Homework

21 April 2023

This week’s Talk Time has a Reading and Oracy theme.

I can read an extract.

Year 1 and 2

Read the following extract using clear pronunciation and expression. You could take turns to read a line or a verse with someone else at home.

An extract from, The Lorax by Dr Seuss

At the far end of town

where the Grickle-grass grows

and the wind smells slow-and-sour when it blows

and no birds ever sing excepting old crows…

is the Street of the Lifted Lorax.

And deep in the Grickle-grass, some people say,

if you look deep enough you can still see, today,

where the Loraz once stood

just as long as it could

before somebody lifted the Lorax away.

What was the Lorax?

And why was it there?

And why was it lifted and taken somewhere

from the far end of town where the Grickle-grass grows?

The old Once-ler still lives here,

Ask him. He knows.

Key Stage 2

Read the following extract using clear pronunciation. As you read the extract aloud, think about the use of your facial expressions and eye contact too. Consider how and why they change throughout the text.

Year 3 and 4

An extract from Loidis, Ledes, Leeds by Tom Palmer

They had been at the Leeds City Museum for over an hour when Nishaa reached the Egyptian mummy in its glass case. She took one look, then turned away.

It was horrible.

Immediately Nishaa felt disappointed in herself. Disappointed because she loved the idea of being able stand next to things that were thousands of years old. Real things from ancient history. How cool was that? She’d read enough books about them to know how amazing these artefacts were.

But there was something about this mummy. Something dry and brown and rotten that made her feel sick at the same time as being fascinated. Too much like a dead body from centuries ago. Which is exactly what it was.

‘Shall we go and stand outside?’ Mo suggested, noticing Nishaa’s reaction.

‘Get some fresh air.’

‘Yeah,’ Nishaa agreed. Mo led the way. Nishaa and Jack followed. Jack was ready to go too.

They’d done the ancient history section – and the history of Leeds section. Both had been okay, but he’d had enough now. Mo took his two friends down a corridor and through some glass doors. Then another corridor, which was different to the others. It had bare walls. No colourful displays. Even so, Mo felt confident that this was the way out.

Until he saw that the way was blocked by a woman wearing an old-fashioned dress, long dark hair tucked neatly beneath a wide-brimmed hat. She was also wearing a purple ribbon across her coat. The corridor felt suddenly cold.

Mo shivered.

‘Hello,’ the woman said, addressing all three of them.

‘Er… hi,’ Mo said.

‘How are you enjoying the museum, children?’

‘Good thanks,’ Nishaa said.

‘Well, it’s not that good,’ Jack contradicted. He felt tired and grumpy now. He just wanted to be on the bus home.

‘Did you enjoy the gallery about Leeds and its history?’ the woman asked.

‘It was okay,’ Mo replied. ‘But we didn’t really stop for too long.’

‘That’s a shame,’ the woman said. ‘Don’t you want to know about the history of your city?’

‘Not really,’ Jack answered.

The woman said nothing. She just looked at the three children, one after the other.

None of them quite understood who she was, until Nishaa had a thought. Something she remembered from a London museum her dad had taken her to in the summer holidays.

Year 5 and 6

An extract from The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien

In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: it was a hobbit-hole, and that means comfort. It had a perfectly round door like a porthole, painted green, with a shiny yellow brass knob in the exact middle. The door opened on to a tube-shaped hall like a tunnel: a very comfortable tunnel without smoke, with panelled walls, and floors tiled and carpeted, provided with polished chairs, and lots and lots of pegs for hats and coats – the hobbit was fond of visitors. The tunnel wound on and on, going fairly but not quite straight into the side of the hill – The Hill, as all the people for many miles round called it – and many little round doors opened out of it, first on one side and then on another. No going upstairs for the hobbit: bedrooms, bathrooms, cellars, pantries (lots of these), wardrobes (he had whole rooms devoted to clothes), kitchens, dining-rooms, all were on the same floor, and indeed on the same passage. The best rooms were all on the left-hand side (going in), for these were the only ones to have windows, deep-set round windows looking over his garden and meadows beyond, sloping down to the river.

