Living & Learning – Remembering
As part of our weekly Living & Learning session, we focused on our final R of the 8Rs for learning: remembering.
To help us improve our memory skills, we were shown 12 items. After we had been shown all 12, we had to write down as many as we could. It was really tricky but some of us managed to remember all 12.
Once we’d revealed the answers, we discussed our methods for remembering the items. Some of us turned them into a song, others turned them into a silly story, a few of us just tried saying them over and over again (though we agreed this was probably the least effective method). Then, we discussed the Loci system for remembering information.
We spent time creating our route (that was familiar to us) and had another go at a similar memory test. It was interesting that most of improved our scores by 2 or 3 items.
Short-term memory is super important for us as learners and, luckily, it is something we can improve. Help at home by completing similar activities with your child – maybe on a rainy day!
Hobgoblin Theatre Group – The History of Britain
Today, we had a fantastic treat from the theatre company, Hobgoblin, who performed an hour-long show, ‘The History of Britain’. Both children and staff were thoroughly entertained and learned lots about key events in British history. Here are some pictures from the show.
From the Ice Age…
the vikings and Romans …
and William the Conqueror …
the Black Death …
a pantomime sketch of Robin Hood and Sheriff of Nottingham …
and much, much more.
We followed the show with an afternoon drama workshop, which was just as engaging and fun. Thank you, Hobgoblin!
History of Britain theatre show
We thoroughly enjoyed the show today and learnt lots about key events in British history and what makes us British. Ask your child what they can remember and what they enjoyed about the show.
‘I like the Stone Age people.’
‘Henry VIII had 6 wives and he was funny in the show.’
‘We had to join in and it was really funny.’
Reading – Refugee by Brian Bilston
This week, Year 5 have been focusing on poetry during our reading sessions. We have been using the poem ‘Refugee‘ by Brian Bilston as our stimulus.
The poem is super interesting as you can read it forwards and backwards – this is called a palindrome poem.
First, we read it forwards and recorded our feelings. We were outraged by what we had read:
“We should let people into our country if theirs isn’t safe!” Emme
“I don’t like it because it’s offensive!” Molly
“It is offensive. It is rude. And, that’s not how people should be!” Spencer
“The poet obviously hasn’t read the poem No Problem by Benjamin Zephaniah [a poem we have also learnt about this year]!” Kieran
Then, we read it backwards and noticed that our views on the poem had completely changed.
In the next lesson, we compared this video of the poem against this video of the poem being performed. We picked out what we liked and created our own version.
Ask your child how reading the poem forwards and backwards was different.
The History of Britain
As part of our time travel topic, Hobgoblin theatre company performed a play (The History of Britain) and held a workshop.
Children enjoyed watching the play and learning about how British life has changed.
During the workshop, children acted out their favourite parts from the play. Can you guess the moment in history from each freeze frame?
Village Library Visit!
Today we visited the village library. We spent time looking at the books before we made our choices. We can’t wait to share them with our friends in class.
Library visit
Year 5/6 took a trip to Scholes Library today. Children chose their own book. They are encouraged to take these home and enjoy them until the start of next half term (November).
We’ve included the library opening times as you may wish to make another visit before November.
Living & Learning
Last week, in our weekly Living & Learning session, we played a game that incorporated lots of the 8Rs for learning. We also noticed that playing the game was a form of entertainment – the theme for our current big topic (Time Travel).
The game was simple but effective. All you had to do was find pairs of the ‘Rs’. However, they were covered and we could only reveal two at a time. If a pair was not revealed the ‘Rs’ were re-covered.
After playing twice (the second time round we beat our previous score by 4 minutes!) we discussed which of the 8Rs we had practised:
- Resilience – we had to keep going.
- Remembering – we had to remember where on the grid the Rs were.
- Reflecting – we reflected on our tactics after our first game and adapted them to improve our performance in our second attempt.
- Risk-taking – we had to take a safe-risk by putting our hands up and having a go.
- Ready – we had to be ready to put our hand up if we knew where one the ‘Rs’ was.
- Resourceful – we worked as a team and used each other effectively (humans can be a resource, too).
- Responsive – we had to respond to the ‘R’ that was revealed by the person before us.
Help at home by discussing how your child uses the 8Rs for learning away from school. Also, ask them to identify which ‘R’ is missing from the list above.
Reading and maths workshop
Thank you to all the parents and carers who came to the reading and maths workshop tonight. The presentation can be found here.
Links to other documents talked about can be found below.
Nursery rhymes
So far this week, we have enjoyed singing lots of Nursery rhymes and favourite children’s songs. They seem to keep popping up everywhere in our play! Singing Nursery rhymes is a very important part of daily life in Nursery. There is a wealth of evidence to suggest that young children who regularly sing nursery rhymes, will go on to develop a love of literacy and language and will become confident readers.
- In our water area, children have loved making and pouring cups of tea. We wonder if you can guess which nursery rhyme we sang as we poured?
- We’ve made boats in our construction area and enjoyed singing ‘Row, row, row your boat’. Our favourite verse is when the crocodile appears in the stream, Arghhhhhh! Follow this link and you can enjoy singing along at home too.
- In the Quiet room, a group of children noticed a very large spider hiding behind the whiteboard. We counted the legs and talked about where spiders liked to live. Lots of children enjoyed singing Incy Wincy Spider!