Monday 8th October

Hi everyone.

Last week was a very busy, yet successful week. We are back to some normality after Conway, but are still missing Mrs Morgan, who is recovering from a sudden operation. Mr Morgan if you are reading this, we are missing you loads, and
GET WELL SOON!
Now to some boring housekeeping!

Homework Books:
Your child should have last week brought home some ‘brand new’ Homework books which they were very excited about.
To ensure that we do not have any confusion as to how they are used, we have outlined the procedures here…
On a MONDAY your child will be given a page (sometimes more) of work from both the English and the Maths book. Your child has been given an ‘age appropriate’ book. We ask the children to write the date at the top of each page we want them to complete, as depending on the topic we are teaching, they are not always consecutive.
We ask that this work is back in school on THURSDAY, so that we can mark it together on FRIDAY. We have decided that it is more conducive to mark the work together, as the children can then see where they have sometimes gone wrong. If we mark the work like we usually do, they race on to the next task, and often make the same mistakes again.
The same procedure applies to the Science Homework, however this is given out on a WEDNESDAY and needs to be completed for MONDAY. This at least gives you the weekend to work on it.
Please be aware that although it sometimes may seem as if your child as a lot of Homework, we are trying to prepare them for the ominous workload in the high school. If at any point you or your child as a problem with the Homework or your child cannot complete it, please put a note in the homework book or your child’s diary. It is not a problem, so long as we know!

Parent’s Evening:
Please can you make sure that you have returned your reply slip for Parent’s Evening.
Dates for Parent’s Evening are.
Tuesday 16th October & Wednesday 17th October.

Mrs Morgan will arrange appointments with any parents who want to see her, when she returns to school.

MEN Arena:
Just a quick reminder, that all outstanding money for the MEN Arena ‘Young Voices’ concert is needed in school ASAP. We do understand that this is a large amount of money (it is hard to believe that coaches and t-shirts cost so much, but they do), however we genuinely believe this to be a fantastic opportunity for your child that they will never forget. The total amount is £20.00


Literacy:
We continue this week with our topic on significant children’s authors, focusing on Roald Dahl. It has been lovely to read such fantastic books to the children by such an inspiring author.
We are reading ‘George’s Marvellous Medicine’ together, paying particular attention to the disgusting, horrible character of Grandma. She really is a nasty piece of work!
www.roalddahl.com is a really good website to investigate ‘all things Dahl’ and will be really useful in preparation for next week when we begin to research the life of Dahl himself.
Our targets for the week are that the children…

Must demonstrate understanding of an author's style by writing a new scene for a story in the style of the author (marking and feedback).
Should begin to demonstrate understanding of an author's style by writing a new scene for a story in the style of the author; scene is organised into a sequence of paragraphs (marking and feedback).
Could demonstrate understanding of an author's style by writing a new scene for a story in the style of the author; scene is organised into a sequence of paragraphs (marking and feedback).

We will do this by learning how to do the following….
Exploring aspects of an author's style by comparing themes, settings and characters in different stories.
Focusing on characterisation and make inferences about the author's perspective on a particular character.
Reviewing conventions of dialogue: what it reveals about plot or character.
Writing a new scene for a story in the style of the author.

Maths:
Mrs Millington’s Maths group will this week be learning about Shape and Space, in particular, Properties of 2D shapes, including parallelogram, rhombus and trapezium and Classifying quadrilaterals.
By the end of this week your child should be able to…
Use the terms ‘parallelogram’, ‘rhombus’ and ‘trapezium’

Begin to know the properties of parallelograms, rhombuses and trapezia.

Begin to use the term ‘kite’

Classify quadrilaterals, using criteria such as parallel sides, equal sides, equal angles.

