Book Wars
We had so many books competing in our Book Wars this week that there was a book that everyone wanted to try!
Graphic Novels are still a firm favourite but it was lovely to hear how many children are trying different books by the author of our class novel, Hannah Gold. As well as Turtle Moon (by Hannah Gold) there were other animal-themed books such as Paws and Whiskers (by Jacqueline Wilson) and a Bear Grylls novel.
Escape Room by Christopher Edge now has a waiting list and lots of children were interested in the non-fiction book about the human body that Isabella brought from home.
Help at home – talk to your children about your favourite books from when you were there age. Are there any that you would enjoy reading together?
Maths – Fractions – revising the core concepts
We’ve had a great week revisiting some core fractions concepts before we start our new Year 4 learning.
We’ve thought about wholes and parts in lots of different contexts.
See if your child can explain wholes and parts using the map of Europe:
We also considered how fractions are wholes split into equal parts and how those parts might look different but still be equal.
Finally, we thought about how if we are given a part and we know how many equal parts there are, we can work out the whole.
Help at home: challenge your child to explain parts and wholes to you using something they have at home (this could be a plant, a toy, a room.)
Some children had to think hard about how to fold a strip of paper into equal parts so this might be something you would like to explore at home. Can your child fold the paper into 2 equal parts? 4 equal parts? 6 equal parts? Is it easier to fold the paper into 4 or 6 equal parts? Why is that?
I would love to hear about how any of these investigations went.
National Science and Media Museum (Bradford)
We had a fantastic trip to the National Science and Media Museum in Bradford this week. The museum is full of lots of activities that inspired the children to ask questions and investigate like scientists.
A particular favourite exhibit was Wonderlab which had lots of immersive, hands-on exhibits which dived into the physics and technology behind what we see and hear.
Highlights included a 15m long echo tube, a mirror maze, laser tunnel and the chance to make art using light.
We also had a workshop recapping and extending our learning about sound. We revisited our learning about how sound travels and learnt about how special effects sound engineers use sound to enhance films.
Thank you for the donation you made for the trip – the children had a wonderful day!
Living & Learning – I know the ingredients of a happy and healthy relationship
We started this week thinking about what makes a healthy relationship. The class generated some great ideas of characteristics of healthy relationships that we are going to build on this half term.
Help at home – when you spot your child showing one of these characteristics in their relationships outside of school it would be great to highlight this to them.
Staying Safe themed week
This week has been one of our Living and Learning themed weeks. We have been learning all about how to stay safe.
- Being Safe
We’ve been learning about what is appropriate and what is not using Rachel Brian’s book ‘Respect: Consent, Boundaries and Being in Charge of YOU’.
We’ve also thought about boundaries when negotiating about space and objects.
“If someone is feeling cross, they may need their own space.” Hunter
“Always make sure nobody is in front of you when you are on the slide or gym equipment.” Sophie
“In WUSU, don’t go too close to other people because you will trip them up when dancing.” Orianne
“When playing ball games, you need to check where you are kicking or throwing the ball.” Lillie-Jane
“Some people don’t like you in their personal space because they don’t want germs.” Aria
We’ve discussed about it not always being right to keep a secret if it relates to being safe.
“Even though it’s a secret, I would tell my Mum because it might be dangerous.” Lincoln
If something doesn’t feel right, in person or online, with someone we do or don’t know, we’ve talked about how we should Start Telling Other People (STOP.)
“If something doesn’t feel right you should just tell an adult. Just trust your instincts.” Hattie
- Health protection and prevention
We’ve been learning about safe and unsafe exposure to the sun and how to reduce the risk of sun damage including skin cancer.
5Ss for sun
- slip on a t-shirt
- slop on sun cream with a protection factor of 30 or more
- slap on a wide brimmed hat
- slide on some quality sunglasses
- shade from the sun wherever possible
We’ve had a very engaging session with D:Side learning about drugs and medicine.
- Personal safety
Louise Crossland (our PCSO) spoke to us about how to stay safe near roads and at the park.
We reflected on hazards that may cause harm, injury or risk:
– around water
“My Dad said the rocks near the river are really slippy.” Zachary
“The current might not look strong but it might still be strong.” Poppy
“If you swim out to the island in the middle of the river it is really deep and you could drown.” Violet
We discussed how we should always speak to an adult to check it is safe before going in water.
– on the road
We put our learning in to practice by going on a walk to the park, thinking about how to be safe near the road and at the park.
