St Oswald's Catholic Primary SchoolOur blogs
Year 5 Blog Friday 26th May 2023
Date: 24th May 2023 @ 9:29am
Happy Friday and welcome to your Friday Blog
We have had a fantastic week this week.
In English we have continued reading Varjak Paw. We are really enjoying this book, it is so exciting. This week we have been writing more setting descriptions. Our focus has been to describe the city that Varjak goes to in two different ways. The first is the city when varjak first arrives. It is an exciting place with lots going on. The second is the city as night time approaches. Varjak begins to feel scared of the city. We have made sure that we have shown these two feelings in our descriptions - excitement and fear!
In maths we have been learning about improper and mixed fractions.
An improper fraction is a number greater than one whole.
A mixed fraction is a whole number and a proper fraction combined.
We have been lucky enough to have two lessons with Gareth the sports journalist this week. In our first lesson we wrote all about the paralympics, we were so inspired by the incredible athletes.
Please keep up with reading and practising times tables over half Term.
Have an amazing Half Term and see you for the final half term of the year!
Date: 23rd May 2023 @ 12:10pm
We have noticed a growing number of children from all classes accessing this platform and so here is a guide on how to use the platform, including what potential risks come with allowing your children on Roblox.
Below you will find a link to join the National Online Safety platform and gain free access to a huge range of videos, resources and support, incuding filtering and the best ways to monitor your child's online activity.
http://nationalonlinesafety.com/enrol/st-oswald-s-catholic-primar-school-pr45eb
Year 2 Blog Friday 19th May 2023
Date: 19th May 2023 @ 4:35pm
Another extremely busy week of learning in Year 2, but the children rose to the challenge and made me very proud of all their efforts, behaviour and hard work, well done everyone. In English, we worked on how to spell tricky words and also looked at two poems. The children read, Tell it to the Dog and The Magic Pebble. They wrote down things they would moan to their pets about and planned a poem about a pebble that granted any wishes. In Maths, we moved on to telling the time. We learnt five, ten, fifteen, twenty, twenty-five and thirty minutes past the hour. Please practise telling the time at home with your child. During Art, the children painted their Tiddalik the frog clay models which looked amazing. Hopefully not too many of them broke when they took them home today! The children did so well in their Sports Day, the video will be available to watch soon. In PE, we practised overarm throws and played mini-rounders games.
Reading
In Year 2, children should read for at least 15/20 minutes every night and talk about the book. This will help with understanding the text and learning new words.
Reading books are changed every Wednesday. You will receive 2-4 books depending on their length, they should last the week, if you read a little each night. However, if you need to change a book at any other time, we will change it as needed.
Reading resources:
Oxford Owl – This resource has an exciting range of carefully levelled books to help children learn to read and really enjoy it.
If parents and children decide to use this resource, we ask they access phase 5 books. Go to https://www.oxfordowl.co.uk/ and select ‘my class login’. Scroll down to the ‘eBook Library for Letters & Sounds’. You could also explore the rest of the site and read books from the Oxford Owl eBook library or listen to audio books.
Username: sto2
Password: 1234
Resources for questioning your child while they are reading - https://www.literacyshedblog.com/uploads/1/2/5/7/12572836/ks1_reading_vipers.pdf
In addition to this, reading a good bed time story to your child is so worthwhile and really helps towards a lifelong love of reading.
Spelling/Maths
There will be no spellings/times tables or Sumdog to learn next week as we will be busy doing the rest of the Year 2 Quizzes in Reading and Maths. Please continue to read with your child and make sure they are well rested and ready for our busy week ahead.
Here are some links to other maths games/apps the children can play to help them learn their number facts.
Topmarks.co.uk also have and English section for phonics/spellings games. If you explore the site you will find lots of different games that are relevant to Year 2.
https://www.topmarks.co.uk/maths-games/hit-the-button
https://whiterosemaths.com/resources/1-minute-maths
(I believe this app is free to download.)
https://www.topmarks.co.uk/maths-games/5-7-years/counting
https://www.topmarks.co.uk/maths-games/5-7-years/multiplication-and-division
Have a lovely weekend.
Year 2 Team.
Year 6 Blog Friday 19th May 2023
Date: 19th May 2023 @ 3:33pm
Welcome to our Year 6 blog.
This week has been another busy one following our SATs week. On Thursday we attended church to celebrate the Ascension of Jesus, led by Year 6. This Friday, we had a visit from the CEO of the Foxton Centre in Preston who gave us a talk about their fantastic charity work for the homeless community.
Also, Year 6’s learning this week:
- In Maths, we have learnt about line graphs, how to interpret them and draw various continuous data. Next week, we will learning more about pie charts and how to interpret them.
- In English, we have learnt how to improve our persuasive writing through planning and creating a persuasive letter to one of the Skellig characters on why they should try home school or state school.
- In PE, we focused on our athletics skills: running, throwing and jumping, as we prepare for our last Sports Day at St Oswald’s. Also, we prepared our ‘mini coaching’ sessions by designing them and practising each activity with other groups.
- In Geography, we introduced our new topic, Brazil, through mapping work of South America and learnt the bordering countries surrounding it.
- In History, we learnt about the Maya rule and how this compares to the Anglo-Saxons at the same period (8th to 10th century).
- In PSHE, we discussed our responsibilities around school, and how we can use what we have learnt from them as we begin transitioning to high school.
- In RE, we began our new topic, ‘Witness’, where we learnt how our beliefs and values affect what we do when being a witness.
Home Practice this week.
This week I have a different task for you to complete. Part of our speaking and listening area of the English curriculum is to give presentations on a variety of topics. Doing this individually though, will be great practice for any future activities you undertake in high school. Therefore, this weekend, I would like you to create a two-minute speech to present between next Monday to Friday. It can be:
- About any topic you wish
- About a talent you have
- About a skill you developed
- About any holiday you have been on
- About your pet and how to look after it
- About absolutely anything.
Year 4 Blog - Friday 19th May 2023
Date: 19th May 2023 @ 1:18pm
Year 4 Blog
Friday 19th May 2023
We have had a very busy week in Year 4! Here’s a brief overview of what we have been learning:
In English, we continued to explore noun phrases and tried to write our own which also included a prepositional phrase. In order to write an expanded noun phrase we:
- Chose a noun - for example, cookie
- Added a determiner - The cookie
- Chose 2 adjectives - The tasty, crumbly cookie
- Included a prepositional phrase - The tasty, crumbly cookie with the marshmallow pieces
- Finished the sentence - The tasty, crumbly cookie with the marshmallow pieces fell on the floor.
Next week we hope to include some noun phases / expanded noun phrases in our writing.
In Maths, we compared and ordered angles. We also identified vertical and horizontal lines of symmetry in shapes, completed symmetrical figures and named and identified the 3 different types triangle.
In RE, we listened to the story of Paul and discussed how he changed. Following this, we learnt about some of the places Paul visited to spread the Good News, and how the Holy Spirit gave Paul new life and happiness.
