Our amazing brains – Brain Box week!
This week is dedicated to developing an awareness of learning and how the brain works.
The importance of exercise, healthy food, sleep, hydration and emotional health, for a healthy brain, will be covered throughout the week alongside a main focus for each day:
Monday
Understanding your brain, brain cells and how to help your brain to learn.
Tuesday
How your brain learns best and learning styles.
Key Stage 2 classes will also have a visit from d:Side. As part of our drug education in school, representatives from d:Side, a drug and health programme, will be looking, in particular, at the effects of various drugs on the brain.
Staff from d:Side will be available after school, in the dining room, for parents / carers to ask any questions about these sessions.
Wednesday
Developing the understanding of multiple intelligences and that everyone has gifts and talents.
Dr Dave Lewis, Senior Lecturer of Neuroscience, from the University of Leeds will be visiting Key Stage 2 classes.
Thursday
Thinking about thinking and problem solving.
Friday
A day to remember – exploring a range of memory strategies.
The whole school Water Aid sponsored walk will take place during Friday.
Please check the website for further information and links to websites throughout the week.
Making friends!
The children are settling well in Reception. They have been busy making friends and having fun!
Save water and money!
Yorkshire Water are currently running a Save Water, Energy and Money campaign. As part of this campaign, they’re giving away free water and energy saving packs.
To claim a free pack, follow the link at the bottom of the post and enter this reference code: MGMCR8
If enough people order the packs, school could win an iPod Touch!
Thanks to Mr Russell (Finn and Owen’s dad) for letting school know about the competition and for offering to donate the prize to school.
What are you waiting for? Order a pack. Save some water. Save some energy. Save some money!
http://www.yorkshirewater.com/savewater
Soluble or insoluble?
In a recent science lesson, children investigated which materials dissolved in water. We wanted to keep it a fair test so we were very strict about which things we were going to keep the same when we tested each material. We made sure we used the same amount of water each time, used the same amount of each material, stirred the water the same number of times and ensured the temperature of the water was the same for each material.
We used the iPads to take pictures of what happened and to record our predictions and findings.
Using iPads to extend learning
Year Six have been enjoying using the new IPads to extend their learning in Literacy and Maths.
This is what they said about using IPads:
“Learning is fun!”
“It helped me build some great sentences with adverbs.”
“Using the iPad helped me explain my Maths.”
Mini-topic
For the first few weeks of term we have learnt about ‘Ourselves’. We’ve looked at our bodies, families and the five senses. These photographs are of us learning about faces.
We had great fun making faces on biscuits.
What an interesting class!
I certainly feel that I know the children very well now after looking at their homework; well done to everyone for telling me something about yourself. I now know not to mess with Dylan, Harry B and Hari R as they are all experts in some kind of martial arts and I know where to go for tea as Brannoc loves making spaghetti bolognese! The photos show a very detailed Moshi Monster map, an amazing Lego model and Pavanpal’s board game. Great homework Year Five!
Literacy
In a recent literacy lesson, the children worked in groups to correct sentences that had no capital letters. They got points for spotting each missing capital letter and the winning team won a Wilksy Wonder prize!
Guided Reading in Year 3
Hello!
Guided reading is a bit different this year so I thought I’d write a post explaining how it all works:
The children are split into five different guided reading groups. Each group has about six children in it and each group reads with me once a week on a designated day of the week. For example, Monday Group read with me on Monday, Tuesday Group on Tuesday, etc.
All the children in the group read the same book. After they read with me, I set a “target page”. They have to reach this “target page” by the next time they read with me. It’s really important that the children reach but do not exceed the target page so that they are all at the same place in the book. If you find that your child has reached the target page quickly, they can read another book at home or I can arrange for them to take another school book home.
I hope that makes sense! Please come to see me if you have any questions.
The Water Cycle
Our first mini-topic of the year is water. As part of the topic, we’ve been learning about the water cycle. In this topic lesson, children annotated a picture on the iPads to show the different parts of the water cycle.