Our blogs

Year 1 Christmas Blog

Date: 15th Dec 2021 @ 2:38pm

Welcome the the final blog of 2021!

We have been doing lots of learning in this final week of the Autumn term. Have a look at our photos!

We would like to wish you a happy, holy and peaceful Christmas. We really appreciate all your generous Christmas presents, cards and good wishes. Thank you for all your wonderful support. See you in January!

Year 4 Home Practice Friday 10th December 2021

Date: 10th Dec 2021 @ 4:15pm

Year 4

Home Practice 10^th December 2021

Welcome to this week’s blog. Here’s what we have been learning in school this week ….

In English, we looked at the features of a ‘Wanted’ poster and created our own for the Iron Man who was last seen walking into the sea.  We made sure that we included a picture, a detailed description of the Iron Man and information about the crimes he had committed!

In Maths, we learnt to look very carefully at addition calculations and decide whether it was more efficient to work them out in our head, use jottings or a formal written method. In addition, we revised the formal written method of subtraction.  We started by using the compact method of subtraction to subtract 2 digit numbers and then 3 digit numbers - some of these calculations required exchanging which can be quite tricky! Additionally, we have been practising our tables, and counting in 7’s and 0.2’s.

In RE, we learnt about the birth of Jesus and the story of the Wise Men.  We learnt the names of the Wise Men and talked about the symbolism of their gifts.  In addition, we discussed the signs and symbols that can be seen in Church and at home at Christmas.

In History, we learnt how Britain became part of the Roman Empire and the 3 invasion attempts. We also pretended we were Roman Generals and discussed the pros and cons of invading Britain – Julius Caesar was pleased with our ideas!

We are in the process of designing and describing a Christmas jumper in French - hopefully we'll finish next week. It was tricky and we all rose well to the challenge! Year 4 will be super proud of their work once it's finished!

In Science, we identified and classified electrical conductors and insulators by testing different materials. Then we explained our results.  We need to make a variety of switches next week then we are qualified junior electricians! Well done, year 4!

We thoroughly enjoyed our trip to the Lancaster City Museum on Thursday. We had an action-packed day which included a Roman workshop in the morning when we met Marcus Aurus Nepus, and a visit to both the history and Military museums in the afternoon.  During the trip, we learnt more about life in the Roman Army, especially what the soldiers wore and what they were required to keep in their back packs. As it has been a few years since our last school trip, it really was an exciting day out!  

This week’s Home Practice ….

Reading

Please read for 20 minutes each evening to an adult at home.  Make sure you discuss the story and the characters.  Find the meaning of any new words too.  Reading every night will help you read more fluently and with understanding. 

Times tables

You have been given your own individual times table target.  Please make sure you continue to practise your times tables in preparation for your test next week, on Thursday (16^th December 2021). Ask someone at home to test you on your tables – can you recall them quickly and accurately?  

Remember - you can also practise your tables playing ‘Hit the button’.   

Counting

This week, please practise counting in 7’s and 0.2’s – draw a line and some marks on it like I do in class. You could write the numbers down as you count up.  When you count down, cover the numbers up, say the number, then reveal what you have got written down to check you’ve said the correct number.

Count in 7’s

For example, start at 0 and count up to 84 and back again (this will help with your 9 times tables)

0   7   14    21  etc                     84   77    70   etc

Count in 0.2’s

Start at 0 and count up to 1.8 and back again

0   0.2   0.4   etc                    1.8   1.6   1.4   etc

Do this a few times to help you learn them!

Spellings

The spellings this week all have the prefix ‘uni’, ‘bi’ or ‘tri’.  A prefix is a group of letters that are added to the beginning of a word and change the meaning or make a new word.  Uni means one, bi means two and tri means three. Please practise your spellings each evening at home.  You will be tested on them next Thursday (16^th December 2021). We have discussed different strategies you could use to help you learn them and you could also use ‘Look say cover write check’.

unicycle        unicorn         uniform        universe       binoculars

bicycle         biceps          bifocal         bilingual       biannual

triathlon      triangle       trilogy         tricycle        triplets

Sumdog challenges

You have been set 3 challenges on Sumdog:

• A spelling challenge based on the spellings above
• A times table challenge based on the 7 times tables
• A 2digit column addition and subtraction challenge

Please make sure you log on and have a go! Many of you are still not accessing Sumdog on a daily basis. Little and often is the key to success!

Number bonds

Please continue practising your number bonds / addition skills playing Hit the Button

The game you will play will help with your number bonds and quick addition skills. For example:

8 + 6               you could partition this into         8 + 2 + 4 = 14

This is because 8 + 2 is a pair to 10, then add the 4 to 10

Click on the link above, then on Play Game.

Click on Number bonds

On the left-hand side you will see the words ‘Up to 20’

Click on Addition within 20

See how many you can get correct in 1 minute. Then have another go and try and beat your score.

Maths and spelling training

Please continue to use the maths and spellings training sections as these are tailored for your child to practise skills, facts and words that they find difficult.

Year 2 Home Practice Friday 10th December 2021

Date: 10th Dec 2021 @ 3:34pm

The children were fantastic in The Nativity, well done to everyone. I am sure you all enjoyed watching it at home together. Year 2’s Christmas jumpers were fabulous today, we all looked very festive and it was great to enjoy a Christmas dinner with crackers. Thank you for all the lovely cards, the children loved to give them out to one another. In English, they wrote their own animal stories, completed their non-chronological reports on owls and wrote Christmas acrostic poems. We have done some quizzes in Maths to see how much the children have learnt so far. They were great at naming 2-D and 3-D shapes and very quick with their addition and subtraction facts. In RE, we learnt about the Angel Gabriel visiting Mary and talked about what they said to each other. We have done a lot of Art and the children designed some excellent repeating Christmas patterns and used different materials to print with.

  Reading

In Year 2, children should read for at least 15 minutes every night and discuss the book with an adult or older sibling. This will help with understanding the text and learning new words.

Please sign and leave a small comment when you have read with your child and make it clear that you have finished a book, then we know we can change it.

Reading books are changed every Monday and sent home on Tuesday. However, if you need to change a book another 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 love to read.

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 red box ‘eBook Library for Letters & Sounds’

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

Spelling

There will be no spelling quiz next Friday. Please have a go at the Spelling Training on Sumdog (mentioned below).

 Maths

At home, practise number bonds up to 10 and 20 on Hit the Button.

Follow this link: https://www.topmarks.co.uk/maths-games/hit-the-button

You have a Time challenge this week on Sumdog. We have not done this in class yet, it is to recap previous learning from Year 1 and focuses on o’clock and half past on digital and analogue clocks.

Times Table challenge on Sumdog to complete by next Friday.

Sumdog

We have introduced Maths and Spelling Training. As you know, we set weekly challenges that are linked to the learning that takes place in class. As an extra feature, the maths and spelling training sections will provide a tailored challenge for your child to practise skills, facts and words that they find difficult. Once your class challenges have been completed, use this feature for additional spelling and maths practice.

Log in at www.sumdog.com

Sumdog challenges:

Time Challenge (recap o’clock and half past)

Times Table Challenge – 2, 5, 10 and 3

Spellings Training

Thank you for all your support. Have a lovely weekend.

The Year 2 team.

Year 6 Friday 10th December 2021

Date: 10th Dec 2021 @ 2:28pm

This week we had a great time visiting the Museum of Lancashire where we learnt how to be a soldier during World War One by some very strict sergeants who put us through our paces, teaching us many drills that we often had to repeat numerous times! It was a lot of fun with the children learning a great deal – we have sent our thanks to the volunteers at the museum. Do not forget to see the Year 6 gallery for pictures of the trip.

