Issue 6 2012-13

Newsletter Issue 6

Friday 12th October 2012

Dear Parent/Carer,

It seems like we are approaching the end of our first half term of the year at break neck speed. We continue to engage in fantastic learning for a purpose and I got to indulge my creative passions this week as we contributed to the national event, The Big Draw.

The Big Draw

On Monday, we lined the entire hall with paper and got creating collaboratively, in teams and on various scales and with a variety of media. In the classroom, children engaged in fantastic drawing for all kinds of purposes. There was a definite feeling of satisfaction as the outcomes were displayed in our onsite interactive gallery, aka the hall! I am truly grateful for all who supported the community event. Valuing the children’s artwork is a hugely important contributing factor to the children feeling like real life artists and creators. My absolute thanks to all of the teachers and support staff who made the event run so smoothly and so successfully.

Autumn Disco

Reminder- Autumn Disco -Wednesday 7^th November. Key Stage 1 will be able to attend between 4p.m and 5 p.m. The Key Stage 2 disco will take place between 5:30p.m and 7p.m. If you would like your child to attend, please bring your £1 in a named envelope so that Mrs Mistry can distribute the tickets.

Christmas Fayre

The Christmas Fayre will take place on Saturday December 1^st. Our fantastic PTA are already well on the way to making preparations for that. If anyone can offer their assistance, donate goods for sale at the fayre or would like to set up a stall, please approach Ush Mistry, Clare Perry or any other member of the PTA. Thanks.

Christmas Dates

It may seem a long way off but it will creep up on us in no time so here are the important dates that you need to have in your diary for the Christmas events in school:

Saturday 1^st December, Christmas Fayre

Tuesday 18^th December, 2:00p.m – 3:00p.m- Lower Key Stage 2 Christmas Production

Wednesday 19^th December, 10:00a.m Nursery Christmas Production

Wednesday 19^th December, 2:00p.m- 3:00p.m KS1 Christmas Production

Wednesday 19^th December, 6:00p.m- 7:00p.m LKS2 Christmas Production

Thursday 20^th December, KS1 and UKS2 Christmas Parties

Thursday 20^th December, 6:00p.m- 7:00p.m KS1 Christmas Production

Thursday 20^th December, 7:00p.m- 8:00p.m Choir Concert at Rothwell Church

Friday 21st December, 10:00a.m Nursery Christmas Production

Friday 21st December, LKS2 Christmas Party

Friday 21st December, 2:30- Carols round the tree

Please be reminded that the Harvest Festival will be held at 10:00 a.m. next Friday (19^th October) at Lofthouse Church.

Amazing pupils

Congratulations to Lyla Barker in Year 1/ 2, who won a national competition designed and run by Judy Murray (Mother of Andy Murray!) and her Set 4 Sport scheme. The winning video she sent in of her very own Bears on the Stairs game means that Judy herself will come into Robin Hood School and teach sports skills to a group of children. More details to follow. Well done Lyla and thanks to her family for this great opportunity.

A huge Well Done to Laura Paul in Year 6 whose entry to become Children’s Mayor of Leeds has reached the finals. The winner will be chosen through a voting system. As soon as we have details of how to vote, I will pass them on. This is an amazing achievement and we will all be rooting for you, Laura!

Have a wonderful weekend!

Mrs Dale

Nursery newsletter

NEWS ROUND UP

The start of Nursery this week started with a lick of paint and a bit of glitter as Monday was The Big Draw. The children became artists and had a great deal of fun in the process. They were given the opportunity to draw all over the hall in the morning and then together we created a class photo using collage, pastels, glitter, paint and cotton wool. The result was brilliant! You can see all the Big Draw pictures on the foundation stage blog.

THIS WEEK

In phonics this week we have been practising tuning into instrumental sounds. In literacy we have been learning about our houses, the children thought carefully about the different shapes they know to draw their house on a postcard. In numeracy we have been focusing on positional language and the children were fantastic at following positional instructions on the bark trail in the big playground. In topic this week we used Google Earth to have a look at where we all live which the children found amazing and really enjoyed the experience. Independently the children have made some box houses which are superb!

