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As we were unable to take part in our annual Sports Evening this year due to Lockdown, we continued with our physical activity at home. We took part in National School Sports Week where there were lots of different challenges to try which were organised by the Youth Sport Trust and Sky Sports. Children and families across the country took part and it was great to see so many of our school community getting involved. Well done to each and every one of you for showing excellent commitment to being physically active and supporting our work as an Active School. Take a look at some of the photos from the challenges:
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Dear parents and carers,
Apologies for my illness at the end of the week- I'm now back in class and feeling much better. Last week we were working on our balanced arguments, and the children will be finishing these off this week, before we move on to something different! In maths we are continuing with fractions. Last week we did adding and subtracting, and this week we'll finishing subtracting and also try a bit of multiplication. This week's spellings (tested this Friday) are: bought fought thought ought sought nought brought wrought afterthought thoughtfulness Mrs B Dear parents and carers,
In English this week we have continued with our work on writing a balanced argument. The children are working hard to build their vocabulary and to write in a more formal style. We'll be rounding this off next week before beginning to plan and write our own balanced arguments about a contentious issue. We're also working on improving inference skills, which is when you "read between the lines" and work out something that the text doesn't say explicitly. We've worked on this with pictures, which was lots of fun, especially the Jon Klasson book "This is not my hat" (which I read for the World Book Day bedtime story event), where the words and the pictures tell different sides of the same story. You have to be adept at reading both in order to enjoy the story. In maths we have continued with working on fractions, and this week we have been adding fractions. We've had to work on finding equivalent fractions in order to add them together, which sometimes is easier said than done! I am finding that the children who have a firmer grasp of their times tables are finding this easier, as they can spot patterns in the numbers much more quickly and accurately. In science this week the children really enjoyed carrying out their own experiments about dissolving. They have made posters and I will share photos once they are all finished next week. Spellings this week: deceive conceive receive perceive receipt protein caffeine seize either neither Please remember that I am expecting children to have done at least 4 Spelling Shed games and 4 Maths Shed games (any game) per week. If there is a problem accessing Spelling Shed, please do ask your child to let me know- I promise that I won't be cross! I am happy for children to spend some time when they come in in the mornings working on this, if accessing it at home is tricky. Mrs B Three things to ask your child this week:
Dear parents and carers,
In our English lessons this week we have started working on writing a balanced argument. We have researched what features a balanced argument needs to have and also been thinking about the opposing opinions about children's screen use, in order to write our balanced argument about this subject. We've just started sentence stacking the introduction, and we'll continuing with this next week. In maths this week we have focused on fractions, including counting in fraction sequences and ordering fractions (both less than and greater than a whole). We'll be continuing with this next week. In our science lesson this week we looked at dissolving- what it is and how it works. The children have planned their own experiments about dissolving, which we'll be carrying out next week. I've also promised them some explosive reactions in an upcoming science lesson- watch this space for more details! This week's spellings are all words that break the "i before e, except after c" rule: ancient science species efficient deficient glacier scientists sufficient emergencies inefficient Mrs B Three things to ask your child this week:
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:
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:
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:
Dear parents and carers,
In English this week the children have continued with our work based around Shackleton's Journey by William Grill. The children have thought carefully about what it might be like to go on a voyage like that, and have written in role as a family member, wishing one of the crew luck as they set off, but also explaining their more complex feelings. I have been really impressed with the quality of the content of the writing, but also with the beautiful presentation. We shared some of this writing in our celebration assembly this morning, and it was very well received. In maths we have continued with multiplication skills. The children are trying very hard and have made lots of progress, but we're not *quite* there yet. I'm going to give it a couple more days, and will be sending home some extra practise sheets early next week. This is something that it would be brilliant if you could have go at with your child. When I think we're ready, we'll move on to having a go at some division- hopefully towards the end of next week. The children are finding it challenging but really have been Steadfast Squirrels this week and shown that they haven't given up. In science this week we carried out our end of unit assessment, and next week we'll start our new unit, all about changing materials. In PE this week we tried something a little bit different- OOA (outdoor adventurous activities- although we were inside, because it was cold!). This activities focus on key skills such as communication and teamwork. It was really good to see the children working with other people to solve problems, and we will continuing with this over the next few weeks. Spellings this week are as follows: referring preferred transferring reference referee preference transference difference inference conferring Mrs B Three things to ask your child this week:
Dear parents and carers, This week in English we have been working on writing letters to Ernest Shackleton, to apply to become a member of the Trans-Antarctic Expedition team. The children have worked hard on writing using formal tone, and justifying their reasons using things that they have found in their research. The children are just starting to write their letters out, practising their neatest handwriting. In maths this week we have continued our work on multiplication. They children are finding this very difficult, so it would be fantastic if you could have a go at the new maths games on Maths Shed, to recap multiplying by 10 and 100 and also basic times table facts. This will help to build the children's fluency, so that the job of multi digit multiplication becomes more manageable. You can find these just by logging onto Spelling Shed as normal, and pressing "Maths Shed" instead. Next week we'll be continuing with this work, hoping to build both speed and accuracy, as well as work with larger numbers. In science this week we enjoyed observing eggs (both inside and out!) as part of our work on bird life cycles. The children were very sensible, especially considering the amount of raw egg in the classroom! Next week we'll be recapping this work before I assess what the children have learned. There's been a bit of a snaffu with the spelling, so I'm giving the children another week to learn the -able ending words, so I'll test them next Friday on both that list and this new list (time adverbials). Apologies for any confusion.
afterwards immediately earlier eventually previously finally recently yesterday tomorrow whilst Mrs B Three things to ask your child this week:
Dear parents and carers,
This week in English we have started working on a new book Shackleton's Journey by William Grill. This fantastic picture books tells the story of Shackleton's attempted traverse of Antarctica in 1914. So far we have made really subtle inferences and deductions about the book from the front cover, written about a journey, made inferences about Shackleton's character and also researched one of the crew members. Next week we'll be writing in role to try and persuade Shackleton to take us on this dangerous adventure. In maths this week we have started working on our multiplication skills, including using the short method for multiplication and also using our knowledge of area to solve two digit x two digit problems. The children were a bit rusty with multiplication at first, but have picked it up really well. We'll be continuing with this next week, with lots of multiplication practise, hopefully reaching multiplying four digits by 2 digit numbers. In science this week we learned about metamorphosis, and compared the life cycles of insects and amphibians that go through metamorphosis. The children were fascinated to see how caterpillars turn into their pupa, and how caterpillars can camouflage their pupa's colour to the background. Next week we'll be looking at bird life cycles, and studying eggs. In science last half term we spent some time learning about chimpanzees and mammal life cycles. For their Christmas present I sponsored a chimp at the Dr Jane Goodall Institute, and the adoption pack arrived this week. Our chimp, Anzac, is about the same age as the children, and lives in a sanctuary as she wouldn't be able to survive in the wild on her own. Yesterday a series called "Baby Chimp Rescue" started on BBC2. It's presented by Dr Ben Garrod, who is a primate specialist and will help rehabiliate orphaned chimpanzees at a sanctuary in Liberia. I highly recommend having a watch, and thinking about how we might be able to help these endangered and special creatures. The website for the programme is here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000d8xb This week's spellings are all -able words: changeable noticeable manageable agreeable knowledgeable replaceable microwaveable salvageable rechargeable irreplaceable Mrs B Three things to ask your child this week:
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