Author: Jamie Kilner

Living and Learning

Me and My Money Week

During our first week back after the October half term, we have been focusing on money and liking our learning to money. We have carried out a variety of lessons to help us to understand money and how to use it in a responsible way.

We have learnt about budgeting, debit and credit cards, overdrafts, currency and how/why people may value money differently.

We have also been linking money to our Christian Values. We thought about how saving takes perseverance, starting your own business takes courage, how giving to charity requires compassion. We linked our learning to Bible readings and researched famous Philanthropists.

A philanthropist is a person who donates time, money, experience, skills or talent to help create a better world. Anyone can be a philanthropist, regardless of status or net worth.

Finally, we have had online workshops delivered by HSBC. Here children learnt about where our money comes from, how we can keep it safe and what happens to our money when we get paid.

It has been a busy and very enjoyable week.

Thank you

Just wanted to say a huge ‘thank you’ for all your support this half term. We have really enjoyed the first 8 weeks of Year 6 and the progress shown has already been superb. Weekly arithmetic checks have been so positive along with the quality of writing, reading records and work in all other areas. We work hard at school but I am so grateful for the support the children receive at home too.

Have a happy and healthy half term.

Writing

In our writing this week, children have been using expanded noun phrases (ENP) to improve their writing and ensure their work stands out.

We reminded ourselves that an ENP uses a determiner, adjective, noun and preposition. We had various images scattered around our classroom and the children really enjoyed experimenting with their writing.

Help at home – ask your child what an ENP is? Show them an image to write an ENP about. Can you find an everyday object and see who can make it sound the most exciting?

Fabulous forest school

We had our final forest school of the half term today and it was a spooky special. The children made spiders, potions and had treats of hot chocolates and chocolate strawberries. We have had a lovely 6 weeks with Sarah, we are so lucky to have this special resource available to our children.

Topic trip

Yorkshire Sculpture Park

Year 5 and 6 went on our first school trip of the year to the Yorkshire Sculpture Park yesterday. This was to enhance our upcoming art and sculpture topic next half term and to give the children some inspiration for sculpting.

Before talking about the trip, it’s important to acknowledge how fantastic our St James pupils were. All staff (and members of the sculpture park) commented on how well the children conducted themselves and how engaged they all were at all times. They represented the school brilliantly and I’m so proud to be their teacher.

In the morning, Year 6 went out on a guided tour around the park. We made sketches of small parts of sculptures (as they had so much detail within them). Children worked calmly and safely in the park and we really enjoyed exploring lots of different work by sculptors. We visited the Family of Man by Barbara Hepworth. Here we enjoyed viewing all the various designs and having our picture taken with them. We were also fascinated by the David Nash sculptures that all link to nature.

In the afternoon, we were able to view other sculptures around the park and explore. We visited the underground exhibition where William Kentridge’s The Pull of Gravity was being displayed. We absolutely loved this exhibition – the children could even get creative and make some of their own sculptures!

What a fantastic day!

Science

Space

In our first lesson of our new topic – Space – children have been learning about each planet within our solar system. We watched this video to help us remember some key facts:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZHAqT4hXnMw

Children then made mnemonics to remember the order of the planets (Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune). Here’s some of the mnemonics the children created:

My Very Excited Monkey Jumped Straight Up Nicely

Married Vultures Eat Melon Jam Stood Up Neatly – Lily and Valerie

Many Voted Everyone Must Jwalk Sideways Under Nigeria – Tommy

My Very Early Morning Just Sat Under Nappies – Leo S

My Very Eager Mum Just Sat Under Netting – Willow

My Vine Extremely Made Jam Sandwiches Upstairs Now – Christian

My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Nachos – Teddy

Help at home – Can your child tell you any facts about the planets? What order are they from the sun? Find a creative way to display the planets.

 

Topic – carbon store fieldwork

We are really lucky here at St James’ as we have so much green space filled with trees. We have been learning that trees, shrubs, leaf litter and soil all store carbon, keep our planet cool and help to block out noise. Carbon, if released, has a negative effect on our environment and contributes to climate change. Therefore, looking after our green spaces is crucial for future generations.

