MrJennings

In maths we have done some more work on division and moved on to thinking about solving maths problems and puzzles.

In English we have started to look at the novel, Grandpa Chatterji, concentrating on the first chapter. We have studied some of the complex sentences in this chapter and thought about the viewpoint that the author uses to tell the story. In this first chapter much of it is told through the eyes of the two children. Today we re-wrote part of the story (where Grandpa and the children first meet) from Grandpa Chatterji's point of view.

We have started work on another science unit of work - Earth, Sun and Moon - by discussing what we already knew about these bodies and finding out some facts and figures.

We also had the next "episode" of our history story about how Nottingham was established:
In the simulation, our groups were part of a Saxon expedition which had arrived in the area and was exploring it to find a suitable place to site a new village. We had lots of factors to take into account and all our groups made excellent choices. After making our selections and learning about the choice made by the Saxon settlers in the Nottingham area, we wrote letters to our families back home (in Germany) telling them about the fantastic place we had found and why it was so perfect for our way of life.

We have continued looking at performance poetry in English. This week we have tried writing our own examples. After looking at a poem called The Disco Sheep on the BBC web site, we wrote one called The Sporty Hen!

In maths we are thinking about multiplication and division again - this week we are focussing on written methods, but we have begun by working on sums like 40 x 300 which we were doing mentally.

We are working on control in ICT and worked on writing computer programs to control traffic lights and zebra crossings. Some of us even started work on a traffic light/lifting bridge combination.

In geography we used a magazine originally produced by Severn Trent to find out how the water companies obtain their supplies of water.

We continued our maths work, concentrating on written methods of doing division sums on Thursday and investigating tests of divisibility. In English, we looked at a poem by Roger McGough in which he uses a lot of similes. After reading the poem we looked at a list of the similes used and tried to create new ones. Then we made up our own verses to continue and develop McGough's poem.

In science we thought more about evaporation and condensation. We put some ice in a glass and noticed that, after a few minutes, droplets of water began to appear on the outside of the glass. We related this to what we know about the water cycle. We also thought about the different ways of drying clothes (using an airer, a standard washing line, a rotary washing line and a tumble drier), rating these according to how quickly we thought they might dry clothes and explaining our ideas in relation to what we know about evaporation.

We began to use the information that we found out about Anglo-Saxon villages to write a description of the sort of place the people would look for if they needed to create a new settlement. We wrote this down and some of us have "aged" the documents we made.

It was good weather so, this afternoon, we went outside to sketch trees and flowers around the playground, making sure we looked carefully and took our time to produce the best drawings we could.

We have been thinking about "performance poems" this week - that is, poems which have been written specifically to be performed to an audience or read aloud. We have been reading some different examples and practicing in groups to perform some of them to the class.

In maths we have been looking at maths problems - deciding what maths operations (addition, subtraction, multiplication and/or division) we need to use to find the correct answers. We have also been making sure we can do multiplication sums correctly.

We have learned about the different "stages" in the life of a river. We watched a video and read some pages from a book telling us about the youthful stage (or upper course), mature stage (middle course) and old age (lower course) of a river and made notes about the different features of a river at these different stages. For example, this included the kind of land that the river is flowing through at that stage, what it will be carrying along with it (stones, sand and/or mud) and the different features (such as water falls and meanders) that you would normally find in a river at that stage.

We have also begun our new history topic. We have started this by looking at some drawings showing an Anglo-Saxon settlement and using the pictures as evidence to help us think about the sort of place that a group of Saxons would be looking for if they they had to find a new place to live.

We completed our work on "rounding" numbers, including decimal numbers in maths and have continued thinking about the "viewpoint" taken by an author in our English work. On Thursday we looked at an episode from The Lottie Project by Jacqueline Wilson and wrote comments about an issue by some of the different characters. Today we looked again at an incident from The Wind in the Willows and wrote a letter of apology from Mole to Ratty after he had capsized the boat in his eagerness to grab the oars to try rowing himself.

We planned and carried out an experiment to investigate factors that might effect how quickly liquid (water in this case) will evaporate. Related to this, we did some geography and citizenship work reflecting on essential and non-essential uses of water and how shortage of water effects life in countries where clean water is in short supply.

We have continued our work based on the book, The Wind in the Willows. Our focus has been on the "point of view" being taken by the author - and thinking about how this affects the way a reader feels about the different characters. Our main activity has been to tell part of the story from Mole's point of view. We have done this in the form of a diary entry, making sure we show the Mole's thoughts and feelings about the different events.

In maths we have been revising some of the things we learned earlier in the year - including how to round numbers to the nearest 10, 100 and 1000 and to do the same with money figures and decimal numbers.

On Tuesday we had a special trip down to The Wheldon School for a PE activity morning. We did lots of different gymnastics activities including jumping, running, javelin throwing and relays. This meant that our usual PE session with the YMCA was postponed until Wednesday this week.

In English we focused on improving sentences in our writing. We looked at some of the complicated sentences in The Wind in the Willows, teasing out the separate ideas that Kenneth Grahame included in them. Then we wrote sentences of our own which included more than one clause. Our maths work moved on to looking at some ways we can tell if a number can be divided by 2, 3, 4, 5 or 10 (tests of divisibility).

We have done some more work in science, thinking about the special properties of solids, liquids and gases and discussing examples and we have done PE and art.

Our Maths this week is concerned with number patterns and sequences. We have been looking at sequences of numbers and extending them (backwards and forwards). We have also been describing the patterns we have spotted and describing the patterns in sentences and in formulae.

In English we have been studying the first chapter of the classic story The Wind in the Willows. We have been looking at some of the language and the sentence structures used in the book and thinking about the viewpoint that the author uses to narrate the story.

The Wind in the Willows story has also linked in well to our science and geography work on water. we have been thinking about the water cycle and what makes water change state from liquid to gas (water vapour) and vice versa in the atmosphere.

We have had PE with the YMCA and our Spanish and handwriting sessions on Tuesday.