Amazing skipping
Today, the day had finally come. It was the event we had been building up to after all our skipping practicing – the Year 2 Skipping Festival!
Jodi, Chris and Katie welcomed us and the other five schools to the event at Armley Leisure Centre. First of all, there was a skipping warm up for everyone before the individual skippers did their events. The children were so encouraging and supportive to their class mates and every child tried their best and performed amazingly well.
Next, it was time for the group events. The children worked so well together in their teams and once again, we were so proud of what they have achieved. Even in the last few days, we have seen some of the children mastering these new skills.
Finally, it was time for the results. The tension was mounting…
Double bounce – Rory 1st and Erica 1st
Single bounce – Daniyal 2nd and Roshni joint 1st
Side straddle – Aaron 2nd and Haleema 1st
Side swing – Ibrahim Sh 2nd and Grace 3rd
We were so pleased to have received so many awards. Sadly, we weren’t the winning school but we were amazed to hear that we were in 2nd place out of six schools and that it was very close between us and the winners.
The children have been so resilient, determined and have definitely believed in themselves (even when it has been hard learning new skills) and we are very proud of them all.
To be told by one of the class at the end of the event, ‘thank you for teaching us to skip’, made it all worthwhile!
Here’s some of the action. Keeeeep skipping!
We are designers!
Welcome back Year 5!
I can’t believe we are in our final half term of the year. It has absolutely flown by!
Our final topic of the year is design technology. This week, the children will be looking into historical inventors and designers and how they have influenced the world we know today. Some particular designers/inventors of interest are Isambard Brunel, Lewis Latimer, George Stephenson and Jony Ive.
Underneath is our topic vocabulary. It may be useful to have a look through this regularly with your child to improve understanding of each piece of vocabulary. Another beneficial idea is to dive deeper into the designers listed above. Find out more about a specific person of interest and how they still have impact on the world today.
Year 2 Lexia learning
Nearly 50% of the class have either achieved the end of Year 2 certificate (Level 9) for Lexia or are currently working on this level. Well done to all those children!
As we start our final half term in Year 2, it would be great to see as many of the class as possible achieve this target by the end of this year.
Just ten minutes a day, at home, can help to achieve this.
Please let us know if you have any difficulties with your child’s log in.
PE days this half term
Hi everyone,
Sadly, our gymnastic sessions on a Monday afternoon came to an end last half term.
Therefore, this half term, our PE days will be Wednesday and Thursday.
We will be swimming on a Wednesday, like usual. On Thursdays, we will be practising a range of different events in preparation for Sports Day!
Thanks!
Mr Wain
Welcome back!
Welcome back. We hope you had a great half-term!
We can’t believe we have reached the last half term of the year and the children will soon be heading off to Year 1!
This half term is always busy with lots of exciting things to look forward to.
This term our mini-themes will be:
Let’s make a splash!
As we move into the final term of the year, the weather is much warmer (we hope!) and we begin thinking about days at the beach. The water area is a favourite in our provision and has lots of learning opportunities. As a scientist, your child will investigate floating and sinking, making predictions and testing theories. They’ll also investigate materials in terms of being waterproof. As a geographer, your child will look at a seaside town and find it on a map, learning that a seaside town is always on the coast. They’ll talk about the things that they see at the seaside that they don’t see in Leeds. Finally, as a historian, your child will learn about seaside holidays of the past, identifying differences in clothing and entertainment by looking at old photos and videos.
Where in the world?
Summer holidays are on our minds during these last few weeks of term. This theme enables us to develop an understanding of travel. We will think about the different ways people can travel to holiday destinations: by car, coach or aeroplane, for example. Your child will find out how much travel has changed through history. They will become travel agents in role-play situations, too.
In addition we will be thinking about change and our transition to Year 1. The children will be given the chance to visit their new classroom areas.
Phonics
We are continuing with phase 4 learning. The children will be reading more challenging words and sentences and gaining more confidence and fluency. They will use their knowledge to write simple sentences independently.
Living and Learning: Body image
Body image, as part of our Living and Learning curriculum, uses a focus on self-esteem to promote a positive body image. There is a strong emphasis on appreciating and celebrating everyone’s unique qualities, talents and abilities.
We want to enable pupils to feel proud and confident about who they are and to value their own and each other’s individuality.
Firstly, we talked about what makes us special – maybe something physical or personal. Here are some of the children’s ideas.
I’m special as I love reading books.
I’m special because I can make new friends.
I’m special because I hard try hard with my learning.
I’m special as I’m brave by swimming in a big pool.
I’m special because I’m good at helping others.
Next, we discussed why we have names and what if everyone was nameless?
If we didn’t have names, we wouldn’t be as special as we are.
We have names because we are unique and special.
We need names as we wouldn’t know who people are.
A name makes us special.
Then, we considered why we like different activities.
We like different activities because we are different people.
Some people like different things.
Not everyone likes the same thing because we are all different.
It would be boring if everyone liked the same things. It is good to share each others’ successes and interests.
Remember – not everyone can be good at everything but everyone is good at something.
Finally, we thought about why we look different and what things we can change and what things we can’t change about ourselves.
You can change your personality because if you don’t share with others, you can learn to share.
You can’t change your skin colour.
Listen to this text, Your Body is Awesome, with your child. What is brilliant about their body?
It’s always great to hear the children discussing and sharing ideas in our Living and Learning sessions. The children always have such a lot to say about this key area of our learning. A special mention to Erica who showed fantastic listening skills to all the children as they shared their ideas in this lesson.
Drop-down morning: History
Each half term, we have a drop down morning where we revisit previous learning from previous half terms, terms and years!
On Wednesday, we had our History drop down morning.
Our first session was about chronology: we ordered periods of British history in chronological order.
Later on in the morning, we revisited recent learning about The Romans. This is what we were able to remember:
We ended the morning by playing a Kahoot about the Great Fire of London.
Well done to our winners Alasdair and Maya who got 9/10 correct and answered the questions the quickest!
Well done to everybody for their awesome remembering!
Gymnastics
This week in gymnastics we got all the equipment out and did some amazing climbing, jumping and sliding. The children were very excited and loved seeing how high they could climb. I was very impressed by their resilience and their bravery. I was also very glad to see all children taking safe risks in this way and showing good maturity to know when they felt they had gone high enough.
Living and Learning: Body Image
This week in Living and Learning we talked about giving and receiving compliments to others as well as ourselves. We talked about what a compliment is and thought about a compliment we could give our partner. Here are just some of the children’s ideas.
‘The person sitting next to me is special because she is always kind and always helps me.’
‘The person sitting next to me is special because she always makes good choices’
‘The person sitting next to me is special because he works really hard.’
We then practised giving and receiving compliments, making sure we said thank you.
Then, we discussed our own bodies and how amazing they are! Finally, we thought of something incredible about our own body.
My body is amazing because it can do anything!
My body is amazing because it heals infection.
My body is amazing because it can make lots of friends.
My body is amazing because my fingers make wonderful drawings!
I think we all agreed how brilliant all our bodies are!
Summer fun
