Oh I do like to be beside the seaside!
We’re looking forward to our new topic starting on Monday, “Oh I Do Like To Be Beside the Seaside!”
There will be all sorts going on and lots of learning taking place. The children will be able to experience the seaside themselves when we visit Filey Beach on 13.06.12; we’ll be sending out more information nearer the time about what they need to bring with them.
In the classroom, there will be comparisons made between the seaside now and the seaside in the past and they will hear from a visitor about how it has changed. Please talk about your experiences of the seaside at home; any photos that you have of different seasides would be appreciated.
It will be a bit messy towards the end of our topic when we are making sea creatures out of mod roc – messy but lots of fun and new skills being learned.
If you can contribute to our topic in any way then please let us know.
Thank you.
What is a force?
Our creative homework has stirred some interest this week; some of the homework that the children have done is amazing! The mini-topic on forces has meant that we are creating pulleys for a lighthouse keeper so he can get his sandwiches (think of the wonderful books about The Lighthouse Keeper!). We’ve also been looking for different forces around school. Here’s one of the great Creative Homework pieces that have grabbed our interest this week:
Welcome!
Welcome to Hassan who joined Year 1 this week. He has made a positive and enthusiastic start at Moortown Primary. The children in Year 1 are very pleased to have a lovely new friend!
Easter Excitement!
The first ever “Egg Olympics” took place at Moortown Primary School last Friday. The smell of eggs in the KS1 building was worth it just for the excitement of rolling eggs down the back playground. All of the eggs were decorated beautifully by the children and then they were rolled expertly without much breakage at all – one yolk escaped but all in all it worked really well.
There were three heats from each year group and then a year group final. Here are the lucky winners…
Thanks to all parents for supporting our “Egg Olympics” by boiling eggs and thanks to all those who helped at the bun sale along with everyone else for spending lots of money.
Have a great holiday. See you on Monday 16 April.
Dynamic Dancers
Look out for Year 1 in the future as they are certainly “dynamic dancers“. On Tuesday, we all went down to Allerton Grange to work with some Year 10 pupils. There was an hour long workshop where we learnt different moves and had lots of fun putting together a dance sequence. Thanks to all the Year 10 pupils and to the adults who worked with us.
Homework
Apologies: this week’s homework has not been sent home.
Your child will get their Practice Makes Perfect worksheet on Monday and we will collect it in on Thursday.
Heroes
This half-term, we’ll be continuing to learn about heroes. Our Literacy work will involve lots of drama work around a book called Willy the Chimp by Anthony Browne. Take a look at our display in the hall.
We’ll be focusing class discussions on inspirational heroes like Louis Braille and a Paralympic athlete, Oscar Pistorius.
We’re looking forward to a very exciting and engaging half term!
Hobby Half Day
On the last day of the half-term, children enjoyed another successful Hobby Half Day with all sorts of activities going on! From i-jamming on iPads to fitness circuits, all of the children had a very busy afternoon. All ages of children were working together and learning from each other and every classroom was a hive of activity. Here are just a few photos to show you what was going on.
February Family Fun
Throughout half term, Harrogate Theatre are running a Heroes and Villains Activity Week. On the Thursday and Friday, there are activities aimed at 6-8 year olds. Workshops including puppetry and mask-making are on offer with the theme of Heroes and Villains. Tickets can be purchased from Harrogate Box Office.
Our homework policy
Our Homework Policy was written to support and engage as many learners as we can, and to provide opportunities for others – family, friends – to support in a positive, constructive way. It’s great to see more and more children are putting more and more effort into their homework. Recently, a few parents have asked about expectations. I hope the following will clarify what we can expect and what you can expect:
Talk Time
Teachers have noticed that, in some instances, a lot of time has been taken on the presentation of the Talk Time homework. Children are welcome to do this although it is not necessary. The purpose of Talk Time homework is to encourage a conversation around their current learning. Any notes made in their homework book should simply be there to aid them as a prompt when it is discussed in class the following week. For this reason, teachers tend to give verbal feedback during their talk time session in class. We want our children to be expert talkers, using a variety of sentences and expressions, and able to back up their points or disagree with others in a polite way – this is more important than written notes for Talk Time. Simply: it’s hard to be a good writer if you’re not a good speaker, so Talk Times using ambitious words, useful phrases, interesting sentences is the best way to support your child.
Creative
This is where your child’s creative juices can flow! Creative homework is an opportunity for your child to choose whatever they want to demonstrate some learning. For example, the Y3 and Y4 homework this week is Creative: I can show what I know about food chains. Your child could present all their learning in so many different ways, from a diagram with notes to a story or comic strip. Parents’ and carers’ role is to support, encourage, help but (obviously) never to take over and do the homework! Teachers always look forward to seeing how creative children can be. If you notice the work has not been marked, please don’t worry. Teachers will have looked at and celebrated the homework in another way – the work might have been viewed by the whole class using a visualiser which allows the work to be projected to the whole class and a discussion of ‘stars and steps’ will happen. Peer assessment is also effective – children are very able to share what’s good and what needs improving! These sorts of verbal feedback strategies are often more effective than a written comment because it’s more instant and it makes sure the child understands (and their work is praised publicly!).
Practice makes Perfect
This is similar to what you might consider traditional homework: it may be a worksheet or a writing task (such as Y5’s current homework: I can write instructions). Practice Makes Perfect is useful homework when something has been taught in school but needs consolidation. The work should be fairly straightforward for the child as there should be no need for new learning, so just some encouragement from you is needed. However, it would be a great time to get your child to teach you – they should be able to explain the key points or processes! We use this type of homework less often because usually the best practice is where a teacher can keep feeding back and presenting new challenges when they see it as appropriate. Teachers mark these activities in line with our marking policy.
As always, please ask if you’ve any questions or concerns.
