Welcome back!
Happy 2022!
We hope you all had a very restful and healthy Christmas. It’s lovely to have all the children back in school again.
Year 5 and 6 have started a new science unit this half term all about evolution and inheritance. They have a new set of vocabulary that they will be getting their heads around!
- evolution: change in living things over time
- inherited: the way that a trait or characteristic is passed to offspring from parents
- trait: a quality or characteristic belonging to something
- adaptation: a small change that a living thing goes through
- natural selection: a process in which living things adapt themselves in order to survive, that they don’t have any control over
- prehistoric: the time classed is ‘before history’ as it was so long ago it hasn’t been recorded or written
- variety: differences between things as part of a whole group
- fossil: the prehistoric remains of a plant or animal
Could you help your child learn these words at home? You could create some flashcards with images on that might help jog their memory, you could create a poster of the words. Could you describe one of the words and your child has to guess which word from the list it is? Be creative and have fun!
Living and Learning: Physical Health and Fitness
5/6A are very excited to show off our brand new WUSU dance!
Wake Up, Shake Up is a very important and exciting part of our school routine. To ensure we are keeping physically active and healthy for 60 minutes every day, children participate in 10 minutes of dancing and movement to music.
A few were slightly apprehensive about learning a new routine, but their dance moves have sent shockwaves of positivity through school – even the teachers are wanting to join in!
Take a look at our brand new WUSU video here – we hope you enjoy it!
Christmas fun in the hall
A massive thank you to Mrs Pennock and all the lunchtime staff who created a fabulous atmosphere for Christmas dinner day today. The children and staff had a lovely time!
Wake Up Shake Up (WUSU) Club
WUSU Club have had a successful series of sessions after school this half term. They have made two new dances for you to enjoy and learn:
Dance Monkey and and Christmas Special, One More Sleep
WUSU club will be continuing after Christmas. Keep an eye out for letters about after school clubs so you can decide if you’d like to join in with any.
Sculptures Coming To Life!
Year 5 and 6 have written some fantastic narratives, based on our visit to the Yorkshire Sculpture Park earlier this half term. Using a sculpture of their choice, the children had to write a short setting and character description of their sculptures coming to life!
There were some absolutely fantastic pieces of writing and everyone thoroughly enjoyed the process.
Here are a few excellent examples – enjoy!
Creating our sculptures.
We have finally begun to make our sculptures. Following inspiration from the Yorkshire Sculpture Park, we have designed and sketched out or own ideas for sculptures that are similar to the Family of Man by Barbara Hepworth. Each child is creating a different section of their teams sculpture – it is based on a member of their family. They had to use cardboard boxes (thanks to everyone who sent these in) and manipulate them into their desired shape. They are at the initial stage of the creating process whereby they are creating a maquette. Ask your child what this means. There was a lot of discussions, a lot of cutting and I think we used the worlds supply of masking tape, but we are ready to move on to the next stage now.
Wonderful writers!
The children have begun writing a descriptive narrative linked to our art topic. The children have generated ideas and a plan for a piece of writing that involves a sculpture from the Yorkshire Sculpture Park coming alive. They were able to research different sculptures and choose which one they wanted to include in their writing. Ask your child which sculpture they chose. They have worked hard to include figurative language, expanded noun phrases and vocabulary for effect. The children have already created some amazing descriptions involving the weather, the landscape and changes in mood.
Fundraising
A massive thank you to everyone who donated to our recent fundraising events – you were all unbelievably generous. We managed to raise £126.25 for our school charity – Leeds Autism Services. This was following our Odd Sock Day at the start of anti-bullying week. Last Friday we raised money for Children in Need and managed to raise £410.30.
Thank you all so much.
Living and Learning: Anti-Bullying Week
Years 5 and 6 have been very during our Anti-Bullying Week this week. We make sure that we all know what classifies as bullying and the steps we can take to help ourselves, and others, if bullying ever occurs.
As you know, we have a zero-tolerance policy to bullying at Scholes Primary School. Here are a few things that Year 5/6 have done this week to support our anti-bullying campaign:
- We have written a letter to the main character in our class novel (Holes), who was sadly being bullied in school. We suggested ways to help Stanley reach out to others and overcome the situation.
- When it comes to bullying in our school, we say STOP. STOP stands for… Several Times On Purpose / Start Telling Other People. We have ensured all of our classmates know this and know the steps to take, whether you are the victim or a bystander.
- We have designed our own odd socks as part of our anti-bullying campaign! We have had some fantastic, colourful designs with information and advice spread all over the odd pairs. Well done, Year 5/6!
Art learning
We have been continuing our history of art learning this week and explored the idea of the chronology of art. The children sorted art into time order starting with the oldest. They successfully identified that the cave paintings and classical art were the oldest. We discussed the invention of the camera and how this impacted and changed art. Artists moved onto creating more abstract art and become more experimental in their ideas. The children created a timeline of the artwork and added the different art movements over time. Some children took there learning even further and added key historical events to their timeline
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