Leeds Children’s Mayor update
Unfortunately Ahmed, our entry for the Leeds Children’s Mayor competition, wasn’t successful in reaching the final twelve. With a record number of entries this year, thirty six, all entrants were congratulated on their efforts. Well done, Ahmed.
‘We really appreciate you taking the time to enable your Year 6 children to take part and that having your Year 6 think “big” about changing the city and their local community was an interesting citizenship activity for them.’
The Leeds Children’s Mayor project provides pupils with the opportunity to develop their knowledge and understanding about democratic processes and being an active citizen, promoting this aspect of ‘British Values’. All pupils are encouraged to take part in the election itself by reading the manifestos of the final twelve and casting a vote for their choice of the next Leeds Children’s Mayor.
Please note that voting goes live at 12pm on Tuesday 13 October and closes at 12pm on Thursday 05 November. The winner of the election will be announced on 9th November by the Lord Mayor of Leeds, Councillor Judith Chapman.
Let’s have a debate
Having focussed on the River Amazon for the last couple of weeks, we spotted areas of the forest that had been chopped down and discussed what was happening.
We learnt that this is called deforestation and there are pros and cons to it. After learning about why people chop trees down and how they benefit as well as exploring what damage it does to the local and global environment, we formed teams and debated.
Should deforestation be allowed to happen?
Yes – Local people earn money from selling wood that is chopped down and they need that money to pay for food and shelter.
No – Cutting down trees cuts down animals’ habitats and might lead to them dying as they have nowhere to live.
Yes – Trees can be cut down sustainably so that only a couple of trees in one area is destroyed and older, rotten trees can be targetted.
No – But trees that are cut down damage many trees around them.
Yes – Any trees that are cut down can be replaced by newly planted trees so they’ll grow back.
No – Maybe so. However, it takes years for these trees to grow back and they’re never the same as they were.
It was difficult to decide which was right or wrong as we could always argue back with another point!
Attendance update
What’s your child’s attendance like so far this year?
For the year so far, up until Friday 09 October, here’s what attendance is like for each class:
- Reception: 95.8%
- Year 1: 98.1%
- Year 2: 97.5%
- Year 3: 97.6%
- Year 4: 97.8%
- Year 5: 98.7%
- Year 6: 98.3%
This gives us an overall attendance figure for the school: 97.8%. Last year, the whole-school average was 97.2% – this year, let’s aim to continue beating this figure!
Writing and grammar workshop
Thank you to the parents / carers who attended this afternoon’s Writing and Grammar Workshop.
“Great overview with resources to get more information if or when needed.” (Year 3 and 6 parent)
In the 2015 Annual Survey, 82% of you agree that adults in school explain how to support your child’s reading at home. We want this to be higher, so have lots more workshops – including evenings ones – coming up this year…
- Maths (2.30pm on Monday 19 October 2015, to be repeated at 6.00pm on Monday 23 November)
- Learning in Reception and Year 1 (2.30pm on Tuesday 10 November 2015)
- What is mastery? (2.30pm on Monday 16 November 2015, to be repeated at 6.00pm on the same day)
- Reading (a repeat workshop to be held at 6.00pm on Monday 02 November)
- Grammar and writing (a repeat workshop to be held at 6.00pm on Tuesday 10 November)
What’s happening in class?
Here’s an overview of what Year 5 will be learning in class in the two weeks running up to half-term.
Topic – Alongside learning about Brazil and seeing how it is similar/different to our country, we’ll be getting creative by looking at Brazilian art and picking up our saws and drills for some woodwork.
Help at home by looking at Brazil on Google maps, finding mountains, rivers, neighbouring countries and then do the same for the UK.
Maths – Fractions will be our focus all the way up to half-term. The children need to understand equivalent fractions, order fractions by finding a common denominator and they need to be able to add and multiply fractions together.
Help at home by joining in with Practice Makes Perfect homework. Ask your child to explain how to solve fraction problems to you as though you’ve never heard of the word fraction before.
English – Having focussed on writing promotions last week, we’ll continue this and write our own promotional text for a boat trip up the River Amazon. This will be followed by writing recounts.
Help at home by looking at the language used in adverts and read it to each other in your best ‘M&S voice’. Have a meal where only ‘writing talk’ is allowed. Everything you say must be in full sentences as though you were writing it down.
Phonics learning in Reception (and at home!)
At Moortown Primary, we follow the ‘Letters and Sounds’ programme.
