MrJennings

We have continued writing in different forms by revisiting our "letter of complaint" about a poor experience in a restaurant and re-writing the episode in the form of a play script.

In maths, we spent some time on questions about pie charts and, today, tackled a range of problems in our special Friday maths groups.

Our science revision has continued to look at aspects of materials and their properties and we have had a couple of art sessions - one being an introduction to one point perspective drawing and the other involving the sketching of winter trees on a water colour wash background.

We have been focussing on writing non-fiction in English this week. On Monday we looked at connective words and phrases which could be helpful when writing explanations and used these to create a variety of sentences about a series of different scenarios. Yesterday we then wrote an accident report incorporating explanation. We moved on a little today, turning our focus to comparing formal and informal writing. After examining formally and informally written party invitations, we wrote a formal letter of complaint to a restaurant owner using ideas from an informal letter to a friend about a bad experience of a meal out.

Our work in maths has covered long multiplication and division and some aspects of data handling. This has included drawing and interpreting bar charts and line graphs as well as sorting and tallying data.

We have spent some more time revising our science knowledge - thinking about the properties of different materials - and have also looked at some areas of physics on the BBC Revisewise website.

Yesterday we also had our weekly handwriting, spelling, French and YMCA PE sessions.

We have completed our revision of the "biology" areas of our science work, after thinking about plant life cycles and comparing the conditions necessary for seeds to germinate with those needed for plants to grow well.

In English, we have thought about some spelling patterns, specifically the "rule" for spelling words with the ie or ei digraph. We have also studied two poems, discussing the author's choice of words, the structure of the poems and reflecting on the meanings.

Maths work has focussed on fractions - finding fractions of quantities (including fractions of money amounts), simplifying fractions, cancelling, finding equivalents and converting between mixed numbers and improper fractions.

We finished the week with a sketching activity which used the technique of changing the angle at which the pencil is held in order to change the width of the line being produced.

Our Summer Term has begun and we have tried to get into our stride quickly.

In English we have been reading some exciting fiction passages, discussing any interesting features of the stories and the texts then, after doing a few comprehension questions, we have been creating passages continuing from those we have looked at. The main aim has been to try to integrate action, description and dialogue to make an effective sequel.

In maths we have begun a revision programme to cover many of the areas we have studied this year. We have focused on finding percentages and fractions of numbers and tackling a range of mental maths questions and problems.

We have been revising work on plants in science, thinking about the functions of different part of the flower in relation to plant reproduction and then thinking about seed dispersal. We have also made some notes about teeth, eating and a healthy diet and tried some of the activities on the BBC ReviseWise website.