Science: Which soil is the most absorbent?
Enquiry question:
Which soil is the most absorbent?
Science strand: We are chemists!
How we were scientists: We planned and set up a comparative test.
What we changed: the soil types; loam, chalky, sandy and clay
What we measured: how much water drained through the soil and was collected
What we kept the same: the amount of water and the amount of soil
What we found:
Our conclusion: Clay soil was the most absorbent.
English School Swimming Association North East Heat
Congratulations to our Year 5 and 6 swimmers who took part in the English School Swimming Association North East Heat at The Grammar School at Leeds. For most of the team, this was the first competitive swimming event they had taken part in so well done to all the children for their determination and also for taking responsibility by practising prior to the event. The team were then inspired by watching our City of Leeds swimmer take part in his individual races.
I’m going to practise more swimming to get faster to compete again in Year 6.
This was a great opportunity for us! Not everyone gets the chance to do this.
Living and Learning: Feeling good and being me!
In Living and Learning, the children discussed and defined ‘a compliment’ as “giving someone praise in a respectful way”. We then went on to give ourselves a compliment, others a compliment and also talked about how it makes us feel when we are given a compliment. Some of our emotions included: being happy; feeling embarrassed; being proud; feeling appreciated and validated.
Year 5 also gave out anonymous compliments to their peers in class. The children really thought about why each person is special to them. It was lovely to read these out in class!
Here are some of the things the children complimented themselves on:
Help at home: Why not go around the dinner table tonight and give each other compliments?
Living and learning: changes
This week’s living and learning lesson was about changes.
How might someone feel going to high school?
And what is our advice to them?
Reading Record Stars
Every Friday, your children bring their reading records with a completed activity to our Book Club sessions. This week, the children were asked to do a fact file all about a character from their book or the author.
I love getting the chance to see and hear about all the brilliant reading your children have done over the week.
A reminder of the reading record key info:
- Each week, the activity your child must complete is given on the homework sheet. More information on these activities are inside the record. If you are ever unsure which activity it is, please ask or choose a random one!
- The children need to bring their reading record in every Friday for Book Club where we discuss their books and develop their love of reading.
- The children’s grown-ups also need to sign and write a short comment about the lovely reading their child has been doing at home!
Any questions, please ask!
Help at home: continue to read daily with your child and sign their reading record to share this.
Spring 2: Week 5
Thank you so much for all of your kindness and generosity. Not only have you given such beautiful/thoughtful gifts but throughout the year you have been so supportive and engaged-thank you.
It has been such an honour and a privilege to support your child through their journey in reception. I wish them and you all the best in the future.
The children have had fun creating their own flowers this week after being inspired from seeing their own plants grow.
The children have had fun in the areas this week creating repeating patterns.
Math
The children have been worked hard on their doubles this week. They have been using counters on a butterfly to represent their doubles.
Help at home: by asking them to doubles numbers within 5 using objects.
Music
This week, the children have been exploring with sound using the glockenspiels.
British Library: Refugee’s Journey
Today, it was a pleasure to welcome back Liz from the British Library to do a drama and reading workshop with us.
Our session focused on Azzi In Between, a book about a girl who has to leave her country because it’s not safe.
We explored the story with lots of drama and freeze frames.
We also got to play lots of drama games which were really fun.
We explored different scenes of the book in our groups…
…before putting together the entire performance with each group contributing a part to the bigger show.
Help at home by asking your child to explain what was happening in this picture and why! Or, explain what emotions Azzi felt throughout the story.
Guided Reading Week 5
As next week is the last week of Spring Term, your child’s target page is the end of the book (no matter the group). Guided reading books need to be returned before Friday 4th April, if possible. If your child will not have finished their book by this time, please ask them to speak to me and we can see if they can have the book for the break.
Science: conductors and insulators
Today, Year 4 were learning all about electricity in science. We spoke about…
conductors: a material that allows energy to flow through it
insulators: a material that does not allow energy to flow through it.
Your children worked in small groups to sort a variety of objects into conductors of electricity and insulators of electricity. They had some brilliant discussions while trying to reason why an item must be an insulator or conductor.
The plastic cup must be an insulator because we know the outside of a wire is plastic and that’s an insulator.
The metal objects are conductors because the inside of wires are metal and electric fences are made of metal.
What they found…
Conductors:
- coin
- key
- nail
- paperclip
- metal sharpener
Insulators:
- rubber band
- plastic cup
- newspaper
- mug
- glass
Then, we discussed why insulators are so important. They keep us safe and protect us from the electricity flowing through devices. Without insulators, we would get electric shocks when using electrical devices.
Help at home: walk around your kitchen and ask your child to identify different conductors and insulators of electricity. Ask them to explain how they know.
DT: Food Technology
Today, Year 5 made vegetable pasta bake! This is part of our Living and Learning (healthy eating) and Design and Technology (food preparation) learning. We worked in small groups to prepare the ingredients and then cook them. The children peeled, crushed, chopped, diced, cubed and sliced! We made sure that we washed our hands and wore our aprons for hygiene reasons.
We used the bridge cutting method and the claw cutting method to cut up our ingredients. These methods are the safest way to cut food as they help us from hurting ourselves!
Help at home: The children have been given a recipe to take home. Why not try it for yourselves? Is there anything you would change?