In French, we practised spelling number words to 12 using our phonics to help. Then we moved on to learning the vocabulary for parts of the face.
In PE, we took part in some athletic activities in preparation for our sports day.
In Science, we experimented with our home-made string telephones. We investigated how they worked, how the sound travelled and what stopped the telephone from working. We also tried to make improvements if needed. Well done Year 4 – you can see some pictures of our science investigation here.
This week we also attended the parish mass on Monday morning. Following this, we enjoyed juice and cake in the school hall as part of our First Holy Communion Celebrations. You can see some pictures here. In addition, we attended the Ascension Day Mass on Thursday afternoon.
The CEO of the Foxton Centre in Preston also visited on Friday morning. He gave us a very interesting talk about how they help the homeless community of Preston.
Home Practice
Reading
Please read out loud to somebody for 20 minutes each evening. Please discuss what you have read with the person who has listened to you read.
Spellings
Next week our spellings are all homophones – words which sound the same but are spelt differently. You will be tested on these words next Friday. (26th May 2023).
The words are:
weather whether who's whose medal meddle
missed mist there their they're
aloud allowed groan grown
Counting
This week, please practise counting in 11’s
Start at 0 and count up to 132 and back again
0 11 22 etc 132 121 110 etc
Start at 20 and count up to 141 and back again
20 31 42 etc 141 130 119 etc
(TIPS - When counting up, add on 10 and then add another 1
When counting down, subtract 10 and then take away another 1)
Times tables
You will be tested on your tables target next Wednesday (24th May 2023). Please practise every day. Remember you can practise your tables playing Hit the Button and timestables.co.uk
Please also practise the ‘Multiplication Tables Check’ on timestables.co.uk
Sumdog challenges
You have been set 3 challenges on Sumdog:
- A spelling challenge based on the spellings above
- A symmetry challenge
- A times tables challenge based on the 6, 7, 8 and 9 times tables
Please make sure you log on and have a go! Little and often is the key to success!
Another app for practising tables and number facts is One Minute Maths from White Rose. It is free to download from the AppStore and PlayStore. There are lots of excellent games you can play which will help you brush up your mental maths skills. Please do your best to access this fabulous free resource! Knowing your tables and number facts off by heart is crucial and will help you in many different areas of maths.
The Year 4 Team
Date: 19th May 2023 @ 12:57pm
Welcome to your Friday Blog
We have had a lovely week in Year 3
We have started our new book, Roald Dahl's BFG. We have been using to book and exploring Dahl's writing style to create some great desriptive pieces of writing. We have described The Witching Hour, from chapter one and been drafting a character description of the BFG himself.
Next week we will be watching some clips from the live action movie which has a PG rating. If you don't want your child watching the movie, please notify the school office and we will provide an alternative.
In maths we have been doing some tricky learning on column additon and subtraction. We have been looking at how to exhange and estimate to help us check our answers. We have set some new maths challenges on Sumdog to practice our maths skills and improve our number fluency.
Reception Blog - Friday 19th May 2023
Date: 19th May 2023 @ 11:51am
This week we have visited Blackpool Zoo for our school trip. The children loved seeing all of the animals and learning all of the facts of what the different animals eat and where they live. Every child had beautiful manners and were spotted by lots of people. Big well done Reception!
Year 5 Blog Friday 19th May 2023
Date: 18th May 2023 @ 11:13am
Happy Friday and welcome to your Friday Blog.
We have had an amazing week this week.
In maths we have been drawing and measuring different types of angles. Everybody has done such a fantastic job. The things we focussed on to make sure we were accurate included ensuring that the protractor was exactly on the base line, counting round from 0 degrees on the protractor, and calculating the difference between 360 degrees and a given angle.
In English we started our new class novel. It is Varjak Paw by S.F.Said. We are loving it! This week we have written a description of the garden that Varjak goes into for the first time in his life. We used:
Expanded noun phrases
- noun - tree
- noun phrase - The tree
- expand with an adjective - The leafless tree
- expand with a relative clause - The leafless tree which was taller than the house...
Adverbials for place
Beyond the wall...
Behind the shed ...
Above the dark clouds ...
On the ground ...
In history we have been learning all about the Shang Dynasty. We looked at how the Shang Dynasty started, where it is on a timeline in comparison to other civilisations, and we learnt the vocabulary we are going to need throughout the topic. We found it so interesting and can't wait to learn more!
Here are some of the new words we learnt:
Dynasty - a succession of rulers from the same family or group
Confederate - joined or united by an agreement or treaty
Emperor - the male ruler of an empire
Fertile - being able to produce abundant growth of farm crops
On Thursday afternoon we attended Ascension Day Mass at church to remember the Ascension of Jesus into Heaven.
On Friday the CEO from the Foxton Centre visited our school to collect all our donations and to deliver an assembly to Key Stage 2. We felt so proud knowing that our donations will help the homeless community of Preston.
Home Practice
Reading
Read out loud every day for 20 minutes. Look for good descriptive words (adjectives).
Spelling
Here are your spellings this week:
burglary dictionary necessary primary voluntary
occur opportunity parliament persuade physical prejudice privilege profession programme pronunciation
Counting
Count back to calculate:
When you get to zero, the next number back would be -1 (negative 1):
7 - 12
3 - 20
6 - 18
Times Tables
Please practise your tables every day. You are all doing such a fantastic job!
Sumdog
Times Tables Challenge
Spelling Challenge
Maths Challenge
Have a happy sunny weekend :)
Year 1 Blog-Friday 19th May 2023
Date: 18th May 2023 @ 10:10am
Welcome to your Friday blog!
We are enjoying Miss Forshaw being in our class. She is learning how to become a teacher and we are all helping her.
English
This week, we have been reading the story of 'The Enormous Crocodile' by Roald Dahl. We have absolutely loved learning about the crocodile's clever tricks (that did not work) and how the jungle animals saved the children each time. We read most of the book and predicted how it might end. We focused on adjectives this week. We highlighted the many adjectives in the story, wrote a beware poster to warn children and identified the crocodile's clever tricks.
We then wrote a recount of our school trip to Martin Mere, describing what we did during the day.
Phonics
Some of us have been learning about the spilt digraph e-e as in Steve and complete.Some of us have been learning about ear in earth and or in work.
Click here to sing some phonics songs.
Maths
We have been learning about positional language. The learning included the words above, below, between, on top of,in front of.
We have also been counting in 2s, 5s and 10s. Try counting from different starting numbers. Count in 5s starting at 2. Count in 10s starting at 12.
R.E.
We focused on the words that Jesus spoke to His disciples as He ascended up to Heaven. We spoke about His promise to send the Holy Spirit and we wrote what was said in speech bubbles.
