Mr Catherall, Author at Moortown Primary School, Leeds

23 June 2017

This week, children have two pieces of homework – both due Thursday 29 June 2017.

The first is Practice Makes Perfect: I can calculate perimeter and area.

Children have been given some maths problems to solve. They should complete four of the activities in their book.

The second is Creative: I can respond to something I have seen, or read, in the news.

For this homework, children should provide a response to something that has been in the news this week. We’ve discussed it as a group, and the children came up with the following responses:

Make a collage of some recent news articles
Create a game where people need to match the image to the headline
Choose an article you like and an article you dislike and explain why
Create a ‘Which one is real?’ board game
Make your own newspaper article about something that has happened this week

This week, children have been given a copy of the statutory word list for Years 5 and 6. They should revise spelling these words, and any other words they have learnt this year, in preparation for their end of year spelling test.

They should evidence their revision using one whole page of their homework book.

16 June 2017

This week, children have two pieces of homework to respond to – both are due on Thursday 22 June 2017.

The first piece is Talk Time: I can discuss how I could change my learning for the better.

Linked to this week’s SEAL statement, this piece of homework is intended to encourage children to reflect on their own learning over the year and then decide what they could do to make their learning even better in the future.

The second piece is Practice Makes Perfect: I can score 1000 points on Mathletics.

Children should use the Mathletics app (or website) to practise their maths skills. Children should score at least 1000 points (note: this doesn’t have to be on Live Mathletics).

As always, if children have any problems or queries about their homework they should speak to me at the earliest possible opportunity so we can seek a solution – homework should never be a source of stress or worry.

16 June 2017

Shakespearean words

For the next two weeks, to coincide with our production, we will be focussing on Shakespearean words. The English language is said to owe a great deal to William Shakespeare. He is believed to have invented over 1700 of our common words by changing nouns into verbs, changing verbs into adjectives, connecting words never before used together, adding prefixes and suffixes, and devising words wholly originally.

This week, children should investigate the following statement and decide if they agree, or disagree…

There’s no point learning about William Shakespeare because we don’t use any of the words he created anymore.

Children should decide if they agree, or disagree, with this statement and justify their opinion.

09 June 2017

This week, children have been given two pieces of homework to complete – both are due on Thursday 15 June 2017.

The first piece is creative: To be able to observe science in real life.

This week, we’ve completed three science investigations. For each investigation, we used our observation skills to make sense of what’s actually going on. Science is everywhere. We often don’t even realise that we are watching science in action. This week, children should spend some time observing science in action. Children don’t necessarily need to understand what is going on but the skill of actually taking time to observe something and think about what might be happening is a crucial aspect of being a scientist. I did this earlier without even realising at the time…

When I entered the supermarket, it was reasonably sunny. However, when I left five minutes later, it was raining extremely heavily – so heavily, in fact, that the rain was actually bouncing off the floor. I was caught up in a monsoon! It made me think: how does it physically bounce off the floor? The rain is made of water so surely it should splatter as it hits the ground? This wasn’t happening. The rain drops seemed to stay intact and bounce like a ball. I presume this has something to do with the amount of force that the rain was falling with. I don’t actually understand the exact scientific reason for this happening but the important thing is that I saw something happen and then questioned why.

We discussed how we could respond to this as a class and the children had the following ideas:

You could complete a scientific investigation of your own
You could complete an everyday activity (like diving into a pool) and wonder about the science behind it (why does the water splash?)
Complete a diary of your scientific thoughts

The second piece this week is Talk Time: I can discuss the general election results.

Children should discuss the results of Thursday’s election with an adult.

09 June 2017

Commonly misspelt words

This week, we’ve spent some time reflecting on our spelling during our written work. We looked back over the last couple of months and created a bank of words we had spelt incorrectly.

Here is a selection of those words. Some of these words may not be used that often. However, the skill of learning how to learn how to spell the word is what’s important.

delicately

hypothermia

privilege

enthusiasm

intriguing

potential

conveniently

gravitational

anonymous

mysterious

19 May 2017

For the next week, we’ll continue our focus on using apostrophes correctly.

However, this week, instead of giving the children a list of words to learn, I would instead like them to create a poster that would help other people learn. They can go about this however they feel best. It may be wise to concentrate on the two main rules (apostrophes for possession or contraction). For an extra challenge, create a poster educating people about some common apostrophe related mistakes.

19 May 2017

In addition to our whole school ‘staying safe’ homework, we also have a Talk Time piece: Debate: should we pay more for sugary drinks/food?

Children should discuss this with adults and be prepared to debate this important question with their peers as part of our homework review next week.

To get you started, here are a few ‘for and against‘ arguments we’ve discussed as a class:

For

Tooth decay is rising amongst young children.
Obesity is rising amongst young children
Other countries (like Mexico) have done it and it seems to work.

Against

We should educate people rather than make them pay more.
The people who make food are responsible not the people who buy it.
People know what is in their food so they should take responsibility for their own diet.

Amazing art homework

I have to say, this week was possibly my favourite homework review of the whole year.

We always celebrate our homework and this week was no different. As we walked around looking at, and commenting, on other people’s responses (I can appreciate art) we were all amazed: they were so good! It was great to see that even though some of us are not avid art fans, we can still appreciate it. Here are a few of our favourites…

Leeds’ first ever inter-primary tchoukball game?

Ok, it may not be the first ever game of tchoukball between two schools in Leeds but last night was certainly a first for Moortown Primary School. 11 children from Year 5 travelled to Little London Community Primary School to compete in a competitive (kind of) game of tchoukball.

It was great fun for all those involved and the game was played in great spirit. Moortown, less experienced than their opponents, narrowly lost 3-29 in a thriller of a game! A huge well done to those children who participated. Similarly, I’d like to say a big ‘thank you’ to the parents who were able to help transport the children to the venue. Here’s a few actions shots: