A new year and a new term.
Happy new year to Learners Class and families, 2023 is upon us.
Learners class breezed back into class this week, like we had never been away. We got straight back into routine and embraced learning from the outset. This just shows the dedication Learners have and it also shows that we are a school family that were glad to see each other again after the Christmas break.
Our new topic this term is ‘Make It Work’, there are lots of engaging curriculum activities ahead that we will be excited to share in the coming weeks.
This week we have been learning and practising our new focus times table, the 5 times table. We have used resources to help us and have been spotting patterns within the numbers.
Our new Geography topic is ‘Would you rather live in a hot country or a cold country?’. This week we have been finding out about the 7 continents of the world, which has prompted wonderful discussions – ask your Learner about this, they are very knowledgeable.
We are excited to begin our new writing focus and are delighted to use our very own ‘Parker’ as a focus for our newspaper report. Parker initiated a school appeal to help the homeless in our area, I think you will agree he is very worthy of a newspaper report about his story, we will keep you posted of our writing progress.
This term our PE day will be Monday and we will be swimming on Tuesday mornings – please make sure you PE kits and swimming things come into school on these days.
Learners are excited about our new curriculum focuses this term and can’t wait to get started.
Learners class love to learn! 🙂
A snowy end to the term.
Learners Class have been VERY busy, we have enjoyed our Nativity and Christingle Service in Church, a visit to the Pantomime, Christmas crafts with families and a wonderful Christmas dinner and party! Wow!
The snow fell on Wednesday, which caused great excitement
We have even found the time for some wonderful Christmas writing, inspired by the book Mog’s Christmas Calamity by Judith Kerr. We created story maps in order to familiarise ourselves with the story, then made a change to the story by creating our own Christmas calamities featuring our own pets and in some cases ourselves!
Learners Class have had a wonderful first term, jam-packed with learning, laughter and teamwork.
Happy Christmas to Learners Class and families. I can’t wait to see what the new year brings!
Best wishes,
Mrs Brown
It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas.
Christmas has been in the air this week in Learners class. The Nativity production is well under way, as we practise our lines and learn the Christmas songs. Learners will be cows and donkeys this year. Please check tapestry to see your child’s costume suggestions.
Having explored the plot and characters from The Tempest this week, we combined our skills from English and art together to create some scenery. We each painted an image to represent the aspects shown in the play. With great confidence, Learners shared their illustrations of the island and characters. I’m sure Shakespeare himself would have been proud!
We are really excited to launch our new Sharing Shed at Sleights, it is located near the Leaders classroom and will be open before and after school – see this week’s newsletter for more details.
Learners Class love to read and enjoy books. This year Whitby Library is running a new Christmas Reading Challenge to read four books before Christmas. Pop down to the Library for more details and to sign up for the challenge!
It’s the most wonderful time of the year and it’s only going to get busier! Hold on to your hats!
Learners love to learn 🙂
Celebration time!
On Wednesday, we were delighted to formally open our new classrooms. After months of hard work, it was finally time to celebrate. We held a special event to share with Sleights’ children, families and staff, starting with a special assembly and following with the official cutting of the ribbons by our own Mrs Bland and Mrs McGill. The morning was perfect and enjoyed by all.
Earlier in the week, we were able to enjoy our second cricket session outside in the autumn sunshine. This week (with great excitement) we progressed onto being able to use the bats. There were a few sixes hit, despite some excellent fielding! We can’t wait for next week.
In English, we have been delving into Shakespeare’s The Tempest. We have been excited to meet the characters and to familiarise ourselves with the plot. With the help of story maps and drama, we were able to re-tell the story with confidence and enthusiasm. We are so excited to continue learning more about this fascinating Shakespeare play.
This week has been anti-bullying awareness week. Learners have been able to identify the difference between being rude, being mean and bullying and the clarification of these definitions prompted some purposeful discussions.
It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas and Nativity practise has begun! We will keep you posted!
Learners love to learn 🙂
Remembrance at Sleights
Throughout the week, the children have taken part in some excellent discussions about Remembrance. Children shared their own reflections with great sensitivity and thought. To mark Remembrance Day in Sleights, each child created a piece of art or message.
After school, Mrs Hann and I walked to St John’s and the War Memorial monument to display the children’s fantastic and thoughtful Remembrance reflections. The work is incredible and is now firmly in place to help the full village mark Remembrance Sunday this weekend.
Well done, Sleights.
A wonderous week of learning.
Learners have been awesome this week! We have had SO much fun with our learning!
On Monday, we were lucky to welcome Owen from Chance to Shine Cricket. He worked with Learners Class to develop our throwing and catching skills. We thoroughly enjoyed the session and are overjoyed to have 5 further sessions each Monday until Christmas.