This week in Year 6:

• In Maths, we have consolidated our learning this week, attempting some maths quizzes on a range of topics: place value, addition, fractions and division. The class have shown great resilience with these tasks.
• Following our super trip to the Museum of Lancashire, we wrote about our day, as a soldier, making sure we explained to the reader everything we had learnt.
• In Geography, we learnt about the first two people to reach the top of Mount Everest: Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay. Using their experiences, we found out just how harsh the journey up Mount Everest would be.
• For our RE topic, Expectations, we have been thinking about the arrival of Jesus and how it impacts our lives. We have continued our advent calendar of good deeds and prayers every day.
• In this PE session, we completed an Intra competition of handball, where the children focused on their performance, evaluating and suggesting improvements on how they can attack and defend.  
• We have begun our Design and Technology project of ‘textiles’, by learning ways to stitch with a needle and thread, then designing our own to complete next we
• In Music, we have learnt how to compose 12 bar blues on the glocks in groups, followed by a class performance. We have also continued practising the songs, ‘Hark the Herald’ and ‘Once in Royal David’s City’ for the carol service.
• In French, we played Cluedo, trying to figure out who had killed Father Christmas. We then wrote our own version of the game as a story.
• In Science, we explored reflections and how a mirror can change the direction of light enabling us to see behind or round corners.

Home Practice all relates to this week’s learning. These are the tasks needed to be completed:

• Reading – Use your Home Reading to read every night for 30 minutes. You also have a Reading Journal/Diary that must be used for the title of the book and any reading challenge chosen.
  • The days when you can change your book:
    • Monday – Roller Coasters
    • Tuesday – Big Dippers
    • Wednesday – The Waltzers

• Spellings (challenge words)
  • Sumdog (challenge words A2 wk 7)

available, muscle, accommodate, determined, identity, competition, existence, rhyme, accompany, suggest, develop, explanation, privilege, symbol, immediately

• Maths challenges:
  • Counting:
    • This week we have been counting in decimal 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: 7.5, 3.9, 25.4 and count up 10 times then back again in 0.5:

7.5, 8.0, 8.5, 9.0, 9.5 etc

and in 1.5:

7.5, 9.0, 10.5, 12.0, 13.5, 15.0, etc

• Number facts:
  • To help your maths even more, please continue to learn your numbers facts, 7 + 8 = 15, 4 + 7 = 11.
  • 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 (Times tables x2 – x12)
  • Each child has their own tables target which they should know. The Sumdog challenge may relate to their target but if not, you can always use the ‘trainer’ section of Sumdog for extra Tables Practice. Every Tuesday there is a tables test.

• Sumdog (Decimal Arithmetic)
  • For this challenge, there will be questions related to adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing decimals, all of which we have done in class.

Keep working through the Maths and Spelling Training. As you know, we set weekly challenges that are linked to the learning that takes place in school. As an extra feature, the maths and spelling training sections will provide a tailored challenge for your child to practise skills, facts and words that they find difficult. Once your challenges have been completed, use this feature for challenge in both spelling and maths.

Spend some time training so the program can learn the skills your child needs to work on and practise. 

Year 3 Friday Blog - 10th December

Date: 10th Dec 2021 @ 1:16pm

Welcome to your Friday blog.

We have had a very exciting week this week.

We loved Christmas Jumper Day on Friday - everybody looked amazing. We gave out our Christmas cards and also enjoyed a Christmas lunch. 

In our English lessons this week we have been writing our very own Christmas stories. We have used lots of interesting words to make our stories really exciting. Everybody has tried really hard. 

In geography we have been looking at lots of different maps online and in atlases. We love looking at maps to see where we live and to see what different places we recognise. We picked out physical and human features of Longton. At the start of our geography lessons we have been trying to name cities around the world, we have found this tricky. So try to find out the names of some cities  by talking to people in your house and looking on maps and on the internet. 

In maths we have been learning different methods to subtract. We found this a bit difficult at first, but we are getting the hang of it now and will be doing some more practice next week. 

We also created our 2022 calendars in art. Everyone was very creative with their collages and shape ideas. Well done year 3!

Home Practice

Continue to access the Sumdog training feature to practise tricky skills in both spelling and maths. Try to use the times tables feature too. A little Sumdog every night will make all the difference.

Read out loud to somebody every night for 20 minutes. Talk about what you have read.

Practise the 4x tables by listening to the song and playing on Hit The Button. 

Count out loud in 10s:

Forwards from 56 to 356.

backwards from 821 to 521. 

You will be tested on your spellings and 4x tables on Tuesday 14th December. Try to practise every day. 

Have a great weekend!

Reception 10th December

Date: 10th Dec 2021 @ 12:45pm

We have had a great christmas jumper and christmas lunch day! 

The children have been amazing in their first nativity and have really enjoyed taking part, the video is on St Oswalds TV so make sure to watch it :)

Year 5 - Friday 10th December 2021

Date: 10th Dec 2021 @ 8:42am

 Welcome to this week’s Year 5 class blog

The children have had another busy week, working hard and learning new skills and knowledge.

This week in year 5

In Maths we have introduced mixed numbers and improper fractions and the children have completed 2 papers to show off everything they have learnt this term.  I am very pleased with their focus and hard work with some tricky questions.

In English we have started reading A Christmas Carol.  The children have been thinking about the words used and what they mean, many are not used very much today.  They have written comparative descriptions of characters, used evidence from the text to draw conclusions about the story and they are really keen to find out what happens next.  We are hoping to find a suitable version of the film to watch next week to compare to the book.

In RE, the children continued to discuss the preparations we make in the wait for the coming of Jesus at Christmastime and the hope this brings to people.  We have created an advent calendar of kind deeds we can carry out for the remainder of Advent.

In French, the children read a story about how some aliens saved Christmas after Pere Noel's sleigh broke.  They lent him their space ship to deliver presents so all was well! They then started to write their own version of the story in French - hopefully they will finish them next week and the children will be super proud of their stories! Joyeux Noel et  bonne annee tout le monde!

In PE, the children did both activities this week.  Due to the colder weather we have spilt the time so they are not outside and feeling the cold for too long.  The tag rugby session was very competitive and the children showed off the skills they have learnt this term.  In the hall, we really focused on moving in time with one another.  We started by moving across the hall in small groups, first walking in time together and developing into running, jumping and hopping.  They discussed items we would put in a time capsule and created an 8 count dance for the item.  Next week they will teach the class their small group dances and we will create an ensemble piece.

In Geography the children loved researching different areas of North America.  They looked at where on the map the place was located, where this was in relation to lines of latitude and how this may affect the climate.  They then each made a fact file for their choice, many children asked to take pictures and titles home so they could make more.  They used National Geographic Kids for research.

In Art, the children planned and practised their Christmas cards.  We got very messy!  They used a range of printing resources to see which effect they preferred and made decisions for their cards.  Next week you will see their final pieces, they will be creating layered printing over a number of days to create their cards.

The children completing their Holy Communion next year, have been sent home with their folders and a workbook.  This is to be completed over the Christmas break and returned to school in the first week back.  We will begin our sessions in church in the second week to prepare for the sacrament.

It was lovely to see the children in their festive wear on Friday, we had a jolly day with Christmas Carols, festive lunchtime and Christmas post alongside our regular lessons.

Home Practice all relates to this week's learning - These are the tasks to be completed.

Reading - You all have a Home Reading book for year 5 so reading every night for 15-20 mins is essential. You also have a Reading Journal/Diary that must be completed and signed.

Maths – please ask your child what their times tables target is and help them practise this in order for them to progress.

I’d also encourage you to do a daily count with your child.  This week we are counting up in 9s. Give the children a number to start from and they must continue to count from that number in 9s e.g. 37, 46, 55.  This will help the children learn and remember strategies to help them in maths.  For 9s we add 10 and then take 1 away to help us count on faster.

You can change your reading book on any school day (book bags to be left on Mrs Mulgrew's desk)

 Spellings words ending ‘cial’ and ‘tial’. We will look at these in more detail in school next week, they should be practised at home, ready for the test on Friday.  After a vowel ‘cial’ is most common (special) and after a consonant ‘tial’ (confidential).

Don’t forget the children have a big list of Common Exception words to learn, these can be practised each week to push your child further.

