RE Drop Down Morning
This morning, Year 5 had their very first ‘RE drop down morning’. We started off the morning by recapping key vocabulary: theist (a person who believes in God/Gods), atheist (a person who does not believe in the existence of God/Gods) and agnostic (a person who believes that nothing is known or can be known about the existence of God).
Did you know there are nearly 4,000 recognised faiths around the globe? Thankfully, I only asked the children to name the six major religions!
In this RE drop down morning, we focused on the religion of Hinduism. Hinduism is the oldest of the six major religions. It has no single founder. It’s a mix of various beliefs. The children were asked to create a fact file about this religion.
Then, we went on to learn about what Hindus believe. Hindu worship is called puja. Hindus can worship at their holy building, called a mandir, or in their home. The religious leader in a mandir is called a pujari.
Hindus believe in one supreme God, Brahman. Brahman is expressed through different deities. The most important of the deities are called the Trimurti. The Trimurti are the three aspects of the universal supreme God.
Hindus believe in karma and reincarnation; we watched a video which explained what this meant.
In our third and final session, we learnt what festivals do Hindus celebrate. Year 5 found out that Diwali is the five-day Festival of Lights, celebrated by millions of Hindus across the world. Diwali is a festival of new beginnings and the triumph of good over evil and light over darkness, and for some also coincides with harvest and new year celebrations. The festival falls between mid-October and mid-November but changes each year because it is set by the lunar calendar.
The children watched a video explaining the story of Rama and Sita. They then had to order the pictures in chronological order and re-tell the story to the class. The children used their oracy skills of voice projection, eye contact and prosody.
Help at home: Watch the story of Rama and Sita. Discuss the moral message of the story.
Guided Reading Week 2
Here are the target pages for this week’s guided reading. These need to be read by Friday 22nd November.
Extra Time: up to chapter half-time/page 45.
Divine Freaks: up to chapter 5/pg 55.
Mr Gum: up to chapter 6/pg 86.
How To Train Your Dragon: up to chapter 4/pg 60.
Kensuke’s Kingdom: up to chapter 5/page 69.
Writing: Expanded Noun Phrases (ENPs)
Year 5 this week have been identifying and creating expanded noun phrases (ENPs). ENPs are made with a determiner, adjectives, a noun and potentially a preposition.
They created some brilliant examples of ENPs:
- the abandoned city of Atlantis in the middle of the ocean
- a rushing swarm of bullet-like birds
- the illuminous sky behind the edge of the crumbling mountains
- several elegant, blossoming trees beside a calm, flowing river
Help at home: Can you create any ENPs about this picture?
Anti-Bullying Day
Today for our anti-bullying day, we joined the nation by focussing on the message of ‘choosing respect‘.
We looked at the definition of bullying which our JLT members created:
“Bullying is when you hurt someone physically or emotionally (including online), Several Times On Purpose”
Whilst we hope this would never be the case in our school, we also discussed what you can do if you were to experience bullying at Moortown Primary School:
“Start Telling Other People. You could use the Living and Learning box, the worry box, tell a trusted adult, email stayingsafe@spherefederation.org or even call Childline (0800 1111).”
The school came in odd socks today to show that we are all unique but should still all respect each other.
In class we discussed how to be respectful and safe online. The children suggested making sure to send kind messages to each other and only playing with people they know. We also discussed what to do if someone is mean online; Year 5 said you could step away and ignore, you could report or block and you can tell an adult or even the police if it is a serious incident.
Year 5 also watched the BBC Anti-Bullying Week 2024 Live Lesson. The children talked about how someone might feel if someone behaved disrespectfully:
- hurt
- lonely
- upset
- worried
- frustrated
- angry
- annoyed
- sad
- moody
- mad
- furious
Finally, we created an acrostic poem. Here are a few of them:
Help at home: Can you create your own acrostic poem using the word RESPECT? Discuss with your child how they can show respect to others.
Saturday cross country runners
Well done to all our KS2 pupils who took part in the second Leeds Schools Sports Association cross country race at Cardinal Heenan on Saturday morning.
All the children ran brilliantly and improved their race positions from last time.
Thank you to parents who supported at the event.
There are two more races this season and information will be sent about these nearer the time. Please note there is a new registration system this year with all children being registered prior to their first race to take part.
Guided Reading Week 1
Here are the target pages for this week’s guided reading. These need to be read by Friday 15th November.
Extra Time: up to chapter 8/page 32.
Divine Freaks: up to chapter 4/pg 39.
Mr Gum: up to chapter 3/pg 32.
