Woodpeckers 24.11.25
Date: 20th Nov 2025 @ 9:00am
Welcome to a new week of learning Woodpeckers.
This week we will be looking for the learning behaviour- 'push yourself' and our value is 'Trust' (Trusting in ourselves and others to make sure we can all complete the best in our learning. Have a go, don’t be afraid to fail; taking small steps and celebrating achievements; stepping out of comfort zone, challenge yourself, peer to peer support, learning from others)
Here are some reminders for this week -
Ms Jordan is our teacher Monday - Wednesday and Ms Cross is our teacher Thursday - Friday.
Reminders:
Monday - PE clothes (Long bottoms/Joggers, t-shirt and jumper) for Forest School and swimming kits. Please remember an old coat and a pair of boots or another pair of old shoes. You cannot go to the pool in muddy shoes. After school Dodgeball club. Polar Express at The Brook organised by our lovely PTA! Bring your pyjamas and you can get changed in school at the end of the day before we walk you down. Parents, please make sure you have given permission for us to walk your child down.
Tuesday - After school Lego club. Top-Up shop coming to school for assembly to talk about how our harvest, cereal boxes and advent gifts will help others.
Wednesday - PE Kit; PE with Mrs Saunders.
Thursday - It's nearly Christmas!! Decoration making for the hall - parents welcome to join at 2.15pm. Fourth Christmas cake club session 3.15-4.15pm.
Friday - Sharing assembly at 2.30. followed by the tree service. If you have young children please ensure you are a near a door in case they become restless.
If you would like to play on the field at lunchtime, you need to bring an old pair of trainers to change into.
Uniform
Please make sure children are wearing correct uniform; including socks and it is labelled.
Daily belongings needed in school: water bottle, planners, book bag, coat and a smile!
Homework to be completed by next Friday
We have spent £200 of our class money on new books and our book area looks amazing, children are keen to read which is fantastic! Please ensure books are kept in pouches and looked after for everyone to enjoy-thank you.
Reading Giants - Read at least 5 times each week and record it in the diary. Please note - the diary needs to be in school on Friday as past reads will not be recorded on our chart (except holidays).
Times Tables - Mr Ross runs a TT Rockstars club on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday lunchtime for children to attend. Keep practising on TTRS at home too - you have now learnt how to challenge each other and Mrs Jordan so enjoy competing against each other too.
A quick word about your heatmaps on TTRS - they will not update if you play the Jamming game as the heatmaps are based around timed games so please try out the other options too. Also, the heatmaps take into acount the last ten times you answer a question correctly, so once you have answered questions within 4 seconds ten times, then they will turn green as they use an average. I hope that makes sense and any questions, please ask.
Writing - Write 1 complex middle sentence, 1 subordinating complex sentence and 1 verb complex sentence.
Sentences we are learning this term-
A simple sentence - The man rubbed his stomach! A short sentence which evokes a feeling from the reader and has a subject (man) and one verb (rubbed). An exclamation mark can be used to emphasise feeling. They are short and make sense on their own - this is also a main clause.
Here are some more examples - The boy shook his fist!, The girl screamed with joy!, Her shoulders slouched!, The man froze!
A compound sentence - is made up of two simple sentnces (or two main clauses) which are joined together by a coordinating conjunction. It also has two verbs.
Here are some examples- - The man rubbed his stomach and he licked his lips. His head dropped and his shoulders began to slouch.
A simple - cliffhanger sentence helps the author to tie the last paragraph to the beginning paragraph. It also helps to build tension and make the reader want to read on. It also shows that they can use a single dash and an ellipsis which is more use of sophisticated language. It is composed of 2 simple sentences separated by a single dash and ending in an ellipsis.
The man rubbed his stomach - he started to turn green...
A verb complex sentence has 2 clauses separated by a comma. 1 clause will be a main clause and the other clause will be a subordinating clause. The first part of the sentence will be the subordinate clause(it does not make sense on its own) whilst the second part is the main clause (it does make sense on its own).
Rubbing his stomach, (subordinate clause starting with a verb) the man licked his lips.(main clause)
Rubbing his stomach, the man licked his lips.
A complex (middle) sentence is a simple sentence, with an extra piece of information (relative clause) which relates to the noun or subject and before the main verb. We use commas to separate the clause.
The man started to explode! is a simple sentence. The man , who gritted his teeth, started to explode! Who gritted his teeth, is the relative clause.
A subordinating complex sentence has 2 clauses and starts with a subordinating conjunction.
As he rubbed his stomach, the man licked his lips. 'As' is a subordinating conjunction. 'he rubbed his stomach' is the subordinate clause. 'the man licked his lips' is the main clause.
