Let's get learning Year 4!

Hello my lovely year 4 children. Welcome to a new way of learning! It will seem strange to be learning at home and explaining to your parents what you are learning. However, it is very important to keep up and be excellent learners - just like you are at school! Try to be like all the learning characters and you will become such an independent learner, ready for year 5. It would help you to get into a routine and decide what times of day you are carrying out your home learning and weekly challenges.

How home learning will work.

DAILY LEARNING: Every day at 8.00am , I will post your new daily learning which will involve key Year 4 skills for Maths, English and other subjects. Much of it will be based on the lessons we were going to do in class. This will be in the home learning section of the Year 4 website. So, bright and early each morning - check this and get going! Children who do the Nessy program at home - please keep this up every day.

I will also put some ideas for weekly challenges on this blog here, based on the ideas children gave me in class and also from lovely ideas I have seen from the internet.

Weekly challenges for week beginning Monday 23rd March

Lego rainbow challenge: Many people around the country are putting a rainbow in their window to spread hope to everyone - children can spot them if they are out walking. To be a little different, we would love it if you could make one out of lego and place it in your window at home for all to see. Time to get creative!

Baking challenge: This week, we would love you to bake any kind of cupcake with your family. Weigh out the ingredients yourself and become a proper little baker!

Reading challenge: Read one very good book and collect some vocabulary from it. Think about your reading level - try to challenge yourself. Read for half an hour daily and think about collecting some vocabulary too! We are looking into creating a class blog on Purple Mash - so you will be able to share with everyone what you have read. Maybe it will be like a little book club!

PE challenge

Try to do at least half an hour a day of physical activity. Here are some ideas:

• Go on a nature walk - see the first signs of Spring

• Practise your different rolling and jumping techniques (safely in a space!) that we were doing in gymnastics

• Go for a gentle jog

• Set up an obstacle course in your garden and carry it out

• Joe wicks is doing a daily 30 minute PE session online for children if you really like to challenge yourself!

• If you like dancing, you could find a ‘Just Dance’ online or just put some music on and go wild!

• Do some Yoga together

Emotional challenge

This week, let’s try to look on the bright side and be grateful. Every morning or at a meal time, think of one thing you are thankful for and share these thoughts as a family.

Now it’s time to check out your daily learning in the HOME LEARNING section. Please remember to email me if you have any questions at all. You will need plastic straws on Thursday for Science! Enjoy this exciting new learning journey with your family!

Mrs Lyons

Home learning websites and ideas - just suggestions from me!

As I have been reading and looking on the internet I have seen lots of nice ideas of ways to keep little minds busy and thought some of you might want to try some of them. My niece is in Year 5 and my nephew is in Year 2 and these are some of the things they are hoping to try at home with my brother in law over the next couple of weeks. Any feedback on how these ideas went down with your children would be appreciated as I can pass them on, remember please do keep in touch via our emails. Mine is k.edmondson@ourladystarofthesea.lancs.sch.uk

Miss Brisco’s is

l.brisco@ourladystarofthesea.lancs.sch.uk

• www.countryliving.com There are lots of live animal feeds around the world from zoos and woodlands that you can watch the animals on.

• Make a time capsule and bury it in your garden or store it up in a loft. Put in drawings, letters, photos and newspaper clippings. You could open this in years to come and look back at this time with your family.

• Start the 30 day Lego challenge (photo below)

•  Joe Wicks (The Body Coach) is airing live PE sessions for children every day at 9am  Monday to Friday on his Youtube channel. Get your PE kit on and get moving. Watch out for Mr Nay’s sports activities too.

• Get creative in the garden or in the park and use Andy Goldsworthy as your inspiration. Can you make a piece of environmental art? (photo below)

Websites to visit while learning at home

Purple mash: www.purplemash.com

On purple mash I will be setting tasks for the children to complete each week. These will be found in the “to do” tab at the top of the page.