How To Train Your Dragon: up to chapter 2/pg 28.
Kensuke’s Kingdom: up to chapter 3/page 25.
Guided Reading Information
Today, Year 5 have been given their guided reading books.
The class have been divided into groups and each group has been given a book to read at home. This will last for this half term.
During our Book Club sessions each Friday, each group will discuss what they have read so far and share their reading record activities related to their book. This will be a fantastic opportunity for the children to explore characters and storylines more than they might do normally!
Every Friday during Book Club, each group will be given a new page to read to for the next Friday. This information will be posted every week on our class news.
What to remember:
- Your child has a book that they need to read every week (up to a chosen point marked with a post-it note).
- The reading record activity needs to be completed using their new book.
- A comment from a grown up needs to be written in their reading record.
- Group reading books and reading records need to be brought in every Friday.
Help at home: listen to your child read their new book and ask questions about the book to help prepare them for class discussions.
I look forward to hearing the children’s discussions next week!
Anti-bullying day and Odd socks day
Me and My Community
On Monday, Year 5 were visited by Brian Abram, the author of the Grandad’s Wheels books.
As a wheel chair user, Brain first gave us an introduction to himself and then a fun discussion about wheelchairs and disability. Brain answered these questions:
o Why might someone need to use a wheelchair?
o What different kinds of wheelchairs are there?
o What might be difficult to do in a wheelchair and how do we get round these problems?
o Are people in wheelchairs (and disabled people generally) different from other people?
Brain then read one of his brilliant books! Year 5 were then allowed to ask Brian questions. To finish off the session, Year 5 got to design a futuristic wheelchair. Have a look at their creative inventions:
We also had a session about gender equality. The children were asked to draw 4 different professions: teacher, nurse, taxi driver and fire fighter. We then learnt about the gender split in these jobs.
The class were then asked to read different statements and move to either side of the classroom for if they agree or disagree with it.
The statements were:
- It is okay to say ‘Don’t be such a girl’ to someone.
- Boys can be friends with girls.
- Boys are stronger than girls.
- Boys are better at football.
We also learnt about stereotypes and how to challenge these.
In the afternoon, Year 5 looked at the Moortown Primary School Community. We discussed what our logo looks like and why there are three different coloured children interlinked together. Our idea was that the logo represents children coming together, no matter their race or religion, working together and being friends to make the school a happy and healthy place.
Help at home: Look at the designs of the futuristic wheelchairs. Which is your favourite? Why? Or discuss some stereotypes you have heard before and how you can challenge this behaviour.
On Tuesday, Year 5 started off the day with a workshop all about diversity. We discussed that diversity is essentially differences between people. Diversity should be celebrated! Year 5 then went on to talk about what the words bystander and upstander meant. A clever way to help you with their definitions is if you take the first two letters of each word and replace them with the last two letters. So, bystander becomes standby and upstander becomes stand up. What do you think these two words mean?
Well, Year 5 now know that a bystander is someone who watches bullying happen but does nothing to help. An upstander is someone who does something to stick up for the person being bullied but in a kind way. The main messages from this session were to ‘ be an upstander’ and ‘be yourself’.
In the afternoon, we went to Allerton Grange for a drama workshop. In this, the children had to act out what the Moortown Primary School Community meant to them and why it is such a positive place to be part of. Year 5 worked in small groups to create still images and a short video for an alien called Z, to welcome him to Moortown.
Help at home: Discuss what makes the Moortown Primary School community special to you.
On Wednesday, we started off the day with a zoom about protected characteristics. We identified 9 and were able to name them all: Disability, Race, Sex, Gender reassignment, Religion or beliefs, Age, Marriage or civil partnership, Pregnancy and/or maternity leave and Sexual orientation.
In the afternoon, we had a workshop about self esteem. The children discussed how it makes us feel when we compare ourselves to others; they said it would make someone feel unworthy, sad, upset and maybe even frustrated. We watched this video which showed this. Year 5 talked about how if we all looked the same it would be a boring world so we should celebrate out differences.
Year 5 then went on to describe what makes them unique and created a poster of all the things they were good at. This helped boost their self esteem!
On Thursday, we had a zoom with Scholes (Elmet) Primary School – another school in the Sphere Federation. We talked about different religions and what it meant to be part of these communities. The children showed great oracy skills when talking; they used great volume, pace and fluency.
Pumpkin picking
One of the community links for our Me and my community themed week, MHA Moor Allerton, are holding an open day next Tuesday 29 October 2pm to 4pm with pumpkin picking from their own pumpkin patch, refreshments and activities.