History
We learnt about the various forms of entertainment that were seen at the seaside in the past and in the present day. We examined some real life photographs of the seaside in the past and identified any entertainment that we could see. We spotted Punch and Judy shows, people seabathing, swimming and making sandcastles on the beach. We drew and described two examples of past activities in our books.
Science
We have learnt about the different parts of the plant and the very important jobs that they have. We made our own collage pictures identifying each part and then pretended to be a plant with our bodies - we stretched out tall like the stem and opened our hands wide like the leaves!
Art
We made our final digital seaside picture using Paintz.app. They were absolutely amazing! So much so, that Mrs Robinson came in to see them.
Computing
We had our next lesson using code.org. We learnt to drag and drop instructions so that Scrat could eat the acorn. We did some amazing learning and sharing!
French
We began to learn the vocabulary for clothes with the story Je m'habille et je te croque followed by some games to reinforce the new words.
Outdoor Learning
This week our fire session was making pancakes. We made the batter and watched as it changed from a liquid into a solid. We noticed the change in the colour of the pancakes as they cooked. We ate them with lemon,sugar, cinnamon or apple sauce.
Our other session was making obstacle courses. We used logs and came up with really imaginative ways to use them.
Martin Mere
We had an amazing trip to Martin Mere. There was so much learning! We saw so many different plants and creatures. Have a look at the photos in the gallery section.
Home Practice
Phonics - split digraph o_e OR ear in dear
Maths - turns
KEEP READING EVERY NIGHT!
Even more children are changing their reading books more often and it's having a great impact on their progress.
Don't forget to keep reading the Tricky words and if your child recognises them on sight they could learn how to write them.
Year 2 Blog Friday 12th May 2023
Date: 12th May 2023 @ 4:53pm
Year 2 have had a very busy week of learning and fun activities. In English, the children worked on their spellings with the suffix - ful and also wrote a diary entry from Princess Jasmin’s point of view, using great openers, conjunctions and adjectives that end – ful, like colourful, beautiful and thoughtful. They also had a mini-debate (should Jasmin trust Aladdin, yes or no?) and created freeze frames from the story, with interview questions about how the characters would have felt at that moment. In Maths, we have continued our work on fractions but linked it to position and direction so the children made full turns, half turns, one/three quarter turns. We discussed right angles and compared these to the quarter turns we made. In Science, the children drew diagrams and labelled the crocus bulbs we grew earlier in the year. During Art, the children made Tiddalik the frog clay models. They learnt to use the tools and techniques necessary for making clay creations. Have a look at the Tiddalik art in the Gallery section. We will be painting them next week. In French, we continued our French phonics learning with some new sounds and actions, focussing on the sounds in the numbers 0 to 5. We then recapped the vocabulary for clothes with a story (Je m'habille et je te croque) and game. Our new History topic is King, Queens and Castles. Year 2 did a fun activity gathering information from around the classroom about different Kings and Queens. In PE, we practised for Sports Day. It’s on Tuesday 16th May – looking forward to a lovely sunny afternoon of running, throwing, obstacle races and more.
Outdoor Learning
This week four groups cooked on a fire. We used wood and charcoal this time and cooked in the embers of the fire . We rolled bread dough into balls and cooked it in the fire-it was delicious!
We also cut a slit in the skin of bananas and put chocolate buttons in the slits. We then wrapped the bananas in foil and baked them in the embers of the fire. They were so yummy, the chocolate melted and the bananas went soft.
The last group will do this on Monday.
We also chose to build shelters and our own play fires which we could pretend to cook on. Some of us were still very interested in making mouse traps !
Reading
In Year 2, children should read for at least 15/20 minutes every night and talk about the book. This will help with understanding the text and learning new words.
Reading books are changed every Wednesday. You will receive 2-4 books depending on their length, they should last the week, if you read a little each night. However, if you need to change a book at any other time, we will change it as needed.
Reading resources:
Oxford Owl – This resource has an exciting range of carefully levelled books to help children learn to read and really enjoy it.
If parents and children decide to use this resource, we ask they access phase 5 books. Go to https://www.oxfordowl.co.uk/ and select ‘my class login’. Scroll down to the ‘eBook Library for Letters & Sounds’. You could also explore the rest of the site and read books from the Oxford Owl eBook library or listen to audio books.
Username: sto2
Password: 1234
Resources for questioning your child while they are reading - https://www.literacyshedblog.com/uploads/1/2/5/7/12572836/ks1_reading_vipers.pdf
In addition to this, reading a good bed time story to your child is so worthwhile and really helps towards a lifelong love of reading.
Spelling/Maths
There will be no spellings/times tables or Sumdog to learn next week as we will be busy doing the Year 2 Quizzes in Reading and Maths.
Please continue to read with your child and make sure they are well rested and ready for our busy week ahead.
Here are some links to other maths games/apps the children can play to help them learn their number facts.
Topmarks.co.uk also have and English section for phonics/spellings games. If you explore the site you will find lots of different games that are relevant to Year 2.
https://www.topmarks.co.uk/maths-games/hit-the-button
https://whiterosemaths.com/resources/1-minute-maths
(I believe this app is free to download.)
https://www.topmarks.co.uk/maths-games/5-7-years/counting
https://www.topmarks.co.uk/maths-games/5-7-years/multiplication-and-division
Have a lovely weekend.
Year 2 Team.
Year 3 Friday 12th of May 2023
Date: 12th May 2023 @ 4:03pm
Welcome to your Friday Blog
This week has been jam-packed with exciting learning opportunities in our classroom. We finished reading the thrilling mystery story, 'The Deathwood Letters', and were inspired to write our own news reports about the kidnapping case. We put our writing skills to the test as we used evidence from the letters to build our case.
In maths, we have been focusing on telling time and solving time-related problems. We learned about the different parts of a clock and how to read both analogue and digital clocks. We also worked on calculating durations and figuring out how much time has passed between different events. We are proud of our progress in this area and excited to keep practising.
In art, we learned about the technique of shading and used it to make our drawings appear three-dimensional. We were amazed at how much depth and realism we could add to our artwork simply by adding shadows in the right places. We can't wait to continue exploring this technique in future art lessons.
In our swimming lessons, everyone is doing very well. We have been working on building our confidence in the water and refining our swimming strokes. We are all excited to show off our skills to our families and friends.
In History, we delved into the fascinating topic of how Ancient Egypt was invaded. We learned about the different groups of people who invaded Egypt and the challenges that the Egyptians faced in trying to defend their land. We discussed the importance of understanding the past and how it shapes the world we live in today.
Finally, in Science, we went outside to explore the natural world around us. We found different kinds of seeds and recorded our observations in our nature journals. We discussed the different ways in which plants reproduce and the role that seeds play in the life cycle of a plant.
Overall, it has been a busy and rewarding week. We are proud of all that we have accomplished and are excited to see what the next week will bring.
Home Practice
Keep reading your school books for at least 15 minutes a night.
In maths practice counting forwards and backwards. See our previous blog posts. Everyone is showing great improvements with their knowledge of the number system. Keep it up!
