The Yorkshire Sculpture Park – what a trip!
Years 5 and 6 went on our first school trip of the year at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park today. This is 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 5 went out as a group to explore the park. We took our sketch books to practise drawing 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 then 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!
In the afternoon, we took part in a workshop led by an artist from the YSP. They led us around different sculptures and gave us some top tips for drawing and sculpting. Here are some pictures from our fantastic day!
Help at home:
Next half term, we will be focussing on three key sculptors: Henry Moore, Barbara Hepworth and Thomas J Price. Perhaps research some of their current work – are there any similarities and differences between the sculptors?
Living and Learning: I respect others and myself.
This week, Year 5 have been focussing on protected characteristics. The children recalled all nine very well (shown below). In our lesson, we focussed on the reasoning behind having protected characteristics in this country and where they originated. The Equality Act 2010 was introduced, making any discrimination of these characteristics illegal. Protected characteristics are in place to prevent the mistreatment and discrimination of people.
We then went on to discuss that treating people fairly isn’t always about treating people equally. Sometimes, adaptations need to be made so that everyone can have the same opportunities to be successful. Have a look at the picture below – do you think this is fair, even though everyone has been treated the same?
Help at home:
Our Philosophy Friday question this week: Is it always fair to treat everyone the same? Have a chat with your child about this at home – what do you think?
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?
Daffodils by William Wordsworth
On Thursday, to support national poetry day, the children performed ‘Daffodils’ by William Wordsworth. Parents, teachers and pupils watched the performances, meaning the children had to be brave and show perseverance to learn and perform the poem. Year 5 took matters into our own hands (literally)! We painted our palms as beautiful daffodils to wave gracefully as they do. In the words of William Wordsworth…
‘and then my heart with pleasure fills and dances with the daffodils.’
The actions, voices and painting of hands were all fantastic ideas from the children – we all really enjoyed our performance.
Help at home:
Enjoy learning poems with your child and talk about the hidden meaning in them. If you wish to continue learning Daffodils, the poem is printed below.
Being a ‘Fungi’ in Forest School!
I (Mr Freeman) had my first opportunity to experience forest school with the children today. The children told me I may be in for a good time, but I perhaps didn’t realise how much fun forest school can really be! First of all, Sarah (our forest school leader) is fantastic – all children respond really well to her words and her knowledge of the forest.
We began the session by exploring our surroundings. We are so lucky to have this space within our school grounds and the children are absolutely making the most of everything on offer. From playing in the mud kitchen to searching for unique mushrooms, it’s fair to say we are learning an awful lot every Friday. Ethan and Connor managed to find a new fungus that we were reading about in one of the books up in forest school – they concluded that we had found yellow brain fungus! Here are some brilliant photos of the children in action today.
Help at home:
Explore your outdoors with your child. They are extremely knowledgeable of their surroundings and might teach the adults something new (they definitely taught me lots today!).
Fitness for football!
Year 5 have been working hard on improving our fundamental movement skills, with football as a framework this half term. As we know, a huge part of lots of competitive sports is high fitness levels. So, Year 5 pushed themselves to their limits in our most recent fitness lesson! We had a circuit of activities in the hall and children had to spend 3 minutes taking on each one. Pupils worked hard, showed great teamwork and perseverance through tough skills and drills! We made sure to pause and drink plenty of water in the rest zone, too. Here are some pictures from our lesson!
Retrieval practise in reading: The Spider and the Fly
With national poetry day coming up next week (02.10.25), Year 5 have been reading The Spider and the Fly by Mary Howitt. To summarise, this poem reveals a cunning spider’s evil plan to lure the fly into his trap by using flattering words. The fly at first is very wary of the spider, but, in time, the spider’s kind words are too enticing for the fly to ignore. The fly enters the spider’s trap and does not meet a happy end.
When reading aloud, the children have blown me away with their fantastic oracy skills, such as tonal variation and voice projection when pretending to be the spider and the fly. In our most recent retrieval lesson, children were tasked with drawing the spider’s parlour based on facts in the text. The accuracy of their illustrations and annotations was brilliant and the children managed to include everything!
Here are some brilliant examples:
Help at home:
Practise reading aloud with your child and focus on different ways to use voices. With national poetry day just around the corner, perhaps use a poem to read together?
Super Writing!
Our first piece of writing is a diary entry, inspired by our class novel (Survivors by David Long). Our goal is to create a short recount of events happening in a made up survival scenario. The ideas from the children have blown me away! We have one child who took a dangerous short cut during a desert marathon, another who parachuted and landed inside a volcano, and some that have even ended up lost in space! The children are really into their writing so far and have just finished day one of their entries. Here are just two of 21 brilliant entries:
Living and Learning: I use the 8Rs to help me learn.
As week two draws to an end, I’d like to share some moments where the pupils have used our 8Rs for learning extremely well. As a reminder, the 8Rs are below:
- remembering
- risk taking
- resilience
- ready
- reflective
- responsible
- resourceful
- responsive
In reading, the children ended the week by performing extracts of Juliane Koepka’s diary – a survivor who beat the odds when lost in the Amazon Rainforest. For this, the children needed to remember the extracts when planning to perform, take risks when performing in front of others and reflect on feedback from peers at the end of their performances.
Lots of pupils have shown an interest in applying for school jobs. For the applications, children have had to show that they are responsible, responsive and ready for the role. I’m super proud of how many applications we have had back in Year 5!
Finally, in writing, the children are constantly remembering when to use capital letters – their books look fantastic so far as there’s lots of effort being put in.
PE – Football
This half-term, we are focussing on football to help develop our fundamental movement skills (below). Every sport/activity needs a variety of these skills. Our job is to develop them enough so that children can interchange across sports using the same learnt fundamental skills.
Year 5 have made a great start in the first few weeks. The children have followed instructions well and have kept the same high classroom standards outside. The first few sessions were all about passing accurately to a partner and keeping control of the ball. In groups of 2 or 3, children needed to pass with the inside of their foot (for the most control), to their partner. We linked this to the fundamental skill of throwing from last year. When you throw, you want your arm to end up following the direction of the ball. Kicking a football is the same – you want your foot to follow the ball through to keep the pass straight. Here are some pictures of the children in action:
Help at home:
We’re learning about urban green spaces in geography. Perhaps explore some of these spaces where you live and practise those passing skills?