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.
Reading: performing Varjak Paw
This week, Year 4 have been reading the start of Varjak Paw by S.F Said. This is a narrative all about a special cat who is locked in a house and dreams of escaping and exploring the outside world.
Today, we became actors and performed the first chapter of the novel. Our R2s (remember tos) for this performance were…
- show clearly who the character is
- showing the events of the extract
- project voice
- voice intonation
Year 4 did a brilliant job! I was so impressed by their acting skills and voice projection.
Help at home: read with your child at home and ask them to summarise the chapter they’ve read. You could even act a little bit out together!
Living and Learning: Hotshots sponsorship event
To finish off our Me and My Money themed week, all the school took part in a Hotshots event, led by PE Partner, to raise money for our school charity, Yorkshire Air Ambulance.
Can I just say how fantastic all the children were in every year group! It was amazing to see them all encouraging each other, no matter their ability. When the children were up for their turn, who maybe football isn’t their forte, the rest of the children were so supportive with their cheering and encouragement. It was fantastic! You should be very proud of them all!
Living and Learning: Penny trail
It was great to see the generosity and enthusiasm of the children during our Me and My Money themed week to try and fill their class collecting tubes. They were filling up by the end of the week.
On Friday, all the classes ventured into the playground to use their pennies to create a huge ‘Moortown’ penny trail. We had so many 1ps and 2ps that we ended up doubling and tripling up our coins.
The total amount raised for Yorkshire Air Ambulance was a fantastic £123.53 so thank you for your donations.
Anti-Bullying Day!
Today, we celebrated Anti-Bullying and Odd Socks Day as part of Anti-Bullying Week.
We all wore odd socks to school to show that it’s okay to be different and to stand up against discrimination and bullying. At Moortown, we always celebrate diversity and wearing odd socks was a fun way to show this today!
In Year 4, we had some important conversations around what bullying is and what to do if we experience it. We like to use the acronym STOP to help us remember.
We discussed where your children could get support regarding bullying:
- A trusted adult
- Someone in your family
- Friends
- Childline (0800 1111)
- Write a worry slip and put it in your Living and Learning box or the whole school worry box (outside the school office)
- Email stayingsafe@spherefederation.org
We attended a live online lesson held by CBBC all about this years theme ‘power for good’. This is all about using out power for the right reason to stand against bullying. Year 4 came up with our own pledge to stop bullying.
Help at home: have an open discussion about bullying at home. What is bullying? What should you do if you experience bullying? How can bullying make somebody feel? How can we resolve conflict respectfully?
Me and My Money Week!
This week has been one of our themed weeks all about money! We’ve had a variety of sessions where we’ve learnt a lot about money, spending, charities, prices and saving. We’ve had some visitors to help us with our learning too. Here’s what we’ve got up to:
We began our week with a workshop from HSBC. During this, we learnt about the different ways we can pay for things (using gift cards, cash, debit cards or credit cards). People can sometimes borrow money from the bank but they have to pay it back otherwise there is consequences. We used what we had learnt to give some advice to someone on how they should spend their money.
We had a fun session on budgeting. Year 4 became party planners and were given a £100 budget to organise a birthday party for 30 children. They had to make spending choices, considering their priorities, needs and wants and most importantly, could not go over budget!
Across the week, we’ve been collecting 1ps and 2ps for our school charity Yorkshire Air Ambulance. We collected them all together to do a penny trail spelling out MOORTOWN in the playground.
Help at home: when you next go food shopping, give your child an imaginary budget and see if they can stay in it as they’re walking around selecting items.
Anti-bullying day/Odd socks day Monday 10 November
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Training day – Arty ideas !
We thought you’d enjoy hearing a little about what went on during our recent teacher training day! Part of the day was dedicated to developing our art knowledge and skills with our resident art teacher, Mrs Boulton.
Teachers got hands-on with paints, pastels and even soap! There was plenty of colour, laughter, and even a bit of friendly competition as we experimented with new techniques and ideas for upcoming art lessons.
The rest of the day focussed on other important areas too, including maths and inclusion. It was a full, productive day – and we left feeling ready and excited for the next half-term!
Writing: news reports
Today, Year 4 finished their twisted tales news reports. They were writing to report the story of the three little wolves and the big bad pig!
I was wowed by their brilliant writing and creative ideas. The reports were full of adverbs, fronted adverbials and fantastic descriptions of the awful crime.
This afternoon, Year 4 read out their writing as if they were news reporters. We spoke about our oracy skills (speaking and listening) to make sure the reports were clear and well projected. Everybody did a fantastic job – I think we might have some budding journalists in Year 4!
Help at home: watch Newsround and talk about the oracy skills the presenters are using when reporting.