Newsletter 22/11/13

Friday Celebration Assemblies:

As many of you may be aware the format for our Friday assemblies has now changed. We will now hold Phase Assemblies on a rota basis. These will continue to be celebratory and will help give parents who cannot attend every Friday, the chance to come along when it is their child’s turn to be involved. The forthcoming upper key stage 2 celebration assemblieshave been scheduled for: Friday 10^th January, 2.30- 3.00pm followed byFriday 8^th February.

Core Subjects:

Numeracy:

In Numeracy this week the children have learnt how to increase and decrease amounts by various percentages. They then applied these skills by increasing and decreasing the cost of food at Shrek’s birthday party!

Next week, we will be applying all four operations to some multi-step problems involving money and area, with an I’m a Celebrity Get me out of Here theme!

Literacy:

In Literacy this week pupils have generated key vocabulary relating to a transport invention. They have then written their own advert promoting this transport invention using persuasive language and other advertising features.

Next week pupils will turn their hand to letter writing. We will be discussing the key features used in a letter of complaint and pupils will apply this into their own letter which discusses a bad experience with a transport invention they have experienced.

SPELLINGS: This week, the spellings are: average, jury, danger, injure, journey, legend, hygiene, hedge, prodigy, jealous.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 November 29^th.

Other areas of the curriculum:

PE: This week pupils have been learning different balance techniques. Pupils then applied a variety of different balances into a small routine that involved partner balances, canon and levels.

Once again, please ensure that your child comes to school with the appropriate PE kit each week.

5/6M and 5/6MO PE sessions are on Mondays and 5/6G PE sessions are on now on Wednesdays. As the PE unit this half term is Gymnastics, the children only need their plain white PE t-shirt and black shorts.

Spanish:

This week in Spanish the children have been learning to spell the months of the year (enero, febrero, marzo, abril, mayo, junio, julio, agosto, septiembre, octubre, noviembre, diciembre).  If you are unsure of the pronunciation, please ask your child….they are all fantastic!   The children have also been introduced to the sentence starter ‘Tengo…’ (I have) and ‘No Tengo…’ (I don’t have).  They have been using the words learnt last week about objects in the classroom to write sentences.

Science:

This week, the children have continuedlearning about forces in action. We have learnt about air resistance and how this force impacts positively and negatively in our daily lives! The children are now using excellent scientific vocabulary when explaining their findings!

ICT:

During our ICT sessions, the children have been programming their robots to detect sound, touch and light using the Lego Mindstorms software. Very technical stuff!

Invention Home Learning!!

Newsletter 15/11

News Roundup:

Achiever of the Week:

Achiever of the week goes to Billy B for his amazing singing skills.  Your rendition of our ‘Days of the week’ song is fantastic and is available on our blog for the whole world to enjoy! 

Children in Need

The children looked absolutely fabulous dressed up in their pyjamas and onesies on Friday! A huge thanks to parents and carers once again for your continued support!

Core Subjects:

Numeracy:

In Numeracy this week, we have been learning how to count on and back in decimal tenths and hundredths and we have been calculating what needs to be added to a decimal number make a given whole number by using inverse.

Next week, the children will be learning how to increase and decrease amounts by various percentages, to find out the price increase and decrease of food at Shrek’s birthday party! An exciting week of fun Numeracy ahead of us!

Literacy:

In Literacy this week, we have beenlooking at the key features of different advertisements; including radio, magazine and television. Pupils applied several key advertising features into their own advert for a personal jet pack invention. Next week year 6’s will team up with year 5’s to generate key vocabulary to help them write an advert all about their own transport invention.

SPELLINGS: This week, the spellings are: difficult, million, parallel, committee, opposite, passenger, slippery, transferred, indifferent, appreciate.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 November 22^nd.

Other areas of the curriculum:

PE: This week pupils have been learning the correct techniques when performing several different gymnastics rolls. Pupils worked hard to assess each other’s performance and offer advice on technical aspects of each roll.

Once again, please ensure that your child comes to school with the appropriate PE kit each week.

5/6M and 5/6MO PE sessions are on Mondays and 5/6G PE sessions are on now on Wednesdays. As the PE unit this half term is Gymnastics, the children only need their plain white PE t-shirt and black shorts.