NEXT WEEK

Next week we will be learning all about our 5 senses (hearing, seeing, touching, smelling and tasting). In numeracy we will be practising our number recognition from 1-6 using the Numtums once we have cracked this, the children will be even better mathematicians than they already are. In phonics we will be continuing learning instrumental sounds.

HOW YOU CAN HELP US

On Wednesday the 24^th of October and Thursday the 25^th of October there will be a nursery open evening where you can drop in anytime between 3pm and 5pm. This will give you the opportunity to come and look at our lovely learning, your child’s individual profiles and to speak to Mrs Steel about your child’s amazing progress since the start of nursery.

·         Please listen to your child’s fabulous reading once a day and comment in their reading record. Please feel free to drop in and change their books when you pick them up.

·         Please practice counting to 10 and beyond with your child at any opportunity. Please also practise writing and recognising the numbers 1-6 with them.

·         Please have a look on the Robin Hood foundation stage blog to see what exciting activities your child has been doing.

Once again thank you for all your support! Have a lovely weekend.

Reception newsletter

NEWS ROUND UP

This week started with a lick of paint and a bit of glitter as Monday was The Big Draw. The children became artists and had a great deal of fun in the process. They were given the opportunity to draw all over the hall in the morning and then together we created a class photo using collage, pastels, glitter, paint and cotton wool. The result was brilliant! You can see all the Big Draw pictures on the foundation stage blog.

Last week 18 children managed to get their sounds and words of the week certificates! Wow! This is fantastic and a good reflection of the progress the children are making. Please keep supporting and encouraging your child in their learning as it does have a huge impact on their progress.

THIS WEEK

In phonics this week we have been practising saying and writing the sounds; r, h and b and reading our tricky words which are I, no go, to, the and into. In literacy we have been learning about our houses and the children have made some fantastic postcards. They are really progressing in writing down their first sounds. In numeracy we have been focusing on positional language and the use of the terms more and less. We followed positional instructions on the trim trail and compared Pepper Pig and the Simpsons houses using the terms more and less. In topic this week we used Google Earth to have a look at where we all live which the children found amazing and really enjoyed the experience. Independently the children have made some box houses which are superb!

NEXT WEEK

Next week we will be learning all about our 5 senses (hearing, seeing, touching, smelling and tasting). In numeracy we will be practising our number recognition from 1-20, once we have cracked this the children will be even better mathematicians than they already are. Next week’s sounds are; f, ff, l, ll. Next week we are making sure the children are confident at reading all the key words from this half term which I have attached to the home learning.

HOW YOU CAN HELP US

·         Please listen to your child’s fabulous reading once a day and comment in their reading record. Please concentrate on asking your child to say what the sounds are in a word and then blending them to read the word.

·         Please help your child practise writing their name. If they can write their full name then please ensure that the formation of their letters is perfect.

·         Please ensure your child has their reading book and name book on their designated day.

·         Please practise counting, recognising and writing numbers to 20 with your child.

·         Please ensure your child brings their home learning in on Monday morning.

·         Please have a look on the Robin Hood foundation stage blog to see what exciting activities your child has been doing.

Once again thank you for all your support! Have a lovely weekend.

Key Stage 1

Home Learning: KS1 are having a CAPITAL LETTER, full stop and adjectives overhaul! Using capital letters and full stops are fundamental to your children becoming accomplished writers but it is not a natural skill. Leading on from our theme from the Big Draw - ‘Hand-Me Town’ we would like the children to write us an imaginative short story all about it. The content can go wherever their imagination takes them, but please support your child in remembering to use capital letters at the start of every sentence and for people or place names, always finishing their sentences with a full stop and making their writing really exciting by using adjectives (a word that describes a noun, for example “The fierce, fire-breathing dragon”).