On Sumdog, have a go at the challenges. We have set a Times tables, Time and Spelling challenge.
Your spellings this week are...
windy
second
fifteen
fourteen
own
something
carry
along
alongside
story
between
remember
describe
away
answer
potatoes
although
Have a lovely weekend and we will see you on Monday
The Year 3 Team
Year 6 Blog Friday 12th May 2023
Date: 12th May 2023 @ 3:48pm
This week Year 6 completed an exam week of SATs for Spelling, Grammar, Reading and Maths.
You have all worked incredibly hard with revising, the work in class and all the home learning you completed. You should be so proud of yourselves for persevering through this week.
No home learning is set, so please enjoy yourselves and rest this weekend – you deserve it!
Reception Blog - Friday 12th May 2023
Date: 12th May 2023 @ 12:54pm
We have had another great week learning all about dinosaurs!
This week we have continued to look after the eggs that we had delivered last week. When they hatched, they were dinosaurs! We have written letters explaining how to look after the eggs and the baby dinosaurs.
In maths we have been looking at more/less and playing an interactive game to find the missing numbers. We have also looked at the numbers from 11-20 and how many tens and units make that number.
Year 4 Blog - Friday 12th May 2023
Date: 12th May 2023 @ 12:46pm
Year 4 Blog
Friday 12th May 2023
Another very busy week in Year 4! Here’s a brief overview of what we have been learning:
In English, we investigated contrasting settings. We read two descriptions of the grotto of the fire fiend and considered how the words and phrases described the setting. We also explored noun phrases and had great fun writing sentences which included interesting adjectives.
In Maths, we subtracted two numbers with one decimal place using the formal written method. We needed to be confident with our number facts and this is something which some of us need to practise a little bit more. We also started our new topic - 2d shape. We started by identifying acute and obtuse angles and understanding what these words meant. (An acute angle is less than a right angle. An obtuse angle is larger than a right angle, but less than a straight line.)
In RE, we learnt how the Holy Spirit gave courage to Peter and John. We hot seated Peter and John, and this helped us to understand how the Holy Spirit confirmed their faith in Jesus and gave them the courage they needed to speak out about the Good New, even when they were threatened.
In French, we produced the grand finale of our Matisse project. We described our picture in French, remembering to put the adjectives after the nouns and make them agree. (A feminine noun needs a feminine form of the adjective etc). Well done Y4 - these will be on display now to show everyone your amazing French!
In PE, we continued with our striking and fielding topic. We learnt how to bat off a tee and then played mini games of ‘cricket’ which involved all the players on the batting team running and all the fielders throwing and catching to each other. This ensured everyone was actively involved in the game.
We also perfected our hymns and words for the parent assembly. We all worked really hard to make sure we could be heard clearly, didn’t rush when we were speaking and knew exactly when we needed to speak. Well done to everyone in Year 4 you were fantastic.
Thank you also to everyone who came to our Parent Assembly, we hope you enjoyed it.
Home Practice
Reading
Please read out loud to somebody for 20 minutes each evening. Look carefully at any descriptions – what makes them descriptive? Can you use any of the words in your own writing?
Spellings
Next week we will be revising apostrophes for possession, including singular and plural, therefore there will be no words to learn. We will be practising this each day in class and you will be tested on this rule next Friday. (19th May 2023).
Counting
This week, please practise counting in 9’s
Start at 0 and count up to 108 and back again
0 9 18 etc 108 99 90 etc
Start at 20 and count up to 146 and back again
20 29 38 47 146 137 128 119 etc
(TIPS - When counting up, add on 10 and take one away
When counting down, subtract 10 and add one back on)
Times tables
You will be tested on your tables target next Wednesday (17th May 2023). Please practise every day. Remember you can practise your tables playing Hit the Button and timestables.co.uk
Please also practise the ‘Multiplication Tables Check’ on timestables.co.uk
Sumdog challenges
You have been set 2 challenges on Sumdog:
- An acute and obtuse angles challenge, including comparing and ordering angles
- A times tables challenge based on all the times tables
Please make sure you log on and have a go! Little and often is the key to success!
AS YOU ONLY HAVE 2 SUMDOG CHALLENGES THIS WEEK, PLEASE TAKE SOME MORE TIME TO PRACTISE YOUR TABLES !
Another app for practising tables and number facts is One Minute Maths from White Rose. It is free to download from the AppStore and PlayStore. There are lots of excellent games you can play which will help you brush up your mental maths skills. Please do your best to access this fabulous free resource! Knowing your tables and number facts off by heart is crucial and will help you in many different areas of maths.
The Year 4 Team
We hope you all have a wonderful weekend and enjoy your First Holy Communion Celebrations.
Year 5 Blog Friday 12th May 2023
Date: 11th May 2023 @ 7:07pm
Happy Friday and welcome to your Friday Blog.
We have had a great week in year 5.
We finished writing our own version of The Highwayman poem. We then perfomed our poems in small groups thinking about how we could change our tone and volume to have an effect on the audience. Everybody did such a fantastic job and felt so proud.
In maths we have been looking at co-ordinates and translating shapes. Translating a shape means that the shape stays exactly the same but moves to a different position.
In history we looked at an overview of the earliest civilisations. We noticed that they all thrived by being near to a river and having the ability to grow crops and farm animals. Next we are going to learn all about The Shang Dynasty. We can't wait!
Click here to see some videos all about The Shang Dynasty
In French, we practised the subject pronouns (Je, tu, il, elle etc) before moving on to reading some paragraphs in French about sports with opinions. The children were able to read and translate these very well. We discussed what to do if we come across a word we don't know. The strategies are the same as meeting an unknown word when reading in English - read on, use the context, take a good guess at what would make sense. Well done, year 5.
On Thursday afternoon we did PE and computing. In PE we have been practising our cricket skills and playing mini games. Mrs Cookson has been very impressed.
On Friday afternoon we did some map work to celebrate the Eurovision. We had a great time listening to some of the songs and located the countries on a map. We also spoke about capital cities, surrounding seas and oceans, and bordering countries.
You can see us in action here.
Home Practice
Reading
Read out loud every day to somebody for 20 minutes. Talk about what you have read.
Spelling
Here are your new spellings. Practise every day.
accident accidental centre central nature natural medicine medicinal
arrive arrival magic magical survive survival
Times Tables
You have been given your new tables target this week. Please practise every day.
Counting
Count out loud in:
6s from 0 to 72 and back again.
0, 6, 12, ...
7s from 0 to 84 and back again.
0, 7, 14, ...
12s from 0 to 144 and back again.
0, 12, 24, ...
Sumdog
Spelling Challenge
Times Tables Challenge
Geometry Competition
Date: 11th May 2023 @ 10:29am
Welcome to your Friday blog!
We are enjoying Miss Forshaw being in our class. She is learning how to become a teacher and we are all helping her.
