Week Beginning 3rd October 2008

Welcome back to a very hectic but fun half term. The half term leading up to Christmas is always an enjoyable one as we can all get into the Christmas spirit.



Thank you to all the parents who attended parents evening during the last week of half term.



We hope you all had a good rest over the holidays and are ready to work your socks off in the run up to Christmas (we have to do something to keep ourselves warm!!).



Literacy



This week we will be looking at a unit of work based on the novels 'The Hobbit' and 'The Lord of the Rings' by JR Tolkin , many of the children will have read this book but we will also be reading some of it in school too.
The children will begin to understand what a Quest adventure is.
Understand underlying themes, causes and points of view. /Appraise a text quickly.
Read extensively and discuss personal reading with others including in reading groups.
Use a range of oral techniques to present persuasive arguments.
Explore the setting of a famous quest.
Make notes when listening for a sustained period.
Appraise a text quickly deciding on its value, quality or usefulness.
Summarise a passage, chapter or texts.
Understand how writers use different structures to create coherence and impact.
If you have these books at home why not try sharing them with your child this week?

Numeracy
This week Mrs Morgan's and Mr Barker's groups will be learning to read and plot coordinates in all four quadrants and we will also be looking at the properties of 3d shapes.
Bonfire night is a great time for looking at 3d shapes, if you have fireworks at home you will seen that they come in all manner of 3d shapes, get your child to describe the properties of these shapes, before they are set off of course!!

Miss Wright's and Mr Slavin's groups will be looking at parallel and perpendicular lines, they will learn to recognise parallel and perpendicular lines and to classify triangles using criteria such as equal sides, equal angles and lines of symmetry.

Science
We will continue our topic of micro-organisms this week. We will combine science with history this week and will investigate Edward Jenner, who was a pioneer in discovering vaccinations.
Try these websites to find out information about him:-
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/jenner_edward.shtml
http://www.zephyrus.co.uk/edwardjenner.html


Topic
We will use our topic time this week to discover what bonfire night is all about. We will research Guy Fawkes and investigate the 'Gun Powder Plot'.
There are many websites about this subject but the children will be using the laptops to research their own information and therefore will find their own websites.
Each group will then give a presentation at the end of the week using the information they have found out on this subject.

Here I Am
We will be focusing on Confirmation this week in our invitation topic. We will discuss how this cements our path into the Church community.

Have a sparkling week and be safe on Wednesday!!

Year 5/6 Team.