At the moment, we’re focussing on Phase 1 where children learn to identify alliteration and rhyme which will pave the way for the systematic learning of phonics.
The children are taking part in lots of activities where they listen attentively to sounds around them, such as sounds in the environment and to sounds in spoken language. Singing a wide range of nursery rhymes and songs and reading books to and with the children helps to increase the number of words they know – their vocabulary – and helps them talk confidently about books.
We’re also learning to ‘sound talk’. The separate sounds (phonemes) are spoken aloud, in order, all through the word, and are then merged together into the whole word: d-o-g = dog. This merging together is called blending and is a vital skill for reading.
Children will also learn to do this the other way around: cat = c-a-t. The whole word is spoken aloud and then broken up into its sounds (phonemes) in order, all through the word. This is called segmenting and is a vital skill for spelling.
All of this learning at the moment is oral (spoken). Your child won’t be expected to match the letter to the sound at this stage. The emphasis is on helping children to hear the separate sounds in words and to create spoken sounds.
Ways you can support your child at home:
Play ‘What do we have in here?’ Put some toys or objects in a bag and pull one out at a time. Emphasise the first sound of the name of the toy or object by repeating it, for example, ‘c c c c – car’, ‘b b b b – box’, ‘ch ch ch ch – chip’.
When sounding out, try to avoid the ‘uh’ sound – say ‘sssss’ rather than ‘suh’, ‘mmmmm’ rather than ‘muh’. This is to keep the sound as ‘pure’ as it can be so there’s no confusion with extra, unwanted sounds when blending and segmenting words.
Say: ‘A tall tin of tomatoes!’ ‘Tommy, the ticklish teddy!’ ‘A lovely little lemon!’ This is called alliteration. Use names, for example, ‘Gurpreet gets the giggles’, ‘Milo makes music’, ‘Naheema’s nose’.
Teach them ‘Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers’ and other tongue twisters.
Find real objects around your home that have three phonemes (sounds) and practise ‘sound talk’. First, just let them listen, then see if they will join in.
- ‘I spy a p-e-g – peg.’
- ‘I spy a c-u-p – cup.’
- ‘Where’s your other s-o-ck – sock?’
- ‘Simon says – put your hands on your h-ea-d.’
- ‘Simon says – touch your ch-i-n.’
- ‘Simon says – pick up your b-a-g.
Finally, note in some of the examples above that a phoneme (a sound) can be made up of two (or more) letters, so ‘ck’ (as in sock) and ‘ch’ (as in chin) make particular sounds.
Find out more about phonics in our Phonics Guide.
09 October 2015
The homework this week is talk time and is due in on Wednesday 14 October.
Is it better to holiday in your own country or a foreign country?
This homework poses a moral question about the implications of our holiday choices. Consider the environmental impact, the economic impact and the cultural experience of holidays both at home and abroad.
09 October 2015
Here are the spellings for this week.
Need half-term activities…?
The Nurtury next door has asked us to let you know about their holiday club, the Fab Fun Club:
Are you panicking at the thought of a half-term break without childcare – please don’t! The Montessori Nurtury, Moortown (right next door to Moortown Primary) is hosting a Holiday Club from Monday 26 October to Friday 30 October.
We will make sure the children are challenged, inspired, respected and, importantly for them, they can have loads of fun! We offer a day of activities that match the age-range and interests of the children who are there – everything from ‘Kids Cook!’ to Art and Crafts, Drama Days, treasure hunts, orienteering, Sports and plenty of outdoor time and events.
The Club opens daily between the hours of 8am and 4.45pm. If a longer day is needed, we then offer a hot meal and children can stay until 6pm.
- Option 1: 08.00 – 16.45 £28.00 – packed lunch provided by home
- Option 2: 08.00 – 18.00 £32.00 – hot meal for tea provided by Club
Bookings are on a first-come, first-served basis. Please contact The Nurtury on 0113 268-6141 or e-mail: leedsmontnurtury@aol.co.uk for the necessary booking form.
09 October 2015
This week’s homework is creative and is due in on Wednesday 14 October.
I can create a promotional image of Scarborough.
Over the past two weeks, we’ve been learning about promotions and how language is used to persuade people to buy something or visit somewhere. On Friday, we finished off this English focus with an extended piece of writing. Next week, we will be improving and displaying our promotional texts so we need some images to go with these. You could create a post card, a web page or even just illustrate one of the many attractions Scarborough has to offer.