English
This week, we have been reading the story ' There's a tiger in the garden'. We had some great discussions about whether the tiger was real and also about what we could infer from the story. We created our own story map of the main events in the story.
Phonics
Some of us have been learning about ir in girl and er in her. Some of us have been learning to read words such as shrink, plank, frost.
Click here to sing some phonics songs.
Maths
We have been learning about finding halves and quarters of shapes and amounts.
We have been counting in 2s,5s,and 10s. Start on different numbers and count forwards as well as backwards.
R.E.
We focused on the term 'Holy Day' and how they are special days that are celebrated. We recapped all the days that we have learnt about, focusing on the Easter story, and then chose one to draw and write about in our books.
P.E.
We had our final sports day practise on Wednesday.
Thank you to everyone who came to watch us take part in our sports day. The children we absolutely amazing, showing great determination, resilience and physical skills.
P.S.H.E.
We started to think about safety and who keeps us safe. We explored different job roles involving safety (police, fire fighters) and other people like parents and teachers who want to keep us safe. We then drew pictures of them and talked about what they do to help us.
History
We had such a fun lesson learning about past and present seaside clothing. We looked at what is the same and what is different and then we got to try some clothes on from the museum loan box!
Art
We made a great tiger craft each in choosing time using lolly sticks.
Then in our learning, we planned our perfect seaside picture in our sketchbooks ready to paint our final digital seaside picture next week.
French
We practised numbers to 15 and adding two numbers with a game. We recapped weather phrases, then moved on to begin to learn some clothes vocabulary with a story - Je m'habille et je te croque.
Music
We played the boomwhackers. We really had to concentrate so that we played our note at the right time.
Outdoor Learning
This week four groups cooked on a fire. We used wood and charcoal this time and cooked in the embers of the fire . We rolled bread dough into balls and cooked it in the fire-it was delicious!
We also cut a slit in the skin of bananas and put chocolate buttons in the slits. We then wrapped the bananas in foil and baked them in the embers of the fire. They were so yummy, the chocolate melted and the bananas went soft.
The last group will do this on Monday.
We also chose to build shelters and our own play fires which we could pretend to cook on. Some of us were still very interested in making mouse traps !
Home Practice
Phonics - ear words OR split e_e
Maths - quarters
KEEP READING EVERY NIGHT!
Even more children are changing their reading books more often and it's having a great impact on their progress.
Don't forget to keep reading the Tricky words and if your child recognises them on sight they could learn how to write them.
Please return your trip slip on Monday if you haven't already!
Date: 5th May 2023 @ 3:55pm
Happy Friday and Welcome to your Coronation Blog
We had a lovely celebration on the field with lots of smiles, singing and dancing. Have a look at our coronation celebration gallery.
In our English we have almost come to the end of our Deathwood letters story. We have loved the letter writing story format of this book. It has really tested our reading skills, especially our inference. The letters have given us lots of clues and we now need to figure out what has happened to the main character Damien Drake.
In our Maths learning we have finished our Fractions topic and been learning about postition and direction. Everyone did really well with this. If you would like to practice this in a fun way. Go to code.org and sign in to our class area with the code XJYWDV. There are lots of coding games using position and direction. PLEASE DON'T GO ON COURSE C. This is our Computer Science course for this term in school.
Here is some of the vocabulary we have met this week.
anti-clockwise clockwise right angle quarter turn half turn
In our Art this week we used Batic dye to stain our fabric. We also started removing our paste to unveil our designs. Everyone has worked hard on these and they will be going home next week. We also started the design process for our 3D sculptures. We are looking forward to creating these.
This week we learnt that in French, most adjectives have to go after the noun and have to agree with their noun; so a feminine noun needs a feminine form of the adjective. We practised translating phrases such as a black cat - un chat noir, and a green apple - une pomme verte.
In science, we recapped the parts of the flower and learnt the function of each part. Then we moved on to learning about pollination and fertilisation. There is a lot of new vocabulary to learn! We planted some cucumber and courgette seeds which may be ready for next year's Y3 to harvest in September with any luck!
In our History we learned all about how the pyramids were made. We investigated some theories on their construction and used our skills to deduce which were most likey to be true. We learned all about how they probably used causeways and that artisans rather than slaves were responsible for building them. Below you will find a little knowledge organiser on the key facts on the Ancient Egyptians.
Home Practice
Continue to read your school books regularly. We have seen great improvements in our reading skills so keep it up. Remember to throw in a few questions about what your child has read to promote understanding.
In maths we've set a fractions challenge focusing on solving problems. 15 children didn't access last weeks challenge so from next week we will be starting Sumdog club for those children who find it hard to access the platform at home.
We have also set a x8 times table challenge for everyone. Do your best!
Next week in our spellings we are looking at word families eg. medic/medically. Have a go at spotting others in your reading book.
plant planters transplant planting design sign designer
signature medic medical medicine medically
Have a lovely Coronation weekend
The Year 3 Team
Year 4 Blog - Friday 5th May 2023
Date: 5th May 2023 @ 3:39pm
Year 4 Blog
Friday 5th May 2023
We have only been in school for 4 days, but we have been very busy! Here’s a brief outline of what we have been learning:
In English, we wrote our ideas for our parent assembly. We then practised performing our songs and readings. We tried hard to put expression into our reading - speaking slowly and clearly - and at a volume which could be heard by the audience. This week, we also worked hard on our handwriting, making sure that anything that we wrote looked beautiful on the page.
In Maths, we practised counting on to find a difference – this method was most efficient when the numbers in the calculation were close to a multiple of 10 or 100. In addition, we consolidated our knowledge of column addition – adding more than 2 numbers together with up to 4 digits, and 2 numbers with one decimal place.
In RE, we learnt about Pentecost. We listened to an account of the coming of the Holy Spirit, and to another when Peter addressed the crowd and discussed the effect of the Holy Spirit on people’s lives. We also looked in detail at a picture depicting Pentecost and described the people, symbols and colours we could see.
In French, in made a collage in the style of Matisse and began to describe our pictures. There are some beautiful pictures and a great start to the descriptions. Magnifique, Year 4!
In PE, we practised our throwing and catching skills again and then played a game which involved batters and fielders. Well done Year 4 – our overarm throwing and catching is certainly improving.
In Science, we investigated the link between the pitch made by musical instruments and their features. They described the patterns they found such as the thicker the guitar string, the lower the pitch. For next week, please make a string telephone. A sheet of instructions is provided. Ask someone at home to help you and remember to thank them for their time and assistance.
In PSHE, we talked about self-control and how as we are growing up, we need to be more mindful of our actions and the things that we say.
In Art, we finished our pictures for our parent assembly. These look beautiful and we are looking forward to sharing these with you at the assembly.
We also enjoyed celebrating the Coronation of King Charles III. We all dressed in red, white and blue and went onto the field for a picnic. You can see some pictures of us enjoying ourselves here.
