Big Pedal
Get set… we’re taking part in The Big Pedal 2017, the UK’s largest inter-school cycling and scooting challenge that inspires pupils, staff and parents to choose two wheels for their journey to school. The challenge runs from 20th to 31st March. It’s free to enter and we would love everyone to be involved.
Why we’re taking part and prizes available
Active travel to school is proven to improve the health of children by preventing obesity, reducing congestion and carbon emissions around schools and increasing concentration in the classroom.
By taking part, the school will compete for a national Big Pedal 2017 Trophy and will be in with a chance to win some fantastic national prizes including world champion BMX and mountain bike stunt shows, a visit from world famous explorer Alastair Humphreys, 9 brand new Islabikes and much more!
We also have prizes just for pupils (and parents and carers) at Moortown Primary School including two new stunt scooters, a scooter action camera, a track pump (donated by Edinburgh Bicycle Cooperative), M&S and Filmore & Union vouchers (both donated).
How you can help to increase our chances of winning?
On each day of the challenge schools compete to see who can record the greatest number of pupils, staff and parents cycling or scooting to school. Each day that at least 15% of pupils at Moortown Primary register a bike or scooter journey, the school will go into a daily draw for fantastic national prizes. Our best 5 days (based on % participation) will determine our final position in the challenge and if we clock up the most bike and scooter journeys nationally we’ll win a Big Pedal 2017 Trophy! Moortown Primary School prizes will be drawn separately by the school.
What’s next?
All you need to do is encourage your child(ren) to cycle or scoot to school every day during the event, and join them on their way – parent/carer and sibling journeys are counted too and you might even win a prize!
Some children tell us they can’t take part in these events because they live too far away from school and have to come by car. We encourage these families to park further away and complete the final part of the journey by scooter or bike. These journeys can be included in our school total.
Bikes and scooters should be stored as safely as possible in our storage area beside the Year 3 and 4 classrooms.
Finally, if you have any Big Pedal success stories or photos to share, please send them to moortownoffice@spherefederation.org so we can use them to encourage others.
Yorkshire Wildlife Park
We had a great (and exhausting) day at the wildlife park!
10 March 2017
The homework this week is talk time.
I keep calm or help others to calm down.
In class we’ve been talking about strategies used to help calm down. Talk to people at home about what you can do to help yourself calm down or how you can spot when people are not feeling calm and how you can help them.
10 March 2017
The spellings this week all have a double up for a short vowel sound. They also all end with the suffix ed or ing. The root word (eg pat, hop, etc) is also included in the list.
| pat patted |
| hop hopped |
| drop dropped |
| trap trapped |
| hum humming |
| slip slipping |
| clap clapping |
| grin grinning |
Roller Coaster Engineers
Yesterday morning, we were joined by some students from Leeds University who helped us become roller coaster engineers.
We were given some basic equipment and had to make a marble rollercoaster that involved twists, loop-the-loops and it had to end with the marble landing in a plastic cup.
We had a great time designing and making our roller coasters and would like to thank Leeds University for sharing their expertise with us.
Allerton Grange
This morning, we were lucky enough to go to Allerton Grange for a PE lesson. We enjoyed practising our hockey, football and netball skills under the guidance of the Year 11 junior sports leaders.
Here’s a few pictures of us in action…
Some great Maths learning!
Each week, Year 6 do Guided Maths which gives us an opportunity to work in small groups and revise learning from earlier this year and even Year 5. It means we’re always revisiting our learning either on our own or with adult support.
Last week, we revised angles and the group on our Maths Challenge Table produced some brilliant independent work.
Rollercoasters
On Thursday 09 March, Year 6 had a wonderful time with visitors from Leeds University as part of both national STEM week and our Time Travel – Entertainment topic. Our visitors talked to us about how rollercoasters work, discussing the gravitational and kinetic energy involved and how they conserve energy. (This means the amount of energy stays the same but it is transferred into different types.)
Once we understood the science, we were tasked with creating our own rollercoasters using half foam tubes as the track and a marble as the carriage. We got more points if we could create loop the loops, corkscrews or jumps and even more if we could land the marble in a cup at the end!
Take a look at some of our incredible rollercoasters and some fab teamwork.
The winning team got a whopping 70 points: three loops, one corkscrew, a jump and a cup landing!
10 March 2017
This week, Year 6 have a mini Maths test and a mini SPaG test for their Practice Makes Perfect homework.
The children could complete it independently, with you or a bit of both by doing it themselves then going through it together. Make sure they make note of anything they’re struggling with as we’ll discuss this as a class in our homework review on Thursday 09 March.
10 March 2017
This week’s spelling activity is a bit of fun. Have a look at the Year 3/4 and 5/6 spelling lists you received at parents’ evening (or here) and create a game, quiz, crossword, wordsearch or anything else you can think of which will help us to practise them.
Bring your game to our homework review on Friday 17 March.