This week we have been hard on multiplication looking at efficient strategies and using different written methods for multiplying 2 by 1 digit numbers. We have been using place value charts, expanded written multiplication and short multiplication. 
 
In English our focus has been on use of colons to write lists, developing dialogue and using questions to write a cliffhanger. 

We have begun rehearsals for our play 'Pirates verses Mermaids' and have even been using our samba moves from PE to choreograph a dance for the play. In RE we have continued to think about pilgrimage and in PSHE we have been writing our hopes and dreams. 

In science we have been investigating the speed at which sounds travels. 

Our spellings this week are:
serious
obvious
curious
hideous
spontaneous
courteous
furious
various
victorious
gaseous

We hope you all have a happy and safe half term holiday and we look forward to seeing you next term.

Here is a closer look at our Australian Art and tapping sticks that we created as part of our class Australia Day:

Dear parents and carers,

This week in English the children have worked very hard on their newspaper reports about Shackleton rescuing the rest of his crew from Elephant Island. It took a little bit longer than I had originally planned, but the results are brilliant and really worth the wait. 

In maths we have just started our work on fractions. Again, this is slightly later than I had planned, but the children are already picking it up well. I've really emphasised that the bottom number (denominator) is how many equal parts the whole has been split into, while the top number (numerator) is how many of those parts we're bothered about. We'll be continuing with this work after half term, including looking at changing mixed numbers into improper fractions (e.g. turning 3 and a half into 7/2), adding, subtracting and even a bit of multiplying fractions!

In our science lesson this week the children really enjoyed planning and carrying our their own investigations about electrical conductors. They were surprised that pencil "lead" conducts electricity! 

We'll be continuing with our work on materials after half term, when we'll look at dissolving, separating mixtures of materials, and also look at the difference between reversible and irreversible changes. 

The spellings for over half term are challenge words:
amateur
ancient
awkward
criticise
excellent
foreign
pronunciation
symbol
yacht
equipment

Enjoy your half term, and I hope that the weather clears after the weekend so that the kids can get outside at some point!
Mrs B

Three things to ask your child this week:

1. What did you say your dream or goal was in our PSHE work?
2. Why was Shackleton's rescue of his men from Elephant Island such an incredible thing?
3. What do the numbers mean in a fraction?

This week the whole school has been thinking about mental health and well-being. As a class we have been thinking about building resilience and about how we can cope when things don't go to plan. Our active blasts have had a well-being focus and we have also been reading The Boy, the Mole, The Fox and the Horse by Charles Mackesy.

In maths we have been putting our resilience to the test continuing our work on multiplication and division: looking at multiplying and dividing by 11 and 12, multiplying three numbers together and investigating factor pairs. We have been really impressed with how the children are contributing their ideas in maths lessons and explaining their strategies and reasoning. Please keep practising times tables using our new Maths Shed subscription (same password as Spelling Shed which also needs to be used to practise weekly spellings please). 

In our English lessons we have been continuing to focus on conjunctions - co-ordinating and contrasting and writing dialogue in the role of journalists. 

Our spellings this week are the 'ee' sound but spelt with an 'i': 
merriment
happiness
plentiful
penniless
happily
prettiest
nastiness
beautiful
pitiful
silliness

Dear parents and carers,

In our English lessons this week we have continued with our work on Shackleton's Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition, based on Shackleton's Journey by William Grill. We've found out what happened at the end of the mission, when Shackleton took 5 other men in a small lifeboat on an 800 mile journey to South Georgia, in order to raise a rescue for the rest of his crew, who were stranded on Elephant Island. We've moved on to learning about newspaper articles, and have just started writing our own articles about the rescue, using the sentence stacking approach. Next week we'll be finishing this off in some independent writing time.

​In maths this week we have continued our work on division. This is taking some time but it's important that we nail this technique before we move on to fractions (which will hopefully be next week). I'm really pleased with how hard the children have worked on this- they really have been Steadfast Squirrels to master this difficult task.

We enjoyed learning about thermal insulators and conductors in our science lesson yesterday. The children tested 3 different materials to find out which one would be best for the lining of a lunchbox. 

Please remember that children need a water bottle in school everyday, as well as a suitable PE for indoor and outdoor PE lessons. Lots of my class were a bit chilly during my PE lesson today, as they didn't have jumpers or tracksuit bottoms!

We are now using Spelling Shed and Maths Shed. I am expecting that (unless you have already had a conversation with me about your child's use of Spelling Shed), your child will do a minimum of 4 Spelling Shed games and a minimum of 4 of any of the Maths Shed games over the course of a week. I don't mind if they're spread out or all on one day (although I think that spread out would be a bit more effective). I am finding that some children aren't doing any spelling practice, and are then finding the weekly test more stressful than it needs to be. A lack of speedy, accurate times table knowledge is also causing some issues in maths lessons, so using Maths Shed regularly would really help with this. Your help with this is much appreciated. 

This week's spellings also include silent letters, but this time in different places in the word, instead of the start:
doubt
island
lamb
solemn
thistle
autumn
build
receipt
ascend
disciple

Mrs B

Three things to ask your child this week:

1. Do you think that Shackleton was right to undertake such a dangerous expedition to the Antarctic?
2. How do you do bus stop division?
3. What did you learn about thermal insulators in your science lesson?

Another busy week in Glyme Class. In English we have been working on using fronted adverbials to make our sentence structure more interesting, metaphors and similes. 

In maths we have been practising our 7 times tables and completing our end of block assessments. 
In art we have been finishing and evaluating our carnival masks - photos to follow soon! 

Spelling for this week are more -ous endings:
courageous
outrageous
nervous
famous
adventurous
advantageous
ridiculous
carnivorous
rapturous
torturous

Dear parents and carers,

In English this week we have been finding out more about what happened when the Endurance reached the Weddell Sea, near Antarctica. The ship was stuck in ice during the Antarctic winter, and is slowly being crushed by the weight and pressure of the grinding ice. The children learned about motivational speeches (including watching the one given by the President in Independence Day!), and then we built up the first half of a speech that Shackleton might have given, using the sentence stacking technique. After that, the children finished the speeches independently. The quality of the work was really high, and I'm very proud of how the children's writing is progressing.

In maths this week we have finished off multiplication, and moved on to looking at division. The children are finding this tricky, but are working really hard on developing their method. We'll continue to work on this next week. You can help your child with this by practising the games on Maths Shed. I have set a number of games and would like to see that the children have played at least four times.

This week's spellings are all ones with silent letters:
knight
wreckage
writer
knowledge
knuckle
wreath
pterodactyl
mnemonic
wrestler
knife

Again, these are set of Spelling Shed and (unless you have already talked to me about Spelling Shed) I am expecting to see that the children have practised 4 times before the test next Friday. This is preparation for year 6, when they will need to have practised 7 times per week.

Mrs B

Three things to ask your child this week:

1. How do you think Shackleton felt when he realised that Endurance was stuck in the ice?
2. Have you practised your spellings and times tables?
3. What did you find out about materials in your science lesson this week?

This week in Science we continued to learn about magnets and how they work. On each table around the classroom there was a different question that we needed to investigate; everyone had a go at investigating each question and at the end of the lesson we discussed our findings. The questions were: 
Do magnets always attract other magnets?
Are the paperclips more attracted to one part of the magnet?
Can magnets make other magnets move without touching
What happens when a magnet is spun in water?
Do different magnets make longer paperclip chains?

Some of the main things that we found out where that the opposite poles of a magnet attract, and the same poles repel each other. We also found out that the paperclips were only attracted to the ends of the magnet but the magnetic force could pass through the paperclips!