Home Practice
Reading
Please read out loud to somebody for 20 minutes each evening. Look carefully at any descriptions and see if you can identify any noun phrases.
Spellings
Here are this week’s spellings. You will be tested on these words next Friday (12th May 2023).
centre probably separate library occasionally
peculiar straight remember possible question
famous difficult increase interest ordinary
Counting
This week, please practise counting in 10’s
Start at 76 and count up to 256 and back again
76 86 96 etc 256 246 236 etc
Start at 32.5 and count up to 152.5 and back again
32.5 33.5 35.5 152.5 142.5 132.5 etc
Times tables
You will be tested on your tables target next Wednesday (10th May 2023). Please practise every day. Remember you can practise your tables playing Hit the Button and timestables.co.uk
Please also practise the ‘Multiplication Tables Check’ on timestables.co.uk
Sumdog challenges
You have been set 3 challenges on Sumdog:
- A spelling challenge based on the spellings above
- A times tables challenge based on the 6, 7, 8 and 9 times tables
- A column addition and subtraction challenge
Please make sure you log on and have a go! Little and often is the key to success!
Another app for practising tables and number facts is One Minute Maths from White Rose. It is free to download from the AppStore and PlayStore. There are lots of excellent games you can play which will help you brush up your mental maths skills. Please do your best to access this fabulous free resource! Knowing your tables and number facts off by heart is crucial and will help you in many different areas of maths.
Enjoy the Coronation and the Bank Holiday weekend.
The Year 4 Team
PLEASE REMEMBER TO BRING IN YOUR STRING TELEPHONE NEXT THURSDAY
Year 2 Blog Friday 5th May 2023
Date: 5th May 2023 @ 2:40pm
Year 2 have had such a fun packed week and it was topped off with a mini picnic to celebrate the Kings Coronation this afternoon. The children made their own crowns, did some singing and dancing and waved their flags proudly. Have a look at the photos in the Gallery section. In English, the children worked on reading comprehension and also wrote their opinions of Aladdin’s character, giving reasons and using conjunctions (because). In Maths, we have been learning about fractions, especially quarters. The children have been finding one, two or three quarters of a shape or amount. In Science, we carried out a survey to see what materials were on our tables, in our classroom and outside. We also planted our radishes and lettuces. Looking forward to sampling them when they grow! In French, we recapped the phonic sounds and actions that we started last week, thinking about the sounds in the colour words. Then we recapped the weather phrases with some games. Well done everyone. The didgeridoos (Art) were amazing, Mrs Robinson was so pleased! The children used the patterns and ideas from last week to create beautiful designs on their own didgeridoo. We had a great time playing along to some traditional Aboriginal music. In PE, we spent time practising for Sports Day - so excited about that on Tuesday 16th May 2.15pm. Have a lovely long weekend and enjoy being part of a historic event Year 2.
Reading
In Year 2, children should read for at least 15/20 minutes every night and talk about the book. This will help with understanding the text and learning new words.
Reading books are changed every Wednesday. You will receive 2-4 books depending on their length, they should last the week, if you read a little each night. However, if you need to change a book at any other time, we will change it as needed.
Reading resources:
Oxford Owl – This resource has an exciting range of carefully levelled books to help children learn to read and really enjoy it.
If parents and children decide to use this resource, we ask they access phase 5 books. Go to https://www.oxfordowl.co.uk/ and select ‘my class login’. Scroll down to the ‘eBook Library for Letters & Sounds’. You could also explore the rest of the site and read books from the Oxford Owl eBook library or listen to audio books.
Username: sto2
Password: 1234
Resources for questioning your child while they are reading - https://www.literacyshedblog.com/uploads/1/2/5/7/12572836/ks1_reading_vipers.pdf
In addition to this, reading a good bed time story to your child is so worthwhile and really helps towards a lifelong love of reading.
Spelling
Please practise these spellings for your quiz on Friday (12.05.23). A sheet will go home every Friday with the spelling list on. This is for home practise only and can be kept with you.
You will have a Sumdog challenge on these words to complete by Friday 12.05.23.
This week’s spellings:
Adding the suffix ‘ful’. Including two words from the Year 1/2 spelling list.
joyful careful
useful thankful
helpful wonderful
playful bath
mindful hour
Maths
Next week for our times tables quiz (Friday 12.05.23) we will be learning the 3x table in a random order.
Count in 3’s forwards and backwards, see how quickly you can go, but it must still be accurate. Chant/sing the x3 table. Ask an adult to quiz you on them in a random order. Try playing ‘Hit The Button’ game from the maths games listed below.
You will have a 3x table challenge on Sumdog to complete by Friday 12.05.23.
Here are some links to other maths games/apps the children can play to help them learn their number facts.
Topmarks.co.uk also have and English section for phonics/spellings games. If you explore the site you will find lots of different games that are relevant to Year 2.
https://www.topmarks.co.uk/maths-games/hit-the-button
https://whiterosemaths.com/resources/1-minute-maths
(I believe this app is free to download.)
https://www.topmarks.co.uk/maths-games/5-7-years/counting
https://www.topmarks.co.uk/maths-games/5-7-years/multiplication-and-division
Sumdog
Log in at www.sumdog.com
Have a lovely Coronation Day and Bank Holiday Weekend.
Year 2 Team.
Reception Blog - Friday 5th May 2023
Date: 5th May 2023 @ 1:01pm
Year 6 Blog Friday 5th May 2023
Date: 5th May 2023 @ 12:18pm
Welcome to our Year 6 blog. This week our Sports Captains led their first sports day for Reception. They did a great job and are looking forward to leading the next one. This Friday, we celebrated the King’s Coronation wearing red, white or blue and with a special picnic outside, including music and biscuits!
Also, Year 6’s learning this week:
- In Maths, we have been improving our learning of 2D shapes and used that knowledge to help with perimeter, area and coordinates. One main area we have been improving is fractions of amounts and percentages of numbers.
- In English, we have focused on our descriptive writing, and learnt how to better use similes and personification to create a more detailed image for the reader.
- In PE, we learnt how to improve the accuracy of throwing and catching within cricket and how to perform the basics of batting.
- In PSHE, we discussed ways of keeping calm under pressure and devised a plan for how to organise ourselves for next week.
- In Art, we completed a collage of our Mayan masks.
- In French, we recapped the items on a cafe menu then conjugated a regular ER verb - Aimer, to like. We will put this learning together next week to say what people like and dislike from the menu.
- In Science, we summarised our learning from this topic about Healthy Lifestyle Choices. Then we had a video call with a hospital pharmacist who talked about the path she took from St Oswald’s to where she is now - the lead Major Trauma pharmacist for Central Manchester. She answered the children's questions about her job, medicines and drugs. The children were very interested and asked some great questions. The idea was to show Y6 that many, varied science careers are open to all of them.
No Home Practice this week.
But make sure you spend the weekend doing at least one or a number of the following things:
- Rest and enjoy doing something you love,
- Do something active,
- Spend time with your family,
- Read a good book,
- Watch a film.
