Remembrance Day

This week in class the children have learnt about the origins and history of Remembrance Day as well as producing some of their own crafts to pay their respects.
When we discussed the history of Remembrance Day in class the children asked some very thoughtful and relevant questions and were keen to learn more about the past.
Attached are some pictures taken as we were making Remembrance crosses with poppies and a personal inscription.

Cycling, safety and well-being

What a busy 5 days it has been in KS2 this week.

On Tuesday we were visited by The New Kings Order, a band who recently featured on X-factor. They performed an array of songs before discussing issues such as bullying and online safety with the children.

On Wednesday, in Gascoigne class, we recognised World Mental Health Day and talked at great length about difficulties people have regarding mental health. In literacy we used descriptive language to give each other compliments and consider our own positive qualities.

Today, we ended the week with a visit from Phil, who runs Pro-Ride cycling. He took the majority of Year 4, 5 and 6 children, in small groups, onto the playground to challenge & develop their cycling skills. Although we have done this in previous years, Phil adds something new every time and the children really enjoyed getting to try out ramps, obstacles and races on their bikes. Well done everyone who took part for their great behaviour and positivity.

Skipping

On Monday morning, the year 4 children worked with Leanne from skipping school, to develop their skills in preparation for the Brigshaw schools skipping competition after Christmas.

The whole group were really focused, attentive and hard-working. Leanne commented to me midway through the session how skilled the group was as a whole - very positive feedback.
Well done to all who took part.

Mrs Burnell even managed to capture a few action shots.

Thankfulness & Investigating Sound

This week in Gascoigne class our curriculum has been incredibly varied and very busy. The children have produced some excellent fronted adverbial work in literacy as well as acrostic poems about Thankfulness and Harvest. Each child was also asked to create a ‘plate’ that represented which foods they were thankful for.

We have continued to work on Ancient Greek DT projects this week and some children have shown a real flair for design and creativity. In addition, the children continue to impress our visiting teachers during their vocal coaching and woodwind sessions.

Today our curriculum became more investigative as the children were tasked with being scientists – testing materials and their ability to provide effective sound insulation. They were absolutely fantastic in their approach to working scientifically, taking time and care to produce accurate and clear results.

Finally, when you rummage through school bags this weekend you will notice the children have been given homework for the first time. This includes a variety of tasks and information about the learning taking place in class. There is no obligation to complete every task, many are just suggestions that children can complete if they want to further develop their learning in a particular curriculum area. Please just have a look and discuss with your child.

Have a great weekend.

My Perfect School Day

On Monday 17th, every child in school was asked to write about what their perfect school day would look like. 

In Gascoigne class we had an assortment of great ideas which together would no doubt make for a very bizarre 'SCHOOL' day. 

The children's suggestions included many wacky food themes, interesting yet somewhat non-educational 'lesson' choices as well as a comfy dress code of pj's and slippers!!!

Quite a few of their ideas linked to the previous Friday when we gave children a 'taster' of the perfect day, allowing them to eat pizza & ice-cream at playtime, produce lots of creative artwork and also try out a full size & very loud drum kit!!!!

The children now have some clear targets for their writing and hopefully realize as the year goes on there will also be lots of opportunity for new experiences and activities which will link with and support our classwork. (No more pizza at playtime though!)

New School Year

Good afternoon and welcome back to the new school year.

I hope children and adults alike had a relaxing and refreshing holiday and are ready for the learning journey ahead.

This year in Gascoigne class we have a mix of old and new with regards topics and areas of study across the curriculum. To begin the year our main topic theme will be 'Ancient Greece' which links directly to geography, history and technology objectives. 

In Maths, we start the year with a focus on Number and Place Value, whilst in English the children will recap and develop some key writing and spellings skills through a varied range of text types.

In addition, we are fortunate that our class will benefit from specialist musical and sports tuition throughout the year and as always we have many trips, visitors and activity days planned to ensure the children have a broad range of experiences to support their in school learning. 

Myself and Miss Burnell are very excited about working with the class and can't wait to get to know everyone better. 

Keep checking back here regularly for more news and photos about our learning in Gascoigne class.

Many thanks,

Mr Riley

World Cup Fever

Despite Mr Riley being away ill this week, Gascoigne class have been putting in some hard work with Miss Birdi.

They have been collating all their knowledge from the past few weeks to create a non-chronological report about the Vikings. This included the organisational devices they practiced last week and will be finished in the next few days. The children have been able to show off all they know about trade routes, weaponry, village life and invasions.

We have also had a special treat in art this week. Items from Artsmark have been delivered to school and are on display in classrooms. In Gascoigne class we have access to a Viking drinking vessel, helmet, carvings and even the remains of a Viking hoard! The children have enjoyed using these amazing items in their observational drawings.

On Wednesday the school was gripped by World Cup fever and showed our support for the England football team by wearing red, white and blue. Despite our loss 2-1 to Croatia that evening, we are still proud of the achievements of our very young team!

  

Happy Birthday NHS!

This week we have been getting into lots of messy science, experimenting with reversible and irreversible changes.

We have mixed malt vinegar and bicarbonate of soda to create carbon dioxide and could see the gas inflating a rubber glove- we couldn't get the vinegar back but we certainly craved some fish and chips! We also attempted an experiment to create casein but found that our vinegar wasn't quite right, our milk began to curdle but not enough to make plastic- it was definitely an irreversible change! Feel free to try it at home, it's easy! (when you have the right ingredients).
-https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akhs3wcSDGA
Finally we cracked an egg open (irreversible) and decided to try and cook it using the amazing sun shine we have been having this week. We placed placed it on a metal tray on the slide which was the hottest place in the playground at a whopping 41 degrees Celsius! 

