Summer Team Update 2

Hello and welcome to your second Squirrel Station update. We've had another busy week and our learning went in some directions that we perhaps weren't expecting this week! 

We've been busy learning about toys from history and how children's toys have changed across the ages. The children were shocked to discover how restricted toys of old were with girls and boys having very different toys that they did not share. They were also surprised to learn that children could only play with religious toys (e.g. a toy Noah's Ark) on Sundays in the Victorian era. We had some great discussions about gender equality and the progression of materials and electronics across the 21st century. 

In our mantle story we've been invited to help a struggling toy company boost their sales by accepting a commission to design a new toy. The children have been giving a rough design brief that the toy must be electronic and screen free and must be educational. Apparently that is what parents want to buy! The team are preparing to conduct market research next week and decided that using last week's science knowledge on forces might be a good way to go. 

In the Wednesday meeting this week, we discussed the idea of becoming a plastic free school. The children were confused about how so much plastic ends up in the ocean and the amount of single use plastics that are thrown away every day. We considered the school's part in single use plastics and celebrated the fact that last year we said no to single use milk cartons with plastic straws. Instead, all our milk is delivered in recyclable bottles and we drink from reusable cups that we can wash. The children then turned their attention to the plastic bags that our daily fruit and vegetables are delivered in. Following research online about the impact of plastic pollution in the ocean, the children wrote incredible letters to the fruit and veg company. They were polite yet compassionate and clearly requested the company send our fruit and veg in reusable or recyclable packaging. Miss Taylor and I are hugely proud of the writing they've produced. As soon as we know where to send these letters, they will all be popped in the post and we eagerly await a reply. 

SPAG this week: Suffixes

We've been practising and applying our suffix knowledge this week for past and present tense verbs. The children noticed there are different rules for adding suffixes depending on how the verb ends. If you can spot the following suffixes whilst reading or practise applying them in writing, it would be brilliant! 

• Short vowel sound verbs: double the last consonant before adding -ed or -ing.
  E.g. skip = skipped or skipping. Beg = begged or begging. Clap = clapped or clapping. 
  
  
• Long vowel sound verbs ending in an -e: drop the -e then add -ed or -ing.
  E.g. tame = tamed or taming. Love = loved or loving. Hate = hated or hating. 
  
  
• Verbs that end in a -y: drop the -y and replace it with an -i before adding -ed. Do nothing to add -ing. 
  E.g. empty = emptied or emptying. Hurry = hurried or hurrying. Tidy = tidied or tidying. 

SPAG homework has been set on DoodleEnglish. 

Maths this week: More fractions

Year 3: Equivalent fractions. Year 3 have made great progress this week on recognising when different fractions have different pieces but together represent the same amount. For example, 1/2 is the same as 2/4 which is the same as 4/8 which is the same as 8/16 (and so on... In class, we got up to 24/48 before we ran out of steam!). The children were quick to spot a pattern whereby if the denominator increased in size, the numerator also had to increase. The children did a great job using their multiplication knowledge to support them. At home, why not try making your own 'fractions wall'. There are plenty of examples on Google and they're a very useful visual representation of fractions. Equivalent fractions are best explored pictorially or practically, so using paper strips or food to cut up is very helpful. Ask your children to look for patterns between what happens to the numerator (top number) and denominator (bottom number) between two equivalent fractions. 

Year 2: Consolidation of recognising halves, quarters and thirds of shapes and comparing fractions. Year 2 have done a great job of exploring fractions in different representations this week. It's important your child doesn't always see fractions as circles or squares, so we've been looking at different shapes. The children are recognising that the amount of equal parts gives us the denominator (bottom number) and the number of those parts which are shaded (or eaten!) gives us the numerator (top number). We've considered plenty of practical problems such as "would you rather have 1/2 a chocolate cake or 1/3 of a chocolate cake?" The children were quick to spot that the larger the denominator, the smaller the pieces. 

Fractions homework has been set on DoodleMaths. 

We've begun a new RE unit all about Jesus and the gospel and the children raised some fantastic questions which we will be investigating during our unit. 

Finally, here are some photos from further science lessons on magnetism this week. 

Have a wonderful bank holiday weekend Squirrels! 

From Miss Cartwright 

Summer Term 1 Update 1

Hello Squirrels one and all. I hope you had a lovely Easter break. We are super happy to be back at school, even better with the sunshine too! 

Our first week back has been filled with plenty of outdoor learning and time in the sunshine. Highlights from this week are meeting the chicks and an outdoor collective worship with Reverend Dove at the church on Thursday. We celebrated creation and Earth Day 2021, as you can see from the photos below!

It is Squirrels' responsibility to let the chickens out on Monday mornings, Tuesday mornings and Friday mornings. We cleaned them out for the first time at Forest School on Tuesday and we're learning about them all the time. 

There has been a slight staffing shuffle across the school this term. Mrs Wright is now splitting her time between Squirrels and Hedgehogs, which means Miss Swain and Daphne Dog are spending more time in Squirrels in the mornings. 

Helping at Home

Following the disruption of lockdown 3.0, it will be hugely beneficial to keep key skills ticking along at home. The children are reminded regularly throughout the week to update/change their reading books when they need to, but please prompt your child to do so when you drop them off in the morning. 

This week's SPAG:

• Plurals - this week we covered a lockdown SPAG topic of plurals. We practised adding -s or -es to words depending on their ending. For most nouns, we simply need to add an -s. For nouns ending in sh, ch, x, z, or s, an -es needs to be added to show there is more than one of the noun. You can help your child by spotting when this occurs in reading and thinking of nouns to turn from singular to plural (or the other way around). Applying this spelling skill in sentence writing is very important. 
• Determiners - 'a' or 'an'. We also looked at determiners this week and are doing a good job of recognising when to use 'a' or 'an' in front of a noun. If a word begins with a vowel or a vowel sound, 'an' is needed. E.g. an orange, an apple, an Easter egg. Some of our favourite words from the week are 'an honest ...', 'an heir to the throne' and 'a university'. 

This week's maths: Fractions!

• We've talked about nothing but fractions this week. The children got off to a great start with recognising when shapes have or haven't been shared into equal parts. 
• Year 3 were able to explain that the bottom number on a fraction is called a 'denominator' and this tells us how many equal parts the shape has been shared into. The top number is called the 'numerator'. 
• Year 2 have been learning to recognise 1/2, 1/4, 3/4 and 1/3 of shapes and recall the words 'half', 'quarter' and 'thirds. Please practise this at home using pictorial representations or concrete objects (pizza and cake work well for this!)
• Year 3 have been counting in tenths and practising adding and subtracting simple fractions. For example, if I cut a pizza in 5 equal parts, I have fifths. If I eat 2/5 of the pizza, how many fifths of pizza will I have left? 5/5 - 2/5 = 3/5. Please practise simple addition and subtraction fraction number sentences at home, making sure the denominator is always the same. 

Doodle Homework

I have set additional maths (fractions) and English (determiners) homework on DoodleMaths and DoodleEnglish to help reinforce this week's learning. If you are able to, please complete this work on Doodle within the next week. 

Finally, below are some photos from our science experiment week. We've been learning all about different forces and investigated then taught each other about friction, gravity, air resistance, buoyancy and magnetism. 

 

  

Have a lovely weekend Squirrels!

From Miss Cartwright