St Oswald's Catholic Primary SchoolOur blogs
Date: 16th Mar 2023 @ 3:41pm
Happy Friday and Happy St. Patrick's Day.
We have had another great week in Year 5.
We have been very active. We did netball in PE and enjoyed our session with Freddy Fit on Wednesday.
In French we learnt how to change masculine adjectives into their feminine form, then we used these feminine adjectives to write a card for a special lady to tell her how amazing she is! I hope the children can read and translate for you.
In English we have started to plan a newspaper report. The newspaper will be written to the creatures of Narnia informing them that the White Witch has started to lose her powers. This has meant that Father Christmas and summer have both returned to Narnia after years of being forbidden. We hope our newspaper reports will make the creatures feel excited and hopeful. So far we have looked at some examples of happy news stories to identify their features and some good words.
Here are some of the words we picked out:
decades species spectacular temperature significant impact legendary record environment impact discovered
Next week we are going to be looking at writing quotes using the correct punctuation, and then planning and writing our newspaper article.
In maths we have been practising different mental methods to add and subtract four-digit numbers and numbers with decimal places. The strategies we have practised include bridging, counting on and compensating.
One of the most important things when doing these methods to solve a calculation is that we know our numbers facts. Have a practise on Hit the Button to get quicker and more confident.
In geography we have started to investigate and try to answer this question:
What makes North America such a diverse continent?
We found out the meaning of some key words.
Diverse - showing variety
Continent - continuous mass of land
We also thought about the continents we have studied in other year groups and identified ways that each of the continents is diverse. We thought about the climate, geographical features like mountains, rivers and lakes, oceans, land use, and jobs and products made and sold.
We are excited to learn more about the diversity in North America.
Did you know that it is the third largest continent?
Lenten Promises
We are still spending the season of Lent thinking about how we can become better people. So many people have brought in money and donations for the Foxton Centre and Barnardo's and are really spending their time thinking of people less fortunate than themselves.
Home Practice
Reading
Read out loud every night for 20 minutes. Retell what you have read in your own words.
Also, look out for the way speech is punctuated, this will help with your writing next week.
Spelling
Here are your spellings this week. Practise every night. Ask somebody at home to test you so you know which you need to focus on.
These spellings all have the prefix mis-, dis-, or in-
misjudge mismanage misconduct
discontinue dishonest disloyal disobey discourage
inconvenient incapable inaccurate inadequate inappropriate
Newspaper articles
If you can, read some magazines and newspaper articles. Look out for some good vocabulary to use in your own writing.
Number
Play on Hit the Button to become quicker and more confident with your number facts.
Times tables
Practise your times tables every day. Say them out loud, write them down, ask people at home to test you.
Sumdog
Times Tables Challenge
Number Challenge
Spelling Competition
Have a happy weekend!
Year 6 Blog Friday 17th March 2023
Date: 16th Mar 2023 @ 10:40am
Welcome to our Year 6 blog.
This week, our Athletics team headed to Blackpool to compete in the Lancashire Finals against 14 other schools. After a very tense and exciting afternoon, St Oswald’s achieved their first ever win, becoming the top athletics team in Lancashire. An amazing achievement that could not have been accomplished without a full team effort.
Also, we were lucky to welcome back Freddy Fit on Wednesday, who put us through paces with hoopla-hooping, speed jumping and lots of dancing - thank you Freddy Fit!
REMINDER
For our PE lessons this term, which will include rugby and orienteering (weather depending), please bring in extra trainers (preferably old ones) that you do not mind getting dirty and a plastic bag to keep them in. You may take them home each week, if you prefer to clean them.
Our learning in Year 6 this week:
- In Maths, we learnt how to read and interpret different bar charts, pictograms and timetables. We practised using number lines as a great way to find the difference between two times or adding/subtracting with time.
- In English, we learnt how to write a formal letter of complaint so we could complain to the governments who are yet to ban wild animals in a circus. We learnt different formal language phrases, no contractions to be used and how to structure it so we did not come across rude.
- In RE, we concluded our Unity topic by analysing the ‘Prayer for Peace’, which is read out by the priest before we offer each other the sign of peace. We linked different phrases to various stories we have learnt over the passed few weeks and to bible passages we have learnt in other topics.
- In PE, the weather was awful, giving us the opportunity to complete our athletics lessons, which helped us to evaluate how well we have improved individually during this unit.
- In Computing, we completed a 3D model of our dream house, using a range of shapes to make it unique. We then evaluated what went well and what needed improving next time.
- In Art, we learnt about pointillism, a technique of painting using small dots of colour applied in patterns to form an image. George Seurat and Paul Signac developed the technique in 1886. We trialled this with cotton buds and then applied this new knowledge to create our Mother’s Day cards.
- In French we learnt how to change masculine adjectives into their feminine form, then we used these feminine adjectives to write a card for a special lady to tell her how amazing she is! I hope the children can read and translate for you.
- In Science, we began to look at how to make healthy lifestyle choices and the effect they have on our bodies. The children researched the different food groups and designed a day's healthy meals to provide a balanced diet.
Home Practice all relates to this week’s learning. These are the tasks needed to be completed:
Reading
- Please keep reading every day to build up stamina. A great idea is to read 20-30 pages a day (you can read more) in one sitting, as this will build up your ability to read at length for long periods of time.
Spellings (challenge words)
- Sumdog (Year 6 Sp 2 wk 4 Unstressed letters)
accommodate, accompany, amateur, bargain, bruise, definite, desperate, environment, excellent, government, guarantee, immediate, leisure, neighbour, nuisance
Maths challenges:
- Counting:
- This week, please practise counting in 70s and 700s
- For example, start at 650 and count up to 1350 and back again
- 650, 720, 790, etc 1350, 1280, 1210, etc
- Also, start at 5 400 and count up to 12 400 and back again
- 5 400, 6 100, 6 800, etc 12 400, 11, 700, 11 000, etc
- Sumdog (Multiply / Divide by 10/100/1000)
- This challenge will help to develop speed in this area.
- Sumdog (Timetables Sp2 wk 4)
This week, use the learning of timetables to answer various questions linked to time. Do not worry about speed on this task, just try to get as many accurate as possible.
Year 1 Blog Friday 17th March 2023
Date: 16th Mar 2023 @ 10:24am
Welcome to your Friday blog!
English
We practised our readings for the special assembly. We tried very hard to lift the writing off the page by speaking slowly, clearly and so that our voice could be heard by our audience.
We read a new story called Farmer Duck which featured a very lazy farmer. We pretended to be the farmer and wrote a letter of apology to the animals.
Phonics
We have been learning the oi sound as in coin and and as in toy.
Maths
We have started to learn about multiplication. We've been focusing on doubles to 10 and some of us to 20! We then moved onto solving word problems. It was a lot of reading but we loved it!
R.E.
We started to learn about our new topic of Change. We looked at how seasons change and then how much we have changed since September. We had a giggle at the blog pictures from September and wrote about a skill that we have learnt since being in year 1.
P.S.H.E.
We learnt about where money can come from, focusing on the most common source - a job! We looked at different jobs and talked about what those people might spend their money on.
We even role played pretending to be a baker, a teacher, a dentist and even a builder!
Computing
We focused on grouping objects by their properties (for example - by size, shape and colour). We then went on a colour hunt and found 3 objects that were the same colour.
We also enjoyed practising our learning on Sumdog.
D.T.
We started to think about the smoothies that we would like to make. We chose the fruit that we wanted and then planned how we were going to make the smoothie.
We then tasted lots of different fruits that we wouldn't normally eat, such as grapefruit and tomatoes.
Outdoor Learning
This week we either made a worry doll, a forest eye or had some free choice in the nature area.
French
We we learnt the vocabulary for family members then we made a card for Mother's Day. We also enjoyed the story of Jacques et les haricots magiques (Jack and the Beanstalk) in French, joining in with the repetitive parts. We checked up on how our French beans are growing. No giants to see yet!
