Scratch Projects
Recently, as part of our ‘Time Travel: Entertainment‘ topic we’ve been creating our own games using Scratch. Each game is loosely based on Pac-Man and we’ve spent the last few weeks planning, designing, creating and improving our projects.
The children have worked extremely independently and have taught me a lot about using the Scratch software – I still have a long way to go to catch up with them, though. I’ve been most impressed with how the children have helped each other over the course of making these games. Like most things, some of us are more confident than others and we’ve worked really well as a team to make sure that everyone is involved and learning all the time.
Similarly, I’ve been super impressed that lots of us have gone home and created our Pac-Man style games using our personal Scratch accounts. These games have been really useful as a teaching tool because we could see a WAGOLL (what a good one looks like).
Good work, Year 5!
Houses and homes yoga
Today we had a topic yoga session incorporating lots of yoga poses while thinking of fictional homes, animal homes and homes from around the world. Our relaxation at the end of the session is always a favourite and another way to keep calm.
Keeping calm
Our SEAL statement this week is I keep calm or help others to calm down.
The children had some great ideas for how to calm down if they were cross, angry, upset, over excited or another time they might feel overwhelmed with emotions.
Ask them to explain how the following methods can help them.
- Taking deep breaths
- Fist flowers
- Doing a calming activity such as going for a walk or reading a book
We often take some time after lunch to have a lie down, listening to calming music to relax and prepare for the afternoon.
To support this at home, the children made their own mind bottles. The idea behind the bottles is to shake it up and watch how it settles… rather like our minds!
Team players
Today, as part of our learning about our current SEAL theme (Getting On), we thought about what the ‘perfect’ team player would look like. We thought about our strengths as individuals – of which we have many – and then combined them to make the ultimate team player.
Ask your child…
- What did we decide was really important?
- Is there anything you would add to the list?
- Which of these attributes is most important/least important?
- Which of these things do you consider to be a strength of yours?
- Which of these do you think you’re not so good at yet? (The ‘yet‘ bit of this question is really important because, with practice, they will become good at this.)
We think the ‘perfect’ team player would have these attributes…
A good team player would ask him/her self…
West Yorkshire cross country finalist
Congratulations to Grace who this week achieved 14th place in the Leeds Primary Schools cross country final at Middleton Park out of over 100 runners in her Year 5 girls race.
This means Grace has now qualified to represent Leeds at the West Yorkshire Cross Country Final at Temple Newsam. A fantastic achievement!
If Grace has inspired you to give running a try, why not take part in the local weekly Junior Park Run at Roundhay Park.
To be or not to be…
As part of our Time Travel – Entertainment topic, we’ve explored how people were entertained in Elizabethan times. Theatres were the main form of entertainment and this, obviously, led us directly to the great work of Shakespeare. We began the week by picking apart Shakespearean language to see whether we could understand it – which we could!
The children were really interested in what it would have been like to go to the theatre in the 1600s and had lots of questions. They then showed off some fantastic acting skills by taking on a snippet of Shakespeare in small groups – very entertaining.
Fire Safety
This afternoon, we’ve been joined by two firefighters from Moortown Fire Station. They came in to educate us about fire safety. The afternoon was incredibly useful and we learnt lots about how to stay safe.
We learnt what fires need to get started: the Triangle of Fire. Ask your child if they can remember what this means. Importantly, we learnt how crucial it is that every house has an agreed fire safety action plan. This is a series of things that each person in the house will do in the event of a fire. Do you have one at home? The firefighters were very keen for everyone to have a fire action plan agreed with the people they live with; it’s a huge predictor for how likely you are to escape unharmed in the event of a fire.
Really importantly, we learnt about the dangers of making hoax calls to the emergency services. Ask you child why making false calls to the fire brigade can have deadly ramifications.
On a very serious note, I was alarmed that some children in the class thought the emergency services number was 911 not 999. Please make sure that your children are aware of critical information like this for their safety and yours.
Homework Review
As always, our homework was great this week. We had lots of varied responses to our creative piece: demonstrations, Scratch projects, interviews with parents, videos, collages and loads more.
Below are some of our favourites. It’s always interesting that the children’s favourite pieces are not always the most ‘jazzy’, or the most colourful, but the pieces that are original, different and interesting.
Our week
This week, as ever, has been a very busy one.
We have started rehearsals for our production in a few weeks. The children are learning their parts well and the songs are coming along nicely, too.
A tennis coach came to deliver a lesson on Thursday and he was very impressed with how the children listened and followed instructions well. An extra well done goes to Isaac and Kai for their tennis skills, great partner work and the support they gave to one another.
World Book Day went well. We had a classroom full of book characters dressed in fantastic costumes. It was great to see how much thought and effort the children had put into their outfits.
Talking of books, our Friday session of reading for pleasure continues to be a big success. Please remember that children are invited to bring a book from home to add to our library if they wish.
During our SEAL lesson and homework review, Year 4 were able to suggest some very good ways in which to help a group to work co-operatively. As well as suggesting these ideas, I have seen lots of children demonstrating these within a lesson. An extra special well done to Thomas, Martha, Lewis and Isaiah for doing just that.
As always, please feel free to pop in and see us if you have any concerns or general enquiries regarding your child.
World Book Day
We’ve had a great morning celebrating World Book Day. It’s been great to dedicate so much time to reading and, for some of us, getting dressed up has been great fun, too.
Already today we’ve crammed in lots of great learning:
- A special World Book Day celebration assembly.
- Mrs Burke came in to read a couple of her favourite children’s books to us.
- We had the chance to particpate in group discussions about the books we’ve brought in.
- We did ‘speed dating’ but with books where we had one minute to recommend our favourite book to a friend.
- We spent time reading someone else’s book to see if we enjoyed it
- And, this afternoon, we’ll enjoy some time relaxing and reading just for pleasure.
Here’s a few pictures from our day so far…