Poissonrouge: https://www.poissonrouge.com/login/en

Login details:

login: corona2020
password: corona2020

This is a great website that has a wide range of computer activities that will build not only your child’s computer skills but also many other areas of their curriculum.

Youtube: www.youtube.com

PE—Below you find find links to exercise videos that the children have loved in reception

PE with Joe Wicks - Please see Joe Wicks youtube channel for a daily PE challenge: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rz0go1pTda8

Let’s get fit—Count to 100 by Jack Heartman (Links to maths)

Just dance—There are a range of different dances for the children to exercise to. I’m sure you have already been listening to the classes current favourite: One direction!

5 a day fitness—These videos also expose the children to different languages such as French and Spanish

Go Noodle—This is a new fitness programme that links to many math and literacy concepts through fun dances and memory challenges.

Maths

Numberblocks—This is a favourite of mine. There are so many clever links within each episode. It is certainly a quality watch which will greatly support your child’s maths learning.

English

Geraldine the Giraffe– This is a great channel for phonic sound practise. But be careful it is not the videos called Mr Thorne. Those episodes are more for adults as opposed to the children.

Ruth Miskin - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCo7fbLgY2oA_cFCIg9GdxtQ This channel is great to help you as parents understand phonics. Ruth will be uploading lessons each day whilst schools are currently closed.

Alpha blocks—Again this is a great website to help children and there reading. It is particularly good to support sound blending.

Piglet: "How do you spell love?" Pooh: "You don't spell it, you feel it!"

Please can we say thank you for your kindness and understanding this week. The children have all tried to work hard and continue with our daily routines and learning, even though many of our classmates have not been able to come to school. Yesterday morning we had a good discussion about how to keep ourselves and each other happy and well. Obviously we are all having to take each day as it comes, but we have made a plan of things that we can do to keep ourselves busy learning over the coming weeks.

The whole class are sending their love and prayers to those families who are already in self isolation and the class has not been the same without you all. We hope that you are all well and know that we have all been thinking of you.

Following Government guidelines, from Friday afternoon, the school will be closed for the majority of children. Miss Hornby will have been in touch with families in special circumstances whose children will come into school on Monday.

For those learning from home, we will be posting daily learning challenges here on our blog. These will be linked with the Year 3 learning objectives and will continue to develop the children’s knowledge and skills whilst at home over the coming weeks. We will also be posting a list of great websites to use which should also keep that learning ticking over. The children have come home with 3 books - one to be used for maths work and jottings (red cover with squares), one for writing based tasks (this could include English, RE, Science, History, Geography etc - green cover with lines) and one for art work (green with coloured blank pages). Please do use these, as we will be looking at them together as a class when we return to school to see what has been achieved. Please remember best handwriting and presentation, as we will be looking for pen points when we get back to school. Also think about how you could achieve learning character points too.

Please, please, please do stay in touch with us.  We can’t wait to see what the children will be getting up to at home and really want to celebrate achievements with you all. Contact can be made through our emails:
l.brisco@ourladystarofthesea.lancs.sch.uk and k.edmondson@ourladystarofthesea.lancs.sch.uk but please do be mindful that we may still be in school or may be working from home and so might not be able to respond straight away. Parents, please do also contact us with any questions or queries - we are here to help!

Let’s Celebrate

Well done Jacob M, you have been a real ‘Co-operative Roger Robin’ with many “Bobby Bee” traits this week. You have shown focus and enthusiasm in every lesson and have worked well with your partner and as part of a team.  We really hope this continues when we return back to school. Well done Jacob!

John Joseph, what a focused ‘Cooper Crab’ you have been this week. You have answered lots of questions in creative ways and shown what a deep thinker you can be. You have listened carefully to all of your teachers this week and kept going, even when learning has become tricky and challenging. Well done, we are really proud of you!

Our French Star this week went to the whole class. Wow!! Well done children.

Our PE Stars were James and Julia for outdoor PE.  Mason, Isabella, Lena and John Joseph were our Gym Stars. Well done to all of you.