News

Big Draw

The Big Draw was a huge success throughout KS1 and the entire school. Our mission for the morning was to help the people and creatures from the fictional land of ‘Hand-Me Town’ by rebuilding their town, which had been destroyed by a ferocious, fire-breathing dragon. As the name suggests, everything from the sea to the sky in ‘Hand-Me Town’ is made out of hands – buildings, people, fish, birds, trees. We experimented with different ways of drawing around our hands to create people and objects before Year 1 headed up the sea team making sparkling hand-mermaids and shimmering fish. Year 1-2 took charge of rebuilding the land, becoming hand architects and designing hand-hotels as well as people, trees and a few scary monsters and Year 2 completed the scene with some incredible looking hand-birds and bees. These three sections have been combined to make a fantastic display within the key stage thanks to Mrs Mistry. The ‘Hand-Me Town’ animals have all moved in and, thanks to our afternoon task of designing a Golden Ticket using colour, shape and pattern to visit ‘Hand-Me Town’, we can go and see how they’re settling in!

A huge thank you to everyone who joined us in celebrating the children’s artistic achievements in our pop-up gallery on Tuesday evening. Check our blog for pictures of the day and a stimulus to help complete their Home Learning.

Risk-It Day

Feeding off the successful learning from last week’s topic using the software, 2DIY where the children created their own game.  On Monday the children will take part in a ‘Risk-It Day’. We will spend the day looking at how we can use software on our PCs and iPads to create our own platform games and even write and publish our own books. ICT will form a huge part in your child’s future and it is the opportunities that we provide that truly makes Robin Hood a unique and comprehensive environment in which to learn. Read next week’s newsletter to find out how it goes!

Literacy

This week in literacy we have been finding out all about Africa’s Big Five: elephants, lions, buffalo, leopards and rhinos. We have studied clips that show the animals’ mannerisms and characteristics which have acted as starters for group discussions about these animals. Reading has been a major focus within this topic. We have modelled sentences that echo our writing goals to the children, which they have fed in to their own learning by writing interesting, developed sentences that include exciting adjectives. The combination of using our speaking and listening skills and reading exemplar sentences have stimulated some very sophisticated writing and conversations.

This theme will continue through to next week leading up to the children taking part in the Star Write challenge in which they will refer to and apply their own individual target to their piece of writing. Capital letters and full stops are an on-going focus for all children. 

Numeracy

This week in Numeracy the children have been thinking about ordering numbers correctly and finding 1, 10, 20, 30 and 100 more and less than a given number using a hundred square as an aid. The language of bigger/smaller, more/less, counting forwards/backwards as well as asking the children to explain the methods of how they found their answers has been a real focus. By explaining their strategies and discoveries the children all help one another to see the clues within the answers and are starting to see numbers with more clarity. The numbers we have been using have again spanned into the thousands, which is testament to the powerful learning that continues to take place within KS1.

Lower Key Stage 2 Newsletter

We have had a very exciting, action packed week in Lower Key Stage Two. On Monday the children enjoyed taking part in the fabulous ‘Big Draw’ event. In 3/4 we learnt all about space and all the children created their own stars and journeys around space. On Wednesday we took part in an ICT day; where the children developed their ICT skills by creating their very own iBooks all about the Victorians. We also learnt about computer programming and made our very own video games.

Home Learning

Every week, the home learning is for the children to practice their spellings ahead of our weekly test on Monday morning. We would also like the children to continue reading as often as possible at home. Please ensure you are noting in the children’s reading records when they are reading at home- if we can see they have read every day they will earn five house points for their team.

Literacy

In Literacy this week we have been writing our very own poems about Harvest and Autumn time. The children wrote both acrostic and rhyming poems and we were very impressed by everyone’s beautiful attention to detail when decorating these. We will be performing a selection of these poems during our harvest celebration on Friday 19^th October at Lofthouse Church. Next week is our assessed write, where the children will be applying all of the fantastic learning from the last seven weeks and writing a non – chronological report all about the Victorians.

