Our final sculptures
As promised, take a look at some of our final sculptures from this half term’s art learning!
We had so much fun creating these and exhibiting our knowledge of colour and shape.
On behalf of all the Year 4 staff, we hope you have a lovely holiday and a very happy New Year.
See you on the other side!
We are artists!
After many weeks of learning about Kandinsky and Napaltjarri, Year 4 have begun creating their sculptures inspired by them!
First, we cut out the shapes that we had chosen in our designs.
The next step was then to start decorating these shapes using oil pastels and chalk. Some children have chosen warm colours, complementary, cool colours or a mix!
This week will involve using Brusho dye to complete our colour choices and fixing the individual shapes together.
Watch this space for the grand reveal of our final pieces!
Living and learning: mental health
Over the last couple of weeks, Year 4 have been learning about mental health.
During our first session, we talked about feelings. Being able to identify and talk about feelings and emotions is an important part of our mental health. We spent time discussing different feelings and how to manage them. We also talked about how to spot how others are feeling by looking at their body language.
This week, we started to look at self-care. There are lots of different ways that we can practise self care. Some ideas are:
- talking to someone
- reading a book
- having some quiet time
- taking some deep breaths
- hugging our teddies
- doing some exercise
- writing our feelings down
Help at home by talking to your child about what self-care techniques they can do whenever they are feeling ‘big feelings’.
Basketball new year camp
City of Leeds Basketball Club, who run our basketball after-school clubs, are running a new year camp. Details can be found below.
Leeds Schools Sport Association Cross Country
A number of children have recently represented school and competed in the Leeds Schools Sport Association Cross Country races.
The date of the next race is Saturday 02 March 2024 at Woodhouse Grove.
In the meantime, have a look at our physical activity guide to see how to get involved in athletics.
Food Technology: leek and potato soup
On Thursday, Year 4 ventured to the Space to take part in their first food technology lesson this year. We made leek and potato soup – a simple and healthy recipe for the winter months!
The first part of this recipe needed us to chop onions, leeks and potatoes. We talked about how to use a knife safely including keeping the ends of your fingers tucked in and holding the knife and vegetable firmly.
After perfecting our chopping skills, we boiled all the vegetables and potatoes with some stock and then blended it together using a hand blender.
Overall, our soup was a big success! Some children even came back for fourth and fifth servings!
Help at home: by asking your child how they stay safe when chopping using a knife.
Artwork inspired by Kandinsky
This half term, we are artists.
Our two featured artists this half term are Martha Mcdonald Napaltjarri and Wassily Kandinsky.
This week, we looked at Kandinsky’s pieces and discussed his use of colour and shape in his artwork. Then, we practised using pastels to create concentric circles in complementary colours, inspired by Kandinsky.
At the end of the lesson, we placed all our individual artwork together to create one collective piece.
Help at home by asking your child what complementary colours are.
Living and Learning: anti-bullying
Last week was national Anti-Bullying Week!
“Bullying is when you hurt someone, physically or emotionally (including online), several times on purpose.”
We define it by using two STOP acronyms:
- Several Times On Purpose
- Start Telling Other People
One’s a definition of bullying and the other’s a solution.
Our school definition helps us understand the different types of bullying – physical (hurting our body), emotional (hurting our feelings) or cyber bullying (online).
On Anti-Bulling Day, we wore odd socks to show that we are all the same but we are all different.
Year 4 spent time discussing what makes a good friend and how to sort disagreements with our friends in a healthy way.
Help at home: ask your child how they could resolve a disagreement with a friend in a restorative way.
Cross country stars
*UPDATE* Four of our Year 3 runners have qualified for the Leeds School Games cross country final!
On Friday, twenty two Key Stage 2 children took part in the Leeds North East School Games Cross Country festival at Roundhay High School attended by 900 pupils.
We had a great start from our Year 3 runners with 4 children coming in the top 10! After that, we saw some excellent efforts from the rest of the children throughout the afternoon with great support and encouragement from the other pupils.
Well done to all the children who took part and represented the school. We are sure there will be some qualifiers for the next race, the Leeds final. Watch this space!
Thank you to the parents who came along to help and support at this event.
It was a brilliant event. The Team Moortown spirit was very strong.
If you’re child would like to take part in cross country, have a look at our physical activity guide for details of local running clubs and junior Park Runs.
We are artists!
This term in topic, we are artists.
Our two featured artists for this half term are Martha McDonald Napaltjarri and Wassily Kandinsky.
During our first lesson of this topic, we used an atlas to find where both of these artists were born.
