Living and Learning: Being Healthy themed week – Mindful Monday
We kicked off the Being Healthy themed week with Mindful Monday recognising that our mental health is as important as our physical health.
Mindfulness can make you calm.
Mindfulness is good for you because it can make you feel relaxed and calm down your feelings.
Mindfulness is good because it helps your mental health.
We regularly have mindfulness time after lunchtimes but today was chance to add some more techniques to the ones we already know (self hug, ok breathing, breathing tree, starfish meditation and back to back breathing).
Yoga is a great way to help our mental health and Vikki from The Yoga House came to teach us some yoga poses and relaxation.
I enjoyed the yoga because it made me feel really relaxed.
I liked the yoga because it made me feel really joyful and active.I loved the yoga because it made me feel calm and made my worries float away.
I liked it because I enjoy doing yoga at home.
I loved the yoga because when you have shavasana time, you feel relaxed and I had lots of deep breaths.
Help at home: discuss these relaxation techniques with your child. Which is their favourite and which works for them? Also, have a look at our mindfulness guide for more ideas to try at home.
Book Club
This afternoon, we took advantage of our new green space and lovely weather and took our reading books outside. Some of us read FirstNews, some of us read our library books and the rest of us took atlases out and improved our geography knowledge.
Help at home by giving your child as many opportunities to read as possible!
Temple Newsam Farm
We’ve had a wonderful time today on our trip to Temple Newsam Farm! The children’s behaviour was impeccable and they were a credit to our school.
Being Healthy themed week 10 July
Our next whole school themed week, based around Being Healthy, will be taking place from Monday 10th July. This is the second of two themed weeks in the year.
Living and learning: body image
Our latest Living and Learning sessions have been focussed on body image and we started this learning by thinking about what is special about our own identity and how we can describe our own identity in terms of our physical appearance.
We also thought of other ways we might be different, on the inside as well as the outside. For example, we don’t all have the same personality and characteristics and we have different interests and hobbies.
We agreed that being different is a good thing and it should be celebrated as it would be boring if we were all the same!
I am different because I have a different family to others.
I am different because I have a different skin and hair colour to my friend.
I am different because I like dogs but my friend is allergic to them.
Moortown Lego Legends
This week, we had a presentation from six members of the class, also known as Moortown Lego Legends, to share their project they have been working on for the last four months. The class had lots of questions to ask them.
They have worked together as a team on a great Lego and coding project, putting into practice some of their programming skills learnt earlier this year in our computing topic, while also learning about sustainable energy sources.
Well done to all the children involved and thank you to the parents for supporting them in this learning out of school.
Leeds Discovery Centre Trip
Yesterday, Year 5 went to Leeds Discovery Centre to take part in an Ancient Egyptian workshop. The children were able to touch artefacts, design their own Egyptian town and create a self portrait (in the style of hieroglyphics).
The children were amazed by the fascinating Leeds Discovery Centre store, which holds over 1 million artefacts. We were able to look at a range of different items from the past; we were even able to touch moon rock and look at a meteorite!
Help at home: Discuss something they have learnt, their favourite part of the day or a question they now have about Egyptian life.
DT food: fruit bars!
Today in DT we made fruit bars! We very carefully weighed, mashed, chopped, melted, measured stirred, mixed and baked! We were very responsible and Mrs Russell was very impressed with how mature and sensible we were in the kitchen. Once the fruit bars were baked, we had a taste. Most of us thought they were delicious! There was even enough for everyone to take a second slice home.
Help at home by doing some more baking. What could you make?
Living and learning: body image
In Living and Learning we are learning about body image.
Body image describes our idea of how our body looks and how we think it is perceived by others. This can include our thoughts and feelings about our height, weight, shape, skin, colour, and our appearance and attractiveness more broadly.
We started our session by looking at adverts and discussing whether what we saw in the adverts was real or fake. We then talked about the implications that adverts/media can have on our self esteem and body image.
We talked about the fact that we are all different and therefore all look different. Year 3 discussed how we should be confident in who we are – love ourselves and our bodies and not comment on other peoples.
Year 3 also shared how although we can sometimes be aware of what we look like – it’s what’s on the inside that counts!
Help at home by asking your child what they like about themselves. This links to last week’s Living and Learning statement – I can say something good about myself.
Design and Technology
Our topic this half term is Design and Technology.
Design brief:
To design and build a prototype go-kart.
Design criteria:
- must move freely
- must be able to hold a model figure
- must use an electrical circuit for motor
Challenge:
To use a steering mechanism.
The children designed their go karts using annotated sketches. These included dimensions and components. This week, they began building and they made a fantastic start.
They each had a role within their team:
- an organiser of the components
- a builder
- a design checker
They worked amazingly in their groups using great listening and teamwork skills.