Handwriting Stars this week were Kiefer, Kia, Grace and Isabella. Well done—keep practising these skills when you are off school.

As a school, we are wishing each and everyone of you well at this uncertain time.

Stay safe and God bless,

Miss Edmondson, Miss Brisco, Mrs Nel, Mrs Carter and everyone here at Our Lady Star of the Sea

A smile is a curve that sets everything straight. — Phyllis Diller

As the week has drawn to a close, the lunch time team have been overcome with the kindness and calmness of the children as the week has unfolded. It has been such a joy to see that in such difficult circumstances, they have had moments to be themselves and to have time with their friends playing, laughing and having fun. The love and compassion they have shared with one another has been quite humbling.

Table of the Week: The Team have decided that All houses are star table, children, you have been absolutely wonderful this week, thank you.

Role Model and Marvelous Manners: Again, the Team has decided that each and every child should receive both role model and marvelous manners. We are so proud of you all. Thank you so much children.

God Bless
The Lunchtime Team

Update on nursery closure

It is important that all parents read the latest post regarding nursery and school/nursery closures which has been posted today on the school’s main web page.

It clearly explains what will be happening from Monday 23rd March. If you have any questions please do give me a call. As always the nursery team will be happy to help and advise you.

May I also tell everyone that throughout these uncertain times I will be making regular postings online with activities to continue your child’s learning at home. Additionally after the Easter holidays I will be emailing ‘Getting ready for school’ booklet and ‘Supercroccy’s mission activity book’ . Newsletters will continue to arrive each month from your key person.

We would love for you to keep in touch with us to let us know what you have been doing.

Thank you for your continued support and understanding and we hope to be back together soon.

“Start by doing what’s necessary; then do what’s possible; and suddenly you’re doing the impossible.”– Francis of Assisi

May we say a big thank you for all your patience and understanding this week. Although we have missed some of our friends, we have carried on with all our learning and enjoyed learning new things. We are all sending our love and prayers to those families who are already in self isolation and are continually keeping you and your families in our thoughts.

Today, we chatted a lot about uncertainty and we realised that the future may be different for a while, but it also may hold such possibilities! We learned that we need to take each day as it comes and try hard to look on the bright side. Being kind, striving to improve and to be like all our 8 lovely learning characters will help us face adversity and come out smiling! Be resilient and try hard, believe in yourself, keep focusing, co-operate, show curiosity, be brave, get creative and strive to improve yourself and you will thrive!

Following Government guidelines, from Friday afternoon, the school will be closed for the majority of children. Miss Hornby will have been in touch with families in special circumstances whose children will come into school on Monday.

For the majority of children who are not in school, they can begin learning from home. How exciting! Homework has been set for this week as normal. However, from Monday, I will be setting daily learning challenges here on my blog. They will be in line with Year 4 learning objectives and will enable children to continue to develop their skills over the next few weeks. Many children have been giving me ideas of what they would love to learn at home. There will also be weekly ideas for learning and suggested books which children would love to read.

The children have come home with 3 books - one to be used for maths work and jottings, one for English and writing based tasks, and one for general poster and art work. Please take pride in these, as we will be sharing them together as a class when we return to school to see what has been achieved.

Please stay in touch and let me see what children are getting up to. I do not need to mark each piece of work set but I would love to celebrate achievements with you and I will indicate clearly if there is a project for example that could be emailed or shared.

Children in year 4 would like me to set a weekly baking challenge and they also said they would love to keep collecting vocabulary and finding out what it means from reading books. Why not create a home timetable to organise home learning, chores, relaxation time, outdoors time etc? You could even organise a little office area for them (as suggested by one child today - no pressure!)

Contact can be made through my email:
a.lyons@ourladystarofthesea.lancs.sch.uk, but please do bare in mind that I may still be in school or may be working from home and so might not be able to respond straight away. Parents, feel free to contact me with any questions or queries - I am here to help and support!

This week:

We have been learning all about Sound in Science. We carried out a fair test to see who was the loudest in our class! We also discovered how sound is made by lots of little investigations.