Home Practice
Phonics - oi and oy words
Maths - one step problems
KEEP READING EVERY NIGHT!
Thank you to everyone who came to our Mother's Day assembly. We hope you have a lovely Mother's Day!
Year 4 Blog Friday 10th March 2023
Date: 10th Mar 2023 @ 4:04pm
Year 4 Blog
Friday 10th March 2023
Welcome to your Friday blog. Here’s what we have been learning this week:
In English, we started to plan and write our own story. First, we drew a story map and discussed our story with different partners. We made tweaks and amendments to our story maps and then produced a more comprehensive plan. We will be writing our stories next week and publishing them, so that we can share them with Year 6.
In Maths, we learnt the effect of dividing a number by 100, and placed hundredths on a number line which helped with our understanding of comparing and ordering decimals. We also started our multiplication topic and began by learning about number sequences.
In French this week, we began to learn the vocabulary for shapes, noticing which are masculine and which are feminine. Then we revised masculine and feminine colours, coloured some shapes and chose the correct colour word to go after the noun.
In PSHE, we discussed ways to make ourselves feel good every day, and what to do if something feels not so good. We then recorded lots of the ideas we had shared in our books.
In our swimming lesson, we practised personal survival. We learnt how to tread water, what to do if we fell into water, and how to keep afloat lying on our back. This was another invaluable lesson which we hope will help us to keep safe around water.
We started our Geography topic ‘Climate change and its impact on the environment’ this week with a visit to Formby Beach and Southport Eco Centre. You can see some pictures of our trip here. Although it was cold and snowing, we made the most of learning in the outside environment – we had a very interesting trip and learnt lots of new things. Over the next few weeks, we will be using the information we learnt during our trip and finding out more about the impact of climate change on our local coastline.
We were also lucky to have 2 visitors this week. On Wednesday morning, we were joined by our Japanese visitors who told us a story about ogres. We then used chopsticks to pick up soya beans – some of us found this quite tricky. You can see some pictures here.
In addition, on Friday afternoon, Stuart Rowson (a local author and ex CBBC producer of ‘Bedtime Stories’) visited the school. He gave an assembly, read extracts from his book, and held a question and answer session. This was very interesting and gave us some great ideas for our own story.
Home Practice
Reading
Please read out loud to somebody for 20 minutes each evening. Focus on fluency and understanding. Try and add some expression to your reading too.
Counting
This week, please practise counting in tenths
For example, start at 2.56 and count up to 4.16 and back again
2.56 2.66 2.76 etc 4.16 4.06 3.96 etc
Times tables
You should know your individual tables target. These will be tested next Wednesday (15th March 2023).
Remember you can also practise your tables playing Hit the Button and timestables.co.uk
Spellings
Here are next week’s spellings. You will be tested on these next Friday (17th March 2023).
physician optician magician electrician magician
musician politician extension collision confusion
explosion division exclusion conclusion invasion
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 7 and 9 times tables
- A dividing 1 and 2 digit numbers by 10 and 100 challenge
Please make sure you log on and have a go! Little and often is the key to success!
Please keep practising your times tables as much as you can. Knowing your tables off by heart is crucial and will help you in many different areas of maths.
Using Hit the Button can also help you practise your number bonds. Please have a go at brushing up your number bond skills, so that you can recall them quickly and accurately.
Have a great weekend
The Year 4 Team
Year 2 Blog Friday 10th March 2023
Date: 10th Mar 2023 @ 4:03pm
A very busy week in Year 2, the children have thoroughly enjoyed their learning. In English, we are continuing our work on instructions but we have also started a new novel, The Owl who was Afraid of the Dark by Jill Tomlinson. We thought about and planned a poem about the dark which we will write next week. In Maths, we looked at division as grouping and sharing and solved tricky problems that sometimes had remainders. In French, we recapped the vocabulary for family members and drew and labelled our families. We saw that some letters have accents on and that these change the sound of the letter. We have started our dance topic in PE. The children moved so well as the elements of Earth, Fire, Water and Air. In RE, we discussed the different parts of Mass and labelled pictures with sentences, using religious words and phrases. The children looked at what happens to our bodies when we exercise for Science. The highlight of the week was when the Japanese students came to teach a lesson about stories in Japan. The children made ogre faces with card and coloured paper. They also learnt a Japanese dance that the whole school performed in Golden Assembly. A new author, Stuart Rowland came to talk to the children this afternoon. He used to work on Cbeebies and CBBC. He was very interesting and good fun to listen to.
Forest School
This week we have done a variety of learning, some outside and some in the lodge . All of us planted a range of seeds which we are going to look after. We practised tying knots in strawberry laces which we could then eat!
Some of us did some den building and some of us listened to the legend of Guatemalen worry dolls and had a go at making our own using sticks, wool and fabric.
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 (17.03.23). 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 17.03.23.
This week’s spellings:
/l/ sound spelt ‘le’ at the end of words, following a consonant. Including two words from the Year 1/2 spelling list.
table muddle
apple people
little bottle
kettle pretty
middle beautiful
Maths
Great effort learning your division facts for the 5x tables in a random order. It was tricky but everyone tried so hard.
Next week for our quiz (17.02.23) we will be learning the 2x table in order. The children have brought home a 2x table poster to learn.
Count in 2’s forwards and backwards, see how quickly you can go, but it must still be accurate. Challenge yourself and go past 100. Chant/sing the x2 table. Ask an adult to quiz you on them in order.
You will have a 2x table challenge on Sumdog to complete by Friday 17.03.23. There will also be a challenge including multiplication, repeated addition and arrays.
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
Remember it’s our trip to ‘Bring Yer wellies’ on Tuesday 14th March. Packed lunches are provided. The children should wear tracksuit bottoms and suitable footwear and their usual shirt/tie/jumper/cardigan. Remember a warm coat as it could be very cold!
Have a lovely weekend.
Year 2 Team.
Reception Blog - Friday 10th March 2023
Date: 10th Mar 2023 @ 12:55pm
On Monday we came into school with clues about our story, after some investigations we discovered that it was for the story Jack and the Beanstalk. Again, we have been using pictures to retell the story which we are half way through and we have talked about speech bubbles and what they are for, writing our own for the characters from thestory.
In Science, we talked about seeds and plants - what are they, where do they come from, what do we need to do to help a seed grow? The children gathered seeds from fruits and chose some to plant. They also decided where to put them to see what difference it makes if they are in a cold/warm place, light/dark, soil/no soil. We'll wait patiently to see if they grow! We have also built our own minibeast hotel together. We searched for minibeasts and where they live and what they like to live near and made our own. Next week will will go on a minibeast hunt and put some in ours.
In Maths we have been looking at addition. We have done lots of talking about what addition means and what happens. The children know to get the amounts, push them together and count how many there are.
In French this week, we read the story of La Petite Poule Rousse (Little Red Hen) to bring together our learning of animal words. The children joined in with the repetitive parts and some were able to give the words for the animals without prompting - super remembering!
In Come and See we have started our topic of growing, which fits perfectly with our topic at the moment. Together we have looked at Spring and what we can see in spring, we have also been painting and drawing pictures of daffodils. We have also been to look in Year 1 at their chick eggs, we talked about how to care for chick eggs, then on Friday once they had hatched we got to see the chicks. Over the next week we will see how they change as they grow.
In Art, we have continued with the story of the Hungry Caterpillar, this week looking at the butterfly and its colours. we have made our own collage butterflies.
We also had a lesson aboout the Japanese festival of Tanabata, which is all about dreams and wishes. Together we made our own dreams and wishes and put them on a bamboo tree.
On Friday, it was time to say goodbye to our Japanese student who has been with us the past two weeks. In the hall during Golden assembly we all performed 'The Swallow' dance which we have been learning with them.
Year 6 Blog Friday 10th March 2023
Date: 10th Mar 2023 @ 12:55pm
Welcome to our Year 6 blog.
