This week’s homework is Practice Makes Perfect and is due on Thursday 15 September.
Choose a continent and see how many of its countries you can learn and locate on the map.
As our topic is Where in the World, we’ve been learning lots about different countries and where they are. This challenge will help them to become more familiar with their chosen continent and provides an opportunity to improve memory skills.
Fab Facebook feedback!
It was great to read this recent Facebook comment:
First day back I noticed the basketball courts in the main playground, look great, the first thing my 2 kids (in separate classes) said to me at home time on the first day was “mum you have to see the back playground” it looks fantastic! & my son explained the MUGA meaning! We love it & it’s a fab edition to this awesome little school.
We’re all very excited about the new equipment. The back playground will be even better when we get a bit of extra land from the old field – this will happen hopefully next year.
Welcome back to your new – and final – school year. Year 6 have made a fab start with lots of hard work going on already but lots of us have been surprised that we can still be having fun. We’re well on the way reminding ourselves about reading and writing numbers (up to 10,000,000) and recapping on nouns, verbs and all sorts of other word classes.
Our Where in the World topic has begun and we’re busy planning an inter-railing trip around Europe and there’s lots to think about:
We worked really well together to get an amazing trip planned.
We had to use lots of Maths skills and map skills as well as problem-solving and working together.
We’ll put up a post to show you our final plans when we’re done.
Because there are no scheduled elections for May, we’ve moved a training day to Friday 12 May.
Typically, one of our training days in the school year has to be in May. This is so that it fits with polling day, which is nearly always the first Thursday in May. It’s not ideal for us because it follows the May Day bank holiday and is just before the Key Stage 2 SATs week.
The Leeds City Council Electoral Registration Office has provided this information to schools:
2017 is a fallow year, therefore no local elections are due to take place. However, schools should be aware that the school may still be required for polling if any unexpected elections occur, such as a general election or a by election.
The local elections in 2018 are due to take place on Thursday 03 May. Your school remains on the list to be used as a polling station for the elections that will take place on Thursday 03 May 2018.
Because we’ve been told that there are currently no scheduled elections, we’ve decided not to have Thursday 04 May 2017 as a training day. Instead, we’ve moved the training day to Friday 12 May – this is the Friday of the SATs week – a welcome treat for our hard-working Year 6 pupils!
If so, it’s time for an asthma review.
Every year, there’s a peak in admissions for children having an asthma attack in September. The cause of this is not clear, but it’s believed that when children return to school they’re exposed to a number of new environmental factors that can trigger an asthma attack. Children are also exposed to new viruses which can be another trigger of an asthma attack. If children with asthma return to school with their lungs in the best possible condition, then an asthma attack maybe prevented.
NHS staff encourage children with asthma to attend their GP practice for an asthma review during the school holidays. This gives the nurse or doctor the opportunity to review their medication, check their inhaler technique and give them a personal asthma action plan. Pupils will then be able to bring a copy of that updated asthma action plan into school in September; this will give us the information we need to support pupils with their asthma in school – this could prevent an asthma attack.
Is your child due to start secondary school in September 2017?
Pupils who have just finished Year 5 are due to go into Year 7, the start of secondary school, in September 2017. Parents will be able to apply for a place between 01 August 2016 and 31 October 2016.
All applications need to be made via the online application system. This site also contains a YouTube video giving parents a step by step guide to completing their online application. The online application form and the video will be available from 01 August 2016.
Parents will need a valid e-mail account in order to set up and create an account in the online system. Free computer access and help with setting up an e-mail account is available in Leeds City Council libraries and One Stop Shops. If parents need help applying online for a secondary school place they can come to one of the drop in sessions outlined below for support with their online application.
If you’re still having difficulty with completing an application online, you should contact the Admissions Team on 0113 222 4414 to access individual support including alternative methods of application if required.
It’s the summer holidays at last, so there are no homework or spelling activities. Enjoy the holidays instead!
Does your child spend less time outdoors than prison inmates? A survey suggests three-quarters of children do, as the time spent playing in parks, woods and fields has shrunk dramatically due to lack of green spaces, digital technology and parents’ fears.
Research shows that playing outdoors promotes social skills, improves vision, reduces stress, increases attention span and provides vitamin D.
Our homework last week linked to a national competition to win a trip to the new Wonderlab at the Science Museum in London. There were lots of fantastic entries but we’ve whittled it down to one class winner which will be sent off to be judged.
Moses entered the winning piece but I’d like to give a special mention to Ebonnie who came in a close second!
Moses wonders…
I wonder what the world would be like without weather? Would it be hot or cold? Would the sun shine? How would we live? Would we need houses or shelters, would there still be nature without rain? Where would the water come from? Would life on earth exist without weather? We complain about the weather all the time but without it what earth look like? I think life would be less colourful, dull and boring, without the sunshine the sea would be grey like the sky above. What do you think the world would be like without weather?
Some brilliant thoughts that really got us thinking too. We’ve made it a more whole class entry as we then thought about what we wanted it to look like in order to catch the judges’ eyes. There were some lovely ideas but Isabelle’s, Jorja’s and Sarah’s had the edge.
Fingers crossed.
This week’s Talk Time homework will be discussed on Wednesday 20 July.
How can Miss Rushbrooke make Year 6 enjoyable, productive and even better than Year 5?
As I have the pleasure of teaching the class again next year, it would be great to have some top tips from the children for what I could do to make their final year at Moortown a great one. I’m hoping for some realistic suggestions about how we can have fun – not just have break all the time! And how I can help them learn even more than they have this year.
There is always room for improvement and – I hope the children would agree – I’m always keen to hear how they’d like things to be and will adapt what I’m doing if I think it’s a good idea.
Gobblefunk words
To promote the big read and celebrate the work of Roald Dahl, this week’s spellings are all words found in his books.
Children should learn how to spell these words in preparation for their final spelling test on Thursday 21st July.
Although these are made-up words, your child be practising the skill of learning new words – a vital life skill. There are lots of rules in these words which apply to spelling real or made-up words. (‘Squibbling’, for example, is probably a verb, ‘to squibble’, and uses two key rules: ‘drop the e for i n g‘ and the always important ‘double up for short vowel sounds’.)
| hopscotchy |
| squibbling |
| whizzpop |
| crodsquinkled |
| trogglehumper |
| quogwinkle |
| ucky-mucky |
| frothbuggling |
| delemptious |
I wonder if you can figure out what they mean too or even track down some Roald Dahl books that have them in!