Some children have been told to complete a different number of spellings, please check with your child.

official, special, social, artificial, facial, commercial, crucial, confidential, potential, initial, essential, partial, attached, available, average

Sumdog challenges

PLEASE ENCOURAGE YOUR CHILDREN TO COMPLETE THE SUMDOG CHALLENGES, MANY CHILDREN ARE STILL NOT ACCESSING SUMDOG.

Please encourage your child to complete the Maths and Spelling Training.  As you know, we set weekly challenges that are linked to the learning that takes place in school.  As an extra feature, the maths and spelling training sections will provide a tailored challenge for your child to practise skills, facts and words they find difficult.  Once the diagnostic challenges have been completed Sumdog will set challenges to aid improvement and development in the appropriate areas for your child.  Once you have completed the class challenges, please use this feature for extra challenge in both maths and spelling.  Many children have still not completed the diagnostic section.

Times tables have been set to reflect class targets

Maths the children have been set activities relating to fractions. 

Spellings words ending ‘cial’ and ‘tial’.

Only one more week to go and the children are still working hard.

Year 1 Friday Blog 10th December

Date: 9th Dec 2021 @ 12:48pm

Welcome to the Year 1 Friday blog!

We have had a really exciting week rehearsing and performing our Nativity. All the children were amazing and we hope you enjoy watching it. Access the video from the school website.

.

In our Phonics this week we have been looking at the i-e split digraph as in lime,shine and time. 

In English we wrote a letter to Father Christmas. We tried to remember our finger spaces, capital letters, full stops and using our sounds to spell words. We have listened to the story of Harvey Slumfenburger's Christmas Present and we are going to be doing some writing from that next week.

In Maths we have been learning about subtraction. We have been using part whole models and 10 frames to help us too. We have been investigating number fact families. We have been counting in 2s and 10s forwards and backwards from different starting numbers.

 In R.E. we talked about The Annunciation and The Visitiation. We loved being able to pretend to be Mary and Angel Gabriel! We then challenged ourselves and wrote speech bubbles about what Mary would say to Elizabeth and vice versa. We had some lovely ideas - "Mary, you are going to have a special baby" and even simply "I love you, Elizabeth".

In Music we got the boomwhackers out and played along with some Christmas songs. In French we learnt some Christmas vocabulary by playing games and sang some French Christmas songs. Joyeux Noel et bonne annee tout le monde!

We did week 3 of The Big Draw. We looked outside at the weather and then made a collage showing the weather.

We all looked brilliant in our Christmas jumpers today-don't forget to dress up on Monday for our Santa Dash!

Home Practice

Read for at least 10 minutes every night. This is so important. please sign the diary so we can change the books. Keep practicing reading the Tricky Words on sight. Please just write a note in the diary if you need the next set.

We have also been doing lots of counting. We have mainly been focusing on counting in 10s up to 100 (0, 10, 20, 30...) Please practise these at home. If you want a challenge, start from a different number that is not in the 10x table (e.g. 5, 15, 25, 35...) We use a number square in class to help us with this, feel free to search '100 square' in Google to find one online.

Sumdog challenges

Phonics - split digraph i_e words

Maths - adding on 10 more up to 100

Year 6 Friday 3rd December 2021

Date: 3rd Dec 2021 @ 4:11pm

For our fourth week back, Year 6 have had another busy week. They created an advent calendar full of good deeds to do each day during Advent, had a great time watching and taking part in the pantomime ‘Dick Whittington’ and used their artistic skills to design a war scene from their own war story.

This week in Year 6:

• In Maths, we have been deepening our understanding of fractions through finding equivalences and explaining why 2/3 is the same as 8/12. We then used that knowledge to add and subtract same multiple fractions (e.g. 2/5 + 2/10)
• We have completed out novel, ‘‘Private Peaceful’, learnt about the harsh reality of war and planned and written our own battle scene using everything we have learnt over the past 4 weeks.
• In Geography, we evaluated our PowerPoint presentation and each other’s on the effect of tectonic disasters.
• For our RE topic, Expectations, we have used the words of Isaiah to understand how Jesus’ arrival will have rewards and burdens for us.
• In this PE session, we put our attacking, defending, throwing, catching and evading skills to the test with an Intra competition using Dodgeball as the sport.
• In Art, we took part in a ‘Big Draw’ where we used music (that reflected a battle scene) and used any medium they wanted to create a scene based on their own story.
• In Music, we improved our jazz playing on the glocks by investigating the structure of jazz including head, middle 8 and improvising. We have also been learning ‘Hark the Herald’ and ‘Once in Royal David’s City’ for the carol service.
• In French, we completed our writing about the weather with complex sentences using great vocabulary.
• In Science, we explored how the shape of a shadow can be changed. We found out that a shadow is always the same shape as the object that blocks the light because light travels in straight lines.

Home Practice all relates to this week’s learning. These are the tasks needed to be completed:

• Reading – Use your Home Reading to read every night for 30 minutes. You also have a Reading Journal/Diary that must be used for the title of the book and any reading challenge chosen.
  • The days when you can change your book:
    • Monday – Roller Coasters
    • Tuesday – Big Dippers
    • Wednesday – The Waltzers

• Spellings (ough words)
  • Sumdog (ough words A2 wk 6)
    • though, although, rough, tough, through, cough, nought, brought, ought, thought, fought, plough, dough, enough, thorough

• Maths challenges:
  • Counting:
    • This week we have been counting in decimal steps of:

20 000, 200 000 and x 2. 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.
• g. Start with 5 digit numbers and count up 10 times then back again in 20 000s:

43 654, 63 654, 83 654, 103 654, etc

and in 200 000s:

43 654, 243 654, 443 654, 643 654                

Start at a different number and count up 10 numbers and down again but this time in x2:

9, 18, 36, 72, 144, 288, 576, 1 152, etc      

• Sumdog (All times tables x2 – x12)
  • Each child has their own tables target which they should know. The Sumdog challenge may relate to their target but if not, you can always use the ‘trainer’ section of Sumdog for extra Tables Practice. Every Tuesday there is a tables test.

• Sumdog (Add and subtract fractions)
  • Some of this task will be challenging but to help you remember how to solve them, here are some success criteria:
    • For adding same multiple fractions ½ + ¼
      • Convert ½ = 2/4
      • The question is then 2/4 + ¼ = ¾
    • For 2/5 + 5/10
      • Convert 2/5 = 4/10
      • The question is then 4/10 + 5/10 = 9/10
    • For subtracting same multiple fractions like 6/7 – 2/14
      • Convert 6/7 into 12/14
      • The question is then 12/14 – 2/14 = 10/14
    • For 8/10 – 1/5
      • Make the denominators the same, such as 1/5 into 2/10
      • Now the question is 8/10 – 2/10 which equals 6/10

Keep working through the Maths and Spelling Training. As you know, we set weekly challenges that are linked to the learning that takes place in school. As an extra feature, the maths and spelling training sections will provide a tailored challenge for your child to practise skills, facts and words that they find difficult. Once your challenges have been completed, use this feature for challenge in both spelling and maths.

Spend some time training so the program can learn the skills your child needs to work on and practise. 

Year 4 Home Learning Friday 3rd December 2021

Date: 3rd Dec 2021 @ 4:00pm

Year 4

Home Practice 3^rd December 2021

Welcome to this week’s blog. Here’s what we have been learning in school this week ….

In English, we started our new class novel ‘The Iron Man’.  We listened to the first chapter when the Iron Man steps off the cliff. Following this, we rewrote the chapter as if we were the Iron Man putting his body parts back together again!

In Maths, we learnt more about the compact method of addition.  We revised using this method when adding 3-digit numbers together.  This learning was then extended to adding 4-digit numbers together, including exchanging.  In addition we have been practising our tables and counting in 7’s.

In RE, we were introduced to the prophet Isaiah, who was waiting for the coming of the Messiah. We also learnt about ‘Gaudete’ Sunday, the third Sunday of Advent. We learnt what the word Gaudete means and that Advent is a time of expectation and preparation for Christmas.

