Living & Learning: Speak Out, Stay Safe
This week is our second week on being safe in L&L. Today, your children learnt all about speaking out to stay safe with NSPCC.
We discussed children’s rights and the importance of the NSPCCs message of ‘speak out, stay safe’.
As part of this lesson, your children identified their trusted adults (over 18) that they could confidently ask anything. We discussed the importance of having these trusted adults and why we should always speak out rather than bottling things up.
Alongside this, we spoke about how our trusted adults make us feel. Your children were really confident and comfortable speaking to their trusted adults about any worries or concerns.
Our Living and Learning box, in the classroom, is another way the children can speak out and write down any worries.
Help at home: visit the Childline website with your children (https://www.childline.org.uk/kids). Explore the games, interactive tools and age-appropriate advice.
Writing: escaping a volcanic eruption!
This week, Year 4 have been writing their recounts about escaping a volcanic eruption. This links nicely to our volcanoes topic in geography this half-term.
A recount re-tells events and describes what happened.
Our R2s (remember to) were:
- conjunctions (subordinating and coordinating)
- impressive vocabulary
- past tense
Your children used these R2s when planning, writing and editing their recounts. I was wowed by the final pieces! Your children really put themselves in the shoes of an escapee and were able to write exciting and gripping recounts.
Help at home: ask your children to write a short recount of their day at school using conjunctions and past tense.
Coordinating conjunctions:
Subordinating conjunctions:
Our class novel: The Land of Roar
In Year 4, our current class novel is The Land of Roar by Jenny McLachlan.
“Everyone remembers their secret imaginary world…but what if you discovered that yours was real? When Arthur and Rose were little, they were the heroes of Roar, a magical world they invented where the wildest creations of their imaginations roamed. Now that they’re eleven, Roar is just a distant memory. But it hasn’t forgotten them.”
We’re all really enjoying it so far! It’s funny and full of action.
Your children have been sharing their opinions and making some predictions…
Wininja’s my favourite character so far because he’s so funny and his magic tricks are ridiculous.
I think Rose will end up joining Arthur in Roar, even though she thinks she’s too cool, because she misses him and her grandad.
I’m not sure what’s going to happen next but I think Arthur will defeat Crowky and be able to save his grandad.
I’m excited to keep reading it because I don’t know how its going to end.
Help at home: ask your child to summarise what they’ve read so far. You can also explore some of the other books in the series.
Active travel and safety around the school gate
Spring term after-school clubs
We’ve had a great first week to our after-school clubs. There are some places available on the following clubs if your child would like to join. Please refer to the letter below to show the relevant year groups.
Maths: column multiplication
This week, Year 4 have started column multiplication! I’ve been so impressed with how quickly your children have grasped it.
We broke the process into three key steps:
1. Multiply the ones.
2. Multiply the tens and add any exchanges.
3. Multiply the hundreds and add any exchanges.
We’ve had a fantastic week in maths and look forward to seeing the children apply their column multiplication skills in worded problems next week!
Help at home: watch this video (column multiplication) of me showing you the column multiplication process and ask your children to complete these calculations:
- 532 x 7 =
- 283 x 9 =
- 538 x 3 =
- 379 x 4 =
- 247 x 9 =
L&L: I know what a drug is.
In Living and Learning this term, we are looking at drugs, alcohol and tobacco. In Year 4, we discussed what a drug is:
A substance that changes the way the body or mind works.
To begin this topic, we looked at a range of medicines and household products and spoke about their benefits.
Medicines can make us better when we’re ill.
Bleach is good for cleaning the toilet so we can be more hygienic.
Soap is really important so we can wash our hands and body properly.
Calpol can help if you’re in pain for something.
We then discussed the importance of staying safe when using these products. We identified the risks of these items and how we can reduce these. I was really impressed to hear so many brilliant suggestions for how we can always stay safe when using these products.
Always put medicines and cleaning products up high or locked up so children can’t touch them.
Never take medicine that isn’t given to you by a doctor or a trusted adult.
Wear gloves when using bleach.
Always read the label on medicine to make sure you’re using it safely.
Help at home: talk about some household products or medicines you have at home and how you make sure you’re always using these safely.
Writing: volcanic eruption
Welcome back and happy new year!
In writing this half-term, we’ll be starting with a recount.
The purpose of a recount is to re-tell events and describe what has happened.
Our recounts will be about escaping a volcanic eruption! We’ve been exploring some recounts this week to identify what makes a good one and your children have come up with some success criteria:
- impressive vocabulary
- thoughts and feelings
- description
- past tense
- adverbs
- adjectives
- different sentence starters
Help at home: watch this interactive video and ask your children to describe what they can see and what the person might be thinking and feeling https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7G7LUQS3X6E
We are artists!
We’ve come to the end of art topic and the children have created some fantastic collages based on Sir Christopher Wren’s or Dame Zaha Hadid’s architecture.
Throughout this half term, the children have been exploring a variety of media in our art lessons, such as using carbon paper, tracing and freehand drawing. They then used these different media in their final collages of a piece of architecture designed by either Sir Christopher Wren or Dame Zaha Hadid.
We made sure to think about the composition of our collages before beginning to stick the pieces together. They came out brilliantly!
Have a happy and healthy Christmas break!
Saturday morning cross country runners
Well done to all our KS2 pupils who took part in the third Leeds Schools Sports Association cross country race at Prince Henry’s Grammar School in Otley on Saturday morning.
It was great to have some first time runners this time and many improved their race positions from last time.
Thank you to parents who supported at the event.
There is one more race this season and information will be sent about these nearer the time. Please note there is a new registration system this year with all children being registered prior to their first race to take part.
