In year 3 we have been doing lots of art work this term. We began researching about an artist called Edgar Degas who uses charcoal to create drawings. We have been exploring different ways to use charcoal including using different pressure, smudging and using the edge of a charcoal pencil. This week we used the knowledge that we have gained to dance in charcoal. This was very exciting for the children in year 3. We wanted it to feel like a performance so children put their chairs in a circle around the paper and we changed the background music to see if this made a difference to the children’s mood when creating their piece of artwork. It was a super messy but very fun afternoon enjoyed by all!

Year 3 and 4 children were lucky enough to meet Andy Craven-Griffiths, a poet who has performed on live stages and has had his work broadcasted and printed, for a performance workshop with children from other local schools. They spent the day creating their own poem with similes, alliteration and rhyming words. 

The children began the day choosing an animal in groups that they were familiar with. The children then wrote down as many things they knew about their animal, some of our children discussed that fish cannot blink as they do not have eyelids. They then were instructed to pretend they were their animal and think of a reason why they would like to be the animal, for example: fish cannot blink so they would be able to win in a staring competition. 

Next the children had to create some rhyming words for their poem, it wasn’t important that the poem would rhyme as long as it had clear stanzas. Many of our children came up with some incredible rhyming and half rhyme words.  

Then the children created a chorus for their poem which was repeated at the beginning and end of their poem. Children were instructed that this didn’t need to rhyme and didn’t have to have similes but it must describe their animal. 

Finally, the children had a chance to perform their poems to the group. They spent lots of time practicing their delivery of the poem and decided who would say parts and when they children would all perform together. 

Mr. Phillips has been asked this year to promote our wonderful pupils love of reading. He spent some time this week speaking to children from many different year groups and asked them about what they like about reading, favourite authors, genres and illustrators as well as which types of books they most enjoy at home and school. He was also very interested in how to make reading more exciting. All of the children had fantastic ideas but one had something to say that we needed to listen to.

Leighton Wood (Year 5) from our Wrens class told us all about his love for comic books, and explained that he believes that comic books would be a fantastic way to engage reluctant readers through capturing their imagination as they learned about the adventures of well-known superheroes such as Spiderman, Superman and Wonder Woman.

Leighton also shared his love for the world of Korean comics including ninja Naruto and his adventures in a battle of good against evil.

Mr. Phillips was so impressed that he had a further discussion with Leighton who has since been employed as a Comic Consultant (Paid in Co-op Coins) to advise Mr Phillips on how he can improve reading across school through using comics and graphic novels. If your child wants to know catch Leighton in the corridor or the playground to learn more.

Today, we got an email from the Lord Mayor. He wanted us to become ‘Street Detectives’ and think of some ideas about how to improve the local area. We created our detective hats and our magnifying glass and had a walk around Harehills. We talked about things that were built in the past and how it has changed now!

Baking Blurb – ‘Let’s say’ we opened our very own bakery! Today we made bread using lots of ingredients. We talked about how we needed to measure the ingredients using a scale and how we needed to use yeast to make the bread rise!

We have been so impressed by so many of our children this half term at Nightingale, So much so that we designed a new behaviour star system where Mrs Packer our Pastoral lead spends some time on a Friday afternoon with 2 children from each class who have impressed with their ways of being that week. Check out these photographs of our amazing children celebrating their success in Being Themselves always!