This morning, Year 5 and 6 carried out fieldwork to work out how much carbon is stored inside the trees around our school grounds. Children gathered the equipment needed and headed off around our green spaces, including our wonderful forest school.

We ensured we always measured the girth of each tree 1.3 metres above the ground. This helped provide a good estimate of the dry weight of timber, and therefore the carbon, stored in the tree.

Here’s what some of our children (and adults) had to say:

Moving around through the trees was fantastic and it made me feel peaceful – Madeleine

I enjoyed exploring the boundaries of the school. I liked working outside in nature – Oliver.

I felt jovial and I enjoyed this type of learning – Willow

We went on adventures to find some thicker trees to measure – Jacob

I learned that there is more carbon dioxide in trees than I thought and I enjoyed being outside looking at the different trees – Kiara

I really enjoyed measuring the trees, it was a surprise that they were so wide – Leo S

My group measured the girth using string and next lesson we will work out the carbon stored – Emily G

It surprised me that the girth of the trees can be so thick. One tree was 220cm! – Chloe

It was wonderful seeing the children learning and enjoying themselves out in nature – Mr Kilner

The children conducted themselves beautifully, ensuring they stayed safe and followed instructions – Mr Freeman

Next lesson, we will calculate the carbon stored.

Help at home – talk to your child about the fieldwork they carried out. What did they do? Are there any trees in your garden or local green space that you could measure to work out the carbon stored?

Science – forces

This week we made parachutes, of different sizes, and tested them to see if the various surface areas had an impact on air resistance.

We tested each parachute six times and recorded an average drop time. With these results, we produced a bar chart to display our results.

The children really enjoy planning, carrying out and recording results during this science experiment. Well done everyone!

Help at home – Ask your child what our results were. Why did we get the results we did? What is air resistance and how do we reduce/increase it? Can they talk about any other forces? Find your own ways to demonstrate the impact of air resistance.

Living and Learning

 I respect others

In our Living and Learning session this week, we have explored an important and powerful topic – discrimination.

Discrimination is treating someone less favourably, or applying a rule that unfairly disadvantages them, because of a “protected characteristic” such as age, disability, race, religion, or sex.

We spent time revisiting the Equality Act 2010. This is in place to help protect people from discrimination and ensures that protected characteristics are always respected. The protected characteristics are:

  • Disability
  • Race
  • Sex
  • Gender reassignment
  • Religion or beliefs
  • Age
  • Marriage or civil partnership
  • Pregnancy and maternity
  • Sexual orientation

Help at Home: Ask your child to name the protected characteristics and describe what each one means. Ask them who is responsible for ensuring they are respected and followed. Can they think of any examples where protected characteristics have/have not been upheld?

Writing

This week, Year 6 have been learning about parenthesis and how to use it in their writing.

Parenthesis is the use of a phrase, word or sentence that’s added into writing as extra information or an afterthought. It’s punctuated by brackets, commas or dashes.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/articles/z7hppg8

Here are some of the examples the children came up with or adapted themselves:

St James’, a happy and healthy place to achieve and believe, is in Wetherby. Valerie

The whole family – even Sam – is going on holiday. Willow

Samuel (who has a yappy dog) liked going for long walks. Chloe

Colin loves watching golf, with his friends. Lily

The school trip (to London) was a disaster. Christian

Samuel (who is a great athlete) liked going for long walks. Freddie

Mr Kilner – who was silly – fell off the ladder. Madeleine

The suitcase – bulging and heavy – wouldn’t fit in the boot. Leo S

The snow (six feet deep) meant we stayed at home. Ayah

The River Wharfe, which flows through Wetherby, is approximately 65 miles long. Leo M

The Amazon Rainforest (home to some of the most dangerous animals in the world) is in South America. Tommy

St James’, a wonderful school, is in Wetherby. Charlina

The dog – a German shepherd – loves chasing squirrels. Teddy

Help at home – ask your child what parenthesis is. Why is it used? Which punctuation do we use and why? Think of some together as a family. I’d love to see/hear what you can come up with at home.