Year 5 Homework

11 July 2014

This week’s whole school homework is creative following our themed week, Staying Safe.  It should be returned by Wednesday 16 July.

I know how to stay safe.

Throughout this week, a variety of visitors have worked with classes to deliver key learning about different aspects of safety.  These include:

• water safety (lifeguard – Mr Glass and RNLI)
• scooter training (Mrs Strange)
• bike maintenance (Edinburgh bicycle cooperative)
• skateboarding (sk8 safe)
• trampolining (Roundhay high school)
• food/kitchen safety (school kitchen)
• first aid (British Red Cross)
• e-safety (One day creative)
• road safety (Leeds City Council)
• drug education (dside)
• safety within engineering (Mr McDermott)
• bike security (police)

Alongside these external visitors, children have been learning other aspects of safety within their class.

The creative homework is a great opportunity for your child to demonstrate their learning from this week. They could:

• write a poem
• produce a quiz
• create a comic strip
• produce an information leaflet
• create a crossword
• …or anything else they can think of.

20 June 2014

This weeks’ whole school homework is Talk Time and also involves completing the pupil health questionnaire sent home with your child.

I can share my views about health.

Emotional health and obesity are our two main health targets to further our healthy schools status and the questions are linked to these areas. They include:

• Are you happy at school?
• What do you enjoy most about playtimes and lunchtimes?

Please support your child to complete the health questionnaire in order to find out their views on some of our key health issues at school.  This should be returned to your class teacher by Wednesday 25 June.

It’s the Easter holidays…

…so we have no set homework or spellings, in line with our Homework Policy.

That doesn’t mean we expect your child not to be developing their skills in reading, writing and maths!

Your child should be reading daily – this could be fiction, factual books, a comic or newspaper, and could include being read to at bedtime, too.

It would be good to practise basic skills in writing by writing a letter or email to a relative, perhaps recounting a day-trip or reviewing a film your child watched.

We’re finding quite a few children are ‘squashing their sentences’ such as I went to Leeds City Museum it was really interesting which is wrong.  It would be much better with punctuation to separate or a word to join:

• I went to Leeds City Museum. It was really interesting. (A comma isn’t strong enough to separate two sentences.)
• I went to Leeds City Museum – it was really interesting.
• I went to Leeds City Museum; it was really interesting.
• I went to Leeds City Museum and it was really interesting.
• I went to Leeds City Museum which was really interesting.

Finally, to improve calculation skills, please keep practising mental number facts which your child must know:

• number bonds (two numbers which add up to 10, 20 and 100 eg 3+7, 13+7, 30+70) – these facts should be known by children in Y1 – Y2
• times tables (up to 12×12) and the division facts with your child – children in Y2 should have rapid recall of x2, x 5 and x 10 at least

We know we mention these ‘basics’ a lot, but that’s because they involve practice, practice and more practice – we practise a lot at school, but your child will need to practise at home, too, if they are to truly succeed.

Learn more about current expectations for reading, writing and maths.  However, do be aware that a new National Curriculum comes into effect from September, meaning these expectations have been raised and so many aspects of learning now feature in younger age groups.

07 March 2014

For all children in Year 1 – Year 6, the homework this week is creative and is due in on Wednesday 12 March.

 I can respond to my reading.

This homework follows the wonderful costumes and learning inspired by World Book Day.

As always, some ways that your children can respond are listed below:

• Write a letter to a character or author.
• Interview a character or author.
• Annotate a page of a novel with words/phrases/sentences/ descriptions that you like and why (top tip: get a photocopy of the page, don’t annotate your actual book!)
• Create a book review.
• Create a comic strip which summarises the story.

It’s half-term…

It’s the half-term, so in line with our current homework policy, there are no homework tasks or spellings to learn.

However, please make sure you’re reading lots with your child – we’re finding children are reading less than they need to if they are to gain fluency and understanding.  You could take your child to a local library, hunt down an old favourite to re-visit, plan a story book for each bedtime over the holiday, read more about a favourite subject on the internet, buy a comic or magazine… And, so they have good role models, make sure your child sees you read, too!

Our current homework policy will be reviewed soon.  A small number of you have told us you’re not entirely happy with it – it would be really helpful if you tell us more about what you’d like.  Send us an email or speak with Mrs Weekes or me about this.  Thank you.

31 January 2014

For all children in Year 1 – Year 6, the homework this week is creative and is due in on Wednesday 05 February.

I know what makes a good school councillor.

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 Friday 07 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 05 February or Thursday 06 February.

What makes a good school councillor has been considered by our current school council and in each class this week.  Suggestions have included:

• ‘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.’

We invite children to respond to the sentence above in a creative way – they might choose to use this time to prepare an election speech or otherwise consider this statement and present it as a character description, pictures, an interview with a current school councillor or other ideas of your own.  For either option you should include the importance of voting.

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 Friday 07 February.

17 January 2013

For all children in Year 1 to Year 6, the homework this week is Talk Time:

Which two charities should we support at school and why?

It’s time for children to think about our school charities. Currently, we support Dogs Trust and Water Aid. A previous School Council selected these because they wanted to help animals and people, and wanted to help nationally and internationally.  These charities were chosen because pupils passed on to School Councillors very clear and strong arguments to choose them eg Dogs Trust help us by visiting, so we have the chance to re-pay this, and everyone has a basic human right to water.

We’ve helped these charities for two years now, so it’s time for a change. We need you to have a discussion at home about which charities would be best for us to support. Each class will then discuss this and then the councillors will bring the views and ideas together to decide on the charities.

Once your child has decided on a charity, make sure they have clear, powerful reasons to support their views.

You might want to discuss whether we support…

• a local charity
• a children’s charity
• a charity which helps a vulnerable group in our community – this would link back to vulnerable groups we thought about in last summer’s Community Week

29 November 2013

The homework this week is creative. The children are invited to respond to something from either a cultural or spiritual perspective.

I can respond to a book I’ve recently read.

We’d like children to present their responses about a recent book they’ve read. We’re interested to hear your child’s opinions and any connections they might have made between the book and their own life. This book review might include pictures, an interview (you could write a fictional script between an interviewer and a character), 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 Eid, Diwali, Hanukkah, Christmas or another festival means to me and my community.

Before half-term, some children in school will have celebrated the Muslim festival of Eid. A couple of weeks ago, some children in school celebrated the Sikh and Hindu festival Diwali, and more recently, children of Jewish faith might have celebrated Hanukkah. Finally, in a few weeks, Christians (and many non-Christians) will be celebrating Christmas. 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).

22 November 2013

This week’s homework is Talk Time and is due in on Wednesday 27 November 2013.

I know what bullying means and how to stop it.

At the start of this week we had anti-bullying day with classes having the chance to talk about what is bullying, what are the different types of bullying and how can we stop it.

As part of your discussion you may find our school definition of bullying useful, as agreed by our School Councillors:

Bullying is when you hurt someone, physically or emotionally, more than once and on purpose.

Alongside this definition we have used the following prompts for the children to remember:

• Several
• Times
• On
• Purpose

• Start
• Telling
• Other
• People

The purpose of Talk Time homework is to encourage a conversation around current learning. Any notes made in their homework book should be there to aid them as a prompt when it is discussed in class the following week. For this reason, teachers tend to give verbal feedback during their homework feedback session in class.

It’s half-term…

…so no specific homework, spellings or tables this week.  It’s a good time to relax and enjoy some time with your children – have you visited the free exhibition of Anthony Browne pictures at Leeds City Museum, for example?