This hobbit was a very well-to-do hobbit, and his name was Baggins. The Bagginses had lived in the neighbourhood of The Hill for time out of mind, and people considered them very respectable, not only because most of them were rich, but also because they never had any adventures or did anything unexpected: you could tell what a Baggins would say on any question without the bother of asking him. This is a story of how a Baggins had an adventure, found himself doing and saying things altogether unexpected. He may have lost the neighbours’ respect, but he gained – well, you will see whether he gained anything in the end.

24 March 2023

Vocabulary is the focus of this week’s homework. This half-term our topic has been Computing. We’ve been using and applying the key vocabulary below in our learning.

Years 1 and 2 Computing vocabulary:

Years 3 and 4 Computing vocabulary:

 Years 5 and 6 Computing vocabulary:

All of these words have been introduced over the half term. How confident do you feel explaining what they mean? Can you traffic light them into green (very confident), yellow/orange (mostly confident) or red (not confident).

17 March 2023

This week’s Talk Time links to Science.

What’s growing?

As the season changes from Winter to Spring, you’ll begin to notice changes in gardens, parks, fields and any other green spaces! You may see flowers starting to bloom or new leaves starting to grow on trees. It’s a wonderfully magical time of year. This week, we’d like you to observe the different changes that you spot in your locality.

You could work scientifically by:

• recording your observations by taking photographs or sketching flowers
• using books or internet research to identify flowers
• spotting patterns relating to where particular flowers are growing eg sunny or shady spots
• identifying if all deciduous trees are sprouting new leaves at the same time

10 March 2023

This week’s Talk Time poses a moral dilemma and links to internet safety

Is using the internet is bad for your health? 

You could start by listing reasons why you would use the internet (playing games, social media, watching videos). Are your reasons the same as other members of your family?

We suggest approaching this Talk Time with an open mind. You may already have strong views on this but it’s important to consider both sides of an argument before reaching your conclusions.

Check out these R2s to help you with your discussions at home:

• What are the health benefits of using the internet?
  • Remember that mental health is crucial to being a healthy person.
• How could using the internet negatively impact on your health?
  • How could this impact on your physical health?
  • Is using the internet always an enjoyable experience?
• Decide which argument is the
  • This might be the side with the most points to back it up.
  • You might consider some points to be more important than others.
  • You may not agree with people you speak to – that’s okay!

After the discussion with friends and family, what conclusion do you reach? Do others around you agree?

Additionally, or alternatively, you might like your child to consider our current Christian value…

At St James’ CE Primary School, we learn about Christian values that help us to become well-rounded citizens in society. The values are woven into our everyday school life. Each half term, we have a new Christian value that will be embedded into our collective worship and our reflection areas.

This half term, our Christian Value is forgiveness.

Throughout the Bible, God is described as slow to anger, abounding in love and forgiving sin (Numbers 14:18) and Jesus is shown to be uncompromising in his command to forgive. ‘Forgive’, he said, ‘seventy times seven’ (Matthew 18:21), meaning forgive and keep on forgiving without limit.

Sometimes, we accidentally break things that belong to ourselves or others. Sometimes, we use something so much it wears out. Some things that are broken cannot be mended, but it’s often possible to mend things that we’ve broken.

Help at home!

When you fall out with one of your friends, you can’t mend that friendship with a needle and thread, or some Sellotape, or glue or a puncture kit or a sticking plaster. Forgiving people, or yourself, can be hard. Take a moment to think about why it can help to forgive and how you can do it.

Draw around your hand.

• Think about why it can important to forgive someone and write in on the palm of your hand.
• On each finger or thumb, write a way we can forgive someone.
• Colour and decorate your forgiving fingers, if you wish.

