24 June 2022
This week’s spellings:
- puppet
- Monday
- Tuesday
- Wednesday
- Thursday
- Friday
- Saturday
- Sunday
- One
- won
The children will be tested on these words next Friday 1 July.
Please encourage your child to try practise the words by putting their words in a sentence using our handwriting guide. Also, look at the spelling activities guide for some ideas to practise these words.
Living and Learning: money workshop
Today, visitors, from HSBC, came to deliver a money workshop as part of our Living and Learning curriculum.
The workshop, to buy or not to buy, included learning about:
- the difference between a need and a want
- people making different choices about saving and spending money
- prioritising needs over wants
- saving for the things we want
Our visitors were very impressed with the knowledge and participation from the children. The visit supplemented our recent learning about money education so it was great to hear this.
Skipping festival
We are working hard on our skipping skills, that we learnt with Jodi from Skipping School, ready for the Year 2 Skipping Festival that is coming up after half term (Thursday 9 June).
We are very much looking forward to cheering on our friends, watching some great skipping skills and most of all having FUN.
All children will need to bring a packed lunch to eat on our return to school. They should also bring a fruit snack and full water bottle to take with them to the festival.
Please return the permission slip and the photograph permission form to school by Friday 27th May 2022.
Don’t forget that skipping ropes can be purchased from the office at a subsidised cost of £3 for your child to practise these skills at home.
Skipping
This week, we had a fun and active afternoon of skipping with Jodi from Skipping School and she was very impressed by the skipping and effort she saw!
Jodi taught us lots of different individual and group skipping skills to practise for our Year 2 skipping festival with other schools later in the summer term.
Skipping ropes are available to buy, at a subsidised price of £3, from the office to practise these new skills at home.
Reception Mathematicians
Last week the children demonstrated a fantastic understanding of number through a range of activities. They used the language more, less and fewer to compare numbers and sets of objects.
This week the focus will be consolidating their understanding of the composition of numbers. Composing and de-composing numbers involves the children investigating part–part–whole relations, e.g. seeing that 7 can be made of 5 and 2. The children will deepen their understanding of a whole being made up of smaller parts through games and practical experiences.
Writing
It has been wonderful to see the children enjoy writing and having the confidence to ‘have a go’.
Reading
The children are really enjoying their reading practise sessions. I hope you are impressed with their fluency and confidence when reading their e book.
Please let us know if you are having any problems logging in or accessing these books.
We are gymnasts!
Last Friday, Year 5 completed a series of gymnastic challenges in the hall.
Check out the pictures below to see some graceful gymnasts!
Living and Learning: Safety Week
This week, Moortown Primary School has been taking part in Safety Week.
Year 5 have been learning lots about different ways that they can stay safe both inside and outside of school.
Some highlights include…
A visit from Dogs Trust informing us how we stay safe around dogs – be that our own dog or a dog we might not know.
Road Safety learning:
Safer Internet Day: a whole day dedicated to learning about how we can stay safe online. The children really impressed me with their knowledge about how they stay safe online.
A visit from Moortown Fire Service where the children were able to ask questions about how to prevent a fire and stay safe in the event of one. Something that really resonated with the class was the importance of sleeping with your door closed. Ask your child if they can remember why this is important.
And a quiet half an hour where we read this book about consent.
If you or your child have any questions about anything we have discussed this week please don’t hesitate to ask.
Welcome back!
Happy New Year!
I hope you all had a very restful and healthy holiday. It’s lovely to have all the children back in school again. I have been really impressed with how the children have settled straight back into school. Their behaviour and attitude towards their learning has been fantastic. Well done, Year 5!
This half term, we are historians. We are learning about the Vikings and the Islamic Golden Age.
This is the vocabulary that your child will learn across this history topic:
chronology – arrangement of events or dates in time order
conflict – a series of battles over time
invasion – when a country or region is invaded by an armed force
golden-age – a time when an activity or society is at its best
innovation – an improvement or replacement for something
trade – the exchange of goods and services
caliph – ruler in a Muslim country
civilisation – the society considered most advanced at a time
bias – a particular viewpoint for one thing over another, especially an unfair one
We have also started a new science unit this half term all about evolution and inheritance. This half term, we are biologists.
This is the vocabulary that your child will learn across this biology topic:
evolution – change in living things over time
inherited – the way that a trait or characteristic is passed to offspring from parents
trait – a quality or characteristic belonging to something
adaptation – a small change that a living thing goes through
natural selection – a process in which living things adapt themselves in order to survive, that they don’t have any control over
prehistoric – the time classed is ‘before history’ as it was so long ago it hasn’t been recorded or written
variety – differences between things as part of a whole group
fossil – the prehistoric remains of a plant or animal
Do keep referring back to this vocabulary and asking your child if they can remember what these words mean! It will help them greatly as we progress through both topics.
As always, if you have any questions or concerns please don’t hesitate to ask.
Merry Christmas!
Hello all!
I just wanted to say a massive thank you to all the Year 4 children and their families for an amazing autumn term. Myself, Mrs Maqbool, the children and now Mrs Stewart have become a great team and I can’t believe it’s already Christmas!
Here is just a few memories from this term that are worth celebrating:
- A big congratulations again to the children who participated in the cross country races. You did Moortown Primary School proud and you really tried your best!
