Congratulations to Grace who this week achieved 14th place in the Leeds Primary Schools cross country final at Middleton Park out of over 100 runners in her Year 5 girls race.
This means Grace has now qualified to represent Leeds at the West Yorkshire Cross Country Final at Temple Newsam. A fantastic achievement!
If Grace has inspired you to give running a try, why not take part in the local weekly Junior Park Run at Roundhay Park.
As part of our World Book Day celebrations tomorrow, we’ll be holding a table sale of books written by a family member of two pupils in school.
Finlay and Evie’s auntie, Clare Luther, is the author of a great series of a SEAL related books and they will be available to buy after school tomorrow in the playground (weather permitting).
As part of the Be Food Smart Change4life campaign, have you tried the quiz to find out how much you know about what’s really inside your food and drink!
Our second PE lesson this week will be on Friday where Dance Leaders from Allerton Grange will be visiting us to lead a session with the class.
Please ensure your child has their PE kit on Friday and at all times.
This week our SEAL statement is…
We used drama to demonstrate this in our SEAL lesson and the children devised some key things to remember when working with others.
We put this to the test with a team challenge in PE. Each group had to get across the hall using only three hoops. There was plenty of team work, problem solving and lots of encouragement!
Year 2 have enjoyed a glorious trip to Herd Farm going back in time to discover houses from the past.
First, Tina, our Forest School’s guide, took us to the Mesolithic Camp to show how hunter gatherers made temporary shelters with sticks covered in skins. We learnt about two main types of shelter – teepees and wigwams. Ask your child about the stick rule and the safe way to carry a stick.
Then we set to work creating our own shelter by creating a stable base (equilateral triangle) and turning a triangular based pyramid into a cone (great Maths learning too!). We were proud of our creations. Great teamwork, everyone!
After that, we took a walk to discover the Iron Age village in the valley – what a great setting for a village! We discovered that early farmers built thatched roundhouses with wattle and daub walls and cooked on open fires.
Then it was time to look inside…
Outside the roundhouses, Ian, our archaeologist guide, lit a fire while we enjoyed our fruit. We took some time to sketch the roundhouses and other features of the Iron Age village.
We left the Iron Age village to return to the main Herd Farm buildings (now a residential centre). The farm house was built in 1760 and we also found the newest building on the site, a sustainable steel framed, wooded covered building with a wood pellet biomass heating boiler, bringing us right up to date.
All the class demonstrated excellent behaviour and it was great to hear them share their knowledge from our topic so far. There was just time for a team photo before we got back on the coach to return to school for lunch!
‘I loved going to Herd Farm and I learnt that Iron Age houses are made of wattle and daub like Tudor houses. I was sad to leave.’
‘I enjoyed it because it was really fun and exciting. There were lots of activities at Herd Farm. I learnt lots from the past.’
‘I didn’t know that Iron Age houses had thatched roofs. It was cool to build our own shelters. I loved it!’
The spellings this week all have an ey ending.
What sound does the ey make?
Are there any other words that follow this pattern?
donkey
key
monkey
valley
chimney
honey
money
alley
You may want to do one of the following spelling activities to support your child learning these words.
This week, following our learning on 2D and 3D shapes, the homework is practice makes perfect.
This should be completed and returned to school by Thursday 02 March.
Here is some information that might help.
When we talk about 3D shapes, we talk about faces, edges and vertices.
For example, this cuboid has 6 faces, 12 edges and 8 vertices:
We are all looking forward to visiting Herd Farm tomorrow morning as part of our Time Travel Houses and Homes topic.
As we will be outside, and the forecast is for cold weather, please ensure your child comes in warm long sleeved clothes, with ideally waterproof boots and coat. They should also have a water bottle in school to take with them.
We have been looking at the forecast throughout the week and fingers crossed the wind dies down.
We will be back for lunch so no packed lunch needed!
How can we work together, get on with others and solve conflicts?
For this half term, our SEAL (Social and Emotional Aspects of Learning) theme Getting On covers four main aspects:
A key resource for children to refer to during this theme, and at other times, is Peaceful Problem Solving. This encourages children to sort out their own problems. You may wish to talk through this with your child(ren).
When group work takes place in school, some questions for children to consider are:
The key areas of learning throughout this theme are empathy, managing feelings and social skills.
We start our weekly SEAL statements with a focus on manners, I don’t interrupt (with my mouth or with my hand).