In History, we labelled a Roman Soldier, using the correct vocabulary for the different items of clothing / uniform.  We also looked at some Roman Soldier artefacts and are looking forward to trying on the armour!

In PE, we continued adding freeze frames and transitions to our dances.  In addition, we played mini games of tag rugby during which we needed to remove tags from the players on the other team.  

During our French lesson, we watched a Pocoyo cartoon about a birthday. Poor Baleine didn't get any presents but at least he had some really good friends!  We managed to understand the gist of it. Not easy listening so well done, year 4!

On Thursday afternoon we were lucky enough to watch a live production of Dick Whittington!  What an exciting afternoon.

This week’s Home Practice ….

Reading

Please read for 20 minutes each evening to an adult at home.  Make sure you discuss the story and the characters.  Find the meaning of any new words too.  Reading every night will help you read more fluently and with understanding. 

Times tables

You have been given your own individual times table target.  Please make sure you continue to practise your times tables in preparation for your test next week, on Thursday (9^th December 2021). Ask someone at home to test you on your tables – can you recall them quickly and accurately?  

Remember - you can also practise your tables playing ‘Hit the button’.   

Counting

This week, please practise counting in 7’s – draw a line and some marks on it like I do in class. You could write the numbers down as you count up.  When you count down, cover the numbers up, say the number, then reveal what you have got written down to check you’ve said the correct number.

Count in 7’s

For example, start at 0 and count up to 84 and back again (this will help with your 9 times tables)

0   7   14    21  etc                     84   77    70   etc

Do this a few times to help you learn them!

Spellings

The spellings are all words which children use regularly in their writing but are often spelt incorrectly. Please practise your spellings each evening at home.  You will be tested on them next Thursday (9^th December 2021). We have discussed different strategies you could use to help you learn them and you could also use ‘Look say cover write check’.

does            doesn’t         there           their           they’re

to                too              two              were            where

your             you’re          went            would           could

didn’t

Sumdog challenges

You have been set 3 challenges on Sumdog:

• A spelling challenge based on the spellings above
• A times table challenge based on the 7 times tables
• A column addition challenge

Please make sure you log on and have a go! Many of you are still not accessing Sumdog on a daily basis. Little and often is the key to success!

Number bonds

Please continue practising your number bonds / addition skills playing Hit the Button

The game you will play will help with your number bonds and quick addition skills. For example:

8 + 6               you could partition this into         8 + 2 + 4 = 14

This is because 8 + 2 is a pair to 10, then add the 4 to 10

Click on the link above, then on Play Game.

Click on Number bonds

On the left-hand side you will see the words ‘Up to 20’

Click on Addition within 20

See how many you can get correct in 1 minute. Then have another go and try and beat your score.

Maths and spelling training

Last week we introduced Maths and Spelling Training on Sumdog. Well done to everyone who accessed the Sumdog learning platform.  This training feature will be available from now on, so please continue to practise the maths and spelling skills you find tricky. 

Friday 3rd December 2021 - Year 5

Date: 3rd Dec 2021 @ 1:01pm

 Welcome to this week’s Year 5 class blog

What a busy week it has been and the children have been fantastic!

This week in year 5

We started the week with our Reconciliation day.  The children were so well behaved, enthusiastic and respectful all day.  They appeared to have an enjoyable day and all felt happy at the end of the sacrament.  I have posted a separate blog with photos in the gallery.

On Tuesday we had our trip to the Vehicle Museum, what a day!  The children had an absolute action packed day, we stayed an extra 30 minutes, we were having so much fun!  They children impressed Rob, our guide for the day, with their knowledge on forces, friction and resistance. They had to order the vehicles on age and again on horse power and then looked at links.  Later in the morning the children made rubber band powered cars and were challenged to make their car travel the furthest.  This was lots of fun.  After lunch, the children had 4 activities, these were designing their own truck, finding badges on the vehicles and completing the sketches, designing their own logo to hand paint on a vehicle and finally free time in the museum to use the interactive truck, change tyres, get into some of the vehicles and look at the amazing vehicles on display.  It really was a great day!

In Maths we have continued our focus on division.  This week we have used the chunking method.  The week started off with some challenging questions but they have used their strategies well to help them solve these.  We finished the week being able to solve 3 digit division problems with remainders. I have been impressed with their resilience in a tricky topic.

In English we finally finished Room 13, what an exciting story!  The children have been so engaged with ideas and links throughout the book.  This week the children have spent time writing an alternative ending to the book and editing it.  They have focussed on adding fronted adverbials, powerful verbs and including descriptions relating to senses to create suspense.  They have done a marvellous job.

In RE the children have been looking at how the coming of Jesus at Christmas can provide hope to a lot of people that are unhappy.  We discussed and wrote about how we could be like Jesus and bring hope to others will small deeds.

The children also did some work on money in PHSE.  We looked at and discussed the right and wrong thing to do when we find money and then they had to shop for 2 people for 3 days on a budget.  They were very careful with their money, shopped for essentials only and had £5 left over.  We discussed how asking for treats is not always the best thing to do as parents can be on a budget and they could see how one or two treats can send you over the budget and you wouldn’t have enough money for essentials.

On Thursday the children watched the pantomime Dick Whittington.

 “Oh No they didn’t!” “Oh yes they did!”

They had a great time shouting to the cast, laughing, cheering and enjoying the show!

Home Practice all relates to this week's learning - These are the tasks to be completed.

Reading - You all have a Home Reading book for year 5 so reading every night for 15-20 mins is essential. You also have a Reading Journal/Diary that must be completed and signed.

You can change your reading book on any school day (book bags to be left on Mrs Mulgrew's desk)

Spellings words ending cious and common exception words. We will look at these in more detail in school next week, they should be practised at home, ready for the test on Friday. 

Don’t forget the children have a big list of Common Exception words to learn, these can be practised each week to push your child further.

Some children have been told to complete a different number of spellings, please check with your child.

conscious      ferocious      gracious        precious        suspicious     spaciousness

spacious        accommodate         accompany  according     achieve

aggressive    amateur        ancient          apparent

Sumdog challenges

PLEASE ENCOURAGE YOUR CHILDREN TO COMPLETE THE SUMDOG CHALLENGES, MANY CHILDREN ARE STILL NOT ACCESSING SUMDOG.

Last week introduced Maths and Spelling Training.  As you know, we set weekly challenges that are linked to the learning that takes place in school.  As an extra feature, the maths and spelling training sections will provide a tailored challenge for your child to practise skills, facts and words they find difficult.  Once the diagnostic challenges have been completed Sumdog will set challenges to aid improvement and development in the appropriate areas for your child.  Once you have completed the class challenges, please use this feature for extra challenge in both maths and spelling.

Times tables have been set to reflect class targets

Maths the children have been set more activities relating to multiplication and division.  They will need to use their multiplication and division knowledge and learnt in recent weeks, to work out the answers.  They may need to do jottings.

Spellings words ending cious and common exception words.

The children have had another great week in school.

Year 3 Friday blog - 3rd December

Date: 3rd Dec 2021 @ 8:48am

Welcome to your Friday blog

This week we have finished reading Mr Stink. We have loved reading it, some parts have made us laugh, some parts have made us cry, some parts have made us think about people who are less fortunate than us. The writing produced whilst reading Mr Stink has been wonderful, we have learnt lots of new exciting words. Well done Year 3!

In maths we learned a new method for subtraction. We used equipment and written methods to subtract two 2-digit numbers. Next week we will be moving on to 3-digit numbers. We have also continued practising our 4x tables. We know every word to the 4x tables song now, it is great to hear that so many of you have been listening at home. 

In French, we learnt how to say I have (J'ai...) and I have not (Je n'ai pas de ..) using pencil case items. Some of us are doing really well at recalling the vocabulary. Tres bien, year 3!

