Author: Mr Catherall

This week, we’ve started our new mini-topic… Power – forces. In Year 5 and 6, we’ll be focussing on electricity to make sure that we’re covering all of the National Curriculum. We started our unit by thinking about what electricity is (learning about: which materials conduct electricity?). Each group were given a basket full of electrical equipment and given one challenge: make the bulb give off light. All of the groups managed to do this (despite some equipment failures) pretty quickly – I was impressed.

Then, we discussed different materials and predicted* if they would conduct electricity or not. To find out how accurate our predictions were, we placed each material in the circuit and observed* if the bulb still worked or not. Ask your child which materials were conductors, and which ones weren’t.

*Two key skills covered in the working scientifically part of the National Curriculum. 

On Friday, we enjoyed a mindfulness workshop – ask your child if they can explain what mindfulness is.

We started off by thinking about a situation (being kicked in the leg in the playground) and thought about how we might react. Our response could be negative: we could react in a retaliatory way. However, being mindful would allow us to respond more positively: taking a moment away from the situation to calm down and find a suitable solution.

Then, we watched a clip from ‘Kung-Fu Panda’. In the clip, we saw two characters. One had a special power: mindfulness. Being mindful allowed the character to respond to a tricky situation by staying calm, thinking through his options and finding a solution that was best for all involved.

As our themed week is all about who we are, we discussed that learning to accept our emotions is a huge part of our identity. We talked about how we were feeling and reflected on times when we haven’t felt so upbeat and positive. We agreed that feeling anxious, sad or stressed is OK because we know that no matter how we are feeling it will always get better. To help, we learnt a few relaxation techniques:

• self hug
• breathing tree
• OK breathing
• nasal breathing (risky in the winter if you have a cold!)

Another technique we learnt to help us be mindful when we’re feeling anxious or worried is an emotions bottle. To create an emotions bottle at home, simply add different coloured glitter to a bottle of still water. Once made, decide what emotion each colour represents, shake the bottle, watch all the emotions mix then breath calmly as the bottle (and your emotions) reset. We have our own emotions bottle (or ‘Worry Waver’ as we’ve decided to call ours) in class that children can use at any time they wish – maybe, you could have one at home, too?

Another simple method to help us relax was to sit still and silent and focus on our senses. You could listen out for 10 sounds, find 10 shapes you haven’t noticed before or use your sense of touch to find contrasting textures around the room.

We’ll keep talking about mindfulness in class and we’ll be trying out some of the techniques.

Yesterday, we were fortunate to be invited to the Marjorie and Arnold Ziff Community Centre.

We had a great afternoon! When we arrived, we split into two groups. One group went to the kitchens to have a go at baking some traditional Jewish bread: challah. The other group completed a short dementia awareness course. We learnt about the brain and its many vital functions before discussing the impact that having dementia has on day-to-day life. We also focussed on how we can ensure that people suffering from dementia (and other mental illnesses) can be included within our communities. Then, we swapped to make sure everyone had a go at both activities.

After this, we joined up in the hall to sing and dance with some of the day visitors. We had a lovely time meeting some of the older members of our community and it was great to see that our visit (and considerable energy!)  put a smile on everyone’s face!

Here’s a few images from the afternoon…

Yesterday, we were joined by two police officers. Don’t panic – it was a planned visit! They came in to help us understand ‘Hate Crime‘.

The workshop started by us being split into two groups. One group was treated very differently to the other. They were given Ribena instead of water, given more praise, given Cool Class Tokens, allowed more time to speak and were spoken to in a nicer tone. The point of this was to illustrate how, sometimes, people within our community are treated differently (often, less well). The group that were ‘victimised’ became angry, upset and began to feel a sense of injustice. After we’d talked about how this could be reflected in society, we learnt about what a hate crime is and what we can do if we witness one happening.

The workshop was very informative and certainly though-provoking. We’re really lucky in our school that diversity is celebrated – let’s keep it this way!

As part of our themed week (Who Do You Think You Are?), we’ve been thinking about identity, diversity and community. To help us understand different people in our community, we were joined by two people who work closely with deaf people in Leeds. (Incidentally, Leeds has a high number of people who suffer from hearing disorders compared with other parts of the country.)

They taught us about why some people are deaf and helped us to understand the impact this can have on their lives. Perhaps the most fun part of the workshop was when we were taught some sign language. We learnt how to say the alphabet, how to ask someone their name, how to say ‘My name is_____’, how to ask how someone is and how to say ‘3,2,1 stop!’.

Ask your child if they can remember how to say their own name – they could even teach you how to say yours!

On Monday, we were joined by some people from the Dove Skincare Company. They came in to talk to us about self-esteem.

We started by watching this video. It highlighted to us that what we see in the media is often unrealistic, over-edited and an inaccurate representation of everyday life.

In groups, we discussed how this video made us feel: ‘upset’, ‘let-down’ and ‘disappointed’ were just a few common responses. We concluded that beauty is not what you see on the outside but what makes us who were are on the inside. At the end of the session, we made a pledge to ourselves to stay self-confident over the coming years.

On Friday, the teachers weren’t feeling too good so let the children take over for the day! In Year 5, Mr Catherall didn’t really do anything all day because each member of the class had a job to do. It was great fun to take over the classroom and everyone did a great job – there were plenty of laughs throughout the day, too!

Last week, in our living and learning session, we thought about Anti-bullying Week. We looked over our definition of bullying and discussed what we could do if we saw bullying happen. We then discussed the impact that being bullied could have on a person.

To conclude our learning, we acted out some short scenarios in groups. Each scenario showed an incident that could be deemed as bullying – we discussed each one as a class.