- In science, we were learning about light and to finish off the unit, the class spent some time creating their own shadow puppets. They had the freedom to create whatever they liked and they all turned out fab! Have a look to see them in action…
- After learning about Kandinsky and Napaltjarri since the beginning of November, Year 4 became artists themselves! They got stuck in with experimenting with collage. The outcomes are great and the best thing about them is that they are all different.
- A big well done to all the Year 4s in swimming. They have all really improved since the start of the year and I can see their confidence growing with each lesson – keep it up!
I hope you all have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
Miss Birch
Week beginning 13 December 2021
Hi everyone
We hope you’re feeling happy and healthy at home. We miss having you in school but we want you to know that you’re still very much part of our school community. Enjoy your home learning for this week.
Maths
Follow this sequence of maths learning which is linked to multiplication and division.
-
Lesson 1: video, worksheet, answers
Lesson 2: video, worksheet, answers
Lesson 3: video, worksheet, answers
Lesson 4: video, worksheet, answers
Lesson 5: video, worksheet, answers
Lesson 6: video, worksheet, answers
Lesson 7: video, worksheet, answers
Lesson 8: video, worksheet, answers
You don’t have to print the worksheet. Your child can write or draw their answers on paper. Your child’s learning will be most effective if you sit with them to pause the clip and check / praise / support your child as the clip moves on.
Practise times tables on Times Table Rockstars, too. If your child is in Y3, we’re concentrating on the 8 times table. If your child is in Y4, we’re concentrating on all times tables up to and including 12 x 12. Email the class teacher if you need your child’s login and password details.
(Suggested time: 30 minutes of Maths and 15 minutes of Rockstars daily)
Spelling
Look on the homework page to find this week’s spellings. They should choose some past spellings that they feel less confident with. Your child should complete one task each day.
- Day 1: Generate more words linked to the spelling pattern or ‘rule’. You could look out for the words in the book you’re reading at home, or any other text, like a website linked to our science topic of Living Things and their Habitat.
- Day 2: Practise the spellings using two of the ideas in our Super Spelling Strategies guide. (Set yourself and others at home a challenge of using some of the words when you’re speaking, too!)
- Day 3: Write separate sentences, each containing one of the spellings. (Don’t forget to show off really neat handwriting and make sure you sentence starts with a capital letter and ends with a full stop, exclamation mark (!) or question mark (?).
- Day 4: Repeat Task 2 or 3.
- Day 5: Get an adult at home to test you on your spellings. Practise any you spell incorrectly – you could write them out carefully until you’re sure.
(Suggested time: 15-20 minutes daily)
Reading fluency
This is the text we’re using in class this week to build up fluency skills.
In school, we generally follow this sequence:
- Day 1: Read the text aloud with your child listening. Read it clearly and slowly, pointing to each word as you read. Have a chat about any unfamiliar words.
- Day 2: Read aloud each sentence (a full short sentence or part of a longer sentence), and have your child read it back to you. Do this ‘echo reading’ for the whole text.
- Day 3: Read the text and talk about the effect of the punctuation on how you read it – pauses for full stops and expression for exclamations (!) or questions (?). Your child reads the text aloud.
- Day 4: Read together with expression (just like you practised on Day 3).
- Day 5: Your child reads independently and fluently.
(Suggested time: 15 minutes daily)
Reading comprehension
We’ll be using this RIC text in class to practise comprehension skills. RIC stands for:
- Retrieve: finding information in a text
- Interpret: using clues in the text to unlock information
- Choice: thinking about the author’s choice of words, techniques or organisation that make the text interesting and enjoyable to read
Follow these lessons from Oak National Academy. There’s a whole series of lessons, but start at Lesson 1 and work through, doing one (or maybe even two) each day. (If you’re self-isolating in your second week, stick with the series of lessons you’ve already started and aim to complete the full series.)
(Suggested time: 30 minutes daily)
Writing
Follow these lessons from Oak National Academy. There’s a whole series of lessons, but start at Lesson 1 and work through, doing one (or maybe even two) each day. (If you’re self-isolating in your second week, stick with the series of lessons you’ve already started and aim to complete the full series.)
(Suggested time: 30-40 minutes for each)
Topic
Our topic this half-term is about art.
Follow these lessons from Oak National Academy. There’s a whole series of lessons, but start at Lesson 1 and work through, doing one (or maybe even two) each day. (If you’re self-isolating in your second week, stick with the series of lessons you’ve already started and aim to complete the full series.)
(Suggested time: 30-40 minutes)
Science
Our focus this half-term is about light.
These six lessons from Oak National Academy link closely to what we’ve been doing in class. Start at Lesson 1 and work through, doing two or three in the week. If you’ve previously completed on of these lessons, have a go at the ones you haven’t completed yet.
If Science really motivates your child, you could also use look at these lessons all about practical Science.
(Suggested time: 30-45 minutes)
PE
Don’t forget to do some daily exercise!
Do two or three of these Five Minute Moves from Joe Wicks each day – spread them across the day as if they were playtimes, maybe!
Try working through this series of 25 lessons from the Association for Physical Education – do two or three in the week.
(Suggested time: 5 minutes daily, plus 30 minutes for the longer PE lessons)
Extra stuff…
As an extra (or as an alternative, if this helps to motivate your child)…
Fancy learning about a new religion? You don’t have to be religious to learn about, and appreciate, religions from all around the world. Check out this set of lessons from Oak National Academy – you could choose to focus on one religion or dip into each set for an overview.
What about some Living and Learning? While you’re away from school, you could check out these lessons on keeping safe!
