Welcome to the Sparrows Class!
Staff
Teacher: Maria Hallett
TAs: Katie Harris, Gaynor Brownstein, Ellie Dearden and Stephanie Heywood
Newsletter
Food Glorious Food
We have had a great half term in the Sparrows class and have focused our learning around the topic ‘Food Glorious Food’.
In English, we have continued to create sentences & captions using the ‘Colourful Semantics Approach’. This supports us to really think about the structure of a sentence and the key parts involved. To support and develop our thought processes, we focused on the key questions Who? What? where? and When? We have continued to work on how to use full stops and capital letters within our writing as well as how to share our sentence aloud to support us with proofreading our work. We have continued to explore the use of adjectives and how these can be used in our writing. In Phonics, we have continued to progress through Phase 4 – 5 sounds. Through games & carefully planned activities we have explored how to segment & blend to read unfamiliar words. The children have worked hard to use this phonic knowledge to read words across the curriculum.
In Maths, we have continued to focus on both the skills of addition and subtraction using different apparatus to support us. In Using and Applying we have focused on measuring using non – standard and standard units. We have explored capacity and length. We have also explored creating our own 2 – 4 step pattern.e.g. 2 3 4 5 2 3 4 5.
In PE, we have continued to work on the skills of balance, agility and co-ordination. We have been able to apply these skills in a range of activities including navigating a ball around cones, coordinating a bat and ball and throwing a ball at a target.
In PSHE, we have focused on the theme ‘Being Me in My World – Families and People Who Care for Me’. Through discussions and carefully planned activities we have developed our understanding that families are different across the UK, and the world and how we must respect these differences. We had fun exploring all of the family photographs that have kindly been sent in; we took great pride of joy to share these within our class.
In RE, we developed our core beliefs and concepts through exploring ‘What is Special About Our World’. We focused on the importance of nature and how we can contribute to keeping our world clean. Through role play & story boxes, we became familiar with the Creation story told by Christians. We also had the opportunity to explore the similarities and the differences between the Islamic story of the Creation. We had lots of opportunities to respond creatively to the Creation stories.
In Geography, we explored ‘Locational Knowledge’. We have explored maps and globes and used our knowledge to name and locate the world’s seven continents and five oceans. We enjoyed learning facts about the 7 different continents .e.g. tomatoes, potatoes and chocolate all come from South America originally.
In Computing, we explored ‘Grouping Data’. We explored how data is all around us. Together we gathered data by observing an event and recording the data gathered as marks on a piece of paper. We then developed this process by adding up the marks and shared the results by creating a graph or chart. Finally we used data loggers and collected different sources of data.
Have a lovely Easter break,
The Sparrows
Signalong
At Halcyon Way we use Signalong as a part of a Total Communication Approach, we are constantly using core vocabulary with the children to support their language development and then through each of our topics we introduce new signs and language, which extends their vocabulary further. We also have two “Signs of the Week” which helps maintain and extend key knowledge and skills of everyday vocabulary.
Each half term we will be creating a short video showcasing and demonstrating signs relavent for the current term so that you can learn the signs and further this learning at home.
Click play to watch this half terms Signalong video!
Lunchtime
If your child has a school dinner, the school menus can be accessed by clicking here. For children who bring a packed lunch, please remember to provide healthy and balanced options. We are a Healthy School and will be focusing on healthy eating and how children can make healthy lifestyle choices.
How You Can Help at Home
The following activities are suggested as appropriate homework activities which you can enjoy with your child and reinforce the learning, we are focussing on this half term –
- Ask your child to say 1 thing that they have learnt at school that day, this helps your child to structure his/her ideas and offers a good discussion point for you as parents.
- Discuss the theme ‘The World In My Town’. Can your child identify features of their local area? Together explore where they live on ‘Google Maps’. Can they identify their street? nearby shops? nearby parks?
- Encourage your child to explore basic movements both indoors and outdoors. Together explore the skill of ‘Dance’. Explore different movements with your child and add music to encourage your child to move in creative ways. Give your child scarves or even bubbles to build into their movement patterns. Display the Kidz Bop dance tutorial video & together work through the dance moves! https://youtu.be/Ojblhvzvjsk?si=Qo1mxwfvspqSK4S6
- Discuss the importance of being healthy. Together explore healthy and unhealthy food items. Display the following video by Jack Hartmann and use it as a starting point for your child https://youtu.be/5dR22hbln6w?si=yF2SgRwGKrxJElOU
- Discuss the importance of exercise to stay healthy. Together work through ‘The Body Coach’ videos https://youtu.be/Qjcw2Vov_5k?si=6jcMw3wriE519JH7
- Using books & the internet explore light and dark. Support your child to understand that we need light in order to see things and that dark is the absence of light. Identify and explore reflective surfaces & learn why light and bright colours are important to keep us safe in the dark.
- Using books & the internet explore the artist, L. S. Lowry. Browse his work & encourage your child to share their views. Encourage your child to interpret the work of the artist & to create their own.
- Continue to play shop with your child & explore the value of each coin. Encourage them to use different coins for the same value. Allow your child to experience paying for items in a shop setting.
- Continue to identify 2D and 3D shapes around the home and when outside. Focus on the shape name, amount of sides, faces, edges & corners.
- Encourage your child to solve practical problems involving measure. Can they order objects by size? Can they recognise the appropriate way of measuring objects – using a ruler, measuring jug or scales.
- Reinforce good hygiene with your child and talk about the importance of keeping the body clean. With support encourage and allow them to take some responsibility for their own personal care. Demonstrate good handwashing & model how to catch a sneeze in the crease of your elbow. Share this video with your child: How to catch a sneeze https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zqJHbdj_nV8
- Continue to explore feelings with your child; model different feelings & how we can express our feelings in a safe manner. See link for feelings song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-J7HcVLsCrY
- More importantly when you are at home spend time with your family. Read a book together, watch a film together, cook a meal together and stay socially aware and safe in your community.
