Malham
We had a fantastic day in Malham last Monday (2 November) due to the great weather we enjoyed and the great geography learning we did (both physical and human).
On our return, we wrote a newspaper article to inform others about our day so, rather than tell you about it myself, I’ll show you a couple of the reports we wrote alongside some great pictures.
Look at how drastically the weather changed along our journey!
Finally, we returned from our fairytale land of blue skies and warm weather back to foggy Leeds.
Top vegetable choices
If your child chooses school dinners, they are served two portions of vegetables or vegetables and a portion of salad with each meal. As we are all aware of the importance of eating vegetables, all children have been consulted on their favourite vegetables based on the vegetables that currently feature on the school dinner menu. The most popular choices will now feature more regularly on the menu.
We would also like your views on school dinners. Look out for the school dinner survey due to be sent out next week.
Some great PE
With a new half term, we’re changing focus in our PE lessons. Students from Leeds Beckett University joined us today and we really enjoyed their session. It tired us out and was great fun, too! We look forward to working with them each Wednesday this half term. 
Don’t forget to always have your PE kit in school on Mondays and Wednesdays.
Welcome back
A quick welcome back for the second half term. We’ve got an exciting run up to Christmas, kicking things off with our trip to Malham Cove and then taking on a new and exciting topic.
Topic – Mission to Space
We’re leaving Holidays behind for the second half of the Autumn term and jetting off into space. Tim Peake is to be the first English astronaut to go to the International Space Station in December of this year and Year 5 and 6 are joining many primary schools across the country on a project that looks into what he will experience there, culminating in his launch on 14 December. Through Science, English and Maths, we’ll boost our understanding of Space and try to answer the many questions we already have about it.
To help at home, see what books you can find at the local library or research the project at home by googling ‘Tim Peake Space Project’ to find out more.
Maths
Alongside many space-related maths ventures, over the next couple of weeks we’ll be learning about multiplication and division. We need to be able to multiply numbers up to 4 digits by one or two digits (4653 x 3 or 2353 x 22) and divide up to 4 digit numbers by one digit (3603 / 3). It’s also important for us to understand the terms ‘factor’ and ‘multiple’ and to know and recall prime numbers.
To help at home, use Mathletics multiplication and division activities for extra practice and see what real maths you can get up to together. Maybe you’ve got a recipe to make 12 butterfly buns and you need 500 for a wedding! There’ll be some multiplication to get what you need for that from the shops.
English
The half term begins with our imaginations in overdrive as we take on the challenge of writing adventure stories set in Space. We’ll practise speech punctuation and complex sentences before planning our own stories and then making them into exciting adventures to be enjoyed by each other in our reading area.
To help at home, point out and pick up on descriptive language in the books your child is reading and discuss how they could use this in their own writing. Keep practising spellings and make sure that their meanings are understood and they can be written correctly into a sentence.
Great deforestation homework
A little late due to technical difficulties, but our deforestation homework was too good not to share with everybody.
We enjoyed looking at each other’s and discussing the different ways we’d each decided to present our information.
Now take a look yourself…
An active half term
We’ve started the year with plenty of physical activities. Here are some of the highlights.
Rugby World Cup
In September, the Rugby World Cup came to Leeds and we were lucky enough to win tickets to watch Italy play Canada at Elland Road. There was a great response to our prize draw for tickets and our three lucky winners enjoyed the World Cup experience.
Active Schools
This year as part of our investment of the Primary PE and sport premium government funding for schools we have joined the Leeds Active Schools programme. Their mission is to promote and develop, through collaboration and partnership, a sustainable system for physical activity, PE and sport that enriches the lives of all children and young people. Already this year, as part of this programme, we’ve had the opportunity to take part in some great events.
Big sing Big dance
A group of our Year 3 pupils were part of over one thousand children from across Leeds who took part in the Rugby World Cup Big dance Big sing event in Millenium Square.
Singing and dancing to the Rugby World Cup theme tune ‘World in Union’, the event was to celebrate the rugby matches in Leeds.
- ‘I loved it and I tried my best.’
- ‘It was exciting when we did the dance.’
- ‘I enjoyed using the rugby balls for the dance and singing the song, too.’
Rugby World Cup fanzone
As part of the celebrations for the Rugby World Cup, a number of children had the opportunity to be involved in the fanzone in Millenium Square. There was a carousel of activities including rugby activities and inflatables, a practical Tagtiv8 session and a visit to Leeds Library to meet author Tom Palmer. Tom writes sports novels for children, including the Rugby Academy series.
- ‘I really enjoyed the event. It was fun, especially the bit with Tom Palmer.’
- ‘I loved it! I especially enjoyed when I won the rugby ball. It was so good I want to do it again.’
- ‘I enjoyed playing pass with my friends and learning how rugby started.’
Brownlee Triathlon
Harewood House recently hosted the Brownlee Triathlon. Following this, a number of our children took part in the children’s Brownlee Triathlon held at the John Charles Centre.
