Herd Farm Residential
Monday 11th – 13th February 2019- Herd Farm
At the beginning of this week, the Year 4 children went on a residential visit to Herd Farm, Eccup. It was a fantastic experience for the children, which will no doubt be remembered as one of the highlights of their year.
The 3-day trip was packed full of exciting activities: the giant swing, archery, an assault course, a zip wire, orienteering, puzzle palace, songs around a campfire and a muddy night walk.
For many children, valuable life skills were learned and happy memories made.
Here is what some of the children said:
“It was definitely a once-in-a-lifetime experience.” Lucas
“I did the zip wire all by myself!” James
“I loved singing songs around the campfire with my friends.” Lily
“I just want to be there now – we had so much fun!” Matilda
Thank you to all the staff who volunteered their time and effort to spend a wonderful 3 days away.
Photos of the trip will be uploaded once they have all been collected.
Living and Learning – I know how to stay safe
Scholes (Elmet) Primary School has three protection officers whose duty is to keep our school safe. They dropped-in on us today for a short, sharp safety session. They gave us a stern safety talk, telling us how to keep ourselves safe at home.
They even took our fingerprints!
Living and Learning – I know how to stay safe
Smoking
Today, we had an extremely busy day with various ‘safety’ visitors with super learning going on in our classrooms too.
One of the highlights, was our D:side visitor who talked to us about the effects of smoking.
We observed a jar of tar – just like the tar found in cigarettes. It was thick and extremely sticky!
Did you know there are over 4000 harmful chemicals in one cigarette?
Here are a few…nail polish remover, toilet cleaner, carbon monoxide, battery acid and rat poison!
We learned that money from cigarettes go straight to the government.
Finally, we learned about the effects of smoking and passive smoking on our lungs.
There were many questions about vaping and e-cigarettes, which was also covered by D:side. Here are some questions the children asked:
“Are the effects of smoking permanent?” Ellie.
“Is vaping smoke as bad as real smoke from a cigarette?” Harry.
“Should I hold my breath if someone is smoking?” William.
Go ahead and ask your child about our visitor today – they listened brilliantly!
Super Shadow Science!
Last week, we learned what objects makes the best shadow. This week, and building on our learning, we discovered how the size of shadows change when you move opaque objects closer or further away from the light source.
This is easy to do at home.
Why not try making shadow puppets?
The Water Cycle …in a bag!
As part of our ‘What’s the Matter?’ mini-topic, we have been studying the water cycle.
We recreated the elements of the water cycle by pouring water (with blue food colouring for the sea!) into a zip lock bag and placing it in a warm area of the classroom.
Measuring skills were used.
Teamwork!
We watched the water evaporate .
At the top of the bag, small water droplets formed to show condensation.
And finally, the water vapour got heavy and trickled down back into the ‘sea’ just like precipitation.
A simple yet effective way of showing this process.
Thursday’s PE blast
What a sporty day we had today!
We had brilliant basketball sessions today with Leeds Becket Basketball Coach. We learned a range of new skills: stance, dribble, pass and bounce.
Learning new skills is sometimes frustrating because we want to be able to do it all straight away. We learned how to be resilient and try our best.
We also had super skipping sessions with Jodi, who showed us many new tricks to take to our play times and PE lessons. 
This was fun and in contrast to the basketball skills we also learned today.
We will certainly need a rest tonight.
Well done everybody for trying your best and having a go!
The Santa Trap
With Christmas near, we have based our learning on a fab festive picture book. This week, we have been busy writing all about The Santa Trap. Bradley Bartleby is a beastly brat who just wants all the best presents from Santa. And when he doesn’t get them, he decides to build the ultimate trap.
We’ve been rehearsing, drawing, innovating and creating our own Santa traps, based on the story by Jonathon Emmett.
There were so many brilliant ideas today!
Why don’t you check out our work on twitter #thesantatrap ?
Here are just a few …
Living and Learning – I respect my communities and other communities
This week we’ve been finding out about winter festivals. We’ve used information texts, books and the Internet to research a range of celebrations.
We found out that different religions celebrate different festivals throughout the winter months.
Although we’re all different, we’re all the same too! We discovered that all of the festivals are celebrated by having special family time. Special food and meals are important and cards and gifts are often given. We liked the sound of all the winter festivals!
How will your family be celebrating over the upcoming holiday?
Drama for writing
Today, we read a picture book, The Santa Trap, which inspired us to get into role.
It’s about a bad boy, Bradley. He has been behaving badly and should probably be on Santa’s naughty list.
First, we talked about Bradley’s character and made notes from the text.
We decided to act out a short sketch in pairs – Santa and Santa’s elf.
We though about what they would say to each other about the beastly brat, Bradley.
Then, we performed it to our peers.
We loved using drama techniques to bring the character’s to life.
Living and Learning – Identity
As part of our Living and Learning identity topic, the children have really gone to town with creating their own identity boxes.
We’ve loved looking through them and telling stories about what makes us who we are.
We have learned many things about ourselves and our peers that we wouldn’t have known before, such as, where we have travelled, our hobbies, quirks and traits.