We had such a special treat on Thursday. We got to watch a pantomime in school! We loved watching Dick Whittington, we absolutely loved it. 

Home Practice 

1.Read out loud to somebody every night for 20 minutes. Predict what you think will happen next.

2. Go on Hit the Button to practise the following skills:

Times Tables, x4. 

Number Bonds, Subtraction within 20. 

3. Spellings:

This week your spellings do not follow a pattern or a rule. They are words you need to be able to spell by the end of Year 3:

            actual                  learn                  group                  heard                  arrive                                     circle                     often                   build

4. Sumdog. 

Well done to everyone who is accessing the Sumdog Learning platform. The training feature will be available from now on so continue to access this to practice those skills your child finds tricky.

You will be tested on your spellings and 4x tables on Tuesday 7th December. 

Reception 3rd December 2021

Date: 3rd Dec 2021 @ 8:18am

This week in Reception we have been on a frosty walk to our school pond, spotting all the different signs of Winter. We found lots of frozen icicles on the trees and we were drawing marks in the snow.  

We have been learning all about different materials in literacy, investigating which need recycling and which do not. We have enjoyed learning about different ways to help our planet. 

We had a special visitor on Tuesday, he was a bulider and we asked him lots of question about how he helps people around him.

Year 2 Home Practice 3rd December 2021

Date: 2nd Dec 2021 @ 2:57pm

We have had a great week of learning in Year 2. We have all been busy getting ready for our Nativity next week – lots of singing and super acting! In English, the children have looked at non-fiction writing about owls and are in the process of completing a non-chronological report. In Maths, we have continued looking at shapes and this week we have learnt about 3D shapes and their properties. The Big Draw for Art this week is drawing about our class story – the children drew some brilliant pictures of the night. In Science we have finished our topic on Habitats and the children drew a very detailed food chain. 

  Reading

In Year 2, children should read for at least 15 minutes every night and discuss the book with an adult or older sibling. This will help with understanding the text and learning new words.

Please sign and leave a small comment when you have read with your child and make it clear that you have finished a book, then we know we can change it.

Reading books are changed every Monday and sent home on Tuesday. However, if you need to change a book another 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 love to read.

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 red box ‘eBook Library for Letters & Sounds’

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

Spelling

Due to Nativity rehersals we have not managed to do this weeks spelling quiz. So please keep learning last weeks spellings for next Friday and these will be the last quiz before Christmas. 

Please practise these spellings for your quiz on Friday. A sheet will go home every Tuesday with the spelling list on. This is for home practise only and can be kept with you. You will have a Sumdog challenge to complete by next Friday.

 Maths

At home, spend some time counting in 2s, 5s, 10s and 3s. Practise these times tables on a game called Hit the Button. Follow this link: https://www.topmarks.co.uk/maths-games/hit-the-button

You will have a number fact challenge on Sumdog to complete by next Friday.

Sumdog

Log in at www.sumdog.com

Sumdog challenges:

Maths –

Properties of  2-D and 3-D shapes.

Problems using number facts.

Spellings – high frequency words.

Thank you for all your support. Have a lovely weekend.

The Year 2 team.

Year 1 Friday Blog 3rd December 2021

Date: 2nd Dec 2021 @ 10:07am

Welcome to your Friday blog!

This week in English, we have read the sequel to Traction Man - Traction Man meets Turbo Dog. We found out that Traction Man was really missing his friend Scrubbing Brush, he was worrying about him throughout the story. Scrubbing Brush was taken away by mum and dad because he was too dirty and was replaced by Turbo Dog! We wrote about our favourite part of the story, drew all of the characters in the dirty dustbin, created our own version of the story, practised our tricky words and our phase 5 split a_e digraph. 

In maths, we have moved onto subtraction. We have learnt different strategies to find the answer, but the most effective has been counting backwards from the greatest number. We have used lots of equipment too so that we could check our answers were correct. Some of us even put our subtraction number sentence into a part-whole model! 

We have been very busy in R.E. too. This week, we have learnt about the Liturgical Calendar and the Advent wreath. We talked about why it is important to wait in the build up to Christmas and how we show that we are waiting. Our two main examples of this were opening a door each day on our Advent calendar and lighting the candles each Sunday on the Advent wreath.

Our P.E. lesson was very exciting this week! Half of the class managed to practise and film their final robot dance. The other half are nearly there, we are hoping to be ready to film next week. All of year 1 have shown that they are super robots and they have fully understood how a robot moves.

In French, we learnt the vocabulary for parts of the face in French and enjoyed the story of Grand Monstre Vert. We're very good at head, shoulders, knees and toes in French!

We have also been very busy practising for our production. We have had a lot of songs to learn but we are now so confident and ready for next week.

Also on Thursday, we were really lucky to watch Dick Whittington in the hall. It was so much fun! We laughed a lot and ended up having poorly throats from shouting "he's behind you!"

Lastly, we completed our next Big Draw artwork today. We took 15 minutes out of our day to draw our favourite stories. It was lovely to be able to sit quietly and be free to draw whatever we like.

Have a look at the gallery to see all of our brilliant learning this week.

Have a great weekend!

Home Practice

Read for at least 10 minutes every night. This is so important. please sign the diary so we can change the books. Keep practicing reading the Tricky Words on sight. Please just write a note in the diary if you need the next set.

We have also been doing lots of counting. Please continue to do this at home too. Challenge yourself with bigger numbers. Then, try and work out some addition and subtraction problem questions (up to 20). Ask your adults to quiz you with some questions (e.g. what is 10 - 5?)

Sumdog challenges

Phonics - split digraph a_e words

Maths - subtraction within 20

Year 2 Home Practice 26th November 2021

Date: 26th Nov 2021 @ 4:20pm

A very busy week for Year 2, time is passing so quickly and the children are doing really well in all their learning. We lit the first Advent candle and spent some time preparing for our Nativity Play. It’s beginning to feel like Christmas, hopefully the children will be singing the songs at home and sharing all the excitement about what characters they are. In English, we read The Owl who was afraid of the Dark and answered comprehension questions. We also used library books to look for past and present tense verbs. We have started to work on shape in Maths, the children are very good at naming 2-D shapes and their properties. The Big Draw started this week, so we’ve been doing a lot of Art work. The children learnt about Miranda Lloyd and will be using her work to inspire their own. During PSHE, the children realised that it’s important to talk about our worries. They drew some super habitats and wrote facts about them in Science. In RE, we decorated boxes with all the things we do to prepare for Christmas. Well done everyone, keep up the great work!

Reading

In Year 2, children should read for at least 15 minutes every night and discuss the book with an adult or older sibling. This will help with understanding the text and learning new words.

Please sign and leave a small comment when you have read with your child and make it clear that you have finished a book, then we know we can change it.

Reading books are changed every Monday and sent home on Tuesday. However, if you need to change a book another 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 love to read.

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 red box ‘eBook Library for Letters & Sounds’

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

Spelling

Your child will know which group they are in for phonics. Please learn the correct set of spellings below.

Please practise these spellings for your quiz on Friday. A sheet will go home every Tuesday with the spelling list on. This is for home practise only and can be kept with you. You will have a Sumdog challenge to complete by next Friday.

This week’s spellings are:

Miss Gravili’s Phonics Group ‘High frequency words’

children

wild

climb

most

only

both

old

cold

gold

hold

Miss Bennison’s Phonics Group ‘High frequency words’

your

they

be

he

me

she

we

no

go

so

 Maths

At home, spend some time counting in 2s, 5s, 10s and 3s. Practise these times tables on a game called Hit the Button. Follow this link: https://www.topmarks.co.uk/maths-games/hit-the-button

You will have a number fact challenge on Sumdog to complete by next Friday.

Sumdog

Log in at www.sumdog.com

Sumdog challenges:

Maths –

Properties of 2-D shapes.

Problems using number facts.

Spellings – high frequency words.

Thank you for all your support. Have a lovely weekend.

The Year 2 team.

