Friday 31 January
The homework this week is talk time and is due on Thursday 06 February.
‘I can teach someone at home a mindfulness technique.’
Next week it’s Children’s Mental Health Week. On Friday, during your living and learning session, you learnt some mindfulness techniques. Mindfulness gives your brain a moment of pause to assess any situation without responding irrationally and full of emotions. This week, talk to your family about the techniques you’ve learnt and teach someone in your family one of the mindfulness techniques you have learnt such as:
- Self-hug
- Okay breathing
- Breathing tree
- Bubble breathing
- Elephant breathing
24 January 2020
This week, the whole school has the same Talk Time homework: What is a drug?
This homework, which links to our Living and Learning statement, is a first step in children becoming aware of drugs. There are a few key points you may wish to talk about at home. Children need to be aware that some drugs are helpful, some are harmful, some are legal, some are illegal. Don’t forget to consider that even the legal or helpful ones can be harmful.
Below are some question prompts that could help shape your discussion…
- What is a good definition for a drug?
- What is a drug? What is not a drug?
- Are all drugs bad?
- Why might some people need to take medicines?
- Who can prescribe medicine?
- Who should administer medicine?
- What should you do if you find some medicine?
- Should you take medicine that isn’t yours?
Children should be prepared to discuss what they’ve talked about at home during our homework review next week. This homework should be completed by Thursday 30 January.
17 January 2020
This week, the whole school has the same Creative homework:
I can show different ways to make things better.
This homework, which is due on Thursday 24 January, is an opportunity for children to reflect on our living & learning statement for this week: I can make things better.
Children should think about ways to make things better in a variety of different situations and contexts:
- in class
- in a friendship group
- at playtimes
- at home
- with siblings
- out and about (countryside, park)
- the wider environment (recycling)
You could consider…
- Why should we try and make things better?
- How do we do this?
- When should we apologise?
- What is the effect it has on others around us when we make things better?
- Older children might want to consider the benefits of restorative justice.
Don’t forget to be creative! Produce a report or diary; capture photos of making things better; create rules for better games at play times; make a poster about how to say sorry; or, think of your own creative response.
This homework will be celebrated in our weekly homework review.
10 January 2020
The homework this week is practice makes perfect and is due on Thursday 16 January.
This half term, our science topic is “Power it up!”. We will be looking at the uses of electricity and the importance of safety before constructing simple circuits.
Here are nine words from our science topic:
| bulb | circuit | conductor |
| insulator | terminals | components |
| cell | rechargeable | mains |
Choose four of the words that you don’t know the definition for. Find the definition and write a sentence using each word. Make sure you are able to explain, in your own words, what the new word means.
06 December 2019
This week, the whole school has the same Creative homework, which should be returned by Thursday 12 December.
The children are invited to respond to something from either a cultural or a spiritual perspective.
I can show what I know and think about something cultural.
We’d like children to present their responses about a recent book they’ve read, film they’ve watched, piece of art they’ve looked at, piece of music they’ve listened to – anything cultural in fact.
We’re interested to read some sort of description (a summary, for example) and then your child’s opinions. This review might include pictures, an interview (your child could write a fictional script between himself/herself and the artist, for example), a letter (eg to or from a character, or perhaps even the author) – anything which might include your child’s responses!
However, your child might prefer to do the following:
I can show what I know about a festival.
Over the course of this term, some children in school may have celebrated a religious festival of some sort. This might have been:
the Muslim festival of Eid ul Adha
the Sikh and Hindu festival Diwali
the Jewish festival of Hanukkah, coming up in December
the Christian festival (of course, celebrated by many non-Christians) of Christmas
and the Chinese New Year festival, coming up
There are lots of other festivals and celebrations, which you and your child together might want to reflect on.
We invite children to respond to the sentence above – they might include a recount (like a diary entry), pictures, an interview (perhaps in a script). Your child might also choose to research a completely unknown festival, or they might even think about creating a brand new festival, one that everyone will celebrate.
