Y5 assembly
Thank you very much for attending the Y5 class assembly this week – I know Miss Rushbrooke was really sorry to have missed it.
Here are a few of your comments:
- “Well done. Could hear them all. Most informative.”
- “Wonderful speaking and great percussion.”
- “Great debate and very informative.”
- “Fantastic! Great confidence!”
- “Loads of great facts showing how much they’ve learnt.”
16 October 2015
Practice Makes Perfect focusses on spellings this week. Choose 15 spellings you have learnt so far this year and write it into a sentence. Think about how you can show what you’ve learnt about different types of sentences too.
- Simple sentence (made more interesting with adverbs and adjectives)
- Compound sentence (using conjunctions to join ideas)
- Complex sentence (with an opener, middler or ender)
16 October 2015
This week’s homework is Talk Time and will be discussed on Wednesday 21 October.
I make my class a good place to learn.
Discuss at home how you and other people in the class can make our class a good place to learn all the time. We’ll then share our ideas together on Wednesday.
Don’t forget to write a couple of sentences to help support your discussion in class.
15 October 2015
We have really enjoyed our dance lessons this half-term. Here we are hard at work performing one of the dances we have been learning.
We have started a new class novel, Five on a treasure island, which ties into our Holidays Big Topic. Why not ask your child what has happened so far in the story?
We’ve been busy building dens!
What a great morning we had today! I discovered that Year 1 are marvellous den-makers! They concentrated so hard on securing the tricky zip ties, worked fantastically in their teams and persevered despite the occasional collapse! After building the dens, the class enjoyed their milk inside them and then voted for their favourite. This activity fitted in well with our Holidays Big Topic as we are looking at camping holidays this week.
This afternoon, we began writing a recount of our time building dens using time openers (first, then, next, after that, finally etc). Support you child at home: Ask your child if they could tell you a recount of their morning making dens using some of these words.
Leeds Children’s Mayor update
Unfortunately Ahmed, our entry for the Leeds Children’s Mayor competition, wasn’t successful in reaching the final twelve. With a record number of entries this year, thirty six, all entrants were congratulated on their efforts. Well done, Ahmed.
‘We really appreciate you taking the time to enable your Year 6 children to take part and that having your Year 6 think “big” about changing the city and their local community was an interesting citizenship activity for them.’
The Leeds Children’s Mayor project provides pupils with the opportunity to develop their knowledge and understanding about democratic processes and being an active citizen, promoting this aspect of ‘British Values’. All pupils are encouraged to take part in the election itself by reading the manifestos of the final twelve and casting a vote for their choice of the next Leeds Children’s Mayor.
Please note that voting goes live at 12pm on Tuesday 13 October and closes at 12pm on Thursday 05 November. The winner of the election will be announced on 9th November by the Lord Mayor of Leeds, Councillor Judith Chapman.
Let’s have a debate
Having focussed on the River Amazon for the last couple of weeks, we spotted areas of the forest that had been chopped down and discussed what was happening.
We learnt that this is called deforestation and there are pros and cons to it. After learning about why people chop trees down and how they benefit as well as exploring what damage it does to the local and global environment, we formed teams and debated.
Should deforestation be allowed to happen?
Yes – Local people earn money from selling wood that is chopped down and they need that money to pay for food and shelter.
No – Cutting down trees cuts down animals’ habitats and might lead to them dying as they have nowhere to live.
Yes – Trees can be cut down sustainably so that only a couple of trees in one area is destroyed and older, rotten trees can be targetted.
No – But trees that are cut down damage many trees around them.
Yes – Any trees that are cut down can be replaced by newly planted trees so they’ll grow back.
No – Maybe so. However, it takes years for these trees to grow back and they’re never the same as they were.
It was difficult to decide which was right or wrong as we could always argue back with another point!
Attendance update
What’s your child’s attendance like so far this year?
For the year so far, up until Friday 09 October, here’s what attendance is like for each class:
- Reception: 95.8%
- Year 1: 98.1%
- Year 2: 97.5%
- Year 3: 97.6%
- Year 4: 97.8%
- Year 5: 98.7%
- Year 6: 98.3%
This gives us an overall attendance figure for the school: 97.8%. Last year, the whole-school average was 97.2% – this year, let’s aim to continue beating this figure!
Writing and grammar workshop
Thank you to the parents / carers who attended this afternoon’s Writing and Grammar Workshop.
“Great overview with resources to get more information if or when needed.” (Year 3 and 6 parent)
In the 2015 Annual Survey, 82% of you agree that adults in school explain how to support your child’s reading at home. We want this to be higher, so have lots more workshops – including evenings ones – coming up this year…
- Maths (2.30pm on Monday 19 October 2015, to be repeated at 6.00pm on Monday 23 November)
- Learning in Reception and Year 1 (2.30pm on Tuesday 10 November 2015)
- What is mastery? (2.30pm on Monday 16 November 2015, to be repeated at 6.00pm on the same day)
- Reading (a repeat workshop to be held at 6.00pm on Monday 02 November)
- Grammar and writing (a repeat workshop to be held at 6.00pm on Tuesday 10 November)
What’s happening in class?
Here’s an overview of what Year 5 will be learning in class in the two weeks running up to half-term.
Topic – Alongside learning about Brazil and seeing how it is similar/different to our country, we’ll be getting creative by looking at Brazilian art and picking up our saws and drills for some woodwork.
Help at home by looking at Brazil on Google maps, finding mountains, rivers, neighbouring countries and then do the same for the UK.
Maths – Fractions will be our focus all the way up to half-term. The children need to understand equivalent fractions, order fractions by finding a common denominator and they need to be able to add and multiply fractions together.
Help at home by joining in with Practice Makes Perfect homework. Ask your child to explain how to solve fraction problems to you as though you’ve never heard of the word fraction before.
English – Having focussed on writing promotions last week, we’ll continue this and write our own promotional text for a boat trip up the River Amazon. This will be followed by writing recounts.
Help at home by looking at the language used in adverts and read it to each other in your best ‘M&S voice’. Have a meal where only ‘writing talk’ is allowed. Everything you say must be in full sentences as though you were writing it down.