This week, our Japanese visitors taught a lesson on proverbs with the game, ‘Karuta’ using matching cards. Please see the Year 6 gallery and the fun we had playing it.
This Friday we were very lucky to welcome Stuart Rowson, a producer on CBBC and CBeeBies, and now an author of his new book, 'Issy and the Tumble Thunder'. He read part of his book out to us and answered some of our great questions.
REMINDER
For our PE lessons this term, which will include rugby and orienteering (weather depending), please bring in extra trainers (preferably old ones) that you do not mind getting dirty and a plastic bag to keep them in. You may take them home each week, if you prefer to clean them.
Our learning in Year 6 this week:
- In Maths, we learnt how to find the perimeter of rectangles, squares and rectilinear shapes by finding all the length of each side and adding them together. We have also been improving our x fraction strategies using bar models to explain.
- In English, we have written as a tiger expressing our terrible treatment at the circus, and what a typical day is like.
- In RE, we continued our topic of ‘Unity’ by analysing St Paul’s letter (Romans 12:3-10) to then create a stained-glass window of what unity means to us.
- In PE, we continued our focus on improving our individual performance with throwing, jumping and running in athletics.
- In History, we researched four ancient civilisations: Ancient Egyptians, Ancient Sumer, Ancient Indus Valley and The Shang Dynasty to compare what they have in common. We discussed how they all lived near rivers and the benefits that these can bring: more crops, plants for medicine, protection, cleanliness, drinking water and growing farm animals.
- In Computing, we analysed three 3D models of houses, chose our objects and combined them to planned our own 3D model of a dream house using tinkercad. Next week, we will complete them, take photos and upload to the Year 6 gallery.
- In French, we recapped how to conjugate the verb etre, to be, with a game before using the correct form of the verb to say what nationality various people are. Getting ready for High School with this great French grammar, Year 6!
- In Science, we planned and carried out a comparative test to find out how different forms of exercise affect our pulse rate. We identified all the variables and chose which one to change and which to measure. We understood that we needed to repeat the readings to ensure the data is more accurate. We then used the scientific vocabulary to explain our findings. We will move on next week to learning about how exercise and life style choices affect our health.
Home Practice all relates to this week’s learning. These are the tasks needed to be completed:
Reading
- Please keep reading every day to build up stamina. A great idea is to read 20-30 pages a day (you can read more) in one sitting, as this will build up your ability to read at length for long periods of time.
Spellings (challenge words)
- Sumdog (Year 6 Sp 2 wk 3 Prefix dis-, un-, im-)
disadvantage, disappear, disappoint, discovered, dishonest, unacceptable, unachievable, unbelievable, uncomfortable, unforgivable, immature, impatient, impolite, impartial, impossible
Maths challenges:
- Counting:
- This week, please practise counting in fraction steps of 2/5 and ¼
- For example, start at 1/5 and count up to 3 1/5 and back again
- 1/5 , 2/5 , 3/5, etc 3 1/5, 3 , 2 4/5 etc
- Also, start at ¼ and count up to 6 ¼ and back again
- ¼, 2/4, ¾, etc 6 ¼, 6, 5 ¾ , etc
- Sumdog (Times tables Sp 2 wk 4)
- Keep working on your fluency and speed with this challenge.
- Sumdog (Perimeter Sp 2 wk 4)
This week, remember that perimeter is the total distance around a shape. Therefore, make sure you add all the sides you see. (Be careful with different units).
Year 1 Blog-Friday 10th March 2023
Date: 10th Mar 2023 @ 12:46pm
Welcome to your Friday blog!
English
We don't want to give away any spoilers but this week we have been learning through the book, My Mum. We have been trying super hard to make our writing look beautiful on the page. We have made a picture of our mums and written prayers-all will be revealed at the assembly next week!
Phonics
We have been learning the ow sound as in drought and and as in underground.
Maths
We have continued to learn about money. We can now recognise all the coins and the notes. We used the coins to make different amounts by having a cafe set up in the classroom.
R.E.
We had a lovely final lesson all about special meals. We had a pretend Holy Communion with juice and bread and spoke about how Holy Communion and The Last Supper relate to each other.
P.S.H.E.
We started to learn about money - what it is, what it is used for and how we can pay for items. This linked perfectly to our maths lessons! We talked about deciding how to pay - whether to pay for items using coins, notes, a contactless card or a chip and pin card.
.
Art
We sketched roses and the copied our sketch onto card. We then coloured in the sketch by painting really carefully.
D.T.
We learnt about flow diagrams and how food gets to our plate. We learnt that some food is hardly changed (e.g. fruit) and how some are changed a lot! (e.g. cereal and crisps).
Science
We were so excited on Monday when the eggs were delivered to our classroom. They were in an incubator and we waited very patiently until Thursday when the chicks started hatching out! By the time we arrived in school on Friday morning we had nine chicks hatched out of nine eggs!
We then transferred the chicks into a large container with a heater and we will have them in our class until next Thursday.
We wrote about what the chicks need so they can grow well.
Japanese Lesson
Yuitchi and his students taught a really exciting lesson about ogres. We made masks like the ones used in the story.
We have loved having Akane in our classroom for the last 2 weeks, she will be missed!
Outdoor Learning
This week we have done a variety of learning, some outside and some in the lodge . All of us planted a range of seeds which we are going to look after. We practised tying knots in strawberry laces which we could then eat!
Some of us did some den building and some of us listened to the legend of Guatemalen worry dolls and had a go at making our own using sticks, wool and fabric.
French
We learnt how to name the parts of a plant in French and checked to see if our French beans had begun to germinate. We also began to learn the vocabulary for family members through songs and a story.
Stuart Rowson
We were extremely lucky to hear from Stuart Rowson who worked for the BBC, particularly Cbeebies. He told us all about his new book, that we can borrow from the school library!
Home Practice
Phonics - ow and ou words
Maths - sequencing events
KEEP READING EVERY NIGHT!
We look forward to seeing you all at our Mother's Day assembly on Thursday 16th March at 2.40 pm.
Date: 9th Mar 2023 @ 4:15pm
Welcome to your Friday Blog
What a fantastic week of learning we have had. Our Japanese visitors have been amazing and taught us so much about their culture. On Tuesday we learned all about the traditon of Mamemaki, where houses ward off evil spirits by chasing away an ogre called Setsubun with soy beans. We also used chopsticks to count our age in soy beans. It was great fun. Have a look at our photos here. On Friday we performed a dance called The Swallow - ???. Check it our in our galleries.
Our Japanese students now return to Japan. We would like to wish Minori well and give her a huge thank you!
In English we have finished our novel, journey to Jo'burg. We thoroughly enjoyed this story as a class and created some lovely pieces of work. Next week we start Toro, Toro by Michael Morpurgo, a tale about the relationship between a young boy and his bull Paco.
In Maths we have been reading scales and solving problems with capacity and volume. We used our estimating and rounding skills to explain our thinking. Everyone has really improved with their use of mathematical vocabulary in their explaining. Well done Year 3!
In our History learning we learned all about when the Ancient Egytpian era began and how to order event chronologically using BCE and CE. We learned about common time and how archeologists can date artefacts by how close they are to the surface. Here is some of the key vocabulary we will meet in the coming weeks.
era, artefact, chronology, scribe, hieroglyphs, polytheistic, obelisk, temple, preserve, prepare,
pyramid, chamber, Egyptologist, chariot, invade, bronze, archer, trade, expand, monarchy, empire
Home Practice
Continue to read your school books and have a go with your questioning. Practising these skills will ensure your children continue to improve as readers.
On your Sumdog challenges this week we have set times tables practice and an addition and Subtraction challenge.
Keep practising you timestables on Sumdog and one minute maths.
Your spellings this week have the -ce spelling pattern.
Year 5 Blog Friday 10th March 2023
Date: 9th Mar 2023 @ 4:06pm
Happy Friday and welcome to your Friday Blog.
We have had a fantastic week in Year 5.
