Skipping Festival 2026!
Today, Year 4 took part in the 2026 Skipping Festival and we won! This means we’re through to the finals in June and we can’t wait.
They did a brilliant job and worked so well as a team – all their practising definitely paid off! It was amazing to watch them all showcase their incredible skipping skills. They also showed great support for each other and the other teams. I was so impressed by their determination, teamwork and respect.
In between the skills, the children had the chance to skip, dance and sing along to the music which they loved. They even got the chance to learn some new skipping skills like the butterfly.
Both the individual skills and the group skips were fantastic. Your children won lots of awards – including five gold medals! We’re all so happy to win and be through to the finals in June.
Well done Year 4 for trying your best and representing Moortown so well – we’re so proud of you! Let’s do it all again in June!
Living and Learning: personal hygiene
Year 3 have been learning about how we can keep our bodies healthy. For example, we have learnt about what germs are and how to prevent spreading them.
We started off the lesson by talking about the different types of germs there are; bacteria, viruses and fungi. These can be all around us and some are helpful and some are harmful e.g. some yoghurts have ‘live cultures’ in that are good for our digestive system.
The children then discussed how quickly and easily germs can spread. We highlighted that places where germs are common.
We talked about the need to wash our hands to help prevent this spread. We could use soap or hand sanitiser and to make sure we’ve washed them thoroughly enough, you should sing happy birthday twice while you do it!
Help at home: Discuss other ways we can stop germs from spreading.
Writing – The Dragon Slayer
Across this half term, Year 3 will be writing a narrative about The Dragon Slayer. We’ve watched a short clip of an animated film that we will base our narrative on.
The purpose of a narrative is to interest and entertain.
We’ll catch the reader’s attention by describing the main character and their background. Then we’ll write about the journey he goes on to find his next dragon.
So far, we’ve learnt about what verbs we could use to help catch the reader’s attention. For example:
Tarragon, the dragon slayer, grabbed his sword.
Tarragon, the dragon slayer, clasped his sword.
Tarragon, the dragon slayer, gripped his sword.
Tarragon, the dragon slayer, held his sword.
We’re moving onto to adverbs next!
Help at home by thinking of synonyms (words of similar meaning) for ‘walked’.
Topic: we’re computer programmers!
This half-term in Topic, we’re computer programmers!
So far, we’ve had a few unplugged lessons where we have discussed what an algorithm is, how to use repetition to be efficient programmers and what logical reasoning is.
This week, we began looking at how a computer can ask questions to sort items. We created a branching database to sort a group of dinosaurs based on their various attributes. However, we had to be careful to only use closed (yes/no) questions.
An attribute is a quality or characteristic that can be used to describe someone to something (e.g size, colour, material).
Next week, we’ll begin building these branching databases on the iPads.
Help at home: choose a selection of kitchen utensils. Can your child sort them using yes/no questions. Is it made of metal? Is it sharp? Can you use it to stir?
Maths: Equal groups
Today in our Maths learning, we explored the idea of equal and unequal groups.
We had lots of fun finding different ways to group 10, 15, and 20 cubes into equal groups.
Help at home: Build with small objects. Use cubes, Lego or coins to make different equal groups (for example: 20 in groups of 2, 4, or 5).
Reminder: Reception parent/carer survey
If you haven’t already and you’re a parent of a child in Reception, please complete this short survey. Thank you to those of you who have already completed the survey.
At Moortown Primary, we’re always trying to keep getting better and better. Your views help us to do that. The survey will only take a few minutes to complete and you’ve got until Wednesday 18 March to complete. (If you’d like us to follow-up any of your responses with you, we can only do this if you leave your name.)
We can’t guarantee to meet the needs and wants of every parent / carer, but we do assure you that we consider all the points raised and aim to act on specific points that are raised by many, or a useful idea raised by just a few.
Previously, based on your feedback, for example, we alternated the days Stay and Learns were held – to give all parents an opportunity to attend.
Thank you for taking the time to complete the survey. We’re looking forward to reading your views.
Topic: Computing
This half term, computing is our topic. We have had 3 unplugged lessons where we have discussed what a search engine and logical reasoning is. This week, however, we have taken to the Chromebooks!
Year 6 had some time to explore Scratch and remind themselves where everything was and how to use it. Then, the task was to create their sprite (cartoon character or object) to walk up a set of stairs. The children showed good teamwork as they worked in pairs.
Living & Learning: drug education
A drug is a substance that changes the way the body or mind works.
In year 2, we have been learning about different things that go into our bodies and onto our skin and about keeping safe around household products and medicines.
Firstly, we considered things that are:
- good for our body – fruit and vegetables, clean air, soap and water, healthy foods
- not good for our body – some germs, cigarettes, vapes, sweets, fizzy drinks, berries from a bush, cleaning products
Medicines can be good for our body as they are used to treat people when they are ill and they can help protect people from becoming ill in the future (vaccinations).
Medicines can also be not good for our body for example, if we take too much medicine or if we have someone else’s medicine.
The children had a lot to share in this learning and were very clear about the message of keeping safe around these products.
We even helped Nothing (from our latest class novel) understand how to stay safe around things that might be harmful for our body and how to seek help if needed.
This learning will also be reinforced by a visit from D:side in our Staying Safe themed week in May.
Help at home: please discuss these key safety messages at home. Make sure your child is aware of possible dangers at home, such as medicines and household products, and how to seek help if they need it.
Try to fill in the missing words with your child.
You must never put something into your b_____ or onto your s_____ if you do not know what it is or if you don’t have p________ or c_______ from your adult.
Poetry Basket: Popcorn
This week’s poem is called Popcorn.
Two of the words we’ve been focussing on are sizzling and shake.
Spring 2: Week 2
We’ve had a wonderful day we’ve had celebrating World Book Day. Our classroom was full of wonderful book characters. Here’s some photos of the children enjoying the World Book Day challenges.
Thank you to all the parents/carers who came to our stay and learn session this afternoon. It was lovely to see our classroom so busy!
This week, we continued exploring our topic ‘Let Go’ and read the story The Hundred Decker Rocket. The story is about a girl called Ivy who sets off on a mission to space and meets some very messy aliens along the way. When her rocket breaks down, the aliens work together to fix it and each add their own deck.
The children enjoyed using their imaginations to design their own rocket decks and write a sentence about their creation.
Phonics
This week, the children have reviewed air, er and longer words that contain double letters.
Write these words on paper and ask your child to underline the double letters before reading.
hammer shimmer cannot chatter muffin
Help at home: Tricky words are really tricky! We’ve previously introduced a few fun games you can play at home to practice tricky words. Here’s another you could try.
Tricky word password
Write different tricky words on paper and stick them next to different doors around the house. Each time your child enters or leaves a room they must press and say the tricky word password.
RE
This we’ve been learning about the Hindu festival of Holi, the festival of colours. We explored four special colours and what they represent: yellow for knowledge and learning, blue to represent the gods, red for love, and green for nature and the start of spring. The children had lots of fun celebrating by getting messy and using their hands to create a bright, colourful piece of art.
Maths
This week, the children continued to develop their counting skills and their understanding that counting helps us find out how many there are. They practised the counting sequence and revisited the idea that the last number counted tells the total. The children also worked on counting out a set number of objects from a larger group and explored counting beyond 20, noticing the repeating number patterns. They reinforced the correct order of numbers to 10 and learned that each number is one more than the one before.
Yesterday, the children were challenged to work with a partner to create a staircase pattern using 11 towers of 5, thinking carefully about ‘5 and a bit’ when building their staircase.
