Living and Learning: Democracy
This week in L&L, we’ve been focusing on one of our British Values – democracy. Democracy means that power is in the hands of the people.
Our topic this half-term has been Ancient Greece. The Ancient Greeks founded democracy so the children already had a great understanding of what this meant.
The word democracy comes from Greek:
- dêmos – people
- krátos – power/rule
We’ve learnt about democracy in our country and how this works. The children were really interested in learning about the central and local government and the roles of political parties. We also discussed how we’re involved in democratic decisions at school:
We get to vote for how we use our reward time.
We get to vote for our JLT in school.
At the start of the year we got to vote for the name of our class reward points.
Next week, we’ll have our own democratic vote to elect our new JLT members for this year.
Help at home: create your speech for becoming a JLT candidate.
- What good qualities do you have to be a good leader?
“I would be a great leader because I listen to, and respect, other’s views.”
- How can you help your class?
“I would help Year 4 by listening to your opinions and ideas and sharing these with Mr Wilks and Mrs Weekes.”
Living and Learning: What is democracy?
This week, Year 3 learnt about what is democracy and how we can become involved in democratic decisions.
Democracy, one of the British Values, means ‘rule by the people’. It comes from the Greek words dêmos (people) and krátos (rule or strength). This has linked to our Topic learning because the Ancient Greeks, more specifically the Athenians, who created the idea of democracy.
We learnt about how democracy works in this country. This included learning about central and local government, what services government provide for the people and the role of political parties.
Next week, we’ll have our own democratic vote to elect our new JLT members for this year.
Help at home: Create your speech for becoming a JLT candidate.
What good qualities do you have to be a good leader?
“I would be a great leader because I am a good listener.”
How can you help your class?
“I would help Year 3 by sharing your ideas with Mrs Weekes.”
Living and Learning: respect
To start our lesson about self-respect, we made our own creature creations. Starting with a head, someone else added a body and finally someone else added legs.
We had some great mixed up creations and not one of them was the same. The creatures were all different as we all have different drawing styles and imaginations and, just like the creatures, those differences make us all unique.
We thought about what else makes us unique and why we are special. Some children wanted to add extra things to this like different behaviours, responsibilities and routines.
We thought about how we can show that we respect ourselves.
Get enough sleep.
Eat your 5 a day and other healthy foods.
Don’t be rude to yourself.
Brush your teeth.
Don’t try and hurt yourself.
Keep yourself clean.
Not having too much screen time.
Looking after your belongings.
Looking after your family.
Do exercise to make you fit and strong.
Here’s a poem we created…
Our weekly circle time sessions give the children chance to build on this learning about respect and self-respect and our themed week, Me and My Communities, after half term will also reinforce this learning about our own identity.
Help at home: talk through this learning and think about how respecting ourselves helps us to respect others.
Maths: fact families!
This week in Maths we have been learning about fact families. These are groups of number sentences that can be written for the same three numbers. We have started with addition and I have been really impressed with the children’s efforts!
We start with a part part whole model and then begin to write our number sentences. We learnt that it doesn’t matter what order the parts are added in the whole is still the same (commutative – see if your child can remember this word and what it means!). We also learnt that the whole can be placed at the front of the number sentence. Altogether, we can write 4 addition number sentences for one part part whole model.
This is all new learning for the children and I was really happy with how hard they tried as well as the learning they achieved! Well done everybody!
Help at home by talking about number sentences and practising writing some for simple equations.
Autumn 1: Week6
This week we have been reading the story We’re Going on a Bear Hunt. The children have enjoyed acting out this story and using our word of the week (squelch) to describe walking through the mud.
We have been on a grapheme hunt around school spotting different graphemes and traveling as if we were in the story.
Help at home by practicing the graphemes on this week’s phonics sheet.
Maths
We have been counting up to three objects using a variety of equipment.
Help at home by asking your child to find three of something. You could even choose three teddy bears for a picnic and select items for each of them.
Lots of the children were inspired to make kites by another child in the class who had made one. They enjoyed whizzing around the playground flying them.
The children had lots of fun developing their gross motor skills on the adevnture playground.
Thank you to everyone who managed to come to the first stay and learn session. I have attached the PowerPoint for those of you who were unable to attend.
School Trip to Lotherton Hall!
Yesterday, Year 3 and 4 visited Lotherton Hall on a school trip! This trip linked to this our science topic: grouping and classifying living things.
