Computing in Y5
Scratching away at a maze game!
Learning to write
The children are progressing quickly with their phonics learning and reading. Alongside blending to read, the children also need to segment words to spell. Children often find this harder and lack confidence in their ability to write.
In Reception, the children take part in shared writing activities where they can ‘have a go’ on whiteboards with the support of adults. We then encourage independent writing in all the areas of provision. This includes writing a label for their model, writing a shopping list in the role-play shop or writing a letter to a friend. At the moment the children are busy writing messages to their favourite superheroes! We value all the children’s attempts at writing and model writing (and making mistakes) to them.
You can help at home by:
- Providing plenty of different types of pens and pencils and encouraging your child to use a correct grip
- Encouraging them to use the school’s handwriting style and to use lower case letters; we teach that a capital letter is required for the first letter in a name and at the beginning of a sentence
- Spelling is harder than reading words – praise, don’t criticise. Little whiteboards and pens are a good way for children to try out spellings and practise their handwriting
- Remember that at this stage children’s phonetic attempts are valued. They will learn the correct spellings of words later. We want the children to become confident writers by ‘having a go’ and using their phonetic knowledge independently.
- To be able to write, children need to be well co-ordinated through their whole body, not just their hands and fingers. Games that help co-ordination include throwing balls at a target, under-arm and over-arm, and bouncing balls – also skipping on the spot, throwing a Frisbee, picking up pebbles from the beach and throwing them into the sea.
Have fun!
ChildLine
The ChildLine Schools Service has recently visited children in Years 5 and 6 to provide them with key messages about keeping safe. It can be beneficial for these messages to be reinforced at home. The NSPCC has developed some guides for all parents of primary school aged children to speak to your child about keeping safe – called the Underwear rule.
Find guides to the Underwear Rule to help you have simple conversations about keeping safe from abuse.
You can speak to an advisor for further advice or request a hard-copy guide for parents and carers by phoning the NSPCC Helpline on 0808 800 5000.
Read more advice on keeping your child safe.
Gymnastics
Year 4, 5, and 6 have been working with gym coaches, Jane and Charlotte, from Temple Newsam gymnastics club. This initiative is part of our investment of the PE government funding to up-skill class teachers in their teaching of gymnastics and provide high quality gymnastic sessions for our pupils.
For any children who want to develop their gymnastics skills further, Jane and Charlotte run after-school classes at their gym centres, Barwick village hall and Temple Moor high school.
Match report
Gledhow vs Moortown Year 5 football team match report by Lennox
We played Gledhow Primary School. I think we were the better side as the wingers, Archie, Sam and Bailey, ran the show. They crossed the ball on countless opportunities to the strikers. I hit the post twice with two left footed shots. The defenders were great when they cleared the ball and used their strength against their attackers. Unfortunately we lost 4-0 but we played much better than before.
Team Tactics
We’ve had a great half term in PE improving our basketball skills – Mr Catherall has been very impressed. This week we played whole games and even started thinking about team tactics to improve our game, Here’s our huddle.
Gearing up for the Gallery
Having produced so much art this half term, we’re preparing our final piece to go on display in our open art gallery in the week beginning 10th November 2014. Our final piece will be using a technique called pointillism. This is where you create a picture using lots and lots and lots of tiny dots. It takes lots of skill, patience and determination so we had a practice this week.
First, we decided which paintings were pointillism and which were not.
Then we practised using pointillism ourselves.
We had a go using three different media to find out which would be most effective for our final piece. We used paint, felt tip pens and coloured pencils. The coloured pencils took the longest, felt tip looked quite effective, but, we most enjoyed using the paint and cotton wool buds.
It’s half-term…
…so there’s no specific homework this week, apart from ensuring your child spends at least 20 minutes each day reading and 5-10 minutes learning their number bonds / times tables.
Enjoy your October break. If you stay in Leeds, check out all the activities the museums and art galleries have on offer.
Royal Armouries
We’re busy learning at the Royal Armouries today! Have a look at the photos:
Applying for a place at secondary school
The deadline for applying for Y7 places for next year is 31 October 2014 and Leeds on-line application system will close at midnight on that date for secondary applications (the on-line system will remain open for primary applications). Alternatively, you might prefer to apply via a paper form and hand your completed forms into school for us to forward to the Admissions Team.
Amy Vernon from the Choice Advice Service can support you if you’re struggling with the application process. Email choice.advice@leeds.gov.uk or call 0113 3951183.
Offer day is 02 March this year. Parents who apply on-line will receive an email with their offer any time from midnight onwards. Parents who apply on a paper form will have their offer posted to them 2nd class on 02 March so may not receive this until later in the week.