Miss Smith has joined us for literacy this week. We have been using a clip called 'Eye of the Storm' by Lovett to inspire and improve our creative writing. We have done lots of thesaurus work and have tried our hand at amplification.
-https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H1mX8ptsmBM

We have also been learning about the origins of the NHS, what it stands for and how it operates, to celebrate its 70th anniversary. The children asked lots of interesting questions and discussed how important our health service is and how it embodies our Christian and British values of tolerance and acceptance. They made posters of medical advancements throughout the ages that have contributed towards our great NHS.

Talking of the NHS, all of Gascoigne class wish Mr Riley a speedy recovery after losing his voice!

Best wishes,
Miss Wadlow

Last Lap

A big welcome back to everyone following what was hopefully an enjoyable and restful half term holiday. 

We have lots planned for this last half term in Gascoigne class across all our curriculum subjects, some of which we will give you an insight into below.

During the next two weeks our year 5 children will be learning how to perform translations and reflections in maths, followed by another delve into the world of time!!!!!

In literacy the children will continue to learn specific writing skills each lesson but our Big Writes are to be themed on our current topic of the Vikings. This will include a battle report, viking myth and a persuasive piece - I'm sure a Viking axe was very persuasive. 

This brings me on to our 'visitors' in school yesterday - a small group of vikings who had travelled a great distance looking for some slaves. Unfortunately the chose not to take any of our children with them but they did educate us on many aspects of viking life such as clothing, food, hobbies and warfare. We have attached some pictures below from our presentation.

Finally, a reminder about the Trust sports day at John Charles Centre next week. The children have been working hard in PE, practicing playing dodgeball, handball and tag rugby, whilst also perfecting their baton passing skills. Please ensure permission slips are returned to school ASAP.

Many thanks,

Mr Riley

Last week our year 4's took part in the Leeds Skipping Festival Project 2017/18! We are incredibly proud of all they have achieved over the past few months. They have improved their skipping skills tremendously and even learnt some new tricks. As part of the festival the children were required to perform- in front of 5 other schools- a dance that was choreographed and memorised in only 1 week. Individual year 4's represented the school by showing off their double bounce, speed bounce, side swing, cross skip and a complicated, outrageous 'Pretzel'! Festival coordinator Chris kept everyone smiling and laughing throughout the afternoon and our children performed well enough to win a range of individual awards! The children can't wait to show them off at the end of the week.

Despite the sporadic changes in weather, LEH gardening club has managed to start its journey to green-fingered-ness. We have planted corn, onion and pumpkin in our ark greenhouse and our potatoes are ready to go into our planter once it has been moved. We would like to wish our care taker Mr Teasdale a speedy recovery with his bad shoulder- we miss his enthusiastic gardening skills. The children are raring to go, now we just need some good weather to help us photosynthesize! 

In literacy this week we are focusing on specific skills for editing our work, including; improving our proof reading, independently accessing spelling support and correcting punctuation. The children will be urged to use our 'working walls' and the B's- Be Brave, Buddy, Bits and Bobs, Be still, Backtrack. These encourage the children to be independent learners who can assess their own work and focus on elements of their work that need building on. 

In math we will be finishing the area and perimeter unit this week with a few Tour De Yorkshire related problems.

As part of our new topic 'Raiders and Traders' the children have designed viking names for themselves and have written them onto cartridge paper using Norse Runes. They have then used tea to stain the paper giving it an aged appearance. This afternoon the children have used charcoal to give definition to their runes. 

Here Comes The Sun??

This week we have been looking back on our knowledge of perimeter and area. As well as practicing our calculation and estimation skills we have been looking at practical uses for our new skills. The children have also been developing their understanding of mathematical problems in the 'real world': how much paint is needed for a wall, how many fence panels needed for a field, how many square meters to carpet a room? I wonder if you can think of some more 'real world' uses for perimeter and area skills at home?

To start our summer outside games off we have played cricket in the wonderful sunshine this week. The children have had to focus on their hand-eye co-ordination, balance and timing as well as working as a unit to field efficiently. Finally, they were challenged to catch both Miss Wadlow and Mr Riley 'out'.... they definitely need more practice with that ;)

To introduce our new topic 'Raiders and Traders' through music Miss Flynn has had the children creating their own viking chant. They have had to compose interesting lyrics taking care to include dynamics paying attention to beat.

Hindu Temple Trip and Dance in a Day

Last Wednesday, year 5's spent the day at Brigshaw High School learning a Dance choreographed in a single day by two year 8's. This was incredibly challenging and required top notch concentration and co-ordination. The children dove right in and set a brilliant example with their fantastic behavior and listening skills and really shone for LEH. Dancing to 'Get Ugly' by Jason Derulo, the children had to move both in unison and in canon creating powerful visual effects as well as speed up through the furious chorus.

Yesterday, Year 4's visited the Hindu Mandir in Bradford. Seema, our guide, made us feel very welcome and helped us to understand some key aspects of the Hindu religion and how they worship. First we had to take off our shoes and wash our hands as a sign of respect to their gods but also to keep the worship hall clean as prayers take place on the floor. Next we sat in a circle and used our senses to experience being in a Hindu Mandir. Seema lit incense and played Hindu Aum meditations then showed us how to sit respectfully and what traditional Hindu dress looks like.

We had a chance to look at a beautiful shrine and ask lots of questions about the different statues which represent aspects or personalities of Hindu gods. Finally we received gifts of sugar cubes and nuts from the priest as a blessing. Overall we had an interesting experience and enjoyed our time in the Mandir and can now say a respectful hello and goodbye as a Hindu- 'Namaste.'