Spanish:

In Spanish, the children have continued to learn the spellings for the days of the week (Sunday/domingo, Monday/Lunes, Tuesday/Martes, Wednesday /Miercoles, Thursday/Jueves, Friday/Viernes, Saturday/Sabado).  Why not ask your child to sing the ’Days of the week’ song, or log onto the 5/6 blog to hear Billy singing it.  The children have continued to learn about ‘Los Objetos de la clase’ (Classroom objects) this week, focusing on the following objects: picture frame (cuadro), whiteboard (pizarra), wall (pared), clock (reloj) and printer (impresora).

Science:

This week, the children have been learning about forces in action. We have learnt about air resistance and how this force impacts positively and negatively in our daily lives! The children are now using excellent scientific vocabulary when explaining their findings!

ICT:

During our ICT sessions, the children have been using the Lego Mindstorms software to program a robot to perform various manoeuvres such as: acceleration, curve turn, point turn, reverse and even moving in the shape of a square! 

Inventions Topic

This half term we are doing about inventions and the home work turn out has been amazing.Year 5 have been making their own inventions and then presenting them to the class. Even though there where only 45 outcomes the teachers were blown away by the high level work. On this subject the entire class got to design their very own invention and present it.

By
Caison & Dan Jackson

Newsletter Week 8 - Aut 1

We would like to congratulate all pupils for their hard work and efforts during the first half term back. We have been particularly impressed with the attitude and application of all pupils in year 5/6 and look forward to another fantastic term after the Autumn break.

Leeds Children’s Mayor

Voting for this year’s Leeds Children’s Mayor is now open! This year 28 primary schools entered candidates and Georgia from year 6 is one of the 10 finalists! All ten finalists have now had their manifestos uploaded to the Breeze websites for children, young people and families to vote for their favourites. Please show your support for Georgia by reading her manifesto and placing your all important vote at www.breezeleeds.org/pg/228/Leeds_Children's_Mayor.

SATS packs (year 6).

Year 6 pupils have been given a SATs pack as an added resource over the half term. This pack is another added layer of support for children in their understanding heading into the summer. Please can pupils complete each paper as thoroughly as possible ready for the Splat the SATs session in our next half term.

Year 5 home learning.

For the half term break year 5 pupils will be given a piece of home learning linked to our next topic of inventions.  Pupils will be asked to create their own genius inventions with a transport related theme. Pupils may want to design and make their own mode of transport, (including how it is powered, design, special features). Other ideas include creating an item which could be used on a specific mode of transport to help you whilst travelling. We are looking forward to seeing these fabulous creations on Thursday November 7^th. This piece of home learning is compulsory for year 5 pupils, however year 6 pupils are also welcome to engage with this learning!

Times tables challenge.

Last week we held our termly times tables challenge. Here pupils from across years 5 and 6 battled hard to show off their times tables skills! We are pleased to report that this year’s competition was as fierce as ever, with finalists pushing each other hard! However there had to be only one winner from each key stage. Shiksha from year 6 was cool, calm and collected to win the year 6 trophy. In year 5 Chitua was faultless and his composed style deservedly earned him the year 5 title! Well done to all children who competed, your times tables knowledge is breath-taking!

Core Subjects:

Numeracy:

This week we have been learning how to use the grid method to multiply decimals when finding the area of compound shapes. We have also been learning how to divide by using the Bus Stop method and then Chunking method. After half term pupils will be learning multiplication and division facts including; multiples, common multiples, factors, common factors, prime numbers and the use of brackets.

Literacy:

This week, pupils have been learning about the key features of narrative stories and applying these skills into their own section of a mystery story all about the Titanic. After the half term break pupils will be learning how to write an effective review based on modern day inventions.

SPELLINGS: This week, the spellings are: encircle, enforce, endanger, engage, encourage, export, exclude, extend, exhibit, express.

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 November 8^th.

Other areas of the curriculum:

Topic:

This week in Topic, the children have been creating their very own American skyline pieces using silhouettes and washed water colours. They have also produced some Titanic based outcomes using different chalks and pastels.

Music:

The Year 5/6 children have had another great week of Music lessons. The Year 6 children have continued to develop their skills in playing the notes D, G, A and E to some simple songs on the violin. Year 5 children have continued to develop playing sections of Firework by Katy Perry on the guitar.

PE:

This week all classes have completed their final performances in a range of different dance genres. All the final performances have now been filmed and the children should be extremely proud of what they have achieved this half term!

ICT:

This week pupils have been finalising their American montages using smart notebook. Pupils have added an appropriate backing track to complement their movie outcome using I-movie.

Spanish:

This week pupils have continued to write sentences using adjectives about places and objects around the school.