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Green Fingers in Y5

On Monday 17 October, a group of Y5 children did some fantastic work in our local community.  We have created a partnership with Moortown in Bloom and over the past few months we have been helping them develop a patch of land at the end of Stonegate Road and Scothall Road.  Here are some of the children in action!

Vote Bronwen for Leeds Mayor!

We’re very proud that Bronwen, a Year 6 pupil here at Moortown Primary, has been selected as one of ten finalists for the Leeds Children’s Mayor competition. All the Year 6 children completed a manifesto of what they would like to change if they could become Mayor for the day and Bronwen was chosen as our entrant for the competition.  Her manifesto is brilliant, meeting all the criteria set (see below).

Vote for Bronwen! Voting has now opened for the finalists and anyone with a Leeds Learning account can vote. If you know of anyone who has one, please encourage them to vote. 

Voting will remain open until midday on Friday 04 November.

Representatives of Leeds Children’s Services and Leeds Council undertook the difficult task of short listing the twenty Children’s Mayor entries they received down to a final ten. In order to make the short listing a fair and transparent process, they used score cards and scored the manifestos individually against four criteria: 

• How clear and focused the manifesto idea was
• How practical, achievable and affordable the manifesto idea was
• The number of children and young people who would benefit from the manifesto idea
• The extent to which children would work alongside adults to make the idea a reality

As well as Moortown Primary, the schools whose entrants made the final this year are Allerton Bywater Primary School, Bramley St Peters Primary School, Calverley C of E Primary School, Hill Top Primary School, Kippax North Junior & Infant School, Queensway Primary School, Shire Oak Primary School, Strawberry Fields Primary School and Whinmoor St Paul’s Primary School

This whole programme is about encouraging children to show an interest in democracy and to get them into the habit of voting on issues that affect them. 

We know children at Moortown Primary already make a positive contribution to the school and their community through the School Council, litter-picking, raising money for charity etc. It’s great individuals like Bronwen want to go the extra mile to have their views heard!

Parents Evening Times

‘Packed lunches lack fruit and veg’ – not at Moortown

Research published earlier this month suggest that ‘children’s packed lunches lack fruit and vegetables’.

At Moortown, a packed lunch survey carried out last week showed a massive 86% of our packed lunches had at least one portion of fruit or vegetable with 43% having two or more portions.  One of our Year 6’s packed lunch even contained her five-a-day of fruit and vegetables!  Children excitedly and proudly showed their fruit and vegetable choices.

It has been one year since we introduced our packed lunch guidance which includes advice and ideas for healthy packed lunches.  As part of the guidance, we encourage children to bring at least one portion of fruit and / or vegetables.  Our guidance was introduced, for parents / carers and children, as packed lunches do not follow the same nutritional guidelines introduced for school dinners.   Data collected prior to producing the guidance has been used as a comparison to assess the impact of our work on improving packed lunches.

Results from the latest survey have shown some positive results:

• 86% of packed lunches now contain at least one portion of fruit or vegetables (compared to 80% in 2010).
• There is a greater variety of carbohydrate items within packed lunches eg pasta salads.
• The number of children bringing snack items has reduced slightly with children commenting they don’t bring these items in every day, but as a treat.
• The major impact we have seen in the results has been the reduction in the number of children bringing sweetened drinks eg Fruit Shoots (65% 2010 to 25% in 2011) and now choosing water which we provide on the tables at lunchtime or their own water bottles.  Did you know that over a year these parent / carers will be saving approximately £48 by not providing a daily fruit shoot drink?
• We have also seen an increase in the number of children choosing to take a school dinner (flexible packed lunch / school dinner combinations are also available).

Sadly, one or two children don’t have any fruit or vegetables in their packed lunches – often, these children tell us they want some, and usually blame mum or dad!

Please chat with your child about how they might make one small step to a healthier choice.

Phonics – How to say the different phonemes

It is very important when children are beginning to read and spell that the phonemes (sounds) are said correctly.

This is a list of the phonemes in the order that they are taught.

(Don’t forget to avoid saying an ‘uh’ sound after some letter sounds – this might be how you remember the sounds, but it’s not helpful to spell a word like ‘dog’ with each letter pronounced ‘duh-o-guh’ – instead, try to just say the very initial, pure sound: ‘d-o-g’.)

