School Council elections 11 February
Our current school councillors held their final meeting today as we prepare to elect our new school council. This year’s election date is Thursday 11 February.
Children from every class, including Reception, are encouraged to prepare a speech to present to their class as part of the election process. Our whole school homework before the election date (05 February) will give children the chance to plan their speech.
Thank you to our existing school council who have been involved with many decisions and discussions throughout the year. On today’s agenda, there have been discussions around the new school dinner menu, classroom reading areas, e-safety and general suggestions put forward by children in each class. It appears they have enjoyed the role as they all intend to stand again at the elections.
Museum trip
This week, we went to the Leeds City Museum to research animals as part of our Life topic. Have a look at a few pictures from our trip. Why not ask your child if they can explain what is happening/can be seen in the pictures below?
We had a really good time in the museum so why not visit yourself? You could even get some ideas for this week’s homework.
Borrow a book, borrow a bike
With 100 days to this year’s Tour De Yorkshire, a local bike library has been set up locally at Moor Allerton Library.
Leeds City Council has introduced a new Yorkshire Bike Bank which will allow residents to borrow bikes as well as books from the library.
This Week
Maths
For the past two weeks in maths, we’ve been looking at multiplication. We reviewed our multiplication tables last week and this week we’ve been applying our learning using the grid method.
Why not challenge your child to solve a similar question to this one?
Next week, we start to look at fractions of shapes.
English
Our English this week has tied in with our class spellings – contractions. Contractions are two words that have been put together to form one word. They’re punctuated with an apostrophe to indicate missing letters. We’ve been using contractions in letters and dialogues.
Why not ask your child to count the number of contractions that are in this post?
Next week, we start our learning on report writing which will link with our big topic, Life.
What’s the matter?
In this science mini topic we’ve looked at rocks, soils and fossils. We’ve been digging up the front playground, applying acid to rocks and investigating different types of fossils. Why not ask your child about how fossils are formed?
Tuck shop returns
Tuck shop will be back this Tuesday.
Eighty four portions per week have already been prepaid for this term but there is still chance to buy fruit on the day for 20p per portion.
Is your child in Year 3 and therefore goes swimming on a Tuesday afternoon? Some children buy a portion of fruit from the tuck shop and keep it for their healthy snack after swimming.
What’s the matter?
Our mini topic for the first two weeks is What’s the matter? In this Science-driven mini topic we will be looking at rocks, soil and fossils. Today, we’ve been investigating the properties of rocks. We conducted an experiment to see which rocks were permeable and which rocks were impermeable.
We used pipettes to add three drops of water onto a flat surface of a rock. We then observed what happened to the water. We were looking to see if it would soak into the rocks or just sit there. Why don’t you ask your child about the difference between permeable and impermeable rocks and how this experiment helped us to discover if rocks were permeable or not?
You could also explore whether other materials are permeable or impermeable – materials like raincoats, for example!
Fruit kebabs
Year 3 have been practising their peeling and chopping skills today when preparing a variety of fruits to make their own fruit kebabs. We considered other aspects of selecting fruits such as seasonal availability, allergies and individual preference. Children were keen to try new fruits, both fresh and dried.
At a time of year when many people make healthy eating goals, we all agreed this was a great way to get one of your 5-a-day.
Let’s get sugar smart
Today has seen a new campaign launch by Change 4 Life, the government’s public health initiative, aimed at reducing the amount of sugar that children consume.
The free Sugar Smart App can tell you the amount of sugar in items by scanning the barcode, and then displaying the result as a number of cubes or in grams. The app can be used as a way of revealing the hidden sugar content in foods and to make us more aware of what children are consuming.
Public Health England, which runs the Change 4 Life campaign, hopes the Sugar Smart app and campaign will help combat tooth decay, obesity and type two diabetes and encourage families to choose healthier alternatives.
New SEAL theme…Good to be me
Our new SEAL (Social and Emotional Aspects of Learning) theme for this half-term, Good to be me, focuses on three main areas of learning:
•Self-awareness – feeling good about yourself, taking risks.
•Managing Feelings – understanding feelings, and why and how they lead us to behave the way we do – particularly the feelings of being excited, proud, surprised, hopeful, disappointed, worried and anxious and standing up for yourself –assertiveness skills, standing up for your views.
•Empathy
This theme explores feelings in the context of the child as an individual, developing self-awareness and helping the child to realise that it really is ‘Good to be me’. The theme is about understanding our feelings as well as considering our strengths and weaknesses as learners.
As part of our current mini topic, What’s the matter?, children will also ask ‘What’s the matter?’ from a social and emotional point of view, understanding feelings and thinking about how they can solve problems.
The key ideas and concepts behind the theme of Good to be me are:
Building emotional resilience
Children need to become resilient if they are to be healthy and effective life-long learners.
Coping with anxiety and worrying
Worry and anxiety are major features in many children’s lives. Many children have good reasons to be anxious. Exploring worries is important.
Calming down
Although getting stressed, anxious or angry are important and useful emotions, sometimes these feelings can be overwhelming.
Assertiveness
The theme encourages children to become assertive – that is, able to recognise and stand up for their rights while recognising and respecting the rights of others.
Understanding feelings and how they influence behaviour
The theme explores the relationship between ‘thinking’ and ‘feeling’ and the way each impacts on our behaviour. It looks at Flight or Fight rapid response to situations of threat and our responses to feeling threatened /under stress.
‘I respond to difficult situations in a positive way’ is the first SEAL statement for this theme.
Swimming returns on 12 January
A reminder there is no swimming tomorrow or for the first week of next term. The next swimming session therefore will be on Tuesday 12 January.
At the play session last week, it was great to see all the children in the big pool showing great confidence in the water.
Following our Health themed week, it was also noticeable to see the increase in healthier snacks for after swimming with some children bringing fruit they had purchased from the tuck shop earlier in the day. Please also ensure your child has a water bottle at school (in addition to one in a packed lunch) to take to swimming.
In case you get chance to go swimming over the holidays, Leeds Let Get Active offers free swimming sessions at local leisure centres.
