We are designers!
Last week in DT we were testing the strength of different shapes. We made a triangular prism, a cuboid and and a cylinder and placed books on them to see how strong they were.
The cylinder was the strongest because it held 36 books before it collapsed.
This everyone made a cylinder and we put 6 together to make a superstructure to see if it would be stronger. It held 175 books! Everyone was very excited to see how strong just 6 bits a card could be!
Then we put 24 cylinders together and tested if it was strong enough to stand on! We were amazed to find out it was! Although, it did collapse when Mr McGriffiths stood on it!!
Help at home by asking your child how to make a cylinder using card and tape. You could also think about your design for your chair for baby bear!
Living and learning: relationships
For the past fortnight we have been thinking about healthy and happy relationships in Living and Learning. We have discussed what makes a healthy relationship and how we can be good friends to each other.
In this week’s lesson we talked about caring for each other. We discussed different stages of life and who might need the most care. We thought babies, children and the elderly might need more care but we also discussed that people of different ages need different types of care. There are lots of ways we can show we care for someone. Here are some of the examples that the children came up with:
I care for my teachers by making good choices.
I care for my friends by looking after them when they are hurt.
I care for my friends by helping them.
I care for my family by helping at home.
We all thought of ways we could show that we care for people over the next week.
Help at home by talking to your children about how they can care for different members of your family or community.
English: our own Goldilocks story.
This week we have been learning and then changing the Goldilocks and the 3 bears story, inspired by Michael Rosen’s Goldilocks and the three crocodiles. We decided as a class we wanted to change the bears to penguins but this meant we had to change lots of other things too! The cottage became an igloo, the woods became Antartica, the porridge was fish, the chairs were ice cubes and the beds became water beds!
Once we had finished altering our story map, we took advantage of the glorious weather to practice retelling our story outside.
Our next job is to come up with our own animals and draw our own story map.
Help at home by practising their story at home.
Design and Technology
This week we have started our new topic all about Design and Technology. We have been learning about the design process. It involves three stages (plan, make, evaluate) and is always repeating.
Today, we evaluated some products to see if they had been badly or well designed. We pointed out problems and thought about solutions. Can you spot the problems with these products.
Our project this half term is to build a new chair for baby bear and we can’t wait to get going.
Help at home by looking at the vocabulary in this week’s talk time.
Brilliant reports!
Last week and this week we have been writing reports about Nelson Mandela. We have used all the knowledge we have gained through our History topic and everyone has written a fantastic report. We have talked about titles, sub-headings and proper nouns as well as all the amazing facts and information we remember about Nelson Mandela. I am very proud of all the children! I think the reports speak for themselves.
Living and learning: Physical Activity
Our latest Living and Learning sessions have been all about the importance of exercise and how we need to keep active to keep our bodies and our minds healthy.
We thought about all the things we had done since waking up. Then, we checked which ones were active.
Trampolining in the garden
Wake up Shake up
Scooting to school
Playing with friends at playtime
Star jumps brain break
Monkey bars
The NHS guidance states that children and young people should ‘aim for an average of at least 60 minutes (30 minutes in school and 30 minutes out of school) of moderate or vigorous intensity physical activity a day across the week’. We know that the exercise we need to do to achieve this, should increase our heart rate.
We thought about how we manage to achieve our 30 minutes during the school day.
- Daily WUSU
- 2 weekly PE sessions
- Playtimes
- Lunchtime play
- Go Noodle, Supermovers and active counting in class
- Jogging around the playground for brain breaks
- After school clubs
Help at home – try a new physical activity out of school – maybe a local Junior park run, local cricket lessons or tennis lessons.
Basketball
City of Leeds Basketball, who provide our after-school basketball clubs, have a range of sessions for children of all ages.
Visit their website to book.
History – Heroes!
We are really enjoying our History topic this half term all about real life heroes! We have been studying Nelson Mandela and Leonora Cohen and how they changed the world by fighting for what they believed in.
We have learnt lots of facts about both people. Try asking your child about Nelson Mandela or Leonora Cohen so they can show off what they know! I have been very impressed at how well the children have understood the ideas we have been talking about.
In this week’s lesson, we learnt about how Leonora Cohen protested for women to have the right to vote. We learnt she went to the Tower of London and threw an iron bar at a glass cabinet containing the Crown Jewels. We discussed whether this was the right thing to do or not. After we had discussed this, we got into small groups and acted out the incident, thinking carefully about how Leonora would have been feeling before, during and after the event.
Help at home by talking to your children about what they have learnt, including the vocabulary which has been sent home on today’s homework sheet.
Living and learning: healthy eating
Over the last two weeks we have been learning about healthy eating in living and learning lessons. We have looked at the eat well plate which is a brilliant way of representing how much of eat food type we need for a healthy balanced diet. There is a picture of the eat well plate below with some added hints to keep a healthy lifestyle.
We also talked about how we could swap certain foods to make our breakfasts healthier.
Here are some of our ideas.
Swap the cereal for porridge or a cereal without chocolate.
Use butter or jam instead of chocolate spread.
You could drink milk or juice instead.
Maybe you could add in some fruit, like a banana.
Help at home by looking at the Eatwell guide together and thinking about any improvements that could be made. This may be having an extra vegetable a day, trying a new fruit or vegetable, switching to brown bread or pasta or having a healthier snack after school.
King’s Coronation!
Today we celebrated the upcoming coronation of the King! We came dressed in the colours of the Union Jack: red, white and blue. At lunchtime we came to the hall with Reception and Year 2 to have an (indoor) picnic! It was delicious!
After lunch, we did some brilliant crafting, including making our very own crowns!
Help at home by talking to your child about the coronation and how it is an important in event in our recent British history.
