Friday, March 25, 2011
21st to 25th March
We have had a short week at school with Monday being an INSET day for the teachers.
The highlight of our week was a visit to Southwell Minster on Thursday for the "Time Travelling" event. This linked in with our RE work on pilgrimage and special places. Following our work on the Hajj and some talk about Christian pilgrimage and places which are special to us, we have a great day full of a variety of activities at Southwell. We worked in different groups (each with its own pilgrim guide) at different places inside the minster. We did drama, learned about the organ, communion and prayer, made bookmarks and prayer beads among other things. We followed up our visit by making a scrapbook about our visit and our reactions and feelings to it.
As well as this, we did a little more work on our poetry in English and, in maths, learned some more about percentages, converting percentages to fractions and decimals and calculating percentages of quantities. To finish off the week, we investigated stability of structures, using K'NEX to find out about the effect of adding more legs and the height of legs on the stability of a simple structure.
# posted by Mr Jennings : 7:53 pm
Friday, March 18, 2011
14th to 18th March
We have had parents' evenings at school this week and we have had the opportunity to show our parents the work we have been doing.
We have done a little more work on The Highwayman extending, improving and copying up our monologues and creating some pictures to illustrate episodes from the story. We have also looked at a selection of other narrative poems. In maths, our main work has involved fractions and percentages. We have been converting improper fractions to mixed numbers and vice versa as well as revising our understanding of equivalent fractions and relating fractions to percentages.
We have finished the ICT challenges presented in the Crystal Rainforest Mission: Control program and have started some work on a new RE topic about pilgrimage in readiness for our visit to Southwell Minster next week.
We have done a little more work on The Highwayman extending, improving and copying up our monologues and creating some pictures to illustrate episodes from the story. We have also looked at a selection of other narrative poems. In maths, our main work has involved fractions and percentages. We have been converting improper fractions to mixed numbers and vice versa as well as revising our understanding of equivalent fractions and relating fractions to percentages.
We have finished the ICT challenges presented in the Crystal Rainforest Mission: Control program and have started some work on a new RE topic about pilgrimage in readiness for our visit to Southwell Minster next week.
# posted by Mr Jennings : 7:55 pm
Friday, March 11, 2011
7th to 11th March
We have continued with our study of the classic poem, The Highwayman, by Alfred Noyes this week. We have tracked the time-line of the story, followed the actions of each of the characters and examined the use of colour that the poet makes though the poem. We have also written monologues from the point of view of one of the main character.
In maths we have been developing calculator skills through number work, number sequences and problem solving. We have also been practicing the use of doubling and halving to assist with mental calculations based on our times tables knowledge.
In history, we have been playing a simulation game to help us understand the different form of government found in ancient Greece. We began the Crystal Rainforest Mission: Control challenges in ICT and in Technology we investigated the strength of different types of beams. We made beams with circular, triangular and square cross-sections (each one from an 11x30 cm sheet of paper) and, placing three of the same type together, tested the amount of weight they would support when spanning a 25cm gap. Later in the week we wrote up our investigation.
In maths we have been developing calculator skills through number work, number sequences and problem solving. We have also been practicing the use of doubling and halving to assist with mental calculations based on our times tables knowledge.
In history, we have been playing a simulation game to help us understand the different form of government found in ancient Greece. We began the Crystal Rainforest Mission: Control challenges in ICT and in Technology we investigated the strength of different types of beams. We made beams with circular, triangular and square cross-sections (each one from an 11x30 cm sheet of paper) and, placing three of the same type together, tested the amount of weight they would support when spanning a 25cm gap. Later in the week we wrote up our investigation.
# posted by Mr Jennings : 7:08 pm
Friday, March 04, 2011
28th February to 4th March
With the new half-term, we have begun a new unit of work in English which is all about poetry and, specifically, narrative poetry. We started off the week by looking at some different types of poems and revising a vocabulary to help us describe a poem and its key features. Moving on to narrative poems, we looked at Miller's End by Charles Causley before starting a series of lessons studying the classic The Highwayman by Alfred Noyes. We listened to the poem first and then did some dictionary work to help us understand the poem better by finding the meaning of some of the more "old fashioned" words. We have looked at the similes and metaphors that Alfred Noyes created for the poem and have also listened to and watched some videos based on The Highwayman.
Our maths work has been connected with shape and symmetry. We have been thinking about the symmetry of regular polygons and learning about the properties of triangles - equilateral, isosceles and scalene.
We have spent some time on our ancient Greek history topic. We did some research about the theatre in ancient Greece and found out about the design and layout of theatres in those days and about the types of plays, the different types of actors and the masks that they wore on stage.
In addition, we created databases of our own in ICT, had two PE sessions and did French.
Our maths work has been connected with shape and symmetry. We have been thinking about the symmetry of regular polygons and learning about the properties of triangles - equilateral, isosceles and scalene.
We have spent some time on our ancient Greek history topic. We did some research about the theatre in ancient Greece and found out about the design and layout of theatres in those days and about the types of plays, the different types of actors and the masks that they wore on stage.
In addition, we created databases of our own in ICT, had two PE sessions and did French.
# posted by Mr Jennings : 9:02 pm
