Spring term Issue 17: 19th January 2024
Dear Parents,
Year One visited the Young V&A in Bethnal Green, year 4 performed at the O2 in front of thousands of people, and year 3 had a wonderful visit to forest school- what a week!
Next week we are running a KS2 Maths Parent Cafe, and in 2 weeks time a Celebrating Diversity Parent Coffee Morning. Keep an eye out for a letter giving information about the parents’ evening after half term.
Thank you for all of your work helping your children come to school on time, please make sure your child is in school on time - the school gates will be shut at 8.55am. Also a gentle reminder to try to book all appointments and holidays outside of school time. Every day counts for a child’s education.
Have a great weekend.
Alli and Joe
Upcoming Diary Dates
Reception
This week in Reception, we have been into the deep, dark woods with Little Red while we shared David Roberts’ story based on Little Red Riding Hood. The children have had a great time making ‘Beware of the wolf’ posters, sampling (watered down) ginger beer and retelling the story with puppets. We are reading lots of traditional tales over this half term, which is your favourite?
We have loved playing outside with the ice that’s been forming overnight and investigating the fastest way to melt it.
Our maths learning has been about subitising using dice (The ability to recognise the number of dots on the dice without counting them) to help us play board games and big track games. Have a go at making your own track or board game at home, and practise taking turns, for a challenge can you subitise two dice?
Keep going with the phonics practise, make sure you read a little bit every day, and celebrate the children’s knowledge and application of their new daily sound! oa oo oo ar this week.
For Wednesday next week please can you send in a photo of “someone who is special to you” for your child to speak about in our RE lesson. (Please write the person’s name and your child’s name on the back).
Year 1
As part of our history topic, Year 1 have spent today exploring the evolution of toys at the Young V & A Museum. If possible, we’d really like the children to bring in their favourite toy next Tuesday – to be written about in our English lesson.
We’d also really appreciate if the children could bring in some of their parents’ toys/cards from their childhood (not to play with) but to show and compare to toys nowadays. Thank you to those who’ve already brought items in!
Year 2
Year 2 have been designing and building ships this week! We are determined to help Finn create a magical ship to go and find where, ‘Ocean meets sky!’. Using planks of wood, fences, tyres and even items of clothing, we had so much fun thinking about the best design for our boats. Next, we will be creating detailed instructions so that anyone can build a ship just like ours. Stay tuned for more information!
Year 3
In science this week, Year 3 worked very diligently identifying and classifying different types of rocks. We used Venn diagrams and Carrol diagrams to start with, making our own headings for them.
Then we looked at a classification table, examining the properties of the rocks very carefully with a magnifying glass, before identifying what type of rock we were holding.
Year 4
Year 4 attended the Young Voices concert at the O2 arena on Tuesday. We were apart of the largest children’s choir! We had so much fun singing, dancing, and getting to see all the talented acts-we were really inspired.
Year 5
This week in Walker & Lichtenstein, we have been focusing on multiplication. We have been learning how to use partitioning to multiply a three-digit number by a single-digit number. To support our understanding of multiplication, we have continued to use Dienes blocks to represent the value of the digits in each number.
Year 6
Year 6 has been lucky enough to have a specialist PE coach visit and support in some of our PE lessons. Wilson supported Shonibare in Tennis and Volleyball last term as in now supporting Banksy with their gymnastic skills.
News from the Art Studio…
This week in the Art Studio, Jess from the October Gallery led a workshop for 3M, exploring the work of artist, Jukhee Kwon.
We experimented with manipulating paper and turning 2 dimensions into 3 dimensions, by cutting memory spirals and making dream boats.
The children will use these as an installation piece for our upcoming Art and Music festival.
Don’t forget to save the date for the Art & Music festival 2024 –
Tuesday 6th February 1.40 -3.10 Years 1, 3 & 5
Wednesday 7th February 1.40 – 3.10 years 2, 4 & 6
The Art & Music Festival is a great way for us to celebrate and share the creativity we all enjoy at SJSC, we hope you can join us.
Music this week…
Reception
This week the children were listening to Johann Strauss’s Cuckoo Polka. They are learning that they can identify each other’s voice by their pitch.
Year 1
This half term Year 1 will be looking at Colonel Hathi’s March from the Jungle Book. This week they were thinking about how the elephants moved in order to stay in time and on the beat. The children also listened to some trombones playing the tune and discussed why brass instruments were a good sound for elephants.
Year 2
The children will be learning Grandma’s Rap over the next few weeks and putting actions to the song. They will also be revisiting the song, Hi lo Chicko lo as a warm up exercise which looks at pitch.
Year 3
The children are returning to the Ukule this term and this week they were rehearsing It’s Raining, It’s Pouring with a middle rap section. They will also be learning about the families of an orchestra; strings, woodwind, brass and percussion.
Year 4
The children were perfecting their body percussion canons this week and are introducing lyrics to match the rhythms they have created. Below is a link to a clip we watched of a body percussion group performing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sb-2VsE2y-U
Year 5
Over the next few weeks, Year 5 are going to start a project called Building a Groove. They will be looking at the different sounds created by different parts of a drum kit and will compose a riff based melody. We listened to Watermelon Man by Herbie Hancock as a stimulus.
Year 6
Over the next few weeks, Year 6 are looking at the music from the soundtrack to Chariots of Fire, written by the Greek composer, Vangelis.
School council
In School Council, we have been thinking about how to make lunchtimes even better at SJSC. School councillors did a survey in their classes to get some feedback on what is currently going well and what could be even better – both in terms of the food and the dining hall experience. In the school council meeting this week, our school councillors have been looking at the results of the surveys, in order to decide on the priorities and next steps.
Stars of the week
Stars are celebrated because they have demonstrated the school values, or gone above and beyond.
Well done to all our stars this week …
NSPCC number day has linked up with TTRS to create NSPCC Rocks!
DRESS AS YOUR ROCK STAR AVATAR!
LET’S ROCK OUT TO HELP THE NSPCC!
As part of our commitment to make maths exciting and high profile in our school, we are taking part in a friendly competition involving schools in the United Kingdom for NSPCC Number Day. The competition runs from 07:30 to 19:30 GMT on Friday 2nd February. It's all done online via play.ttrockstars.com.
Children can play in any game mode with every correct answer to a multiplication or division question, earning themselves, their class and the school a point. The Times Tables Rock Stars platform will calculate the class average (the number of correct answers per pupil in the class who play during the competition hours, subject to a 60-minute limit (see below)). Winning classes in the school and in the competition as a whole will be the ones with the highest average.
To support player well-being, there is a daily time limit of 60 minutes per player. Once the player goes beyond 60 minutes of play on that day, they will still earn coins but will no longer earn points towards the competition.
In the spirit of the competition, please don't play on their behalf but by all means, encourage and support them to the extent that it doesn't cause high stress levels or impact on family plans.
Have a wonderful weekend - see you next week!