PE days this half term
Hi everyone,
Sadly, our gymnastic sessions on a Monday afternoon came to an end last half term.
Therefore, this half term, our PE days will be Wednesday and Thursday.
We will be swimming on a Wednesday, like usual. On Thursdays, we will be practising a range of different events in preparation for Sports Day!
Thanks!
Mr Wain
Welcome back!
Welcome back. We hope you had a great half-term!
We can’t believe we have reached the last half term of the year and the children will soon be heading off to Year 1!
This half term is always busy with lots of exciting things to look forward to.
This term our mini-themes will be:
Let’s make a splash!
As we move into the final term of the year, the weather is much warmer (we hope!) and we begin thinking about days at the beach. The water area is a favourite in our provision and has lots of learning opportunities. As a scientist, your child will investigate floating and sinking, making predictions and testing theories. They’ll also investigate materials in terms of being waterproof. As a geographer, your child will look at a seaside town and find it on a map, learning that a seaside town is always on the coast. They’ll talk about the things that they see at the seaside that they don’t see in Leeds. Finally, as a historian, your child will learn about seaside holidays of the past, identifying differences in clothing and entertainment by looking at old photos and videos.
Where in the world?
Summer holidays are on our minds during these last few weeks of term. This theme enables us to develop an understanding of travel. We will think about the different ways people can travel to holiday destinations: by car, coach or aeroplane, for example. Your child will find out how much travel has changed through history. They will become travel agents in role-play situations, too.
In addition we will be thinking about change and our transition to Year 1. The children will be given the chance to visit their new classroom areas.
Phonics
We are continuing with phase 4 learning. The children will be reading more challenging words and sentences and gaining more confidence and fluency. They will use their knowledge to write simple sentences independently.
Living and Learning: Body image
Body image, as part of our Living and Learning curriculum, uses a focus on self-esteem to promote a positive body image. There is a strong emphasis on appreciating and celebrating everyone’s unique qualities, talents and abilities.
We want to enable pupils to feel proud and confident about who they are and to value their own and each other’s individuality.
Firstly, we talked about what makes us special – maybe something physical or personal. Here are some of the children’s ideas.
I’m special as I love reading books.
I’m special because I can make new friends.
I’m special because I hard try hard with my learning.
I’m special as I’m brave by swimming in a big pool.
I’m special because I’m good at helping others.
Next, we discussed why we have names and what if everyone was nameless?
If we didn’t have names, we wouldn’t be as special as we are.
We have names because we are unique and special.
We need names as we wouldn’t know who people are.
A name makes us special.
Then, we considered why we like different activities.
We like different activities because we are different people.
Some people like different things.
Not everyone likes the same thing because we are all different.
It would be boring if everyone liked the same things. It is good to share each others’ successes and interests.
Remember – not everyone can be good at everything but everyone is good at something.
Finally, we thought about why we look different and what things we can change and what things we can’t change about ourselves.
You can change your personality because if you don’t share with others, you can learn to share.
You can’t change your skin colour.
Listen to this text, Your Body is Awesome, with your child. What is brilliant about their body?
It’s always great to hear the children discussing and sharing ideas in our Living and Learning sessions. The children always have such a lot to say about this key area of our learning. A special mention to Erica who showed fantastic listening skills to all the children as they shared their ideas in this lesson.
Drop-down morning: History
Each half term, we have a drop down morning where we revisit previous learning from previous half terms, terms and years!
On Wednesday, we had our History drop down morning.
Our first session was about chronology: we ordered periods of British history in chronological order.
Later on in the morning, we revisited recent learning about The Romans. This is what we were able to remember:
We ended the morning by playing a Kahoot about the Great Fire of London.
Well done to our winners Alasdair and Maya who got 9/10 correct and answered the questions the quickest!
Well done to everybody for their awesome remembering!
Gymnastics
This week in gymnastics we got all the equipment out and did some amazing climbing, jumping and sliding. The children were very excited and loved seeing how high they could climb. I was very impressed by their resilience and their bravery. I was also very glad to see all children taking safe risks in this way and showing good maturity to know when they felt they had gone high enough.
Living and Learning: Body Image
This week in Living and Learning we talked about giving and receiving compliments to others as well as ourselves. We talked about what a compliment is and thought about a compliment we could give our partner. Here are just some of the children’s ideas.
‘The person sitting next to me is special because she is always kind and always helps me.’
‘The person sitting next to me is special because she always makes good choices’
‘The person sitting next to me is special because he works really hard.’
We then practised giving and receiving compliments, making sure we said thank you.
Then, we discussed our own bodies and how amazing they are! Finally, we thought of something incredible about our own body.
My body is amazing because it can do anything!
My body is amazing because it heals infection.
My body is amazing because it can make lots of friends.
My body is amazing because my fingers make wonderful drawings!
I think we all agreed how brilliant all our bodies are!
Summer fun
Science this half term
This half term, in science, we are biologists and we are learning all about plants.
Here is a summary of the key learning and also the vocabulary we are using.
We used our observation skills when looking at the parts of a plant.
We’ve also been planting seeds and measuring our plants as they start to grow.
In this video, have a look to see what goes on underground when a seed has been planted. What parts of a plant can you see?
We’ve also been doing some gardening in the front playground planters.
It’s been great to see the children spotting plants in their garden and in their neighbourhood.
Can you identify any of the plants? What parts of the plants can you see?
Today, we finished our plants learning with a walk around Moortown Park to see what plants we could spot. We used the Seek App to help to identify plants that we found.
Living and Learning – Body Image
This week in Year 4, we spoke about what body image is and how important it is that we have a positive and healthy body image.
The media are well known for editing and modifying images of celebrities and models to fit their idea of beauty. We identified how certain images have been edited and why the media would want to do this. We decided as a class that they do this in order to persuade us to buy their products.
The class discussed how important it was to accept and make friends with the things that we can’t change about ourselves. This creates a positive voice in our head where we feel happy and confident. We can change certain things about ourselves such as, eating healthily and exercising regularly which is key.
Every single person is special and beautiful in there own way and everyone has their own view of what that means. Beauty is in the eye of beholder!
Ask your child at home what they think is more important – beauty outside or beauty within!
Herd Farm
Hello all!
Year 4’s residential to Herd Farm was absolutely fantastic! For some of the children, it was their first night away from home but they all were incredibly mature and were having too much fun to even have a second to worry.
They all completed three different activities; the giant swing, the assault course and crate stacking. The most nerve-wracking activity was the giant swing but every single child overcame their fears and had a go on it. Some even went to the very top! The assault course ended up in some of the children getting soaked as the aim was to end up with the most water in their pot by the end! This was tricky… Finally, the crate stacking became a competition to see who could climb the highest. We managed to get to 11 crates high.
All of the staff were impressed at how enthusiastic and polite our class were. At each meal time, the children helped to set the tables. They sat and ate their amazing food and helped to tidy and clear up too!
I hope the children managed to get a good nights sleep on Friday night – I know we did!
Miss Birch, Mrs Charlesworth, and Miss Gilliland