Numeracy

This week, we have been learning how to make sensible estimations of groups of objects by grouping them into smaller sections. We have also been learning how to estimate the length of various classroom objects, and check how close our estimations were by measuring. Next week we will be learning how to interpret data from pictograms, bar charts, tally charts and Carroll diagrams. Why don’t you try making a tally chart at home about your families favourite food?

Next Week

Next Friday 3/4 will be holding their Harvest Festival celebration at Lofthouse Church. The children have written some amazing Autumn time and Harvest poems. We have been learning a short play and Mrs Moores’ class have been busy practicing a new song on the recorder. To link this year’s celebration with our current topic of the Victorians, we will also be performing a scene from the Victorian novel Oliver Twist. We would like the children to dress as poor Victorian orphans, not only to look the part but we will also be having a Victorian classroom experience when we get back to school. Please don’t rush out and buy anything; grey trousers or shorts, an old top and flat cap will be perfect.

Spellings to be tested on 22nd October (the children already have their spellings for this Monday)

Group One	Group Two
bravely	candle
clearly	ankle
cheerfully	rectangle
carefully	symbol
madly	single
neatly	difficult
nearly	signal
really	athletics
weekly	animal
weakly	Christmas

Reminders

·    PE kits need to come in on a Monday and be taken home on a Friday. Miss Thackeray’s and Mrs Moore’s class will now have PE on Tuesdays. Miss Snowden’s will have PE on Thursday.

UKS2 News Roundup

·         Congratulations to our achiever of the week who is Bethany Crane for her engaged and enthused attitude towards her writing and has focussed intently on the structure and content of her sentences this week. Well done Bethany, keep up the fabulous work.

·         On Monday we took part in the BIG Draw. The children took part in some fantastic activities where they produced some collaborative abstract portraits of famous British celebrities. They also created their own unique image of a celebrity. Visit the blog to find out more.

·         Very BIG congratulations to Laura Paul whose manifesto for the Leeds Children’s Mayor has been shortlisted to the last 10. Laura’s entry was very detailed and explained her vision very clearly. Voting for the winner will begin on Monday Visit the following link to read Laura’s entry, along with the other 9 finalists. http://www.breezeleeds.org/pg/228/Leeds_Children's_Mayor

·         The Year 5/6 blog has been updated! Please visit http://robinhood56.blogspot.co.uk/ to find out what we’ve been up to this week.

Reminders:

·         PE kit should be a plain white T-shirt, black or blue shorts and outdoor trainers (weather permitting). No jewellery should be worn. Please can all the children ensure that they are come into school with the correct PE kit on Monday (5/6G & 5/6B) and Tuesday (5/6M).

·         Don’t forget to bring in your planners every day, especially on a Monday when they will be stamped and signed – try to aim for at least 4 entries per week of reading and remember, stickers are up for grabs!

·         Please ensure that step booklets for the Global Children’s Challenge are in school for our ICT lessons (5/6M and 5/6B Monday; 5/6G Tuesday)

Numeracy:

• This week, the children have been adding several numbers mentally by rounding then adjusting. Next week the children will be applying all of their skills when we undertake our first assessments of the year. Show us what you can do!
• A link to some games which are being used in class is available on Miss Gascoigne’s blog http://robinhood56g.blogspot.co.uk/p/mental-maths-2012-13.html
• Times Tables challenge will be next Wednesday, so get practising!

Literacy:

• This week, the children have been using adverbs and adjectives to develop their ideas and give more in depth information about their visit to the Royal Armouries when writing a letter of thanks to the museum.
• Next week we will be applying all of our skills so far when we undertake our writing and reading assessments.
• Spellings – we will be testing the children on 20 random words from this last half term’s spelling lists. These spellings should in their planners.

Please make sure you try hard to learn all of your spellings each week as they are a fundamental Literacy skill.

