Adding detail
Our great writing continued today as we explored the effect of using adverbs in our writing. We finished the lesson by completing word studies in pairs on quite ambitious adverbs – but ones which it would be possible to use in the descriptive writing we’ll be doing later in the week.
Word studies are a great thing for you to do at home too, particularly with spelling words the children are finding difficult to learn or understand.
In our studies this week, we made sure we identified the definition of the word, drew an image of what it means and used it in a sentence. Then we could decide what our final quarter would be: word family, spelling practice, synonyms or antonyms.
03 November 2017
| Homophones
This week’s words to learn are all homophones: words that sound the sound the same but have different meanings. Children should not only learn how to spell the words but also how to use them correctly in context. Children will be tested on these words on Friday 10 November 2017. |
| isle – aisle |
| allowed – aloud |
| affect – effect |
| herd – heard |
| past – passed |
| your – you’re |
| their – there – they’re |
| of – off |
| wear – we’re |
| to – too – two |
Fountains Abbey trip
Today, Y5 and Y6 visited Fountains Abbey as part our Explorers topic. The trip was particularly exciting because each group were able to plan their own exploration of this National Trust site.
Whilst some of us were off exploring the Studley Royal Gardens, the rest of us were spending ‘A Day in the Life of a Monk’. In this fun workshop, led by National Trust volunteers, we visited the abbey, learnt lots about its history and learnt how monks lived their fascinating lives. Did you know that monks considered heating using a fire a luxury? Or, that they had seven church services a day and one in the middle of the night? Even harder to imagine, they lived almost their whole life in silence. (Some of us would certainly struggle with the last one!)
When exploring, we each had a role to play within our group: map-reader, photographer, visitor surveyor, artist and time-keeper. We were in charge of making sure we visited the places of interest the people in our group wanted to see and had to ensure we were back at our ‘base’ at the correct time. It was really fun to politely approach members of the public and carry out a visitor survey (a geography fieldwork skill). Can you believe that someone had travelled all the way from the USA?
To enhance our geography learning from the classroom, we continued to compare Fountains Abbey with Machu Picchu. We found lots of similarities: they have similarly interesting histories, they are both ruins, they first became ruins in quite similar ways, both places were used by religious people to celebrate a god and we found out that farming was crucial in both places.
We all had a great time and will certainly sleep tonight (the adults will anyway). As always, the children were fantastic ambassadors for our school and we received several compliments from the public.
Here’s some quotes from the day:
- ‘I love nature now!’
- ‘It was great that we chose which parts of Fountains Abbey we wanted to explore.’
- ‘My favourite part was learning how a monk loved their life!’
- ‘It was great finding out about the life of a monk!’
- ‘It was really fun to go for a walk in a nice place!’
Identity
Our Living and Learning theme this half-term is Identity. Pupils will learn about their rights and responsibilities, what makes themselves and others special, valuing the similarities and differences between themselves and others and what is meant by community. This will be taught through our Living and Learning sessions and also two focused weeks – Anti-bullying week (13 November) and Who do you think you are? (20 November).
Our full Living and Learning long term plan is now available on the health pages and you can keep up to date with our weekly Living and Learning statements on the parent noticeboard in the playground and also on the school calendar.
Congratulations!
Congratulations to our new Reception school councillors.
Here they are delivering their manifestos!
Rainbow pasta salad
A post by Year 2 about their morning.
- ‘Today we have done some cooking and we used the bridge and claw to help us.’ Madison
- ‘We had to use our remembering skills so we knew what to do.’ Amrit M
- ‘We put the pasta in the pan with some water and cooked it on the hob.’ Harman
- ‘We cut the cherry tomatoes in half independently.’ James
- ‘Our class put their aprons on to keep us clean.’ Sukmani
- ‘I tied my apron myself.’ Billy
- ‘I used the claw for cutting the cucumber.’ Christina
- ‘To cut the peppers, we used the scissors to snip.’ Aadil
- ‘The equipment we used included scissors, sharp knives, a pan, measuring scales, chopping board and some mixing bowls.’ Edris
- ‘Our class was responsible when we were cooking.’ Lewis
- ‘All the group had a turn at grating the cheese.’ Betty
- ‘I would add some olives to make it even more colourful.’ Sam
- ‘I would add spinach to make it even healthier.’ Harpreet
05 October 2017
|
‘able’ vs ‘ible’ This week’s spellings focus on the -able and -ible suffix. These suffixes can be tricky because they often sound the same. Whilst there are no hard and fast rules, the -able suffix is more common than the -ible suffix. Also, the -able suffix is usually used if the full root word can be heard before the suffix; the -ible suffix is used if the root word cannot be heard. Children should learn how to spell these words in preparation for a test on Friday 13 September. |
| forgivable |
| reversible |
| invincible |
| disposable |
| enviable |
| edible |
| legible |
| respectable |
| adorable |
| sensible |
Sport at Allerton Grange
Year 6 had their first visit to Allerton Grange today to work with their sports leaders. We enjoyed basketball, football, hockey and netball activities which were well-delivered by the Y11s and well-received by the Y6s.
Thanks to Elias who was our class cameraman today and caught some great action-shots.
Traffic survey
Following our local area walk last week, we decided to focus on traffic around school and find out just how much traffic passes our school (hopefully following the new 20mph speed limit).
This enabled us to include some maths skills while we were recording and afterwards to discuss the results.
We are looking forward to comparing this data with the surveys completed by children at Scholes (Elmet) Primary and St James’ CE Primary.
Explorers
Year 2 launched into the whole-school Explorers topic this week by becoming explorers in our local area.
We looked out for physical and human features as we explored.
After our visit, we discussed what we liked and disliked about our local area. A lot of the children had noticed litter on the ground, sometimes very close to a bin, and that was something they didn’t like. Because of this, we are planning some litter picking in the coming weeks.
Traffic was also something that was commented on.
We will be using our maths skills this week to record just how much traffic there is around school. This traffic survey will be exchanged with Scholes (Elmet) Primary and St James (CE) Primary to make comparisons.
We’ve had a great start to the big topic so far and are looking forward to lots more exploring. Below is an overview of the topic.
In this Big Topic, your child will become an intrepid explorer, embarking on an amazing adventure of discovery. Children will compare the physical and human geography of different localities. They’ll use maps, atlases and globes to help them plan journeys into the unknown! Geography learning will be key in this whole-school topic, thought the children will also enjoy other subjects, too. Maths skills, for example, will be used – children might look at positional language, coordinates, or statistics. Your child will also be encouraged to explore and learn about their own locality. Why not involve your child when planning a trip to explore some local attractions like Leeds Art Gallery or the Yorkshire Sculpture Park?