Our blogs

Maths - Money, by Mrs Catterall

Date: 18th Jan 2024 @ 8:03pm

Over the last few weeks we have been learning about money in Maths.  This is quite tricky at times as, since covid, lots of us don't have as much cash and coins about.  

I have asked the children to have a look at home to see if they have some play money or make some coins out of cardboard.   They could use their toys to make price labels for them and practice making the correct amount with the coins they have made.  Make it into a shop. 

Next week we will be focusing more on adding 2 amounts together and finding the change from a £1 or more depending on the price of things. 

The children need lots of practse with this - I have added a link to some interactive games which might help them continue to practise these skills.

https://www.topmarks.co.uk/maths-games/5-7-years/money 

One aspect the children need to be clear on is that there are 100 pence in £1.   You need to add up the pounds and then add up the pence - you can't add all the numbers on the notes and coins together.

e.g. £2 £1 50p 5p 2p 1p       This adds up to £3 and 58p  not £61 or 61p

 

koalas first aid, by Mr Pearson

Date: 18th Jan 2024 @ 4:35pm

We received a lesson about emergency first aid. Recovery position. CPR and chocking were some of the first aid skills taught. 

Author Visit, by Mrs Catterall

Date: 17th Jan 2024 @ 9:59pm

Today we have been very lucky to be able to invite an author and illustrator into our classroom, via zoom.  We were joined bu other year 2 classes from the Axia schools. 

Paul Morton has written 2 stories - 'Bug Belly Babysitting Trouble' and 'Bug Belly Froggy Rescue'.    He shared with us his love of frogs and showed us a range of frogs of all colurs of the rainbow.  Did you know in the Uk with only have 3 types of frogs, In Brazil there are 2500 types and in the world - 8500!  The smallest frog is about the size of your thumb nail.  The largest frog is called the Goliath frog. 

Paul showed us some of his illustrations and the process he goes through to create his scrapbooks and ideas. 

After our zoom visit we looked at part of his graphics website.  Before he became an authour and illustrator Paul used to draw and design packaging for a range of foods and chocolates.  We were very impressed. 

https://www.fivequills.co.uk/authors-and-illustrators/paul-morton/

https://www.hotfroggraphics.com/ 

First Aid, by Mrs Catterall

Date: 17th Jan 2024 @ 9:44pm

We had a fabulous afternoon with Andrea from Mini First Aid.  www.lancashire.minifirstaid.co.uk

we helped look after big ted by learning about the correct way to put on a plaster and why we might need to do this. 

We talked about bumps to our head and the importance of making sure an adult knows, we used a cold compress.

We talked about how we ring for an ambulance.  The children will be bringing home on Thursday (in homework folders) a piece of paper which you can fill in together.    Andrea asked the children to get their adult to write their address on it and put it somehwere where it can be seen, help the children to learn what their address is in case they ever need to let someone know in an emergency.  We talked about how we dont give information to people we don't know, but if we needed to ring 999 then we would need to tell them where they were so they can send help. 

We also learnt how to put someone into the recovery position.  We used the phrases-   hello, knees up, cheeky, over to me and chinny chin chin. See if you can match the words to some of the actions in the photos. 

 

 

 

Science Exercise, by Mrs Catterall

Date: 17th Jan 2024 @ 9:34pm

In Science this week explored the effect of exercise on or bodies.

 

We spent 1 minute doing jumping jacks, recording our heart rates before and after. We found out that our hearts beat faster after exercise, we were also breathing faster and we felt warmer. 

Our muscles need oxygen, we breath in air, the oxygen goes into our blood and the heart pumps the blood around the body. 

We also practised balancing on one legs with our eyes open and with our eyes closed.  It was a lot harder with our eyes closed. 

 

 

Stone Age trip to Brockholes, by Mrs Simpson

Date: 17th Jan 2024 @ 4:04pm

Year 3 enjoyed learning about the Stone Age on their visit to Brockholes Nature Reserve. It was a cold, icy day but that didn’t spoil the fun!

We started the day learning how to use the forest to build Stone Age shelters. We were really successful at this and made some fantastic, strong structures.

Then we learnt all about food that the forest provides and went foraging for berries and nuts. We learnt which plants were suitable for eating and which plants were poisonous.

In the afternoon we played a Stone Age hunting game, made cave drawings on rocks and learnt how to make a fire. We even got to roast tasty marshmallows!

Monday and Tuesday, by Mrs Fletcher

Date: 16th Jan 2024 @ 9:13pm

Monday

Phonics

Spelling - feeling the shape of this week's words

Reading - this week we are focusing on developing our summarising skills.

