Living and Learning: friends and family
Our Living and Learning this week has been about the importance of friends and family.
We used the Elmer story to explore our own feelings of happiness/ joyfulness and then feelings of happiness/ joyfulness that our friends and family may feel.
When we are happy, we have certain feelings and behave in certain ways. When might we feel happy?
I feel happy…
when it is my birthday.
when I am playing.
when someone makes me laugh.
when I’m with my friends.
How does it feel to be happy ? How do we behave when we are happy?
We might be smiling.
You might be laughing with someone.
You wouldn’t be laughing at someone.
We’d be having fun.
Help at home: Happy is the feeling that we focused on in this learning. Our feelings first emotions for this half term have been lonely, confused, thrilled, apprehensive, calm and thankful. Ask your child what these feelings mean and how our bodies might feel.
Leeds Rhinos festive match
The annual Wetherby Whaler Boxing Day Challenge against Wakefield Trinity is back again this year; and alongside the match children and families can experience family friendly festive fun as Father Christmas will once again take over game day proceedings before returning to the North Pole.
The match day will also feature Santa’s elves and a sing along with Frozen Princesses Anna and Elsa. Plus children can also take part in our half time snowball fight lead by a certain Christmas loathing Grinch!
Use the link to find out more and purchase tickets.
PE: gymnastics
This half term, we have been developing our gymnastics skills. We’ve been exploring jumps, balances and putting together sequences of movements.
Help at home: Our personal best challenge is to balance on one leg. Give this a try at home. Remember to look at something still to help you keep your balance. Can you beat your previous time?
Topic: Art – printing
This week, we drew inspiration from the artist Paul Klee to create our own prints. We experimented with a variety of shapes in our designs, taking extra care as the styrofoam printing plates were very delicate. After choosing a primary-coloured ink, we used a brayer to roll it on and transfer our prints.
We also began making colourful tissue-paper collages, which we’ll be printing onto next week. We can’t wait to see the results!
English: expanded noun phrases
In our English lessons, we’ve been exploring the story Not Now, Bernard by David McKee. We’ve really enjoyed retelling the events and sequencing the key parts of the story. Inspired by Bernard’s encounter with the monster, we’ve been creating our own monster-themed writing. We’ve been using expanded noun phrases to describe the creatures, such as:
the ugly, mean, sly monster
the unkind, evil, cross ogre
the horrible, scary, cross ogre
Today, we read a short paragraph describing a monster named Dink. As we read, we had to draw what we imagined he looked like. We had great fun comparing our illustrations and seeing how differently everyone pictured him!
Help at home: Use some expanded noun phrases to describe the monster.
Hepworth Gallery
Today, Year 1 and 2 had great school trip to the Hepworth Gallery in Wakefield.
First of all, we took part in a print-making workshop which included looking at some Barbara Hepworth sculptures and finding inspiration from their shapes. There were some great outcomes and the children enjoyed seeing all their masterpieces.
We spent the afternoon looking around the garden, the different galleries and sketching some of the sculptures. There were a variety of pieces of art and sculptures to see with different textures, shapes and colours. We even got a sneak preview of the new exhibition opening tomorrow at the gallery.
The children were complimented for their excellent behaviour and engagement with all the activities. Well done, Year 2!
PE: infant agility event
Today, all of the class have enjoyed taking part in the infant agility event as part of our involvement in the Leeds Well Schools Partnership.
The event was designed around a set of twelve activities and the children rotated around these activities, that support the core physical skills of coordination and agility, core stability, spatial awareness and more.
It was fun and not about winning.
I liked it as we did lots of activities.
We got to do lots of exercise and my heart was racing.
It was fair because everybody got to do everything.
It was healthy for us.
Sporting events
Recently, we’ve had a few sporting events that children have taken part in.
Year 2/3 Cheerdance
Firstly, as part of our association with Leeds Well School Partnership, some of our Year 2 and 3 children took part in a cheer dance session led by Nicola from Leeds Rhinos. The children learnt some cheer arm actions, some jumps and using pom poms, they learnt and performed a great routine.
Basketball festival
Some of our Year 5 and 6 children took part in a basketball festival with other schools practising some basketball skills and drills.
Leeds School Sports Association Saturday morning cross country
The first of the Leeds School Sports Association Saturday morning cross country races took place at Cardinal Heenan. This is one of four events across the year. Well done to the Key Stage 2 children who took part and represented our school.
Key Stage 2 School Games cross country
Finally, this week was the Key Stage 2 School Games cross country event in Otley. We are hopeful a number of our children will qualify for the Leeds final from this event after some great performances. The children were a great team and supported and encouraged each other in very muddy conditions.
Thank you to adults in school and parents who have supported with these events and to the children for being happy and healthy and representing Moortown Primary so well.
Michael Rosen day
This week, the children took part in an event to celebrate Michael Rosen Day. We joined a live online event with the author and poet himself where Michael performed some of his favourite food-inspired poems, including Hot Food and Chocolate Cake.
Michael Rosen is funny.
He likes to make people laugh when they read his poems.
His poems are silly!
We’ve also been reading and enjoying his new book, Oh Dear, Look What I got!
Here are some key messages from Michael about reading…
- Read as many different types of books as you can – books give you language, thoughts, ideas and feelings.
- Books show you places and cultures very near and dear to you – and others you may not have come across before. Books can take you anywhere.
- Books help you to walk in other people’s shoes, and to see things from someone else’s point of view.
- Read books, share books, talk about books and, most importantly, CHOOSE what YOU want to read. It’s your imagination, so choose what you want to feed it.
- Books are for EVERYONE!
Help at home: READ, READ, READ – enjoy sharing a book or poem with your child.
Living and Learning: Me and My Money week
Last week, we enjoyed the first of our two Living and Learning based themed weeks all about money. This learning forms part of our Living and Learning curriculum.
What money do we use?
We identified and compared the different coins and notes we use in this country. We also compared the cost of every day items from a banana to a house!
Why is money an important part of people’s lives?
Money is important because…
People use money to buy the things they need to survive like shelter, food and water.
You can donate to charities.
You can save for something that you want.
If people don’t have money, they might be homeless or not have food to eat.
How do people use money?
People make different choices with their money.
Some people choose to donate money. On Monday, we had a visitor from Yorkshire Air Ambulance, our current school charity, who shared how donations help the charity.
We finished the week with some fundraising events for Yorkshire Air Ambulance – Hotshots and our penny trail. Thank you for all your donations so far. Hotshots sponsor money can be added to School Gateway by Friday 14th November.
Who will be our new school charity?
Then, it was time to think about our next school charity. We thought about what charities are, who or what they help and how we can help charities.
We discussed our shortlist of charities and after that, all the children made a democratic decision by voting for their chosen charity. Our junior leaders took that choice to the JLT meeting and a final vote took place.
We are pleased that our class choice, Martin House Children’s Hospice, is now our new school charity for the forthcoming year.
Help at home: discuss this important learning with your child at home to consider how they use money and why money is important.