Yorkshire Sculpture Park
Year 5 and Year 6 went on an amazing trip to the Yorkshire Sculpture Park to support our Art learning for next half term.
It was great to see both abstract and figurative sculptures.
We started off the day by taking part in a workshop with a real artist! We investigated patterns, textures and shape. The children did some artwork without looking at the page; they had to put their sketchbook on their heads. They also created a collaborative piece where they had one minute to draw and then had to move on to someone else’s sketchbook to draw for another minute.
Another great moment was seeing Barbara Hepworth’s Family of Man in real life! We had a tour of the sculptures and learnt all about the story of what they represent.
Lastly, inspired by the sculptures we’d seen, we made our own out of clay, just like Henry Moore would have done. He used a maquette made out of plaster.
In the afternoon, we had a self-guided tour where we explored more of the park. We even managed to squeeze in some time for a run around and a game of infinity tig.
Help at home: Ask your child about the trip. What was their favourite part of the day? Which was their favourite sculpture and why? Or, take a look at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park website – can you find out more about the pieces of art we saw in real life?
Writing: twisted tales
In writing, Year 4 are looking at news reports.
The purpose of a news report is to tell the reader information about something that has happened.
We’re going to be writing a news report about a twisted tale. We’re doing a spin on the classic three little pigs story. However, ours is going to be the three little wolves and the big bad pig. The big bad pig needs a warm blanket for winter and wolf fur is exactly what he’s looking for!
Today, together we drew a story map (we found the drawing quite tricky as you can see!) of our twisted tale. This is going to help us write our news reports next week.
Help at home: ask your children to tell you the story of the three little wolves and the big bad pig. Can they do it like a news reporter?
Watch us while we work
Thank you to those parents who were able to join us for our watch us while we work session earlier this week. We hope you found it useful.
Here’s a summary of how we are encouraging the children to become more responsible for their learning at home.
Spellings – use the spelling guide for ideas to help with learning weekly spellings.
Sentence practice – use spellings to make silly sentences. Use a picture as a stimulus for writing sentences including asking questions about what they can see.
Daily reading – we thought about some of the reading skills the children are learning in Year 2 (fluency, prosody (using expression in their voices), retrieval, interpret and learning new vocabulary). Reading needs to happen daily to build up these skills. A brief note in their reading record books is needed after reading at home. We will continue to monitor the use of e-books at home. Please alert us to any access issues.
Maths – number facts such as counting in 2s, 5s and 10s and number bonds to 10 and 20 are really important to secure this year. Hit the Button is a great online game to build up the recall of these facts.
Numbots certificates are awarded every Thursday and it’s great to see children already achieving their next levels in Year 2.
Finally, here’s the help at home section of the website.
Please get in touch if you need any further support with your child’s learning at home.
Geography fieldwork
What a fantastic time we had on our Geography fieldwork this week! The children showed excellent awareness of how to stay safe while carrying out their investigations.
Before setting off, we reminded ourselves of our important safety rules:
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We wear our hi-vis jackets so we can be easily seen.
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We stay with our group and our adult at all times.
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We listen carefully to our adult’s instructions.
Our fieldwork question was: “What trees are there in Moortown Park?”
To find the answer, we took photographs and collected leaves from different trees.
Back in class, we examined our leaves carefully and used an identification guide to find out which trees they came from. We discovered a wonderful variety of trees in the park, including oak, birch, sycamore, beech, and holly.
Help at home:
Why not explore the trees in your local area? Use a leaf identification guide to see what types of trees you can find near you!
Geography – I can investigate land-use in my locality.
This week, during Geography, we’ve planned a walk in our locality so that we can investigate what the land is used for.
There are five main types of land-use:
- agriculture – land used for farming
- residential – land used for housing
- commercial – land used for businesses e.g. shops and restaurants
- recreational – land used for recreational activities e.g. swimming pools and golf courses
- transport – land used for roads, railways and airports
We used a map of Moortown to decide what route we’ll take. We thought about trying to create a loop and to try and pass as many different areas as possible. Have a look at what we decided on:
We’ll hopefully pass areas of residential, recreational and commercial land-use while walking along land used for transport! We’ll take pictures of each and label these in our books.
We look forward to showing you the pictures!
Maths: calculating with 1,000
In Year 4, we’ve been looking at the structure of 1,000 in maths.
There are 10 hundreds in 1 thousand.
There are 100 tens in 1 thousand.
There are 1,000 ones in 1 thousand.
Understanding the structure of 1,000 then helps us with our calculations.
When subtracting ones from 1,000, we can partition into 990 and 10 to help us.
Once we were confident, we had a go at writing some of our own worded problems for subtracting from 1,000.
Help at home: have a go at these questions (remember to partition if you need some help):
1,000 – 5 =
1,000 – 8 =
1,000 – 3 =
1,000 – 6 =
Junior Leadership Team
Tomorrow, Year 3 will spend time discussing and planning their JLT speeches. Then on Thursday, if they would like the opportunity to become a leader, they will deliver their speeches to the class.
What makes a great leader?
What can you do to help your class?
What strengths do you have?
Make your ideas realisitic!
Help at home by practising how your child can deliver their speech.
Top tips:
- face the audience
- project your voice
- talk with prosody
2-page spreads!
Year 6 have been writing about a fictional city. They were able to create a city of their choice using a city in real life as inspiration. They needed to include different sentence starters, geographical vocabulary and relative clauses.
They published their brilliant work in their topic books to show off their knowledge about urban green spaces.
Reading: Book Club
In Book Club, Year 6 explored the website ‘Authorfy’. We focused on a comic book masterclass where authors Jamie Smart and Laura Ellen explained how they created their own comic books. Jamie Smart’s ‘Bunny vs. Monkey’ books are very popular in our class.
We watched a tutorial and then had a go at drawing our very own Bunny. For the rest of the lesson, the children created their own comic books.
Help at home: Which is your favourite Bunny vs. Monkey book and why? What other author’s comic books have you read?
Poetry Picnic
The poem we’ve been learning this week is called Leaves Are Falling. They’ve really enjoyed this one and performed it with breezy gusto! The children loved joining in with the actions and exploring all the swirling, twirling movements of the autumn leaves.