We absolutely loved our lesson with the Japanese students. We learnt about proverbs and then played a game to match the proverbs with their meaning.
Here is an example:
Proverb - Don't give your pearls to a pig.
Meaning - Don't waste good things on people who will not appreciate them.
We also learnt a Japanese dance which we practised as a class in PE and then performed as a whole school on Friday.
In science we have finished our topic about earth and space. We carried out an investigation into the formation of craters on the moon by dropping balls into a tray of flour from different heights and measuring the diameter of the 'crater'.
A crater is a large bowl shaped cavity caused by the impact of a meteorite.
The focus of the investigation was to decide how to record our results using a table and a graph.
You can see us carrying out our science investigation here
We also came up with our own question which we wanted to research before moving on to our next science topic. We will be presenting our findings to the class next week as a poster, leaflet, PowerPoint or video. We watched the start of a video on the BBC to give us some ideas which we all found fascinating. Here is the link to watch some more at home.
We have started our new geography topic on North America. We used atlases, maps and online maps to find out the following about the continent:
Countries
Surrounding oceans and seas
Mountains
Rivers and lakes
We have already started to recognise that North America is a diverse continent.
In RE we have continued to think about Lent and what we can do during the season of Lent to become better people.
We are still doing an amazing job collecting donations for Barnardo's and The Foxton Centre. You can have a look on their website for different ways to help.
In English we have been writing a persuasive speech as the Queen of Narnia, or the White Witch. We have been trying to persuade the creatures of Narnia to join the Queen and to help her to capture the humans. We wrote sentences where we added extra information by using commas. Here are some examples:
Trust me, my dear creatures, and you shall be rewarded.
Humans have come into our Narnia, my Narnia, to take over and destroy it!
Those ghastly humans, I warn you, will harm anything that gets in their way.
In maths we have been learning about tenths, hundredths and thousandths and also negative numbers in different contexts. We thought about negative numbers in the contexts of temperature, floors of a hotel, goal difference in football, and below par in golf.
On Friday the whole school took part in a reduced electricity day which was organised by the Eco Team. It would be fantastic if you could try to do this at home too - turn off the lights, TV, etc. We really enjoyed doing our lessons by candle light and knowing that we were doing our bit to help the environment.
Home Practice
Reading
Read out loud every day for 20 minutes. Discuss new vocabulary and try to use new vocabulary in sentences of your own.
Spelling
Here are your spellings this week.
The spellings will give you the opportunity to practise adding the suffix -ful at the end of words and also changing words which end in a y to plural.
peace peaceful beauty beautiful success successful thought thoughtful wonder wonderful charity charities curiosity curiosities cemeteries
Counting
Count out loud in:
5s from -25 to 25 and back again. -25 -20 -15 -10 -5 0 5
2s from -12 to 12 and back again. -12 -10 -8 -6 -4 -2 0 2
3s from -18 to 18 and back again -18 -15 -12 -9 -6 -3 0 3
Times Tables
You have been given your new tables target. Please practise every day.
Sumdog
Spelling Challenge
Tables Challenge
Number Competition
Have a happy weekend!
Year 3 Blog Friday 3rd March 2023
Date: 3rd Mar 2023 @ 3:36pm
Welcome to your Friday Blog
This week we have done some amazing learning and have been spotted by lots of staff for our lovely manners and behaviour in class.
We have been enjoying our story and been learning alot about what life was like in South Africa during Apartheid. The children have asked some thoughtful questions and included some lovely ideas in their writing. We also have been planning a news report on the 'pass raid' at the train station. Next week we will be finishing our Journey to Jo'burg and completing our news reports.
In Maths we have been learning some new strategies to divide numbers into groups of 3,4,5 and 8. We have learned about remainders and how to use repreated addition to find how may groups are ina number. Have a go at the questions we have sent home and the Sumdog challenge.
We have also started our new topic, Mechanisms and Linkages in DT. We looked at some of the mechanisms created by last year's Year 3 class and talked about what we already know about mechanisms. We had a lot of interesting answers. We also met some new vocabulary. Here is the vocabulary list for this topic.
Home Practice
Continue to read your school books and have a go with your questioning. Practising these skills will ensure your children continue to improve as readers.
We have set a spelling, maths and times tables challenge. Try to complete these as they link to our learning in school.
Your spellings this week are all adopting different spelling rules and strategies. Talk about how you remember these words and wht strategies you could use to spell them.
counting
river
thirteen
dragged
healthiest
holiday
march
angrier
staircase
Have a lovely weekend
The Year 3 team
Year 4 Blog Friday 3rd March 2023
Date: 3rd Mar 2023 @ 3:35pm
Year 4 Blog
Friday 3rd March 2023
Welcome to your Friday blog. Here’s what we have been learning this week:
In English, we concentrated on identifying adverbial phrases in sentences. We then made ‘human sentences’ and moved them around so that the adverbial phrase was at the beginning of the sentence.
In Maths, we learnt more about decimal and fraction equivalents. In addition, we also investigated numbers to 2 decimal places in the context of money, and compared and ordered numbers to 2 decimal places. We have found this tricky, but have worked really hard this week to understand these concepts.
In RE, we watched a video of the Penitential Act which helps prepare people to hear God’s Word. We read together the ‘I confess’ prayer and then considered how we can say sorry in our daily lives.
In French this week, we recapped how to put days, numbers and months together to write the date in French. We feel really confident with this now.
In Science, we learnt about evaporation and condensation by finding out about the water cycle. We made a model of the water cycle in a bowl to demonstrate the different processes. We then tried to use the new scientific vocabulary to explain how it works. You can see some of our models here.
In History, we made our names with sticks outside – we realised that some of the letters were tricky to make, especially if they were circular – you can see some of our names made in sticks here. Following this, we looked at the Anglo-Saxon rune alphabet and identified any similar letters to our own alphabet.
In Computing, we practised cloning and retouching photographs, and the impact of changing a picture.
In our swimming lesson, we practised personal survival and how to help someone who was in the water and who couldn’t swim. This was an invaluable lesson and we completed it whilst wearing our pyjamas in the pool! NEXT WEEK - you will need to remember to bring shorts and a tshirt as well as your usual swim wear!
Home Practice
Reading
Please read out loud to somebody for 20 minutes each evening. Focus on fluency and understanding. Try and add some expression to your reading too.
Counting
This week, please practise counting in hundredths
For example, start at 0.01 and count up to 0.15 and back again
0.01 0.02 0.03 etc 0.15 0.14 0.13 etc
Times tables
You should know your individual tables target. These will be tested next Wednesday (8th March 2023).
Remember you can also practise your tables playing Hit the Button and timestables.co.uk
Spellings
Here are next week’s spellings. You will be tested on these next Friday (10th March 2023).
address decide answer describe believe
perhaps disappear continue suppose though
height different important February thought
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 4 and 8 times tables
- A decimal equivalents (tenths and hundredths) challenge
Please make sure you log on and have a go! Little and often is the key to success!
Please keep practising your times tables as much as you can. Knowing your tables off by heart is crucial and will help you in many different areas of maths.
Using Hit the Button can also help you practise your number bonds. Please have a go at brushing up your number bond skills, so that you can recall them quickly and accurately.
Have a great weekend
The Year 4 Team
Year 2 Blog Friday 3rd March 2023
Date: 3rd Mar 2023 @ 2:47pm
The children did so well in their Lent Class Assembly and felt such a great sense of achievement performing it to all the parents, thank you for coming along. We spent quite a bit of time this week rehearsing and learning the songs – all good skills for school life. In English, we have moved onto non-fiction. We read Instructions by Neil Gaiman and looked at the key features of Instructions. The children spotted bossy verbs and wrote some of their own instruction sentences, remembering capital letters and full stops. In Maths, we continued our Money topic. The children did a lot of problem solving – adding, subtracting and finding the difference/change. In French this week, we finished our first piece of writing to describe the Arcimboldo picture we drew using fruit and vegetables. Everyone has done brilliantly to write in French! The display looks great! Fantastique Y2.
