Girls Golf Rocks
Would your child like to give golf a try?
Here’s details of a FREE local project targeting girls golf taking place in the half term break.
Geography: physical and human aspects
As we begin our next topic (Extreme Earth), Year 4 studied the layers that make up planet Earth. Then, we boarded an underground explorer and ventured deep below our feet. The children were fascinated by just how much goes on beneath us. Using a peach, we compared the internal structure of both the earth and the fruit. 
Following this, we went on to compare Leeds with the coastal town of Whitby. Using an atlas, map or globe, the children were asked to locate both places.
Remembering some prior learning, the class used some basic OS map symbols and the eight points of a compass to find and describe the whereabouts of each location.
I found the river that runs through Whitby. It is called the river Esk and runs for 45km. – Albie.
Albie was given the challenge to find the start and end points of the river. He tracked the flow of the river using Google Maps and commented on some of the geographical features alongside the water. Well done, Albie!
We discussed industries in both locations and Year 4 were able to confidently described aspects of human geography (eg land use, types of settlement) and physical geography (eg rivers and mountains, coastlines).
Living and Learning: I recognise the importance of money.
In preparation for our ‘Money’ themed week, Year 4 used their session today to discuss the importance of money. Lots of the children were able to recognise the reasons as to why we need money.
We need money to live.
Money is earnt.
When you are older, you need to pay your bills.
Saving money is important.
You can buy nice things.
It is good to see how much different things cost.
Money is not just cash.
Following this, we then thought about whether or not money makes people happy.
I think lots of money would make you happy.
What if you have money but no family or friends?
Money can help to make people happy because they might not worry about it.
Money can’t buy happiness.
Earning money might make some people feel happy because they have worked for it.
Well done, Year 4! Some very mature suggestions here.
Our ‘Money’ themed week begins on Monday 20th May.
What makes a good sports leader?
Thank you to our current Year 6 Sports Leaders who have fulfilled this role for the past year. It’s now time to train up some new leaders to take over lunchtime physical activity sessions.
Year 5 were invited to sign up for the roles and we had some great applications.
Today, fifteen Year 5 pupils began their training to gain their Mini Leaders Award. As well as learning a variety of physical activities, the group worked on their communication, explanation and organisational skills. After their second training session on Friday, they will be ready to lead sessions to the rest of the school from next week.
Maths in the Sun!
What’s better than learning about equivalent fractions, decimals and percentages? Learning about equivalent fractions, decimals and percentages outside in the sunshine!
Y5 played a FDP loop game, where each card had an answer at the top above a question underneath. For example: “What is 3/4 as a percentage?” Whoever had ‘75%’ at the top of their card had to stand up and say the answer, followed by asking their question and so on until the loop was completed.
We played several times in order to beat our record time and to become even more familiar with equivalent FDPs! Challenge your child to tell you what 1/8 is as a percentage!
The next level up was trying to arrange ourselves into a correct loop and into a complete circle. We had to do this by talking to each other, discussing the right answers and deciding which order to stand in! It was tricky!
“It helped me because you had to find which version matched your own. You had to think about what question might get your answer as its answer,” said Will.
SolART System
In Art, we learnt how to change the shade of a colour. Challenge your child to explain how. We had a go at mixing colours ahead of painting our planets.
Next, we began painting our planets. We had to be careful and precise with our paintbrushes and Eve noted that we had to be resilient, too. “If you were mixing a colour and it wasn’t quite right, you had to keep going until you were happy with it,” she said.
Poppy said, “I used a dabbing movement to make it look like Mercury has a rocky surface.” Challenge your child to name the three other rocky planets in our solar system.
Later in the week, we will recreate each planet’s rotations and orbits around the sun.
Walk to school week
To celebrate Walk to School week, next week, we’re working with Moortown Living Streets to run a fun daily quiz to help get more feet on the street! It is also our Money Matters themed week so what a better way to travel to school for free!
We all know that reducing school gate traffic improves air quality and safety and by walking some or all of the way families benefit from a healthier and more pleasant start to the day.
During Walk to School Week, Living Streets Moortown will be hiding ten words along the routes to school. See your child’s entry form for more details.
Find them each day to fill in the blanks and complete the story – remember to take a pen or pencil! There are also some daily ACTIONS for you to try – see if you can do them all!
At the end of Walk to School Week, your child should hand their completed story in to their class teacher for a chance to WIN one of four £10 Love to Shop vouchers!
Living and Learning
This week’s Living and Learning statement is: I recognise the importance of money. We had a session where we talked about shopping and spending money. We discussed free range and value chickens.
We experienced what it was like to be a value chicken by bunching together and not having much space to live in.
Value chickens live in the dark and are often crowded by many other birds.
We then experienced what it was like to be a free range chicken who would have more space to roam around in and lay their eggs in.
The chickens live outside and has more space.
Even though we want to save money and would be tempted to buy cheaper value eggs we now know slightly more expensive eggs come from farms that have given chickens a nicer life.
We then discussed different supermarkets who sell the same products for a different price and talked about the importance of shopping with different supermarkets to make our money go further, while being aware of the ethical implications with products such as eggs.
ISS Expert Interviews
In reading this week, Y5 became experts on the International Space Station using a webpage that told us 23 facts!
Next, we wrote a script where one person was the interviewer and the other was the expert.
We used our retrieval skills by reading the text and writing and answering questions to create an expert interview and showcase the facts we’d learnt.
Finally, we performed our interviews to the class.
What are the parts of a plant?
Each week, in our Green Fingers topic, we have been observing changes over time by looking to see how our pea, tomato and cress plants have changed and grown.
This time, we used some scientific equipment to observe even more closely. The magnifying glass made the parts of the plants bigger so we could see them more clearly.
Some of the children, who are growing pea plants, made a surprising discovery when they were observing their plants.
Can you spot what it was?
To find out what are the main parts of a plant, the children were asked to research this using an appropriate search question or phrase on the internet. They were able to tailor the search to material relevant to them.
We checked our findings as we watched this BBC video. We decided this information is from a trusted source.