We began the day by exploring the Wildlife World and we saw some incredible animals! Some of your children’s particular favourites included the capybara, tapir, emus, Humboldt penguins and flamingos! It was amazing to be able to get so close and admire these fantastic animals.
Later, we were lucky enough to attend a workshop all about classifying animals. I was so impressed with all your children’s science knowledge! They explored the five groups of vertebrates:
- mammals
- reptiles
- amphibians
- fish
- birds
At the end of the workshop, each table got a replica skull to study. They looked at the teeth to decipher whether it was a herbivore or carnivore and the eye sockets to determine whether it was a predator or prey. It was fascinating!
It was a brilliant day filled with exciting and interactive learning – we’d love to go back!
Help at home: ask your children to name the different animals they saw at Wildlife World and classify them into their vertebrate group.
Live Author Event
Yesterday, Year 5 watched a live author event.
Lotherton Hall Trip!
Today, Year 3 went on their school trip to Lotherton Hall. Lotherton Hall is full of animals and history which is perfect for our Science and History learning at the moment!
The focus today was Science – animals including humans. We discussed five ways we can group animals based on their characteristics:
- mammals
- reptiles
- birds
- fish
- amphibians
We looked at x-rays and replica skulls and classified them based on what we could see. For example, some animals had a backbone and others didn’t or some had wings and others didn’t.
We explored the Wildlife World and the playgrounds (of course!) The weather was great too so we were outside for most of the time. Take a look at us exploring…
Help at home by grouping animals based on their characteristics. What do penguins and flamingos have in common?
Why not take a trip to Lotherton Hall yourselves? There are some Halloween activities on this month until early November. https://museumsandgalleries.leeds.gov.uk/lotherton/
Maths: column addition
This week, we’ve loved doing column addition!
We began the week with column addition without exchanging and once your children were confident with this, we moved onto column addition with exchanging.
You can exchange 10 ones for 1 ten.
You can exchange 10 tens for 1 hundred.
You can exchange 10 hundreds for 1 thousand.
I’ve been wowed by your children’s column addition this week! They’ve demonstrated some fantastic knowledge of how and why we use column addition.
Help at home by asking your children to complete the following calculations using column addition:
2910 + 5839 =
1092 + 7233 =
2649 + 7221 =
8323 + 1284 =
Me and My Community week
Our next whole school themed week, based around identity, diversity and community, will be taking place from Monday 4th November. This is the first of two themed weeks in the year. In our ‘Me and My Community’ week, children will learn about what it means to belong to a community, from family to national or even international communities. Importantly, our children will also learn to respect and celebrate different communities. A variety of events and visitors are planned to help us deliver this key aspect of our Living and Learning education.
Events and learning during the week will include looking at our own identity including belonging and self-esteem, diversity of people around us including race, age, religion and disability and children will also be getting out into the community working with local organisations and taking pride in the local area for example by litter picking.
Active travel in the community
We encourage children to get out in the community in an active way on their way to and from school, with prizes available as part of the themed week. By walking/scooting/biking to school, families will by keeping our community safer and healthier by reducing congestion at the school gate. Maybe even pick up a piece of litter on the way. Even by parking further away from school your child could then to do the final part of their journey by foot, bike or scooter. Bike and scooter storage facilities are available beside the Year 3 and 4 classrooms.
Email us (moortownoffice@spherefederation.org) a picture of your active travel, maybe by a landmark in our community on your route to school, for the chance to win one of five vouchers. Entries to be submitted by noon on Friday 8th November.
New school charity
At the end of the themed week, classes will have the chance to discuss our charity shortlist and the Junior Leadership Team will have the final vote for which charity they would like our school to support, replacing our current charity, The Children’s Heart Surgery Fund.
Identity day
Friday 8th November will be a non-uniform Identity Day. Children are invited to dress in clothing that represents part of their identity, for example uniform from a club they attend, a team they are part of or support or traditional dress to represent their heritage. There is no donation or contribution required for this day.
SAVE THE DATE PTA coffee morning Friday 8 November 9-10am
As part of the week, we welcome all parents and carers to an informal coffee morning to meet other members of our school community including representatives from the PTA. A whole school community Wake up Shake up will follow at 9:50am in the main playground.
Can you help?
Maybe you speak another language and you would be happy to speak to children about this or you would like to share about your own family culture and heritage. If so, please contact the office to pass on your details. Also, do you have any local community links that may support our week?
Our website continues to keep you up to date with key community events as well as our community noticeboard.