Forest School
In one of our sessions this week we talked about Japanese folklore. We have a professor from Japan and four of his students visiting us for two weeks.There are stories about tree spirits which protect the trees. We made our own creations out of clay, leaves, sticks, moss and stones. We could use our imagination as no-one has ever seen them!
Two more groups learnt how to use the screwdrivers and hammers safely. There is just one more group to learn how to do this. Then we will be making something by using our new skills!
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 (10.03.23). 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 10.03.23.
This week’s spellings:
Contractions
Including two words from the Year 1/2 spelling list.
It would be useful to show the children that it’s is short for it is/ I’ll - I will/ hasn’t - has not/ didn’t – did not. We will do more on this in class next week.
it’s don’t
I’ll won’t
hasn’t couldn’t
didn’t break
can’t steak
Maths
Great effort learning your division facts for the 5x tables in order. Everyone is doing so well with this, keep up the super work!
Next week for our quiz (10.02.23) we will be learning the division facts for the 5 x table in a random order. The children have brought home a worksheet to do, this can be kept at home.
Count in 5’s forwards and backwards, see how quickly you can go, but it must still be accurate. Challenge yourself and go past 100. Chant/sing the division facts x5 tables. Ask an adult to quiz you on them in a random order.
You will have a multiplication/division (5x table) and a money challenge on Sumdog to complete by Friday 10.03.23.
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 weekend.
Year 2 Team.
Reception Blog - Friday 3rd March 2023
Date: 3rd Mar 2023 @ 10:43am
We have loved continuing our story of Oliver's Vegetables this week. We have continued to use talk for writing to retell the story and performed it on our outdoor stage, with Year 1 and Year 6 coming to watch. We did very well! We have also made pea soup, just like Oliver's Grandpa did in the story. From this we have written our own instructions. This week we have also looked at Handa's Surprise and learnt all about fruit. We have done sketches, made our own fruit kebabs to have for snack.
In maths we have looked at 3D shapes this week, learning what they are, their names and their properties. We have sorted shapes in class and we have been on a shape hunt around our school to see what more we can find.
In music this week we did some singing. We split into different groups and had to listen to each group to know when our turn was.
In French this week, we recapped the words for farm animals through songs and games. In science we have been looking at seeds and how they are all different in all of the different fruits.
For art we have been looking at the story of the Hungry Caterpillar, we talked about the different colours we could see on him and made our own.
Year 6 Blog Friday 3rd March 2023
Date: 3rd Mar 2023 @ 8:05am
Welcome to our Year 6 blog.
This week, we have been lucky enough to welcome our Japanese visitors (Yuichi and his students), who will be learning about early reading and writing as they continue their journey to becoming teachers.
REMINDER
For our PE lessons this term, which will include rugby and orienteering (weather depending), please bring in extra trainers (preferably old ones) that you do not mind getting dirty and a plastic bag to keep them in. You may take them home each week, if you prefer to clean them.
Our learning in Year 6 this week:
- In Maths, we learnt how to find the area of squares, rectangles and rectilinear shapes (using the formula, l x w = area), which then helped us to solve various shape problems.
- In English, Vita, our main character, witnessed her first circus, which inspired us to write a ‘rave review’ for a newspaper article. We have been working on perfecting our punctuation too.
- In RE, we continued our topic of ‘Unity’ by reading John’s gospel (17:11, 20-23), which helped us to write a prayer of the benefits people can have by being more united with each other.
- In PE, we focused on improving our individual performance with throwing, jumping and running in athletics.
- In History, we learnt where some of the ancient civilisations fit into a world history timeline
- In Music, we appraised another song written by Carole King, ‘The Locomotion’, and played some accompaniment to the song, ‘You’ve Got a Friend’. We also learned the recorder parts to the song.
- In PSHE, we continued our topic of online safety by learning about the age ratings system for films and other media. We can now recognise the different symbols related to the age ratings for films and can explain what each mean.
- In French this week, we recapped how to say (A town/city) ______ est dans l'ouest de la France using a map of France. Then we began to learn our first irregular verb - the verb etre, to be, and practised using the right part of the verb with jobs vocabulary.
- In Science, we learnt about the structure of a heart from a diagram, then we dissected some lambs' hearts to see if we could identify the parts. It's not as easy as the diagram makes it look! An interesting experience!
Home Practice all relates to this week’s learning. These are the tasks needed to be completed:
Reading
- Please keep reading every day to build up stamina. A great idea is to read 20-30 pages a day (you can read more) in one sitting, as this will build up your ability to read at length for long periods of time.
Spellings (challenge words)
- Sumdog (Year 6 Sp 2 wk 2 long -y- sound)
Cycling, hyena, identify, imply, justify, apply, multiply, occupy, python, qualify, recycle, rhyme, supply, cyclone, hyphen
Maths challenges:
- Counting:
- This week we have been counting in single digit steps to prepare us for future division learning. Try to do the same out loud or with paper.
- Draw a line with some marks on it like I do in class. You could write the numbers as you count up or down, then double check it to make sure you have said the correct numbers.
- Start with these numbers: 1.4, 2.64 and 3.726 and count up 10 times then back again in 0.3s:
1.4, 1.7, 2.0, 2.3, 2.6, 2.9, 3.2, etc
And in 0.4s:
2.64, 3.04, 3.44, 3.84, 4.24, 4.64, etc
- Number facts:
- To help your maths even more, please continue to learn your numbers facts, 6 + 9 = 15, 5 + 7 = 12.
- Then change the place value of these digits (0.6 + 0.9, 0.05 + 0.07, etc)
- Sumdog (Prime numbers Sp 2 wk 3)
- We practised doing this same activity in class, so work on achieving close to 100% accuracy with this challenge.
- Sumdog (Area Sp 2 wk 3)
- This week’s challenge will ask various area questions related to squares and rectangles. The purpose of this exercise is to read the question correctly as the unit of measurement will be important. For example, if the question asks, what is the area of 7cm x 5cm? The answers could be 35cm (squared, with a number 2 symbol) or 35cm. Make sure you read the answers carefully too.
Year 1 Blog - Friday 3rd March 2023
Date: 2nd Mar 2023 @ 10:10am
Welcome to your Friday blog.
English
We have been very busy this week! We have planned and written our own stories based on Where the Wild Things Are. Some of us have written up to 7 pages! We are becoming such good authors and illustrators. We then read our stories to years 3 and 4.
Phonics
We have been learning about all the igh sounds, focusing on split digraph o_e in stone and o in go.
Maths
This week we have been learning how to count in 2s, 5s and 10s. We searched for the patterns on a hundred square and counted groups of objects. Then, we used this knowledge to recap all the coins that we use. We realised that we do a lot of counting when paying with money.
R.E.
We have been learning to write The Our Father prayer this week. We know this off by heart now so found it really easy to write it down. We then wrote our Lenten Promises down and took them into Golden Assembly.
P.E.
We recapped the underarm throwing technique and practised aiming at a hoop. This was quite tricky! Then we practised throwing and catching a beanbag in the air. Some of us needed a challenge and tried throwing and catching with one hand!
History
We started our new topic this week - Significant People. We talked about what it means to be significant and how we remember people who have made a difference to our world. This week, we focused on Florence Nightingale and how she changed the world of medicine and nursing.
Computing
We went on Sumdog to practise our phonics and maths.
Art
We each made a month of February piece of art surrounding love. We used different object to print with - cotton buds, paint brushes, even our fingers!
Outdoor Learning
In one of our sessions this week we talked about Japanese folklore. We have a professor from Japan and four of his students visiting us for two weeks.There are stories about tree spirits which protect the trees. We made our own creations out of clay, leaves, sticks, moss and stones. We could use our imagination as no-one has ever seen them!
Two more groups learnt how to use the screwdrivers and hammers safely. There is just one more group to learn how to do this. Then we will be making something by using our new skills!
