Writing & Geography – Letters to Steve Reed
This half term’s geography learning has culminated in a letter to our Environment Minister, Steve Reed.
We want to urge him to take climate change even more seriously after what we’ve found out about how it’s impacting the world around us.
We have been learning about how melting ice caps, due to global warming, and therefore rising sea levels have been catastrophic for places around the world like Kale Island in the Solomon Islands.
We have learnt about how this change in sea level and more extreme weathers are leading to a rise in coastal erosion. Places like Skipsea suffer directly with damage to people’s homes, a decrease in tourism and sadly, in rare cases, loss of life.
We are writing to Steve Reed with several recommendations for how he can make effective changes. In addition, we are including a range of persuasive devices like flattery, emotive language and rhetorical questions.
Help at home by rereading this post to find all the examples of formal language.
“We wrote the letters into our books. Then we edited them and published them onto laptops to save paper,” explained Charlie.
Raheem said, “We’re writing this to make sure that Steve Reed will listen to our concerns.”
“It’s a nice experience because it’s a change from our normal handwritten letters or writing lessons,” beamed Luca.
Spring 1 : Week 6 Internet Safety day
We have had a very exciting week in reception. Every half term we have a zoom meeting with famer Verity. She shows us around her farm so we can see how it changes throughout the year. This week, we got to see lots of lambs. Two had just been born and we got to name them. We chose to name them Moortown and Reception.
Math
During maths this week we have been looking at measure. The children have been exploring different ways to measure the length of things.
Internet safety
During internet safety day, we shared a story about a child called Mog who was watching a video they liked that then changed to a video that they didn’t like. The children were great at suggesting what Mog should do. The suggestions included tell a grown up and go do something that makes her happy. We also shared a story called Chicken Clicking. The chicken was going on someone else’s laptop and ordering lots of things without permission. We discussed the importance of always asking our grown up before going online.
There will be no phonic or poem sheet sent home this week however there will be a Wow moment sheet and two math challenge sponsership sheets.
Have a lovely half term and we look forward to seeing you refreshed after a week off.
Writing: Co-ordinating and sub-ordinating conjunctions.
Year 5 have recapped their knowledge of co-ordinating and subordinating conjunctions.
They ran and jumped across the playground. (2 verbs)
He is a blue and purple monster. (2 adjectives)
She was very scary and incredibly effective. (2 phrases)
We need to take action on climate change but we are still burning too many fossil fuels. (2 main clauses)
We can use the acronym ‘FANBOYS’ to help use remember the most common co-ordinating conjunctions.
Subordinating conjunctions connect a main clause (a complete thought) with a subordinate clause (an idea that needs more information to make sense).
The Earth is getting warmer because of human activities.
We must act now if we want to avoid further damage.
We can use the acronym ‘ISAWAWABUB’ to help use remember the most common co-ordinating conjunctions.
Year 5 had a treasure hunt to help consolidate this knowledge. There was grammar style questions hidden around the room for the children to find and answer.
Help at home: Can your child name all the subordinating conjunctions using ‘ISAWAWABUB’?
Maths: Column multiplication
In Maths, we have recently been looking at column multiplication. Year 5 started off by recapping Year 4 learning with 3-digit numbers times by 1-digit numbers. We know have learnt how to multiply 4-digit numbers by 2-digit numbers!
In this lesson, the children used their knowledge to play a game of connect 4.
Help at home: Practise multiplying 4-digit numbers by 2-digit numbers. Why not create your numbers by rolling a dice or using a random number generator? Ask your child to talk your through each step.
Cross Country Leeds Final
*** UPDATE*** Congratulations to our Year 3 girls team and one of our Year 4 runners who have qualified for the West Yorkshire Cross Country Final.
We were very proud of our eight Key Stage 2 children who took part in the Leeds Cross Country Final at Temple Newsam this week.
In muddy, slippy, wet conditions they all put in 100% effort in their races and were a great support for each other. The children should feel proud of competing against the best runners from across Leeds.
We’ll wait to hear if we have any qualifiers for the next round, the West Yorkshire Final.
Thank you to parents who helped with transport and supported at the event.
PE: Dance
We are dancers!
In PE this half term, we have been doing dance. We’ve been exploring different elements of dance and how we can use them when creating a final group routine.
