Homework Review
As always, our homework was great this week. We had lots of varied responses to our creative piece: demonstrations, Scratch projects, interviews with parents, videos, collages and loads more.
Below are some of our favourites. It’s always interesting that the children’s favourite pieces are not always the most ‘jazzy’, or the most colourful, but the pieces that are original, different and interesting.
World Book Day
We’ve had a great morning celebrating World Book Day. It’s been great to dedicate so much time to reading and, for some of us, getting dressed up has been great fun, too.
Already today we’ve crammed in lots of great learning:
- A special World Book Day celebration assembly.
- Mrs Burke came in to read a couple of her favourite children’s books to us.
- We had the chance to particpate in group discussions about the books we’ve brought in.
- We did ‘speed dating’ but with books where we had one minute to recommend our favourite book to a friend.
- We spent time reading someone else’s book to see if we enjoyed it
- And, this afternoon, we’ll enjoy some time relaxing and reading just for pleasure.
Here’s a few pictures from our day so far…
Getting On
This half-term our SEAL theme is ‘Getting On‘. This week, we had an open, honest conversation as a class in which we all agreed that we could improve our ability to get on. We decided to think of Year 5 as being a team – a team we are all a part of.
I then set the children a challenge. In teams, they had to build the biggest tower they could. However, all they could use were marshmallows and spaghetti. As we were building we thought about what makes a good team and even came up with our own (very cheesy) class motto:
“Teamwork makes the dream work!”
World Book Day
As part of our World Book Day celebrations tomorrow, we’ll be holding a table sale of books written by a family member of two pupils in school.
Finlay and Evie’s auntie, Clare Luther, is the author of a great series of a SEAL related books and they will be available to buy after school tomorrow in the playground (weather permitting).
Have you tried the Be Food Smart quiz?
As part of the Be Food Smart Change4life campaign, have you tried the quiz to find out how much you know about what’s really inside your food and drink!
Book Fair
This afternoon, we’ve been lucky enough to visit the book fair as a class. We enjoyed perusing the many books and were each given a voucher to use to buy one of the featured books.
We’ve discussed in the past how important reading is and this week is a great chance to really promote a love of reading. Ask your child if they enjoyed the book fair; talk to them about the book they chose; ask them if there were any other books that they liked – could you go to a library and see if you can find it?
Also, don’t forget that World Book Day is this Thursday. Your child should bring in a book from home and everyone has the opportunity to dress up if they would like.
Our new SEAL theme – Getting On
For this half term, our SEAL (Social and Emotional Aspects of Learning) theme Getting On covers four main aspects:
- developing the social skills of friendship
- working well together in a group
- managing anger
- resolving conflict
A key resource for children to refer to during this theme, and at other times, is Peaceful Problem Solving. This encourages children to sort out their own problems. You may wish to talk through this with your child(ren).
When group work takes place in school, some questions for children to consider are:
- Did everyone take turns?
- Did everyone listen to what other people thought?
- Did each person have chance to tell the group what they thought?
- If people had different ideas could the group reach a compromise?
The key areas of learning throughout this theme are empathy, managing feelings and social skills.
We start our weekly SEAL statements with a focus on manners, I don’t interrupt (with my mouth or with my hand).
Meet our new School Council
Congratulations to our new school councillors who were elected by their class in our whole school elections. Their first meeting will be held after half term.
School Council election
In an assembly this week, our current school councillors told us what characteristics are needed to be an effective school councillor. These included being responsive, fair, confident, resilient, a good listener, have good suggestions and accept the views of others.
Following in-class election speeches this week, our School Council elections will take place tomorrow, Thursday, 09 February. All children have the opportunity to vote at our polling station using the following instructions.
Before voting, please read the following:
- Vote once for one person.
- Place one X only on this ballot paper beside the name of the candidate you have chosen.
- Do not write or mark anything else on the ballot paper; if you do, your paper will be invalid and your vote will not be counted.
- When you have marked the ballot paper, fold the paper and place it in the box provided.
Votes will be counted tomorrow and our new School Council will be announced at the end of the day. This will be made up of two children from each class with the highest number of votes.
Good luck to all our candidates.
Upcoming elections
Our current school councillors recently held their final meeting as we prepare to elect our new School Council.
This year’s election date is Thursday 09 February.
Children from every class, including Reception, are encouraged to prepare a speech to present to their class as part of the election process. Our whole school homework before the election date (03 February) will give children the chance to plan their speech.
Thank you to our existing school council who have been involved with many decisions and discussions throughout the year.
They are welcome to stand again at the elections.
