Me and My Money week – school charity donations
Donating money is one choice people might make when using their money.
As part of our Me and My Money themed week, we welcomed visitors from St Gemma’s Hospice, our current school charity, to hear how they have been using our donations over this year.
We have raised a staggering £1500 across the year so thank you for all of these donations. St Gemma’s Hospice are very grateful for this support.
There is one more way we can donate money this week and this is by bringing any spare 1ps or 2ps into class to deposit in each class’ saving jar.
On Friday, we shall be having a money trail with all the coins donated so please bring any spare change before then.
Here are Year 2 counting their coins so far.
We are readers!
This half term, teachers have been keeping an eye out for children impressing them with their reading.
In KS2, teachers were looking out for Reading Records where the weekly activity had been completed with time and care, book reviews had been done or challenges ticked off!
In KS1, teachers were looking for children who were putting the most effort into learning to read fluently.
Well done to our winners for this half term and welcome to the Library Team! They’ll meet with Miss Wilson occasionally to share their ideas and help make decisions about our library.
Take a look at some of their fantastic efforts:
Did you know?
Those who read for pleasure…
- Know more words
- Are better writers
- Have more empathy
- Have better general knowledge
- Have a better understanding of other cultures
- Are better at making decisions
- Do better in school generally!
Keep up the fantastic reading, everyone. There were so many people to choose from and you never know – it could be you next time!
Writing: Eye of the storm
Year 5 have been planning a narrative about the Eye of the Storm. They have been identifying and creating expanded noun phrases and figurative language.
Here are some of our figurative language creations:
- The ancient house screamed at the incoming airship.
- Towering trees shivered in the breeze.
- The colossal aircraft creaked unsteadily.
- The airship was as golden as the roaring amber flames.
- Tall, towering trees watched over the world.
- The blimp crashed through the building like a meteorite eating everything in its path.
To help understand the video more, we then went on to sequence the video.
This week Year 5 will be writing their narratives.
Help at home: Watch the video and discuss how you would describe the main character, the dragon and the airship.
Science: Space
Year 5 have now started their second science topic: Space! This week, we have learnt about our Solar System.
Here are some key facts we learnt:
- The Solar System is made up of the Sun, celestial bodies, eight planets and their moons.
- The Sun, Earth, Moon and other planets are approximately spherical bodies.
- The Sun is a star which releases heat and light and is at the centre of the Solar System.
- All of the planets in our Solar System orbit the Sun.
- The first four planets have solid surfaces whilst the last four planets have gas surfaces.
• Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars all have solid surfaces.
• Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune have gas surfaces. - Pluto is now considered a dwarf planet.
Then, we carried out research using secondary sources (a form of scientific enquiry). We used this information to create posters about the order of the planets and wrote down more key facts about each one.
Finally, we made mnemonics to remember the order in which the planets orbit the sun.
Help at home: Come up with a new mnemonic to remember the order of our solar system. Here is an example:
Mercury My
Venus Very
Earth Epic
Mars Marvellous
Jupiter Jumper
Saturn Suits
Uranus Unique
Neptune Neil
Or why not watch the ‘we are planets’ song.
Tom Palmer local events
This year, some children at school attended an online workshop with author Tom Palmer. Tom Palmer has been in touch to let us know about some local events he is attending in half term.
Message from Tom
For children and families – I am also coming to Leeds on Thursday 2 November
2023 :
* Farsley Book Festival – 10am-11am more here
https://trumanbooks.co.uk/event/flf-kids-day
* Chapel Allerton Library – 2pm
* Pudsey Community Hub and Library – 4pm
Writing: Non-Chronological Reports
For the past couple of weeks, Year 5 have been planning, writing and publishing their own non-chronological reports about a fictional city. The children were able to create their own made-up city and their task was ‘to give information’ (the purpose of a report).
Their writing needed to link to some of our geography learning (urban green spaces and city expansion) as well as contain parenthesis and a variety of sentence starters.
Have a look at some of our fantastic work:
Help at home: Look at this class post and the children’s work, try to spot parenthesis and a variety of sentence starters.
Bonfire Night Safety Visit
This morning, we were joined by our local PCSOs to talk about bonfire night safety. Have a look at our photos for the main messages.
PE: Football
This half term, Year 5 have been practising their football skills (passing, tackling, shooting etc.)
This week, they have been focused on improving their shooting skills.
When shooting, the difficulty is shot selection. Sometimes, it’s important to shoot with more power. At other times, it’s important to shoot with more accuracy.
The children have all enjoyed celebrating their goals!
Help at home: discuss the best technique for a pass.
Leeds Diving opportunities
Recently, Year 2 and 3 welcomed Leeds Diving as part of their talent in diving programme.
If your child is interested in learning to dive, please see the information and requirements below.
Reading: Y5 met Liz Pichon!
Last week, we had a surprise video call from author Liz Pichon – who writes the Tom Gates novels.
Liz talked about where she gets inspiration for her stories and how she plans out the novels before writing. She talked us through how she draws the doodles in her stories and we also had a go – what do you think of our bugs?!
Finally, she read an extract from her new book, Five Star Stories.
