10 March 2023
This week’s Talk Time poses a moral dilemma and links to internet safety.
Is using the internet is bad for your health?
You could start by listing reasons why you would use the internet (playing games, social media, watching videos). Are your reasons the same as other members of your family?
We suggest approaching this Talk Time with an open mind. You may already have strong views on this but it’s important to consider both sides of an argument before reaching your conclusions.
Check out these R2s to help you with your discussions at home:
- What are the health benefits of using the internet?
- Remember that mental health is crucial to being a healthy person.
- How could using the internet negatively impact on your health?
- How could this impact on your physical health?
- Is using the internet always an enjoyable experience?
- Decide which argument is the
- This might be the side with the most points to back it up.
- You might consider some points to be more important than others.
- You may not agree with people you speak to – that’s okay!
After the discussion with friends and family, what conclusion do you reach? Do others around you agree?
Safer Internet Day 2023
“Happy Safer Internet Day!”
On the 7th of February, Moortown focused their learning around internet safety. This umbrella term covers lots of areas such as; online behaviour, keeping personal data safe, understanding how news can be false and knowing to ask an adult for help.
Firstly, we spent the morning learning about how we can decipher if online information is true or not. ‘Fake news’ has become more of an issue on the internet and therefore, it is important that the children understand what it is and how to work with it.
There were some tips that the children practised and will remember for the future:
- Question the source. Where has the information come from and is it a reliable source?
- Does the story appear on more than one source? If it is on numerous news websites, it could be true!
- Does it feel right? Some times you will have a gut feeling that a news story isn’t right…
- Ask a trusted adult. If you are ever unsure, ask a trusted adult to help you work out if it’s true or not.
This followed onto to our next focus: I know I can ask a trusted adult for help.
This statement is true for any subject, problem or question and it is definitely important when talking about internet safety.
Help at home: Whether it is a trusted adult at home, at school or at a club your child goes to, remind them that they should feel safe asking for help.
Living and Learning: I know that people shout treat others respectfully when online
On Tuesday this week, it was internet safety day. This is where we had a day to learn about how to be safe online and how important it is to treat others respectfully online.
In the morning, we had some very, very special visitors; the NSPCC team and Buddy made an appearance. This workshop was a follow up from our learning earlier in this half term (I know how to seek help). We revisited how and who we could speak to if we needed help (trusted adults).
Later on in the day, we discussed why it is important to check with a trusted adult before sharing personal information online; the potential consequences for bad online behaviour and how it is okay to step away.
Help at home: Discuss at home what advice Tunji’s friends should give, who they can get help from and how will this make the situation better.
‘Tunji tells his friends that he made a joke about someone’s gaming avatar. Tunji didn’t think it would be a big deal, but the person has been very upset by his comments. Two of their friends have started sending Tunji mean messages because of what he said.’
Writing: Narratives with dialogue
Over the past couple of weeks, the children have developed ideas, planned and written narratives which contain dialogue. The focus of the work was for the speech to convey character and advance action. Our inspiration was a silent animation where the two main characters were carrying out a heist for a priceless ruby, however, the plot took a turn and the thieving brothers ended up in a fight.
The children then created their own two characters who were also trying to steal something and similarly ended up in an argument.
Have a look at these extracts from their fantastic work:
Reading: Performing Poems
The children have been performing the poem ‘I wandered lonely as a cloud’ by William Wordsworth to their peers. In this homework review, the children practised their oracy skills of:
- eye contact,
- voice projection,
- fluency and pace,
- and tonal variation.
The outcome was fantastic!
Science: Our Solar System
In Science this week, we learnt about our solar system. We sorted fact cards into four different categories (planets, sun, moon or Earth). Then, we carried out research using secondary sources (a form of scientific enquiry).
This learning linked to our Computing and Living and Learning curriculum as we discussed the reliability and accuracy of information from the fact cards and the websites which we were looking at.
In addition, we created solar system posters; have a look at our fabulous work:
Finally, we made mnemonics to remember the order in which the planets orbit the sun.
Help at home: Come up with a new mnemonic to remember the order of our solar system. Here is an example:
Mercury My
Venus Very
Earth Epic
Mars Marvellous
Jupiter Jumper
Saturn Suits
Uranus Unqiue
Neptune Neil
Or why not watch the ‘we are planets’ song.
We are readers!
On Thursday afternoon Year 1 decided to change around their book corner. Mr McGriffiths spread out lots of new and interesting books on our tables and we were able to explore all the books. Everyone was very excited to look through and read these different books, which ranged from superhero potatoes to snow dragons via mischievous cats! In the end, we had to choose just one book to go into the book corner. It was very difficult to choose but we can’t wait to share our choice with our friends!
I was very proud of how enthusiastic all the children were when exploring and reading the books and I am very excited to get reading these books to the whole class!
Help at home: make sure you are reading your library books with your children every week as well as enjoying reading books to and with them. Don’t forget to write in your child’s reading record ever week when you have read their e-book.
Living and Learning: I know what a drug is.
Over the next couple of weeks in our Living and Learning sessions, we will be focusing on “Being Safe”. This week in Living and Learning, we discussed what a drug is and what might influence a person to take/not take them.
We learnt that a drug is: ‘a substance people take to change the way they feel, think or behave.’
We also talked about the term ‘drugs’ and how it refers to all drugs:
• all illegal drugs,
• all legal drugs, including alcohol, tobacco and volatile substances (those giving off a gas which can be inhaled),
• all over-the-counter and prescription medicines.
In small groups, the children created diamond nines of what they thought would be the biggest influence for taking/not taking drugs. Here is an example:
The children also gave reasons for their choices: “feelings/emotions might be the biggest influence as people might think it helps to relieve stress” and “family would not influence you to take them because they love you and wouldn’t want to harm you”.
Science rocks!
The first week back after Christmas has been a week of starting new topics and units. This includes our new Science topic – Rocks, soils and fossils!
Our first week began with the question – How are rocks different? We made careful observations of 12 different rocks and thought about what made them special.
This included things such as;
- Colour – is it one solid colour or does it have mixed colours?
- Texture – is it smooth, rough or both?
- Crystals – does it shine or sparkle?
- Weight – is it heavy or light?
- Layers – does it have stripes or clear layers?
Here are some of the class making their observations:
We then sorted a selection of the rocks into a Venn Diagram. The children had the choice of which features to sort the rocks by.
The class loved the lesson and already had fantastic knowledge in identifying the names of some of the rocks. One person remembered that one of the rocks (Basalt rock) is in the Earth’s Crust! This was from our first Topic lesson about the Earth.
Help at home by seeing if your child can identify any of these rocks based on their appearance!
The ‘Big Brain’ Art Gallery!
This morning, Year 3 and 4 hosted their first art gallery where they were able to showcase all the amazing art they have produced this half term.
We displayed all the pieces across the two classrooms and gave the children the opportunity to look around and comment on their classmates artwork.
A fantastic end to a fantastic half term!
All of the Year 3/4 team wish you a Merry Christmas and happy and healthy holiday.
See you in the New Year!