06 December 2019
This week, the whole school has the same Creative homework, which should be returned by Thursday 12 December.
The children are invited to respond to something from either a cultural or a spiritual perspective.
I can show what I know and think about something cultural.
We’d like children to present their responses about a recent book they’ve read, film they’ve watched, piece of art they’ve looked at, piece of music they’ve listened to – anything cultural in fact.
We’re interested to read some sort of description (a summary, for example) and then your child’s opinions. This review might include pictures, an interview (your child could write a fictional script between himself/herself and the artist, for example), a letter (eg to or from a character, or perhaps even the author) – anything which might include your child’s responses!
However, your child might prefer to do the following:
I can show what I know about a festival.
Over the course of this term, some children in school may have celebrated a religious festival of some sort. This might have been
- the Muslim festival of Eid ul Adha
- the Sikh and Hindu festival Diwali
- the Jewish festival of Hanukkah, coming up in December
- the Christian festival (of course, celebrated by many non-Christians) of Christmas
- and the Chinese New Year festival, coming up
There are lots of other festivals and celebrations, which you and your child together might want to reflect on.
We invite children to respond to the sentence above – they might include a recount (like a diary entry), pictures, an interview (perhaps in a script). Your child might also choose to research a completely unknown festival, or they might even think about creating a brand new festival, one that everyone will celebrate.
29 November 2019
This week’s homework is creative.
Competition Time!
This week, we have been really lucky to have Mat from Leeds United Foundation visit school. He spoke to us about the Leeds United values: family, pride, innovation, ambition and graft.
For homework, I would like you to create a poster that shows how these values relate to our Christian values: friendship, love, perseverance, honesty, forgiveness and peace and our school vision which is to be a happy and healthy place to achieve and believe.
The posters will be sent to Mat, who will judge the poster and the winner will receive a family ticket to go and watch Leeds United V Sheffield Wednesday on Saturday 11 January 2020!
29 November 2019
This week, our homework focus is Practice Makes Perfect.
We have been practising reading aloud fluently and with lots of expression. The passage is below is one we have read this. Your task is to practise reading it aloud at home until you can read it with lots of expression. Imagine you had to perform it to another group of children and you needed to keep them interested. How would you read it? How could you change your voice? We will be performing these as part of homework review.
Voyage
Most people don’t believe in them. Especially grown-ups. Most people have never even seen them. Most people wouldn’t even believe their own eyes if they had!
Whether you’re a believer or not, I’m going to tell you about them anyway… In many ways, they are exactly like us; they eat the same foods as us, speak the same languages as us and even enjoy the same things we enjoy. In fact, if you were to look at one under a magnifying glass, you would think they were identical to us. The only difference is that they are a hundred times smaller than us.
Their story begins on a dark and windy night. The full moon sat in the sky: a torch to guide them. Thunder rumbled above them like a laughing giant, and the waves lapped up against them like a cat’s tongue hungrily exploring a plate of sardines. They were forced to leave their homes forever, in search of a new beginning.
The boot had been their saviour. However, crossing the pond was proving trickier than they had imagined…
Friday 22 November
This week, the whole school has the same Talk Time homework: Which charity should our school support?
Next week, a charity will be decided for us to support for the year ahead – for example, when we have a performance, we’ll collect money for this particular charity. What charity does your child think we should support?
You could talk about:
what a charity is
why charities are important
what sort of work they do
charities that have meaning to your family, to school or the community
national and international charities and their work
Friday 22 November 2019
This week, the whole school has the same Talk Time homework: Which charity should our school support?
Next week, a charity will be decided for us to support for the year ahead – for example, when we have a performance, we’ll collect money for this particular charity. What charity does your child think we should support?
You could talk about:
- what a charity is
- why charities are important
- what sort of work they do
- charities that have meaning to your family, to school or the community
- national and international charities and their work
Next week, each class will vote (because in our school we make democratic decisions) for the charity they would like to support to form a shortlist. Then, our recently elected School Council will decide which charity we will support for the next year.