Author: Mr Roundtree

11 May 2020: Home learning

Hi children,
How are you all? We hope that you have had a lovely weekend and enjoyed
the bank holiday weather. Did anyone celebrate VE day on their street? I saw lots of my neighbours (from a distance) and it was lovely!

Maths:  Year 3 video learning and worksheet.  Year 4 video learning and worksheet. (Don’t forget to send copies of your wonderful work so that we can share it on the class news page.)

Reading: Today, you are going to find out about the amazing explorer, Ibn Battuta, who travelled for 29 years and covered over 75,000 miles! Wow! Find out how he travelled and what he saw along the way. Watch the BBC clip . (If the video doesn’t work, there is a transcript of the clip underneath.)
Take notes as you watch the clip. Choose five facts that you found the most interesting and write these into full sentences.
Challenge:
If you could interview Ibn, what would you ask him?
List five questions that you could ask him.

Topic: Mapping the world video learning second attempt (sorry the first one didn’t work for some reason.)
Go to the Bitesize link and watch the video. Read the text. (This recaps what Sue Venir has told us in the video.) Now play the quiz. (You can use the text above to help you.)
Did you get all 5 questions correct?
If you didn’t, you can always have another go at the quiz. (Remember, you can find the answers in the text and the video!)

Spellings: Revising the long  i vowel sound. Don’t forget, you can use the activity suggested or ANY method that helps you to learn the spelling pattern.

 

Home learning and other support (08 May 2020)

In the past week or so, there has been a lot of confusing messages about easing the lockdown, some hopeful but many others cautionary. Some of you have asked us about how and when schools might re-open, but we’ve had absolutely no information about this.

However, a Department for Education blog, published just yesterday, made this clear statement:

Schools are closed to all but the children of critical workers and vulnerable children. The Secretary of State has been clear that this will remain the case until the scientific advice says it is safe to do otherwise.

Any headlines in newspapers and the wider media are either wild speculation or unhelpful government leaks.

Schools do continue to receive daily emails from the Department for Education. As far as we can see, there’s one very clear message in every email that comes through:

It is essential that everyone washes their hands more often, using soap and water for at least 20 seconds. Hand washing with soap employs mechanical action that loosens bacteria and viruses from the skin, rinsing them into the drain. Drying hands afterwards makes the skin less hospitable to the virus. Hand sanitiser can be effective if soap is not available or the situation makes using soap less feasible (i.e. when outside) but using hand sanitiser provides none of the virus-destroying friction that rubbing your hands together and rinsing with water provides.

Remind yourself of guidance on hand washing can be found at:

The e-Bug project is led by Public Health England and has a dedicated webpage for learning resources on hand washing and respiratory hygiene.

Whatever the national message, Sphere Federation staff hope you all have a happy and healthy weekend.

08 May 2020: Home learning

Happy VE day!

Here is the working out to yesterday’s maths challenges.

Today is a bank holiday – a time where you may be spending extra time with your families and celebrating VE day. VE day stands for Victory in Europe Day and it is celebrated on 8th May – the day when World War  II ended in Europe in 1945.

If you would like to do some learning about VE day, there are a few tasks below that you can do and a few extra fun things based around VE day.

Reading:

Here is a reading text all about VE day and some questions to answer. This reading text will tell you more about VE day.

Maths:

During WWII, Morse Code was used between warships and naval bases, because radio frequency was limited and also easily identifiable by military enemies. Morse code is an alphabet or code in which letters are represented by combinations of long and short light or sound signals. Have a go at cracking these morse codes to find out the secret messages.

 

Extra activities

Here are some extra activities that you may want to do on VE day:

  • How about doing some war time baking? In WWII, lots of the food was rationed to ensure there was enough to go around so people had to bake using different ingredients. Does anything take your fancy? I think the chocolate cake sounds delicious!
  • How about becoming a medal designer? Lots of medals were handed out during and at the end of WWII. Do you have what it takes to be the designer of an important medal?
  • How about flying a spitfire plane? The Spitfire is the most famous plane of World War Two. Its groundbreaking design and superior specifications gave the British a decisive advantage fighting the Luftwaffe.

