Yeadon Tarn
On Wedensday, Year 6 went to Yeadon Tarn as part of the learning we’re doing on Kensuke’s Kingdom, a novel by Michael Morpurgo.
Michael, the main character, has set off on a voyage around the world with his mum and dad so we went our own voyage around the tarn (not quite the world).
When we weren’t sailing, we wrote shape poems about the water and created iMovies, imagining that we were Michael having been stranded on an island on his travels.
It was a really good day which resulted in a class of sailing fans by the end of it and a better understanding of lots of the vocabulary used in our class novel.
New Class Novel…Kensuke’s Kingdom
Today, we started our new class novel ‘Kensuke’s Kingdom‘ by Michael Morpurgo. We’ve each got a copy so we can read along in class. We’ll be linking some of our other learning to the book and our trip to Yeadon Tarn will all be based around Michael’s trip.
Ear defenders and popcorn?
To finish off our topic on sound, the children were set a task to design and make some ear defenders. The main objective was to find out which materials were the best to use to muffle or reduce sound.
The children looked closely at the resources available and then made predictions. They had to think carefully about making their tests fair.
- “I think that cotton wool will be best because you can pack it into all the space.”
- “The ear defenders need to fit securely to your head otherwise sound can still travel through to your ears.”
Time to get going ….
Time to test the ear defenders…
C
What a laugh we had! Ask your child to find out what happened.
Cooking with sound?
Year 4 staff and children thought about what ingredients, whilst cooking, would create sound. We came up with popcorn.
Honey and popcorn flapjacks
The children had to listen carefully to the sound of the popping corn and describe it. We all had great fun and the noisy flapjack tasted delicious!
- “I’ve had the best lesson ever.”
- “I understand how sound travels now.”
- “This learning has been great fun!”
Well done to all the children and many thanks to Mrs Pearson and Mrs Charlesworth for all their hard work. It has been a fun, and sometimes noisy, mini topic. We all now need some peace and quiet so enjoy the half term break.
Walk to school prize draw
Well done to all pupils who have encouraged their families to walk to school this week or if you had to come by car, you have parked further away to park and stride. We hope you have enjoyed the benefits of this active travel.
Once our Living Streets travel tracker data is available after the half term, we will have the prize draw for all children who have walked/used park and stride this week.
Hope you get some chance this half term to continue to enjoy lots of physical activity – maybe a local walk, a parkrun, a bike ride or a swim.
Homework
I am aware of my route to school.
This week, the children were asked to explore their local area on foot.
We had some super pieces of work from filming a route to school using a camera attached to a dog’s collar to an ‘order my journey’ activity.
The children had spotted points of interest – houses, buildings, gardens, street furniture, historical landmarks, street names and local amenities, favourite shops, doctors and cafes.
We discussed points of improvement and spotted things that made our walk unpleasant. This included obstacles on the routes (pavements blocked with cars & bins), litter (where are the bins and whether littering is a problem) and difficult road crossings.
We will be adding all this information to a class map.
Living and learning – money and jobs
In Living and learning, we’ve finished the half term learning about money and jobs and the children have had lots to contribute to these sessions.
Firstly, we thought about where money comes from and the choices we have when we spend money.
We considered that people get money in different ways (earn, win, find, presents, pocket money and borrow). It was important to realise that people can’t always have what they want.
We thought about why how to save and how to keep money safe. Using some real life situations, we discussed why people might want to save their money for something they really want.
Which of these places are the safest for your money – purse/wallet, drawer, tin, bank, safe, pocket, money box?
A great place to keep money safe is in a School Savings Club account where you can pay money in at school. Please ask at the office for an application form if you are interested.
Finally, we learnt about different jobs people do and that both men and women are able to do a range of jobs.
‘People have jobs because they are good at something.’
‘You have a job to get money.’
‘Sometimes you help people with your job.’
‘A job might keep you active.’
Super skipping
Today, we had a brilliant morning with five other primary schools at Trinity University for the Skipping School Year 4 festival. There was some fantastic skipping on display and all children got a chance to show the skills they’ve been learning at school and at home over the past few months.
We feel very proud of the children’s achievements It’s been great to see how the children have improved and shown resilience when learning the new skipping skills. A special well done to our medal winners.
‘It’s been so much fun!’
“I wasn’t very confident at skipping and now I am.”
Moortown Living Streets Local Group has launched!
A new ‘parent led’ Living Streets group has been set up in Moortown to campaign for improved streets in the local area.
The launch coincides with the publication of a new Family Walk To School Kit to mark #WalktoSchoolWeek, a national event from UK charity Living Streets.
The Moortown group is the first local group in Leeds and will be working towards creating a safer, more enjoyable environment for people in our area.
Please help us make Moortown better by registering to receive news from us.
Find out more and stay informed about our upcoming initiatives:
https://www.livingstreets.org.uk/what-you-can-do/local-groups/moortown
Have you been walking to school?
Have you been coming on foot to school during walk to school week this week? If so, you will be in the prize draw on Friday. The more times you walk or park and stride, the more entries into the draw you will have.
Take a look at our walk to school video for more facts and benefits of this form of active travel.
Keep calm and carry on!
Today, we talked about managing our feelings and behaviour, which is part of the Personal, Social and Emotional Development (PSED) prime area of learning.
The children came up with some ideas about calming down when they feel angry or sad:
- Have a drink
- Sit in bed
- Take deep breaths
We had a mindfulness session where we tried different ways of staying calm and talked about who we can talk to if we feel upset or angry.
Talk to your child about how they can calm down when they feel upset.