27 January 2016
This week’s spelling activity continues our work on how etymology can help us to understand word meaning and aid spelling.
What words can you create which include these prefixes? Create mini-dictionaries of words with the same prefix and see whether you notice their similar meanings.
27 January 2017
This week’s homework is Creative and is a little different. It’s due on 02 February, in plenty of time to enter…
As avid readers of First News, we’ve found a competition that we’re keen to get involved in and who am I to stand in the way of an opportunity brought about by reading?!
The children have each been given a competition entry sheet and here are the instructions from the advert itself:
So, this week’s homework is to design your own wizarding professor. Here’s what I think you’ll need to do to be in with a chance of winning:
- Draw a clear, imaginative and eye-catching picture of them.
- Keep your design to the entry template – no going out of the box.
- Add some information about your professor, either with a written description to go with them, or by adding descriptive labels.
- Think outside the box – how is yours going to stand out from thousands of other entries?
As a class, we’ll choose one to send in and all have our fingers crossed.
27 January 2017
Homophones
This year, we’ve already had a two-week spelling focus on ‘homophones’ (words that sound the same but are spelled differently and have different meanings). However, because homophones can be really confusing we’ll be practising (or should it be practicing?) these words again. Also, as a class, we often choose the wrong homophone in our writing.
For this week’s spelling activity, children should choose three homophones. They could choose homophones that they know they often get wrong, ones they find tricky or words that we have not focussed on yet this year.
For each homophone they should do the following:
- Give a definition of each meaning.
- Use both words in a sentence.
- Practise spelling each one in two different ways (use the sheet in your book for inspiration)
- Come up with a method for remembering witch won is witch which one is which that might help someone else remember.
They should use the spelling page of their (or there?) homework book to record their (or they’re?) practice.
*Disclaimer: any incorrect uses of homophones throughout this post are intentional.
Be Food Smart
Be Food Smart is the latest health campaign from Change4life. Our everyday food and drink can contain surprisingly high amounts of sugar, saturated fat and salt, meaning most of us are eating more than we realise. National Child Measurement Programme data shows that one fifth of Reception and one third of Year 6 children are overweight or obese.
Public Health England has launched a free app, which families can use together to uncover how healthy their food choices are. The Be Food Smart app allows you to easily scan the bar codes of branded products, as well as supermarket favourites, to see how much sugar, saturated fat and salt is lurking inside.
This week, on a Good to be me theme, one of our parents spoke at a whole school assembly. She talked about changes she made to her diet and physical activity levels to become healthier.
One change she made was to have a healthy breakfast. We need this to give us a good start to the day.
Breakfast can have surprising amounts of sugar, saturated fat and salt. In fact, research has shown that children are eating nearly half their maximum daily amount of sugar before they get to school. See how sugar stacks up at breakfast time.
Having read this research, one family in school have recently made a change from sugary cereals to low sugar alternatives such as porridge and shredded wheat. Interestingly, at this same time, I commented to the parent that the particular child had become more focused in lessons.
Change4life provides lots of ideas for eating well and getting active, including ideas for packed lunches. The new lunchbox section has lots of simple, tasty and healthy tips for hassle-free lunches.
School Saving Club
The next School Saving Club paying in date is 02 February 2017 at 3.15-3.45pm.
If you are unable to attend in person, please hand in any money to be paid in, to the office in a sealed envelope addressed to Miss Hale.
For your information the paying in dates for the rest of the year are:
- 23 March 2017 3.15-3.45pm
- 18 May 2017 3.15-3.45pm
- 13 July 2017 3.15-3.45pm
If your child would like to open account, please ask at the office.
E-safety – an important message from the Leeds Safeguarding Children Board
The Director of Leeds Children’s Services has encouraged us to share the following, which comes from Leeds Safeguarding Children Board:
There are reports in the media today about an e-safety incident involving primary age children from Leeds. Just to be clear, the incident did not take place in school or through an ‘app’ approved by school, but was reported to the school by concerned parents. The incident is now being investigated by West Yorkshire Police.
This incident has highlighted a number of safeguarding issues raised recently about smartphone ‘apps’ including Live.ly, ooVoo, and music.ly amongst others. These apps are supposed to only be able to access contacts on the user’s phone, but it appears that quite quickly unknown individuals are able to join group chats. Therefore, these apps are not safe for children to use as there is a significant risk of inappropriate contact by unknown individuals.
Our advice to parents is to ensure that their children do not have access to such apps on their phone and to check that all appropriate privacy settings are switched on, to make sure that children are protected when using any internet site. If a child experiences or expresses concerns about online activity, it must be reported to the police using 101 and CEOP. Wherever possible, a screen shot or a mobile phone picture of the concern should be taken for reporting purposes.
There is some useful information on the LSCB website about online safety with some useful tips for parents.
After-school club availability
Some of our after-school clubs, starting from next week, are now open to other year groups.
Monday
- Dance (Mr Lynch) – This club is now open to Years 1-3.
Wednesday
- Gymnastics (run by Leeds Gymnastics) – This club is now open to Years 1-3.
Thursday
- Dance (Miss Marsden) – This club is now open to Reception.
Please contact the office, by Thursday 26 January, if your child would like a place on these clubs.
Creative Science homework
My usually up-to-date posts on Year 6’s consistently fantastic Creative homework has slipped since the Christmas break and I can only apologise. Better late than never, here’s a sneaky peek into our ‘Science is all around’ homework from a couple of weeks ago. I couldn’t possibly not post it as I was even more amazed that usual.
Can’t wait for our next instalment! As always, we looked at everyone’s work and then took a closer work at one person’s in particular to comment on their work individually.
Entertainment through the ages
We kicked off our new Big Topic last week: Time Travel – Entertainment. We began by thinking about some key periods in history and wondering about what sort of entertainment was around at the time.
Then, working together, we used our knowledge of dates to put key time periods in chronological order, matching major forms of entertainment as we went.
Here’s our final piece of work to go on our topic wall for us to refer to as we for the next eight weeks.
Learning skills
As well as learning key historical facts and information in our Time Travel Houses and Homes topic, we are also developing other skills.
For example, while learning about houses in the Victorian times, in our topic lesson today, we were also focusing on reading skills, working with others and thinking skills.
The BBC Primary History website provides more information about the Victorian times.
Take a look at our representation of back-to-back terraced houses, common at this time to house poor Victorian families.
