Science – What are soils made of?
In science, we have been learning about what soils are made of.
Soils are everywhere and they’re very useful. They are amazing in helping plants grow and provide homes to lots of little organisms.
We made careful observations when finding our own soil samples from different areas of the school.
We looked for the 3 main parts of soil:
1. small rocks
2. organic matter (dead and rotting plants and animals – humus)
3. water
We then compared our soils to sandy, chalk and loam soil and decided our soil was most like the loam soil.
Help at home by searching for the 3 main ingredients in soil you can find outside! What does the soil look like? Is it dark in colour?
North East Youth Summit 2025
Today, the Year 5 and 6 junior leaders visited the Leeds Civic Hall to attend the North East Youth Summit. It was a great day where the children had the opportunity to meet and hear from councillors, ask questions and give their say when thinking about things we would like to change and improve about our local area.
We suggested our ideas for activities that we would love to see in our locality. Here were our choices.
We were in a room with lots of other junior leaders from around our locality so it was great to meet them as well!
We discussed climate change in the official chambers where the MPs and Leeds’ Mayor meet to discuss their plans.
Maths: Division
In Maths this week, we have been looking at short division. We have been using the bus stop method to do this.
To start off we learnt how to divide with no exchanges.
We then moved on to learn how to divide 3-digit numbers by a 1-digit number which contained exchanges.
The next step was 4-digit numbers with exchanges.
And the final one was 4-digit numbers divided by a 1-digit number, that not only had exchanges but also a remainder.
Help at home: Have a discussion with your child about the problem below.
Reminder: World Book Day
World book day will take place on 06.03.24 .
Skipping Festival 2025
Today, Year 4 took part in the 2025 Skipping Festival and won! This means we’re through to the finals in June and we can’t wait.
They did a brilliant job and worked so well as a team – all their practising definitely paid off! It was amazing to watch them all showcase their incredible skipping skills. They also showed great support for each other and the other teams. I was so impressed by their determination, teamwork and respect.
In between the skills, the children had the chance to skip, dance and sing along to the music which they loved. They even got the chance to learn some new skipping skills like the butterfly.
Both the individual skills and the group skips were fantastic. Your children won lots of awards – including seven gold medals! We were all so happy to win and be through to the finals in June.
Well done Year 4 for trying your best and representing Moortown so well – we’re so proud of you! Let’s do it all again in June!
PE: Rugby
This half term, our PE unit is rugby. We will be practising lots of different skills: catching, passing/throwing, evading a defender, tackling an attacker and kicking.
We learnt in our first lesson this week how to pass with accuracy. You need to see the target, pass and then point. The pointing helps to direct the ball towards the target more easily.
Help at home: What do you already know about rugby? Is there any specific words to help us with our learning?
Food Technology – Bruschetta!
This morning, Year 3 have been making Bruschetta. We were so impressed with their knowledge and skills at each stage of the recipe.
The main skill we were practising was cutting with a knife. The two different techniques that we used were the bridge and the claw. We used the bridge to safely and securely cut the tomatoes into small chunks. We used the claw to cut the basil up into smaller pieces.
We then used a garlic crusher to squeeze the garlic into our tomato and basil mixture. It’s safe to say the room smelt very strong!
The final challenge was to spoon the mixture onto the sliced and toasted baguette without making a mess and then to dig in… some of them gave it a 10/10!
Help at home by re-making the recipe the home. It’s been sent home with your child today. Could you add something new; ham, cheese or salmon?
What is a computer network?
A computer network is two or more computers that are connected. They can share information more easily and it can be safer.
A computer network is made up of four parts: the server, switch, clients and cables.
Help at home by asking your child to tell you a bit about what each part does! If you need any help, the pictures below will definitely give you the right information.
In the coming weeks, we’ll be coding a microbit, which we’re all really excited for! So watch this space!
Leeds Beckett tennis
This week, Nic and Sky, tennis coaches from Beckett Sport Juniors, came to deliver a tennis themed assembly.
Here are the details of a special offer they are offering for Moortown pupils.
Living and learning: internet safety
This week, it was Safer Internet Day and we spent the day focusing on these two key areas of online safety.
- I know that some things online may not be true (people and information).
- I know that I shouldn’t share personal information online.
We used some different texts to support this learning and our daily poem too.
We joined together with Year 1 to hot seat the characters. This helped us to think about their feelings and actions.
This video also reinforced key messages about not everything online is true (this could be people or information) and the importance of not sharing any of your personal information.
We used our Living and Learning statement to think about the importance of always being respectful.
People should be respectful online because if you aren’t, others won’t be respectful to you.
It’s like bullying if you keep doing it.
It’s just like saying something mean in real life and we wouldn’t do that.
It can hurt other peoples’ feelings.
Dave from d:side visited last week to reinforce lots of internet safety messages. He was very impressed with the knowledge and understanding from the children.
Throughout this learning, we reinforced the message that if the children were unsure or something didn’t feel right they should always Start Telling Other People and let a trusted adult know.
Help at home: Can your child tell you the key messages from the texts we read?
Finally, our online safety section has further support available for parents.