Geography - finding longtitude and latitude coordinates of given captial cities

Maths - learnning about imperial measures

PE - passing, dribblind and tackling in hockey

English - rewriting informal sentences in a more formal manner.

 

Tuesday

Phonics

Spelling - using each of our spellings in a sentence to show that we understand their meaning.

Reading - more summarising skills this time using a poenm as our text

Fluent in Five

First Aid - one and a half hours learning first aid skills. Everyone did brilliantly.

Maths - making sure that we really undersatnd imperial measures.

English - revising word classes by picking words from a given list , identifying their word class and then writing a definition of the word to show what it measns as part of that class.

 

 

 

 

A snowy start!, by Mrs Thomson

Date: 16th Jan 2024 @ 7:43pm

What an exciting start to the day! After register we headed out straight away for some snow fun! We built a snowman, made snow angels and you can imagine what happened when Mr. Brown appeared!

The day just got better and better when the penguins got in the pjs for their class compliment! They had hot chocolate, whipped cream and marshmallows followed by fruit and biscuits. They danced, played games and then watched the short film of our class story - Lost and Found.

Please do not worry if your reading book was not changed today. Mrs. Regan has changed half of the class today and everyone else will have their book changed in the morning.

Mrs. Thomson

Learning so far this week..., by Mrs Pratten

Date: 16th Jan 2024 @ 6:09pm

This week we have enjoyed using a classification key to identify UK mammals, we have used different resources to help us with place value in Maths. Today we had a little walk out in the snow... it was very cold and slippy...definitely winter!!

Amazing Animals!, by Mrs Thomson

Date: 14th Jan 2024 @ 4:43pm

It was lovely to have the penguins back this week as we began our new topic of ‘Amazing Animals’. The children were very happy to see each other and we had to extend our sharing time to make sure everyone had the opportunity to talk about their Christmas and New year break. 

Thank you for sending the ‘All about me’ books back to school. The penguins have enjoyed sharing these already.

Our week started with our story ‘Lost and found’. We have enjoyed adding speech to this story and by the end of the week the children had made their own story maps identifying the beginning, the middle and the end of the story. We have been learning facts about penguins and other animals that live in the cold. 

During the week we froze some of our penguin toys and then tested where the best place was to help our penguins escape. 

The children have enjoyed having water colour painting, new rainbow words, snowflakes to cut and going on a zero hunt.

Our wow words from this week have been - perseverance, liquid, solid, freeze, melt, help, zero, challenge and smile. 

In phonics we have been reading words which have either the zz, sp or sl sound in them. Next we we will be looking at words that begin with sn.

Tuesday - 

I am sure you will have heard the good news from your penguin that we have now achieved all of our class compliments (we achieve a star when visitors and staff around school see the whole class shining together) After a class vote it was decided that the penguins would like a pyjama afternoon and to watch a short film. We are planning to do this on Tuesday afternoon.

The children have asked to bring in -

warm pyjamas / onesie 

slippers (optional as school shoes will already be in school)

Teddy (small soft toy)

Please send these in a named plastic bag if they will not fit in the school book bag. 

Welcome back to Spring 1, by Mrs Catterall

Date: 14th Jan 2024 @ 3:42pm

Welcome back to the Spring term. 

It only a short one but action packed with fun and learning.

I have attached the subject organiser for this half term which tells you all about the topics we will be covering. 

Projects are due in Thursday 25th January.  They can related to any of our topics or something your child is interested in.

It is parents evening in a few weeks but if you have any questions or queries at any time please pop in and see us. 

 

 

Thank you, by Mrs Catterall

Date: 14th Jan 2024 @ 3:34pm

To all our wonderful Lions and their families.

Miss Harrison and I would like to thank you all for the lovely gifts, it was a lovely surprise.

We hope you all had a wonderful Xmas break with your families.  It was lovely to here from the children about their favourite Christmas memories.

There memories weren't about what they got but the times they spent together with friends and family.

Excitable Edgar setting description, by Mrs Catterall

Date: 14th Jan 2024 @ 3:25pm

Christmas cards, by Mrs Catterall

Date: 14th Jan 2024 @ 3:21pm

Christmas party, by Mrs Catterall

Date: 14th Jan 2024 @ 3:17pm

Christmas Dinner, by Mrs Catterall

Date: 14th Jan 2024 @ 3:15pm

Fantastic Giraffes, by Mrs Pratten

Date: 12th Jan 2024 @ 6:28pm

We have had a great first week back, lots of fantastic learning. We have started our new topics in Geography and Science, in Geography learning about the 7 continents and Science describing animals.

