Week Beginning 28th January 2008

Hi everyone, we are very excited about his week as it is book week and we have lots of great things planned!

We would like to start this week by saying thank you to the Year 6 children for being so well behaved on both of our trips out last week. The children's behaviour is always fantastic when we take them out of school but was particularly good on these two occasions. The Year 5 children were also really well behaved in school. Well done children we are really proud of you all.

On Monday we went to the Peace Centre and took part in Young Citizen 2008. The children participated in a number of workshops and had an informative and fun time.
On Friday we were lucky enough to be treated to St Gregory's performance of Grease, which was fantastic.

During the past two weeks we have been monitoring the children's reading diaries for parents comments.
You may remember we sent home a sheet informing the children that reading is also a big part of their homework and they would be completing an activity every Thursday on what they had read at home that week. We also asked parents to continue to read with your children and make comments in the reading diary when you have done this.
We have been monitoring these comments and on the week we gave out the sheet about the reading we had a great response.

In Mrs Millington's class 83% of children were heard read at least once.
In Miss Wright's class 43% of children were heard read at least once.
In Mrs Morgan's class 84% of children were heard read at least once.

Last week the comments died down a bit.
In Mrs Millington's class 69% of children were heard read at least once.
In Miss Wright's class 15% of children were heard read at least once.
In Mrs Morgan's class 65% of children were heard read at least once.

Please do read with your child and make comments in the diary, we are aiming to get 100% across the whole school and we can only do this with you help. Thank you.

As mentioned above this week is book week and we have lots of fun activities planned.

On Monday and Tuesday we have renowned poet David Horner in school to work with the children. He will work with each class writing some poetry and the results are always excellent.

The book fair arrives on Wednesday and will be open until next Tuesday. The children will be able to have a preview of the books on Wednesday daytime in preparation for the fair opening on Wednesday at 3pm.
There will also be a wish list put together by your child's class and their teacher, the wish list will be placed in the hall when the fair is open so if you do want to donate a book to your child's class please feel free to purchase one from the list. A dedication will be placed inside with the information that your child has donated this book to our school.

Please do come along to the book fair and have a look, remember for every book you buy we receive commission to help with resources for school.
This will be an ideal opportunity for you to purchase a book to share with your child and then make a note of what you have read in their reading diary.


This weeks curriculum......

Literacy
As it is book week this week we will be basing a lot of our literacy work around it. When David Horner is in on Monday and Tuesday we will be working on poetry. For the rest of the week we will be doing work based around our favourite books and this will relate to the homework too.

It would be a great idea if you could share your favourite childhood books and stories with your children.

Why not check our David Horner's website? http://www.davidhorner.com/

Numeracy

This week Miss Wright's and Mrs Morgan's group will be looking at positive and negative numbers and the equivalence between fractions and decimals.
By the end of the week the children will be able to order a given set of positive and negative numbers. Calculate a temperature rise or fall across 0 degrees c. Recognise a negative number on a calculator and recognise the equivalence between fractions and decimals.

Mrs Millington's group will be learning about symmetry.
By the end of this week they will classify quadrilaterals, using criteria such as parallel sides, equal angles, equal sides. Recognise where a shape will be after reflection. Read and plot coordinates in all four quadrants. Recognise where a shape will be after a rotation through 90 degrees about one of its vertices.

Science
We will continue our work on keeping healthy. The children will be using lots of different ways to present information about healthy foods. The will also be designing a healthy party food menu.

Topic this week will be based around book week and we will be using a lot of the time to hold competition and develop the children's love of reading.

Have a good week, see you at the book fair.

Year 5/6 Team.