We respect communities and their members.
In yesterday’s Living and Learning session (L&L theme: I respect my community and other communities) we looked at the story of the Hueys and the New Jumper.
First, we discussed what’s good and less good about being a part of a community where everyone is the same.
We talked about our own experiences:
“I felt nervous joining Y3 but everybody made me feel welcome.”
– Ethan
“I didn’t feel nervous because there was no need to.”
– Talha
Next, we watched the short story by Oliver Jeffers.
We explored how the characters in the story would be feeling as Rupert decided to set himself apart from the group with a new jumper.
Finally, we decided that you shouldn’t judge someone on their appearance. It’s more important to get to know the person to make them feel welcome and respected as part of the community.
We Are One Cool Class!
After many weeks of earning numerous cool class tokens but narrowly missing out, Year 3 are finally victorious!
We caught up with a few of the amazed pupils as they returned to their classroom to let the news sink in.
“I feel proud!” – Yusayrah
“I’m really happy. We’ve waited quite a while.” – Nryan
“I feel proud because we haven’t won before.” – Jasraj
“I was shocked because we’ve never won in Year 3.” – Safiya-Mishal
“We’ve tried to get lots of class tokens to get the cup.” – Adam
“We tried to be kind to all the teachers and the dinner staff and the cleaners.” – Jemima
We dig fossils!
As part of our What’s the matter? mini topic, we’ve been studying fossilisation! (LO: How are fossils formed?)
We worked in groups to jot down key words and phrases from an informational video.
Next, we were given pictures of the different stages and had to put them in the correct order and write a sentence about each.
There was no need for a fossil fuel boost today- nobody was being a lazy bones! Fossils rock!
Creative Homework
This week’s homework was I know what community is.
As usual we were blown away by the quality and effort put into every piece!
From showing where we belong to where we live…
… to communities we are a part of…
… and information about where we’ve come from …
… to showing who makes up our community… 
… we thoroughly enjoyed discussing them all!
Well done everyone!
Packed lunches
On Monday, Caitlin Kitson, Nutritionist and Healthy Eating Adviser, delivered a whole school healthy eating assembly. The main focus was the importance of healthy packed lunches.
We talked about the different food groups on the Eatwell Guide, why different proportions of each food group are important for our bodies and how to achieve this in a packed lunch.
It was great to hear the children’s excellent knowledge of the Eatwell Guide when answering Caitlin’s questions.
At Moortown Primary, our packed lunch guidance includes:
- information about the different food groups
- how to put together a healthy, balanced packed lunch
- links to recipes and ideas for healthy packed lunches
Following the assembly, all children were given a copy of our packed lunch guidance and the Eatwell guide.
As an alternative to packed lunches, school meals, including a vegetarian option, are prepared daily in our kitchen and children are offered a choice of main courses and desserts. Children select their main meal choice at the start of the day. Catering Leeds provides food which meets national Food Standards criteria. School meals can be combined with packed lunches.
Free school meals are available to all children in Reception, Year 1 and Year 2. They are also available to some older children according to family income. It’s important to register for entitlement to free school meals, even if your child has a packed lunch or is in a younger class – this is so we can receive additional funding (called the pupil premium) which we can use to help your child.
What is our new school charity?
Part of our Who do you think you are? themed week was to learn about charities and how we can support them.
Our previous school charities, Leeds Mind and Yorkshire Air Ambulance Money, will benefit from £309.97 and £508.88 respectively as a result of fundraising and donations. Thank you.
It is now time to change our school charity. Each class discussed a range of charities, researched by the children for their homework, and voted on one charity they wanted to put forward for the school councillors to decide on.
Here were the class choices:
- Year 1 Plastic Oceans Foundation
- Year 2 Barnado’s
- Year 3 RSPCA
- Year 4 St Gemma’s Hospice
- Year 5 Make a wish
- Year 6 Diabetes UK
The final decision was a vote by the school council and the winning charity for 2017-2018 was Make A Wish. We will support this charity for one year.
We look forward to welcoming representatives from the charity in January for an assembly where we will hear more about their valuable work.
Community Heroes
Today, we performed our acrostic poems about our chosen community hero.
“Rhythm makes the poem easy to remember.”
– Phoebe
“Harris’ poem rhymed in lots of places!”
– Talha
“Imagery helps put a picture in your head.”
– Hifza
“Jess really thought about her poem and she really took her time and the rhythm was really good.”
– Musa
We Are Mindful Superheroes!
Today, we learnt a new superpower: mindfulness! This new skill can help calm us down in stressful situations and can help us talk about our emotions and understand them.
To demonstrate how mindfulness works, we were shown a bottle of water. We named emotions and assigned them to colours of glitter, which were poured into the bottle one by one. If the emotions were shaken up and not dealt with, it was hard to see through the water clearly. We practised some breathing techniques…
… to calm and relax us. As we did so, the glittery emotions in the bottle settled and the water (symbolising our thinking) was now clear!
In the wise words of Master Oogway: “Your mind is like the water. When it becomes agitated, it becomes difficult to see. But if you allow it to settle, the answer becomes clear.”
Police Officers for the Day
Today, we had a special visit from Police Community Support! We talked about how to be safe when crossing the road and walking home, and how we can help our parents decide the safest place to park!
First, we put on our hi-vis jackets (so people could see us and we were safe) and listened to our briefing.
Next, we went outside to the road in front of school and one by one had a go using the speed gun to measure how fast (or slowly and safely) the cars were going.
“They taught us lots of bits about road safety that we might not have known.”
– Felix
“Hold hands with your adult and ask them not to park on the yellow lines.”
– Liam
“I liked it because I got to wear a police hat.”
– Phoebe
“I liked using the speed gun because you got to do something that not many other people could do.”
– Emma
“I liked the speed gun because it was fun seeing how fast the cars go.”
– Isabella
Who do you think you are?
Our themed week is in full swing with many highlights so far.
- Mindfulness workshops for Year 1, 2, 3 and Reception.
- Dove self esteem sessions for Year 5 and 6 (Visitor feedback – ‘We really enjoyed running the sessions and the classes we had were great and very engaged!’)
- Visits from RNIB, BID sensory services and the Leeds deaf and hearing impairment team for all classes
- West Yorkshire Police Hate Crime session for Year 5 and 6
- Some Year 5 and 6 children attended the Moor Allerton Elderly Care ‘Old & New Games’ afternoon (Visitor feedback – ‘They were brilliant and a pleasure to have.’)
- Whole school assembly about charities by Val from the Salvation Army charity shop in Meanwood
- Year 4 visit to St Gemma’s Hospice
- Year 5 visit to Marjorie and Arnold Ziff centre
- Year 2 visit to Donisthorpe Hall
Thank you to parents who have attended our mindfulness workshop on Monday and our community coffee morning and wake up shake up today.
There is still more to come.
- PCSO visit to talk about community safety, road safety and monitor speed outside school in 20mph zone for Reception, Year 1 and 3
- Mindfulness workshops for Year 3, 4 and 5
- Learn languages in our community for Year 3 and 4
- Two more chances to walk, bike or scoot to school (Road Safety Week) to be in with a chance to win prizes on Friday
- New school charity will be chosen
- Have a go at the Who do you think we are? competition
Take a look at the class news pages to find out more about your child’s learning this themed week.