06 February 2015
For all children in Year 1 – Year 6, the homework this week is talk time and is due in on Wednesday 11 February.
I can prepare a speech (School Council elections).
or
I know the importance of voting.
It’s time for children to consider if they would like to stand for election for our new school council. With two representatives from each class, chosen democratically by their peers, all children at Moortown Primary are encouraged to take an active part in pupil voice.
Elections for our new school council will take place next Thursday 12 February with our polling station and ballot boxes at the ready. Candidates will have the opportunity to give their election speech to their class on Wednesday 11 February.
What makes a good school councillor has been considered by our current school council.
- ‘Communicating with others – pupils and adults.’
- ‘Having good listening skills to know what to contribute in meetings.’
- ‘Thinking of realistic ideas to suggest in meetings.’
Hints for your speech include:
- What skills and abilities would a good school councillor have?
- What are you particularly good at that would help you to be a great school councillor?
- What do you think would make the school better? What could you do that people would really like?
- Think of things that are realistic, maybe that you could do yourself, rather than having to ask other people to do?
Thank you to our current school councillors for all their ideas and contributions over the last year. We hope you have enjoyed this role and responsibility and you are welcome to stand again for election.
Good luck to all children who decide to stand in the elections. Results will be announced in our assembly on Thursday 12 February.
If you choose not to stand in the election then you should consider the importance of voting.
30 January 2015
The homeworks this week are Creative and Practice Makes Perfect.
The Creative homework is to design a section of our ‘contraption’ display. We are currently taking inspiration from ‘Rube Goldberg machines’ to make a contraption out of things we have in and around the classroom. Children have to plan and explain how their section would work and suggest materials which we could use to make it. The trickiest part of this is that most of the contraption has to hang from the wall.
A Rube Goldberg machine is a contraption, invention, device or apparatus that is deliberately over-engineered or overdone to perform a very simple task in a very complicated fashion, usually including a chain reaction. For ideas and inspiration, just ‘Rube Goldberg machine’ into youtube.
The Practice Makes Perfect homework is a Mathletics activity on our next unit of maths: measures.
23 January 2015
The homeworks this week are Practice Makes Perfect and Talk Time.
The Practice Makes Perfect homework is a couple of Mathletics activities linked to our learning on fractions.
The Talk Time homework is a SEAL themed one, asking children: Why is it Good To Be Me? Lots of children (and adults) find it difficult to talk about things which they are good at. I’d like children to have a conversation about their strengths and why it is good to be them. We’ll talk about these next week in class.
16 January 2015
The homeworks this week are Creative and Practice Makes Perfect.
The Practice Makes Perfect homework is another Mathletics one. They have a couple of different activities to do based on the learning we’ve done in class.
The Creative homework is to show examples of forces in action. We have been learning this in class so your child should have lots of ideas. They could find photographs which show forces in action or draw a diagram which shows forces in action. Examples could be a toy car rolling down a ramp, a person sitting on a chair, a floating boat, a tug of war contest. Children could also show whether forces are balanced or unbalanced. An example of balanced forces is shown below. In this example, the two men are pulling in opposite directions with the same force. This means that there is no movement.
To find out more about forces, follow the link:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/education/topics/znmmn39
09 January 2015
The homeworks this week are Creative and Practice Makes Perfect.
The Practice Makes Perfect homework are two Mathletics activites linked to this week’s learning in class on negative numbers.
The Creative homework is I can investigate friction. We’ve been learning about forces in our topic lessons so this homework will build on this learning. Your child has to think of an investigation they can conduct which will compare friction created by surfaces or objects. They should explain what their investigation will test; their predictions; how they can ensure it is a fair test; and should communicate their findings.
We had a chat as a class and came up with a few ideas:
- Build a ramp and test how far a toy car will roll on different surfaces.
- One push skateboard tests on different surfaces.
- Test different types of shoe for friction on different surfaces.
- Make different sized parachutes and see which ones fall slowest (this measures the amount of air resistance).