Please do send us any pictures of you celebrating VE day and let us know how you are doing. Send them to both Mrs Rowley and Mrs Welsby and one of us will get back to you.

( beckyrowley@spherefederation.org / kerensawelsby@spherefederation.org )

 

Home learning and other support (07 May 2020)

Tomorrow is a bank holiday to commemorate VE Day. We’ll continue with home learning tasks, but remember that on such a day, we completely understand if you want to step back and enjoy – as much as you can – the bank holiday. (The same goes for next Friday, too – this was scheduled to be a training day at school.)

We’ve had a few parents tell us their child has reached the end of the exercise books we sent home just before schools closed. If this is the case, you can call in to school on Monday morning when Miss Beatson will be there.

Fancy getting creative?

Monday’s message was about additions or alternatives to the home learning tasks your teacher sets your child. We know some tasks might end up being a bit tricky for some people, so it’s a good idea to have different things for them to get stuck into…

Your child could create a National Book Token design and win a £10 National Book Token for themselves and each of their classmates. The National Book Token people will select one child’s design to put on a gift card every week for seven weeks. When schools open up again, the young designer and their classmates will each receive a £10 National Book Token displaying the winning artwork.

Talking of which, there are plenty of competitions during the lockdown period. The list comes from Child Friendly Leeds, which has lots of guidance, activities and creative ideas for families, too.

ArtForms in Leeds has different weekly home learning ideas for you and your child to check out. In the current week (Week 7), we love the idea for older children to create their own city using nets.

…And finally, don’t forget your child could get creative alongside you in the kitchen or in the garden if you have one.

07 May 2020: Home learning

Good morning Year 3 and Year 4.

Maths: 

Here are the answers to Year 4’s maths learning.

As tomorrow’s tasks will be slightly different due to the bank holiday, we’ll have our challenges day today instead. Here’s a link to another four problems from BBC Bitesize.

How many of them will you conquer? Answers are on the link too but suggested workings out will be posted tomorrow.

Here are some things to remember when approaching each challenge. Given the content, Challenge 4 might be more accessible to Year 4 than Year 3.
Top Tips – Challenge 1:
Read the text carefully to avoid falling into traps. Think about what ‘half’ means and for the second part in particular, think about ‘half’ isn’t.
Top Tips – Challenge 2:
Take time to understand the information that has been given. Bar modelling would help with this.
Top Tips – Challenge 3:
This is quite a long problem. Breaking it down into smaller chunks and  showing your working will help you to avoid mistakes.
Top Tips – Challenge 4:
You are asked to find two ways but can you find all solutions? Think about how you might approach this systematically (in order). It’s useful to remember that 1000ml = 1l .

 

Reading: 

Have a look at this video to learn about Edmund Hilary. Then, here is the text and the questions that are spoken about during the video.

 

RE: 

This week, we are going to carry on learning all about Pentecost. Have a look at this video to hear more information about Pentecost and for your activity. (Here is a copy of the activity if you want it separately.)

Home learning and other support (06 May 2020)

We’re keeping today’s message a happy and healthy one…

All the teachers are missing their children each day (and seeing you, the parents and carers, too). They’re busy working away on your home learning tasks, and enjoying all the emails coming in, but teachers from each school have found time over the last couple of weeks to create three very different videos, all of which were intended to put a happy and healthy smile on your faces!

By now, you’ve probably seen your child’s own school teachers, but we thought it might be nice to bring the three together for today’s message.

The Head of School at Moortown, Mrs Weekes, got her creative juices flowing and wrote a reflective poem. The teachers in the clip start off with the Reception teacher (sporting a fetching lockdown haircut) and working up to the Year 6 teacher and then Miss Rushbrooke and finally Mrs Weekes herself.

Almost all the St James’ CE Primary staff feature in this one – and even pupils at Moortown and Scholes might recognise one or two familiar faces (although I’m sure nobody knows who that strange person wearing five pairs of glasses is). Can you spot another lockdown haircut?

