Week Beginning 15th September 2008

Hi and welcome to this week's blog.

We have now finished our induction and assessment period in school and this week will embark on the Year 5/6 curriculum.

Dates
This week we will be holding our annual induction meetings. This year we have decided to do two different meetings for Year 5 and 6 as the issues in each year group is different.
Our Year 5 induction meeting will take place on Tuesday 16th September at 3.15pm and our Year 6 induction meeting will take place on Wednesday 17th September at 3.15pm, we look forward to seeing you there.

On Thursday 18th September at 3.30pm somebody from the Conway Centre will be coming into school to give a presentation on to the parents of our Year 6 children about their visit to the centre. Staff will also be at the meeting and there will be the chance for you to ask any questions you may have.

Curriculum

Literacy
In Literacy this week we will be looking at Poetry and in particular to the power of imagery in poetry.
We will learn to understand what personification means.
Compare how writers from different times and places present experiences and use language. Understand how writers use different structures to create coherence and impact.
Select words and language drawing on their knowledge of literary features.

Try these websites to remind you of the different features of poems.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/ks2bitesize/english/activities/poetry.shtml revision on poetry features.
http://www.poetryteachers.com/ a selection of poems.
http://www.gigglepoetry.com/ a collection on humorous poems.

Numeracy
The children will be put into their numeracy groups this week. There will be four groups taught by Mr Barker, Mr Slavin, Miss Wright and Mrs Morgan.
This week as it's the first week all the children will be starting the week with a times tables test.
They will then go onto looking at place value.
Mr Barker and Mrs Morgan's groups will be multiplying and dividing whole numbers and decimals by 10, 100, 1000
By the end of the week they..
MUST be able to multiply and divide whole numbers by 10, 100, and 1000.
SHOULD be able to multiply and divide decimal numbers by 10, 100 and 1000.
COULD multiply and divide whole numbers and decimal numbers by 10000 and 100000.

Miss Wright and Mr Slavin's groups will be learning to read and write whole numbers in figures and words and know what each digit represents. They will use the vocabulary of ordering numbers including the symbols < > and =.

Try these websites for some practice.
http://edhelper.com/place_value.htm
http://www.active-maths.co.uk/worksheets/2place/ ordering whole numbers.

Here I Am
Our Here I Am topic is Myself. At the beginning of this topic we will be looking at the qualities the children have or would like to have and what God is like.

Topic
Our topic this term will be the Ancient Greeks, we thought this would be a fitting topic having watched the Olympic games over the summer.
The children have already completed some research at home to get them started with the topic and this week we will be correctly sequencing periods in history including Ancient Greece.
Placing events people and changes into periods of time. Using dates and vocabulary relating to the passing of time, including ancient, modern, BC AD century and decade.

Here are some Ancient Greek websites to arose your interest.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/ancientgreece/timeline/index.shtml
http://www.ancientgreece.com/

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/ancientgreece/main_menu.shtml
http://www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/Homework/greece/athens.htm

PE
The children started their PE lessons last week. They are completing work on Ancient Greek Olympics and a unit of work on Greek dance.
Could you please ensure that your child has their PE kit in school at all times, there were 8 children in one class without PE kits this week! If children do not have their PE kits this week they will miss golden time. PE is a required part if the curriculum and it's also crucial to children's physical development.

That's all for this week.

Year 5/6 Team.