Today, children loved spotting patterns in the 7x tables and the Percy Parker song (see homework section) proved very popular! WE have also finished our class novel - ‘The Butterfly Lion.’ If your child has been off, this is well worth purchasing and reading as a home reader!

Let’s Celebrate

All children received the swimming star this week for being full of enthusiasm.

French star went to Megan for her super bookmark which was covered in French words!

Certificates this week: A Clara Clownfish certificate goes to Bella this week for asking and answering questions (lots of pattern spotting in maths!) and considering all she does very deeply.

A Sadie Spider certificate goes to Georgia for putting her best effort into all she does and always trying hard.

It has been such a pleasure to be back again with your children, even though it was for such a short time. Here’s hoping there will be more chance to teach them this year!

Please keep in touch and enjoy your home learning!

Mrs Lyons

"Wherever there is change, and wherever there is uncertainty, there is opportunity..."

I would like to say a big thank you for your understanding this week, and I hope that you all keep safe and follow any new advice that we are given over the coming weeks. I have really missed seeing the children this week and I know that Miss Neves, Mrs Malley and I will really miss the children over the next few weeks. I will be uploading daily activities that you and your child can do at home to keep learning, whilst school is no longer open. Please keep visiting our class page to see the daily activities. Along with this, the Reception children are coming home with one book. We ask that you put any work from the directed activities and any extra activities that you think show off some of your home learning inside. We will be able to share these when we are back together as a class once again. Thank you!

I will also be uploading a list with your child’s login details for Purple mash, this is a great website and computer programme that we use across school. Please use this website to help develop your child’s IT skills.

Certificates:

This week we have two Roger Robins who have been very helpful and kind this week.

Co-operative Roger Robin Joseph for… your super effort to be kind and polite this week Joseph! Miss Neves has been so impressed by your kind words towards others. You have also been trying very hard in your learning and concentrating very carefully. We are so proud Joseph! Keep up the great work.

Co-operative Roger Robin Henry for… being so thoughtful around the classroom and always offering your help to others, including your teachers! You are such a polite boy Henry and are not only very helpful, but you have also made such a great learning partner during activities. Well done!

We hope that, during this very unusual time, you all keep healthy and happy.

All our love,

Miss Bassett, Miss Neves and Mrs Malley

Homework to be handed in on Thursday 26th March

Homework set early this week. If you are at home you can be doing this in the next 3 days. More home learning will be set for you tonight. Enjoy!

Maths

7x table. As last week you can use the sheet given to practise. Look for patterns eg Are the answers odd or even?

Try learning Percy Parker’s 7 x table song below:

There is also a link to a site where you can practise all your times tables learned so far. Do a little bit often!

English

Please complete the Purple mash grammar 2 do’s ‘Day out’ and ‘Harry’s Party.’

Don’t forget to learn your spellings too. Can you write a short paragraph including all your spelling words to show you understand what they mean?

Spellings set Tuesday 17th March for test on Monday 23rd March

Year 4 key words:

breath breathe question heart early actual

(Before root words beginning with l, prefix in becomes il

logical illogical legal illegal legible illegible

Please discuss what each word means.

Year 1 Home Learning 13.3.20

English

The children have got a worksheet to complete. This involves adding the prefix -un to a given word, then writing a sentence with the word they have made. If the children want to be brave Tommy Turtles, I would love them to come up with some words of their own .

Maths

Ongoing learning on IXL ‘Skip-Counting’ F.1 - F.9

Reading

Please ensure children are reading every night.

Spelling

The children have been given some spellings to learn. I will be testing them on these next Friday.

1. put

2. push

3. you

4. your

5. they

6. be

7. me

8. she

9. he

10. tree

Flash Cards

A few children have now learned ALL of the flash cards. This is a HUGE achievement and I am incredibly proud of their hard work and determination. For these children their new challenge is to spell these words. They will be tested on the spellings of these words once a week and moved onto the next set when they can confidently spell them.