Year 1 have been learning all about Judaism as part of their Religious Education learning. This week, we have visited Singers Hill Synagogue to learn more about the religion. We were shown around by a Jewish man who worships in the Synagogue for many years, since he was a little boy. He showed us lots of special things and what they mean to Jewish people. We learnt lots and now know why the Star of David is a special symbol for Jewish people and how many times a day Jewish people pray.
At the start of the session everyone including the adults, participated in the ‘Calm Me’ exercise. It was explained to the children that this was to help get their minds ready to learn.
The children were then shown ‘The Jigsaw Charter’ to help reinforce how they work together as a team.
The children played a game called ‘Off to Market’. The tracker started a song saying: “Jigsaw Jem went to market and bought……” Teacher filled in the blank with bananas, then the next child on the left had to sing the same song remembering what was bought and then adding another item. Each child would have to try and remember all the items and add their own to the list.
The ‘Open my mind’ exercise involved the children to write a list of what they would get if they won the lottery. They would then have to cross out all the things that they don’t ‘need’ and then review the list is see what’s left.
Finally the children looked at Maslow’s triangle and tried to understand his theory of the hierarchy of human need.
We did the ‘Calm me’ exercise at the beginning and explained that the benefit of this was to help the to learn by calming down their minds.
We shared ‘The Jigsaw Charter’ with the children to help reinforce how we work together as a group.
The ‘Connect us’ section of the lesson involved playing a game called ‘I sit in the woods’. The children had to sit in a chair in a circle with one empty chair remaining. Everyone had to rotate so that everyone was in a different seat to when they started.
The aim of ‘Tell me or show me’ was to get the children to solve a picture without using any verbal communication.
Finally, for ‘Let me learn’ the children were put into groups. They were asked to list the top six things ALL children need in order to be able to learn. All groups then feed back their lists to the group and then they picked the top six from all the lists.
As part of our work on 2D and 3D shape, we carried out shape investigations. We split into groups for 3 different learning activities.
We used modelling materials to create 3d shapes and identified the properties of each using correct mathematical vocabulary.
We identified the properties of 2D shapes including parallel and perpendicular lines, right angles and acute and obtuse angles. We then used these properties to sort our shapes using a enn diagram.
We investigated nets of 3d shapes by recognising the number and shape of faces. We discovered that there are many different ways to draw the net of a cube.
Last Thursday in Year 2 we first shared ‘The Jigsaw Charter’ with the children to help reinforce how we work together as a group.
We then did the ‘Calm me’ exercise and explained to the children the benefit of this activity and how it can help them learn by calming down their minds.
Next the ‘Tell Me or Show Me’ activity involved reading the class ‘I’ll Do It: Learning About Responsibility : Taking Responsibility (Values)’. The children then asked each other in pairs what they think ‘responsibility’ means.
Finally, to take part in the ‘Let me learn’ activity the children were put into groups of four. ‘Responsibility cards’ were handed out to each group and these illustrated different ways of being responsible within school. The children then organised the responsibilities from the most to the least important.
Last Thursday in Year 1 we started the session by looking at and sharing ‘The Jigsaw Charter’ to help reinforce to the children how they work together as a team.
Everyone including the adults, then participated in the ‘Calm Me’ exercise. It was explained to the children that this was to help get their minds ready to learn.
The ‘Open My Mind’ activity which followed involved singing a song called ‘I am special’. We sang it several times whilst holding hands in a circle.
We then completed the ‘Tell Me or Show Me’ task. The class were shown a picture of a group of children learning well together. The class was then split into pairs and they were asked to think about how they could help each other learn.
St. Clement’s has recently started working on Art Portfolios. Every child from Reception class upwards has a portfolio. Each term children will work on a piece of art which will go into the portfolio and this is then passed on until they leave St. Clement’s.
Year 3 have worked on sketching self -portraits and as you can see they have really worked hard to capture their individual details . Have a look to see if you can recognise anyone from Year 3.
This week, Reception have continued to focus on the story ‘Goldilocks and the Three Bears’. We have spoken about how Goldilocks did not do the right things. The children then wrote a sorry letter on Goldilocks’ behalf to the three bears.
For our maths learning this week we used the characters and props from ‘Goldilocks and the Three Bears’ to talk about position. The children learnt words to describe where something is.
Here are some photos of Reception learning through their play:
Over the last couple of weeks we have had some new children join our Nursery. It has been lovely to see them settle in so well. The children have helped make them feel welcome and it has been lovely to see new friendships developing.
All of the children are developing their skills in all areas of the curriculum. We have been making good use of our junk modelling area. Look at some of these fabulous creations:
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