Livingstone Primary & Nursery School WK2 JUNE 2026

This week in Nursery, we have continued our exciting pirate theme while also beginning to explore different modes of transport. We discussed how pirates travel by ship and compared this with the many ways we travel today, such as by bus, train, car and aeroplane.

Inspired by the book The Train Ride, the children helped to create a train station in our role-play area. They thoroughly enjoyed taking on different roles, including ticket collectors, passengers, and train drivers. We also had lots of fun singing and acting out the song "We Are Getting on the Train."

To support early literacy skills, the children took part in a playdough activity where they used a pencil tip to carefully pierce and trace the first letter of their name. Some children challenged themselves further by forming their entire name.

During our boat rescue water play activity, the children worked together to save different shapes from the water. We talked about the names and properties of the shapes, discussing how many sides and corners each one has.

The children also enjoyed expressing their creativity and imagination by designing and creating their own models using a variety of recyclable materials. It was wonderful to see the unique ideas they came up with.

Finally, we introduced our new busy boards and talked about the importance of tool safety. The children learned how to use tools responsibly and had the opportunity to explore screwdrivers, spanners, wrenches, and Allen keys under close supervision, developing their fine motor skills and problem-solving abilities.

Phonics this week was /b/ for boot and f

Talking Homework

Modes of Transport:

How do you travel to nursery? What different types of transport have you used? Which transport is your favourite and why? Have you ever travelled on a train? Where did you go?

Letters: Can you spot the first letter of your name around your home or when you are out and about? Can you name any family members who have the same first letter as you?

Shapes: Go on a shape hunt around your home. Can you find circles, squares, rectangles, and triangles? Talk about how many sides and corners each shape has.

Our pirate and mermaid adventures have continued this week, and the children have been fully immersed in all things treasure, maps and life at sea!

Our key text this week has been Pirates in the Supermarket. The children loved the funny story and the mischievous pirates. The book inspired our Literacy learning as we explored rhyming words. We had lots of fun creating silly rhyming names using our own names and thinking of other words that rhyme. There were plenty of giggles as we made up some very silly combinations together! Next week, we will build on this learning by exploring real rhyming pairs and spotting rhymes in stories, games and songs.

In Maths, we became pirate treasure hunters! The children used gold coins and sparkling jewels to complete a series of treasure challenges. They practised adding and taking away amounts, as well as doubling numbers, whilst carefully following each set of instructions. We were very impressed with their counting skills and the way they explained how they found their answers.

The children have continued to enjoy our pirate role play, setting sail on imaginary ships and working together to search for treasure. It has been wonderful to hear their conversations as they took on different roles and created their own adventures. We heard lots of cries of "Ahoy mateys!", "We need to cross the high seas!" and "Find that treasure, me hearties!" as the

Talking Homework

• Can you think of some rhyming words together? How many rhyming pairs can you find?

• If pirates came to your supermarket, what do you think they would buy?

Growing Up and Changes

As we approach the end of Reception, we will be spending some time talking about growing up, how we have changed and all the things we can do now that we couldn't do when we were babies.

To support this learning, we would be very grateful if you could send in a photograph of your child as a baby. You can either email a photo to office@livingstone.barnetmail.net or send in a printed copy with your child.

The children always love comparing their baby photos with how they look now, and it helps to spark lots of lovely conversations about growing, learning and the exciting journey they have been on throughout Reception.

This week's awards go to:

Harry and Sevana – for always giving every activity a go and showing a fantastic attitude to learning.

Beatrix and Lyra – for their wonderful independent writing and the confidence they are showing when applying their phonic knowledge.

Iris – for her excellent maths work and the perseverance she has shown when solving our pirate treasure challenges.

In Maths this week, Year 2 have been continuing to learn how to tell the time in 5-minute intervals. This was some challenging new learning for the children but they worked hard and tried their best. Please continue practising this at home. In English, we have been preparing for our next ‘long write’ by learning about imperative (bossy) verbs, adverbs, conjunctions and accurate punctuation. In the afternoons, we have completed our Science unit on plants and begun our new Geography unit all about the seaside! We talked about what the coastline is and found seaside towns in the UK on a map.

Homework - due in Wednesday 17th June:

Maths (telling the time): pages 100 and 101 (page 102 optional challenge)

English: commas in lists worksheet.

The first achievement award goes to Muhammadamin for his excellent work in Maths this week (telling the time) and his sentences in English. The second award goes to Gina for her excellent focus and ideas in English.

Ms Burnett and I want to thank the many generous volunteer sewers who came to help us on Monday! It was wonderful to see so many grandparents, parents and siblings helping thread needles and support their children create unique, stylish bags! We are now starting our Geography unit of Hills and Mountains and have already used Digimap to find famous mountains in the United Kingdom. We are in the process of writing our travel brochures for the Island of Tobago and the children have become very persuasive writers! In maths, we have continued our work on time, specifically understanding seconds, minutes, hours, days, months and years.

Homework

Maths Time p.101-102 (103 is optional)

English Comprehension p.36-38

Achievement awards this week go to Marina and Yasmin for their perseverance and creativity for designing and sewing their fabulous bags!

It has been an incredibly busy week for Year 5 with 2 trips and many rehearsals!

In Maths, they continued using their written methods to add and subtract decimals and identified the rules and terms in different decimal sequences.

In English, they practised the grammar they'll be using in their balanced arguments next week: passive voice, formality and relative clauses. They also planned their argument.

In History, they learned about the Spanish Armada attempting to attack England in 1588 and the main reasons why King Phillip II of Spain did this. They also enjoyed their trip to Knebworth House on Tuesday and astounded us with their knowledge of the Tudors.

Yesterday, they did me, the school and - most importantly! - themselves proud at the Music Festival. They well very well- behaved and sang their hearts out, remembering the lyrics for 7 difficult songs!

Homework due by Weds 17th June

Maths: pages 110 and 111 (decimals)

Grammar: pages 34 and 35 (standard and non-standard English)

This week's awards go to George, Liana and Tiannah for their excellent drumming during Yenemanoa at the Music Festival yesterday - well done!

This week in Maths we have been learning to double, halve and various methods to divide. We have used practical resources and drawing methods to help us develop our undserstanding.

In English, we have written diary entries about our trip to Hertfordshire Zoo. We included informal chatty language and used conjunctions to extend our ideas. We enjoyed reminiscing about our fun trip.