Other areas of the curriculum:

• In Topic, pupils have been adding the finishing touches to their topic outcomes for their Tudor presentations next week. We have some excellent artefacts already including a chopping block, a hangman’s noose, a set of stocks, a Tudor helmet and some fabulous life-sized painting of some rather famous Tudors. These will all be displayed in the mall very soon.
• In Music, 5/6B have been continuing to learn about crotchets, quavers and dynamics. They have been using percussion instruments to play a samba piece using agogo bells, tambourims and shakers. 5/6G have been learning about the dotted minim and playing duets including all of the musical notations they have been learning about so far.
• In ICT, the children have been using  their data to find out which team have taken the most amount of steps and then organising this data into a graph using Microsoft excel. 5/6B and 5/6M are currently in the Brazilian rainforest. 5/6G need to catch up…so get stepping!

 

Issue 5 2012-13

Newsletter Issue 5

Friday 5th October 2012

Dear Parent/Carer,

It’s the end of another busy week and I have been reflecting! My little boy enjoyed his 2^nd birthday this week, which made me reflect on how quickly each phase of childhood passes by. The important thing is to enjoy every part of that journey and to maximise how we can support our children to become truly amazing contributors to this world.

June Wood

It is with great sadness that I bring you the following news about our beloved Governor, June Wood. June passed away last weekend at the age of 82. June served as an LEA school governor for many years and was the Chair of Robin Hood Primary School for well over a decade, during which time she helped to lead the school to become outstanding and was recognised locally, nationally and internationally. She appointed Mr Wilson as Headteacher in 2005 and he always greatly appreciated her support. She was very supportive as I took over as the Acting Headteacher this year. She will be greatly missed by all that knew her.

Observations

I have had the most wonderful time observing in every classroom across school this week. For me, observations are one of the most rewarding and useful parts of this job. Being an outstanding school, teaching and learning at Robin Hood is regularly and consistently of a very high standard. But like all outstanding schools, complacency can never be allowed to set in and it was with great excitement that I was able to celebrate with teachers the many fantastic aspects of our practice, whilst identifying ways that we can become even better than we are. The children are engaged in truly incredible learning.

The Big Draw

We will be holding the Big Draw in school on Monday. Please provide your child with an old shirt or t-shirt to wear over their uniform. Also, please do come along to see the artistic outcomes of the day from 3:00 on Tuesday 9^th, when we will open our hall doors to the community.

Our exhibit at Armley Mills Museum

Our Pom Pom sheep will be on display at the Armley Mills exhibition from Thursday 6th of October until the end of the month. My thanks to Mrs Chin for the links she made with the museum, which enabled us to contribute to this exhibition- yet another place in the community where our creative outcomes can be seen.

Leeds Light Night

Leeds is a fantastic city for offering great opportunities to engage with innovative arts experiences. Light Night takes place tonight (5th October) for just one night. The city’s artists, makers and performers get together to transform our familiar streets and buildings in an unforgettable evening of exhibitions, installations and events. Do go along if you can.

Autumn Disco

A DATE FOR YOUR DIARY- The newly established PTA will be holding an Autumn Disco after school on Wednesday 7^th November. Your child will provide you with more details very soon. We hope that you will support this exciting event. I for one, appreciate all the efforts being made to organise this.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Mrs Dale

Nursery newsletter

NEWS ROUND UP

What a busy few days we have had in nursery this week; made paper plate grandparents counted out objects from a larger group AND had a half day full day of ICT. As usual the children have been full of enthusiasm and excitement, creating a lovely atmosphere in our setting.

THIS WEEK

The children have had a great time in phonics this week!! We have been making all sorts of weird and wonderful animal noises and identifying animals just from a description! In numeracy we have been challenging ourselves to count out up to 10 objects from a larger group. As usual the children rose to the challenge and demonstrated to us their fantastic counting skills! On Monday and Friday we had  half a day of ICT activities which the children thoroughly enjoyed and they were all really really engaged in. Using the IPads the children accessed the Book Creator, puppet Pals and Sock Puppets programmes. The results were amazing and their confidence in using the ICT was very impressive.

