Write it like a poet!
Today, Year 3 had a visitor from the British Library. We learnt a lot about the British Library like what they do, how they are different to a “normal” library and where they are based. Luckily for us, they have a base in Boston Spa!
The British Library have a copy of every single book, newspaper, magazine or even leaflet that has been published in Britain. They want to keep a record of all of these so that in years to come, people can look back and see what things were like over the years!
We read a few poems, picked a part the vocabulary and discussed what we liked and disliked about them. Then it was our turn to write our own poems. It can be quite tricky just to sit down and write a poem so we played lots of games to help us generate some ideas.
Some of us wrote about our day, our emotions, a hobbie we like or just something random! The children really enjoyed it and were desperate to share their writing at the end.
Help at home by playing the word association game. Start with ‘apple’ and see what word the other person can think of that links to it!
Reading – to summarise
This week’s reading skills lessons have been about summarising.
Help at home by discussing the R2s for summaries!
We’ve been thoroughly enjoying our class novel: Holes by Louis Sachar. Today’s task was a little different to normal – we had to summarise the main points of the chapter using small key pictures.
Take a look how we got on!
Challenge your child to retell the chapter to you using the summaries above!
Leeds diving
Leeds Schools Sport Association Cross Country
A number of children have recently represented school and competed in the Leeds Schools Sport Association Cross Country races.
The date of the next race is Saturday 02 March 2024 at Woodhouse Grove.
In the meantime, have a look at our physical activity guide to see how to get involved in athletics.
Write like a poet workshop
Year 5 had a visitor this morning from the British Library to do a ‘write like a poet’ workshop. We started off by introducing ourselves with actor voices and actions.
We then spent some time talking about the British Library and found out that they have a copy of every book that has ever been published (magazines – with toys included – and newspapers too). In addition, we found out that robots look after all of their books so, of course, we too became robots ready to look after the books.
Then, we looked at how poems need to change over time. The author James Berry wrote “ You will need to revise it, make it better, polish it, make it better, make it become into the shining spirit of your idea. And making.”
The children practised their oracy skills: fluency and pace; voice projection; and tonal variation.
Next, we looked at poet Grace Nichols. We discussed unknown vocabulary and talked about the meaning of the poem. We identified that the whole poem is a metaphor! The disco is actually describing our solar system.
The children then had a brilliant time playing word association to help prepare them for their own poems. We battled 1 vs. 1.
After the excitement, we had a relaxing time writing our very own first draft of a poem.
Help at home: Find and read 3 poems from different poets.
Art: Henry Moore and Thomas J Price
Year 5 have linked their Art learning with their Geography skills. To start off, the children looked at the inspiration of some of our focus artists: Henry Moore and Thomas J Price. The children found out that Henry Moore was inspired by nature and used the curves in his sculptures to depict the Yorkshire countryside. Whereas, Thomas J Price is inspired by urban life and has lots of his work displayed in cities. We then used atlases to find where the artists grew up and marked these on our maps.
Help at home: Find out where our other featured artist, Barbara Hepworth, grew up and the inspiration for her sculptures.
Food Technology: leek and potato soup
On Thursday, Year 4 ventured to the Space to take part in their first food technology lesson this year. We made leek and potato soup – a simple and healthy recipe for the winter months!
The first part of this recipe needed us to chop onions, leeks and potatoes. We talked about how to use a knife safely including keeping the ends of your fingers tucked in and holding the knife and vegetable firmly.
After perfecting our chopping skills, we boiled all the vegetables and potatoes with some stock and then blended it together using a hand blender.
Overall, our soup was a big success! Some children even came back for fourth and fifth servings!
Help at home: by asking your child how they stay safe when chopping using a knife.
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.