Learners Class

Learners performed in Church on Friday this week as part of our Family Service at St John’s.

Learners are a class of 5-7 year olds, yet their confidence and enthusiasm was incredible.  Along with their own actions, they sang the popular song You Can Count On me by Bruno Mars. Learners were keen to celebrate their own friendships and recognised that Learners class are a ‘school family’ too. Great job Learners, you are awesome!

In the classroom this week, we have been identifying and labelling different parts of our bodies in science. We then went on a senses walk around school looking out for the things we could see, hear, touch and see. We later identified the food we had tasted for lunch that day. Furthermore, we looked closely at the food we eat and explored how foods were split into different groups. each lunchtime this week, we have been identifying the food groups that we have had on our plates.

In PSHCE we have been thinking about our feelings and emotions. We have been exploring that we all experience different emotions in relation to different situations and experiences. We were able to identify scenarios and draw pictures to show our learning.

In English we are ready to write our own narrative. We have been looking at the story Owl Babies by Martin Waddell and have  each chosen a new animal and planned our series around their own adventure. We are keen to get writing!

Lots of Learners have been bringing in their own fossils from home this week. This term’a history topic of Digs, Dinosaurs and Discoveries has really sparked our interest both at school and at home. We are very excited to go on our school trip to the Rotunda Museum in Scarborough this week, where we will be taking part in a Dinosaur Detective Workshop. 

Learners kicked off this week with a drama session with Louise from The Red House Theatre. We were keen to share just how much we had learned in the classroom with Louise, who channelled our facts into drama. In teams , we became a T-Rex, a brachiosaurus, a triceratops and a pterodactyl. We sung about digging for fossils and we enjoyed every minute!

Back in the classroom, we have been learning about Mary Anning in history. We were amazed at her story and could not believe she had initially been left out of the history books because she was a woman and were glad the unfairness of the era was not present today. One of our very own Learners has created his very own museum at home and we were delighted that this week he gave us all a presentation on his amazing findings, bringing in some of his artefacts too. This was learning at it’s best and such an amazing morning. He hopes to be an archaeologist when he grows up and Learners agreed that he will make an amazing one!

In Geography this term we are finding out ‘What it is like to live in Shanghai’. Over the last few weeks we have been drawing maps of Sleights and identifying human and physical features to help make some comparisons. This week, we have been looking at where Shanghai is in the world using Google Maps. Using pictures, we have identified human and physical features of some area of Shanghai and were fascinated by the many tall buildings.

In dance we are continuing to practise dance moves and routines and are looking forward to a final performance in a few weeks.

Weather permitting, it will be Sports Day on Thursday afternoon – see newsletter for more details. Please make sure your Learner has their PE in school and earring are removed before they come in.

Learners have had a great week and have settled nicely back into the classroom after the half-term break.

This week, Learners have enjoyed taking their learning outdoors.

We enjoyed a PE session with Hawkes coaches in the fresh air. Our new PE focus this half-term is tennis. This week, we enjoyed bowling, fielding and trying to knock down the stumps. We really enjoyed the session and cant wait to build on our skills in the coming weeks.

The showers have been scattered this week and we managed (just) to take some of our maths sessions outside. In teams, we counted 20 objects and investigated  how many different ways we could find to share objects into equal groups. we worked collaboratively and, between the group, found lots of different wayswe could share them, taking great care to check our groups were equal. Everyone enjoyed the activity and worked hard back in the classroomto build on this learning.

In PHSCE, Learners have enjoyed identifying  different feelings and emotions and drew pictures to reflect these feelings. 

In English we have been busy sharing stores and writing book reviews. Some Learners have delighted in bringing in their own stories from home for us to share together. We noticed that lots of our favourites were written by Julia Donaldson. Together, we decided to take action and plan our very own Julia Donaldson Day. We impulsively wrote letters to Mr Grason-Taylor asking for the go-ahead to do this. He promptly replied with a ‘yes’ (which resulted in a cheer all round). Learners are now going to seek the advice of our Sleights School Reading Leaders to help us plan this day. Watch this space for further updates on this!

Learners are always so enthusiastic about their learning and love to be able to take action on their own interests and ideas!

Learners have had a fabulously fit and energetic week.

We began the week with a golf session in school with representatives from Whitby Golf Club.

We used putters and balls to take part in different games and activities. Learners really enjoyed the session and showed great promise – information of how to become a young member of Whitby Golf Club will be coming home with your Learner.

In history this week, we have been learning all about fossils. We found out that fossils were made from the remains of animal bones and plants. We were delighted to find our that Whitby is often referred to as ‘The Jurassic Coast’ because of the many fossils found here. Lots of Learners brought in fossils from home for us to investigate. Next half-term we will be taking a trip to Scarborough to find out more about the Jurassic coast – we are very excited!

We finished the week with Quad Kids –  a local sporting event. We ran, we threw, we jumped and kicked and had the BEST time. Our wonderful attitude and team-spirit was second to none! What a fabulous way to end a fabulous half-term of wonderful learning! 

