Anti-bullying tips
Thank you, Emma (Year 2) for recommending CBBC for lots of Anti-Bullying Week advice.
Spelling practice
Here’s a great example of spelling practice from last week. We’re always trying to think of fun and creative ways of practising spelling so that it doesn’t become boring.
Great homework as always
What are fractions? was our Creative homework question last week and there was a whole host of wonderful ways that it was answered. Lots I can’t show you as they were done on Scratch or as presentations but here’s a taste of what some of the children did.
As always with Creative homework, we looked at everyone’s then sat and looked at one in particular, commenting on their work and discussing what they’d done. The children said that they liked how we look at Creative homework as it was nice to hear what their friends thought of what they’d done.
In the mood
We brought our swing dance topic to an end this week with groups performing their routines to each other. Lots of the children have enjoyed this unit; some enjoyed it a lot more than they thought they would.
Not only were their dances great, but their feedback to each other was brilliant too. They could say what they liked about a routine: precision of movements, use of space, different levels. They were also able to give constructive criticism to suggest how a routine could be improved: moving at the same time as each other, clearer, bigger movements.
Phonics
Thanks to everyone who attended the learning workshop last week. We hope you found it useful.
During their phonics learning, your child will be learning the following terms:
Phoneme: The smallest unit of sound found within a word
Grapheme: how the sound is written e.g. h, ai
Diagraph: Two letters that make one sound when read
Trigraph: Three letters that make one sound
CVC: Stands for consonant, vowel, consonant
Segmenting : Breaking up a word into its sounds
Blending : Putting the sounds together to read a word
Tricky words: Words that cannot easily be decoded
At the moment children are learning their first 19 phonemes and the graphemes that represent them.
Set 1: s a t p Set 2: i n m d
Set 3: g o c k Set 4: ck (as in duck) e u r
Set 5: h b l f ff (as in puff) ll (as in hill) ss (as in hiss)
They will use these phonemes to read and spell simple “consonant-vowel-consonant” (CVC) words:
sat, tap, dig, duck, rug, puff, hill, hiss
All these words contain 3 phonemes.
How you can help at home:
- Practise the phonemes together
- Articulate the sounds clearly and precisely, eg
mmm; ssss ; nnnn - Use the phonemes to make different words at home and play phonics games
- Read everyday with your child
- Attend our phonics mornings in the week beginning 28 November
Although phonics is important in teaching the mechanics of reading, reading is about much more. We also want children to read for pleasure. Reading to your child regularly will help them to develop a lifelong love of books and reading.
Finished frames
During our topic work we have looked closely at the artwork of Quentin Blake. The children have done their own paintings in the style of this very famous artist. Adding to that, we then went on to make a frame to showcase this super artwork. Year 4 have all worked incredibly hard on designing, making and decorating their photo frames. We now have our own art gallery in the classroom. Please feel free to pop in and take a look.
PE
During this half term, we have three students from Leeds Beckett University leading our PE sessions on Fridays. The children are focusing on multi-skills, teamwork and getting enjoyment from sport. Here are a few pictures of yesterday’s lesson.
Creative homework review
As always, we reviewed our homeworks as a class this week. The standard of homework is always high in Y5; I love it. Seeing how children respond to creative homeworks is one of my favourite things. It gives me lots of teaching ideas, too – thanks Y5!
This week, we were particularly impressed by these pieces:
Edward’s pot-washing time sheet.
Sam’s collage of maths in everyday life.
Pippa’s news report – love the jokes, Pippa!
Megan’s maths game.
Topic themed English learning
This week, in English, we’ve been learning about poetry. We started out by comparing and contrasting a wide range of poems (some well known, some less familiar) and then began to unpick the poets’ use of figurative language. As it was Remembrance Day on Friday, and our Class Novel topic is heavily linked to WW2, we learnt ‘In Flanders Field‘ off by heart – ask your child if they can recite it to you!
Then, on Friday, we split into groups to perform the poem. Every group captured the mood and were able to portray this through their performance. Each group incorporated actions into their performance and one group even had the subtle, faint whistle of a bird in the background.
Here are some action shots…
‘Power for good’
Next week is national Anti-Bullying Week.
The theme this year is ‘Power for Good‘ with the following key aims:
- To support children and young people to use their Power for Good – by understanding the ways in which they are powerful and encouraging individual and collective action to stop bullying and create the best world possible.
- To help parents and carers to use their Power for Good – through supporting children with issues relating to bullying and working together with schools to stop bullying.
- To encourage all teachers, school support staff and youth workers to use their Power for Good– by valuing the difference they can make in a child’s life, and taking individual and collective action to prevent bullying and create safe environments where children can thrive.
Our school definition has recently been reviewed by the School Council and remains unchanged.
‘Bullying is when you hurt someone, physically or emotionally, several times on purpose.’
We also encourage children to use their ‘Power for Good’, if they were to experience or witness bullying, by using another STOP message, start telling other people.
In class, 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 bullying. The key message is to tell someone (start telling other people)
Recently the School Council responded to this question, ‘What would you do if you were bullied‘?
- ‘Start telling other people – tell someone who I trust and who I can talk to.’
- ‘I would tell someone I trust (family member, member of staff or friend).’
- ‘If I were bullied, I’d tell my parents, a friend, a teacher and if nothing changed I would phone ChildLine (08001111).’
- ‘I’d tell a teacher, maybe a friend and put in a worry in the ‘worry box’. Also, I’d tell a parent.’
- ‘I would tell anyone I trust: my friends, my mum or dad or a member of staff. They could sort it straight away.’
- ‘I’d tell my mummy and daddy.’
All classes have access to their class SEAL box or a whole school worry box where they can tell an adult any concerns about bullying or any other issues.
For further support, bullying resources can be found at…
- http://www.anti-bullyingalliance.org.uk/resources/disablist-bullying/resources-for-parents/
- http://www.childline.org.uk/explore/bullying/pages/bullying.aspx
- http://www.bullying.co.uk/advice-for-parents/
- http://www.youngminds.org.uk/for_parents/worried_about_your_child/bullying