In RE, we have been identifying ways people show they belong to each other when they get married. We had thoughtful discussions and were lucky to welcome Mr Grayson-Taylor to share his recent wedding celebration with us too.
Our current topic in Science is Seasonal Change. Our learning focus this week has been George James Symons, a meteorologist who studied rainfall. With this in mind, we set up our own rain gauge outside our classroom and recorded the results each day. We were delighted with Tuesday’s 15mm of rainfall!
We have introduced William Shakespeare into the classroom this week (literally). We created our own research workshops and activities to find out about him. We found out he was born 500 years ago and had to write with a quill and ink at school, we had a go at this ourselves and found it very tricky. We laughed at the words Shakespeare had invented such as “bedroom, hobnob” and green-eyed” and found out the names of some of his most famous plays. We even asked for Mrs Gurney’s IT skills in using media to bring our research to life. We have been bursting with ideas to write about and Shakespeare has definitely made an impact on Learners Class this week!
I cannot wait to share Learners Classes successes with families in next week’s Parents Evenings!
Mrs Brown
A Wonderful Week!
Learners have had a great start to the new half-term.
This week, in PSHCE we have been concentrating on our emotional health and well-being and have been becoming more aware of our own emotions. We have been able to recognise and label a range of feelings and enjoyed drawing pictures to help us understand the effect of our feelings in our day to day lives.
In RE, we have been learning more about a traditional Chrisitan infant baptism. Thank you to the families that sent in pictures on Tapestry, this was enjoyed by us all and really brought our learning to life. Learners could recognise the important actions and symbols within the service and were very keen to share their own baptism knowledge.
Learners always have their ‘Hedgehog Hero’ hats on. This week we have been writing letters to raise awareness of the dangers hedgehogs face as Bonfire Night approaches. If you are attending a Bonfire, please check there are no hedgehogs snuggling in the sticks, before you light it!
On Thursday we were amazed to listen to a visiting Band in School, it was an absolute joy. We found out about different musical instruments and the families they belong to. This was topped off by a performance from our own Discovers and Leaders, showing us their musical talents. What a musical delight.
In history, we have been learning about Elizabeth Botham and were delighted to find out that the Botham’s Shops we know and love, originally started with Elizabeth Botham selling bread from a basket in Whitby’s Old Market Place 150 years ago. We all had a current favourite item from Bothams that we could name and lick our lips about!
Such a wonderful week of learning!
I wonder what next week has in store?
Happy Learners
This week in History, we have been researching how food shopping has changed over the years. We have been looking at Frank Meadow Sutcliffe’s pictures, which show the Market Square in Whitby dating back to 1640. In the past we were shocked to find out that the market sold urine as a cleaning product. This revelation produced lots of shocked gasps and groans in class.
In Science, we have found out that the Earth orbits the sun, with one orbit constituting a year of roughly 365 days. This lesson provoked some wonderful discussion points around the Sun, Moon and Earth. We all agreed that Space facts are fascinating.
Learners have felt a real pride in their writing this week, which has been a joy to see. Each individual is continuing to focus on ways to improve their own writing skills. This dedication has been wonderful and has really paid off with some great writers emerging. Keep up the good work Learners.
We are very happy learners in Learners Class 🙂
Abstract Artists.
A busy week as always in Learners Class.
This week we have welcomed a new member of our class – Story Mouse. Story Mouse has very quickly made lots of new friends and has become a very popular Learner. We have enjoyed reading and telling stories to Story Mouse and are excited to learn more about his role in our classroom. On Thursday, Story Mouse left us a letter with a gift of HIS/HER favourite book to share. We delighted in sharing the story together and were eager to write letters in response.
We are continuing to enjoy learning more about the past and have been thinking about Museums this week. We discussed the Museums we had visited and also the Museums we would like to visit in the future. We watched some virtual tours and talked excitedly about artefacts and their importance.
We have also produced some stunning artwork this week, inspired by this term’s artist Kandinsky. The pieces of art were just amazing. We hope you enjoy them too!
We are busy preparing for Harvest Time and rehearsing our own class song, it’s going to be sensational!
Happy Learning as always 🙂
Learners Class
Learners are problem solving.
Learners have worked hard this week to gain more confidence in maths reasoning and problem solving. We have enjoyed using practical resources to help us learn more about number and place value. We applied our skills to enable us to solve problems, using a range of strategies. We are becoming proficient problem solvers and are working hard to build understanding and deepen our learning. What a productive week!
Also this week, we have immersed ourselves in the past. We have been learning more about how Whitby has changed over the years and have really enjoyed comparing old photographs to those of modern day. We were fascinated to find how some areas of Whitby still look very similar.
On Thursday, we recognised World Heart Day by sharing the book ‘In my Heart’ by Jo Widek’ We discussed how we could keep our hearts healthy and happy.
An awesome week of learning again Learners Class! Learners Class just love to learn.