Year 4 Home Practice Friday 26th November 2021

Date: 26th Nov 2021 @ 3:54pm

Year 4

Home Practice 26^th November 2021

Welcome to this week’s blog. Here’s what we have been learning in school this week ….

In English, we enjoyed hearing the last chapter of ‘The Firework Maker’s Daughter’. Following this, we wrote a summary of the story in 100 words! It was quite tricky as we needed to think carefully about which words to use and stick to the facts of the story, rather than providing lots of description. We had to write and edit our work and are proud of what we achieved!

In Maths, we learnt how to create our own pictograms, and how to interpret data and use information presented in a pictogram. We also learnt more about the formal written method of addition. Initially, we revised the expanded method and used base 10 symbols to help with our learning. We then learnt how to use the compact method when adding 2-digit numbers. Additionally, we have been practising our tables and counting in 9’s and 25’s.

In RE, we have designed our own book called ‘Preparing for Jesus, God’s gift to the world’. The book describes and gives reasons for the actions of Christians during Advent. We have included signs and symbols of Advent, how a Christian family prepares for the coming of Jesus, as well as some Scripture. Year 4 should be very proud of their books which have all been beautifully presented.

In Science, we continued learning about electricity. We had pictures of circuits and had to predict whether they would work or not, then we tested them to see if we were correct. Then we tried to explain why they would not work and how to fix them.  There are definitely some budding electricians in Year 4!

In History, we learnt more about the Roman Empire and why the Roman Army was so successful. In addition, we marched across the playground keeping in time together!

In PE, we refined our freeze frames and linked some of them together with a transition.  Each of the freeze frames and transitions linked either to using an electrical device or the way in which it moves. In addition, as tag rugby was rained off this week, Year 4 played ‘Bench Ball’ inside!

During our French lesson, we used bi-lingual dictionaries to look up words that will help us understand a French cartoon next week. One of the words was malheureusement (unfortunately) - so they weren't the easiest to pronounce! Well done year 4 for having a great try!

Reading

Please read for 20 minutes each evening to an adult at home.  Make sure you discuss the story and the characters.  Find the meaning of any new words too.  Reading every night will help you read more fluently and with understanding. 

Times tables

You have been given your own individual times table target.  Please make sure you continue to practise your times tables in preparation for your test next week, on Thursday (2^nd December 2021). Ask someone at home to test you on your tables – can you recall them quickly and accurately?  

Remember - you can also practise your tables playing ‘Hit the button’.   

Counting

This week, please practise counting in 9’s and 25’s – draw a line and some marks on it like I do in class. You could write the numbers down as you count up.  When you count down, cover the numbers up, say the number, then reveal what you have got written down to check you’ve said the correct number.

Count in 9’s

For example, start at 0 and count up to 108 and back again (this will help with your 9 times tables)

0   9   18   27  etc                     108   99    90   etc

Do this a few times to help you learn them!

Count in 25s

Start at 0 and count up to 325 and back again

0   25   50   75     etc           325   300   275  etc

Start at 500 and count up to 475 and back again

500   525   550      etc             475   450   425    etc

Spellings

The spellings this week explore words with the ‘s’ sound, spelt ‘sc’ which are Latin in origin. Please practise your spellings each evening at home.  You will be tested on them next Thursday (2^nd December 2021). We have discussed different strategies you could use to help you learn them and you could also use ‘Look say cover write check’.

science        scientist      scene           scenery        scent

scissors       scientific     disciple        crescent      descend

ascend         scenic          scented       muscle         fascinated  

You have been set 2 challenges on Sumdog:

• A spelling challenge based on the spellings above
• A times table challenge based on the 3, 6 and 9 times tables

Please make sure you log on and have a go! Many of you are still not accessing Sumdog on a daily basis. Little and often is the key to success!

Number bonds

Please continue practising your number bonds / addition skills playing Hit the Button

The game you will play will help with your number bonds and quick addition skills. For example:

8 + 6               you could partition this into         8 + 2 + 4 = 14

This is because 8 + 2 is a pair to 10, then add the 4 to 10

Click on the link above, then on Play Game.

Click on Number bonds

On the left-hand side you will see the words ‘Up to 20’

Click on Addition within 20

See how many you can get correct in 1 minute. Then have another go and try and beat your score.

Maths and spelling training

This week we would like to introduce Maths and Spelling Training. As you know, we set weekly challenges that are linked to the learning that takes place in school. As an extra feature, the maths and spelling training sections will provide a tailored challenge for your child to practise skills, facts and words that they find difficult. Once your challenges have been completed, use this feature for challenge in both spelling and maths. Your tailored training is available in your tasks tab.

Spend some time training on Sumdog so the program can learn the skills your child needs to work on and practise.

Year 6 Friday 26th November 2021

Date: 26th Nov 2021 @ 3:34pm

For our fourth week back after half term. Year 6 have continued to work hard with their responsibilities, with things such as: the School Ambassador team leading collective worships and announcing the results of the house points to the school; the School Council preparing for their first school learning update, named ‘The Learning Times’; Science Ambassadors continue to lead science experiments during break times; the Sports Captains helping to lead sport, look after the equipment and help set up activities throughout the school, and our Reading Ambassadors will be starting a reading club with Reception next week.  

This week in Year 6:

• In Maths, we have been learning multiples, factors and new ways to divide large numbers.
• In our novel, ‘Private Peaceful’, we have been learning how to write an action scene, based on one of the main characters rescuing their captain. We have also learnt how life was like in the trenches of the First World War.
• In Geography, we completed our research of tsunamis, earthquakes and volcanoes and presented them to the class.
• In our topic in RE, Expectations, we have been using the hymn ‘Maranatha’ to help us understand what advent means to Christians.
• In PE, we focused our learning on invasion games, by working as a team to either invade the oppositions area (through the skills of tag rugby) and eliminating the other team (through the aiming and catching skills of Dodgeball).
• In Art, we continued our learning of tone and texture with the medium of a paintbrush with water. We first sketched in felt tips, then used a paintbrush (with water) to create different effects. Then using Lola Dupre’s letters, we designed our own artwork. See the gallery in Year 6 to see some of this amazing artwork.
• In Music, we worked hard to compose 8 bar blues, then performed them on the glocks for others to hear.
• In French, we used our learning of seasons, weather, conjunctions and adverbs of frequency to help us read and understand different texts.
• In Science, we finished collecting data for the shadows investigation that we started last week. We created graphs and worked together to interpret them. Finally, we used what we now know about light to explain why shadows are the same shape as the object causing it.

Home Practice all relates to this week’s learning. These are the tasks needed to be completed:

• Reading – Use your Home Reading to read every night for 30 minutes. You also have a Reading Journal/Diary that must be used for the title of the book and any reading challenge chosen.
  • The days when you can change your book:
    • Monday – Roller Coasters
    • Tuesday – Big Dippers
    • Wednesday – The Waltzers

• Spellings (-ent, -ence words)
  • Sumdog (-ent, -ence A2 wk 5)
    • persistent, persistence, violent, violence, intelligent, intelligence, inconvenient, inconvenience, obedient, obedience, conference, difference, conscience, reference, excitement

• Maths challenges:
  • Counting:
    • This week we have been counting in decimal steps of 50, 90 and 900 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.
    • g. Start with different numbers and count up 10 times then back again in 50s:

233, 283, 333, 383, 433, 483, 533, etc

and in 90s:

233, 323, 413, 503, 593, 683, 773, 863, etc               

Start at a different number and count up 10 numbers and down again but this time in 900s:

740, 1640, 2540, 3440, 4340, 5240, 6140, 7040, etc     

• Sumdog (Division of 7 – 12 times tables)
  • Each child has their own tables target which they should know. The Sumdog challenge may relate to their target but if not, you can always use Sumdog for extra Tables Practice. Every Tuesday there is a tables test.

• Sumdog (Multiples and Factors)

• To help you remember:

A multiple is a number that can be divided by another number a certain number of times without a remainder.