- Space – pathways
- Tempo – time
- Dynamics
We started the half term by exploring different pathways – curved, angular and freeform. We imagined we were in snow and had to imagine the trail we would be leaving as we moved through the space.
Next we looked at tempo. This is the speed at which a dancer moves: fast, slow, acceleration, deceleration or free flowing. We spoke about the rhythmic use of the body to music, sound, no sound or voice.
Finally, we thought about different dynamics in dance. These are the movements we make and the quality of these movements. The three we looked at were:
- swinging
- suspending
- vibrating
To end this unit, your children got into groups and created a routine to Roar by Katy Perry. They had to think about all the elements we’ve covered this half term in their final piece. I was amazed by all of their dances – they were fantastic! All of your children were confident dancers and demonstrated all three elements brilliantly.
Help at home: put on your favourite song and ask your child to dance to it while thinking about the three elements of dance.
Safer Internet Day
This year, Safer Internet Day’s theme is Too Good To Be True and focused a lot on avoiding scams.
We joined a live lesson by the BBC which told us the following ways to check for scams:
We looked at apps and games and their age restrictions. We discussed why these were in place and it was mainly for our safety. Check out the other reasons below.
Help at home by making sure any profiles or games are fully private.
Would you click on the scam?
We also watched a play produced by the NSPCC about the dangers of sharing images online. You should never share photos which give away your personal information. If you’re ever unsure about anything, talk to a trusted adult.
We also looked at misinformation, disinformation and hoaxes. Challenge your child to define these terms and give an example!
Internet Safety Day
Yesterday was Internet Safety Day! The theme for this year’s national Safer Internet Day is ‘Too good to be true? Protecting yourself and others from scams online.’
Our first lesson was about misinformation, disinformation and hoaxes. The children were given 3 news articles to analyse and summarise. They then had to share this information with their friends over message. What they didn’t know is that these articles were hoaxes (false information made to deceive people). I shared this information with them on purpose (disinformation) and they had then shared it by accident (misinformation).
Year 5 discussed how we must be critical users of the internet to make sure false information is not spread to affect others. Ibby said, ‘I would check other websites to make sure the information was correct’. Nate said, ‘I would look at the URL to make sure it is a safe and reliable website’.
It’s really important to always speak to a trusted adult if you’re unsure about something you read online.
We joined a great BBC live lesson for Safer Internet Day all about scamming and phishing. Phishing involves tricking someone into giving out personal information online by pretending to be someone else. We learnt how to spot a phishing scam using a helpful acronym.
We then learnt about why it’s important to check with a trusted adult before sharing personal information online. Personal information that websites/apps/games collect could be anything from name and address to birthday, hobbies and even bank details. We need to keep this information safe whilst online and not give it to just anyone!
Help at home: Can you think of at least 4 pieces of personal information that we should keep private? How can you be critical users of the internet?
Year 2 class assembly
We’re looking forward to sharing our learning at our class assembly tomorrow.
We hope to see you there at 2:40pm.
Living and Learning: Safer Internet Day!
Safer Internet Day – 11.02.2025!
The theme for this year’s national Safer Internet Day is:
‘Too good to be true? Protecting yourself and others from scams online.’
Over the week, we’ve had the opportunity to think about any worries we might have about using the internet, becoming equipped with the skills to be safe on the internet but also about celebrating all the fantastic things technology can help us with.
I know that some things online may not be true.
We discussed ‘fake news’ and what this means. We decided that if something is ‘fake’, it is not real and ‘news’ is information that is important. Fake news can be misleading and can give people the wrong impression or information.
We worked in groups to decide whether certain information was reliable and trustworthy.
Here are ways we could check if something is real or fake:
- Where has it come from?
- Who has posted this information?
- Is it a reliable news source like Newsround or First News?
- Can we see it across multiple reliable sources?
- Ask a trusted adult.
I know it’s important to check with a trusted adult before sharing personal information online.
Personal information is any information that is about who you are and what you do.
Websites and apps can collect our personal information and data and use it to provide services to us. For example, supermarkets might need your address if they are delivering your food or an app might need to know your age to know that you are old enough.
We need to keep this information safe whilst online and not give it to just anyone! We must always speak to a trusted adult before sharing any information online.
We watched the BBC live lesson for Safer Internet Day as well as our school learning. 
Help at home: Can you think of at least 4 pieces of personal information that we should keep private?