 

Miss Hague kicks off this video in a very nonchalant mood. She, and plenty of others, get to show off some secret talents in the Scholes (Elmet) video. Now, maybe I’m too cynical, but there’s one clip on here that looks just too good to be true…

We hope you like them.

06 May 2020: Home learning

Good morning, Year 3 and Year 4 – you are halfway through another week!

Maths:

Here are the answers to yesterday’s maths learning for Year 3 and Year 4.

Y3 Maths:
Here’s a link to a task on adding two three-digit numbers. This is a really important skill to revisit every now and then because there are some traps that are easy to forget about. Have a go at all three activities in this link.
During the video, they use the terms ‘number column’ and ‘carry’. Throughout school, we refer to these as ‘column addition’ and ‘exchanges’. In the title of activity two, they use the word ‘regrouping’. Again, we opt for saying ‘exchanges’. If you haven’t got a pack of playing cards for activity three, you could create what you need using some scrap paper.

Y4 Maths:

Here is a video for your maths learning and the task sheet.

 

Reading:

Here are the answers to yesterday’s RIC.

We are going to have a look at Robert Falcon Scott again. Watch this clip again.  (There is also a transcript of the video available on this link if there is a problem with playing the video clip). Now, write a summary of Scott’s exhibition or draw a storyboard of the key events.

Science:

Today, head to BBC bitesize to carry on learning about your light topic. Here are your tasks to accompany BBC bitesize.

Home learning and other support (05 May 2020)

Yesterday’s message was mainly about additions and alternatives to the home learning tasks. Today, we’re suggesting four different ways to support you…

First… Public Health England has updated their guidance for households with possible coronavirus (COVID-19) infection. The guidance is for households with grandparents, parents and children living together where someone is at risk or has symptoms of coronavirus (COVID-19) infection.

Second… Here is the digital link for our first Families Leeds & West Yorkshire ‘lockdown’ issue.

 

The issue gathers together, in one place, fantastic resources and advice to help parents manage the next few weeks. (And there are also £100 Amazon vouchers to be won!)

Third… You can access online support for parents and carers during the current situation – use the code ‘north‘ when prompted. This is a service from Northpoint and Silvercloud Health.

The service has been designed by clinical experts with the aim of empowering you to think and feel better. The website includes programmes that are tailored to your needs. It contains easy to use content and interactive tools. The online space is secure and anonymous. No identifying details are required apart from a contact e-mail address.

And finally, fourth… We’re just a little into May, so this one’s not too late… Well-being charity Action for Happiness has published its Meaningful May calendar which has ideas and top tips to help us respond to the global crisis with a sense of purpose and meaning. To help have a great meeting, the charity has published new guidance for people hosting online groups, with some really good ideas.

Explorers: extra questions

Hi,

You have already looked at our Paris text to answer the questions set by Leah. Here are another set of questions  written by Joe. It’s great when you send in challenges for your class mates, Year 3/4. Thank you!

1.Where is the highest point in Paris?

2.What does Fluctuat Nec Mergistur mean?

3.What is Paris’s world famous museum called?

4.Name three Parisian Artists?

5.What direction does the River Seine flow?

6.Who gave Paris its name?

7.What building is over 800 years old.

8.How many restaurants are there in Paris?

9.Why was the Eiffel Tower built?

10.Where is Paris?

From Joe

 

05 May 2020: Home learning

Good morning all. Thank you to all of you who have sent in messages, answers or photos. It’s always lovely to hear how you’re getting on because we miss you! Stay safe! If you want to see some more questions that have been sent in from last Friday’s reading task, check out our Class News page.  x

Maths: Yesterday’s answers: Year 3 and Year 4. Today’s learning. Year 4 video learning and worksheet. Year 3 video learning and worksheet.

Reading:  Yesterday’s answers. Today’s learning. Here is the first explorer that you are going to be finding out about, Robert Falcon Scott. Watch this clip that explains all about Scott’s expedition to the South Pole. There is also a transcript of the video available on this link if there is a problem with playing the video clip. Now, answer these questions in your home learning book.

Grammar: Revision of nouns.