Cross country star
Congratulations to our Year 3 runner who represented Leeds today in the West Yorkshire cross country final. Competing against pupils from Calderdale, Bradford, Wakefield, Kirklees and Leeds, he ran a fantastic race at Temple Newsam and should feel very proud of achieving a top 15 finish.
Group reading!
Hello!
This week, Year 3 are beginning their second round of group reading!
The class have been divided into groups and each group has been given a book to read at home. This will last for this half term.
During our Book Club sessions each Friday, each group will discuss what they have read so far and share their reading record activities related to their book. This will be a fantastic opportunity for the children to explore characters and storylines more than they might do normally!
Every Friday during Book Club, each group will be given a new page to read to for the next Friday.
What to remember:
- Your child has a book that they need to read every week (up to a chosen point marked with a post-it notes).
- The reading record activity needs to be completed using their new book.
- A comment from a grown up needs to be written in their reading record.
- Group reading books and reading records need to be brought in every Friday.
Help at home by listening to your child read their new book and ask questions about the book to help prepare them for class discussions.
I look forward to hearing the children’s discussions next week!
Thank you,
Miss Birch
Living and learning: being safe
Being safe is a key part of our Living and Learning curriculum which includes a Staying Safe themed week coming up in July.
There are lots of different situations in our lives where we need to make safe choices. Some examples include staying safe online, road safety and water safety.
We have been thinking about what is a ‘safe risk’. For example, putting your hand up in class to answer a question even if you are unsure of the answer is a safe-risk. Jumping off a cliff is not!
We also thought about which grown-ups would be good to talk to in school and out of school (start telling other people) if we ever feel unsafe. Brothers, sisters and friends would also be good to talk to and discuss feelings but telling a grown-up (over 18) would be the best thing to do to get help.
Help at home: by asking your child what a ‘safe-risk’ is.
Being biologists and safe online
For our science learning this week, we used secondary sources to find out about animals that live in polar and desert habitats. Using non-fiction books and the internet, this gave us chance to put into practice some of our safer internet day learning. Not everything we read on the internet is true.
We could check more than one website to see if it tells us the same thing.
The National Geographic website is a website I’ve heard of. We could look at that one.
The children were also being safe online by showing an adult if something popped up on the screen before continuing.
Help at home: have a look at a non-fiction book at home with your child. Ask them how to use the contents and index pages.
Living and Learning: Kooth mental health talk
Year 5 had a visitor from Kooth. Kooth is a free, safe and anonymous online website (approved by the NHS) where children from ages 10-18 can receive mental health support. It is full of self-help tools, mini activities and discussion boards to get the assistance you need. The best thing about it is that every post or comment is approved before it’s live so it’s a totally positive zone.
Some of the main messages from today’s learning were:
- It’s ok to ask for help – it can be really difficult to manage your mental health, so you don’t have to do it alone
- Try to move or be active each day – being active and doing gentle movement each day can help improve your wellbeing
- Find helpful ways to experience, express and manage your emotions – you could try some Kooth mini-activities to help develop helpful habits and valuable life skills
- Focus on what you’re good at – build on your strengths to boost your confidence and self-esteem
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- Help at home: Take a look at the website and discuss what can be done to improve your mental health.
Living and Learning
This week, our Living and Learning statement is I recognise emotions in myself and others. Yesterday, we had fun looking in the mirror and acting out different emotions with our friends. We thought about what happens to our face when we experience different emotions. 
What happens when you do an angry face?
Rowan – Your teeth go sideways.
Rayaan – It looks like a monster.
Jasmine – I know it’s angry because she’s got eyes down and straight lips.
What happens when you do a worried face?
Zara – Your bottom lip comes out.
Teddy – Sometimes your lips can go together.
We also thought about what we can do if we see someone looking sad.
Zara – Ask if they are okay.
Teddy – If someone’s looking upset, you could say sorry.
Bryher – You could ask them to play with you.
Help at home: Talk to your child about their emotions . You could play a game of Guess my emotion by acting them out together.
Living & Learning – I recognise emotions
This week, we welcomed a visitor from Kooth to talk to us about mental health and emotions.
Kooth is a free website approved by the NHS to support young people with mental health used by over 1.5million children nationwide. It’s anonymous and full of self-help tools, mini activities and discussion boards to get the assistance you need. The best thing about it is that every post or comment is approved before it’s live so it’s a totally positive zone.
Help at home by exploring the website and having a discussion about your mental health triggers – what makes you feel both bad or good?
Here are some key messages from this week’s living and learning:
- it’s ok to ask for help
- keep active
- focus on what you’re good at
- find helpful, practical ways to express and manage your emotions
Science and PE: What is physical activity?
This week, Year 5 were joined by some visitors from the University of Leeds. They came in to talk to us about maintaining a healthy lifestyle. By the end of the lesson the children were able to define what physical activity is, explain why exercise is good for you and understand the difference between a warm-up and cool-down.
Aerobic exercise is a type of activity that makes your heart beat faster and makes you breathe a little harder.
Anaerobic exercises are quick and intense activities that use energy stored in muscles, not relying much on oxygen. This includes movements like:
- Sprinting
- Jumping
- Lifting heavy weights
Our visitors will be back next week to talk to us about healthy eating and nutrition.
Help at home: Discuss how often we should be active every day and how we can live more active lifestyles.
Times tables rock stars
Welcome back!
This week, all children will be receiving their login details for Times Tables Rock Stars. These are the same logins as for Numbots.
In Year 2, the children learn the two, five and ten times tables and these are the tables that have been assigned to the children. There will be division questions related to those times tables too.
Soundcheck is used in Key Stage 2 to check all the times table facts up to x12 so this isn’t recommended in Year 2 as the children haven’t learned these other times tables yet.
We encourage the children to continue to use Numbots too to help to secure their addition and subtraction number facts.
Another resource to support times tables and other number facts is Hit the Button. This is a great, fast-paced game and children can choose which times tables or number facts to work on during each game. This game is free to play online.
If you have any further questions regarding the resources mentioned, do not hesitate to contact us.
Living and Learning – Being safe
Hello!
Being safe is a key part of our Living and Learning curriculum including a Staying Safe themed week coming up next term in July.
Year 3 learnt about being safe around the concept of consent (giving and receiving permission).
We realised that ask for permission to do things quite a lot… especially at school! Please may I go to the toilet? Please can I get a tissue? Can I have some help?
We discussed how asking for consent or permission is important in other scenarios too! For example, asking to be in a group with a friend, asking a friend for a hug or asking consent to take a photo of a someone.
In this learning, we had some different permission scenarios to decide whether they would need to ask for permission or not.
Bob would like to play his brother’s game. Bob should ask his brother for permission as the game doesn’t belong to him!
Sasha wants to go for a sleepover at her best friends’s house next weekend. It depends how old she is but she needs to ask a grown up for permission so they know where she is and that she’s safe!
Help at home and discuss this scenario with your child:
Alex would like to go to the park with his friends.
Does Alex need to ask for permission? Why?
Who could he ask?
How could he ask?
We also thought about which grown-ups would be good to talk to in school and out of school (start telling other people) if we ever feel unsafe. Brothers, sisters and friends would also be good to talk to and discuss feelings but telling a grown-up (over 18) would be the best thing to do to get help.
