Class News

Reading: Beware the Jabberwocky!

Year 5/6 have been reading poetry this week. We have read and analysed Jabberwocky by Lewis Carroll. Children retrieved information from the text and drew what they thought the Jabberwocky might look like.

Help at home: enjoy the poem together. Have fun trying to work out what each word means. Some words are two words spliced together. 

Living and Learning: I know the importance of personal hygiene, including handwashing

This week, Year 5/6 have been learning about personal hygiene. We watched some videos about the importance of using a tissue when sneezing. We discussed the difference between using hand soap and sanitiser. Children were shocked to learn that at any point in the day you might be in contact with 10,000,000,000,000 (10 quadrillion) microbes.

Help at home: discuss the importance of washing hands at key points in the day.

World Book day in 1/2B

Children in 1/2B had a superb World Book Day too! Here is the photographic evidence of their book filled day:

Writing: Suspense, Shadows and Semi-colons

This week in writing, the children have been turning into masters of suspense. We have been learning how authors carefully build tension in a story to keep the reader hooked and wanting to know what happens next.

The children have been planning and writing their own terrifying narratives, set in places like dark bedrooms, quiet woods and even a terrifying old hotel. Our main focus has been on the different ways writers can build tension. The children have been experimenting with short, snappy sentences, describing what characters can see, hear and feel, and choosing vocabulary for effect so the reader can really imagine the moment.

We have also been practising how to use semi-colons to join two closely linked clauses together in a sentence; a small piece of punctuation that can make writing flow beautifully when used correctly.

There have been some wonderfully eerie ideas appearing across the classroom, and it has been brilliant seeing the children carefully plan their stories and then build the suspense step by step.

Help at home: ask your child to tell you about the spooky narrative they are writing. Can they explain how they are building tension or show you where they have used a semi-colon in their work?

Reading

We’ve been reading Jabberwocky this week in reading. This is a poem written by Lewis Carroll, who also wrote Alice in Wonderland. This is a nonsense poem  about the main character killing a creature called ‘the Jabberwock’. The children had to read the poem and make sense of all the nonsense vocabulary. They managed to pick out and retrieve some description of the Jabberwock. The drew their representations of what they thought it would look like. There were some interesting ideas!

Maths

In Year 2, we have started a new unit in maths on multiplication. Before we multiply numbers, we need to be able to identify and represent equal groups.

The children chose from a selection of equipment to represent a variety of equal groups. Check out our work!

We are starting to use repeated addition to match these representations and will then be using multiplication.

Help at home by seeing if your child can create equal groups of objects – for example, pencils, spoons, books, or whatever is handy! Can they tell you how many equal groups there are and how many objects are in each group?

Reminder: Reception parent/carer survey

If you haven’t already and you’re a parent of a child in Reception, please complete this short survey. Thank you to those of you who have already completed the survey.

At Scholes (Elmet) Primary, we’re always trying to keep getting better and better. Your views help us to do that. The survey will only take a few minutes to complete and you’ve got until Wednesday 18 March to complete. (If you’d like us to follow-up any of your responses with you, we can only do this if you leave your name.)

We can’t guarantee to meet the needs and wants of every parent / carer, but we do assure you that we consider all the points raised and aim to act on specific points that are raised by many, or a useful idea raised by just a few.

Previously, based on your feedback, for example, we alternated the days Stay and Learns were held – to give all parents an opportunity to attend.

Thank you for taking the time to complete the survey. We’re looking forward to reading your views.

Forest Schools and Bikeability

It’s a busy half term for our year 5 students. They have started Forest School and have Bikeability to look forward to next week.

Forest School has been a huge success for the children. Perhaps not so much for parents with all those muddy clothes! From playing in the mud kitchen to bug hunting, children are picking up plenty of new skills and learning to play alongside each other imaginatively.

Bikeability is also another great opportunity to pratcise skills and learn resilience and take safe risks.

Help at home: Get ahead by taking a family bike ride this weekend. Head out to the woods for some imaginative play.

Craft club

Spring has sprung in craft club this week. We have enjoyed making some Spring time pictures today.

We painted our hands and printed them to make some wonderful flower paintings. We also used dots to colour in pictures of chicks and rabbits.

Just look at our creative pieces of art! Well done, Craft Club!

Year 5 Maths: Decimals and Conversions

This half term in maths, Year 5 have been working hard on multiplying by decimals and converting units of measurement. The children have been using their knowledge of place value and times tables to help them multiply decimals accurately, thinking carefully about how numbers shift when we multiply by tenths, hundredths and thousandths.

The children have also been exploring different units of measurement and practising converting between them, such as millimetres, centimetres, metres and kilometres. The children have shown great perseverance when tackling some tricky multi-step problems, and it has been brilliant to see them explaining their thinking and helping each other spot patterns in the maths.