Rawdon Littlemoor Primary School

It's been another lovely week in Blackbird Class. 

The highlight was our trip out on Tuesday morning to the Sikh Gurdwara - we all learnt so much from this visit. The children were all incredibly well-behaved and asked some interesting questions. The food that was on offer in the langar kitchen was beautiful and was well-liked by almost everyone! 

In geography this week we honed our atlas skills whilst identifying the nations that make up the UK, their capital cities and some of the major rivers amongst other things.

We have undertaken drama work in English to really begin to understand the characters from our story in readiness for writing our diaries next week. It was great to see the children start to think about how to portray their given character and I look forward to seeing some stand-out acting at the end of the year on the evidence offered this week! 

We hope you have a lovely weekend, 

The Blackbird Team.

Blackbird class this week has been full of maps, blood vessels, ominous trips out to sea and Tapu Ae. 

In Geography, the class spent time with the OS maps looking for and naming local bodies of water. They are all excellent at using the maps now and can confidently find what they are looking for. We also researched the Leeds-Liverpool Canal, finding out what its purpose was, how long it is and how many locks are along its length amongst other things. 

In science, following on from our work on the heart, we have looked at the circulatory system. This has involved finding out about the different types of blood vessels and the four chambers of the heart in more detail. 

In English, we have started work on our next piece of writing which will be a diary. This is based on a book set on and around St Kilda in 1726 about a group of boys who are sent to harvest birds for the island and end up dealing with the fact that no-one comes to get them to take them home. We haven't read much so far but the characters we will be writing as are slowly coming to life. 

In PE, we have started a unit learning the game of Tapu Ae. This is a Maori game that requires an accurate throw and excellent defensive techniques. Hopefully, as the weeks go on, the class will become incresingly expert at this!

We hope you all have a lovely weekend, 

The Blackbird Team. 

Well, this has seemed like a bit of a whistlestop half term! 

We have packed a lot into the final week: we have explored the human heart as part of our science topic about the human body; it feels like we have finally cracked finding common denominators in fractions (high-fives all round!); and in English we have finished our Water Cycle explanantion text. I am so proud of the stamina the class have shown with this long piece of writing and they should be very pleased with their efforts. We are moving on to a fiction piece of writing after the holidays which hopefully be a nice change. 

The class have been having music lessons this half-term and this week they were working on their own compositions. These lessons have gone down well so I'm sure the children will be pleased to know they're carrying on next half-term as well. 

Today, we have given out a homework project alongside spelling homework (there is no need for reading comments - unless of course you would like to!). Details of both the project and the spelling will be in your child's homework book/planner. 

We hope you all have a lovely half-term break and we'll see you all (bright-eyed and bushy tailed) on Monday 19th February.  

The Blackbird Team. 

Our week has ended in a frenzy of Rugby this afternoon. The children were all brilliant and performed to the best of their abilities. There was a a mix of activities so everyone could get involved and there was also a whole load of mud! In short, it was a great afternoon!

In other news this week, we have been getting to grips with Ordnance Survey maps. Last week we looked at all the different symbols and what they mean and this week we have explored 4 and 6 figure grid references. The class should now be able to explain to you how to pinpoint specific places and features on a map. 

In maths we have been keeping on with our fractions work. As well as adding fractions, we have also been comparing and ordering fractions. This has involved hunting down the (sometimes elusive) lowest common denominators. Whilst this has proved tricky for some, I have been impressed by the reslience on show. We'll keep working on this next week when we move on to subtracting fractions. 

We hope you all have a lovely weekend, 

The Blackbird Team. 

The end of a wet and windy week!

This week has been Music Week. The children have attended two performances: one yesterday from Back Chat Brass and today from a folk band called Jambalaya. The class seemed to have really enjoyed both performances - even when they were forced to learn flat-footed dancing!

In English, we are well and truly into the Water Cycle. I am loving how interesting (and surprisingly funny) their writing about this complicated cyle is. Hopefully we can keep the momentum up as we move through the different stages. 

We are getting familiar with fractions in maths and have this week learn all about improper fractions and mixed numbers. They can now confidently recognise both and convert between the two. 

In Geography, we introduced the class to Ordnance Survey maps. We looked at the key and tried to figure out what the sumbols might mean and had a go at drawing some ourselves. They all did really well however, I wouldn't trust them to navigate a family walk yet! 

We hope you have a lovely weekend, 

The Blackbird Team