French
We listened to the story of Jaques et le haricot magique (Jack and the Beanstalk) and joined in with the repetitive parts. Then we set up some French beans to germinate to grow our own beanstalks. We chose where to put them to grow - I wonder whose will germinate first!
Music
We continued to learn The Little Red Riding Hood song with Mrs Wood.
Home Practice
Phonics - oe (toe) and ow (grow)
Maths - coin recognition
Please continue to read for at least 10 minutes every night with your child, it really will make all the difference to your child's progress.
Year 5 Blog Friday 3rd March 2023
Date: 1st Mar 2023 @ 9:49am
Welcome to your Friday Blog and Happy Friday.
We have had a really great week in Year 5. We have worked hard and have enjoyed a little bit of brighter weather.
In maths we have been using different strategies to multiply. Everybody has done such a fantastic job, keep practising your times tables as this will help a lot!
Here is one of the methods we use, we are always thinking about how to make the calculation easier for ourselves.
In English we have finished our descriptions of the professor in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. We wrote dialogue to show what the four children might say about him. We have also started to describe the White Witch. We are working on describing the witch from Edmund's point of view, he is amazed by her!
In DT we have started our new topic. Our brief is to design and make a toy for the Year 1 children to enjoy during Golden Time one Friday afternoon. We started our topic by carrying out some research. We wrote a questionnaire to find out about Year 1 children's interests and then visited them to collect their answers. Here are some photos of us carrying out our research.
In French, we continued our learning about Les planetes. We practised saying the names by playing noughts and crosses, then we used a data table about the planets in French to answer questions such as which planet has the largest diameter? We realised that there are lots of cognates (words that look like English words) that can help use understand unfamiliar texts.
In RE we came up with some Lenten promises together. We decided we would like to help two charities. The charities we chose are The Foxton Centre in Preston, and Barnardo's. If you click on the links below, you can see different ways we can support these charities.
Some of the Lenten promises made in Year 5 include:
My Lenten promise is to donate 10p every day during Lent to Barnardo's.
I am going to donate one tin of food each week during Lent to The Foxton Centre.
My birthday is during Lent, so I am going to donate some of my birthday money to Barnardo's.
St Oswald's Eco Team have been busy planning different things to help the environment. They decided that on Friday 10th March we are going to have a reduced electricity day in school. They would love it if you have a go at home too.
Home Practice
Reading
Read out loud to somebody at home every day for 20 minutes. Look out for good describing words.
Spelling
Here are your spellings this week:
you're they're couldn't don't can't doesn't didn't isn't shouldn't wouldn't
won't aren't marvellous mischievous necessary
Counting
Count out loud in 0.3 from 0 to 3.6 and back again.
0.3 0.6 0.9 1.2
Count out loud in 0.3 from 0.1 to 3.7 and back again.
0.1 0.4 0.7 1
Count out loud in 0.001 from 0.001 to 0.02 and back again.
0.001 0.002 0.003
Times Tables
You have been given your new tables target. Please practise every day.
Also, please make sure you are confident with x 10, x 100, x 1000, ÷ 10, ÷ 100, ÷ 1000.
Sumdog
Amazing work on Sumdog this week - so many of you did such a great job in the competition!
This week please complete:
Tables Challenge
Maths Challenge
Spelling Challenge
Have a happy weekend! :)
Year 2 Blog Friday 24th February 2023
Date: 24th Feb 2023 @ 5:16pm
It was lovely to see everyone again after half term and what a great week. We have done a lot of writing and even used pens as a special treat! Everyone’s handwriting has improved so much, so keep trying hard. In English, the children wrote a recount about their half term holiday and they have written a couple of imaginary stories. It was great to see so many interesting words, conjunctions and openers being used. In Maths, we have moved on to the money topic. We compared/added coins, found the same amount using different coins and worked out change. The children wrote fantastic Lenten promises and learned about Lent in RE. In French this week, we attempted out first piece of writing. The children named the fruit and vegetables they used in their Arcimboldo-style face. Well done year 2 - un tres bon effort! We didn't quite finish in time for parents to see them sadly! During our PE lesson, we got the large apparatus out. The children made up great sequences where they performed jumps, balances, a travel or a roll.
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 (03.03.23). 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 03.03.23.
This week’s spellings:
/aI/ sound spelt ‘y’.
Including two words from the Year 1/2 spelling list.
cry why
dry fly
try by
July every
reply great
Maths
Great effort learning your 5x tables in a random order.
Next week for our quiz (03.02.23) we will be learning the division facts for the 5 x table in order. The children have brought home a poster to help them learn these facts.
Count in 5’s forwards and backwards, see how quickly you can go, but it must still be accurate. Chant/sing the division facts x5 tables. Ask an adult to quiz you on them.
You will have a multiplication/division (5x) table and a money challenge on Sumdog to complete by Friday 03.03.23.
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
Remember it’s our Year 2 Lent Assembly next Thursday 2nd March. Parents are invited to the school hall at 2.40pm.
It was great to talk to everyone at Parent’s Evening.
Have a lovely weekend.
Year 2 Team.
Year 5 Blog Friday 24th February 2023
Date: 24th Feb 2023 @ 3:56pm
Happy Friday and welcome to your Friday Blog.
We have had a great first week back.
In maths we have been simplifying fractions and converting fractions to decimals. This was really tricky at first but everybody tried their best and should be so proud! Next week we will be multiplying four-digit numbers by one-digit numbers. Make sure you are confident with your tables.
In English we started our new class novel - The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S.Lewis. We are really loving it so far. We have been using exciting sentences to describe the professor from the story. Our aim was to intrigue the reader so they want to read more about him.
We were having a go at writing complex sentences with relative clauses, here are some examples:
The professor, who had never said a word, crept around the house.
His eyes, which were dark and narrow, seemed to look right through Lucy.
In art we completed our topic on William Morris. We carved a pattern in the style of William Morris into a polystyrene block. We then painted onto it and used it to print repeated patterns onto a piece of card. The finished pieces all look amazing and are all so unique! Well done everybody!
In history we looked a photos of two schools in Preston during the Victorian era. We looked closely at the images and thought about the similarities and differences between those schools and schools in Preston today.
Some of the similarities included the wearing of school uniforms and sitting at desks.
Some of the differences included the amount of children in one room, the layout of the classroom, and the things on the walls.
Home Practice
Reading
Read at home every night. Discuss the meaning of unfamiliar vocabulary.
Spelling
Here are your spellings this week. Some have silent letters, and some have ei after c.
deceive receive ceiling receipt deceit perceive
knight government environment know knew autumn column listen castle
Counting
Please count out loud in:
300s from 0 to 3600 and back again
0 300 600
70s from 0 to 840 and back again
0 70 140
0.6s from 0.6 to 7.2 and back again
0.6 1.2 1.8
Time Tables
You have been given new tables targets this week. Please practise every day. You can use Hit the Button and Sumdog.
Sumdog
There are 3 Sumdog challenges:
Spelling Challenge
Times Tables Challenge
Maths Competition
Have a super weekend!
Year 4 Blog Friday 24th February 2023
Date: 24th Feb 2023 @ 3:44pm
Year 4 Blog
Friday 24th February 2023
Welcome to the first blog of this half term. Here is a summary of our learning this week:
In English, we retold a diary extract attempting to show the character’s feelings through actions, emotions and body language, rather than explicitly stating. In addition, we identified verbs and adverbial phrases in sentences, and attempted to use these to enhance our writing.
In Maths, we learnt how to label positive and negative numbers on a numberline. We also learnt about hundredths and numbers to 2 decimal places, as well as recognising and writing some decimal and fraction equivalents.
In RE, we watched a video of the Introductory Rite of the Mass and listened to a reading from Matthew’s Gospel in which he explained how God loves and gives advice to us about how to love better. Following this, we considered how we can follow Matthew’s advice in our everyday lives.
