Thursday, September 30, 2010
26th to 30th September
We have had a short week at school as the teachers have an INSET Day tomorrow (Friday 1st October).
In English we have done a little more on our fictions writing - thinking about writing engaging story openings, which we started last week. We have also done a lot of reading work to help broaden and develop reading skills. We have been reading to identify the main idea in a paragraph, reading to pick out different types of detail. We have also been reading for information. As part of this we have used a scanning strategy to find where information is on a page and then close reading to understand the material. We have recorded the information and then examined another source of information to try to confirm what we have found. If the sources contradict or seem to contradict each other, we have tried to find further sources to help us decide what is correct. We have also discussed how we can consider the reliability of sources of information. Our main maths work this week has been concerned with measures (mainly of length) and converting between units (including mm, cm, m and km).
In addition to science, PE and music, we have had same time in the computer suite developing and presenting our expanded noun phrases (based on The Hooligan's Shampoo) and we have done some atlas work in geography - identifying the locations of the countries of the United Kingdom, their capital cities and major rivers on outline maps. Some then went on to do the same for some European countries.
In English we have done a little more on our fictions writing - thinking about writing engaging story openings, which we started last week. We have also done a lot of reading work to help broaden and develop reading skills. We have been reading to identify the main idea in a paragraph, reading to pick out different types of detail. We have also been reading for information. As part of this we have used a scanning strategy to find where information is on a page and then close reading to understand the material. We have recorded the information and then examined another source of information to try to confirm what we have found. If the sources contradict or seem to contradict each other, we have tried to find further sources to help us decide what is correct. We have also discussed how we can consider the reliability of sources of information. Our main maths work this week has been concerned with measures (mainly of length) and converting between units (including mm, cm, m and km).
In addition to science, PE and music, we have had same time in the computer suite developing and presenting our expanded noun phrases (based on The Hooligan's Shampoo) and we have done some atlas work in geography - identifying the locations of the countries of the United Kingdom, their capital cities and major rivers on outline maps. Some then went on to do the same for some European countries.
# posted by Mr Jennings : 6:39 pm
Friday, September 24, 2010
20th to 24th September
We have been working on our fiction writing this week, learning how to develop characters in our stories and to write engaging openings. We thought about the different ways that Philip Ridley developed the character of the Grandfather in The Hooligan's Shampoo and then tried to use these same techniques in our own writing. (We did this by making Baby Bear - in the story of the Three Bears - into a grumpy, unpleasant character.)
Our maths work has concentrated on number sequences (including sequences involving negative numbers), multiplying and dividing numbers by 10, 100 and 1000 and mental arithmetic calculations. We have also revised and practiced doing harder subtraction sums.
In our topic work, we have learned about the way that the Water Authorities treat water before they can pipe it to our homes and we have begun our studies of rivers and river systems. We started by considering what we already know about rivers and what we would like to find out and then we watched the start of a DVD about different stages in the "life" of a river.
In addition, we have done some more science, PE, ukulele playing, and art.
Our maths work has concentrated on number sequences (including sequences involving negative numbers), multiplying and dividing numbers by 10, 100 and 1000 and mental arithmetic calculations. We have also revised and practiced doing harder subtraction sums.
In our topic work, we have learned about the way that the Water Authorities treat water before they can pipe it to our homes and we have begun our studies of rivers and river systems. We started by considering what we already know about rivers and what we would like to find out and then we watched the start of a DVD about different stages in the "life" of a river.
In addition, we have done some more science, PE, ukulele playing, and art.
# posted by Mr Jennings : 9:36 pm
Friday, September 17, 2010
13th to 17th September
Plot structure and story characters have continued to be the focus of our English work this week. We have looked at episodes from This Shrinking of Treehorn and the short story, The Hooligan's Shampoo. We studied the characters and how these developed and changed through the stories and also tracked the repeating structure of The Hooligan's Shampoo. Once we had done this, we wrote a new episode to fit in with this story. The topic for our maths lessons has been place value (including tenths) and mental addition and subtraction.
The have begun one of our main units of work for this term - our topic about Water and Rivers. We started by thinking about where water is found in our world and how we use it, before considering how the water authorities obtain the water that they supply us with. We have also done some more work in connection with our desert island, deciding the best place to make a shelter (after considering the importance of being close to the critical "facilities") and the actually building a make-shift shelter from found natural materials outside.
On Tuesday afternoon we started some science work about The Earth in Space with Mrs Hall, we have had two PE sessions, tried the ukulele in music and finished the week with some art.
# posted by Mr Jennings : 8:36 pm
Friday, September 10, 2010
7th to 10th September
We have had a good start to the school year this week.
In English, we have studied the characters and how someone's actions show their mood and personality the the story Dinner Ladies Don't Count by Bernard Ashley. We have done some fiction and some non-fiction writing arising out of the plot of this story and we have also done some comprehension work. Our maths has focused on revising arithmetic methods, making sure that we have remembered these processes after the long holiday.
In addition to fitting in a couple of PE sessions, our main "topic" for the week has been based around the idea of survival on a desert island. We have thought about what we would need to stay alive and how we could ensure we had water, food and warmth. We have designed and drawn shelters and designed and made (using k'NEX) segmented creatures that could be found in the forest on the island.
In English, we have studied the characters and how someone's actions show their mood and personality the the story Dinner Ladies Don't Count by Bernard Ashley. We have done some fiction and some non-fiction writing arising out of the plot of this story and we have also done some comprehension work. Our maths has focused on revising arithmetic methods, making sure that we have remembered these processes after the long holiday.
In addition to fitting in a couple of PE sessions, our main "topic" for the week has been based around the idea of survival on a desert island. We have thought about what we would need to stay alive and how we could ensure we had water, food and warmth. We have designed and drawn shelters and designed and made (using k'NEX) segmented creatures that could be found in the forest on the island.
# posted by Mr Jennings : 5:49 pm
