Reading News
*READING* Please find here some posters that I have created for the news library books and recommended reads. They are going to be displayed in our school library but I thought it would be useful to share them with you all so that you can support and influence the choices that your child makes with regards to their reading book. For example, if your child has just finished reading the Dog Man sequel and they are looking for similar books, you can make reference to these posters for recommendations. If yourself and your child decide on a book together, then it is worth jotting this down in their reading record so that their class teacher or TA can help them to find it in the library. *BOOK DONATIONS* We try our best to keep our library up to date with new and exciting books. This includes newly released books that add to existing sequels. Therefore, we can't always replace the books that get destroyed due to general wear and tear and/or duplicate our extremely popular titles that many of our children want to read. With this in mind, please consider us when you are having a clear out of books that are still in good condition and are written by popular authors. Here is a list of some of our very popular authors although it is not exhaustive. Picture Books Julia Donaldson (The Gruffalo, Stick Man etc..) Sue Hendra (Supertato collection) Rachel Bright (The Lion Inside, The Squirrels Who Squabbled etc..) Michelle Robinson (Ten Fat Sausages, When Jelly Had a Wobble, When Ice Cream Had a Meltdown etc..) Alice Hemming (The Leaf Thief etc..) Kes Grey (Oi Frog! Ou Cat! Daisy and the Trouble With collection etc…) Oliver Jeffers (Lost and Found, How to Catch a Star etc..) Tom Percival (Ruby’s Worry, Ravi’s Roar etc..) Tom Fletcher (There’s a Monster In Your Book, There’s An Alien In Your Book, The Dinosaur That Pooped … etc..) Nathan Bryon (Clean up! Etc..) Nadia Shireen (The Bumblebear, Grimwood etc..) Short Reads and Novels Katie Kirby (The Extremely Embarrassing Life of Lottie Brooks) Dav Pilkey (Dog Man, Cat Kid collection, Captain Underpants) John Patrick Green (InvestiGATORS collection) Liz Pichon (Tom Gates collection) Andy Griffiths (Storey Treehouse collection) Jeff Kinney (Diary of a Wimpy Kid collection) Pamela Butchart Aaron Blabey (Bad Guys collection) Pip Bird (The Naughtiest Unicorn collection)Swapna Haddow (Dave Pigeon) Rachel Renée Russell (Dork Diaries) Dick King Smith (The Queen’s Nose etc..) Andy Stanton (Mr Gum) Cressida Cowell (How to Train Your Dragon) Neill Cameron (Freddy Vs...) Helen Rutter (The Boy Who Made Everyone Laugh etc..) J.K. Rowling (Harry Potter Collection) Eva Ibbotson Lisa Thompson Phillip Pullman Jeremy Strong Roald Dahl Jacqueline Wilson Michael Rosen Helen Cresswell Malorie Blackman Maz Evans Michael Morpurgo Katie and Kevin Tsang David Baddiel Many thanks, Miss Flynn, English Leader
Year 6 - English
Year 6 have been working hard on studying Shakespeare’s Macbeth. They have focused on the opening scene that takes place upon a heath and have used this as inspiration for their own narrative opening. They have had to create their own atmospheric and character descriptions followed by some dialogue that advances the action.
Reception: Challenge Champions
This week in Reception, we are focusing on the story, Sharing a Shell. The children have been really busy in provision completing challenges. They have been attempting to write sentences, strengthening their muscles in the fine motor area, creating rockpools, drawing fish, painting using the skills of Pointillism, counting shells to play a subitise game and moulding the playdough to create different characters from the story. Well done!
Year 4 English - Identifying and Discussing Dilemmas
In our English lesson today we looked at identifying and discussing dilemmas. A dilemma is a situation in which a difficult choice has to be made. We watched a clip called ‘French Roast’ where a homeless man asks a rich businessman for help. He declines but then needs a favour back when he is robbed of his wallet by a thief. The children then worked on two poems - I did a bad thing once written by Allan Ahlberg and Please Mrs Butler . Both have hidden dilemmas which the children identified. Finally we developed our voice 21 skills by rehearsing our performance poetry.