In French this week, we recapped the days of the week and how to say the 'i' sound . We learnt some new vocabulary with this sound in. Then we watched a video of this year's Carnaval de Nice which ended on Mardi Gras. This year's theme is les Tresors du Monde - the Treasures of the World. We enjoyed looking at the floats and the costumes. Amazing!
In Science, we compared boiling and evaporation and explained what they are. We also identified all variables and then set up and carried out an experiment. We learnt that the amount of time it takes for water to evaporate depends on the amount of water there is, when all other variables are kept the same.
In History, we investigated Anglo-Saxon placenames using Digimaps. We found out that ‘ton’ at the end of a name means ‘settlement’ and that ‘ford’ means ‘river crossing’. We were surprised that so many place names came from Anglo-Saxon words.
In PSHE, we started a new topic about feelings. We discussed what feelings and emotions are, and how they help us to manage different situations. In addition, we talked about how our feelings can change throughout the day.
In Computing, we practised editing and recolouring photographs, and talked about the effect that changes on an image can have. Have a look at some of our work here.
Home Practice
Reading
Please read out loud to somebody for 20 minutes each evening. Focus on fluency and understanding. If you find any new words, make sure you find out what they mean – write them in your reading diary and try and use them in your own writing.
Counting
This week, please practise counting in 10’s
For example, start at 42 and count up to 182 and back again
42 52 62 etc 182 172 162 etc
Now have a go at counting which includes negative numbers
For example, start at -12 and count to 15 and back again
-12 -11 -10 etc 15 14 13 etc
Times tables
You should know your individual tables target. These will be tested next Wednesday (1st March 2023).
Remember you can also practise your tables playing Hit the Button and timestables.co.uk
Spellings
Next week’s spellings all have the prefix inter or anti. You will be tested on these next Friday (3rd March 2023).
antiseptic antidote antibiotic antibody anticlockwise
antisocial antihistamine anticlimax interfere international
interrupt internet intervene intercept interject
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 3, 6 and 9 times tables
- A negative number challenge
Please make sure you log on and have a go! Little and often is the key to success!
Please keep practising your times tables as much as you can. Knowing your tables off by heart is crucial and will help you in many different areas of maths.
Using Hit the Button can also help you practise your number bonds. Please have a go at brushing up your number bond skills, so that you can recall them quickly and accurately.
PLEASE REMEMBER TO BRING YOUR PAJAMAS NEXT WEDNESDAY AS YOU WILL NEED THEM IN YOUR SWIMMING LESSON. PLEASE ALSO BRING A SPARE PLASTIC BAG TO PUT THEM IN AFTERWARDS!
Have a lovely weekend
The Year 4 Team
Year 6 Blog Friday 24th February 2023
Date: 24th Feb 2023 @ 3:39pm
Welcome to our first Year 6 blog since the February half term.
This week, Year 6 were invited to celebrate Ash Wednesday and receive their ashes before Lent begins.
REMINDER
For our PE lessons this term, which will include rugby and orienteering (weather depending), please bring in extra trainers (preferably old ones) that you do not mind getting dirty and a plastic bag to keep them in. You may take them home each week, if you prefer to clean them.
Our learning in Year 6 this week:
- In Maths, we used our knowledge of times tables to help solve short and long division questions. We have begun to learn the method but this will need to be practised over the next few weeks before we can be secure with it.
- In English, we met the final main character, Samuel, who will help Vita to complete her heist in the novel, The Good Thieves. We wrote a diary entry as her describing the first time she met either: Silk, Arkady or Samuel.
- In RE, we started our new topic, ‘Unity’, and discussed and created an information text for ways to be a good friend to others.
- In PE, we worked on evaluating our performance in invasion games, and how we can give constructive feedback to another person, just like a coach.
- In Music, we used glocks and recorders learning the chords: G, A, F and C. We also learnt to sing the song, ‘You’ve Got a Friend’ by Carole King.
- In PSHE, we discussed the benefits and risks of social media, and how we can encourage others to use social media responsibly.
- In French this week, we looked at the geography of France and added cities, rivers and mountains to a map. We learnt how to say the compass points in French and put the information together to make sentences such as Marseille est dans le sud de la France.
- In Science, we used apps and pulse meters to measure our pulse in a quicker and more accurate way than trying to count ourselves. We gathered the data and talked about the range of pulse rates in the class and why that might be. We then learnt what is meant by a double circulatory system by modelling it - running round in a circuit passing through the heart twice for every trip round the body, picking up oxygen in the lungs and dropping it off around the body before going back to the heart and so on. We then tried to explain our understanding in writing. Next week, we will look at lambs' hearts and dissect them. If anyone feels squeamish, they do not have to take part.
Home Practice all relates to this week’s learning. These are the tasks needed to be completed:
Reading
- Please keep reading every day to build up stamina. A great idea is to read 20-30 pages a day (you can read more) in one sitting, as this will build up your ability to read at length for long periods of time.
Spellings (challenge words)
- Sumdog (Year 6 Sp 2 wk 2 short -y- sound)
Rhythm, system, physical, symbol, mystery, oxygen, symptom, hymn, myth, physics, syrup, cylinder, pyramid, rhyme, syllable
Maths challenges:
- Counting:
- This week we have been counting in single digit steps to prepare us for future division learning. Try to do the same out loud or with paper.
- Draw a line with some marks on it like I do in class. You could write the numbers as you count up or down, then double check it to make sure you have said the correct numbers.
- Start with these numbers: 1, 2 and 3 and count up 10 times then back again in 3s:
35, 38, 41, 44, 47, 50, 53, 56, etc
and in 6s :
365, 371, 377, 383, 389, 395, 401, etc
- Number facts:
- To help your maths even more, please continue to learn your numbers facts, 6 + 8 = 14, 8 + 7 = 15.
- The best way to do this is to simply have someone in your home quiz you with questions like (8 + 6, 6 + 5, 3 + 8, 5 + 9, etc)
- Then get them to change the place value of these digits (0.8 + 0.6, 0.06 + 0.05, 0.3 + 0.8, etc)
- Sumdog (Multiplication Sp 2 wk 2)
- We have practiced a lot with these types of questions over the past month. Make sure you read the numbers in the question correctly and you will hopefully be able to work them out mentally.
- Sumdog (Divisions with times tables Sp2 wk 2)
- For this challenge, use your times tables knowledge to answer quick division questions, which may be in the style of missing number sentences, e.g. 4 x ? = 36; 7 x ? = 56;? X 6 = 72, etc.
Year 3 Blog Friday 24th February 2023
Date: 24th Feb 2023 @ 1:34pm
Welcome back to your Friday Blog
Thank you all for coming to our parents evenings this week. The children have been very proud to show off all their amazing learning this year.
In our English this week we have been acting as characters in the story and writing some accounts of their experiences on the road to Jo'burg so far. Everyone is working hard to improve their writing. Well done Year 3!
In Maths we have finished our fractions learning and next week we will be learning new division strategies. We have been learning to find fractions of amounts and solve word problems with these. It has been tricky! This week we have set a Sumdog challenge to get ready for your learning next week.
In PE we have been learning how to play a new sport, handball. We have used our skills from our invasion games learning earlier in the year and have enjoyed the new challenge. We have also started our gymnastics topic with Mrs Wood. This week we practiced some balances and animal travels. It was good fun. Over the next few weeks we will be perfecting our gymnastic skills and creating our own routines.
In our Geography learning we explored climate zones in Africa and used atlases to find out what the different climate zones were. We learned some great new vocabulary too!
temperate tropical desert grassland / savannah
In Music we have been continuing learning our Egyptian songs, exploring rhythm with our percussion instruments and using glocks to improvise our own compositions. Have a look at our gallery here.
Home Practice
Continue to read your school books and have a go with your questioning. Practising these skills will ensure your children continue to improve as readers.
On your Sumdog challenges this week we arae looking at division to get ready for next week's learning. We have also shown the children how to access the training and tables practice features.
Another great app for practising your number facts is one minute maths by the White Rose Maths team. It is free to download from the AppStore and PlayStore.