03 March 2023

This week’s Talk Time is linked to our current topic Computing and has a social theme. There are lots of different types of technology that we can see in the world around us. Take a look at the photos below. What can you see? Have you used any of these things before? Have you seen other people using these things? What other types of technology do you use at school or at home?

This week we’d like you to set yourself a challenge and see how long you can go without using technology.

Can you think of some different ways to approach tasks that would usually involve using technology? For example, using the stairs instead of an escalator or lift. Or playing a board game or reading a book instead of playing on your games console, mobile phone or watching television.

24 February 2023

This week’s Talk Time has a reading and oracy theme. This is because on Thursday 02 March 2023 it is World Book Day. To celebrate reading, we’d like you to have some conversations about your favourite books and or/authors.

I can talk about my favourite book and/or author.

You can come up with your own ideas for how to show this. Ideas might include:

• giving a verbal book review of your favourite book
• describing a character from your favourite book
• giving a one minute speech on your favourite book, persuading others to read it – consider what the most exciting parts are, which characters you love or you love to hate, who might enjoy reading it next and why

When you’re happy with what you want to say, turn your attention to speaking aloud with confidence and clarity. This week’s Remember 2s (R2s) will help with that:

• Speak clearly in a loud voice without shouting.
• Pause for breath at the right places to make sure your speaking at an appropriate pace.
• Face your audience.

This homework will be celebrated on World Book Day itself, Thursday 02 March 2023.

03 February 2023

This week, our Talk Time is in preparation for Safer Internet Day on Tuesday 07 February. We’ll have a full day of learning based around internet safety. With that in mind, start to think about ways you already keep yourself safe when online.

I can talk about ways to keep myself safe online

Things you might like to consider are:

• Age restrictions – where might you see these and why are these used?
• Digital content – do you know what a digital footprint is?
• Mis information, disinformation and hoaxes – are all things we read true?
• Fake websites and scam emails – are all websites trusted?
• Password safety
• Personal data and keeping it safe online
• Online vs offline behaviour
• Impact on quality of life and having a balance of online and offline activities

Have a conversation with your family and friends about how you already keep yourself safe online. After your conversation, take some time to reflect on yours and others responses. Is there anything that you could change or do differently to help keep yourself even safer online? Is there anything you’d like to know more about?

27 January 2023

This week’s Talk Time has a moral theme.

Who’s responsibility is it to keep me safe?

Safety covers so many areas; your discussions could centre around these forms of safety as well as any others that you know of:

• Online safety (e-safety)
• Fire safety
• Road safety
• Electrical safety
• Water safety

For each type of safety, talk about different settings and examples of when you might be faced with risks and how your adult or you would safely deal with them. For each situation, think about who’s responsible for evaluating the risks involved. Is it solely your adult at home/school or do you hold some of the responsibility in keeping yourself safe? Does your age impact on your responsibility?

Here are some examples…

• My adult lets me have a social media account and regularly monitors it to make sure I am safe but it’s also my responsibility to keep myself safe by telling my trusted adult if something happens that I do not feel comfortable with.
• My adult lets me walk to and from school on my own but it’s also my responsibility to keep myself safe by walking on the footpaths, using crossings to cross the road safely and not talking to strangers.

Here are some R2s (Remember tos) to help you stay safe:

• Think before you act.
• Assess the risks. Is it safe?
• If something goes wrong, again, think before you act.
• Who can help you and how can you reach them?

20 January 2023

This week’s Talk Time is linked to our current topic Geography and has a social theme.

What could we do in our local environment to make a positive impact on the world?

Within our Geography lessons, we’re learning about the term ‘interdependence’. This is the dependence of two or more things on each other. Interdependence is closely linked to our Talk Time this week as there are things that we do on a local scale that have consequences on a national and international scale. For example, if you live within walking distance from school you could choose to walk rather than drive. This would impact the world in a positive way as there would be one fewer cars on the road, helping to reduce the CO2 emissions.