NEXT WEEK

Next week we will be learning all about where we live. In numeracy we will be focusing on positional language such as behind, in front of, next to, underneath and above etc. Next week in phonics we will be starting to tune into instrumental sounds and having lots of fun playing musical instruments.

On Monday and Thursday we are taking part in the Big Draw which is a full day of art activities! We are all very excited about this event as the whole hall will be covered in paper and the children will have the opportunity to draw some wonderful drawings. In class we will be making a whole class photo using collage. So on Monday please can you send your child in with an old shirt which they can slip over the top of their uniform. The art work the children produce will be available for you to view in the hall on Tuesday evening after school.

HOW YOU CAN HELP US

·         Please listen to your child’s fabulous reading once a day and comment in their reading record. Please feel free to drop in and change their books when you pick them up.

·         Please practice counting to 10 and beyond with your child at any opportunity e.g. counting apples in the supermarket etc. and practising recognising numbers

·         Please have a look on the Robin Hood Foundation Stage blog to see what exciting activities your child has been doing.

Thank you for all your support! Have a lovely weekend.

Reception newsletter

NEWS ROUND UP

What a busy week we have had in Reception this week; we have completed our family Zigzag books, made paper plate grandma and granddads, matched numbers to the correct quantities AND had a full day of ICT. As usual the children have been full of enthusiasm and excitement creating a lovely atmosphere in our classroom. We are really impressed with their progress and they are starting to become much more confident at blending their sounds together to read words.

THIS WEEK

In phonics this week we have been practising saying and writing the sounds; ck, e and u and reading our key words of the week which were him, his, not, got, up and mum. The children have finished their zigzag books and they look brilliant! In numeracy we have been challenging ourselves to count out up to 20 objects from a larger group and to match numbers up to 20 to the correct quantities. As usual the children rose to the challenge and demonstrated to us their fantastic counting skills!  On Wednesday we had a full day of ICT activities which the children thoroughly enjoyed and they were all really engaged in. Using the IPads the children made their own book about themselves, a sock puppet show and a fairytale puppet show. The results were amazing and their confidence in using the ICT was very impressive.

NEXT WEEK

Next week we will be learning all about where we live. In numeracy we will be focusing on positional language and using the terms more and less than. Next week’s sounds are; r, h, b and our words of the week are the tricky words; I, no go, to, the and into.

On Monday we are taking part in the Big Draw which is a full day of art activities! We are all very excited about this event as the whole hall will be covered in paper and the children will have the opportunity to draw some wonderful drawings. In class we will be making a whole class photo using collage. So on Monday please can you send your child in with an old shirt which they can slip over the top of their uniform. The art work the children produce will be available for you to view in the hall on Tuesday evening after school.

HOW YOU CAN HELP US

·         Please listen to your child’s fabulous reading once a day and comment in their reading record. Please concentrate on asking your child to say what the sounds are in a word and then blending them to read the word.

·         Please ensure your child has their reading book and name book on their designated day.

·         Please practice counting to 10 and 20 with your child at any opportunity e.g. counting apples in the supermarket etc. and practising recognising numbers

·         Please have a look on the Robin Hood Foundation Stage blog to see what exciting activities your child has been doing.

Thank you for all your support! Have a lovely weekend.

Key Stage 1 Newsletter

Home Learning Next week the children will be taking part in ‘The Big Draw’ event.  We would like your child to be creative during this week and show us their creative side by drawing a picture.  The picture can be of anything they wish to draw but they must include detail and colour it in neatly.  The pictures will be shown on the school website so make sure they are your best!  We look forward to seeing your creative side!

News

The staff in KS1 are looking forward to next week when we see the launch of ‘The Big Draw’ where children will take part in a range of drawing activities across the day.  Please provide your child with an old shirt, or something similar, for them to wear over their school uniform, so we can be as creative as we want!

