Author: Mrs Hogarth

The children have begun writing a descriptive narrative linked to our art topic. The children have generated ideas and a plan for a piece of writing that involves a sculpture from the Yorkshire Sculpture Park coming alive. They were able to research different sculptures and choose which one they wanted to include in their writing. Ask your child which sculpture they chose. They have worked hard to include figurative language, expanded noun phrases and vocabulary for effect. The children have already created some amazing descriptions involving the weather, the landscape and changes in mood.

We have been continuing our history of art learning this week and explored the idea of the chronology of art. The children sorted art into time order starting with the oldest. They successfully identified that the cave paintings and classical art were the oldest. We discussed the invention of the camera and how this impacted and changed art. Artists moved onto creating more abstract art and become more experimental in their ideas. The children created a timeline of the artwork and added the different art movements over time. Some children took there learning even further and added key historical events to their timeline

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We have been comparing classical and modern pieces of art – in particular, sculptures. We looked at how different modern art movements had influenced artists. We researched different art movements such as cubism and futurism. We loved the abstract concepts and use of bright, vivid colours. We then used a classical sculpture and had to turn it into a modern piece using the different art movements to influence our adaptations. We could use different medium to add colour – some of us used pastels, others used felt tips. It was definitely a very creative afternoon.

Today, 5/6B decided to brush up on their hockey skills. They worked hard in pairs to learn how to efficiently pass the ball to each other using their hockey sticks. They had to think about the positioning of their hands, how hard to hit the ball and how to stop the ball quickly. They then worked on their dribbling skills, maneuvering the ball around different sets of cones. Finally, they had a match against different teams in the class – it got very competitive!

We have had the most amazing day at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park. We began the day taking part in a workshop that allowed us to explore our inner artist! We were able to see sculptures that focused on nature and used this idea to create our own sketches. Our drawings needed to incorporate shade, texture and even some leaf rubbings. We then observed Barbara Hepworth’s Family of Man sculpture and created some clay models from our observations. I think we got more clay on ourselves than on our mini sculptures!

The afternoon allowed us to explore the rest of the park. We discovered numerous sculptures by Henry Moore and completed more sketches. Ask your child what their favourite sculpture was? Can they remember any facts about the artists?

Well, half term is upon is and I just wanted to say a big thank you to those children who have been trying super hard with their reading at home. It’s brilliant that so many children are reading frequently and appear to be enjoying a good book. Thank you to adults for signing the journals and listening to children read aloud. Some children have put huge efforts into the weekly tasks – their journals look amazing. Below are a couple of examples that must’ve taken a lot of time and effort to complete. You’ve set the bar very high – well done.

Last week we visited John Smeaton to experience what learning is like in a high school. We got the opportunity to do a food technology lesson with Mr James. The children were very excited to make some delicious chocolate chip cookies. Some of the children were amazing bakers and no chocolate chips accidentally got swallowed in the making of the biscuits! We then moved onto a Science lesson in which the children investigated the process of evaporation. The children got to experience a laboratory situation and were able to use Bunsen burners and other scientific equipment. The children were aware of how to use this equipment safely. Thank you, John Smeaton, we had an amazing time.

Over the last couple of weeks, we have been building up to writing our own diary entries. We read numerous stories from our class novel – Survivors and used these to generate ideas for our own writing. We based the majority of our ideas on the story of Mawson who was the sole survivor of an expedition to Antarctica. We spent some time focusing on vocabulary and generated words that would describe the landscape, emotions and the hardship of an expedition. We began to consider suitable fronted adverbials to add to our writing. These were being used to add extra detail and interest to our writing and to demonstrate our ability to vary our sentence structure. The children also needed to include relative clauses in their diary entry. Everyone worked super hard on their diaries and they were a pleasure to read.

 

Last week, your child brought home a new reading record book. We are encouraging every child to read regularly at home and we would like parents to support us in this initiative. The children will be set a target page to read up to on a Friday and this needs to be completed by the following week. We are asking parents to sign the record books to show your child has read.

The children will also be set an activity to complete at home. This could be to draw a character and say what you like about them, it could be to generate some questions you would like to ask a character or prepare an argument for Book War. The task they’ve been set will be written on the activity page. Children need to consider the presentation of the work they produce in these books. There are also some challenges at the back of the record book that we would also like the children to have a go at. We will celebrate the reading that the children have completed and the activities every Friday in class.

Be a reading hero and get reading!