Who do you think you are?
Some impressive homework this week – here are a couple of examples which both happen to be trees. One tree is a family tree and the other tree has a characteristic on each leaf.
Which way?
Programming starts early in the new computing curriculum. Year 1 had a go at writing algorithms today. Ask your child what an algorithm is. They should be able to tell you that it is like a set of instructions. There was a bit of a challenge today – we had to work out a route, on a grid, which took us from school to home but we had to visit all of the local shops on the grid on the way. You could only go forward, right or left. Once the children came up with their algorithm, they then had to test it out to see if it worked. There’s a lot to learn about programming without even logging onto a computer.
Here are some photos – ask your child to explain what we were doing.
What happened?
Look at these gorgeous babies! Who are they? Year 1 didn’t think that the teachers were the only ones who could have a baby photo competition. We’ve had our own mini competition for a bit of fun and these are a few of the photos that we looked at.
What a cute bunch – I’m not sure what happened between then and now?! Have a look and see if you can guess which Year 1 children (still cute of course!) are in the photos. Just a bit of fun but an important part of learning about who we are.
Similarites and differences
After looking at our own identity and subsequently how we are all different, Year 1 spent time with a friend in the class finding out about each other. This involved a lot of discussion to find out their similarities and differences that weren’t immediately visible.
Communicating without speaking
Visitors from Dales (Deaf Across Leeds Enablement Service) taught us a range of different sign language today to raise awareness of people who have a hearing impairment. From general greetings to the alphabet and numbers, signing proved to be a new skill all the children enjoyed learning.
Kidzaware
Kidzaware, a local charity who provide educational programmes about disabilities, visited today as part of our learning about diversity. We met puppets, learnt a song, used signing and generally became more aware of a range of disabilities and appropriate ways to interact.
Robot Rumpus
You might have noticed a new addition to your families as a robot may have come home from Year 1. There were some very imaginative and creative robots designed and made in Year 1 this week to finish off our mini topic. Here are a few of them:
Walk to School Week
Walk to School Week will run alongside our themed week where children are encouraged to take a walk in the community on their way to school, maybe even picking up a piece of litter on the way.
Two walk to school competitions will run over the week – firstly, the return of our Where’s Wally challenge (using our walk to school website video) and also a reward for the class who make the most journeys to school on foot during the week.
Each day your child walks to school they should put a counter in their class’ totaliser jar. Even by parking further away from school your child could then to do the final part of their journey by foot. By Friday, the class with the most journeys to school on foot will win a martial arts session with John Weatherall, White Rose martial arts.
We hope you will support this initiative in helping children make a healthy start to their day and also helping towards reducing congestion at our gates.
Who do you think you are?
Our next whole school themed week, based around identity, diversity and community, will be taking place next week, from Monday 18 May 2015.
A variety of events and visitors are planned to help us deliver this key aspect of education.
Events during the week will include looking at our own identity including belonging and body image, diversity of people around us – this might include race, age, religion, disability, sexual orientation and gender. There will be various visitors to support this. Classes will also be getting out into the community working with local organisations such as our local charity, St Gemma’s Hospice; local care homes; Moortown Community Group; and taking pride in the local community by litter-picking.
Identity day
Following a suggestion from one of our school councillors, Friday 22 May will be a non-uniform identity day. Children are invited to dress in clothing that represents part of their identity, for example uniform from a club they attend; a team they are part of or support; or traditional dress to represent their heritage. We invite a £1 voluntary donation and proceeds will be shared between St Gemma’s Hospice and the Nepal earthquake appeal.
Who do you think we are?
Do you think you’d recognise some of our staff in their early years? This photo competition will run throughout the week with details to follow separately. Again, proceeds will be shared between St Gemma’s Hospice and the Nepal earthquake appeal.
We’ll keep you up to date about events during the week through Twitter and the class news pages on our website. It’s going to be a busy week!
Our website and Twitter continue to keep you up to date with key community events. Upcoming events include the Roundhay Park Fun Run on 20 June and the PTA Summer Fair on 04 July. We hope you can support these.
11 May 2015
THE ROBOTS ARE COMING!
Boxes, kitchen rolls, packaging and other junk material is urgently needed!
We are making robots on Thursday 14 May and urgently need materials for their body parts. Please send any suitable junk material in before and on Thursday.
Thank you.