School Blog

Stepping into Ug’s Shoes!

 in Class Three / English / SCARF by

Class 3 have been enjoying reading Ug: Boy Genius of the Stone Age and this week they took part in an exciting drama and reading activity. The children got into role as Ug and used their imagination to think carefully about what the character might be feeling at different points in the story.

Working in pairs, the children interviewed one another while staying in character. They asked thoughtful questions and gave detailed answers, helping them to explore Ug’s emotions, thoughts and motivations. The class discussed how Ug might have felt when others did not understand his ideas and how he showed determination when trying to invent new things.

 

Class 3 Bone Builders

 in Class Three / Science by

Last week, Class 3 became scientists as they explored the fascinating human skeleton. The children worked enthusiastically to build life-sized skeletons, carefully putting all the bones together in the correct places.

Once their skeletons were complete, the children used their knowledge to label the different bones. They identified important parts of the skeleton, including the skull, ribs, spine, pelvis, femur and tibia. The class discussed how our bones support our bodies, protect our organs and help us to move.

Autumn Woodland Fun!

 in Class Two / Geography / Science by

Class 2 had a fantastic afternoon in the woods. We looked for signs of autumn using all our senses. We then completed some observational drawings of autumn leaves.

 

Learning about the Jewish festival of Sukkot

 in Class Two / RE by

To complete our harvest topic, class two learnt about the Jewish tradition of building a Sukkah. The children gathered natural materials found on the ground and used these for the rooves of their models. They used all the key features in their models and I think you will agree they look fantatsic.

 

Being Active in the Outdoors

 in PE / Whole School by

Since the start of the autumn term, we have been enhancing our outdoor spaces with new equipment and developing new ways of playing together to improve social times for all our pupils.

This has included:

  • investing funds into opening up our limited playground space to promote active play;
  • purchasing a range of new equipment that promotes problem solving, critical thinking, creativity and imagination; collaboration and open-ended play;
  • increasing our lunchtime supervision so that we can make use of the playing fields areas;
  • training a group of year six children to be playleaders who will be able to lead younger children in playing a range of new games;
  • making use of our trikes and bikes for our children in early years to promote physical development;

We are also:

  • continuing to offer a range of after-school clubs to promote good health and fitness – gymnastics, football and running club;
  • engaging in local schools competitions at Dallam School.

 

Already we have had extremely positive feedback from our pupils via our School Council survey.  Some of the comments that we have had are….

‘The buggies and space hoppers are great.’  Class 2 pupil

‘Playing out is better because we have different equipment.’  Class 2 pupil

‘Lunchtimes are better because we have more space and more to do.’ Class 4 pupil

‘The new equipment is more flexible for us to use.’  Class 4 pupil

‘I like it because we get to play more football and there is more space to play.’ Class 3 pupil

‘I enjoy playing with my friends.’ Class 3 pupil

‘I like playing on the skateboards’ Class 1 pupil.

 

Of course we have more to do and our pupils also shared their ideas on ‘Even better if……’

  1. We find a way of sharing the equipment
  2. We get to play with our Reception buddies
  3. We could have a small slide
  4. Playleaders are in charge of the equipment
  5. We do different things on different days
  6. Have signs up about playing with the equipment
  7. We have more space hoppers.

Please keep an eye on our blog and newsletters for more news on further developments to promote health, fitness and enjoyable outdoor physical activity.

Basketball at Dallam

 in Class Four / PE by

Class 4 showed determination, stamina and skill this morning at the Dallam Basketball Primary Schools Competition; and they were all incredible ambassadors for Levens School.

Our class were divided into 5 teams, each with a captain who led their teams in several different matches across four indoor courts.  The practice during some PE sessions in the first few weeks of term was really very valuable and during the morning each team were very focused on developing tactics, improving with every game, supporting one another and doing their absolute best! Each game was thrilling to watch!

 

Well done everyone!  Levens is extremely proud of your effort, your ambition and your sporting conduct!

 

The United Kingdom

 in Class Two / Geography / RE by

To begin our seasons and weather topic we looked at where we live in the world and used the atlases to name the countries of the UK. The children were challenged to add the capital cities. We also used maps and atlases in RE. We looked at a variety of food labels and identified which country they had come from.

 

Lots of practical learning in Class 2

 in Class Two / English / Maths by

We have been learning all about less than and greater than in maths and comparing numbers. The children are becoming very confident using this vocabulary to compare numbers. In English we are looking at the story of ‘Percy the Park Keeper After the Storm.’ We looked closely at a variety of books and identified the author, illustrator, blurb and illustrations, explaining what each of these are and why they are important.

Super senses!

 in Class Two / Science by

We had a fantastic science lesson learning all about our senses. We used mystery feely bags to explore our sense of touch and use adjectives to describe the objects. We carried out a blind smelling test to see if we could identify the different smells. For taste, we tried different foods and discovered sweet, salty and sour tastes. We looked around and used our sense of sight to describe what we could see and sat very still to see what we could hear.