New topic: ‘Food’
This week, we have started a new topic: ‘Food‘. Before the Easter holidays, every child in Year 6 suggested a topic they would like to explore. After creating a shortlist, the children voted and decided on ‘Food‘.
So far, we’ve focused on the geography of the food we eat: where some foods originate from; how they travel to our plates; and why some foods are imported while some are produced here in the UK.
We’re excited to explore this topic further and will keep you updated about all our food-related learning.
You can help at home by (amongst other things!):
- discussing the origin of the foods you eat at home
- looking at the food packaging together and making sense of some of the information you are given
- discussing why some foods might be grown in specific countries
- discussing how foods are advertised and how this might affect us as consumers
- encouraging your child to think about the choices they make when choosing food to eat (are they healthy choices?)
We had a whale of a time!
KS2 Tuesday tuck shop
Our weekly fruit tuck shop returns on Tuesday 26 April.
As an incentive for selecting the pre-pay option, we continue to offer you one week free. Therefore, for the Summer term, the cost for one portion of fruit from 26 April to 12 July 2016 inclusive (11 weeks) is £2.00 (10 x 20p) and the cost for two portions is £4.00 (10 x 40p). Please note that if you choose to pay in advance, your payment is non-refundable and must be made in cash with the exact money.
If you prefer your child to continue paying in cash on a weekly basis, that’s fine – we’ll continue to operate this system. Each portion costs 20p.
If you would like to pay in advance for your child to visit the tuck shop, please provide money to the office as soon as possible.
KS2 fruit tuck shop takes place every Tuesday morning playtime.
New SEAL theme
At Moortown Primary, we’re dedicated to the value of SEAL in promoting a happy and healthy place to learn. However, we’re always thinking about other ways to meet our children’s needs and interests. That’s one of the reasons we choose to sometimes break away from the national SEAL themes to do something different.
This half term, we’ll think about our rights and responsibilities and, importantly, that if we have rights, we also have responsibilities. Children will consider their rights and responsibilities at home, at school and in other places. These may include:
Their right to eat food, their responsibility to eat healthily.
Their right to a good education, their responsibility to listen to the teacher.
Their right to use the internet, their responsibility to go on appropriate websites.
Each week this half-term, we’ll concentrate on a different area:
- Week beginning 18 April: learning
- Week beginning 25 April: playing
- Week beginning 02 May: expressing an opinion
- Week beginning 09 May: staying safe
- Week beginning 16 May: being healthy
- Week beginning 23 May: general
Perhaps you can support your child’s learning by discussing and promoting rights and responsibilities at home, too.
‘Life’ topic skills review
This morning, we spent some time reflecting on the skills we practised whilst learning about our last Big Topic: ‘Life‘.
We chose to focus on the skills we need in order to learn because these are important for life-long learning. Knowledge is important, too, but it’s crucial not to neglect the skills that underpin our learning.
We worked in groups to create a ‘diamond 9’; the children were given seven skills and also had to choose two of our ‘8Rs for learning’.
Then, we reflected as a class and decided on this ‘diamond 9’:
At the top is the skill we all thought was most important: working with others. All the other skills are important, too!
Football training
Thank you to all the children who attended football training tonight. Everyone was focused, positive and tried hard – well done!
Also, a big thank you to the parents who were able to help with walking and being an extra adult.
The children were glad to hear that we have some matches lined up too. Look out for a letter with more details.
Here are some action shots:
Mini-topic: ‘Loving Reading’
For the next two weeks, we will be completing a new mini-topic: Loving Reading.
The emphasis of the topic is all about enjoying reading. As you are aware, we already give reading a high profile within our class but this topic will put reading (and a love of reading) at the forefront of our learning.
Lots of research suggests that children who read for pleasure perform better at school and reading is certainly a life-skill!
As part of the mini-topic, children were given some reading challenges to complete over the next two weeks. It would be great if they could finish them all (some are easier to achieve than others).
You can help at home by:
- Encouraging your child to complete the challenges.
- Raising the profile of reading at home (Family reading time? A visit to a bookshop/library? Discussing reading over a meal?).
- Reading with your child regularly; whilst reading for pleasure is important, understanding what you read is even more so. The only way to be sure that children are practising their reading skills properly is to read with them and ask questions.
- Encouraging your child to read more than usual.
- Showing your child that reading can take many forms (fiction books, non-fiction books, e-books, audio books, magazines, newspapers, trusted websites, instructions, recipes, online news).
Again, we thank you for your continued support!
Holiday activity idea
18 March 2016
This week, your child has been given a copy of the Year 3/4 spelling list. They must pick 10 spellings that follow the rule double up for a short vowel sound. Words that follow this rule include comma (compare the sound of the ‘o’ with coma, where there is no double up), hopping (compared with hoping) and funny. Why not ask your child to identify the short vowel sound in each of these words. 