Basketball Christmas camps
City of Leeds Basketball Club, who run one of our after-school clubs, are holding Christmas camps locally over the holidays.
Living and Learning: being me
Yesterday in L&L, we discussed our strengths and weaknesses and set ourselves some targets.
We began by writing down something we’re really good at and proud of ourselves for. It was lovely to see your children celebrating themselves. We also had a go at identifying some strengths of other children in the class.
I am proud of myself for my swimming.
I am really good at my times tables because I practise them at home.
I’m proud of myself for being a good big sister to my little brother.
My biggest strength is my handwriting because it’s really neat.
Next, we spoke about an area that we’d like to work on and set ourselves some targets to achieve this. We discussed that our targets should always be SMART.
- Specific
- Measurable
- Attainable/achievable
- Realistic and relevant
- Time-Limited
Help at home: ask your child what target they set for themselves. Can you work together to help them achieve this?
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.
Science: experiment
We’re chemists!
In science, we’re learning all about the states of matter – solid, liquid and gas. We’ve also been exploring how temperature can change a material’s state. Today, we conducted an experiment to answer our scientific enquiry question:
Does the temperature of water affect the time it takes for ice to melt in it?
In order for this to be a fair experiment, we had to consider the variables in the experiment.
- independent variable (what we’re changing): the temperature of the water
- dependent variable (what we’re measuring): the time it takes for the ice to melt
- controlled variables (what we’re keeping the same): the volume of water and the size of the ice cube
Your children demonstrated some great scientific skills such as reading thermometers, using a stopwatch, measuring accurately and recording results.
Our conclusion: the hotter the water, the less time it takes for ice to melt in it.
Help at home: try this experiment again at home. Get your child to talk you through the independent, dependent and controlled variables.
Food Technology: soup!
Today, Year 4 made leek and potato soup in Food Technology. We worked in small groups to prepare and cook the ingredients before blending them into a soup.
We thought carefully about safety. We washed our hands and wore aprons for hygiene reasons. When cutting, we used the bridge method to prepare the onion and potatoes into small chunks. We also used the claw cutting method to cut up the leeks after we’d washed them. These methods are the safest way to cut food as they keep us from hurting ourselves!
Once we’d prepared the vegetables, we fried the onion and leeks together and added the potatoes and stock. We finally used a hand blender to purée the soup.
Everyone tried to soup but we had some mixed reviews…
I was really impressed by Year 4’s safety and cooking skills and the soup tasted yummy!
Help at home: when preparing some food, have your child show you the bridge and claw method of cutting.
Year 3/4 sports hall athletics taster session
As part of our involvement in the Leeds Well Schools Partnership, some of our Year 3 and 4 children took part in a sports hall athletics taster session at Roundhay High School.
The event had an emphasis on personal development with the children learning and developing new athletics skills. This included standing long jump, standing triple jump, vertical jump, javelin, chest push, speed bounce and running races.
Well done to all the children for their effort and engagement at this event and for representing school so well.
Thank you to Mrs Boyle for accompanying the children.
We’re artists!
In Art this half-term, Year 4 are learning all about Wassily Kandinsky and Martha McDonald Napaltjarri.
Today, we explored using a wax resist to create our own artwork inspired by Kandinsky and Napaltjarri’s work.
Wax resist: a technique where wax is used to create a pattern which is then covered in water-based paint to create a desired effect.
We began by drawing a series of overlapping shapes with crayon to act as our wax resist. Once we were happy with our design, we used watercolour paint to wash over our crayon and watched the wax resist work it’s magic!
I was really impressed with how these came out!
Help at home: explore some of Kandinsky and Napaltjarri’s artwork online. Can your child identify any visual or tactile elements (shape, pattern, texture, space etc.) included in their work?
Maths: rounding
In Maths, Year 4 are currently rounding. We’ve practised rounding to the nearest thousand, hundred and ten.
We’ve learnt a little rhyme to help us remember when to round up and when to round down….
Zero to four, DOWN to the floor.
Five to nine, climb UP the vine.
When rounding, we must identify the place value column we’re rounding to and check the decider digit to the right to see whether we need to round up or down.
When rounding to the nearest thousand, we must look in the hundreds column…
When rounding to the nearest hundred, we must look in the tens column…
When rounding to the nearest ten, we must look in the ones column.
Help at home: Can you round this 6438 to the nearest thousand, hundred and ten?
We’re skippers!
Today, Year 4 were lucky enough to receive a visit from Leeds Skipping School who ran a brilliant session. This is I’m preparation for our attendance at the Leeds Skipping Festival in the spring. We had such a fun morning!
The skips we learnt were…
- double bounce
- single bounce
- side straddle
- side swing
- cross over
- pretzel
We learnt and practised all of the skips that we’ll be performing in the festival. I was so impressed with the amazing skipping skills Year 4 could already demonstrate and we can’t wait to keep practising even more!
Help at home: if you have a skipping rope, ask your children to show you the six skips we learnt today.
Science: we’re chemists!
In Science this half-term, Year 4 are chemists! Our new topic is all about states of matter.
We began by exploring the properties of solids, liquids and gases.
Solids have a fixed volume and a fixed shape. You can cut them into pieces and they’ll still take up the same amount of volume.
volume: the amount of space a solid, liquid or gas takes up.
A liquid has a non-fixed shape but a fixed volume. They can flow or be poured but are hard to contain. They change shape depending on the container but always keep the same volume.
Gases have a non-fixed shape and a non-fixed volume. They’re very hard to contain. They don’t keep their shape or volume and often we can’t even see them. They fill whatever space they are in.
Help at home: watch this video (https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/articles/zsgwwxs). Can you name 5 solids, 5 liquids and 5 gases?