Junior Leadership Team
Last week saw that time of year again where we say goodbye to the current JLT members and we elect new ones. This year, the team have been great and these will be tough shoes to fill. On Wednesday, each class listened to speeches from the children wishing to be elected. There were some great speeches that allowed the children to express their strengths and their wishes should they be elected. Thursday saw a nail-biting day of voting!
In assembly on Friday, the new team was announced and the new members received their JLT badges.
The new team are:
5,6A – Emilia
5,6B Noah
5,6C Eric
3,4A Thea
3,4B – Caleb
3,4C – Lani
2C – Jenson
1,2B – Olivia
1A – Mia
Living and learning: I take part in democratic decisions
As a school we pride ourselves on the idea of promoting democracy. We really value pupil voice and being part of the Junior Leadership Team is a way that children can make positive changes around school and have their voice hear. This week, we’re holding the elections for a new JLT team. The children in 5,6B have been busy writing their speeches at home and read them aloud in class yesterday. The children spent last night pondering over who they will vote for in the elections today. Who will be lucky enough to be elected? Let’s wait and see!
Geography Fieldwork: How much carbon is stored within trees in our locality?
Over the last half term, we have been learning about Geography.
During this topic, we have learned that trees are really important for a number of reasons. One of these is that they store carbon in their trunks, roots and branches. Because carbon dioxide is a gas that contributes to climate change, the more carbon that can be stored, the better.
In order to work out how much carbon is stored in our locality, we went out into Scholes and measured the girth of different trees.
Help at home: Which of our vocabulary can your child remember?
From these measurements, we are able to work out how much carbon each tree stores and work out a total for Scholes by using our sample.
In our geography lessons this week, we will be collating our results and working out the total amount of carbon stored.
Come back later this week to read our results!
For ways to help plant more trees in our locality, visit: https://www.leeds.gov.uk/campaign/trees
Philosophy Friday!
Every morning, children have a morning task as soon as they arrive at school.
This could be practising their number facts, times tables, spelling, reading skills and more! This is one reason why it’s vitally important that your child arrives at school on time.
On Fridays, our morning task is a little different. Fridays are now… Philosophy Friday! On these mornings, children are given the task to ‘think and be ready to share’ about a given statement.
These have included: We rely too much on technology; What is the meaning of a good life?; If you discover buried treasure, is it yours?; and more!
Help at home: have discussions with your child and give them the opportunity to develop their thinking skills by asking thought provoking questions!
PE: football skills
We’ve been working hard to improve our football skills this half term. We began by learning how to effectively pass a football with the side of our foot to a partner. We developed this further by looking at other ways you can pass a ball. The children recognised the importance of dribbling the ball and keeping it at a good distance so that you have good control. We created our own courses using cones and worked in pairs to develop these skills.
Living and Learning: protected characteristics – BSL
Year 5/6 have been offered a course in British Sign Language. Over the next four weeks, we will join Helen, her interpreter and a few other schools from across Leeds to learn some basic sign language.
Last week, we learned how to have a simple conversation and say the alphabet (link for left handed).
Help at home: discuss the importance of being able to communicate effectively. Help your child to recall some of the signs.
Reading Records
Wow! We are super impressed by how well presented our reading records are. Children are investing lots of their own time into creating a response to their reading. When discussing their books in class, children from 5/6C have been enthustiastic and articulate. Thank you to all the children and parents who have worked hard to ensure that a love of reading is our top priority.
At home, keep up the good work with reading:
- read aloud for at least 15 minutes a night
- discuss stories and make connections between different books/ texts
- get an adult to read to you daily (sometimes this could be through stories which are online)
- recommend books to family and friends
Author visit: Liz Pichon
On Friday, the children in year 5/6 were fortunate enough to attend a live workshop with the author of the Tom Gates series – Liz Pichon.
During the workshop, we learned how to create doodles which matched her style. It was also a great opportunity to get inspired to write our own funny stories for a competition.
At home, take a look at Pichon’s website and get writing your own funny stories.
Science: we are physicists
5,6B have continued to learn about forces this week and investigated air resistance further. The children constructed their parachutes using plastic bags, Plasticine, paperclips and string. They ensured their 3 parachutes had different surface areas. They predicted that the parachute with the smaller surface area would fall first as it has less surface area and therefore less drag.
The children dropped the parachutes multiple times and worked out an average drop time. Next week, we’ll evaluate the results and reach a conclusion about our findings.
Help at home: Ask your child about variables. What was the control, dependent and independent variable in the investigation?
Survivors Diary Entry
This week, we’ve been writing a survivors style diary entry taking inspiration from our class novel: Survivors by David Long.
Today, we edited and improved our writing in pairs. We checked that we had included:fronted adverbials, relative clauses and that our writing was in the first person.
Help at home: by asking your child to write a sentence with a fronted adverbial in it. This makes their sentence starters more varied and interesting!