Living and Learning – I stay safe at school.
This afternoon, Year 5 have been thinking of lots of different ways that we stay safe (physically and emotionally) in school.
We used this information to make some self portrait artwork that shows how each of us makes safe choices in school.
Consent was a key term that we discussed. Giving consent means that you give the ok or approval for something to happen. Year 5 were asked if it was ok for their photo to be taken and printed out for them to trace (the picture on the left) with the key words, phrases and sentences (the picture on the right). Year 5 said either yes or no and either gave their consent to have their picture taken or they did not. Simples! If they got right up to their photo being taken and then changed their mind, that was fine too. Your consent can be withdrawn at any time! It’s all part of staying safe.
Here are some ideas for how we stay safe in school:
“We follow instructions for anything. Like if there’s a fire we follow instructions like go through the fire exit and go outside and listen to the register.” – Nayaab
“If there’s a problem, if you ask the teacher, they will help you.” – Zidaan
“I enjoyed this because we’ve never done this art before and I’d like to do some more in the future.” – Gurnoor
“The most challenging part was doing the outline because you couldn’t see it through the paper well so some of it was by memory but we put them up against the window which helped a lot.” – Evie
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
Living and Learning: Parent/carer workshops Staying Safe themed week
Thank you to all the parents/carers who have signed up to the workshops on offer next week during our Staying Safe themed week.
There are a few places left if you would like to come along.
Benchball
Some of our KS2 children took part in a come and try benchball event at Roundhay School tonight.
Competing against other local schools, they showed great teamwork and PE skills.
Benchball uses a lot of the same skills as netball and we hope that some of the players come and join the netball after-school club on a Monday – we have a few places left!
Living Streets new badge design competition
We are proud to work with Living Streets to support our aim for active and safe travel to and from school.
WOW is Living Streets’ year-round walk to school challenge and every day our pupils log their daily journeys to school on the WOW Travel Tracker. Those that make an active (walk, bike, scoot or park and stride) journey to school at least once a week for a month earn a WOW badge. There are 11 to collect across the year all of which have been designed by pupils in their annual badge design competition.
Living Streets are now asking for our pupil’s help to design a new badge. Details will be sent home shortly but take a look for some more information. Return your badge designs to your class teacher or the office.
Quick Sticks hockey
Last week, some of our Year 5 and 6 children took part in the Leeds North East Quick Sticks hockey qualifying festival at Allerton High. Well done to all the children involved and thank you to staff and parents who supported the event.
Staying Safe themed week 04 February
Our next whole school themed week, based around Staying Safe, will be taking place from Monday 04 February 2019. The key message is how to be safe in a range of situations – at home, at school, online and in the environment.
A variety of events and visitors are planned to help us deliver this key aspect of education including road and scooter safety (Leeds City Council); water safety (Canal and River Trust and RNLI); bike maintenance (Edinburgh Bicycle Co-operative); staying safe around dogs (Dogs Trust) and e-safety (One Day Creative and d:side). Some of the events require parental permission and these letters have been sent out separately. There are also some opportunities for parents and carers, from all year groups, to get involved in the week. Please contact the office to reserve places.
*THIS WEEK* Thursday 24 January 2:30pm – 3:15pm d:side drug education information session
A representative from d:side, a health education provider, will be running an information session about drug education.
Monday 04 February 2:30-3.15pm One Day Creative, creative education provider, e-safety workshop
Wednesday 06 February Edinburgh Bicycle Cooperative Dr Bike event
Bring your bike for a free bike safety check, from 8:30am – no need to book.
Thursday 07 February 2:30-3.15pm First aid workshop
A representative from Leeds Beckett University, will be running a first aid workshop for parents and carers.
The themed week is a good opportunity to continue to think about healthy, active ways to travel to school. Children are encouraged to travel to school in a sustainable way, keeping safe along the way.
Finally, can you help? Does your job involve an aspect of safety? If you are able to support our Staying Safe themed week by coming into school, please contact Mrs Taylor via the school office.
We will keep you up to date about events during the week through Twitter and the class news pages on our website.
Thank you for your support to keep Moortown a happy, healthy and safe school.