Use this time to have a discussion at home with family and friends. You could think about the following:

• What have you seen around your local area that has been designed to support the local environment? (i.e. recycling areas, litter picking)
• How does this have a positive impact on the world?
• Is there a change you could make in your life to help the local environment?

Additionally, or alternatively, you might like your child to consider our current Christian value…

At St James’ CE Primary School, we learn about Christian values that help us to become well-rounded citizens in society. The values are woven into our everyday school life. Each half term, we have a new Christian value that will be embedded into our collective worship and our reflection areas.

This half term, our Christian Value is honesty.

What is honesty? Honesty is being trustworthy and truthful in our friendships, our relationships, our school and our community. We understand that we need to be honest and truthful with others when working together as a team. It’s not always easy to be honest but it’s something we must strive to do.

‘Let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth.’ (1 John 13:18)

With your grown-ups, play ‘True or False’. Take it in turns to say a statement and the opposite person needs to decide if it is true or false. This game reminds us that we should always use our own knowledge to decide what’s true – we do not have to believe without thinking for ourselves. Sometimes we may even need to ask for help and learn new things to discover truth — such as when someone says a statement which is not clearly true or false to us (such as ‘I am ten feet tall’ when we don’t know how much ten feet is). Knowing when to ask questions, and remembering to use our minds when we hear things, is important for investigating what is actually truth.

13 January 2023

Vocabulary is the focus of this week’s homework. This is because we’ve just begun a new Geography topic and with it comes new Geography vocabulary.

Here’s a list of key words that are being learnt and applied as part of our learning. Over the half-term, practise using these words with your child.

Years 1 and 2 Geography vocabulary:
• locality: an area or neighbourhood
• environment: the surroundings of a human, animal or plant
• recycling: turning waste into new materials
• pollution: something harmful or poisonous in an environment
• to survey: to find the opinions of a group of people by asking them questions
• physical geography: physical geography looks at the natural things in our environment
• human geography: human geography looks at changes in the environment by humans
• issue: an important topic or problem that needs discussion
• solution: a way of solving an issue or problem

Years 3 and 4 Geography vocabulary:
• tectonic plates: different pieces of the Earth’s crust which fit together like a jigsaw and move in different directions and at different speeds
• volcano: an opening in the Earth’s crust that allows magma, ash and gases to escape
• magma: molten rock (rock so hot that it has turned into liquid) which is underneath the Earth’s crust
• lava: when magma reaches the surface of the Earth it is called lava
• active volcano: these have a recent history of eruptions and are likely to erupt again
• dormant volcano: these have not erupted for a very long time but may erupt at a future time
• extinct volcano: these are not expected to erupt in the future
• land-use: the specific purpose that an area of land is used for
• geothermal: heat produced from within the Earth (geo means earth and thermal means heat)

Years 5 and 6 Geography vocabulary:
• climate zones: different parts of the world grouped by temperature and rainfall (eg the Met Office give six: arid, equatorial, Mediterranean, polar, snow and temperate)
• climate change: a change in climate (temperature and rainfall) over a period of time (also known as ‘climate crisis’ and ‘climate emergency’)
• global warming: an outcome of climate change: a gradual increase in the overall temperature of the Earth (also known as ‘global heating’)
• latitude: imaginary lines which show how north or south a place is (the equator is the best-known line of latitude)
• fossil fuel: a non-renewable energy source, formed from the remains of plants and animals that died millions of years ago (eg coal, oil, gas)
• renewable energy: a source of energy that is sustainable so it will never run out (eg wind energy, solar energy, tidal energy)
• emission: an emission is something that been released into the world (eg carbon dioxide is an emission created when fossil fuels are burned)
• erosion: a process where materials are worn away and transported by natural forces such as wind or water
• groyne: a low wall or barrier built out into the sea from a beach to slow erosion

Some of these words have been introduced already but there may be others that are going to be covered in the coming weeks.