Certificates
The children are always excited and proud to get their Lexia and Numbots certificates on a Tuesday.
Can you believe we’ve had 87 Numbots certificates and 73 Lexia certificates so far in Year 2!
This is fantastic learning – well done, Year 2!
25 November 2022
This week’s Talk Time relates to this half term’s Art topic.
I can compare and contrast different artworks, architecture and designs.
I can give my opinions, and back them up with reasons.
In our Art lessons, we’re thinking about the work of these artists, architects and designers and we’re using the following vocabulary:
Y1,2 Artists:
George Seurat
Bridget Riley
Vocabulary: pointillism, op art
Y3,4 Architects:
St Paul’s Cathedral, Sir Christopher Wren
London Aquatic Centre, Zara Hadid
Vocabulary: architect, architecture
Y5,6 Designers:
William Morris
Orla Kiely
Vocabulary: pattern, repetition, symmetry, foreground, background
The key to this task is being able to explain thoughts and opinions. It’s worth remembering that the opinions of one person may not match those of another and that it’s okay to disagree.
We’d like your child to speak confidently and passionately about art. Using ‘because’ will encourage your child to think carefully about their own interpretation of the art. Offering your own opinions may also help your child to consider alternative viewpoints and perspectives.
Discussions about the art could take place in a number of ways. Here’s a couple of suggestions:
- Discuss each piece separately before then looking at them side by side.
- Have both pieces side by side from the start.
Whichever approach you opt for, referring to these questions and the vocabulary above will help to focus your discussions at home:
- Explain what you like about each piece.
- Explain what you dislike about each piece.
- How are the two pieces similar?
- How are the two pieces different?
- Considering what is most important to you, which piece do you prefer?
25.11.2022 – Spellings
Practise adding the suffixes -er and -est to these words for your spelling test next Friday:
nice
happy
funny
brave
tall
warm
rude
lonely
You could use rainbow writing to help you learn them!
Science – What’s that sound?
This half term, our Science topic is called ‘What’s that sound?’. We are physicists because we are learning about physics.
So far, Year 4 have learnt how a sound travels into our ears and that is because of vibrations. For example, if an object like a car door is slammed shut, the car door vibrates and the vibrations travel through the air to our ears! To find out more, we went on a sound walk around the school to find as many different sound sources as possible.
The children heard lots of things, such as;
- children talking/shouting
- car horns
- ambulance siren
- car engines
- trees rustling
- foot steps
- fridge humming.
We worked out that we heard most of the sounds in the front playground due to being nearer the road.
Some sounds were high pitched and others were low pitched. The sounds that are there to catch our attention (ambulance sirens) are high pitched and the sounds that are more common (car engines) are low pitched.
Our second lesson was exploring sounds further and fortunately for the children, making sounds with our bodies! We tried to compose a “song” using our bodies. We clicked, stomped, hummed, thumped and shouted. We then experimented with the drums by placing rice on the top and seeing what happened when we hit it hard and hit it softly. In conclusion, the harder we hit the drum, the higher the rice flew and the softer we hit the drum, the lower the rice flew.
Have a look at us in action:
Anti-bullying day!
Today for our anti-bullying day, we joined the nation by focussing on the message of “reaching out”. We discussed how this had several meanings: reaching out to a trusted adult for support/advice, reaching out to the victim to see if they are okay or reaching out to make a change.
We looked at the definition of bullying which our JLT members created:
“Bullying is when you hurt someone physically or emotionally (including online), Several Times On Purpose”
Whilst we hope this would never be the case in our school, we also discussed what you can do if you were to experience bullying at Moortown Primary School:
“Start Telling Other People. You could use the Living and Learning box, the worry box, email stayingsafe@spherefederation.org or even call Childline (0800 1111).”
We celebrated the message that everyone is different and equal by wearing odd socks to school:
Living and Learning: Me and my community week
This week has been very busy in Year 1! We have been working all week learning about our identity and our community!
On Tuesday two Police Community Support Officers came into the classroom to talk to us about staying safe using fireworks and sparklers. We listened really well and even found out you should put your sparkler in a carrot!!
On Wednesday, as well as our amazing class assembly (Well done everyone!), we also had a visit from the RNIB. They brought along a guide dog with them and we learnt all about the job of a guide dog.
On Thursday, teacher for the deaf came to visit to talk to us all about how we can help deaf adults and children understand us more clearly. We learn some sign language too.
We have had an amazing week learning all about how we are the same and how we are different. It has all been topped off by everyone showing off their identity today! Amazing work everyone!
04 November 2022
As we come to the end of our Me and My Communities themed week, children are encouraged to consider charities that are community-based.
With your child, have a look at the list of charities below. Ask your child to consider which charity they’d like to be our chosen school charity – make sure they can express their opinions and back these up with reasons.
Below are the chosen charities that we’ll choose from:
Local
St Gemma’s Hospice St Gemma’s Hospice | Yorkshire’s Largest Hospice (st-gemma.co.uk)
The Clothing bank The Clothing Bank
National
Cancer Research Donate to Cancer Research UK | Cancer Research UK
RSPB Join us – RSPB Membership
International
Cool Earth Protect Rainforest | Fight The Climate Crisis | Join Cool Earth Big Life Foundation AREA OF OPERATION – Big Life Foundation
The charities will be reviewed in class on Thursday 10 November. Each class will vote for one charity which will be brought to the Junior Leadership Team who will have the final vote on Friday 11 November.
We are biologists!
This half term, we have been learning as biologists.
We’ve learnt about living things and their habitats.
Last week, we ventured out into the front playground to conduct a invertebrate hunt.
The children looked around the habitat and recorded the number of invertebrates that they found.
We are historians!
This half term, we are historians.
We’re learning about Ancient Greece.
To kickstart our history topic, we have been learning about chronology and learning the order of time periods in history.
Year 3 placed some time periods of British history into chronological order on a timeline. Then, we added Ancient Greece to our timeline to compare what was happening elsewhere in the world with Britain. Ask your child if they can remember this learning!
The vocabulary that we are learning this half term is:
- period: a phase in time
- civilisation: a period of human development that is considered most advanced
- golden-age: a time when an activity or society is at its best
- government: the group of people responsible for ruling a country
- monarchy: a type of government ruled by a king or queen
- democracy: a type of government where the people living there make decisions
- oligarchy: a type of government where a small group of people make the decisions
- Parthenon: an important temple in Athens built during the Ancient Greek golden-age
23 September 2022
This week’s Talk Time brings together the learning that has happened in our Reading sessions last week. The Acceptable Use Agreements have been used in all classes as the stimulus for the reading lessons, as well as a copy being sent home to be agreed and signed.
Check out the KS1 and KS2 agreements.
After reading and discussing these agreements, do you feel these rules could apply outside of school too (e.g. at home or using the internet on your mobile phone)?
Do you think it’s a good idea to have agreed rules in place when using the internet?