A factor is one of two or more numbers that divides a given number without a remainder.

Multiples and factors are best explained by using a number sentence such as the following:

5 x 4 = 20

5 and 4 are factors of 20.  20 is a multiple of 5 and 4.

Year 3 Blog Friday 26th November

Date: 26th Nov 2021 @ 1:04pm

Welcome to your Friday Blog

This week in our English learning we have continued to investigate news reports and articles. We have created our own reports, making sure to include all the features and remembered to write like journalists. We have enjoyed reading lots of news articles and watching the news on Newsround. Next week will be finishing our Mr Stink story, looking at instuctional writing and using exciting vocabulary to improve our sentences.

In maths, we have been learning new strategies to add and when to use them. We discussed when we solve problems in our head, when we do jottings and when we have to use a written method. Everyone is enjoying their maths learning and having a go when it gets tricky. We have also started to learn the 4x tables. Please practise at home. In school, we are listening to a 4x tables song on YouTube. See below.

On Friday we started our Big Draw project. Every friday we will explore drawing and art through various media. This week we explored how sounds and music can inspire us to create beautiful art. Have a look at the link below.

The Big Draw  #1

We also started our new topics in Geography and Science. We used Digimaps on the latops to look at maps at different scales and to find our homes using our postcodes and addresses. We added labels to our maps and had some great ideas on how maps help us discover new places.

In Science we started our new topic on Light. We discusssed what we already knew and what we would like to find out. Here are some questions we came up with.

Where does light come from?

What is light?

Who invented light?

What does opaque mean?

Home Practice 

1. Read to somebody at home every night for 20 minutes. Talk about what you have read.

2. Please practise the following skills for maths – even if you already know them, you need to be quick.

• Number Bonds, make 20.
• Times Tables, x4.

Hit the Button

3. Spellings

Click the file below to see your spellings. 

Sumdog

You will be tested on your spellings and 4x times tables on Tuesday 30th november. Make sure you practise every night.

Have a fantastic weekend!

Friday 26th November

Date: 26th Nov 2021 @ 8:07am

We have really enjoyed learning all about doctors and nurses this week. 

We had two special visitors this week!

A real life nurse and paramedic, came along to talk to the children all about the different ways they help people. We had lots of questions for them! 

We have also been counting out amounts using pennies and measuring how tall we are in maths. 

In Literacy we have been learning with Ninja-Nan. We have been practising different circus skills and predicting what we think would happen next in the story. :) 

Year 5 - Friday 26th November 2021

Date: 25th Nov 2021 @ 5:03pm

Welcome to this week’s Year 5 class blog

The children are working hard and developing their skills in many different areas.

This week in year 5

In Maths we have been focused on division.  We started using arrays to work out division problems and by the end of the week we had moved onto chunking.  Many children we able to move onto and solve division word problems.

In English we are very close to the end of the book.  Before we find out what happens we have made our own predictions and are in the process of writing our own final chapter of the book.  The suspense that the children are creating is great to see.  We are trying to make our work more interesting by using fronted adverbials in some of our sentences.

In RE the children completed their Life Choices topic with a calm Collective Worship, where many of them read beautifully.  We then moved onto our new topic of Hope, where we will discuss and explain reasons why we wait, and the most important time of waiting, during Advent.

In PE, the children completed one of two activities. Firstly all the children practised baton passing.  They learnt the techniques needed to make it as swift and smooth as possible.  The tag rugby session with Mrs Cookson started with a practise tag game, dodging the other team trying to get to the semi-circle without losing their tags. Afterwards they moved onto passing the ball along the line and then running back to the start. The dance session with Mrs Nuttall was another success.  The children split into teams and had to become tableaus of space related words e.g. a rocket, the Moon, a satellite.  Then they had to create a story, in their groups, by creating 4 tableaus with a movement in between.  They were extremely creative. We have the explosion of a star, a rocket going to Mars and the formation of Earth.  Photos have been added to the gallery.

In Geography we continued our work on longitude and latitude but focused on North America and the different states and how the lines of latitude affect the climate.  We looked at a number of states in detail and will use this information to complete more work on them, in future sessions.

In Art, the children are looking at the artist Jo Quigley from the UK.  They have looked at her artwork and that of her influences and made links between the two.  They will be planning and creating their own cityscape piece of artwork, inspired by Jo Quigley in the coming weeks.

The children have been sent home with a small 2 sided booklet about Reconciliation.  Please look through this, with your child to prepare them further for their sacrament on Monday. You are invited to join them in Church at 2.30pm on Monday.  Don’t forget the year 5 family mass on Sunday at Church, details in the newsletter.

Also don’t forget the rearranged trip on Tuesday to the Leyland Museum, all children will need a disposable lunch.

Home Practice all relates to this week's learning - These are the tasks to be completed.

Reading - You all have a Home Reading book for year 5 so reading every night for 15-20 mins is essential. You also have a Reading Journal/Diary that must be completed and signed.

You can change your reading book on any school day (book bags to be left on Mrs Mulgrew's desk)

 Spellings words ending ious. We will look at these in more detail in school next week. They should be practised at home, ready for the test on Friday. 

Don’t forget the children have a big list of Common Exception words to learn, these can be practised each week to push your child further.

Some children have been told to complete a different number of spellings, please check with your child.

ambitious, cautious, curious, delicious glorious, obvious, previous, religious, various, mysterious, previously, furiously, seriously, victorious, vicious

Sumdog challenges

PLEASE ENCOURAGE YOUR CHILDREN TO COMPLETE THE SUMDOG CHALLENGES, MANY CHILDREN ARE STILL NOT ACCESSING SUMDOG.

This week we would like to introduce Maths and Spelling Training.  As you know, we set weekly challenges that are linked to the learning that takes place in school.  As an extra feature, the maths and spelling training sections will provide a tailored challenge for your child to practise skills, facts and words they find difficult.  Once the diagnostic challenges have been completed Sumdog will set challenges to aid improvement and development in the appropriate areas for your child.  Once you have completed the class challenges, please use this feature for extra challenge in both maths and spelling. Your tailored training is available in your tasks tab.

Times tables have been set to reflect class targets

Maths the children have been set activities relating to multiplication and division.  They will need to use their multiplication and division knowledge and learnt this week, to work out the answers.  They may need to do jottings.

Spellings words ending ious.

The children have had another great week in school.

Year 1 Friday Blog 26th November 2021

Date: 25th Nov 2021 @ 9:50am

Welcome to your Friday blog!

In English, we have started our new book - Traction Man! Everyone has loved learning about Traction Man's exciting adventures and how he wears different outfits depending on what he is doing. For example, he wore a scuba suit to dive into the sink! We also have been writing thank you letters from the spoons, creating story maps, filling in speech bubbles, drawing all of Traction Man's outfits and predicting what would happen next in the story. We've been very busy.

We have done some super learning in maths - we have learnt how to use part whole models! These have helped us to understand addition as the two parts add together to make the whole. We then challenged ourselves to write the corresponding number sentences and even chose our own bigger numbers in blank part whole models.

In R.E. we have started our new topic of Waiting. Especially, in relation to Advent. We had a special box waiting for us in class, we waited to open it and inside was a cross to represent waiting for Jesus' birthday. We then drew our own pictures of us waiting. There were some brilliant pictures of waiting for a bus, to be chosen in class, for our birthdays and waiting for Christmas Day.

In P.E. we created and practiced our ideas for the paired section of our robot dance. We are nearly finished now! Next week we hope to be finished and ready to film...

In French, we learnt the French words for some body parts and for the parts of our face. We enjoyed singing tete, epaules, genoux, pieds (head, shoulders, knees and toes).

In P.S.H.E we have talked about our families and who is special to us. We quickly realised that our families are all different and that it is okay to choose different people to spend our time with.

Lastly, we started our Big Draw art event on Tuesday. We played some mindfulness music and drew whatever we wanted in our sketch books. It was lovely to see all of the children fully engaged in their learning and having fun.