Below is a list of websites to help you support your child with their Maths learning. Some are specific to shape and space, but others can be used for any Maths Topic.
www.bbc.co.uk/schools/rewisewise
KS2 activities, fact sheets and tests for number, data handling and shape and space. Nice revision activities for Year 6 pupils in the run up to SATs

www.bbc.co.uk/education/megamaths
The site is aimed at 7 to 9 year olds. Megamaths Tables: an interactive site for practising and testing times tables. Good animations and could be used by children in Yr2 to Y6, to support pupils learning times table facts. Different levels of activities are provided to support differentiation.
Megamaths Shape: an interactive multiple-choice quiz on the properties of 2D shapes

www.bbc.co.uk/education/schools/digger
Maths adventures for Digger and the Gang, activities for the age ranges:
6–7, 7–8 and 9–11. Three maths adventures have been designed for each age range. Nice animated story themes, but a little slow and limited number of mathematical activities involved in each adventure. Children tackling the age 9-11 activities may need a pencil and paper to support their calculations.

www.nrich.maths.org.uk
An excellent website providing lots of challenging problem solving activities. A few interactive games for upper key stage 2, which should be part of a problem solving activity. For example a game called ‘Got it’ where children play against the computer to get to a total of 43 – lots of discussion could be generated on working out how to beat the computer. A range of super non-interactive puzzles and problems to challenge pupils thinking – good AT1 activities, using and applying, in all areas of mathematics! The site is regularly updated.

www.childrensmoneyworld.com
A website designed for children in YR and Y1, supporting their recognition of coins. Two interactive games provided – a pelmonism activity ‘Motherpounds Memory Game’ and a counting activity game ‘Saving Perry Penny’. (Nice animations)

www.worldclassarena.org
A website designed to challenge more able Year 5 children (top 5%) with problem solving and mathematical activities. The materials provided are paper and computer based and children can receive a certificate showing pass, merit or distinction, if they undertake a computer and paper based test, which is available four times a year. The registration fee for each child is £8.00. The example materials look extremely good and focus on the dimensions of ‘breadth, depth, independence, reflection as well as acceleration’. Materials are available for parents and teachers, including a specimen test pack, with mark schemes and reports!

www.aplusmath.com
This website provides five interactive bingo and concentration games to develop multiplication, addition, subtraction and division mental recall skills. The activities would be appropriate for Y4, Y5 and Y6. The only negative element of the site is that the calculations, which should be done mentally, are set out in a vertical format. There are some very basic flashcards and worksheets also available.

www.cadburylearningzone.co.uk
A super interactive website providing lots of problem solving activities. The content, devised by BEAM Education, has been designed to enable children to explore mathematics in its applications in a real working situation. ‘Maths in chocolate making’ has 40 online interactive exercises based on numbers in the number system, calculations, shape and space, measures and handling data. A nice feature is that the activities provide some written support and guidance, if pupils get calculations or problems wrong!

www.ambleside.schoolzone.co.uk/
Probably the best website for primary mathematics. It has a vast range of excellent interactive maths resources. Activities to develop children’s mental maths skills, fraction, shape and lots more! There are also lots of teacher tools with an on-line calculator, four-in-a-row game, number lines, analogue clock and number squares.

Miss Wright and Mrs Woodcock will be spending another week teaching Multiplication and division skills. The above websites will also be useful to support your child.

Science:
Our Science topic gets really interesting this week when we begin to delve deeper into how we see things, and take a closer look at the eye. Children find it really fascinating to SEE (Ha, Ha!) what a complicated job, the eye performs. Some useful websites to support your child, learning about how we see things, are….
www.bbc.co.uk/schools/scienceclips/ages/10_11/see_things.
www.healthyeyes.org.uk
www.bootslearningstore.com This Boots website is really really good so be sure to check it out!!

Topic:
Our Lights, Camera, Action topic takes a look at the History of film this week, as we look at how early Hollywood started, and the first movie stars. We are also going to have a go at making our own flicker books to really understand what the term ‘motion’ means in its simplest form. You could probably help to make one of these at home by drawing a little stick man on the corner of each page of a notebook with its legs gradually changing position. We have all probably done this before, where we end up creating a little running man!
Don’t forget to look at the websites published on last week’s blog for some fantastic fact finding. There is also some useful information here for adults, so who knows! You may win that next pub quiz!!

Anyway, enough for this week! Until next time, the year 5/6 Team.