Week Beginning 14th January 2007

Hi everyone and welcome to the second week of the spring term!

The children came back refreshed after their Christmas break and they were really excited to talk about all the fun stuff they did at Christmas.

The weather is really bad at the moment so can you please ensure your child has a warm coat with them at all times.

As Christmas plays are over we can now do our PE lessons in the hall again so the children will not need their outdoor PE kit as often. As we cannot always predict when the hall is needed they may need an outdoor PE kit at some point so it is better to have one in school at all times.

Can we also make a plea for the children to bring as small a bag as possible to school. We are having real problems with the Year 5/6 cloakrooms. It is very difficult to find things and coats and bags are ending up on the floor which is a safety hazard.

The children should only need to bring to school their pencil case, reading book, reading diary and their lunch. Their PE kit should already be in school and therefore they do not need a large bag.

Now for this weeks curriculum...........

Literacy
This week we will be continuing with our topic of recounts. Last week we looked at Edmund Hillary and George Mallory and stories about them and their Everest expeditions.
The children really enjoyed this and they came up with many theories about George Mallory and whether he reached the top of Everest years before Hillary.

This week we will be recognising 1st and 3rd person verbs. Planning our own recount. Writing a 3rd person recount.
The children will be interviewing someone of their choice and making notes in order to write a recount about something extraordinary they may have done. So watch out parents, grandparents, friends and family, IT COULD BE YOU!!!

By the end of this week the children:-
Must be able to sequence notes collected into chronological order.
Should be able to sequence notes into an order to interest the reader ready for a recount.
Could write a recount that is interesting and informative.

Try these websites for examples of interviews.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/player/nol/newsid_6730000/newsid_6731700/6731793.stm?bw=nb&mp=rm BBC News report from 1953.
http://search.bbc.co.uk/cgi-bin/search/results.pl?q=edmund%20Hillary%20interview&tab=av&recipe=all&scope=all&edition=i Hillary Johnson interview.

Maths

This week Miss Wright's and Mrs Morgan's groups will be looking at units of time.
The will use, read and write units of time including decade, millennium and leap year. They will know the numbers of days in each month. Convert one unit of time to another. Use the time on a 24 hour digital clock and use 24 hour notation. Be able to use a timetable.

You can help at home with this by getting your child to tell the time and also getting them to look at TV listings and asking them questions such as:-
If a programme starts at 12.15 and is 1 hour and 20 minutes long, how long is the programme?

By the end of the week the children:-
Must be able to use the 24 hour clock.
Should be able to convert one unit of time to another.
Could answer question on a timetable using the 24 hour clock.

Try these websites:-

http://nwlg.org/pages/resources/ma_num/swf/24-12Game.html set the time for the departures using the 24 hour clock.
http://www.bgfl.org/bgfl/custom/resources_ftp/client_ftp/ks2/maths/timetables/index.htm work out the different times for the timetable.
http://teacher.scholastic.com/maven/timefor/index.htm use time to solve the crime.
http://www.bgfl.org/bgfl/custom/resources_ftp/client_ftp/ks3/maths/trainers/index.htm work out how long it will take you to buy some trainers and also how much they will cost.

Science
In Science this week we will starting our new topic of keeping healthy. This a subject that can be discussed at home also as I'm sure a lot of people are on a health kick after the Christmas Festivities!!

This week will be an introduction into the unit and we will also be looking at what we should know by the end of the unit.

By the end of this unit the children:-
Must have identified some foods needed for a healthy and varied diet and some harmful effects of drugs. Recognise that pulse rate is a measure of how fast the heart is beating and make measurements of pulse rate.
Should identify the components of a healthy and varied diet and describe how an idea of the effect of diet on health is tested. Recognise some harmful effect of drugs. Recognise that during exercise the heart beats faster in order to get more blood to the muscles. Make careful measurements of pulse rate and represent these on a suitable graph and explain what the graph shows.
Could explain some early evidence about the effect of diet on health. explain why it is important to test the effects of exercise on the pulse rate of several people.

Try these websites:-

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/scienceclips/ages/9_10/keeping_healthy.shtml BBC Science Clips investigating the heart.
http://www.foodafactoflife.org.uk/Activity.aspx?siteId=3&sectionId=37&contentId=55 sort the food into the correct food groups.
http://www.foodafactoflife.org.uk/Activity.aspx?siteId=3&sectionId=37&contentId=56 design a healthy lunch box.
http://exhibits.pacsci.org/nutrition/nutrition_cafe.html games in the nutrition cafe.
http://www.sycd.co.uk/good-to-eat/index.htm for all you Mancehster United fans Fred the Red will help you choose what to eat.

Topic
We began this week to look at World War 2. The children have studied World War 2 before but as we are coming up to Holocaust Memorial day we will be looking at this side of the war.
We began last week by looking at which countries were involved in World War 2.
The children are really interested and enthusiastic about this subject.
This week we will be looking at the events that started World War 2.
We will be combining History and Design and Technology we will use paper construction, cutting & folding to create a zigzag book with information on how the war started.

Try these websites:-

http://usd230.k12.ks.us/espictt/timeline/timeline.htm
A useful timeline for use throughout the topic.
http://www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/Homework/war/timeline.htm
A timeline created for children outlining the main events.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Early_Nazi_Timeline
Early Nazi developments timeline.


Here I Am
This week in Here I Am we will be continuing the topic of Celebrations. We will be continuing with the recognise and reflect section of the topic as show in last weeks blog.

That's all for now, have a good week.


Year 5/6 Team