From SNAP to Smell Journeys – Year 3’s Weekly Round-Up
Last week’s Living and Learning theme was I know we’re all the same and we’re all different. We used Our Rules that we created last week in our discussion of the pros and cons of being the same and different to everybody else. We decided it would be really boring if we were all the same all the time! In teams, we wrote a recipe for success for teamwork. Some ingredients we thought of were ‘problem solving attitude’ and ‘good listening skills’.
We took on the role of detectives in English this week, spotting features of an instruction text in cookery books. We had competitions to see whose text contained the most features – but we had to give evidence of each feature to win the point!
Maths has revolved around multiplying and dividing by 3! We’ve looked at finding groups of three and finding three equal groups which is tricky because they sound similar but are very different. There are lots of ways to represent one number sentence. For example: 5 x 3 = could be expressed as ‘3 x 5′, ’15’, ‘five threes’ or shown by fifteen counters. We played Snap to test our knowledge of this in a fun way.
Some of us had more luck than others. You had to be quick!
To round off our Explorers topic in a creative way, we went on a Smell Journey around school, after discussing artwork by Kate McLean: NYC’s Threshold of Smells.
This inspired us to write a descriptive recount of a walk to school where we were bombarded with stinky stenches and awesome aromas. We also wrote a class Pongy Poem, which we displayed in the style of a smell.
Next, we experimented with colour and shape using watercolours to represent what the smells might look like if we could see them. (There were some interesting discussions about certain smells!)
This week’s Creative Homework task was to show understanding of addition and subtraction and I was absolutely bowled over by the quality of the submissions! The children had clearly gone to so much effort to show what they had learnt over the past few weeks and they were so proud of what they had done, which sparked some great conversations between pupils. It was fantastic to see. There were lots of board games with their own rules using addition and subtraction at their core, there were online quizzes and mazes and puzzles, there was even a video presentation (see the bottom of the post)! We all thoroughly enjoyed discussing each and every one, so I would like to say a massive well done from me, once more. Check out some of their brilliant learning below:
Well done to certificate winners Hifza, for a fantastic contribution to this week’s Living and Learning theme and her understanding of how we are the same and different, and Henka, for an unbelievably good piece of descriptive writing and your handwriting has come on leaps and bounds, too! Keep it up!
Living and Learning
Our Living and Learning theme this half-term is Identity. The children will learn about their rights and responsibilities, what makes themselves and others special, valuing the similarities and differences between themselves and others and what is meant by community.
Our lesson last week focused on how we are all the same and how we are all different.
We began with a discussion using the sentence stems
- “I am different to… because…”
- “We share some similarities in that…”
This then lead us to our activity. Using a Venn diagram, the children worked with a partner to compare similarities and differences. This sparked off some very interesting discussions.
“My partner and I are the same because we both have a religion. However, we are different because those religions aren’t the same.”
We always start our Living and Learning lessons by reading the rules that the children set out for every session.
Watch out!
We’ve been busy making magic potions in Reception and most children liked the idea of turning people into animals.
You have been warned!
Marvellous maths
Thank you for attending the Early Years Maths workshop last week.
Here are the key points from the workshop:
- It’s important to be positive about maths
- Don’t tell your child you’re not good at maths
- Everyone can be good at maths
- Being numerate is arguably more important than being literate
- Your support and encouragement is vital to your child’s success
- Everyone can learn maths to the highest level
- Mistakes are valuable
- Questions are really useful
- Maths is about creativity and making sense
- Maths is about connections and communicating
- Maths is about learning, not performing
- Depth is more important than speed
There are 4 key aspects to counting:
- Number names: There are many words to learn, they need to be in the right order and you need to be able to say them in sequence forwards and backwards.
- One number for each item: Children need to be able to match one number name to each item in turn, making sure they don’t miss any out or count any twice.
- Cardinality: Children need to know that the last number in the count gives you the answer to the question, ‘How many are there?’
- Conservation: Children need to learn that the number of items in a group remains the same even if we rearrange them or count them in a different order.
Support your child at home:
- Lots of counting as part of everyday life- both rhymes and counting objects
- Sorting objects and making patterns
- Spotting numbers and using the language of number
- Playing with construction toys (girls and boys)
- Playing simple board games
- Baking
- Solve problems; work out how many altogether, how many more…
- Watch Numberblocks on CBeebies
- Have fun!
Who do you think you are? themed week 20 November
Our next whole school themed week, based around identity, diversity and community, will be taking place from Monday 20 November, which also coincides with national Road Safety Week. A variety of events and visitors are planned to help us deliver this key aspect of education.
Events during the week will include looking at our own identity including belonging, self-esteem and mindfulness, diversity of people around us including race, age, religion, disability and gender. Classes will also be getting out into the community working with local organisations such as St Gemma’s, local care homes, Moortown Community Group and taking pride in the local community by litter picking.
