Dance Workshop
All of Key Stage 2 took part in a dance workshop today, dancing to songs sung by artists who had experienced bullying. Year 6 dance to Justin Bieber and had a great time with quite a complicated routine.
Here we are preparing for our big performance.
At the end of the day, we performed our routine to the school and enjoyed watching what the other classes had prepared too. This is all part of anti-bullying week which has involved us discussing what bullying is in class too: different types of bullying; suggestions for it you are bullied; suggestions for if you see bullying; and why a bully might be making those choices. Ask us about the discussions we’ve had at home and see what we remember.
Explorers – topic review
It’s the end of our Explorers topic this week and we’ve spent time reflecting on what we have learned.
This morning, we met with our Year 5 friends to discuss the topic. We looked at each other’s topic books and talked about the different learning we did during the topic. Next, we looked at some specific skills which we might have used during the topic (e.g. comparing and contrasting, working with others, problem solving) and found pieces of learning which evidenced these skills.
Mindfull or mindful?
Would you like to find out more about mindfulness and how it can be used to support your child at home?
As part of our whole school themed week next week, all children will be taking part in mindfulness workshops. There’ll also be a parent/carer session on Monday 20 November at 2:30-3:15pm.
Please contact the office if you would like to attend.
Who do you think you are?
In preparation for our themed week next week (20 November), it would be great if your child could bring in a photo of themselves as a baby and also something that is special to them. This could be a photo of special people, a special place or an object for the children to explain to the class so we can celebrate how we are all different but all equal.
We’ll use these in class on Monday 20 November if your child could bring them in on the day or Friday 17 November.
Hello from Addis Ababa
This week, Year 2 were very excited to speak with some children from Sandford International School in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. We’d already sent the children some questions to find out about where they live and how it might be different to Moortown.
It really brought it to life when we were actually able to ask the questions to the children themselves in our Skype call.
Ask your child what we found out and how Addis Ababa is different to, but also the same as, Moortown.
Through our comparison of this different location, we have been covering the following Year 2 geography age related expectations.
Making comparisons to a UK location, can your child describe and compare a non-European place using geographical words (eg an African or Asian village compared to a village in Yorkshire)?
Can your child describe a place referring to both physical (eg beach, coast, forest) and human (eg village, factory, port) features?
Can your child explain what facilities a town or village might need?
Can your child ask and answer questions about the geography of the school and its surrounding environment?
Super Vocabulary
In our writing lessons this week, we’ve been using our topic learning as a stimulus for our writing. We continued reading ‘The Land of Neverbelieve‘ but this time we focussed on the language used and the impact this has on the reader. We used our reading skills to work out what some of the trickier words might mean (learning about writer’s use of language) and then thought about how this impacts on the atmosphere/mood created (learning about atmosphere/mood).
Today, we looked at one page in detail…
…and thought about which different moods/atmospheres had been created by sorting each section into groups.
Tomorrow, we’ll create our own labels in the style of the author to add to our own made-up ‘Lands of Neverbelieve’ (learning about organising and combining visual and tactile elements).
More Veggie Burgers
We know that we talked about our cooking last week, but the rest of Year 6 did it today. We used the same skills: bridge and claw cutting methods, grating, frying, blending, moulding and – once again – washing up.
Once again, not everyone expected they’d enjoy it but everyone really liked them. Mushroom-based was the favourite of the group. We did the same recipes as last time: courgette-based, carrot-based and mushroom-based veggie burgers.
We took some more photos.
Pippa made a carrot avalanche or carralanche!
Some of us decided to taste them there and then.
Lots of children wanted to make the burgers at home so here’s the recipe.
- 2 shallots (chopped)
- 2 cloves of garlic (finely chopped)
- 2 tbsp of breadcrumbs
- 2 eggs
- 1 tsp of cumin
- 1 tsp of paprika
- 150g of cheddar (grated) or 200g of feta (crumbled)
- 1 tin of mixed beans (optional)
- 2 carrots (grated) or 2 courgettes (grated) or a punnet of mushrooms (chopped)
Fry the onions and garlic (and mushrooms if you’re using them) and then place all of them into a large bowl. Use your hands to mix all of the ingredients together thoroughly. Once mixed, get a handful of mixture and use your hands to shape it into a burger. Place the burger shapes onto a baking tray and put in an oven (180 degrees) for 20 minutes.
Enjoy in a bun, with a salad or even with chips!
Written by Neive and Pippa.
Guided reading
In Year 2, as well as group reading, we also teach reading as a whole class using a variety of texts to support this. Today, as part of Anti-bullying week, we used our whole school definition of bullying to discuss word meanings.
When reading with your child at home, ask if there are any words they do not understand. Use a dictionary, the context of the sentence or any illustrations to help to understand what the word means.
In pairs, we then read through some scenarios to decide if they were bullying or not.
African themed dance
To link with our comparative location of Africa, Year 2 have been performing some great African themed dancing.
Here are some of the Year 2 PE objectives that we were working on as part of this learning.
Can your child perform most simple actions with control and coordination?
Can your child make a sequence by linking ideas from a stimulus into movement?
Can your child plan and perform a sequence of movements?
Can your child show contrasts in shape?
Can your child reflect on what other people have done?
There was also some thoughtful and constructive reflections to each other after the performances.
Christmas school dinner themed menu
Catering Agency, our school meal provider, will be running a special themed menu on Thursday 07 December. Please contact the office, before Monday 20 November, if your child would like a school dinner on this day.