– with food
– in the home
and thought of ways to reduce these risks.
- Online safety
We learned that we need to be aware of our digital footprint.
- Citizenship: Living in the wider world
We thought about how the British values of the rule of law and individual liberty link to keeping us safe.
“Our parents have rules. It’s not to be mean – it’s just to keep us safe.” Max
“It is your body your choice. So you can decide whether you do something or not. You can always ask your parents too.” Orianne
- Christian values
We reflected on how the Christian value of courage to help keep us safe.
“If you are lost in a shop and need to ask for help you might need to be courageous to ask for help.” Lily
“It’s like D:Side Dave said, if one of your friends tries to get you to drink wine you need to be courageous to say no.” Poppy
“If your friend asks you to play in the road you could say it’s dangerous because a car might hurt you.” Cheyenna
Water Safety: Canal and River Trust
As part of our Staying Safe week here at St James’, we had an online meeting with Claire from The Canal and River Trust. The focus of the meeting was to educate us all about how to spot dangers around canals and rivers. The children enjoyed spotting dangers and explaining their reasons.
Claire ensured all the children know what to do should they see anyone in trouble at a river or canal. We should always call 999 in these situations. The emergency services will then aim to be there within 8 minutes!
Help at home – Can they speak about anything new they have learnt today? Visit the canal and river trust website – https://canalrivertrust.org.uk/.
PC Louise
Today, KS2 had a visit from PC Louise from West Yorkshire Police. She came in to talk to us about how to stay safe when we are out and about in our local community.
The first thing Louise spoke about was the importance of telling our parents or a trusted adult about where we are going and what time we will back home. This is crucial as it helps us to stay safe.
The next thing Louise spoke about was the importance of observing signs when we are out and about. Signs linked to roadworks, railway tracks, water and building sites were spoken about. She also mentioned that we MUST NOT enter sites that are abandoned for many reasons.
PC Louise spoke to us about what to do if we see someone acting suspiciously at the park or if there is someone who makes us feel uneasy. We should take ourselves away from that situation and make sure we speak to a trusted adult. If something doesn’t feel right – take yourself out of that situation.
Finally, PC Louise spoke to use about the importance of ALWAYS wearing a seatbelt when travelling in a car. It doesn’t matter if the trip only takes 10 seconds or if we are travelling at 5mph, ALWAYS WEAR A SEATBELT.
Help at home – speak to your child about how they can keep themselves when out in our local community.
That fun maths game …
I spotted Year 1 playing a fun new maths game and knew that Year 4 would love it! Think Only Connect but for Primary Maths!
We’ve played a couple of games (on the Year 4 setting) in class and I promised to share the link so you can play at home: SQM Connections
Enjoy!
Writing – direct speech
We’ve been working really hard this week to increase our confidence with writing direct speech.
Last week we wrote a narrative to accompany the wordless picture book The Flood by Alvaro Villa. As part of the narrative we included some direct speech.
We’ve only recently learned how to accurately punctuate direct speech:
- Write the words spoken first (remembering to start with a capital letter)
- Add the inverted commas around the words spoken
- Add punctuation at the end of the words spoken and inside the inverted commas
- Add a reporting clause
- New Speaker New Line
Having drafted and edited direct speech in our narrative, we’ve enjoyed recapping the rules again and then becoming more fluent by practising independently.
Help at home – our super writers have really enjoyed the challenge of writing direct speech so if you would like to learn more at home you could look here for more information and a couple of challenges: BBC Bitesize direct speech
Alternatively, when reading together, look out for examples of direct speech. You check if the author has followed the rules we have used in class or think about how they have made the reporting clause engaging.
Living and Learning – I know that being physically active is mentally and physically healthy
In living and learning we have been thinking about the physical and mental benefits to our health of being physically active.
We were surprised to learn that it is recommended that we should be active for one hour per day. We thought about our favourite ways of being active and made them into a word cloud:
Then we made a list of all the times that we are active across a week and added them up. The highest weekly active minutes recorded was a fantastic 21 hours!
We were surprised by how quickly walking/cycling to and from school, wake up shake up, break and lunchtime added up! We reviewed what the biggest ‘contributors’ were to our active minutes and found that playing at school and ‘playing out’ after school were often the biggest chunk.
Help at home: discuss with your child how you make sure you stay active to look after your physical and mental health. You could also think about if there are any new ways of being active you would like to try together.