Year 3 and 4 went down to the woods today…
This week, along with Born of the Forest, Year 3 and 4 ventured out to a classroom with no walls! Check out how we got on exploring, investigating and learning all about St James’ Woodland.
Be sure to scroll through our time outdoors and chat to your child about it – what did they think of their time outdoors? Did they learn anything new? What was the best bit of their session?
Each Friday, your child will be spending 90 mins in the woodland, whatever the weather – please ensure they bring appropriate clothing.
Year 5 went down to the woods today…
This week, Year 5 were the first class to venture out with Born of the Forest to explore and learn outside in our new outdoor classroom – St James’ Woodland.
It was great to see the children working as a team! Check them out in action…
Each Friday, your child needs to be ready to spend 90 mins outside, whatever the weather!
Carnival Music Day
We were so excited to be able to meet Dave who came to do a workshop with us around our new history topic, carnivals!
We started by doing some call and response using clapping. We learnt we had to have group cohesion to ensure we were all clapping at the same time and could really feel the rhythm we were creating by using our bodies.
Dave taught us about the instruments used by the Yoruba tribe in West Africa. This tribe were invaded by European countries and transported as slaves to the Caribbean. This was known as the Transatlantic Slave Trade. We will be learning more about this in the upcoming weeks.
The Drums were hollow so the sound can vibrate and get out of the bottom. Tight rope is used to hold the top in place which is made from goat skin.
We learnt the best way to hit a drum so we did not hurt ourselves.
After splitting into four groups, we used our drums in different ways to create a thunder storm.
We then looked at some serdo drums which were much larger and much deeper.
In the afternoon, we created a performance for the whole school using different instruments. Check out our performance here.
Week 2 – The Very Hungry Caterpillar
We have had a wonderful week in school. Our focus book this week has been ‘The Very Hungry Caterpillar’. We have been learning more about minibeasts and lifecycles. We went on a minibeast walk around school and discovered some tadpoles in our school pond. We have even got some caterpillars in our classroom to observe.
We have been investigating using different art materials to create caterpillars and butterflies. It was very exciting to see what happened when we painted half of a butterfly and then folded the paper.
Our PE lessons this term are focusing on different ball skills. We have introduced hockey sticks and are working hard on controlling a ball around a track. It is lots of fun!
Our poem this week is all about finding a wiggly worm. I wonder if you could help find a worm in your garden?
I hope you all have a lovely long weekend and we will see you all back on Tuesday.
Mrs Payne
‘Loidis Ledes Leeds’
Year 4 have begun a new class novel called ‘Loidis Ledes Leeds’ written by Tom Palmer. This five part story follows the adventures of three pupils across Leeds and across time.
Iron Age Romans Anglo Saxons Vikings Now
The characters travel through historical periods and uncover some VERY exciting facts about the city of Leeds. The historical finds can be visited today, if you fancy an afternoon out.
There are two ways to enjoy this story. These are via a PDF document and online. The children have really enjoyed listening to the author narrate the first few chapters.
https://tompalmer.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/Leeds-story-2016-full.pdf
The first historical adventure ends in Barwick in Elmet, Leeds where the children discover the remains of a large Iron Age hillfort.
Help your child by sharing this story and read (or listen to ) the next chapter at home. Encourage your child to research each historical find and the period of history they originate from.
Library visit
Today, we walked to the library to have a welcome visit. We listened to a couple of stories and learnt about all the different types of books we can borrow from the library. Our five library ambassadors choose a book each to bring back to school for our reading area. Afterwards, we had some free time to explore and read some books and make our own door handle sign to use when we are reading so we aren’t disturbed.
Living & Learning: I recognise the importance of sleep
This week in Living and Learning, we have been looking at the importance of sleep.
We thought about all the things we already knew about sleep. We wrote this on the board in red, blue, and green pens. We already knew that sleep was important for both our minds and our bodies. We later went back to this and added our new knowledge in pink.
We heard about a little girl called Mia who struggled to go to sleep one night after a very busy day and rushing straight to bed. We talked about what was good to do before bed and what wasn’t. We sorted things into two piles.
Later, we thought about our bedtime routines and planned a new bedtime routine for Mia. We decided that a super bedtime routine would possibly include:
- screen times going off an hour before bed
- going to bed at the same time each day
- brushing our teeth
- having a story
- staying goodnight to our family
Help at home
Talk to your child about what they find most helpful during their bedtime routine. See if they would like to include something new, if they need it, in their bedtime routine to help them get to sleep.
Living and Learning: I know the importance of sleep
This week, in Living and Learning, we’ve been thinking about how a good night of sleep can help us to be healthy.
We know that we need to get between 9 and 12 hours of sleep each night so that our bodies feel well rested! We talked about what helps us get to sleep: listening to relaxing music, having a cuddle with a teddy or reading a bed-time story instead of watching TV.
Here is our poem of the week, Bedtime by Eleanor Farjeon.
We talked about who the author of this poem might be talking to – we think that they are talking to an adult who has told them to go to bed! We also think that the child doesn’t want to go to bed.
“If they go to bed now then they will feel well-rested.”
“They don’t want to go to bed because they are asking lots of questions.”
“If they go to sleep now then they will be healthy tomorrow and be able to do their activities again.”
Writing money as decimals
Year 4 have been learning how to write a given amount of money in decimal notation. The children explored the use of pounds and pence notation and this helped to develop their understanding that the digits following the decimal point represent part of a pound.
Help at home
Next time you go shopping keep the till receipt or use the ones below.
Ask your child some of the following questions.
- Which is the most expensive item?
- Convert £1.99 into pence.
- How would you write 13p as a decimal?
- Which item has the most tenths?
- What is the total cost for two pizzas?
- Which item has no tenths and no hundredths?
- How many pounds and pence in 474p?
Summer Term 1 – Week 1 The Bad Tempered Ladybird
Welcome back!
We hope you all had a wonderful Easter break and enjoyed the sunny weather! This term our topic focuses on ‘Life on Earth’. Our focus story is all about a ladybird who isn’t very happy but realises that it is much better to share than fight with our friends.
We have enjoyed lots of outdoor learning this week. We had a walk around school to see which mini beasts we could find. We talked about the different places we might find them. We were very excited when we reached the pond area to find lots of tadpoles in there.
We thought about different places bugs might like to live and if they ever go on holiday? We decided to create some bug hotels! We were very excited when Mr Atkins gave us a demonstration on how to safely use hand drills and screwdrivers to create our own bug hotel for outside.
We have been exploring different materials to create some models. We really enjoyed using clay and exploring different ways to create joins.
I bet you have all been wondering how our grass heads are doing. Well over the holidays they all grew hair! It was so exciting to come into class and see our new friends. We decided that they needed a visit to the salon and practised our scissor cutting skills by giving them a hair cut!
Our poem this week was called ‘pitter patter’. We hope you like it.