In English we have started our non fiction unit on nocturnal animals, learning some great facts, ask your children what they can remember about bush babies, bats or owls! We are enjoying our story book ,The owl who was afraid of the dark, all about a funny baby owl called Plop.

In maths we have continued to learn about place value, how many tens and ones are in numbers up to 20.

Have a great weekend   - don’t forget projects are coming up soon, I have put our learning for this half term on the blog , it is also on the notice board too- enjoy being creative:)

A great first week back for the Panda Tribe, by Mr Kennedy

Date: 12th Jan 2024 @ 1:51pm

A great first week back for the Panda Tribe. We have kick-started all of our new units for this term! They are looking forward to exploring more into teeth and digestion and balances, lifts and using apparatus in PE and an exciting few weeks coming up!

Update, by Mrs Fletcher

Date: 12th Jan 2024 @ 11:49am

WOW this week has gone so quickly. 

Thursday 

Phonics 

Spelling check on this week's spellings.

Reading - learning about the discovery of DNA.

Science researching the life and work of Stephen Hawking and making our own black holes.

English - choosing our own area of focus - complete sentences, correcting punctuation errors or identifying the subject, verb , object within sentences.

Maths - fluent in five, reasoning and then converting miles into kilometers and vice versa.

 

Friday 

Music

Drama

Computing

Sport 

Art

The class have settled back into learning really well and have had an amazing week. They have loved the new timetable so we have started 2024 in the best way possible.

Have a great weekend everyone

Mrs Fletcher 

 

Dictionary investigation, by Mr Pearson

Date: 11th Jan 2024 @ 11:33am

Using dictionaries to investigate new words today in English as part of a task. The Koalas had an amazing time. 

Welcome Back, by Mrs Fletcher

Date: 10th Jan 2024 @ 2:35pm

Happy New Year .

On behalf of myself, Mrs Atkinson and Mrs Doherty I would like to thank you for all of the lovely gifts we received at Christmas.

Our week so far :

MONDAY 

Morning task - phonics

Spelling adding cial and tial

Reading response - Alan Turing 

Geography - learning about longtitude and latitude

English - writing new endings for The Highwayman poem

PE - passing skills in hockey

Maths - metric measures 

 

TUESDAY

Morning task

Spelling - look, say, cover, write, check

Reading  - Alexander Fleming

RE- The Five Pillars of Islam

Jigsaw - dreams and goals 

Maths - converting metric measures

English - research facts about a given Greek god or goddess

 

WEDNESDAY 

sale 

Morning Task

Spelling - speedy spell

 Reading response - Charles Babbage and Ada Lovelace

Maths - calculating wit mteric measures

English - discussing our new text 

DT - preparing for our enterprise 

 

January letter to parents - Penguins., by Mrs Thomson

Date: 7th Jan 2024 @ 11:06am

Christmas Week Pictures., by Mrs Thomson

Date: 3rd Jan 2024 @ 6:21pm

Some pictures for you to enjoy from our last week before Christmas. I hope everyone is having a lovely break - Happy New Year!

See you all soon, Mrs. Thomson.

Happy Christmas!, by Mrs Pratten

Date: 22nd Dec 2023 @ 5:20pm

Mrs Regan and I would like to say a vey big thank you for our lovely gifts, we feel very spoilt, its much appreciated. 

We hope you all have a fabulous Christmas, only 3 more get ups Giraffes!!!

Enjoy celebrating wth your lovely children and we will see you all in 2024!!  

Elephant Catch Up, by Mrs Fletcher

Date: 22nd Dec 2023 @ 9:42am

Thursday

The morning was spent researching interesting facts about 6 major world religions - the class loved this - and creating amazing mind maps to showcase all of their knowledge from the autumn terms learnong.

The afternoon was spent partying at the Year 5 and 6 Christmas party. Theo, Poppy and Sienna did an amazing job as DJs/

 

Friday 

Christmas cards and carols in French

Computing 

Dodgeball 

Thank you to you all for your support this term it is very much appreciated. Thank you also for the gifts and cards myself, Mrs Atkinson and Mrs Doherty have received. It is very kind of you to think of us at this time of year.

We hope that you all have a very lovely Christmas and we will see you in January.

Best wishes

Mrs Fletcher, Mrs Atkinson and Mrs Doherty.