The event involved a 30m swim, 1km cycle and a 400m run and was attended by Jonny Brownlee.
- ‘It was the best sporting event that I’ve ever done.’
- ‘It was great and was very challenging but in a good way.’
- ‘I have never done a triathlon. It was amazing, especially the fact that I met the Brownlee brothers.’
Football
This year we continue to be part of the Leeds School Football Association leagues for Year 4, 5 and 6, led by Mr Lawton and Mr Catherall. Here is a summary of their season so far.
The ‘Moortown Dragons’ (Year 4 football team) are learning quickly what it means to be part of a team: sticking together, working for each other, and keeping smiles on everyone’s faces. In our most recent game, they showed off some sharp passing as a team, gritty goalkeeping displays, and capped it off with a couple of stylish goals. ‘Make friends, make friends, never, never break friends!’
In the short time we’ve had, the Year 5 footballers have impressed with their passion for the game. They’ve started to show their desire to work for each other, and we’re looking forward to a good run of matches after half term. If they can show half the skills that they demonstrate daily in the playground, and keep looking out for each other, they’ll go far indeed.
The Year 6 football team have grown in confidence throughout each of their fixtures so far this year. With an emphasis on teamwork, enjoyment and working hard (on and off the ball), each team member has improved significantly. Their continued development as a team was, perhaps, most evident in the recent game against local rivals Gledhow. Well done to all! Keep it up and you’ll soon be rewarded for your efforts.
Events to look forward to next half term include more football matches, Leeds North East sports hall athletics competition, a Come and Try basketball session at Roundhay, cross country and a health-themed week, too.
Thank you to all parents who support with transport and accompanying children to these events.
Well done to all our competitors and participants who have represented the school.
Y5 assembly
Thank you very much for attending the Y5 class assembly this week – I know Miss Rushbrooke was really sorry to have missed it.
Here are a few of your comments:
- “Well done. Could hear them all. Most informative.”
- “Wonderful speaking and great percussion.”
- “Great debate and very informative.”
- “Fantastic! Great confidence!”
- “Loads of great facts showing how much they’ve learnt.”
Let’s have a debate
Having focussed on the River Amazon for the last couple of weeks, we spotted areas of the forest that had been chopped down and discussed what was happening.
We learnt that this is called deforestation and there are pros and cons to it. After learning about why people chop trees down and how they benefit as well as exploring what damage it does to the local and global environment, we formed teams and debated.
Should deforestation be allowed to happen?
Yes – Local people earn money from selling wood that is chopped down and they need that money to pay for food and shelter.
No – Cutting down trees cuts down animals’ habitats and might lead to them dying as they have nowhere to live.
Yes – Trees can be cut down sustainably so that only a couple of trees in one area is destroyed and older, rotten trees can be targetted.
No – But trees that are cut down damage many trees around them.
Yes – Any trees that are cut down can be replaced by newly planted trees so they’ll grow back.
No – Maybe so. However, it takes years for these trees to grow back and they’re never the same as they were.
It was difficult to decide which was right or wrong as we could always argue back with another point!
What’s happening in class?
Here’s an overview of what Year 5 will be learning in class in the two weeks running up to half-term.
Topic – Alongside learning about Brazil and seeing how it is similar/different to our country, we’ll be getting creative by looking at Brazilian art and picking up our saws and drills for some woodwork.
Help at home by looking at Brazil on Google maps, finding mountains, rivers, neighbouring countries and then do the same for the UK.
Maths – Fractions will be our focus all the way up to half-term. The children need to understand equivalent fractions, order fractions by finding a common denominator and they need to be able to add and multiply fractions together.
Help at home by joining in with Practice Makes Perfect homework. Ask your child to explain how to solve fraction problems to you as though you’ve never heard of the word fraction before.
English – Having focussed on writing promotions last week, we’ll continue this and write our own promotional text for a boat trip up the River Amazon. This will be followed by writing recounts.
Help at home by looking at the language used in adverts and read it to each other in your best ‘M&S voice’. Have a meal where only ‘writing talk’ is allowed. Everything you say must be in full sentences as though you were writing it down.
What’s on the menu in Brazil?
As part of the whole school Holidays topic, Year 5 and 6 have been ‘visiting’ Brazil. Following some research about popular foods in this South American country , we’ve recreated our own Brazilian dish. This was taken from a recipe book donated by the Brazilian restaurant Cabana. There is even a branch in Leeds if you’d like to try some more traditional Brazilian dishes. Our dish was a vegetarian version of moqueca (fish stew).
Take a look at our food preparation and tasting. Ask your child what skills they were using. Maybe you’ll get chance to try this at home as a few children were motivated to cook this for their family at home.
- ‘I love it and my favourite part is the courgette.’
- ‘I really like it, especially the coconut milk.’
- ‘I really like the sauce. This is new to me.’
- ‘It’s amazing – the best stew I’ve ever tasted.’