Literacy

This week, in Literacy, the children have concluded their writing on Robots and have written fantastic booklets titled ‘All about Robots!’  The children were very proud of their colouring, colouring in one direction (like the band) and their time.  Miss Hinton has spent time in the three classes this week and was very impressed with the quality of the front covers which the children produced. 

Within the Robot booklets the children included pieces of writing about ‘Robots in Space’, ‘Robots in the Army’ and ‘Robots in the Future’.  The children had some fantastic ideas around robots in the future and how they could help support humans in their daily lives!  The children have continued to embed the use of capital letters and full stops whilst developing their ideas using: so, if, but, because, and, when.

Next week the children will look at Africa’s Big Five (Leopards, Lions, Rhinos, Buffalos and Elephants), watching clips from the BBC about how these animals move and the distinctive features which are unique to each animal.

Numeracy

We would like to say a big “Thank You” to all parents/carers who supported their child in completing last weeks’ home learning.  The children were keen to show off their learning!  William in Year 1 was very proud when showing Miss Hinton and Miss Mees the partitioning he had completed at home!  Please continue to support your child partitioning 2, 3 or even 4 digit numbers. 

This week the children have been looking at the language: more, less, most, least, biggest, largest, longest and shortest.  The children looked at the following statements and indicated if they were true or false:

‘67 is less than 19’ or ‘18 is more than 4’.

Why not use the Home Learning books to write some similar statements for your child to answer and show off this additional learning next week?  We are always so excited to see the additional learning your child does at home.

Next week the children will be looking at 1 more/less, 10 more/less and 100 more/less.  They will begin by using the 100 square then looking at the pattern of the numbers while adding 10 more/less to a number (the unit stays the same and the tens number changes).

Lower Key Stage 2 Newsletter

This week has been a very busy and productive week in year 3/4. The children have enjoyed learning more about the Victorians and their independence and attitude to their learning has been just fantastic!

Home Learning

Every week, the home learning is for the children to practice their spellings ahead of our weekly test on Monday morning. We would also like the children to continue reading as often as possible at home. Please ensure you are noting in the children’s reading records when they are reading at home- if we can see they have read every day they will earn five house points for their team. We were extremely pleased by how many signed reading records we received on Monday – thank you! Your child may also have some extra home learning in preparation for our Harvest Festival Performance (Friday 19^th October at Lofthouse Church). Everyone needs to be learning the words to ‘Food Glorious Food’ which have been sent home with them. Some children in 3/4M have ‘Pease Pudding Hot’ to practice on the recorder and some children across all three classes have lines to practice if they are a reader or an actor.

Literacy

In Literacy this week we have been finding out all about Victorian leisure and play. The children were VERY excited to discover that Blackpool Pleasure Beach was built during the Victorian era and that the first ever ride is still there today! We have been watching videos and reading books to practice our note taking skills before putting all our facts and information into some super rainbow paragraphs. The children are getting great at using engaging features (questions, alliteration, brackets) and VCOP (WOW words, connectives, sentence openers, punctuation) in their writing. Next week, the children will be writing their own poems about Harvest. We will be performing these at our harvest celebration on Friday 19^th October at Lofthouse Church.

Numeracy

This week, we have been looking at rounding to the nearest 10, 100 and 1000 as well as finding the range, median and mode of a set of data. The children learned Woody’s Round Up rhyme to help them with their rounding skills. Ask your child if they can remember the words! Why not ask them to round some numbers for you when you go shopping? Next week, we will be learning how to make sensible estimations.

Next Week

Next week, we have two very exciting days planned! On Monday, we will be taking part in the Big Draw event. Please ensure your child has an art shirt to cover their uniform for when they are artists in the hall. On Wednesday, we will be taking part in an ICT day, which will see the children developing their ICT skills to create their own IBooks about the Victorians and learn about computer programming to make their own video games. We are very excited about these events and are privileged to be able to offer such diverse learning experiences for the children.

