Living and Learning – Internet Safety
- As part of our living and learning time this week, we have been looking at internet safety. We had a visit from D:side yesterday, who spoke to the children about internet safety. They explained how and why you need to stay safe on the internet as well as teaching the children three clear rules to follow whilst online:
- Ask an adults permission.
- Only talk to people that you know.
- Stick to places that are right for you.
Help at home by reminding your children of these rules before they use the internet.
PE: we love the gym equipment!
This term KS1 have been using the gym equipment in the hall during PE lessons. We have been climbing on the climbing frame, balancing on benches and practicing our best forward rolls! We have also been using our super strength to climb vertical ropes and ladders.
The children are fantastic at knowing what is safe and not safe when using the equipment.
1 – always have a partner.
2 – gymnastics can only be performed with an adult.
3 – climbing too high is unsafe.
Help at home: by encouraging children to discuss safety during PE lessons. Discourage attempting gymnastics without a mat or an adult close by.
Topic: we’re geographers
The children have continued to think like geographers and have been looking at the Holderness coastline this week. They had the opportunity to use Digi-maps to compare the rate of erosion over time caused by the sea. We looked at two locations, Skipsea and Hornsea. They were able to use tools within the map to plot out the changing cliff lines and measure the amount of erosion. Hornsea had coastal defences installed in the early 1900s. Can your child name a type of coastal defence? This has limited the amount of erosion over time. The children could clearly see the differences between the locations.
Help at home by continuing to help your child learn our geography vocabulary. Play Pictionary or read some definitions and your child has to identify the word.
3,4B: we’re geographers (and presenters)
We’ve been loving our current geography topic all about volcanoes.
You might remember we learnt about the eruption of Eyjafjallajökull (Iceland) in 2010. Recently, we’ve carried out another case study. This time on Mount Vesuvius (Italy).
We thought about the negative aspects of living near a volcano and found out there’re lots of positives, too: the soil is good for farming, volcanoes bring a lot of tourism and diamonds are often found in volcanic rock which can be mined then sold.
Then, to demonstrate our knowledge we wrote, practised and performed a short news report about our learning. One of us was the presenter and one of us played the part of a local resident who had to justify why they live so close to Vesuvius (an active, deadly volcano!).
Help at home by asking your child why volcanoes are both good and bad.
3,4 A Class News
Last week, we continued our Geography topic by learning about Mount Vesuvius and how volcanoes can impact people positively as well as negatively. We discussed why so many people still live near to the active volcano today and filmed our own ‘news report’ interviews.
In Science, we continued our ‘Rocks, Fossils & Soils’ learning by finding out what soil contains: rock, humus (not the kind you dip carrot sticks in!), air and water. We collected some soil from the school grounds to investigate and discussed whether this soil was sandy, clay or loam.
Help at home by…
- asking your child about their learning
- discussing technical vocabulary such as ‘humus’ and ‘loam’
Year 6 Football club
At the beginning of this half-term we started to run an after-school football club for Year 6 pupils. So far we have had a great turn out, with around 12-13 players turning up each week for training.
After half-term we hope to begin training towards playing competitive matches against other schools in the area.
New players are always welcome. Please speak to the school office for details on how to sign up.
Class 5/6A News
A huge thank you to all parents, grandparents and family members who attended our ‘Watch us while we work!’ session on Thursday morning. It gave parents a chance to see our work on the 6 times table, get to grips with “im” and “in” prefixes and discuss the impact of climate change on Greenland, the Solomon Islands and the East Yorkshire coast.
Daily use of Times Table Rockstars is really beginning to pay off for our students. Year 5 are currently working on 4-digit by 2-digit multiplication in Maths, and rapid recall of these calculations helps to make these problems much easier to solve.
Writing has seen us begin to prepare for writing a persuasive letter to the UK Climate Minister, Graham Stuart, to get the government to do more to prevent the effects of climate change impacting our lives. We have explored techniques such as rhetorical questions, emotive language and exaggeration to help the writer put across a strong argument.
Copernicus and Galileo are our featured scientists this half-term, and we have researched key facts about the two astronomers how they came to the conclusion that the Solar System is heliocentric (has the Sun at its centre, whilst all other planets orbit around it). We also held a lively in-class debate as to whether the Earth was spherical or flat.
In Topic, we have been looking at the impact of coastal erosion on the East Yorkshire coast over the past 13o years. Using an online mapping tool we have been able to measure the impact of erosion on locations such as Skipsea, Hornsea and Great Cowden between 1890 and present day; as well as how the use of defence mechanisms such as groynes aim to slow down the impact of erosion.
In Latin, we have revisited masculine and feminine nouns, and can identify these by their endings. Nouns which end in an ‘a’ are feminine, with those ending in “us” being masculine. We could then use this knowledge to make expanded noun phrases and describe objects. For example ‘hortus magnus est‘ would translate as ‘the garden is big‘.
P.E saw us take on a circuit training session, including skipping, basketball, hockey dribbling, shuttle runs and fitness equipment.
Finally, a huge well done to everyone in Class 5/6A who were crowned the Times Table Rockstars Battle of the Bands competition. It was a close run contest between ourselves and 5/6C, but we just managed to edge them out in the end. We amassed over 150,000 correct answers over the course of one week which is truly outstanding!
Have a great weekend!
Mr. Robson
Living and Learning: Speak out, Stay safe!
Our living and learning lessons this week have been about staying safe and knowing how to ask for help. This has tied in with the NSPCC programme of ‘Speak out Stay safe’ which is a programme that promotes safeguarding. The children have discussed that there are various reasons why they might ask someone for help, but that it is their right to ask for, and receive help. Of even greater importance is the fact that abuse is never a child’s fault.. The children were confident at identifying who their own trusted adults are and felt comfortable that they could ask for help. We also talked about how to start a conversation with a trusted adult, as this can sometimes be the hardest part. To conclude we created lists of people, places and objects that make us feel happy and safe.
Help at home: talk to your child and find out who their trusted adults are. Do they know who to go to if they need help or support? Ask them about the video. Can they remember who the NSPCC mascot is? What were the main points?
Living and learning: I know how to seek help.
Our living and learning lessons this week have been about being safe – this follows on well from our previous learning about assessing risks. The NSPCC promote the idea of ‘Speak out Stay safe’ which is a programme that promotes safeguarding. The children have understood the forms of abuse that can take place, how abuse is never a child’s fault and where to get help if needed. It also talked about big and small worries and how these can build up and cause a child to feel worried, upset or anxious. The children were confident at identifying who their own trusted adults are and felt comfortable that they could ask for help. We also talked about how to start a conversation with a trusted adult, as this can sometimes be the hardest part.
Below is the link to the NSPCC website if you would like any further information.
Help at home: talk to your child and find out who their trusted adults are. Do they know who to go to if they need help or support? Ask them about the video. Can they remember who the NSPCC mascot is? What were the main points?
Brrrrr! Exploring ice and frost
We’ve had a few very cold mornings recently and children noticed the frost on their walk to Nursery and on the wooden beams in the playground. We talked about frost, snow and ice and had lots of conversations about where children thought it had come from.
The frost glistened in the sunshine and children enjoyed scratching it with their fingers and making patterns.
There was a lot of excitement as we hunted around the garden to find some ice and we talked a little bit about how ice forms. We found ice in the water tray, on the ground where a puddle had been and in the guttering. We loved trying to break the ice in different ways and wondered where it had gone later in the day. Some children noticed that it was sunny and we talked about ‘melting’.
Later, we collected different objects from around the garden and put them in some water. We left them over night and children were very excited to check them again in the morning to see if anything had happened.
