This week in Ock Class: w/e 4th October

Dear parents and carers,

In our English lessons this week we have finished planning our own stories based on Float, and have moved into the drafting stage. Most of the children are almost half way through writing their first draft, which we will finish next week, before moving on to editing, revising and redrafting after that.

In maths this week we have been practising the column methods for addition and subtraction. We've recapped the processes behind the methods using Dienes, before having a go ourselves, both looking at improving fluency and also reasoning and problem solving skills. I've been really impressed with how well the children have approached this learning this week, looking for common errors and making sure that they have followed the method correctly. Next week we'll be looking at solving multi-step addition and subtraction problems.

Here are the spellings for this week:

• potential
• essential
• substantial
• influential
• residential
• confidential
• celestial
• preferential
• torrential
• circumstantial

My class really enjoyed our trip to Cokethorpe for the "Look Up!" science show, all about space. The children learned some new things and were really well behaved. Thank you to Mrs Richards (Caroline's mum) and Mrs Barrett (Eleanor's mum) for coming along with us. Next week in science we'll be looking at how the apparent movement of the sun can be explained by the rotation of the Earth.

Mrs B

Three things to ask your child this week:

1. What did you learn at the science show?
2. What do you need to remember when using the column method for subtraction?
3. How are your story steps progressing?