Watercolour Techniques
This week, we’ve been learning about watercolour techniques (one of our processes of art) using colour (0ne of our visual and tactile elements of art).
We practised a flat wash, a graduated wash, wet on dry and wet on wet techniques.
Next time, we will learn a few more techniques before putting what we’ve learnt into a full painting.
Living and Learning – solving problems
This week’s Living and Learning theme is I can make things better. Year 5 had a very in depth and beneficial circle time to discuss how we can solve problems and improve any tricky situations we are experiencing. We covered some important topics: sleep, resolving arguments and online behaviour.
We first “opened up the floor” to ask if anyone was having difficulty with anything and I would like to thank Year 5 for being very mature, open and honest.
Our first topic was sleep; lots of us said we were finding it hard (or harder) to sleep since returning to school. This included Miss Wilson! Here are our top tips, if you’re having trouble:
Key points:
- Reduce / stop screen time in the hours leading up to bed.
- Write down any worries you have and scrunch them up.
- Listen to calming music or do something relaxing.
Next up – resolving arguments:
Key points:
- Treat people how you would like to be treated.
- Walk away and give yourself time to calm down if you need to.
- Be a good role model for siblings.
Finally, something that was very important for lots of people in the class and seems to have been causing a couple of issues outside of school. Here are our top tips:
Lots of children were sharing their experiences of online behaviour that made them feel upset or uncomfortable. This is a great start. To make things better, often the first step should be to talk to someone.
Key points:
- Do not – DO NOT – ever share your password with someone under any circumstances! This is your personal information and should be kept a secret. Would you give anybody a key to your house or car? It’s the same thing.
- Change your password if you suspect anybody knows it. And make it as complex as you can whilst it still being memorable.
- Act online how you would in real life. Hiding behind a keyboard does not make you brave. Make sensible, kind choices online – just like when you’re face to face.
Thanks to Year 5 for our mature and beneficial talk this week.
If any parents or children are still having issues or have concerns, please come in to speak to me or to Mrs Weekes to discuss this further. Thanks!
What is dissolving?
In Science, we’re learning about about dissolving which involves being familiar with some tricky vocabulary: solute, solvent, soluble, insoluble, solution.
We know that salt will dissolve in water and used this to help us to understand the scientific terminology above.
- Salt is a solute.
- Water is a solvent.
- Salt is soluble.
- Salt and water create a solution.
We then applied this knowledge to making predictions about other substance: coffee, sugar, bicarbonate of soda, rice and sand. Having made our predictions about which would and wouldn’t create a solution if mixed with water, we found out by testing them.
Finally, we were tasked with getting the dissolved salt back out of the water. There were a few puzzled faces and the children’s initial response was, ‘You can’t.’ However, with a few suggestions of equipment and a bit of thinking about learning last year, we decided you could separate all of the substance we’d testing by either sieving them, filtering them or, if a solution had been created, allowing the water to evaporate.
At home, see whether you can spot things, particularly in the kitchen cupboards, that will and will not create a solution when added to water. If you’re not sure, try it out.
Living and Learning: Mental Health
In our Living and Learning lessons, we’ve been finding out more about mental health.
Talk to us at home about what mental health is and what decision you can make as a family to ensure you’re mentally healthy. We discussed what can affect our physical, mental and emotional health and quickly realised that these three areas are very closely linked.
Changing Shape
During our mini topic, ‘ What’s the Matter’, Year One are focussing on materials in Science lessons. In our latest Science lesson, the children had the opportunity to explore how the shape of object can be changed by squashing, bending, twisting and stretching.
Welcome back!
The children have really impressed us this week with their enthusiasm, confidence and readiness to learn.
Don’t forget to let us know about those ‘wow’ moments at home.
Is your child ‘having a go’ at reading and writing independently?
Are they noticing numbers, patterns and shapes around them?
Please send photos and information about all the learning your child is doing at home.
www.moortowneyfs@spherefederation.org
Topic – solids, liquids and gases
We have a started a Science based mini-topic called ‘What’s the matter?’ The children are learning about different states of matter and their properties. Understanding matter is an important part of science.
We began by discussing how everything is made up of matter. Matter can be in these different states: solid, liquid or gas. If you look around, you can see all sorts of objects, these are solids. Ice is solid water. Drinks are liquids. Air is the invisible matter surrounding us. Air is a mixture of gases – oxygen and carbon dioxide for example. Steam, or water vapour, is water in the form of a gas.
The children noted that particles in a
gas are well separated with no regular arrangement.
In a liquid, the particles are close together with no regular arrangement and in a solid are tightly packed, usually in a regular pattern. Solids have a fixed shape that is difficult to change.
Then, we went on to sort items into groups. Ask your child what type of diagram we were using in the picture.
After grouping items into the 3 types of matter, the children began to ask questions and challenge some of their classification decisions.
“Water can be solid.” stated Sami.
“Can the shape of some solids be changed?” questioned Kashif.
Throughout our lesson, the children were learning some new, scientific vocabulary. Can your child remember any?
Below, there are a few quiz questions for you to ask your children at home.
1, Which of these is not true of solids?
The shape of a liquid does not change
A liquid takes the shape of its container
Liquids are runny and can be poured
The volume of a liquid does not change
What’s the matter with materials?
To kick off our mini Science topic – What’s the Matter? – Year 5 carried out an investigation into the properties of materials.
We discussed what made certain materials suitable for certain jobs. For example, glass is suitable for a window because it lets light through it but glass would be unsuitable for a teddy bear because it is very fragile and hard!
Each material (wood/plastic/fabric/metal/glass) was tested for four different properties. We wanted to find out which materials were:
- magnetic
- translucent
- waterproof
- electrically conductive
We collected lots of data!
Our findings helped us to group materials by their properties…
… and this sparked some brilliant discussion about what was the same and different about each material and what they would be useful for. It also prompted some quite ridiculous and funny ideas for materials that would be a bad choice for certain jobs!
Performing Poetry
In this week’s reading and writing lessons, Year 5 have focused on poetry. We have read a variety of poems that were structured in different ways (using semi colons) or were about serious issues (climate change).
We performed poems using actions…
… and were inspired to make our own short piece of drama that had an environment theme.
It was important to remember to (R2s) be loud, have an expressive voice, be confident – even if you didn’t feel it – and work cooperatively with your other actors!
Leeds Recycling Centre Visit
Year 6 visited the VEOLIA centre in Leeds this morning as part of their science learning. We’re currently learning about properties of materials and how this affects what we make objects out of and recycling is one of those properties – one that, currently, is very topical.
The children were pleasantly surprised when we arrived as many were under the impression our visit was to the tip! Luckily, our coach pulled up outside the very modern, state of the art VEOLIA building and there was almost an audible sigh of relief from the class.
We learnt all about how the centre works in order to work towards Leeds becoming a zero waste city. This great video can tell you more about it so you can discuss it home and see how you can help too.
We had a tour of the building which included going to see the huge living wall on the outside (very high up); entering the operation room where everything was controlled; and seeing the huge grabber dive in to pick up 3.6tonnes of rubbish to drop into the furnace where it’s burned at 850 degrees!
We all made a pledge for what we could do to contribute towards reducing waste in Leeds: ask us what we decided and see whether you could do it too.
And, we finished the morning off by putting everything we’d learnt into a bit of healthy competition. Ask us how the game worked and something we learnt while we were playing.
There’s lots you could do at home to help Leeds reduce its waste. See whether your child can suggest something and see whether you’re putting the correct items into the correct bins.