World Book Day!
Happy world book day to everyone! This morning Year 4 and Year 1 got together to share our love of reading. Every child in Year 1 chose a book and the Year 4 children sat down and read it to them beautifully. The atmosphere in both classrooms was so calm and peaceful and the children loved it!
This is what some of the Year 1 children thought.
I loved that they read the story to us but also let us have a go at reading!
I thought my book was very funny!
Well done everyone! Make sure you carry on your excellent reading at home!
Supporting our school charity
St Gemma’s Hospice is our current school charity chosen democratically by the children.
Today, we welcomed Steph and Stewart from St Gemma’s Hospice for an assembly to find out more about the fantastic work they do in our local community.
Here, two of our junior leaders are presenting them with a cheque for £377 for the money we have raised so far.
Steph and Stewart commented on the impressive behaviour of the children and the intelligent questions they asked.
Our junior leaders are planning a visit to the hospice over the next few weeks to continue this partnership.
Topic – Geography
Last week, Year 4 finished off their Geography topic by creating a double page spread. Here they could show off their new knowledge about natural disasters and more specifically, about volcanoes.
The class did an incredible job at planning, completing and decorating their double page spreads. They worked so hard and were so independent with their ideas. The only guidance that they had was what they had to include and the rest was up to them to use their books to fill it with information!
- What is a volcano?
- How are volcanoes formed?
- Tectonic Plates
- Positives
- Negatives
- Did you know?
- Extra: Focus on a specific volcano.
Here are just some of the fantastic pieces:
Very well done Year 4! On to computing…
Safer Internet Day 2023
“Happy Safer Internet Day!”
On the 7th of February, Moortown focused their learning around internet safety. This umbrella term covers lots of areas such as; online behaviour, keeping personal data safe, understanding how news can be false and knowing to ask an adult for help.
Firstly, we spent the morning learning about how we can decipher if online information is true or not. ‘Fake news’ has become more of an issue on the internet and therefore, it is important that the children understand what it is and how to work with it.
There were some tips that the children practised and will remember for the future:
- Question the source. Where has the information come from and is it a reliable source?
- Does the story appear on more than one source? If it is on numerous news websites, it could be true!
- Does it feel right? Some times you will have a gut feeling that a news story isn’t right…
- Ask a trusted adult. If you are ever unsure, ask a trusted adult to help you work out if it’s true or not.
This followed onto to our next focus: I know I can ask a trusted adult for help.
This statement is true for any subject, problem or question and it is definitely important when talking about internet safety.
Help at home: Whether it is a trusted adult at home, at school or at a club your child goes to, remind them that they should feel safe asking for help.
Cross country finalists
Today, four Key Stage 2 pupils represented our school in the Leeds cross country final after qualifying in the North East Leeds competition.
Well done to all the children who gave 100% in their races of over 100 runners and with a tough hill at the end.
Special congratulations to our Year 6 runner who after finishing 1st in his heat went on to finish 1st in the Leeds final today! A fantastic acheievement! He will now qualify for the West Yorkshire cross country final.
Thank you to parents who transported and supported the children today.
Living and Learning – I know how to seek help.
Last week, our Living and Learning focus was how to seek help when it is needed. Asking for help is important in lots of different situations. We discussed how it could be something smaller like asking for help during a lesson or something bigger like asking for help with friendships or family.
The children watched the NSPCC assembly where it highlighted children’s rights and gave the clear message of ‘Speak out, Stay safe’. The children identified who their own trusted adults are and felt comfortable that they could ask for help.
This is a topic that we talk about often in school but it’s important that it is spoken about openly at home too! In circle time, we all shared how it makes us feel to have to ask for help and there were lots of mixed feelings. For example, feeling worried or silly but also feeling confident and happy.
Help at home: Visit the Childline website, which has age-appropriate advice for children on topics such as bullying. It also has games and other interactive tools.
Reading – Mauna Loa
This week in Year 4 reading lessons, we are focusing our learning around a news report about Mauna Loa. Mauna Loa is a volcano in Hawaii that recently erupted in November 2022. This is very on topic for us as we are learning about volcanoes and how they are formed in Geography!
For the first lesson, we read the report together as a class, picked out any tricky or new words that we weren’t sure of and discussed the meanings. For example, ‘crimson hues’ which means ‘red colours’.
Our next task was to be real news reporters! We watched a short clip of Newsround to decide what the best tips are to reporting. We noticed that the reporter on Newsround had:
- good body language
- good eye contact
- fantastic prosody (reading with expression)
This children had 5 minutes to practise reading their report with these skills and then it was time to perform! Here are some of them in action. They all used the skills we identified really well.
Living and Learning – drugs, alcohol and tobacco
The last couple of weeks have been focused on talking about drugs, alcohol and tobacco. This topic is really important. The children have become familiar and educated on these substances so that once they are old enough, they can make safe and informed decisions on what they choose to do.
The year 4 children identified how certain drugs and household items (i.e. paracetamol or surface cleaner) should be used safely. They were really sensible and knew exactly what to do:
- Do not touch these items without permission from a trusted adult.
- The instructions on the products must be followed.
- Keep them out of reach of small children.
Our circle time was focused on this too! We spoke about how these substances can affect our health. The children responded to statements such as, I drank some water today, I think talking about my feelings makes me healthy and being thin automatically makes someone healthy. We decided that as long as we have things in moderation such as, chocolate and sweets and we balance them with fruit, vegetables and exercise then that will make us feel healthy.
Last Friday, a poem was sent home for Year 4 to learn. Learning a poem by heart is a really important skill for children to practise and Year 4 have done a fantastic job of this!
Catch a Little Rhyme by Eve Mirriam (CC)
Once upon a time
I caught a little rhyme
I set it on the floor
but it ran right out the door
I chased it on my bicycle
but it melted to an icicle
I scooped it up in my hat
but it turned into a cat
I caught it by the tail
but it stretched into a whale
I followed it in a boat
but it changed into a goat
When I fed it tin and paper
it became a tall skyscraper
Then it grew into a kite
and flew far out of sight …
As you can see, the poem contains lots of rhyming words and this really helped the children get into a rhythm when reciting the poem to the class.
The performances have been great with amazing expression, clear and projected voices and some children even added actions to help them remember the words – very clever!
Help at home by occasionally reading poems instead of fiction or non-fiction books to broaden the children’s reading.
Spring term after-school clubs
