Newsletter 11 October 2013

UKS2 Newsletter Week 6 Autumn 1 2013

News Roundup:

 Leeds Children’s Mayor

We would like to wish everyone who submitted an entry for Leeds Children’s Mayor a big well done! We were blown away with the quality of the entries and choosing a winner to submit for the competition (as we could only select one) was a very difficult task indeed! Congratulations to Georgia in Mrs Moore’s class, whose entry was chosen! We wish you the best of luck for the competition!

Leeds Junior Maths Challenge

Izzy, John, Evan and Bethan from year 6 were fortunate enough to go to Leeds Grammar School with Miss Gascoigne on Monday to take part the Leeds Junior Maths Challenge. They participated in four rounds: logic, mental arithmetic, puzzles and a maths challenge round. They had lots of fun competing against other schools in Leeds and, as a result of their super maths skills; they are now through to the finals, which will take place in November! Watch this space!

Big Draw and Harvest Festival

This Monday (14^th October) we will be partaking in our annual ‘Big Draw’ event. We have some creative and fun activities planned for year 5/6 and suggest that all children come into school with an art shirt for this day. There will be lots of paint and other art materials being used and we don’t want any stained uniforms! Also next week, we will be partaking in our Harvest Festival at Lofthouse church. This will be happening on Friday (18^th) October and will commence at the church at 10am if you can join us.

5/6M Line Dancing attire

Please can all of Mr Malley’s class please bring in clothing for their final line dancing performance on Monday. Any clothing which is of a country style would be fantastic! Some ideas include; denim, cheque shirts, cowboy hats, boots or shoes. Parents do not need to buy anything especially, we just ask that children can try their best be complement our American theme for our final recorded performance.

Achiever of the Week:

Achiever of the week goes to Katie in Mrs Moore’s class. Katie has displayed an incredible attitude towards her learning since coming in to year five. If she hasn’t got her nose in a reading book, she can be found practicing her sums or writing diary entries and stories! To add to this, she always comes into school with a smile on her face and is a friend to everyone! Well done, Katie! Keep it up!

Core Subjects:

Numeracy: In Numeracy this week, we have been learning about multiplication. The children have been using the grid method to multiply numbers, including those with 3 and 4 digits as well as decimals. We have been very impressed with their attitude towards this learning; some of the numbers we were dealing with were huge! Why not ask your child to show you how they can use the grid method to solve a sum? Next week is assessment week so the children will be undertaking some numeracy papers. On Thursday, we will be holding the first times table challenge of the year!

 Literacy: This week in Literacy, we have been continuing with our diary writing. The children have really enjoyed learning about the Titanic and we have been thoroughly impressed with the figurative language they have been using. The diary entry focussed on their thoughts and feelings as a passenger/worker on the ship after it had first set sail. It was great to see a difference between the language being used depending on whether their character was an upper class or lower class passenger. Next week, the children will undertake reading and writing assessments as part of assessment week.

SPELLINGS: This week, the spellings are: literature, lecturer, fracture, gesture, futuristic, manufacture, preacher, stretcher, century, judgement.

Your child has received a copy of these spellings which have been glued into their planner. They will be tested on these words on Friday October 18^th.

Other areas of the curriculum:

PE:

This week, 5/6G have been continuing to develop their street dance performances. 5/6MO have been choreographing their own small rock and roll performances and competing against other performances in the class. 5/6M have practiced their achy breaky heart routine. Pupils are now ready to perform their fantastic routine in line dancing attire on Monday.

Once again, please ensure that your child comes to school with the appropriate PE kit each week. PE this half term is indoors; therefore the children will need to wear black shorts and a white t-shirt, indoor pumps or bare feet too. Miss Gascoigne’s class may wear long tracksuit bottoms or leggings for our street dance sessions as we may need to use our knees at times.

5/6M and 5/6MO PE sessions are on Mondays and 5/6G PE sessions are on Tuesdays.

Spanish:

In Spanish, the children have been enjoying continuing to learn about different objects and places in the school. This week, they practiced their conversational Spanish to describe where objects were using the sentence starter‘ Alli esta’. Why not see if your child can remember what that means?