Spellings to be tested on 15th October (the children already have their spellings for this Monday)

Group One	Group Two
peas	metal
leaf	petal
meal	capital
team	natural
eagle	hospital
jeans	barrel
peanuts	travel
peach	cancel
teacher	temple
beast	scramble

Reminders

·     PE kits need to come in on a Monday and be taken home on a Friday. Miss Thackeray’s and Mrs Moore’s class will now have PE on Tuesdays. Miss Snowden’s will have PE on Thursday.

UKS2 News Roundup

·         We have several Achievers of the Week! Congratulations to Elliot, Rebecca, Eleanor, Laura and Jennifer for the time and effort they put into writing their manifestos for the position of Leeds Children’s Mayor 2012. The teachers really enjoyed reading their super ideas and plans for how they would achieve a child friendly Leeds. A particular well done to Laura who has been chosen as Robin Hood’s entry for the new Children’s Mayor. Short listing takes places next week so we’re keeping our fingers crossed that Laura makes the final ten.

·         On Monday, it’s The Big Draw! Children in Year 5/6 will producing artwork for a Wall of Fame in class as well as contributing to wall and floor coverings in the hall. We look forward to sharing our artwork with you on Tuesday from 3pm in the hall. We hope that you can join us but don’t worry if you can’t because we’ll be updating our blog http://robinhood56.blogspot.co.uk/ with what we’ve been up to!

Reminders:

·         On Monday, please bring an overall or old shirt for our Big Draw activities in the hall.

·         PE kit should be a plain white T-shirt, black or blue shorts and outdoor trainers (weather permitting). No jewellery should be worn. Please can all the children ensure that they are come into school with the correct PE kit on Monday (5/6G & 5/6B) and Tuesday (5/6M).

·         Don’t forget to bring in your planners every day, especially on Monday when they will be stamped and signed – try to aim for at least 4 entries per week of reading and remember, stickers are up for grabs!

·         Please ensure that step booklets for the Global Children’s Challenge are in school for our ICT lessons (5/6M and 5/6B Monday; 5/6G Tuesday)

Numeracy:

• This week, the children have been practising column addition and subtraction and applying this to a number of problems based on Disney Land.
• Next week, we will be learning  how to add up very quickly by rounding , adding then adjusting. We will be crunching lots of numbers and getting our teeth stuck into lots of investigative learning.
• Visit www.mathszone.co.uk for some different addition and subtraction maths games.

Literacy:

• This week, the children have been analysing the language used in letters of thanks in preparation for writing to the Royal Armouries about our recent trip there.
• Next week, the children will be writing a formal letter of thanks, which will include adverbs and adjectives to improve the quality of sentences.
• This week’s spellings to be tested on Friday are:

dandelion          carpet               category            definite              memorable       

general              skeleton            medicine           animal               poisonous

Other areas of the curriculum:

• In Topic, we have continued to develop our presentations around a subject of choice. Many outcomes are beginning to take shape and look fabulous! The children have also transferred onto acetate a coat of arms unique to them. These will be displayed in the mall.
• In PE this week, the children have been developing their football techniques by using a drop of the shoulder (aka ‘The Stanley Matthews’).
• This week in Spanish, the focus has been reading instructions in Spanish and applying this to write our own recipes.
• In Music, 5/6B have performed their Fruit Salad Samba using agogo bells, shakers and tambourines! 5/6G have been learning about the semi-breve and minim, we have also developed our recorder playing skills even further by playing some tricky, but funny songs! 5/6M have been using Garageband to develop their musical compositions of well-known songs.
• In ICT, the children have recorded their step data in Excel and used a formula to calculate their total steps for the week. This data has been added to the Global Children’s Challenge website. Currently, 5/6M are in Sanford, United States, 5/6B have reached the Galapagos Islands in Ecuador and 5/6G are in Niagara Falls.