Have a great weekend everybody, rest and sleep well with a good breakfast Tuesday morning.
Date: 4th May 2023 @ 10:25am
Welcome to your Friday blog!
We are enjoying Miss Forshaw being in our class. She is learning how to become a teacher and we are all helping her.
English
This week, we have been reading the story "We are Going on a Lion Hunt". The story follows the pattern of the Bear Hunt story which we learnt about in Reception. We went on our own animal hunt in our school grounds. Some of use role played being the lion and answered questions.
Phonics
Some of us have been learning about words where we have to be really careful to sound out all the vowels and consonants, for example smell,grass,smug. We also learnt to read words such as print
Some of us have been learning about ough in bought and augh in taught. We couldn't believe how many 'or' spellings there were!
Click here to sing some phonics songs.
Maths
We have been learning about finding halves of shapes and amounts. We used practical equipment to work out and check our answers.
We have been counting in 2s, 5s and 10s, forwards and backwards. Practise counting in odd numbers, 1,3,5... Practise counting in 5s from different numbers, 2,7,12,17,22,.......what's the pattern?
Practise counting in 10s from different numbers, 3,13,23,33,.....what do you notice ?
Click here to play a fact families game.
R.E.
We started to learn about our new topic of 'Holidays and Holydays'. We first discussed the meaning of each and then we focused on our holidays. This tied in well with our history learning! We drew what we need to take on a holiday with us and then we watched a video of Barnaby Bear going on holiday.
Click here to watch more Barnaby videos.
P.E.
We started practising for our sports day, which is on Thursday 11th of May at 2:15pm
We practised all of our races and talked about competing in a fair way and celebrating everyone's achievements.
Computing
We have used a brand new website this week called code.org. By the end of the summer term, we are all going to be amazing coders! This week, we learnt to drag and drop objects. We challenged ourselves by using the trackpads to drag each time.
If you would like to access www.code.org at home, our class code is ZQTKZD. Each person has their own password icon to click to access the learning.
Science
We went in our outdoor area to see our bean plants that have been planted by the gardening club. We compared them from when they were in the bags in the classroom to now. Some had grown, some unfortunetly hadn't! We then wrote about how they had changed.
History
We learnt about King Charles' upcoming coronation. We read 'The King's Pants' together and drew our own pants. We hope that he comes to school one day so we can question him!
Art
We have been doing lots of art work this week! We have been sketching the King in our sketchbooks and then we continued with our digital media lesson. We used Paintz.app to digitally draw a seaside picture. It was fun to see how much we could remember from our computing lessons.
French
We recapped the weather phrases and practised them with some games. Then we read a story from the Berthe series about a witch who always has the wrong clothes on for the weather. This introduced the vocabulary for clothes which we will work on next week. Well done everyone.
Outdoor Learning
This week the last group learnt about fire safety and toasted marshmallows.
In our other session we got out all the shetler building equipment and worked together to make shelters. It was quite windy on some of the days which provided extra challenge! It's great to see such resilience, imagination, teamwork and resilience.
Coronation of King Charles
We all enjoyed our celebration school lunch on Thursday.
Everyone looked fabulous in their red,white and blue outfits.
Our Golden Assembly on Friday was a lovely celebration - we loved singing our special song. The picnic was great and we are all excited to watch the event tomorrow.
To The Sound Of Trumpets. Click here to sing the song.
Don't forget that it is Bank Holiday on Monday. We will see you on Tuesday.
Home Practice
Phonics - common exception words/compound words
Maths - halving
KEEP READING EVERY NIGHT!
Even more children are changing their reading books more often and it's having a great impact on their progress.
Year 5 Blog Friday 5th May 2023
Date: 3rd May 2023 @ 9:40am
Happy Friday and welcome to your Friday blog.
Although we have only had a four day week, we have still done lots of exciting learning!
in English we have been using The Highway as inspiration to write our own poem.
We included certain features which we thought made the poem exciting and helped to create an image in the reader's mind. Here are some of the features we included:
Metaphor - an imaginative way of describing something by referring to something else which is the same in a particular way.
For example, The road was a ribbon of moonlight over the purple moors.
Simile - an expression including the words "like" or "as" to compare one thing with another.
For example, His heart was beating as fast as a horse galloping across the cobbles.
Speech - spoken words from a character.
For example, "One kiss my bonny sweetheart."
Onomatopoeia - the use or creation of a word that imitates, resembles, or suggests the sound that it describes.
For example, Tlot-tlot went the horse's hooves.
In maths we were dividing decimal numbers and solving measures problems. We also learnt about reflecting shapes. Everybody did such a fantastic job!
In DT we used cereal boxes and pencils to practise making our cam toy. A cam toy has a sliding or rotating piece which we will be making ourselves. Some of you even practised some more at home - well done! Don't forget to bring in a shoe box or cereal box next week to make our final cam toy. We will be taking these to Year 1 one afternoon for them to play with.
We started our new PSHE topic. Throughout the topic we will try to answer the question 'How can drugs common to everyday life affect health?' We started by talking about we already know about the topic. Then we looked at some common everyday drugs and their risks and effects.
We will be learning about common everyday drugs including nicotine, alcohol, caffeine and medicines, laws surrounding drugs and that some drugs are legal whilst others are illegal, and risks associated with different drugs.
On Wednesday we had our session with Gareth the sports journalist. We wrote about the first time a woman beat a man at a professional darts competition.
We loved celebrating the coronation on King Charles. We all dressed in red, white and blue and went onto the field for a picnic and a sing and dance. You can see us enjoying the coronation here.
Home Practice
Reading
Read out loud to somebody every day for 20 minutes. Look out for new words, use the context and a dictionary to find their meaning.
Spelling
Here are your spellings this week.
happened hurried grabbed worried adventurous disastrous enormous fabulous famous generous jealous mischievous smiled danced behaved
Times Tables
You have been given your new tables target. Please practise every day.
Sumdog
Times Tables Challenge
Maths Competition - you have been put into these teams:
Gryffendor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, Slytherin
Spelling Challenge
Reminders
Don't forget to bring in a shoe box or a cereal box for our DT project.
Happy Long Weekend
Date: 28th Apr 2023 @ 4:13pm
It was great to see everyone back in school, looking lovely in their summer uniforms and ready to learn. Year 2 have worked so hard this week and it is really showing in the work they are producing. In English, we have worked on reading comprehension and started our Aladdin topic by describing the market place using noun phrases. For example, bustling market, ornate lanterns, and silk robes with golden trims. In Maths, we are working on addition and subtraction with exchange. The children know to represent tens and ones as lines and dots and how to exchange one ten for ten ones. In RE, we have started our topic - Spread the Word which focuses on Pentecost. In Science, we were observing the signs of Spring by drawing and labelling what we saw on our nature walk. We spent time in PE getting ready for Sports Day. In French, the children began to learn some French phonics by adding actions to sounds to help them remember. They segmented the colour words and thought about the sounds in the words. Getting ready for beginning to write French in year 3 - well done Year 2! We learnt some weather phrases too. In Geography, we learnt about simple human and physical geographical features. This term, we are very lucky to have Mrs Robinson (Art Lead) come into class on Thursday afternoons to teach Australian Art and Textiles. The children thoroughly enjoyed printing and painting with different tools and their art work was amazing! Have a look in the Gallery section.
