We are readers!
This half term, teachers have been keeping an eye out for children impressing them with their reading.
In KS2, teachers were looking out for Reading Records where the weekly activity had been completed with time and care, book reviews had been done or challenges ticked off!
In KS1, teachers were looking for children who were putting the most effort into learning to read fluently.
Well done to our winners for this half term and welcome to the Library Team! They’ll meet with Miss Wilson occasionally to share their ideas and help make decisions about our library.
Take a look at some of their fantastic efforts:
Did you know?
Those who read for pleasure…
- Know more words
- Are better writers
- Have more empathy
- Have better general knowledge
- Have a better understanding of other cultures
- Are better at making decisions
- Do better in school generally!
Keep up the fantastic reading, everyone. There were so many people to choose from and you never know – it could be you next time!
Living and Learning
This week, our Living and Learning statement is: “I use what I’ve learnt in living and learning.”
We’ve covered such a wide range of topics so far and they are all used heavily in our daily lives like respect, understanding differences and equality, or using the eight Rs for learning.
Y6 had a go at showing their learning in the form of a poster. Take a look at their fantastic examples below.
Help at home by discussing what situations in real life require the skills we learn in Living and Learning.
We are geographers!
This week in geography, we conducted some fieldwork!
We measured trees in Moortown Park in order to find out how much carbon is stored in them.
Help at home by discussing why it’s so important for the environment that trees are planted.
Next, we will plot this data into a graph and use one of our geography words – interpolation! Challenge your child to explain this word.
Writing – expanded noun phrases!
We’re going to use the Eye of the Storm to write a narrative.
In order to do so, we have to practise certain skills. Imagine you’re making a cake – you need all the required ingredients for it to taste nice!
This week, we’ve focused on expanded noun phrases alongside discussing the film. We’ll move onto figurative language later in the week.
Check out our creative collaborations below!
Help at home by deciding whether the following options are expanded noun phrases:
- many taunting, twisted branches above me
- Shackling the beast to the furnace, he returned to his navigation with hope ignited within.
- Two ominous, jet-black clouds rumbled nearby.
- several icy bullets of rain
Book Club Drama
Book Club was ace this week!
There were some incredible examples of this week’s Fact File activity and every single person had a comment / signature from their adult – really impressive stuff, Y6.
We also looked at how many challenges we’d completed so far (which resulted in lots of star jump reading in class!) and some of our book reviews for this year.
We finished with some drama linked to our class novel: Survivors. Can you guess which scenes are being acted out below?
Help at home by discussing our class novel.
- Which has been their favourite chapter?
- Which would they recommend to you?
- Which parts have been the most exciting and why?
Tom Palmer local events
This year, some children at school attended an online workshop with author Tom Palmer. Tom Palmer has been in touch to let us know about some local events he is attending in half term.
Message from Tom
For children and families – I am also coming to Leeds on Thursday 2 November
2023 :
* Farsley Book Festival – 10am-11am more here
https://trumanbooks.co.uk/event/flf-kids-day
* Chapel Allerton Library – 2pm
* Pudsey Community Hub and Library – 4pm
Leeds Diving opportunities
Recently, Year 2 and 3 welcomed Leeds Diving as part of their talent in diving programme.
If your child is interested in learning to dive, please see the information and requirements below.
Living and learning: Confident Me
Y6 had a visitor today to talk about being confident in our own skin.
First, we analysed some appearance ideals…
…and discussed the cost of these ideals if you’re trying to match what you see on social media.
“If you spend all your money on clothes then you won’t have any left for playing sport!” explained Olivia.
“You can get carried away, run out of money, and never feel like you’re enough,” warned Tommy.
We learnt about how images online can be manipulated. They can be altered to change the colours or shape of people – or even totally made up by AI!
Sometimes pictures you see online aren’t completely realistic so there’s no point trying to replicate what you see on social media.
Help at home by talking about why it’s good to celebrate being you. What are you proud of? Why are you unique? Why is it good to be different?
It’s also a good idea to have regular check ins about what you’re doing and seeing on social media.
“We should just say nice things about each other,” said Moosa.
“Don’t focus on what someone looks like – focus on what they’re like on the inside!” wisely stated Cate.
The Spider and the Fly
This week, Y6 have been reading The Spider and the Fly – a poem by Mary Howitt. It was written in 1829 and used as a way to entertain but also to warn children about being overly trusting.
Below are some pictures of our reading lesson where we were using retrieval skills to draw the spider, fly and setting.
Don’t we look proud!
Y6 met Liz Pichon!
This morning, we had a surprise video call from author Liz Pichon – who writes the Tom Gates novels.
Liz talked about where she gets inspiration for her stories and how she plans out the novels before writing. She talked us through how she draws the doodles in her stories and we also had a go – what do you think of our bugs?!
Finally, she read an extract from her new book, Five Star Stories.
