Blythdale

This week 6B have been focusing on gardens and minibeasts as we finished reading the story Errol’s Garden. In English the children have practiced writing questions they would ask Errol about his garden, and have planned out how they would like our patch of the school garden to be planted, labelling up their plans and then writing a checklist of what to do once we get some seeds. The children have tallied up numbers of minibeasts including snails and bees and used this information to create block diagrams. They’ve even answered questions about their data using their diagrams.

The children have weighed out ingredients to make flapjack to have as a snack during the week, and in art they have created their own insect collages using materials they’ve found in the garden. They have observed what happened to the cress we grew in different conditions, some without water and some without light, and talked about what happened to the cress and why.

Now that they’ve found out so much about plants and the school garden, the children can look forward to planting out their own patch of it next week!

It has been challenging to say the least for everyone, it has been such a long time since we have all been together. We have been working on journeys into Spring and looking at the story of The Cautious Caterpillar and how brave he was and how brave we have all been through this awful time. We are working hard on relationships and getting along. 11B are producing some lovely craft work and they really enjoy their sessions in the garden, especially when they have a turn at lighting fires. There have been surprises in P.E, some have been keeping their talents hidden.

A big congratulations to Anthony for earning our worker of the week certificate.

Anthony has earned this through his fantastic work on seasons this week. He produced this magical Spring time tree art completely independently! He chose the colours based on his knowledge of Springtime weather and the seasonal changes that happen.

He has also shown lovely manners this week towards both his friends in class and adults around school.

WELL DONE Anthony!

This week the children have been very busy getting ready to thank their lovely parents and carers on Mother’s day by making fantastic cards and baking and decorating some biscuits as a gift. The children have been learning all about the parts of a plant, using microscopes to examine leaves, petals, pine cones and all sorts of other things in the garden, as well as setting up a science experiment to find out how cress plants are affected when they are grown without light or water. In English we’ve continued reading ‘Errol’s Garden’ and the children have written descriptions of the school garden, as well as their own dream gardens. The children have continued to learn about data and statistics, finding out about how to make block diagrams from information in tables, and have done all the other usual activities like phonics, handwriting and circle time, to name a few! They definitely deserve a break after all that hard work!

Our week started with a big breakfast that we cooked ourselves in the cookery room. We made choices, followed instructions and enjoyed sharing our breakfast together.

We have been reading the story of Errol’s Garden by Gillian Hibbs. We designed our own dream gardens and chose who we would share them with. We looked closely at and named the parts of flowers that we would find in the garden.

In PE some of us went on the big trampoline in the gym (the rest of us will have our turn next week!)

We thought about our wonderful Mam’s and made some rainbow lollipop sticks to describe them. We also made some very special cards and gifts.

We hope you all enjoy a lovely Mother’s Day.

It’s been a lovely first week back here in 7B. With some new additions to the class settling in so well – this week has been a pleasure for everyone. We took some time to assess how we were all feeling about the current situation and looked at the UK’s road-map out of lockdown. After the boys were curious to learn more about the UK Census and why it so important to help the government – we had a go at completing our very own census.

Home Learning

Blythdale – Bubble 3

Dear Parents / Carers,

As you are aware, The Dales School is having to limit the number of children attending school each day to ensure the necessary health and safety measures are in place for both children and staff to keep everyone as safe as possible. As a result, we are supporting our children at home by providing access to high quality virtual teaching, support and learning.

This will take place on the following platforms:

• Google classroom
• Tapestry
• Classroom 360
• Education City
• Oxford Owl
• Posted resources (at families request)

There are six key elements of our home learning offer:

1. Home learning packs
2. Personalised targets linked to EHCP, basic skills and life skills
3. Activity suggestions
4. Whole group and 1:1 face to face Google Classroom sessions
5. OT and SaLT resources and activities – where required.
6. Online learning sessions

Home learning will be used to support the transition between school and home and will encourage a healthy routine when the children are not in school. We will support this transition with visual resources and daily zones of regulation check-ins.

Virtual home learning:

Home learning days will begin at 9 o’clock where the children will be invited to join a whole class Google Classroom with a member of the Bubble 3 team. This session will last 15 – 20 minutes and will include a weather/story massage routine, zones of regulation check in and a makaton sign of the day, topic or themed discussion.

The children will then be invited to join various subject specific learning sessions throughout the day (a timetable outlining this is attached to this letter).

The day will end with a show and tell session with a member of the home learning team, during this children will be encouraged to talk about something they have learned/made or done that day. The Google Classroom call will end for the day with a ‘zones of regulation’ check in and a story or discussion time.

We ask that you ensure that an adult is in the same room as your child whilst they are on the call, this is to safeguard both staff and children.

Tapestry/ Google Classroom

The home learning team will also upload various ‘World Around us’’ activities which you can use at home. These will be updated regularly, and you will also be able to gain access to Education City and Oxford Owl through the login details which will be posted on Tapestry and Google Classroom.

Teachers have created life skills documents which include a range of targets that we aimed to work on with your children in school this half term. Teachers have added suggested activities to these targets for you to work on at home.

Tapestry can also be used as a way for you to communicate with staff at school and show us the lovely activities that your children have been doing at home.

If you require any further information, please do not hesitate to contact us at school on 01670 352556 or by emailing rachel.hepburn@thedales.northumberland.sch.uk  and your email will be forwarded to the relevant member of the home learning team. When emailing can you please give your child’s name, so we can direct you to the correct member of staff.

All children will need to be able to log in using their School360 pupil account to use the learning platforms. See the attached document. If you need any help with this please contact us.

Thank you for your continued support – we very much appreciate it at this very difficult time.

Timetable

A visual timetable copy of this is available on the below page to print for your child. If you need a copy printed off and sent to you, please inform your class team via Tapestry.