Money Matters
Our next whole school themed week Money Matters, based around money and financial education, will be taking place from Monday 23 May 2016. A variety of events and visitors are planned to help us deliver this key aspect of education.
During the week, we will look at questions including:
- What is money?
- Where does money come from?
- How do we spend money?
- How do we manage money?
If your job involves an aspect of finance and/or money and you can support our themed week by coming into school, please contact the office.
A fun maths game for doubles
To help us remember doubles, we have been playing a game…
Roll a die (1-6)
Double the number rolled and colour that number.
Take it in turns.
The winner is the first to get three coloured squares in a row.
The children love playing this and they are getting much quicker at recalling doubles and halves. They are also developing their logic as they decide which square they are going to colour and how they can ‘block’ their opponent.
Questions you can ask:
Which number do you think I want to colour next? Why?
If I want to colour this number, which number do I need to roll? (This gets children thinking about halving.)
How many ways can you win now?
Which square would be best to start on? Why?
The children said they would like to play it at home so you can simply download the image above or make your own. All you need is a die!
Sunflower seeds: 1 week later
A week after we planted our sunflower seeds, we could see some progress! We were super excited to see how things had changed.
We could see a shoot! Most of the pots had a shoot emerging from the soil, but not all…yet!
There was one pot which had stayed the same. The seed which has had no water has not changed. We wondered why.
We also have a seed in the fridge, a seed with no soil and a seed in the dark! We’ve made some predictions on which ones we think will be successful, but only time will tell! We’re really enjoying being scientists. You can help your little scientist develop at home by asking your child what they are learning about and investigating in science lessons. How much can they tell you about plants and our experiment?
Teamwork, concentration and coordination
Today some of our Year 1 and 2 children have taken part in the Key Stage 1 participation event as part of our partnership with Active Schools. This is one of the ways we have invested our PE Premium.
Along with other Leeds schools the children enjoyed activities including tri-golf, cheerleading and Tagtiv8.
‘I loved the golf.’
‘Cheerleading was the best.’
‘We got to do cartwheels.’
Rocket seeds
You may have seen on Newsround recently that many schools have received some seeds from outer space; we are one of those schools! Today, Year 5 were set the very important challenge of planting our schools ‘red’ and ‘blue’ seeds.
Each school has received two sets of seeds (red and blue); one lot is from space and the other are plain old Earth seeds. We don’t know which one is which but we’ve planted both and so begins our experiment to find out: will seeds grow if they’ve been cultivated in space?
This is a six week experiment through which we’re required to observe, record, measure and question – all essential scientific skills. Although Year 5 have planted them, children from across the school will be involved in looking after and monitoring them throughout the project. We’ll keep you updated as the seeds grow and let you know which ones we think are from space.
Which do you think?
Free tennis
Tennis For Kids is a free 6-week coaching course packed full of action packed games and activities designed as the perfect introduction to tennis for kids aged 5-8.
Courses are available locally at Roundhay Park tennis courts and Alwoodley tennis club.
In addition, free family open days will be running locally, at David Lloyd and Roundhay Park, over the next few months.
New SEAL theme
At Moortown Primary, we’re dedicated to the value of SEAL in promoting a happy and healthy place to learn. However, we’re always thinking about other ways to meet our children’s needs and interests. That’s one of the reasons we choose to sometimes break away from the national SEAL themes to do something different.
This half term, we’ll think about our rights and responsibilities and, importantly, that if we have rights, we also have responsibilities. Children will consider their rights and responsibilities at home, at school and in other places. These may include:
Their right to eat food, their responsibility to eat healthily.
Their right to a good education, their responsibility to listen to the teacher.
Their right to use the internet, their responsibility to go on appropriate websites.
Each week this half-term, we’ll concentrate on a different area:
- Week beginning 18 April: learning
- Week beginning 25 April: playing
- Week beginning 02 May: expressing an opinion
- Week beginning 09 May: staying safe
- Week beginning 16 May: being healthy
- Week beginning 23 May: general
Perhaps you can support your child’s learning by discussing and promoting rights and responsibilities at home, too.
Matheletics has changed…
…to Spellodrome!
Two years ago, we entered into a three year contract for the whole school. We’ve incorporated Mathletics sessions into the weekly routine in school, and classes have sometimes been given Mathletics Practice Makes Perfect homework. Of course, we also hoped that you would encourage your child to log-in regularly at home, too.
As a school, we’ve been really happy with Matheletics. However, with one year left in our current contract, we thought it was time for a change. Spellodrome is created by the same people, so we’ve decided to swap to this for the final year.
Why?
Well, put simply, our children’s spellings need to be better. Despite being one of the top performing schools in the country in the phonics screening check which Year 1 children do (we received a letter from the Department of Education congratulating us for having 100% of children pass in 2015), our children’s spelling accuracy isn’t good enough.
We’re finding many children use their phonics knowledge to spell words which are phonetically readable, but not accurate. By this we mean, for example, Moortown might be Moretown, English might be Inglish, phonics might be fonicks. (I’ll include a couple of other examples below.) All these words can be read, but there are so many ways to make sounds in our language, and children are choosing the wrong ways (not weighs!).
Also, many children aren’t applying some common spelling rules which would really help – and which teachers practise a lot with their classes:
- double up for a short vowel sound (think of the difference between hoping and hopping; able and apple; diner and dinner)
- drop the ‘e’ for ‘ing’ (take becomes taking – no ‘e’; like becomes liking; accommodate becomes accommodating)
- drop the ‘y’ for an ‘i’ (so try becomes tries; party becomes parties; quality becomes qualities)
So, for the next year at least, the whole school is using Spellodrome. Please, please make sure (not shoor!) your child is regularly logging in.
Also, and probably more importantly, they should be reading. Reading will help to familiarise children with correct spellings in the correct contexts – and has so many other benefits, too (studies have found that children who read fiction for pleasure have increased empathy and better mental health in years to come).
Year 1 food technologists
Can your child recall some of the skills used in our savoury scone recipe today?
We’ve also learnt how to get ready to cook and about different ingredients and equipment used in a kitchen.
Hope they enjoyed their scone as an after-school snack.
Eatwell guide
Public Health England have launched a new Eatwell Guide. This relates to the Eatwell Plate, a key resource used in school, to show how much of what you eat overall should come from each food group.