Road Safety Week will run alongside our themed week where children are encouraged to take a walk/scoot/bike in the community on their way to and from school, maybe even picking up a piece of litter on the way. If your child walks, scoots or bikes, they should complete the slip at the bottom of the letter sent home (spare tokens are available in class), each day, for a chance to win a £10 shopping voucher for each class. We hope you will support this initiative in helping children make a healthy start to their day and also helping towards reducing congestion at our gates. Even by parking further away from school your child could then to do the final part of their journey by foot, bike or scooter. Bike and scooter storage facilities are available beside the Year 3 and 4 classrooms.
During the themed week, children will be researching local, national and international charities and a new school charity will be chosen at the end of the week to replace our current charities, Yorkshire Air Ambulance and Mind Leeds.
Friday 24 November will be a non-uniform identity day. Children are invited to dress in clothing that represents part of their identity, for example uniform from a club they attend, a team they are part of or support or traditional dress to represent their heritage. We invite a donation for the PTA Christmas fair.
Who do you think we are?
Do you think you’d recognise some of our staff in their early years? This photo competition is back and will run throughout the week with details to follow separately. Proceeds will be given to our new school charity.
Community coffee morning Wednesday 22 November 9-10am
As part of the week, we welcome parents and carers to an informal coffee morning to meet other members of our school community including representatives from the PTA, our governing body, Moortown Community Group and Friends of Moortown Park. I will also be available to speak to parents about our new Living and Learning scheme of work. A whole school community Wake up Shake up will follow at 10am in the main playground.
Mindfulness information session for parents
Please see the separate letter to sign up for this parent workshop on Monday 20 November, 2:30pm-3:15pm.
Can you help?
Pupil feedback from our previous Who do you think you are? themed week was to ‘learn more languages that other people speak.’ Do you speak another language and you would be happy to speak to children about this? If so, please contact the office to pass on your details. Also, do you have any local community links that may support our week?
Our website and Twitter continue to keep you up to date with key community events as well as our community noticeboard with lots of information about the themed week too. It’s going to be a busy week!
Anti-bullying week All Different, All Equal
Next week is national Anti-Bullying Week and our Living and Learning statement is I know how to STOP bullying.
The theme this year is ‘All Different, All Equal‘ with the following key aim:
The idea is to help children and young people celebrate what makes them, and others, unique and help them understand why it’s important that every child feels included in school, able to be themselves, without fear of bullying.
Our school definition has recently been reviewed by the new School Council and remains unchanged.
‘Bullying is when you hurt someone, physically or emotionally, several times on purpose.’
As part of their learning this week, children will discuss these aspects of bullying:
- Our definition of bullying (above)
- Types of bullying – cyber-bullying and prejudice-based bullying related to gender, sexual orientation, race, religion and belief, special educational need and disability
- What to do if children experience or witness bullying. The key message is to tell someone (start telling other people)
STOP can stand for two key messages: the definition (Several Times On Purpose) and the solution (Start Telling Other People).
All classes have access to their class I want to say box or a whole school worry box where they can tell an adult any concerns about bullying or any other issues.
KS2 classes will also be using dance to show this learning through dance workshops arranged as part of the week.
For further support, bullying resources can be found at…
- https://www.anti-bullyingalliance.org.uk/tools-information/advice-parents
- https://www.kidscape.org.uk/resources/
- http://www.bullying.co.uk/advice-for-parents/
- https://www.internetmatters.org/hub/news-blogs/get-involved-in-anti-bullying-week-2017-all-different-all-equal/
- https://www.nspcc.org.uk/preventing-abuse/child-abuse-and-neglect/bullying-and-cyberbullying/keeping-children-safe/
- https://www.childline.org.uk/info-advice/bullying-abuse-safety/types-bullying/
- https://youngminds.org.uk/find-help/feelings-and-symptoms/bullying/
Homework
Yet again, Year 4 produced some amazing, creative homework. The children were asked to use their knowledge from den building at school and produce a piece of work relating to this. During our homework review, we looked closely at each other’s work and then gave some feedback as a group.
Crosswords to help our reading skills
We all took on a tricky crossword today which gave us clues to words in a text. We had to understand the definition of the word in the clue and then find it in the text above to decide whether it was the correct word.
Once we’d got all of the answers, we checked that we now knew what these word meant, using the clues and how they were used in the text above.
Homework review – Talk Time
Last week’s homework was Talk Time which involved discussing the children’s response to the question, ‘Is tourism a good thing?’
Using the notes we’d made at home, Year 6 engaged in a debate today and everybody had something to say; it was great.
Explorers Art Project
This week, we’ve been linking our Explorers topic with our writing and art learning. (There’ll be more about our descriptive writing in a separate post.)
We’ve created our own version of ‘The Land of Neverbelieve‘ and have been busy creating/designing this fictional land. We started by imitating the style of the book to create the outline of our island and have been thinking about how to turn this shape into a magical, mystical island. Over the next couple of weeks, we’ll be completing our final, neat versions which we’ll combine with our writing learning.
Here’s a few pics of our learning so far…
An orca inspired island.
The original ‘Land of Neverbelieve’.
Ethan practises drawing the ‘head’ of the island.
Pia gets her ideas down on paper – this island involves a tribute to Pia’s hamsters.
A shark-shaped land of mystery.
An imaginative take on a ‘Land of Neverbelieve’.
A detailed sketch of the final piece.