MrJennings

We have enjoyed our Arts Week very much.

Some of the highlights have been:

• a visit from the author, Donna Vann, who led a creative writing workshop
• a visit from an illustrator who showed her work and gave some tips for impressive art work
• a series of art activities led by teachers
• a presentation of circus skills
• a magic performance highlighting the importance of reducing waste, re-using materials and recycling

We are now on our half-term holiday.

We have now finished all our SATs tests.

In between times we did a few exercises to help us prepare for the tests to come and we also had two sessions of PE and tried several little art activities, including some more one-point perspective work. Yesterday we had time to play Scrabble and today, after the last test (which was the maths calculator paper) we watched a film adaptation of the book Carrie's War.

Next week is another special week at school because it is Arts Week.

In maths we have looked at three dimensional shape - naming the shapes, thinking about their properties and the nets which may make them - and probability, while in English we have looked at some comprehension questions and thought about the features of well-written non-fiction texts - particularly instruction texts.

We did some more tennis skills work in PE yesterday after revising Forces and ideas about Earth in Space in science. Today we combined our science work with art, creating a 3D flower model with labels to name the parts and define the functions of those different parts.

Next week is SATs week.

Following the Bank Holiday, we have been working hard on our English, maths and science in preparation for next week's tests.

In maths yesterday we looked at algebra and problems in which numbers are represented with letters. Today we moved on to work on two dimensional shape, revising the naming of these shapes, answering questions based on their properties and checking our knowledge of the vocabulary.

In English we have continued our work on writing. Yesterday we focused on description - producing word sketches of scenes pictured in photographs trying to make sure that we used good expanded noun phrases in our sentences. Today we wrote a short story.

Sound and Earth in Space have been our science revision areas today and we have also had our weekly French, spelling, handwriting and YMCA PE sessions.

In English we have done some reading comprehension work and have also examined and compared pieces of writing (reports about a new school bag design) to evaluate the quality of the writing and identify their strengths and weaknesses.

In maths we have looked at more problems involving angles and challenges based on knowledge of the properties of shape.

We did some tennis activities in PE and have also gone through the science test we completed on Monday as well as doing some more revision.

We had a special afternoon today when we went to the "Safety Zone" to do a whole series of challenges to help us learn about keeping safe in a range of situations. Tasks were set by the police service, school nurses, the fire service, the ambulance service, Severn Trent Water, the road safety team and trading standards officers. We had a great afternoon solving their problems and seeking to avoid the pitfalls and traps set for us.

In English, we have started the week by thinking about different kinds of writing. We have written about a coat in three different ways! We first wrote a good description of a special coat, then we wrote a short, persuasive passage encouraging someone to buy a special winter coat and, finally, we wrote a couple of sentences explaining why a coat with a lining of many micro-fibre layers would keep you warm.

In maths we have spent some time thinking about factors and prime numbers after doing a little work on angles and measurement yesterday.

We have done the second part of an old science SATs test and, today, we have also have had our usual French, spelling, handwriting and YMCA PE sessions.