MrJennings

We have continued our study of the poem The Highwayman this week, thinking closely about the characters and tracking their actions through the poem. This has enabled us to reflect on how the poet might wish the reader to think about them. We have also created "wanted" posters for the Highwayman, giving us another context for writing a description.

In maths, our thinking has concerned factors and prime factors. This led into some work on mental arithmetic (multiplication and division) in which we thought about the notion of scaling number up and down and also using factors to assist mental multiplication. (For example, multiplying a number by eight by doubling three times.)

We had a special day on Thursday when we played a simulation game about life in early Saxon Nottingham. Each group was one family and in each turn of the game (which was a "season" - autumn, winter, spring or summer) the group had to decide how many hours to work, how much time relaxing, how many sack of grain from the food store could be eaten. etc. The team had to keep accounts to show how much food was left in the stores and be responsible for making it last until the next harvest. After doing their share of "farm work", they could make things (draw them from text books about the Saxons) for their home. On some occasions we had a "market day" when families could buy and sell the objects they had made. This was done by bartering, using food or other objects to trade with.

We had our usual PE sessions, RE (about inspirational people) and finished the week with art - designing symbols (using dot patterns) to represent features one might encounter on a modern journey. This is in readiness for creating our own dot painting next Tuesday.