10 March 2017
The spellings to learn this week are all homophones… words that sound the same but mean different things. As well as the spelling, children need to know the meaning of each word. When I test the children on these spellings, I’ll give them the word in a sentence. For example – There was a pretty, pink flower growing in my garden.
10 March 2017
The homework this week is creative and is due in on Thursday 16 March.
I can show what I have learnt about fractions.
In maths lessons, we’ve become familiar with unit and non-unit fractions, fractions of objects, quantities and numbers. For this homework, show off what you have learnt this week involving fractions.
It’s worth remembering that ‘creative‘ does not necessarily mean ‘colourful’ or ‘eye-catching’. Similarly, it is worth remembering that we expect children to spend a minimum of 30-40 minutes on creative homework – children shouldn’t spend much longer, either.
Houses and homes yoga
Today we had a topic yoga session incorporating lots of yoga poses while thinking of fictional homes, animal homes and homes from around the world. Our relaxation at the end of the session is always a favourite and another way to keep calm.
Keeping calm
Our SEAL statement this week is I keep calm or help others to calm down.
The children had some great ideas for how to calm down if they were cross, angry, upset, over excited or another time they might feel overwhelmed with emotions.
Ask them to explain how the following methods can help them.
- Taking deep breaths
- Fist flowers
- Doing a calming activity such as going for a walk or reading a book
We often take some time after lunch to have a lie down, listening to calming music to relax and prepare for the afternoon.
To support this at home, the children made their own mind bottles. The idea behind the bottles is to shake it up and watch how it settles… rather like our minds!
Team players
Today, as part of our learning about our current SEAL theme (Getting On), we thought about what the ‘perfect’ team player would look like. We thought about our strengths as individuals – of which we have many – and then combined them to make the ultimate team player.
Ask your child…
- What did we decide was really important?
- Is there anything you would add to the list?
- Which of these attributes is most important/least important?
- Which of these things do you consider to be a strength of yours?
- Which of these do you think you’re not so good at yet? (The ‘yet‘ bit of this question is really important because, with practice, they will become good at this.)
We think the ‘perfect’ team player would have these attributes…
A good team player would ask him/her self…
West Yorkshire cross country finalist
Congratulations to Grace who this week achieved 14th place in the Leeds Primary Schools cross country final at Middleton Park out of over 100 runners in her Year 5 girls race.
This means Grace has now qualified to represent Leeds at the West Yorkshire Cross Country Final at Temple Newsam. A fantastic achievement!
If Grace has inspired you to give running a try, why not take part in the local weekly Junior Park Run at Roundhay Park.
To be or not to be…
As part of our Time Travel – Entertainment topic, we’ve explored how people were entertained in Elizabethan times. Theatres were the main form of entertainment and this, obviously, led us directly to the great work of Shakespeare. We began the week by picking apart Shakespearean language to see whether we could understand it – which we could!
The children were really interested in what it would have been like to go to the theatre in the 1600s and had lots of questions. They then showed off some fantastic acting skills by taking on a snippet of Shakespeare in small groups – very entertaining.
Well done, Mary Poppins aka Mrs Valentine!
Thanks to the parent who emailed this:
“I just wanted to let you know how very impressed myself and [my daughter] are with Mrs Valentine’s efforts dressing up and acting out Mary Poppins. She is an inspiration to us all…she showed everyone how to have fun and be part of an event.
[We] are very proud to have her as a teacher at Moortown and hope you all are too.Very well done, Mrs Valentine.”
We certainly are proud to have Mrs Valentine in our school – as we are with all our great teachers. (We’re proud of our wonderfully supportive parents / carers, too!)
Fire Safety
This afternoon, we’ve been joined by two firefighters from Moortown Fire Station. They came in to educate us about fire safety. The afternoon was incredibly useful and we learnt lots about how to stay safe.
We learnt what fires need to get started: the Triangle of Fire. Ask your child if they can remember what this means. Importantly, we learnt how crucial it is that every house has an agreed fire safety action plan. This is a series of things that each person in the house will do in the event of a fire. Do you have one at home? The firefighters were very keen for everyone to have a fire action plan agreed with the people they live with; it’s a huge predictor for how likely you are to escape unharmed in the event of a fire.
Really importantly, we learnt about the dangers of making hoax calls to the emergency services. Ask you child why making false calls to the fire brigade can have deadly ramifications.
On a very serious note, I was alarmed that some children in the class thought the emergency services number was 911 not 999. Please make sure that your children are aware of critical information like this for their safety and yours.
Homework Review
As always, our homework was great this week. We had lots of varied responses to our creative piece: demonstrations, Scratch projects, interviews with parents, videos, collages and loads more.
Below are some of our favourites. It’s always interesting that the children’s favourite pieces are not always the most ‘jazzy’, or the most colourful, but the pieces that are original, different and interesting.