- Push/blow different shaped toy boats or other floating objects to see which are affected most by water resistance.
12 December 2014
The homework this week is Practice Makes Perfect and is due in on Wednesday 17 December.
I understand and can write passive sentences.
Children have a sheet in their homework book which asks them to complete a passive sentence using a passive verb. To further challenge them, you could ask them to convert some of last week’s active sentences into passive sentences.
An example of each:
- Year 5 won the Cool Class Cup. (This is active – we know the ‘subject’ of the sentence – which is Year 5 – and what they did – they won the cup.)
- The Cool Class Cup was stolen. (This is passive – something was done to the cup, but we don’t know who by.)
05 December 2014
The Practice Makes Perfect homework this week is an English homework.
I can write active sentences with subjects and objects.
In English we’ve talked about sentences which have subjects and objects. In active sentences there is an active verb. The subject of the active verb does the action and the object has the action done to it.
For example: Stella broke the window.
In this sentence, Stella is the subject, broke is the verb and window is the object.
The children’s task is to complete some sentences when given either the object, subject or both. An extension is to write some active sentences without an object.
05 December 2014
The whole school homework this week is creative: children are invited to respond to something from either a cultural or spiritual perspective.
I can show what I know and think about something cultural.
We’d like children to present their responses about a recent book they’ve read, film they’ve watched, piece of art they’ve looked at, piece of music they’ve listened to – anything cultural in fact. We’re interested to read some sort of description (a summary, for example) and then your child’s opinions. This review might include pictures, an interview (your child could write a fictional script between himself/herself and the artist, for example), a letter (eg to or from a character, or perhaps even the author) – anything which might include your child’s responses!
However, your child might prefer to do the following:
I can show what I know about a festival.
Over the course of this term, some children in school will have celebrated a religious festival of some sort. This might have been
- the Muslim festival of Eid ul Adha, this year in October
- the Sikh and Hindu festival Diwali, also in October
- the Jewish festival of Hanukkah, coming up in December
- the Christian festival (of course, celebrated by many non-Christians, too) of Christmas
- the Chinese New Year festival which next year will be in February
There are lots of other festivals and celebrations which you and your child together might want to reflect on, from the anniversary of the crowning of Selassie (a festival which might be celebrated by Rastafarians) to the Winter Solstice (a Pagan festival). You can also research more festivals.
We invite children to respond to the sentence above – they might include a recount (like a diary entry), pictures, an interview (perhaps in a script). Your child might also choose to research a completely unknown festival, or they might even think about creating a brand new festival, one that everyone will celebrate.
Whether inspired culturally or spiritually, your child’s homework is due on Wednesday 10 December.
28 November 2014
This week, the Practice Makes Perfect homework are a couple of Mathletics activities about time.
The Creative homework is also maths based: I can show what I know about time.
We’re learning about time in our maths lessons next week so this homework will help prepare children for the learning.
21 November 2014
Following our Healthy Bodies, Healthy Minds themed week, our whole school creative homework this week is:
I know how to have a healthy body and healthy mind.
Each class has taken part in a variety of learning this week including a range of visitors to support our teaching of keeping healthy bodies and healthy minds. These include physical activities such as karate, tai chi, tennis, Leeds United football, assemblies by Leeds Rhinos and Leeds anti-social behaviour unit, class talks by Heart Research UK, d:side (drug education), various parents with health-related jobs and visits to Tesco for their Farm to Fork scheme and Allerton Grange. Class-based learning has also included dental health, hand-washing, the importance of sleep and breakfast, healthy eating and food preparation and mental health.
Your child could present this creative homework in a variety of different ways:
- a quiz which tests the knowledge of other children
- art work
- poetry
- a poster
- writing: diary, story, letter, instructions, report
- a rap
- a mindmap
- your own creative idea
We look forward to seeing your creative ideas to demonstrate how to keep a healthy body and healthy mind.
Please return this homework by Wednesday 26 November.
