We have news – WE DID IT!!! 100% reading 3 times or more!!!! Well done class 4 – now you need to keep it up and rise to the extra challenge of telling me about the part of the book you read each day or about how much you are enjoying the book and why. Also make sure you get that adult signature once a week. Remember, extra Dojo points are on offer for those who rise to the challenge!
Homework – English
This week we have finished our Tadeo Jones stories – I have been very impressed with them! For homework I have a treat for you – you get to watch the rest of the film!! Watch it once and enjoy it, then watch it again and write down detailed sentences to explain the clues we were given that it wasn’t a real Egyptian tomb, set in Egyptian times. Finally, did you expect this ending?
Can you include some fronted adverbials in your sentences? Can you use expanded noun phrases to write about the clues you notice?
I wonder what our new English unit will be next week?
I must start this week’s post with something that has made me proud….this week I have been told on a few occasions how great Class 4 are – well done guys – it makes it all worth while!!
We have had another busy week – writing our Tadeo Jones stories, working on multiplication in maths, exploring reflective materials in Science and finding out about Egyptian pharaohs. In Computing, we were lucky enough to try out the new chromebooks to begin our work on animation. We were very impressed with the hardware and look forward to using them again. We must say a massive thank you to everyone who helped to raise the money for them!
Homework – Science
In Science this week, we began to look at different light sources and reflective materials. Can you identify some different light sources and reflective materials at home? How could you record your findings? Could you use a table, create a poster or maybe complete some sentences. Bring your finished pieces of work into school or post them on seesaw.
Homework – Maths
I have set a battle of the bands on Times Tables Rockstars – Girls vs Boys! I wonder who will win! Try to take some time each day to play for your team.
Reading
Also remember to READ!! We need to keep our percentage up! I am so pleased to announce that our reading percentage this week was……(drum roll please…..)
I am so impressed! Can we keep it up next week – or dare I say….BEAT IT!!???
Another fab week Class 4, we have worked hard in all areas…we have begun our new guided reading text ‘The Secret of a Sun King’, we have begun to write our Adventure Stories about the Egyptian explorer Tadeo Jones, we have started to find out about Light in Science and found out more about Egyptians in History…it really is non-stop!
Reading
So, we set ourselves the challenge of having 100% of our children reading 3 times or more….this week our total was….87%!!! That’s the highest we have had so far this year but it’s not quite 100! Can we get to the big number this coming week?!
I won’t set any official homework this week in the hope we can all spend our time reading instead. Perhaps you could read a non-fiction book about Egyptians or an adventure story to get ideas – remember it all helps!
Welcome back! Class 4 have hit the ground running and are raring to go!
Firstly something from last year….
I must start with a massive thank you, for all the support last term, for the many Christmas gifts and also the kind donations to buy your child’s CAM toy. I am sure you will agree that the children had fantastic ideas and it finished off our rainforest topic perfectly.
Talking of the rainforest, we had some excitement in Class 4 on Wednesday when the children met Stan the Sloth! As a Christmas present, I have adopted Stan for the year! (Postal strikes meant he didn’t arrive before Christmas!) Stan lives at South Lakes Safari Zoo in the Lake District and he is very cute!! We look forward to hearing about him throughout the year, maybe some of us may even visit him!!
This Term
This term we move our learning from the Rainforest to Egypt and focus our learning on the Ancient Egyptians. As you can see below, much of our learning will be involving this theme.
Here is a copy of our class newsletter, just incase you misplace your copy
The children are already loving the learning that is taking place!
Homework
This week, we trying to increase the percentage of children reading 3 times a week at home. Class 4 have set themselves the personal target of 100%!!! So this week I am not setting any homework in the hope that we can reach this target (remember Miss Northen’s promise of cake if we can do it at least once in the next 4 weeks! (and also keep the presentation in our books amazing!) Can we do it Class 4?
Please also remember to practice your times tables (Year 4s that multiplication check is getting ever closer!) and if you wish to do any further research at home on the Egyptians, that would be amazing, can you answer any of the questions you wrote on Friday?
This week, Class 4 have been amazing, I have honestly been blown away by their English work. The challenge was to write a letter to a logging company in South America to ask them to consider their role in reducing deforestation in the rainforest. The language choices and features the children have included have been brilliant – ask your child what hyperbole, direct address and modal verbs are – you will be impressed!
In Maths, the year 4’s have continued to work on multiplication and ensuring their know their times tables by heart (Information about the Multiplication Check can be found below) and the Year 5s have begun to look at fractions – realising that knowing your times tables makes everything so much quicker and easier! Please ensure you practice regularly at home using TTRockstars, Purple Mash or the many websites listed in everyone’s reading log.
I can’t believe how fast the week’s seem to be going at the moment – it will soon be Christmas!!!
This week we enjoyed an interactive, online Science session. The children enjoyed the chance to find out about sustainable materials, meet a robot, answer questions interactively and also have our question read out online.
English
This week I have been really impressed with the children’s hard work in English. Firstly we finished and evaluated some amazing diary entries and then we moved onto our new persuasive writing unit based on the book The Great Kapok Tree. We have worked hard on identifying the different features of a persuasive text – I wonder how many you can remember?