1. s Weave your hand in an s shape, like a snake, and say ssssss
2. a Wiggle fingers above elbow as if ants are crawling on you and say a, a, a
3. t Turn your head from side to side as if watching tennis and say t, t, t
4. i Pretend to be a mouse by wriggling your fingers at the end of your nose and squeak i, i, i
5. p Pretend to puff out candles on a cake and say p, p, p
6. n Make a noise as if you are a plane.  Hold your arms out and say nnnnnn
7. e Pretend to tap an egg on the side of a pan and crack it into the pan, saying eh, eh, eh
8. h Hold your hand in front of your mouth and pant as if you are out of breath and say h, h, h
9. r Pretend to be a puppy holding a piece of rag. Shake your head from side to side and say rrrrrr
10. m Rub your tummy as if seeing tasty food and say mmmmmm
11. d Beat your hands up and down as if playing a drum and say d, d, d
12. g Spiral your hand down as if water is going down the drain and say g, g, g
13. o Pretend to turn a light switch on and off and say o, o, o
14. c k Raise your hands and snap your fingers as if playing castanets and say ck, ck, ck
15. u Pretend you are putting up an umbrella and say u, u, u
16. l Pretend to lick a lollipop and say lllllll
17. f Let hands gently come together as if toy fish deflating, and say fffff
18. b Pretend to hit a ball with a bat and say b, b, b
19. j Pretend to wobble on a plate and say j, j, j
20. w Blow on to your open hand as if you are the wind and say wh, wh, wh
21. v Pretend to be holding the steering wheel of a van and say vvvvvv
22. z Put your arms out at your sides and pretend to be a bee saying zzzzzz
23. y Pretend to be eating a yogurt and say y, y, y
24. x Pretend to take an x-ray of someone  and say ks, ks, ks
25. ch Move arms at sides as if you are a train and say ch, ch, ch
26. sh Place index finger over lips and say sh, sh, sh
27. th th Pretend to be naughty clowns and stick out tongue a little for the th and further for the th sound (this and thumb)
28. qu Make a duck’s beak with your hands and say qu, qu, qu
29. ng Imagine you are a weightlifter and pretend to lift a heavy weight above your head saying ng…
30. ai Cup hand over ear and say ai, ai, ai
31. ee or Put your hands on your head as if ears on a donkey and say eeyore, eeyore
32. oa Bring your hand over your mouth as if you have done something wrong and say oh!
33. ie Stand to attention and salute, saying  ie ie
34. oo oo Move head back and forth as if it is the cuckoo in a cuckoo clock saying u, oo,u, oo (little and long oo.)
35. ou Pretend your finger is a needle and prick thumb saying ou, ou, ou
36. oi Cup hands around mouth and shout to another boat saying oi, oi ship ahoy!
37. ue Point to people around you and say you, you, you
38. er Roll hands over each other like a mixer and say er,er,er
39. ar Open mouth wide and say ah. Flap hands as if a seal and say ar, ar, ar

Helping your child with phonics

This week the children will begin to blend (read) and segment (spell) words orally. We call this ‘sound talk’.

For example,  c-a-t = cat. The separate sounds (phonemes) are spoken aloud, in order, all through the word, and are then merged together into the whole word. The merging together is called blending – it 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 – a vital skill for spelling.

An important point to remember is to avoid saying the ‘uh’ sound that you might remember from school. Think of ‘b’, ‘c’ without the ‘uh’ – make the sound as short and ‘pure’ as possible for these sounds.  For others, like ‘f’ and ‘l’, the sound should also not have an ‘uh’ sound, but these letters can be more continuous.

At the moment, blending and segmenting is all oral (spoken). Your child will not 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.

Try this at home:

Find real objects around your home which have three phonemes (sounds) and practise ‘sound talk’ – first just let them listen, then see if they will join in, eg:

• ‘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’

Play other phonic games at home, too!

SEAL statement 17 October

This week is the first of our focus on manners over this year with ‘I say please and thank you’ as our weekly statement.

We often receive comments from visitors to school that our children are very polite. 

Over this year, every half term, we will be focussing on a different aspect of good manners to encourage and remind children to consistently use these important qualities both in and out of school.

Staying Safe Week

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yOKVqOtUVdA”>Safety Week

14 October 2011

This week, we are learning to spell words with the ‘ay’ sound.

These will be tested on Friday 21 October.

14 October 2011

This week’s spellings are words that end in ‘er’. Your child will be tested on Friday 21 october 2011.

• richer
• smaller
• smoother
• taller
• braver
• safer
• older
• colder
• closer
• longer