MrJennings

In English, on Thursday, we had a go at a complete SATs reading test (and we will go through this in class some time next week) while, in maths, we used the calculator to find fractions and percentages of quantities before doing some mental addition and subtraction with numbers up to 100. We had another science afternoon, this time investigating factors which affect the speed of evaporation. We explored the effect of different temperatures, quantities of liquid, how "open" the containing vessel is and the effect of air movement.

Today we had our Friday maths and English groups and we also did some art, beginning some water colour paintings by laying down the initial background washes.

In maths this week we are thinking about problem solving, and focussing on using a calculator to help solve problems involving large or difficult numbers. We have also been thinking about ways in which we can record what we have done to show our method of working.

Poems including Clerihews, haiku and limericks have been the subject of our work in English. We have looked at the structure, rhythmic and rhyme patterns and any other features of the organisation of the forms and then we have written our own examples. We have also done some work on alliteration.

We have started to consider the idea of reversible and irreversible changes in relation to materials. We discussed materials changing state (from solid to liquid to gas and vice versa) and materials changing when they are burnt.

Yesterday afternoon we had our usual French, spelling and PE sessions.

We finished our flanimals work by completing the drafting of our comparison and copying this up. In maths we have revised some strategies for tackling easier "number" questions in SATs-type papers by making helpful jottings to record methods.

We have done a series of experiments in science to investigate factors affecting the speed which which materials dissolve in water. Yesterday we all tested the effect of changing the temperature of water on the time taken for a measure of salt to dissolve and today different groups investigated other factors such as quantity of salt/water, effect of stirring, the size of the salt crystals.

In RE/art spent some more time thinking about the symbolism apparent in Hindu art and then completed our own pictures representing the god Ganesha.

In our English work we finished our newspaper report about the discovery of a strange creature in the Broadmarsh Caves and have now begun working on ways to write good reports comparing two flanimals. We have thought about how to structure these and the sorts of connectives that would be helpful.

Our maths work has focused on division. We have practised accurate computation and solved problems requiring a decision about whether the answer needs to be rounded up or rounded down to the nearest whole number. We have also been making sure that we can write answers where we have to correctly convert the remainder to a fraction.

In music, we have begun working on some "Chinese" compositions. We are working in groups to create "question" and "answer" phrases using the pentatonic scale and adding some rhythm using untuned percussion. We chose "metal" instruments to enhance the effect.

We have had our weekly French, spelling/handwriting and YMCA PE sessions and, today, we had a science afternoon when we revised methods of separating materials before we did an experiment to begin looking at factors which effect the speed of dissolving.

Our main focus in maths has been on division calculations yesterday and today - making sure that we can give answers to these calculations either with a remainder, as a mixed number (i.e. changing the remainder into a fraction) or as a decimal.

We have continued our Flanimals unit of work in English by doing more description, but this time in the form of a newspaper report. We are making sure that we have a good headline and a first paragraph which summarises the story, before giving details about the "who, what, where, when and why or how". We will finish these next week.

We did PE and some science yesterday afternoon, investigating what happens when different materials are mixed with water. This afternoon, we had our tables test, homework was set and then we began our final piece of work on our Symbols and Faith in Art R.E. topic. We used information from the Internet to learn about symbolism in Hindu artwork, thinking in particular about representations of the god, Ganesha. Then we made our own, labeled pencil sketches of Ganesha in preparation for making a coloured picture.

We have continued our descriptive writing based on Flanimals in English. We are producing our written work in different forms - including descriptions in letters and newspaper reports to help us learn the ways authors adapt their style of writing for different purposes.

In maths we have moved on to concentrate on mental arithmetic - mainly multiplication and division. We have been doing a lot of work multiplying and dividing numbers (including decimals) by 10, 100 and 1000 and doubling and halving decimal numbers.

We have finished our technology project by testing our shelters to destruction (after taking photographs of them). Although they are only made of card and artstraws, some of them supported a weight of more that 50 kg!

On Tuesday we had our usual sessions of French, handwriting/spelling and PE.

Our new term has started with new units of work in most areas.

In English, we have been writing some descriptions - using pictures of Flanimals as the basis of our work. We have concentrated on creating good opening sentences and including good expanded noun phrases. Our maths work has focused on place value in decimal numbers, including ordering numbers and also revising negative numbers.

We have spent a lot of time this week on our shelters technology project and almost everyone has completed their model and is ready for testing. We have also had time to do some PE and music (working on open and closed sounds in rhythmic patterns).