Can you identify any in the story?
I can’t wait to read our persuasive letters to the logging company trying to persuade them not to cut down the trees.
Homework – English
For homework, I would like you to play the following persuasive language game. This will help us with the language we need for our letter. As an extra challenge, choose one of the topic cards and write your own persuasive argument to agree or disagree with the statement.
Class 4 have again excelled themselves this week with more amazing work in all subjects. I have been so impressed with their diary entries based on our short film ‘The Catch’, we have continued to build our knowledge of plants in Science, worked on multiplication and division in Maths and started our work on Ancient Maya in History – I think I even learnt something in that lesson!
Last Friday afternoon, it was lovely to see the children sharing, chatting and laughing together – Let’s aim for another week of 100% attendance so we can get the board games, top trump cards and lego out again!!!
Homework – Maths
As today has been Children in Need, it only seems right to have a Children in Need inspired homework. After our escape room activity and some code breaking activities in Maths, can you crack the codes to work out the answers? (practising your multiplication and division facts at the same time!!) All sheets have been given out with reading logs.
Class 4 ended last week on a high…..We were the first class in school to get 100% attendance all week, meaning we could have an afternoon of our choice! 33 children, all in school, all week! I challenge you to do it again guys!!!!
This week, the children have again worked so hard…they have also impressed me with their team work and kindness towards each other. I received a lovely comment from another member of staff who taught them one afternoon ‘Your class have been great! I would have them anytime!’ – thanks Class 4 – you made me feel very proud!
Thanks for all the great Geography homework completed this week, the children have clearly really enjoyed all the theme work we have completed linked to the rainforests and South America. They had great fun during our end of topic challenge…playing ‘I’m a celebrity get me out of here’!
Homework
Next week, we will be busy writing diary entries in the role of a young boy in the rainforest using the short film below. For homework, I would like you to talk the film through with a parent, adding a first person narrative to the film. This will help us with the diary entry.
Can you note down some sentences that are going to be useful in the diary? What past tense verbs will you use? Can you think of a rhetorical question he may include? How would he be feeling? What sentence could you use in the future tense at the end of your diary?
Wow, this week has flown by…Class 4 have been so busy! Our mornings have been packed with our new English unit, reading more of Stitch Head (we had another great Twitter comment from the author!!) and gaining new learning in Maths. The afternoons have involved dissecting plants, calculating food miles, singing songs, playing football and becoming South American tour guides…we have not stopped!!!
I wonder what a Dingle Dangle is!!??!!
Learning at Home
Today, all children will come home with the times table QR codes I posted on the blog before the holiday stuck in their reading log. (Please scroll back to this previous post if you missed it) Please spend some time each week focusing on helping your child learn these skills. This week in Year 5 we have been looking at multiples and next week we will look at factors – if your child does not know their times tables, this learning immediately becomes tricky. Likewise, the Year 4s really need to make the calculations secure ready for the multiplication check.
Homework
To link to our work on food miles, I would like to set you a challenge to find out more…have a search through the food cupboard at home (ask permission first!), join mum or dad on the food shop or use a supermarket website to find out where some more foods come from. Can you then find out how many miles they have travelled to get to our plate in the UK. Finally, display your findings some how. Perhaps you could use a map, like we did, or maybe present your information in a table or in picture form. I wonder who can find the piece of food with the longest distance and the piece with the shortest. Happy searching!
Another great week for class 4 where the highlight had to be our retweets and comments on twitter from the author of Stitch Head!!!! The classroom was buzzing when we read them!
Thanks for all the great effort put into homework last week – it was great to see and hear the children sharing their work and ideas.
Thanks to everyone who attended parents evening over the last week. It was lovely to hear how lots of the children are enjoying their learning and talking about things in school at home.
I thought it might be useful to share a few resources, that I mentioned to a number of parents, with everyone so that these can be regularly accessed at home…
Timetables
Please ensure your child knows all their times tables by heart. All year 4s will take part in the Multiplication Check later in the year requiring them to answer 25 questions on the computer or a tablet.
The following QR codes lead to a range of websites which can be used to practice skills. I have also added 2dos to purple mash and every child has their TTRockstars password. There really is no reason not to practice!
Timestable Racetrack
Writing
With a number of parents, I discussed the images for our free writing on a Friday. Below is the website where I get my resources from. There are over 300 different images and story starts to choose from. You may wish to complete one weekly with your child in order to help to improve skills and apply all the work we are doing in our SPAG sessions.
Thanks to everyone who is supporting our quest to develop a love of reading at home. With some parents, we talked about the value of still occasionally reading out loud to your child. I feel this is a valuable time to spend as it allows your child to hear how a text should be read, develop further knowledge of punctuation in sentences and how to successfully use expression. We are finding this time in whole class reading very valuable and would love it if you could continue this skill at home.
Homework (optional this week)
Over half term, you may wish to complete an optional homework challenge….Can you build a rainforest in a shoe box? How will you show the different layers? What animals will live there?
If you do complete the challenge, please upload your work to seesaw or bring it into school. Happy building!