Year 3- English- Identifying features of a shape poem
This week in English, Year 3 have been identifying features of shape poems. To get the children inspired, I read some shape poems aloud, and they used their whiteboards to draw the amazing images that popped into their minds. They were incredibly creative. We also identified key features of shape poems, such as how their shape reflects the subject matter and how they often use vivid language to bring the poem to life. The children read a variety of shape poems, including examples like a mountain, a tree, a snowflake, and a raindrop, which helped the children understand how these unique forms can enhance the meaning and impact of a poem.
Year 1- Retelling the Story of ‘We’re Going on a Bear Hunt’
In English this week, Year 1 have been learning the story of ‘We’re Going on a Bear Hunt’. Today, they retold the story with accompanying actions and loud, clear voices. We retold the repeated part as a whole class but each took one of the settings to retell as a group such as the long wavy grass, the deep cold river, the thick oozy mud, the big dark forest, the swirling whirling snowstorm and the narrow gloomy cave. We are very excited to start planning our very own version of this story next week with our own choice of settings.
Year 2 - Fruit Kebabs
Over the past couple of weeks, in English we have been learning how to write a set of instructions. We learnt that each instruction must have a time conjunction and an imperative verb. We also found that some instructions need an adverb. In our final set of instructions we wrote, we told the reader how to make a fruit kebab. As a result of our instructions being superb; I thought it was only right we got the chance to follow our own instructions and make a fruit kebab in class!
Year 1 English- Constructing Sentences
This week in Year 1, the children have been constructing sentences to retell the events of the Great Fire of London. They have been many groups of words that they have had to form into sentences. To do this, they needed to think about starting the sentence with the subject (who?) and learnt that this could be the name of a person, place or a thing and follow this on with what the person, place or thing is doing (doing what?) to create effective sentences. For example, Thomas Farriner left a spark in the oven and Saint Paul's Cathedral burnt down. Once they had put the words into the correct order, they had to write these sentences into their books ensuring that they used capital letters for the proper nouns.
Year 1 English- Capital Letters
As part of their English lessons, Year 1 have been looking at when a capital letter is needed. They have built on their understanding that a capital letter is needed for the personal pronoun ‘I’ and at the start of the sentence by learning that the names of people, places, days of the week and months of the year are all proper nouns and need to be spelt with a capital letter too. We have been playing a game where we have had to sit down if the word that is called out doesn’t need a capital letter and stand up if it does. We have also completed some work in our books where we have had to identify proper nouns and write them with a capital letter. We have tried hard to use an upper case alphabet line to ensure that we’ve been forming capital letters correctly. Well done Year 1.
Year 4 - English: Publishing
The children finished their Roman soldier diaries on Monday, and this week, we have been typing them up using the Chromebooks. There are a number of skills involved in this process. It really forces the children to think about their punctuation, word choices, and spelling.
Year 1 Phonics
In Year 1 this afternoon, we learnt the ‘i’ for child. We read lots of words with the ‘i’ for child in them such as behind, mind, kind, rind, find, wild and mild and matched them up to to the picture that showed the word. Some of us also did the ‘ear’ for hear and the ‘oi’ for coin. This reading activity worked perfectly on ‘No Pens Day’.
Year 3- NO PENS DAY - Litter picking- Brainbox games-What can you remember in just 10 seconds?
Today, Year 3 celebrated No Pens Day thanks to our Smart School Council. They combined learning by litter picking, demonstrating teamwork, communication, and a strong sense of kindness and spirituality. They even discussed how God and the community would be pleased with their efforts. In the classroom, they paired up for a fun game of BrainBox, boosting their memory, observation skills, and understanding of math and reading. Oracy skills were embedded throughout the day, as students listened attentively, took turns to talk, and engaged in thoughtful discussions.