Spring 2: Week 5
Visitors
Yesterday, we were very excited about our Teddy Bear Hospital workshop. Their interactive session helped promote healthy living while gently easing any worries about hospitals and doctors. The children thoroughly enjoyed taking part in activities, learning basic first aid, and discovering ways to keep themselves healthy.
Literacy
We continued to use the story map to retell Jack and the Beanstalk. We enjoyed using actions and, of course, prosody when retelling.
Click here to watch us.
Art
In art, we used tracing paper and templates of transport-related objects to create our own designs, inspired by Michael Craig-Martin. Here are some of our fantastic pieces of artwork.
Maths
This week, we developed our visualising skills by looking at arrangements of dots and describing what we could “see” in our minds. We practised subitising (recognising amounts without counting), helping us to understand equal groups.
Using practical resources and pictures, we explored dice patterns, finger numbers, and doubling numbers up to 10. We also used mathematical language to describe how objects were arranged, deepening our understanding.
Help at Home: Practise subitising and doubling
- Show your child dice or domino patterns. Ask: “Is this a double or not? How do you know?”
- Encourage your child to use their fingers to show the double.
- Can they make the double using small objects, like buttons, grapes, or toys?
Choosing time
In the early years, independent learning is a special and important part of your child’s day at school. We call this time choosing. During this time, children have the opportunity to follow their interests, explore different activities, and learn in their own way. They can create, make connections, share their ideas, and build confidence as they try new things.
Here’s a little snapshot of some of the wonderful independent learning that has taken place this week.
Topic Drop Down Morning
Today, we’ve had a busy morning re-visiting some learning from Year 1.
The children impressed us with their excellent recall of key facts about the Great Fire of London, as well as their strong knowledge of the continents, oceans, and the countries of the UK and their capital cities. We finished the morning by exploring artwork by George Seurat and Bridget Riley, where the children demonstrated excellent oracy skills as they thoughtfully discussed their likes and dislikes.
Year 5/6 netball
This week, our Year 5/6 netball team took part in the Leeds Well Schools Partnership netball competition at Allerton High.
Despite the rain, the team played some great netball and managed to finish second in their group.
For some of the children, this was their first time representing school at netball and for some it will be their last after many years of coming to our netball club so well done to all the children who competed.
Maths: distributive law
In Maths, Year 4 have been showing off their brilliant mathematical skills by demonstrating the distributive law.
The distributive law is when you multiply parts of a whole separately, then add the partial products together.
The distributive law is a helpful and efficient method to use when faced with multiplication questions that we don’t know fluently. It requires us to partition one of the factors into two parts.
7 x 13 may seem tricky initially but we can partition the 13 into 10 and 3. We can then multiply these parts separately and add them together to find our answer. Simple!
7 x 13 = 7 x 10 + 7 x 3
= 70 + 21
= 91
Help at home: ask your child to complete these multiplication questions using the distributive law…
- 8 x 16 =
- 4 x 14 =
- 3 x 17 =
- 5 x 18 =
Living and Learning: I know the importance of a healthy diet.
This week, Year 3 have been learning about having a healthy, balanced diet.
We recapped the five main food groups that we’ve learnt about during our Science lessons earlier this year.
- carbohydrates
- fruit and vegetables
- protein
- dairy
- fats
We need a balanced diet of these food groups to keep us healthy and strong. For example, carbohydrates give us energy and dairy is full of calcium that is great for our teeth and bones. We also need some fats as they give us energy and help us to absorb the vitamins and minerals that we eat through fruit and vegetables.
We had a go at creating our own balanced meal. Here are some of what we came up with…
Help at home by planning a meal with your child and checking that you have a balanced amount of each food group.
Living & Learning: health and prevention
Over the last two weeks, Year 2 have been learning about keeping our bodies healthy.
Firstly, we considered good hygiene. Most microbes do not harm us and some are actually very helpful. However, some microbes can harm us and these are called germs.
We can’t get rid of every single germ but we can think about how to keep them away and stop them from spreading.
Good handwashing is a key part of being hygienic. We reminded ourselves of how to wash our hands properly.
We already use an important technique to stop germs spreading by covering our mouth and nose with the inside of our elbow (the vampire technique).
We also discussed the importance of sleep in our weekly circle time.
All of the children could give a good example of why sleep is important from helping our memory to helping us grow.
This website provides more information about the importance of sleep for children.
Dental health is another key aspect of being healthy.
We thought about teeth-friendly food and drink, how to keep our teeth clean and to understand how our adults and dentists help to keep our teeth healthy.
- For children under 7 years, a pea-sized amount of toothpaste is recommended and brushing should be supervised.
- Children should be encouraged to spit out after brushing rather than rinsing with water, so that the fluoride remains on the teeth.
- It is recommended that water and plain milk are drunk.
- Children aged 5-7 years should visit their dentist for a regular check-up (every 6 months)
Help at home: sleep, dental health and good hygiene are all important aspects of keeping healthy. Discuss with your child which of these they want to improve and the steps to do this.
Year 3/4 football
UPDATE – the team have qualified for the Leeds final next month.
As part of the Leeds Well Schools Partnership, ten of our Year 3 and 4 children took part in a football competition at Boddington this week.
Throughout the day, they worked hard as a team to play some great football with two wins, two draws and two losses and they managed to top their group of five schools.
Well done to all the children who represented school so well.
Poetry Basket: Spring Wind
This week’s poem is called Spring Wind.
We’ve been focussing on the words gruff (harsh, rough) and growly (a low, rough sound).
Enjoy the Comic Relief pyjama performance!
Topic: Drop down morning
Today, we had a topic Drop Down Morning. We revisited knowledge about UK geography, the West Indies carnival and Martha McDonald Napaltjarri’s artwork.
In Geography, Year 5 used the iPads to plot some of the major cities and rivers of the UK on to a blank map.
Help at home can you find some places that are significant to you on a map?
In History, we recapped our knowledge of the historical concepts and linked these to the Atlantic Slave Trade and the West Indies carnival.
In Art, we revisited all the visual and tactile elements and thought about how they link to Martha McDonald Napaltjarri’s artwork ‘Warlukuritji’.
Red Nose Day and Comic Relief.
Well done on another amazing week Year 1!
This week has been full of fun, learning and… red noses? This Friday has been Red Nose Day. Here at Moortown we have had a nice day in our Pyjamas, to show our support to the Red Nose day and Comic Relief cause. The children have taken part in a few Red Nose activities, designing their own masks and red noses! They have also been working really hard on their computing skills, working with BeeBots and designing their own games with them.
For those who were not in today, celebrating Eid, we hope you have had a lovely day and that you have enjoyed the celebrations. Eid Mubarak!