Your spellings this week are all homophones. Have a good go at learning them and using them in context.
there their they're bury berry break brake to too two
Have a lovely weekend
The Year 3 team
Reception Blog - Friday 24th February 2023
Date: 24th Feb 2023 @ 10:54am
What a fabulous first week back! Big thank you for all of the cress diaries. The children have loved sharing them with us.
We have started our new topic of 'growing' and the children have really enjoyed our story of Oliver's Vegetables. We had a special delivery at the beginning of the week and it has inspired all of the children to write letters and lists all about the food we have received. Throughout the week we have retold the story so far using actions, we have sent this through on seesaw then you can all see how fabulous it is :)
In maths we have been looking at weight and capacity, using lots of vocabulary to talk about what we have found out.
Tuesday was pancake day, so we talked about how to ake them, we all mixed the ingredients, then cooked and ate them.
In Music we have used instruments to explore loud and soft sounds.
In the afternoons we have been exploring different fruits and vegetables, sorting them, looking at their seeds, what they look like and how they grow! We have even done drawings of the patterns we can see in different vegetables.
In RE we all talked about Lenten promises, what they were and what we could do. Each child has done their own and stuck it on our wall for everyone to see.
In French this week we began to learn the words for some farm animals through a song, game and story. The children are gaining confidence with greetings, answering simple questions about themselves in French - fantastique!
The Friday afternoon was time for PE and tots on tyres!
Year 1 Blog - Friday 24th February 2023
Date: 22nd Feb 2023 @ 4:34pm
Welcome to your first blog of this half term.
English
We have started reading a new book - Where the Wild Things Are. We have listened to the story and watched animations of the story- we love the wild rumpus part! We described the settings in the story and listened for the language which is repeated. We looked closely at the wild things and discussed what human and animal parts they had. The puppets we made to re-tell the story were amazing-some of us also came up with our own characters. We are going to plan and write our own version of the story next week.
Phonics
We have been learning about all the igh sounds, focusing on split digraph i_e in slime and i in wild (just like our new story!)
Click here for a phonics song.
Maths
This week we have been learning about 2D and 3D shapes in more detail. We have compared the shapes and sorted them into groups.
We have continued to practise counting forwards and backwards in 2s, 5s and 10s from different starting numbers.
R.E.
We have started our new topic - Special Meals. We talked about a special meal that we have had, ordered the events of Mass and then focused on The Last Supper. We used speech bubbles to learn what Jesus said to his disciples.
P.E.
We have finished gymnastics and started throwing and catching. This week, we recapped how to underarm throw to a partner safely and then played a game to see which group could throw and catch the quickest!
Geography
We recapped the UK capital cities and sorted pictures of landmarks into each one. We found that London was the easiest as it is our capital city and some of us have been there!
Listen to the Big Ben song here.
Computing
We used our maths knowledge to start our new topic of grouping data. We are so good at sorting and grouping objects now! We were given lots of different objects and asked to sort them in different ways. Then, we went on Sumdog on the laptops.
P.S.H.E.
We learnt about personal hygiene and all the different ways that we can remain healthy. We listened to a very funny story called 'Dirty Bertie' and talked about making the opposite choices that Bertie does!
D.T.
We began our food topic this week. We learnt about the differences between fruit and vegetables and wrote down as many as we could think of.
Outdoor Learning
In one of our sessions this week we found a letter in our lodge from the forest fairy. She told us she had left some magic stones in our nature area and we could find them, decorate them and keep them. We had a great time helping each other to find the stones, then we decorated them with acrylic pens.
In another session we chose our own learning, we built dens, played in the mud kitchen, made up games, looked for mini-beasts or climbed trees. We showed great teamwork, imagination and perseverance.
Two groups learnt how to use hammers and screwdrivers safely. We have a volunteer helping in our sessions on a Monday so two more groups will use the tools next Monday.
We wore safety goggles and a glove on our helping hand. We learnt the difference between screws and nails.
French
We recapped the words for some farm animals and added some new vocabulary through a song, game and story. It's lovely to watch the children joining in with enthusiasm - excellent Y1!
Music
We continued to learn The Little Red Riding Hood song wiht Mrs Wood.
Home Practice
Phonics - ie and i_e words
Maths - 10 more and 10 less
Please continue to read for at least 10 minutes every night with your child, it really will make all the difference to your child's progress.
Thank you for coming in to the parents' evenings -we value all your support.
Year 6 Blog Friday 20th January 2023
Date: 20th Jan 2023 @ 7:18pm
Welcome to the Year 6 blog. This week, some of our Year 6s (along with a team of Year 5s) took part in a swimming competition at Hutton this Friday after school. It was a tough competition but our team managed to come 2nd in our Penwortham/Longton area. A fantastic result!
REMINDER
For our PE lessons this half term, which will include cross country and orienteering (weather depending), please bring in extra trainers (preferably old ones) that you do not mind getting dirty and a plastic bag to keep them in. You may take them home each week, if you prefer to clean them.
Our learning in Year 6 this week:
- In Maths, we have learnt how to accurately measure, draw and estimate angles using a protractor. We have started to find missing angles but this learning will continue into next week.
- In English, we have begun our new novel, The Good Thieves by Katherine Rundell, by predicting the plot and themes based on clues of the four main characters. We then met the novel’s main protagonist, Vita, which we described using our knowledge from the text.
- In Geography, we investigated the similarities and differences between three digital maps: Google Earth, Google maps and Ordinance Survey maps (through the digimaps website). Next week, we will look into more detail of how an Ordinance Survey map is useful, using our local area of Longton.
- In PSHE, we helped a fictional character, Sita, with online friendships, and gave her advice on how to keep the friendship safe.
- In PE, we were joined by Year 5 to work together for improving our stamina in cross country, learning different tactics in tag rugby and creating new sequences in gymnastics.
- In Computing, we continued 3D modelling using Tinkercad. This week we learnt to add 3D shapes to a project and modify them.
- In Science, we investigated the reflection of light with mirrors and tin foil. The children were then able to use their understanding of reflection to invent a periscope using junk materials. Some worked better than others, but everyone could say how they could improve their design next time.
Home Practice all relates to this week’s learning. These are the tasks needed to be completed:
- Reading – Continue to read every night for 30 minutes. You can now change your book on any day – in Year 6 we aim to change it every week.
- Spellings (challenge words)
- Sumdog (Spellings Sp1 wk 3 silent and unstressed letters 2)
guide, history, knee, know, lamb, often, parliament, recognise, rhyme, sign, separate, surprise, vegetable, weight, wrong.
- Maths challenges:
- Counting:
- This week we have been counting in mixed number steps. Try to do the same out loud or with paper.
- Draw a line with some marks on it like I do in class. You could write the numbers as you count up or down, then double check it to make sure you have said the correct numbers.
- Start with these numbers: 4/5, 4 1/5, 3 ½ , 8 ½ and count up 10 times then back again in 3 1/5 and 3 2/5:
- Counting:
4 1/5, 7 2/5, 10 3/5, 13 4/5, 17, 20 1/5, etc
and in 4 ½ :
8 ½, 13, 17 ½, 22, 26 1/2, etc
- Number facts:
- To help your maths even more, please continue to learn your numbers facts, 7 + 8 = 15, 9 + 7 = 16.
- The best way to do this is to simply have someone in your home quiz you with questions like (7 + 8, 9 + 7, 3 + 8, 5 + 9, etc)
- Another great way is to use HIT THE BUTTON which you can access by clicking here
- Then get them to change the place value of these digits (0.7 + 0.8, 0.09 + 0.07, 0.3 + 0.8, etc)
- Sumdog (Times tables Sp1 wk 3)
- Sumdog (NEW diagnostic test)
- For this week’s Sumdog challenge, I have asked Sumdog to retest everyone. Questions may vary from person to person. The result will benefit all children, when they use Sumdog outside of the challenges I provide. Please let me know if there are any issues with it.