A reminder that our swimming sessions at Whitby Pool have come to an end for this academic year.

Enjoy the half-term break and hopefully the sun will shine!

Learners have received some VERY exciting news this week!

Back in September, the whole school started the year learning about a book called “It’s Up To Us – A children’s Terra Carta’ by Christopher Lloyd foreword by King Charles. Learners watched a video of King Charles talking about the book and appealing for the help of future generations.

Learners set about writing our own road map for sustainability, thinking of ways we could hep to change the future of our planet. together, we decided we should send our ideas directly to the King.

On Monday this week,  were totally amazed when Mr Grason-Taylor brought into class an unopened letter showing the royal stamp. We were so excited to read a reply from the King, who thanked us for our letter and thoughtful ideas. 

Wow Learners Class, you are truly awesome and this just goes to show that we can ALL make a change!

What a week!!!

We have all been happy to see the appearance of the sunshine this week. This has certainly been helping the plants grow outside our classroom.

We picked a wonderful day for forest school this week. The sun was shining, which was perfect for our activity. Inspired by Andy Goldsworthy (our focus artist this term), we were able to create some amazing art pieces using the natural materials in the forest. Learners were calm, focused and creative in the forest, the teamwork was wonderful and we all decided we would like to do this activity again.

In RE we have been learning about The Creation as told in the Bible. This week we have thought particularly about the seventh day when God rested. We discussed the importance of this and reflected why it was also important for humans to rest amid their busy lives. Discussions were open and heartfelt as always.

In Geography we have been busy drawing our own sketch maps of Sleights, these were really very impressive. We added some human features and some physical features, we included a key and using google maps, thought very hard about the location of the familiar places around Sleights.

In PE we have been improving our tennis skills and were delighted to be able to use the nets this week and put our learning into place. 

We have shared lots of stories in class this week as always and have continued to share lots of information books that Learners have brought in from home around animals and our planet. Its wonderful that Learners are so keen to share their learning at home.

Learners love to learn! 🙂

Many weeks ago, Learners planted seed in the forest. Since then we have been watering and nurturing these seeds in our classroom. This week we were delighted to be able to transfer and these plants into the planters outside our classroom. We will be watering these daily and cannot wait to see the flowers bloom. This is science learning at its best.

With Mental Health awareness week approaching, we were lucky to be able to hold a family session with Mel our Play Therapy Nurse. Lots of families joined us in creating our own toolkit of strategies to help us when our emotions are running high. This was a very purposeful session and it was lovely to see children and families working collaboratively.

In art, we have been finding out about our focus artists Andy Goldsworthy and Fernand Leger the sculptors.  In the coming weeks we will be looking forward to identifying their individual skills.  We have a planned forest day next week to enable us to explore Andy Goldsworthy’s style of using natural materials to create art and in the meantime we will continue to explore his creations and are excited at the prospect of making our own.

Learners have had a dinotastic week in class. 

In English, we have completed our non-fiction pages around dinosaurs. We used the chrome books to type up some key information. The end products look fabulous and will be displayed proudly outside our classroom.

In history this week, we have been learning about the three periods of the Mesozoic Era (the triassic, jurassic and cretaceous periods). We are really enjoying finding out about dinosaurs and hope to finalise a school trip soon, which will consolidate our learning around this.

In RE we have been learning about the Creation. This week we each thought of the things we were grateful for in our wonderful world and wrote prayers of thanks to reflect our thoughts.

In maths, we have been continuing to learn more about fractions, finding a third and a quarter of shapes, objects and quantities.

We continue to enjoy our swimming and dance sessions this half-term and are building on our skills and dance moves each week.

We have enjoyed looking at many encyclopedias in class this week and have been delighted to share together many of our own brought in from home.

Learners continue to be amazing!

This week we were visited by the Phonics Hub and we were delighted to be able to showcase our phonics lesson. In phonics lessons we are focused and keen to learn something new every day that will aid our reading skills. Learners love to read and our determination and hard work during phonics sessions is a key part of our daily learning.

In RE this week we have been learning more about the Creation and who Christians believe made the world. We found out about the different things God created on each of seven days and all agreed that we are so lucky to live in such a beautiful world.

In Science, we have been classifying animals into groups and thought carefully about the characteristics within each group. We sorted animals into birds, fish, mammals, reptiles and amphibians.

In English, we have been using chrome books to type some key facts around the Jurassic age. We are creating our own information pages to go into an encyclopaedia, remembering to use a title, different size font, labels and key facts. One Learner brought in an encyclopaedia from home and was keen to share his knowledge with the class – this was wonderful.

In History lessons we are also focusing on dinosaurs and this week, we learned that dinosaurs were on earth during the Mesozoic era and that they fit into the reptile group, as they were cold blooded and laid eggs to hatch their young.

Dinosaurs is most certainly cross-curricula this half term and we are looking forward to planning a trip to reflect our learning.

Learners arrive at school each keen to learn more.