Basketball skills
Children in 5/6M have been practising their basketball skills. Last week, we focused on passing. This week, we looked at dribbling.
Ask your child about three different ways to pass the ball. Children coached each other on how to keep the ball when dribbling.
Instructions
Today, we’re seeing if we can follow instructions. Some instructions were written. Some were drawings or symbols and some were a mixture.
We’ve followed instructions to make origami penguins, draw camels, played charades, played a card game called Go Fish and drawn penguins.
Some people found it easy to follow the instructions. Some people lost patience and gave up. It’s been a lot of fun trying!
Later in the week we’ll be writing our own instructions.
Living and Learning – strengthening community links
Following the success of our visits last year to the Elmet Elderberries (a local community group for older people in Scholes), some year 2 children went to visit today. It is really beneficial to listen to stories and ask questions – talking to real people and linking perfectly with our Time Travel topic.
Owlet visit
On Friday, two owlets visited the F2 children. Before the owlets arrived we read a non-fiction book about barn owls. The children learnt about their sight, hearing, food, owl pellets and owlets. We also spoke about the word nocturnal.
After the owlets had visited we asked the children what they had learnt:
- “They don’t hoot, they hiss.”
- “They eat mice and bats.”
- “Claws…picking up everything.”
- “Claws get bigger so they can hold on to things.”
- “Don’t come out in the light.”
- “They are nocturnal.”
Living and learning – the 8 Rs
This week, year 5/6 debated the value of each of th 8 Rs for learning. They generated other words that might be added to the 8 Rs: respectful, relentless and being real. They used a diamond 9 to help select the most important R for learning and discussed the reason for their choice.
Our 30 Decker Bus!
Year 3/4 have been inspired by reading ‘The Hundred Decker Bus’ by Mike Smith.
The bus has 100 decks, so that everyone can go on the adventure.
So, we’ve created our own 30 decker bus! It goes all the way up the wall and over the ceiling! We’re really proud of it.
I wonder where it’ll take us?
Living and Learning – using our 8Rs for learning
In class this week, we dedicated some learning time to consider which of our 8Rs we use. Do we use them all? Or some more than others?
We called it …
‘R thinking about our thinking‘.
At various times throughout our day, we stopped to think about what ‘R’ we have used. Was it … resilience? reflection? being ready? being responsive? taking responsibility? risk-taking? remembering? or being resourceful?
Problem solving in Maths: Resilience
Topic research using iPads: being resourceful and being responsible for what we searched for.
In some lessons, we used more than we realised.
We remember our times tables and division facts and respond to the task.
Being ready, resourceful and reflective when we write.
This metacognition, or ‘thinking about thinking’, really helps the children to understand how they think, feel, act and learn. Research shows that if we reflect on how we learn, then we become better at learning. 
Living and Learning- Reflecting
Our 8Rs for learning have an animal and action to go with them. (2KL are demonstrating their glee at creating them as a class).
One of the 8Rs for learning came to life today. The animal for ‘Reflecting’ is an owl. We had the most adorable baby barn owls come to visit! Pixie and Paddy are 30 days old. They will certainly help us to reflect on what and how we’ve learnt in the future.
Golden Stars
Well done to our two recent golden stars.
Y5 reading – Boudica or Boudica?
This week, in our Y5 reading sessions, we’ve been practising our reading skills using a semi-fictional text about Boudica the Iceni Queen and her battle against the Romans. This text links directly to our big topic: Time Travel. (We’ve also learnt about the Romans in our writing, maths and topic lessons.) There was quite a lot of text to read so to help us understand the text more clearly (learning about identifying significant events and characters) we made story maps.
The next day, we focused on using our inference skills to explore the dynamics of the relationships between the key characters. To help us organise our thoughts we used a relationship grid.
Help at home by encouraging your child to discuss the different relationships characters have in the book they’re reading or a programme they’re watching on TV.
Finally, we applied our inference skills again in a different context. This time, we used an emotions graph to explain how the characters felt at key points in the story.
Help at home by encouraging your child to think about the emotions a character may experience in different points of the book they’re reading or a programme they’re watching on TV.
We’ve loved our week of Roman reading and tomorrow we’ll enjoy our weekly love of reading session.