Volcanos
On Tuesday, Year 3 and 4 made volcanos!
We started our day by learning about a crutial skill we would need to succeed at making volcanos: teamwork.
First of all, we talked about what bad teamwork looks and sounds like. Then we compared it with examples of good teamwork.
Edris and Evie– “Bad teamwork is if you were writing a story, and not sharing resources or ideas . Good teamwork would be working together and sharing ideas taking turns.”
Sukhmani & Madison – “Bad teamwork is when you don’t work together but good teamwork is even when you’re not friends you can still work together.”
Harman and Ashton – “If we were fighting over resources we wouldn’t be working as a team. Instead, we could share.”
We talked about different jobs where teamwork is really important: footballers, doctors, professional dancers, the Royal Air Force and firefighters.
We then worked in our teams to put the instructions, on how to make a volcano, back together.
Have a look at some of the pictures from our volcano making, below.
Have a look at the finished results:
Well done Year 3 and Year 4 – you’ve really impressed us with your teamwork and communication skills!
Fighting Fantasy Art
This week, our Art lesson has explored the images in our class novel. We focused on line, texture and form. Challenge your child! Ask them to define these visual and tactile elements of art.
We practised these three elements with everyday or common objects…
…before having a go at replicating our favourite artwork from the book.
The results were very effective!
“I enjoyed this artwork because we were just using pencil instead of loads of different colours.” – Alexander
“I enjoyed it because I like shading and we were doing a lot of it.” – Aisha
“I enjoyed this because it really stood out. The hardest bit was probably when we did the lines and thinking of a good idea to draw.” – Byron
Offline Computing
In this week’s Computing lesson, Year 5 were writing and debugging algorithms. Ask your child to define this key term!
“We were making our own algorithms to try and get round the board in 30 or less pieces of code and for anticlockwise 90 degrees you just put ACW90 because it shortens it down instead of writing it all out and taking ages.” – Evie
“I found making the pieces of code 30 or less the hardest because you had to collect all the coins which was really hard.” – Zidaan
“I enjoyed this lesson because we got to debug other people’s codes and they would have to figure it out if we’d written ‘I have tinkered with your algorithm’ in their book.” – Maggie
Active Blasts
Year 5 have had an active classroom this week. We’ve found that an active break of ten minutes helps us to refocus and feel better!
“It helps your muscular endurance a little better than even Wake Up Shake Up!” – Omar
“We had to do a number of activities to do with mountain biking like jumping and freeze framing!” – Eleni
Mindfulness really helps us, as well. We’ve been refocusing using a partner, too.
“It helps me because it calms you down and gets stuff out of your mind.” – William
“It doesn’t help me much.” – Ben
“It helps me if we’ve just been outside and it gets the focus back in the classroom.” – Eve
What is stamina?
Our class novel is centred around YOU, the hero, and your stamina, luck and skill. But what is stamina? (Ask your child to define it!)
Over the next six weeks, we will be investigating stamina and muscular endurance as part of our PE lessons.
Children chose an activity that they will complete every week. Will they get better with practice? Will they be able to do more repetitions as they get used to the exercise? Will their stamina increase?
“I enjoyed doing loads of things to make us better with stamina so then we can do more activities and sports.” – Henry
“I enjoyed this because I did something I didn’t even know I could do! I did the plank for 5 minutes and 16 seconds!” – Darien
“I enjoyed when we were training with our partners and we didn’t know we could do these exercises but now we’ve tried it and we did it!” – Serenity
A mystery!
Who broke the chair in Reception?
Who does the footprint belong to?
The children measured their feet with cubes to prove the footprint wasn’t theirs.
Living and Learning – Homework Review
Last week, the whole school had the same Talk Time homework:
What is a drug?
This homework, which links to our Living and Learning statement, is a first step in children becoming aware of drugs. During our homework review today, the children each shared some of the conversations they had had at home. Year 4 showed great maturity and a good awareness about drugs that are helpful and those that are harmful.
Below are some of the question prompts that we gave to the children to help shape their discussions…
What is a good definition for a drug? “A drug can be good for you but some can be bad for you.”
Are all drugs bad? “We need some drugs to help us when we are ill. These can be dangerous if they aren’t taken correctly.”
A poem by Phoebe
What is a drug?
Drugs can be helpful
Drugs can be bad
Some make you happy
Some make you sad
Everyday drugs
That we can see
Caffeine in morning coffee
And afternoon tea
Beer, wine
And spirits too
Can make people laugh
Or be sick in the loo
Medicines
Are all drugs
That doctors prescribe
For illness and bugs
Drugs can be helpful
Drugs can be bad
Some make you happy
Some make you sad.
Following our homework review, Year 4 went on to discuss the risks of drinking alcohol. Using a ‘ Where alcohol goes in your body‘ diagram, we talked about some of the effects alcohol can have on the body.
Once swallowed, alcohol enters the stomach. The alcohol is absorbed into the small intestine and the bloodstream through the stomach walls. The blood vessels carry the alcohol to almost every organ in the body including the heart, lungs, liver and brain.
The children asked lots of questions to each other.
“What other dangers are there to your health?’
“It can damage your brain.”
“Why do people chose to drink alcohol?”
“Because it can make people feel relaxed.”
The children learnt how alcohol can affect the body and they could explain why drinking alcohol may pose a greater or lesser risk, depending on the individual and the amount of alcohol consumed.
Living and Learning – Let’s be more active
Across the nation, school’s are working towards providing a more active environment to learn in. Here at Moortown, we all Wake Up and Shake Up everyday to increase our heart rates which benefits our physical, emotional and mental health as well as improving our brain function.
In Year 6, we went on a bike ride in the class room for around 10 minutes which was great fun and got all of our hearts racing.
Living and Learning: Parent/carer workshops Staying Safe themed week
Thank you to all the parents/carers who have signed up to the workshops on offer next week during our Staying Safe themed week.
There are a few places left if you would like to come along.
Benchball
Some of our KS2 children took part in a come and try benchball event at Roundhay School tonight.
Competing against other local schools, they showed great teamwork and PE skills.
Benchball uses a lot of the same skills as netball and we hope that some of the players come and join the netball after-school club on a Monday – we have a few places left!
