detail with your Ancient Greece Home Learning. We were really stunned with the high quality outcomes which were produced and we really enjoyed hearing all about what you had found out!
- Year 6 Parent Consultations will take place next week: Miss Darroch- Monday 16th January; Miss Gascoigne- Tuesday 17th January; Mrs Brook- Thursday 19th January.
- We thank the Year 5 children for their Home Learning about
Greece - Another big well done to the Year 6 children for your wonderful engagement with your Home Learning... keep up the fantastic effort!
- Visit our Topic blogs!
Numeracy:
- In Numeracy this week, we have been handling data with an Annie theme! We have also been learning all about using formulae in electronic databases in order to sort and filter data. Next week we will be learning about factors, prime numbers, common multiples and square numbers.
- Home Learning: To give you a 'step ahead' ready for our Numeracy sessions next week, why not try the iPod / iphone app 'Multiple Wipeout' or 'Ghostblasters' to help with multiples. http://www.fieryideas.co.uk/tnt.html is also another excellent resource to support the learning and reinforcement of times table skills. Please note that we are happy for the Year 6 children to carry out continuing work on their forthcoming SATs packs as an alternative to this learning.
Literacy:
- This week, we have been using figurative language to describe the characters and settings from the Annie story. The children have retold the Annie story and made decisions about the key events to include.
- Next week, our focus will be on creating suspense, tension and anticipation in writing. We'll be looking at a range of techniques which enable us to do this. We'll also be looking at how we can infer information about a character.
- Home Learning: This week's spellings are linked to our writing focus next week. Minotaur, Medusa, Cerberus, Percy, petite, hideous, ghastly, gruesome, immense, powerful.
Other areas of the curriculum:
- In Topic, the children have been reading to learn facts about their historical research focus. We've begun to collate learning together to identify areas for further research and development. The Theatre Direction Teams have been writing scripts for the Greek myth which the drama production will be based on.
- In RE, we're learning about the Prophet Muhammad and his importance to Muslims.