Have a look at the gallery to see all of our brilliant learning this week.

Have a great weekend!

Home Practice

Read for at least 10 minutes every night. This is so important. please sign the diary so we can change the books. Keep practicing reading the Tricky Words on sight. Everyone has got a new set of words. Please just write a note in the diary if you need the next set.

We have also been doing lots of counting. Count on and back in 10s. Choose different numbers to start at. We have used a number square (to 100) to help with our counting as it allowed us to see the patterns visually.

Sumdog challenges

Phonics - Tricky words

Maths - Adding within 20

Year 4 Home Practice Friday 19th November 2021

Date: 19th Nov 2021 @ 4:44pm

Year 4

Home Practice 19^th November 2021

Year 4 have worked hard this week and shown a super attitude to their learning. Keep it up!

Here’s what we have been learning in school this week ….

In English we compared and contrasted 2 very different settings from the class novel, ‘The Firework Maker’s Daughter’. In addition, we wrote a diary account as Lila following her meeting with Razvani (the Fire-fiend). We tried to include ambitious vocabulary to describe our feelings and a variety of sentence openers.

In maths we have been interpreting data from bar charts, tables and pictograms. We have also been practising our tables, addition and subtraction strategies using a numberline, and counting in 9’s and 10’s.

This week we started our new topic in RE – ‘Gifts’. We listened to a story and discussed the qualities we look for in friends.  Following this, we wrote a recipe outlining the ‘Gifts of love and friendship’. In addition, as it was Anti-bullying week, we discussed how unkind words make people feel and the importance of ‘one kind word’, which was the theme this year. Following this we made an ‘anti-bullying’ poster in our PSHE books.

In Science we firstly identified all the components we would need to make circuits. Then we made circuits to light a bulb and make a motor and a buzzer work. After this, we tried to make components work without using wires. We had a great time exploring and investigating! Well done Y4.

In PE we practised our tag rugby in mini games. Year 4 were put into teams and had to run from one ‘safe place’ to another without having their ‘tags’ taken off. It was great fun and we all managed to score a try!

During our French lesson, we asked and answered the question Quelle est la date de ton anniversaire? (When is your birthday?). Then we practised writing lots of other dates to help us recall days, numbers and months.

Reading

Please read for 20 minutes each evening to an adult at home.  Make sure you discuss the story and the characters.  Find the meaning of any new words too.  Reading every night will help you read more fluently and with understanding. 

Times tables

You have been given your own individual times table target.  Please make sure you continue to practise your times tables in preparation for your test next week, on Thursday (25^th November 2021). Ask someone at home to test you on your tables – can you recall them quickly and accurately?  

Remember - you can also practise your tables playing ‘Hit the button’.   

Counting

This week, please practise counting in 9’s and 10’s – draw a line and some marks on it like I do in class. You could write the numbers down as you count up.  When you count down, cover the numbers up, say the number, then reveal what you have got written down to check you’ve said the correct number.

Count in 9’s

For example, start at 0 and count up to 108 and back again (this will help with your 9 times tables)

0   9   18   27  etc                     108   99    90   etc

Do this a few times to help you learn them!

Count in 10s

Start at 74 and count up to 224 and back again

74   84    94   etc           224   214    204  etc

Start at 23.8 and count up to 153.8 and back again

23.8   33.8   43.8    etc             153.8   143.8   133.8    etc

Spellings

The spellings this week explore words ending with the ‘sh’ sound spelt ‘ch which are mostly French in origin. Please practise your spellings each evening at home.  You will be tested on them next Thursday (25^th November 2021). We have discussed different strategies you could use to help you learn them and you could also use ‘Look say cover write check’.

chalet          chef            brochure      parachute    sachet

quiche          chaperone    chauffeur    moustache    crochet

chivalry        machine       charade       machinery    pistachio     

You have been set 2 challenges on Sumdog:

• A spelling challenge based on the spellings above
• A times table challenge based on the 9 times tables

Please make sure you log on and have a go! Many of you are still not accessing Sumdog on a daily basis. Little and often is the key to success!

Number bonds

This week we have been practising adding numbers mentally. Please practise these skills using Hit the Button

Click on the link above, then on Play Game.

Click on Number bonds

On the left-hand side you will see the words ‘Up to 20’

Click on Addition within 20

See how many you can get correct in 1 minute. Then have another go and try and beat your score.

Practising these skills will help you in lots of topics in maths!

Year 6 Friday 19th November 2021

Date: 19th Nov 2021 @ 4:03pm

For our third week back after half term, Year 6 had taken part in an exciting football friendly match against Penwortham County Primary and performed brilliantly at Hutton for the indoor athletics finals. Congratulations to everyone who took part. We do not know the results for the athletics yet but hopefully we will find out by Monday.  This Friday, we celebrated Children in Need day with some amazing outfits, looking very spotty! Also, we have been using kind words this week to celebrate anti-bullying week, through kind messages to each other and acting out different scenarios when someone is upset. 

This week in Year 6:

• In Maths, we have been learning how to solve many problems using the bar model, how use the written subtraction method effectively and how to use different strategies to divide various numbers.
• In our novel, ‘Private Peaceful’, we have focussed on using exciting vocabulary to write as one of the characters to recount the missing scene of Big Joe, and we wrote a persuasive speech as a sergeant major to convince more people to join the war.
• In Geography, we researched information about tsunamis, earthquakes and volcanoes to find out what they are, how they happen and any historical events that affected the world greatly.
• For RE, we completed our topic of ‘Vocation and Commitment’ with a lovely collective worship and began our topic of ‘Expectations’, looking at different expectations that people have on us.
• In PE, we continued our learning of athletic skills through track and field events such as sprints, team sprints, speed bounce, javelin, basketball throw, vertical jump, long jump and triple jump. This week we completed the indoor athletics competition at Hutton.
• In Art, we learnt how to use tone and texture with the medium of charcoal to create our own Lola Dupre letter. See the gallery in Year 6 to see some of the super artwork.
• In Music, we have been learning how to play ‘We Wish You a Merry Christmas’ on the glocks, as well as ‘Winter Wonderland’ with the boomwhackers.
• In French, we revised the weather phrases and looked at some grammar points by finding the odd one out of some words/phrases. We also finished our French pop song and gave out opinion on it.
• In Science, we continued our light topic by modelling how we see objects using string to represent the light rays. We then planned an investigation into shadows.

Home Practice all relates to this week’s learning. These are the tasks needed to be completed:

• Reading – Use your Home Reading to read every night for 30 minutes. You also have a Reading Journal/Diary that must be used for the title of the book and any reading challenge chosen.
  • The days when you can change your book:
    • Monday – Roller Coasters
    • Tuesday – Big Dippers
    • Wednesday – The Waltzers

• Spellings (-ant, -ance words)
  • Sumdog (-ant, -ance A2 wk 4)
    • assistant, assistance, arrogant, relevant, important, importance, appearance, extravagant, hesitant, reluctant, nuisance, hindrance, ignorance, resistance, restaurant

• Maths challenges:
  • Counting:
    • This week we have been counting in decimal steps of 8, 80 and 800 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.
    • g. Start with different numbers and count up 10 times then back again in 8s:

5, 13, 21, 29, 37, 45, 53, 61, etc

and in 80s:

13, 93, 173, 253, 333, 413, etc               

Start at a different number and count up 10 numbers and down again but this time in 800s:

456, 1256, 2056, 2856, 3656, 4456 etc    

• Sumdog (Multiplication and Division of 3, 4, 5)

• Sumdog (Related facts quick division)

• In this challenge, there are questions with missing numbers, all relating to the multiplication facts we discuss in class often. If you practice with these, you will find next week’s division week easier to understand.

Friday 19th November 2021

Date: 19th Nov 2021 @ 3:53pm

This week we had a special Zoom call with PSDA Vets. We turned our role play into a vets and we have been looking after lots of different animals. 

We have been looking at measuring how long and short our hands and bodies are in Maths and having a go at simple addition.