Reading
In Year 2, children should read for at least 15/20 minutes every night and talk about the book. This will help with understanding the text and learning new words.
Reading books are changed every Wednesday. You will receive 2-4 books depending on their length, they should last the week, if you read a little each night. However, if you need to change a book at any other time, we will change it as needed.
Reading resources:
Oxford Owl – This resource has an exciting range of carefully levelled books to help children learn to read and really enjoy it.
If parents and children decide to use this resource, we ask they access phase 5 books. Go to https://www.oxfordowl.co.uk/ and select ‘my class login’. Scroll down to the ‘eBook Library for Letters & Sounds’. You could also explore the rest of the site and read books from the Oxford Owl eBook library or listen to audio books.
Username: sto2
Password: 1234
Resources for questioning your child while they are reading - https://www.literacyshedblog.com/uploads/1/2/5/7/12572836/ks1_reading_vipers.pdf
In addition to this, reading a good bed time story to your child is so worthwhile and really helps towards a lifelong love of reading.
Spelling
Please practise these spellings for your quiz on Friday (05.05.23). A sheet will go home every Friday with the spelling list on. This is for home practise only and can be kept with you.
You will have a Sumdog challenge on these words to complete by Friday 05.05.23.
This week’s spellings:
Add –es to verbs and nouns ending in ‘y’ (Rule – take off the y and add -ies). Including two words from the Year 1/2 spelling list.
fly parties
flies lady
copy ladies
copies plant
party path
Maths
Next week for our times tables quiz (Friday 05.05.23) we will be learning the 3x table in order.
Count in 3’s forwards and backwards, see how quickly you can go, but it must still be accurate. Chant/sing the x3 table. Ask an adult to quiz you on them in order. Write them down in different colours to help you remember them.
You will have a 3x table challenge on Sumdog to complete by Friday 05.05.23.
Here are some links to other maths games/apps the children can play to help them learn their number facts.
Topmarks.co.uk also have and English section for phonics/spellings games. If you explore the site you will find lots of different games that are relevant to Year 2.
https://www.topmarks.co.uk/maths-games/hit-the-button
https://whiterosemaths.com/resources/1-minute-maths
(I believe this app is free to download.)
https://www.topmarks.co.uk/maths-games/5-7-years/counting
https://www.topmarks.co.uk/maths-games/5-7-years/multiplication-and-division
Sumdog
Log in at www.sumdog.com
The Summer Term Overviews are now on the class page to have a look at.
We would really appreciate some kitchen roll tubes for our Art lesson. Many thanks.
Have a lovely Bank Holiday Weekend.
Year 2 Team.
Year 4 Blog Friday 28th April 2023
Date: 28th Apr 2023 @ 4:00pm
Year 4 Blog
Friday 28th April 2023
Welcome to the first blog of the Summer Term. It has been lovely to see everyone again this week and although it’s been a little bit chilly the sun has been shining a little bit! Here’s what we have been learning this week:
In English, we learnt how to identify, select and effectively use pronouns. We also wrote a description of the water goddess and the ‘Ceremony of the Full Moon’ using our senses and vocabulary from the novel.
In Maths, we learnt how to find fractions of numbers using a bar model split into equal parts. We used counters to share an amount equally and then found unit (eg 1/3 1/4 1/5) and non-unit (eg 2/3 ¾ 2/5) amounts. Following this, we used bar modelling to help add and subtract fractions with the same denominator.
In RE, we started our new topic – New Life. We listened to a story and then talked about our own experiences of feeling a bit miserable or something upsetting us, and then something happened which brightened our day and made us feel alive. We also considered what we learnt from the experience and how good news changed the way we felt.
In French, we learnt lots of different ways of spelling the 'ay' sound which I thought was difficult, but the children proved me wrong! Then we looked again some artwork by Matisse and described them. Some children excelled themselves - super French writing Y4! Next week, we'll make our own picture in the style of Matisse.
In PE, we started our striking and fielding topic. We started by practising throwing and catching both underarm and overarm and the played a mini game similar to cricket. We will be developing our fielding and batting skills over the coming weeks!
In Science, we carried out a practical experiment around the school to help us recognise that vibrations from sounds travel through a medium to the ear. We were surprised to find out that sound travels best through a solid, then a liquid and then a gas! Look at some of our experiments here.
In Geography, we recapped some of our findings from the Formby trip. We will be creating a PowerPoint to highlight the impact of climate change on our local coastline. This is a work in progress and will take a few weeks to complete.
In PSHE, we described how someone could respond to, and manage feelings in different circumstances. We read different scenarios and discussed how the main character might be feeling and what they might do and say at the time. Finally, we thought about who the character could talk to after the situation. This was an interesting and thought-provoking discussion – well done Year 4.
In Art, we painted some pictures for our parent assembly.
Have a look at our Summer Term Class Overview to see what else we will be learning this term.
Home Practice
Reading
Please read out loud to somebody for 20 minutes each evening. Look out for speech marks and pronouns when you are reading. Look carefully at the punctuation used with inverted commas and think carefully about what noun the pronoun has replaced.
Spellings
Here are this week’s spellings. You will be tested on these words next Friday (5th May 2023).
corrode corrosion intrude intrusion
conclude conclusion comprehend comprehension
suspend suspension decide decision
erode erosion expand expansion
Counting
This week, please practise counting in fractions
Start at ½ and count up to 10 and back again
½ 1 1 ½ etc 10 9 ½ 9 etc
Start at 1/3 and count up to 4 and back again
1/3 2/3 1 1 1/3 4 3 2/3 3 1/3 3 etc
Times tables
You will be tested on your tables target next Wednesday (3rd May 2023). Please practise every day. Remember you can practise your tables playing Hit the Button and timestables.co.uk
Please also practise the ‘Multiplication Tables Check’ on timestables.co.uk
Sumdog challenges
You have been set 2 challenges on Sumdog:
- A spelling challenge based on the spellings above
- A times tables challenge based on all the tables
AND a class competition based on adding and subtracting fractions – have fun!
Please make sure you log on and have a go! Little and often is the key to success!
Another app for practising tables and number facts is One Minute Maths from White Rose. It is free to download from the AppStore and PlayStore. There are lots of excellent games you can play which will help you brush up your mental maths skills. Please do your best to access this fabulous free resource! Knowing your tables and number facts off by heart is crucial and will help you in many different areas of maths.
Have a lovely Bank Holiday weekend
The Year 4 Team