Living and Learning: What is a feeling?
This week during Living and Learning, we talked about feelings.
What are feelings?
‘A feeling is our emotional state, or our reaction to something. Feelings are important because they help us to manage different situations and look after ourselves. Feelings and emotions are about our minds but we might
also experience them in our bodies.’
What feelings might we have?
We drew ourselves and thought about the different feelings that we might have during the day. For example, feeling sleepy in the morning, overjoyed at break time and determined during a test! Our feelings change throughout the day depending on our experiences.
How can we manage our feelings?
We decided what some good and not so good feelings might be and how we can manage these. Sometimes bad things happen and we need to have some self-care techniques to look after ourselves. Here’s some things that we thought would make ourselves feel good:
- talk to someone
- read a book
- have some quiet time
- get into bed
- take some deep breaths
- hug our teddies
- do some colouring
- go cycling
Feelings are normal and part of life but as long as we have these strategies in place, we will feel much better overall! Help at home by encouraging your child to practise some of these techniques when they are not feeling so good. Take some deep breaths, get some fresh or talk to someone!
Art – The Hepworth Gallery
Last Thursday, we had an amazing time at the Hepworth Gallery in Wakefield. The children loved the gallery and were in awe of the size of not only the sculptures but the gallery itself. In the morning the children took part in a workshop where they explored parts of the gallery and drew some of the sculptures they liked. Then, they took their ideas back to the workshop room and did some printing. The children were so engaged and listened excellently to the workshop leader.
In the afternoon, we explored the gallery ourselves in small groups. The children were so excited and enthusiastic to examine the art and complete some careful drawings. Again they were extremely well behaved and a member of the public commented how well they had done!
Help at home by talking about the trip and exploring their artwork that they have brought home on Friday.
Topic – Art
Year 3 have begun their latest Topic – art! We have two featured artists that we are focusing our learning around.
Wassily Kandinsky
Martha McDonald Napaltjarri
We have used our Geography skills to locate on a map where these artists were born; Kandinsky in Moscow, Russia and Napaltjarri in Haasts Bluff, near Alice Springs, Australia.
We have since then, explored the use of complementary colours and warm and cool colours. We were inspired by Kandinsky’s Squares With Concentric Circles art piece and created these:
We put our concentric circles together to create one large piece of art.
The children explored using oil pastels and chalks.
Help at home by asking your child what complementary, warm and cool colours are!
Me and my money week!
This week has been all about money and we’ve learnt a lot about money, spending, prices and saving. We have had some visitors in to help us with our learning. Here’s what we’ve got up to:
It’s party time!
We had a two hour workshop where we learned how to plan a party. From thinking about what makes a good party to how much we were spending on balloons. We started by ranking elements of a party by how important they are. Here was one group’s final ranking:
We then chose a person to plan the party for and this was tricky as we had to think about what someone would want at their party rather than our own choices!
Finally, we had to think about what we would spend on what. Each group had a budget of £10 per guest and the children quickly realised how they needed to save money on a venue for the party so that they could have more decorations or food!
Overall, every group managed to spend under their budget which shows that they knew the difference between a want and a need.
The Lost Purse
We had a second workshop with some workers from the bank. During this session we learnt:
- People can pay for things using cash or electronically.
- The price of everyday items like a meal deal from the supermarket.
- People can sometimes borrow money but they have to pay it back otherwise there is consequences.We also were able to give advice to someone on how they should spend their money. ‘Mr I Spendalot’ wanted to book a £500 holiday. He could have either spent his money on his debit card or use his credit card and have to pay it back. We decided that maybe using his debit card was a good idea if he knew that he could afford it!
Help at home by thinking of different items that you have or would like and and decide: Is it a need or a want?
