Homework review (Creative)
I was really impressed with this week’s homework. Well done, everyone! To celebrate the monumental (ask your child what this word means – we came across it in our class novel this week) efforts from Y5 we took part in our first homework review of the year. We had the chance to see everyone’s responses and left comments in books to say well done.
Here are a few of our favourites…
And, here is our absolute favourite piece this week. Well done, Ben. Your model classroom was incredible. I love the attention to detail!
PE – basketball
Yesterday, in PE, we practised our basketball skills. We focussed on our dribbling skills and played games that allowed us to improve our skills whilst working as a team. More importantly, we made sure we worked up a sweat and had fun!
Please remember that your child should have their PE kit in school every Tuesday and Wednesday (preferably every day). However, from next week onwards (for 4 weeks), PE will be on Monday and Wednesday. This is to accommodate a visitor.
Ourselves in the style of Oliver Jeffers
Wow! I’ve been blown away by our fantastic art today. Over the last two weeks, we’ve been building on our existing art skills in order to prepare ourselves for this final piece (Learning Objective: To be able make images in the style of another artist).
Inspired by ‘The Incredible Book Eating Boy‘, we drew an illustrated version of ourselves in the style of Oliver Jeffers. Oliver Jeffers, who has illustrated lots of other books, has quite a unique style and we tried to replicate this in our pieces. For example, when studying a range of his work, we noticed that many of his characters have large, round heads. In the images below you can see that many children were able to replicate this in their drawings. Similarly, we noticed that his characters tend to have very spindly arms and legs; again, you can see this in the examples below.
Can you spot which one is Mr Catherall?
If reading this post with your child, help them practise their writing skills by asking them to point out all the fronted adverbials and relative clauses.
Experimenting with different media – art
On Monday, we had the chance to experiment with using watercolour paint and watercolour pencils (Learning: To be able to use different media). We had a go with each and decided which one we’ll use to add detail to our illustrations – some people decided they’d use both! Our illustrations will be of ourselves but in the style of Oliver Jeffers, the author and illustrator of ‘The Incredible Book Eating Boy’.
Here’s a few images of us showing off our best concentration faces:
And, a few good examples from our sketch books:
Key Stage 2 tuck shop
Our fruit tuck shop returns next Tuesday, 19 September. The tuck shop is available for Years 3 – 6 at playtime every Tuesday and we regularly sell over 100 portions of fruit every week.
The cost per portion of 20p remains the same this year and children can either pay weekly by bringing money on the day or take advantage of our pre-payment offer of one free week per term.
Please return the prepayment reply slip by the end of the week if you would like your child to have that option.
Here are some quotes about our tuck shop from the recent pupil health questionnaires.
- ‘It is excellent as you get a range of different fruits.’
- ‘I think tuck shop has yummy fruits.’
- ‘You are selling healthy stuff which is good for us.’
- ‘You don’t feel hungry during lesson time.’
- ‘I really like it as it is a nice healthy snack.’
- ‘It’s very good and keeps our school healthy.’
- ‘You get to have fruit at a low price and it helps you to have one of your 5 a day.’
School Library
Today, we visited the school library for the first time this year. We chose a book (which we will be taking home) and enjoyed relaxing and reading. Please remember that your child needs to return their library book, in good condition, every Thursday.
The Incredible Book Eating Boy art
This week, we’ve been reading a picture book: The Incredible Book Eating Boy. So far, we’ve used the book as a stimulus to learn how to justify our inferences during our reading lessons and in our writing lessons we’ve been focussing on the grammar skills needed to write a high-quality recount (next week we’ll be writing a recount as if we are Henry – The Incredible Book Eating Boy).
Today, we studied the illustrations in the book and compared them to other illustrations by Oliver Jeffers. We discovered that he has quite a specific style and then practised drawing ourselves in the style of Oliver Jeffers in our sketch books.
Here’s a few action shots:
Living and Learning
Living and Learning is our new name for SEAL (Social and Emotional Aspects of Learning).
Living and Learning will continue to cover SEAL learning but will also incorporate other aspects of PSHE (Personal, Social and Health Education) such as keeping safe, identity, drug education, physical health, rights and responsibilities and healthy minds.
We begin our Living and Learning learning this week with a focus on manners: I can greet someone politely.
For the rest of this half-term, we’re thinking about the ‘8 Rs for learning’. This theme is about promoting good learning behaviour for your child.
Each week, we’ll focus on two different ‘Rs’. We use an animal to symbolise each ‘R’, which might help your child remember all eight – can your child remember which animal matches the correct ‘R’?
You can support your child at home – we’ve listed a few ideas to help you below. Ask us if you’ve any questions or comments.
Download top tips for promoting the 8Rs for good learning behaviour.
I can show I am ready to learn.
Make sure your child is at school for a prompt start of 08:50.
Make sure your child has had plenty of sleep so they are alert and ready to learn at all times.
Encourage your child to ask lots of questions – that shows they want to learn!
I respond to feedback.
Ask your child if they remember their ‘stars’ and ‘steps’ in English and Maths.
I take a safe risk.
Talk about the difference between a safe and unsafe risk. At school, we want your child to take a safe risk by having a go at answering, even if unsure; trying something new and attempting harder learning.
I take responsibility for my own learning.
Provide time and space at home so your child is able to organise themselves: their PE kit, reading book, homework, spellings and tables… Don’t organise everything for them!
Make a link between rights and responsibilities: your child has the right to a great education, but needs to be responsible for their own learning.
I am resourceful.
Encourage your child to be organised so they can play with a range of different toys.
Encourage your child to try new ways to solve a tricky problem.
I am resilient.
Encourage your child to keep going! Set a tricky challenge or puzzle for your child to do.
Encourage your child to think of different ways of doing things.
Don’t let your child win when they play a game – they need to experience losing, too!
Celebrate mistakes as opportunities to learn – be happy that your child found some learning hard and encourage them to ‘bounce back’ and learn from the experience.
I remember.
Make sure they have time to learn spellings, number bonds and times tables – a little practice daily is best.
Play memory games:
Kim’s game: show them objects for 30 seconds… can they remember all the objects?
Can they build up the sequence, ‘I went to the shop and I bought an apple’… ‘I went to the shop and I bought an apple and a bike.’… ‘I went to the shop and I bought an apple, a bike and a cucumber.’ etc … Take turns!
I reflect about my learning.
Talk with your child about what they’ve learnt, asking questions about:
how they learnt
why they learnt it
when they’ll use their learning
how they would teach this to someone else
what learning might link with what they’ve learnt today etc
School meals
Following feedback from parents and pupils (School Council and pupil health questionnaires), and a successful trial of children selecting their main meal on Fridays, we will be extending this to every day from next week. Children will select their main meal choice at registration.
Please share the menu with your child so they are aware of the choices for each day.
Leeds Children’s Mayor voting
Congratulations to Pippa who was selected as our school entry and submitted her manifesto to be considered as the new Leeds Children’s Mayor.
Out of 48 entries, unfortunately Pippa wasn’t selected as one of the finalists.
Children are invited to vote for their two favourite manifestos from the twelve candidates.
The finalist who has the most votes when voting closes on 15 September will be elected as the new Children’s Mayor of Leeds.