Leonardo Da Vinci: A life in drawing
We are very excited this exhibition of some of Leonardo Da Vinci’s art work, at Leeds Art Gallery, is taking place during our current art based big topic, Katie and…
A visit is planned to the art gallery, as part of our topic learning, so the children will get chance to see these famous pieces of art. More details about the trip will follow.
Leeds Gymfest performer
Congratulations to Betsy for performing at the Leeds Arena for the Leeds Gymfest this weekend.
This was a great achievement to perform with her club, Leeds Gymnastics, in front of an audience of 4,000!
Scooter training reminder
To start our Staying Safe themed week this week, don’t forget your scooters and helmets on Monday for the scooter training.
The trainers will bring spare scooters and helmets so don’t worry if your child can’t bring one to school.
To make sure we can access the scooters for each class, please park your scooters outside your child’s classroom when you arrive in the morning.
Finally, any remaining permissions must be given for your child to take part in this activity.
Natural Disasters – Flooding
On Thursday, Year 4 had a visit from Mr Pearson who leads a flood risk management team across the UK, protecting communities from this natural disaster. This visit fits in well with our current topic. During this workshop, the children asked some great questions and learnt lots of new facts.
Mr Pearson spoke to the children about his role and how this links to STEM.
STEM is a curriculum based on the idea of educating children in four specific disciplines — science, technology, engineering and mathematics.
Noah stated: “I really want to be an engineer.”
Year 4 learnt that computer models are used to identify areas that are at risk of flooding. When an area has been predicted to flood, there is only a two day window in which to put measures in place. The children studied graphs and diagrams showing water levels at different times of a day. What are the consequences of flooding?
“People could die,” commented Sami.
“Houses collapse,” said Jemima.
“People can get trapped in cars,” mentioned Musa.
Mr Pearson spoke about the places most at risk of flooding. Places such as Hull are very flat and prone to floods. We discussed the need for effective teamwork in these disastrous situations.
“How long does it take for flood water to go down?” asked Daisy.
“How does a flash flood happen?” questioned Kashif.
What is being done to prevent flooding in high risk areas?
Year 4 found out about different types of flood defences being used to minimise devastation. The Thames Barrier prevents the floodplain of most of Greater London from being flooded by exceptionally high tides and storm surges moving up from the North Sea. When needed, it is closed (raised) during high tide; at low tide it can be opened to restore the river’s flow towards the sea. 
Ask your child if they can remember the meaning of the word ‘recede.‘
There was some super learning during this session.
Well done Year 4 and thank you Mr Pearson!
Volcanos
On Tuesday, Year 3 and 4 made volcanos!
We started our day by learning about a crutial skill we would need to succeed at making volcanos: teamwork.
First of all, we talked about what bad teamwork looks and sounds like. Then we compared it with examples of good teamwork.
Edris and Evie– “Bad teamwork is if you were writing a story, and not sharing resources or ideas . Good teamwork would be working together and sharing ideas taking turns.”
Sukhmani & Madison – “Bad teamwork is when you don’t work together but good teamwork is even when you’re not friends you can still work together.”
Harman and Ashton – “If we were fighting over resources we wouldn’t be working as a team. Instead, we could share.”
We talked about different jobs where teamwork is really important: footballers, doctors, professional dancers, the Royal Air Force and firefighters.
We then worked in our teams to put the instructions, on how to make a volcano, back together.
Have a look at some of the pictures from our volcano making, below.
Have a look at the finished results:
Well done Year 3 and Year 4 – you’ve really impressed us with your teamwork and communication skills!
Fighting Fantasy Art
This week, our Art lesson has explored the images in our class novel. We focused on line, texture and form. Challenge your child! Ask them to define these visual and tactile elements of art.
We practised these three elements with everyday or common objects…
…before having a go at replicating our favourite artwork from the book.
The results were very effective!
“I enjoyed this artwork because we were just using pencil instead of loads of different colours.” – Alexander
“I enjoyed it because I like shading and we were doing a lot of it.” – Aisha
“I enjoyed this because it really stood out. The hardest bit was probably when we did the lines and thinking of a good idea to draw.” – Byron
Offline Computing
In this week’s Computing lesson, Year 5 were writing and debugging algorithms. Ask your child to define this key term!
“We were making our own algorithms to try and get round the board in 30 or less pieces of code and for anticlockwise 90 degrees you just put ACW90 because it shortens it down instead of writing it all out and taking ages.” – Evie
“I found making the pieces of code 30 or less the hardest because you had to collect all the coins which was really hard.” – Zidaan
“I enjoyed this lesson because we got to debug other people’s codes and they would have to figure it out if we’d written ‘I have tinkered with your algorithm’ in their book.” – Maggie
Active Blasts
Year 5 have had an active classroom this week. We’ve found that an active break of ten minutes helps us to refocus and feel better!
“It helps your muscular endurance a little better than even Wake Up Shake Up!” – Omar
“We had to do a number of activities to do with mountain biking like jumping and freeze framing!” – Eleni
Mindfulness really helps us, as well. We’ve been refocusing using a partner, too.
“It helps me because it calms you down and gets stuff out of your mind.” – William
“It doesn’t help me much.” – Ben
“It helps me if we’ve just been outside and it gets the focus back in the classroom.” – Eve
What is stamina?
Our class novel is centred around YOU, the hero, and your stamina, luck and skill. But what is stamina? (Ask your child to define it!)
Over the next six weeks, we will be investigating stamina and muscular endurance as part of our PE lessons.
Children chose an activity that they will complete every week. Will they get better with practice? Will they be able to do more repetitions as they get used to the exercise? Will their stamina increase?
“I enjoyed doing loads of things to make us better with stamina so then we can do more activities and sports.” – Henry
“I enjoyed this because I did something I didn’t even know I could do! I did the plank for 5 minutes and 16 seconds!” – Darien
“I enjoyed when we were training with our partners and we didn’t know we could do these exercises but now we’ve tried it and we did it!” – Serenity
A mystery!
Who broke the chair in Reception?
Who does the footprint belong to?
The children measured their feet with cubes to prove the footprint wasn’t theirs.
