Living and learning: I know what a drug is
Our living and learning statement this week has allowed the children to explore the idea of peer pressure. They began by discussing the influences that might make someone try drugs such as social media and friends. They ranked them in order of the biggest influence. We discussed strategies that could get the children out of a situation where they felt pressured. These included coming up with an excuse and leaving the situation or being more assertive and explaining why they don’t want to try something.
Help at home: How confident does your child feel about resisting peer pressure? Ask them what strategies they’d use.
Exhibiting our sculptures
This half term, we have created our own sculptures inspired by Barbara Hepworth’s The Family of Man (1970) – a sculpture we saw on our trip to the Yorkshire Sculpture Park.
https://ysp.org.uk/art-outdoors/the-family-of-man
We were able to mix colour effectively to create the effect of patina found on The Family of Man (this is the green or brown colour created on bronze and other metals after weathering over time).
We were inspired by her use of negative space and included this in our artwork, too!
Help at home: See if your child can remember the following pieces of vocabulary from our topic and what they mean: negative space, sculpture, modern art and classical art.
Art: creating patina
Inspired by the work of Barbara Hepworth, Year 5/6 have been creating sculptures and thinking about how to add texture through the use of patina.
Help at home: Take a look at some more pieces of art from Yorkshire Sculpture Park. Which ones inspire you? How could you use some household items to create a project in the style of a favoured artist?
British Library Visit
We were lucky enough to be visited by the British Library yesterday, who are based in Boston Spa. This is a research library that holds books, newspapers and documents.
The children had the opportunity to read a book called “The Phoenix of Persia.” The book contains a range of different Persian instruments, such as the Daff – a type of drum.
The children used percussion instruments to compose music for different pages in the book. They used instruments such as: castanets, egg shakers, bells and wooden blocks.
Yorkshire Sculpture Park
This week, children are writing about one of the statues at Yorkshire Sculpture Park coming to life. It was such a fantastic trip that we had to share some of our best moments.
Lentil and tomato Soup
Children in year 56 have been making lentil and tomato soup this week. They have used the ‘bridge’ and ‘claw’ techniques to slice vegetables. They have discussed how to stay safe in the kitchen by washing hands, removing any loose clothing and keeping their hair up.
Help at home: Why not try making the soup as a family! Discuss the method with your child. You might want to change some of the ingredients to some family favourites.
British Sign Language
This week, we had our final British Sign Language session.
Each week over the last half term, we’ve been learning how to sign lots of different things.
Some of the topics we’ve covered include: greetings, food, transport and this week… Christmas!
Here are some pictures of us in action!
Well done, 56A!
Design technology – food glorious food!
It’s that time of the term again where we get to cook again. The children have had a great time this week, working in small teams to cook tomato and lentil soup. They had to measure out all the ingredients and use their cutting and slicing skills to prepare the vegetables. The children prepared and cooked the soup and then even got to eat it after. They said it was delicious!
Help at home: Talk to your child about how their cooking went this week. Can they remember the recipe? What changes would they make if they cooked this recipe again?
Living and learning
This week, our living and learning statement has been, ‘I can describe and use self-care techniques.’
We talked about how sometimes people may experience poor mental health. This is how we feel on the inside and a build up of different smaller emotions that can lead to changes in mood and behaviour. It is important that we know how to spot this in ourselves and also recognise it in each other. The children might see someone spending more time alone, maybe not eating their lunch, struggling with their learning or a change in mood – maybe being more angry.
In order to deal with these emotions and feelings, we learnt some breathing exercises – bunny breathing and snake breaths.
Help at home: Ask your child if they can show you the new breathing techniques? Have they tried any of these?
Shared writing 56C and 34A
Year 5/6C had the pleasure of sharing their writing with Year 3/4A. Children picked out improvements that they noticed:
- use of fronted adverbials
- a range of ambitious vocabulary
- some figurative language