This is a Forest and Making a Stand
On Tuesday, Year 5 went to visit two art exhibitions: ‘This is a Forest’ and ‘Making a Stand’. To start the day, we experienced a series of artworks in ‘This is a Forest’. The children were able to take time to appreciate the art, learn something new and capture the sculptures in their own sketches. One of the artworks was called ‘A Howl’, which was an installation of a fallen beech tree with lights and sound. This section of the exhibition was in a small dark room, where we could initially just hear sounds and then after our eyes adjusted, we were able to see the shape of a tree.
We then moved on to our next activity where the children could create ecosystems. We split into smaller groups and were able to design and make terrariums. The children showed great teamwork!
Living and Learning: Me and My Money
This week, we’ve been learning all about money!
We’ve talked about so many important topics and skills that are vital to our lives and financial futures.
We first had a maths lesson which looked at working out the unit prices of bulk items to help us decide on the cheaper options.
Next, we learnt about what tax is and why we have it. We then discussed why it is vital for our community.
Then, HSBC talked to us and we learnt about budgeting and how to be a critical consumer.
We also learnt about jobs in Leeds and what we might want to do when we’re older or where the most demand for employment might be.
Virgin Money taught us about loans, their roles at the bank and about bank accounts. They then set us an exciting challenge – to make £5 grow!
In the coming weeks, we’ll be putting our entrepreneurial brains to the test to see if we can make profit from a small business idea. Watch this space!
Help at home: Discuss how your child would like to make their £5 grow. Take a look at the suggested ideas.
Living and learning – Me and My Money
This week, we’ve been learning all about money!
We’ve talked about so many important topics and skills that are vital to our lives and futures.
HSBC talked to us about savvy shopping. We learnt about:
- budgeting
- interest and borrowing
- debit and credit cards
- being critical consumers
We also learnt about jobs in Leeds and what we might want to do when we’re older or where the most demand for employment might be.
Virgin Money taught us about loans, their roles at the bank and bank accounts and then set us an exciting challenge – to make £5 grow!
In the coming weeks, we’ll be putting our entrepreneurial brains to the test to see if we can make profit from a small business idea. Watch this space!
Y6 said:
“I think I’m more aware of money now.”
“You should be cautious about spending money. There are questions you can ask yourself such as, ‘Is this a want or a need? Can it wait?’”
“I’m really excited to start my own business!”
Geography – I can investigate land-use in my locality. Part 2!
Last week, during Geography, we planned a walk in our locality so that we could investigate what the land is used for. This week, we walked the walked!
Here are the types of land-use we saw:
- residential – flats and houses
- commercial – shops and restaurants
- recreational – Moortown Park
- transport – roads
We really enjoyed getting our steps in while being geographers! We stayed safe by wearing high-visibility jackets, walking in pairs and taking care when crossing the roads.
Yorkshire Dance School Trip!
Yesterday, Year 3 went on their trip to Carriageworks Theatre to join Yorkshire Dance School in a day full of great activities!
Our first task of the day was to rehearse our performance on stage with lighting and music. The children were a bit nervous after seeing how many seats there were in the audience but they did a fantastic job!
Then, we had a talk from Northern School of Contemporary Dance and Phoenix Dance about a career in dance. They spoke about dancing at all different stages of life and how inclusive dance is! They also discussed how dance can be just a hobbie as well. Both these schools run clubs during the holidays, after school and in schools!
Before lunch, the children experienced an amazing workshop where they learnt and performed Afro dance which originates from Africa and countries like Nigeria! The children got stuck in and created a choreographed dance from their six moves.
Finally, the day ended with our final performance! We performed a dance to the song, Believer by the Imagine Dragons. We chose this as we thought it linked well to the theme of ‘dreaming’ – that we can dream to achieve great things and if we believe in ourselves then we will achieve them. Year 3 were the youngest there and they had the whole audience cheering and clapping along so a big well done to all of them! Our hard work paid off!
Latin!
In Latin, we have been learning lots of new vocabulary. We are enjoying making new connections between Latin and English words.
Last week, we combined various Latin words to create a new inventions. Take a look below!
