Artwork inspired by Kandinsky
This half term, we are artists.
Our two featured artists this half term are Martha Mcdonald Napaltjarri and Wassily Kandinsky.
This week, we looked at Kandinsky’s pieces and discussed his use of colour and shape in his artwork. Then, we practised using pastels to create concentric circles in complementary colours, inspired by Kandinsky.
At the end of the lesson, we placed all our individual artwork together to create one collective piece.
Help at home by asking your child what complementary colours are.
Living and Learning: anti-bullying
Last week was national Anti-Bullying Week!
“Bullying is when you hurt someone, physically or emotionally (including online), several times on purpose.”
We define it by using two STOP acronyms:
- Several Times On Purpose
- Start Telling Other People
One’s a definition of bullying and the other’s a solution.
Our school definition helps us understand the different types of bullying – physical (hurting our body), emotional (hurting our feelings) or cyber bullying (online).
On Anti-Bulling Day, we wore odd socks to show that we are all the same but we are all different.
Year 4 spent time discussing what makes a good friend and how to sort disagreements with our friends in a healthy way.
Help at home: ask your child how they could resolve a disagreement with a friend in a restorative way.
Guided Reading Week 4
Here are the target pages for this week’s guided reading. These need to be read by Friday 8th December.
The Boy and the Tiger: end of book.
Extra Time: up to chapter 34/page 159.
Flood and Fang: up to chapter 10/page 131.
Dirty Bertie: up to page 122.
Kensuke’s Kingdom: up to chapter 8/page 117.
We are chefs!
This week, Year 5 made tomato and lentil soup! We worked in small groups to prepare the ingredients and then cook them. 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: Have your child show you the bridge and claw cutting methods.
DT food – banana sandwich
On Tuesday this week we headed over to the kitchen to make banana sandwiches. This is part of our DT food curriculum and the children will be making two further recipes over the course of the year.
First we had to choose our bread.
Then we chopped and slice our banana using the claw and bridge grip.
Next we spread cream cheese on our bread.
After that we arranged our bananas on top and sprinkled on some cinnamon.
Finally we ate it! It was delicious!
Help at home by talking about the cooking and maybe trying some cooking of your own at home.
Autumn 2: Week 4
This week, we’ve been reading the book How to catch a star by Oliver Jeffers. We worked together to sequence the story and talked about what happened at the beginning, middle and end.
The boy in the story tried so many different was to catch a star. We used our imaginations to think about how we would catch a star.
Emir – I would use a big ladder and put it next to a tree.
Teddy – I would use a rocket.
Hana – I would use a hot air balloon.
Emilia – I would use a rocket.
Oscar – I would use a trampoline.
Yesterday, we talked about star constellations. We had a go at drawing our own.
Art
This week, we explored impressionism by looking at Claude Monet’s series of impressionist oil paintings of the Houses of Parliament. Mrs Boulton asked Reception…
What is an artist?
Rowan – An artist can cut paper and do a painting.
Xara-Mae – They make pictures.
Rayaan – If you paint for a queen.
Edie – They make a masterpiece.
Benjamin – They cut paper with scissors.
We used two forms of printing to create our own versions.
Maths
We developed our understanding of the composition of numbers by investigating the composition of 3, 4 and 5. We consolidated our understanding of a whole being made up of smaller parts by using cubes to compose and de-compose numbers. We also introduced the part–part–whole model to the children.
We played a star game to help us understand the parts of 3, 4 and 5.
How many children are holding a star? (part)
How many children are not holding a star? (part)
How many are there altogether? (whole)
We watched the Numberblocks Stampoline video and had a go at printing our own Stampoline patterns of 4.
Help at home: Draw, paint or create your own Stampoline patterns at home.
Poetry Picnic
This week’s is called Mice by Rose Fyleman.
We talked about how poems can sometimes have rhyming words in them. Help at home: Can your child tell you the rhyming words in this week’s poem?
Living and Learning
Our Living and Learning was I can talk about my feelings. Some children happily shared their feelings with others.
Rowan – I like waking up. I feel happy.
Rayaan – My heart feels very nice when my cousins come but I feel shy.
Sam – Sometimes when I come into school I feel sad. When I’m here, I feel happy.
Christmas is coming!
We’ve been practising our Christmas songs for our Christmas performance. We can’t wait for you to come and watch us sing on Tuesday 19 and Wednesday 21 December.
Reminders
– Learning journey drop in’s – Don’t forget to sign up!
Tuesday 12 and Thursday 14 December at 8.45 – 9.15am or 3.15 – 3.45pm
– The cold weather is here! Please make sure your child comes to school wearing a suitable coat.
Maths – multiplication
We’ve begun our multiplication journey this week!
Before learning how to do long multiplication, we had to go back to basics – understanding equal groups and how they link to our number sentences.
We decided that equal means having the same value. Even if the groups are arranged differently or look different, if there is the same amount, they are equal.
Here’s an example we used:
There are 3 plates.
There are 4 strawberries on each plate.
There are 3 equal groups of 4.
3 x 4 = 12
4 x 3 = 12
The 3 represents the amount of groups and the 4 represents the amount in each group.
We then had a go at making equal groups and arrays with counters and writing the matching number sentences.
Here’s some of the ones that we created:
Being confident with equal groups will help us later when learning new methods!
Help at home by making equal groups out of everyday items. For example, can you make equal groups from the peas on your plate or the pens in your drawer?
Living and Learning: mental health
Mental health is our new theme in our Living and Learning lessons. We also had a linked reading fluency text to help to understand about mental health.
First of all, this video introduced emotions and feelings.
Next, we met Maz. Maz is visiting earth to discover more about humans. Today, Maz wants to learn all about feelings.
We had lots we wanted to tell Maz about feelings…
Then, we heard about some characters and their stories. What feelings might they have? Who might need help with how they are feeling? Amir or Mia?
Talking about feelings and knowing where and how to seek help for yourself or others is very important.
Help at home: We’ve talked about how people’s faces and body language can help us to understand how others are feeling. Match the expression to the emotion. Maybe try some other emotions at home.
confused, sad, shocked, overjoyed, shy and furious
We’re great writers!
Inspired by our trip to the Yorkshire Sculpture Park, we’re going to write a narrative about one of the artworks coming to life!
First, we discussed what makes a good narrative and read an example.
We did some drama to get into the mind of the sculpture awakening from its deep slumber. How would it move? Where would it go? What are some consequences?
Help at home by discussing what types of figurative language your child knows. Can they give you an example of each? How could they use it in their upcoming writing?
We will also aim to use expanded noun phrases and more complex punctuation like semi colons.
Leeds Coding Day
Today, Y6 joined an online coding class! We used Scratch to make a game where a Sprite had to cross a canal whilst avoiding the barges.
We used lots of computing skills that we’ve practised in the past such as variables, repetition and selection.
“It’s really fun. I liked it because I’m quite good at Scratch and I love practising it,” said Evan.
“It was very difficult and confusing so we had to be resilient!” explained Sienna.
“The best thing about it was creating your own code!” said Theo.
