Week beginning March 2nd 2009

It's our first week back and it's been very hectic and the children are beginning to settle in back to their normal routines.

Thank you to all parents who contributed to the Mothers' Day Craft Fair - it was very generous. Thank you also to those who attended our Ash Wednesday Service it was nice to see you.

Bike Training
The children have started bike training this week and this is due to continue over the next few weeks. Can we remind parents to sign the appropriate slips and return them to school as soon as possible as the children will not be allowed off school premises.


Tuesday
Football training commences - 3.00 - 4.00pm
We are still trying to arrange Girls Football Training and Rugby Training - Watch this space!

Friday
Y6 Retreat to The Foundry with the staff of St Gregory's.
The children will leave at 9.30am and return to school by approximately 3.00pm. Children will need a packed lunch and are allowed to wear their own clothes. Girls, however, are advised to wear trousers.

Philharmonic Hall Trip
Letters have been sent home tonight (Friday) regarding our trip to the Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool, on Monday 9th. Could you please make sure that all slips are returned by Wednesday 4th March.

Curriculum

Y6 - Numeracy
Numeracy - Mrs Morgan and Mr Barker's classes will be continuing with their revision programme. See previous blogs for revision web sites.

Y5 - Numeracy.
Mr Slavin and Miss Wright's classes will be looking at rounding 1 and 2 decimal places to the nearest whole number; starting to find percentages of whole number quantities. Y5s will also complete Test B - Calculator paper.

It is also World Maths Day on the Wednesday the 4th March. We are involved in a number of competitions which the children will take part in during the day.
http://www.worldmathsday.com/

See the following websites to help you this week:

www.primarygames.co.uk
www.mathszone.co.uk
www.coxhoe.durham.sch.uk (select Numeracy, scroll dawn to Percentages and choose any of the sites listed. We recommend any BBC site and Ngfl.

Literacy

Y6 - Mrs Morgan's and Miss Wright's class will be continuing their revision programme.
This week we are focusing on writing and we will be completing our Short Writing Test and Spelling Test. The children are working very hard in their revision groups - keep up the good work!


Y5 - Mr Slavin's class will be continuing with writing their myths. This week will be editing and redrafting stories. Look at the sites below for ideas and structure.

http://teacher.scholastic.com/writewit/mff/index.htm
http://myths.e2bn.org/


Topic
We are very excited to be invloved with the Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and we will be starting a rich task week "Going Global" which links in with our current topic of the environment. During the week children will be introduced to the structure of an orchestra; investigating and designing their own ecological forms of transport; environmental concerns in the Arctic; the threat to our world rain forests. All are based on a particular piece of music which the children will be involved in on our trip to the Philharmonic Hall on March 9th.

R.E

We are carrying on with our new topic of 'Communion' and Year 5s will continue to prepare for their sacrament of Reconcilation.

Just a reminder there are still some children who haven't been able to take part in P.E due to forgetting their kits. Can you please make sure that children have them in school at all times.

That is all for now. Have a good week.
Year 5/6 Team

Week Beginning 23rd February 2009

Hi everyone and welcome to the second half of the Spring Term, hopefully this half term we will see a lot more of Spring like weather!!

This is a very busy and important half term in Year 5/6 as this is the final run up to our tests.

On Tuesday this week we will be having a assembly in school about recycling. Someone from Warrington Council will come into school to talk to the children about this important matter and they will also bring with them a rapping robot to get the message across to the children.

Ash Wednesday


This week sees the start of Lent. We will be holding a short service in the hall to mark Ash Wednesday and the children will receive their ashes in the classrooms afterwards. Should you wish to receive ashes in school, please join us at 9am in the hall.
To read about the traditions and customs of Ash Wednesday, go to http://www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/customs/easter/ashwednesday.htm

Wednesday this week sees the start of cycling training for some of our Year 6 children. Your child will know if they have been chosen to take part in the training as they will have received a letter last half term. Please remember that the children will need to bring their own bike in on this day. They will also need so old warm clothes and a coat in order to take part in the training.

This weeks curriculum:-

The Year 6's this week will be carrying on with their revision of reading and writing tests. This weeks we are back on reading and will be looking at how to tackling inference and deduction questions. Remember children to keep reading for 15 minutes each night and try and beat how much you have read the previous night.

Here are some websites to help the Year 6 children with all the areas they need to revise:-
http://www.icteachers.co.uk/children/children_sats.htm SATs questions, you can choose which subject you want to look at.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/ks2bitesize/index.shtml our old favourite bbc revisewise.
http://www.yourschoolsite.co.uk/tests/Introduction.html SATS question quiz.
http://www.buzzin.net/revision_tips/revtips.htm revision tips.
http://www.st-josephs-pickering.n-yorks.sch.uk/past_test_papers.htm download SATs papers.
http://www.samlearning.co.uk/primary/index.html revision exercises and SATs questions.
http://www.teachingtreasures.com.au/maths/year_6_maths_true_or_false.htm maths true or false quiz.
http://www.counton.org/games/mathonaire/ who wants to be a mathonaire.
http://www.subtangent.com/maths/games.php lots of maths games to help you revise, I love the Weakest Link.
http://www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/revision/engindex.html reading comprehension practise.
http://www.channel4learning.net/sites/essentials/science/index.shtml choose a science area to revise.
http://www.teachingandlearningresources.co.uk/millionscience.html who wants to be a Science Millionaire.

The Year 5's will be finishing their final pieces of work on persuasion this week, they have really worked hard and enjoyed this topic.
This week the Year 5's will be completing and improving their argument and re-writing it as a letter written to persuade. We look forward to reading their finished pieces of writing.
Try these websites to review your learning:-http://www.kidsonthenet.org.uk/dragonsville/poster.htm design your own persuasive poster.
http://www.little-g.com/shockwave/hotel.html answer some simple questions and design your own travel advert.
http://teacher.scholastic.com/activities/writing/index.asp?topic=Persuasive persuasive writing workshop.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/ks2bitesize/english/revision_bites/argument1.shtml revision of persuasive writing.
http://www.lancsngfl.ac.uk/nationalstrategy/literacy/index.php?category_id=248&page_no=&preview=1&s=!B121cf29d70ec8a3d54a33343010cc2 points for persuasive writing and other genres.
http://www.ngfl-cymru.org.uk/vtc-home/vtc-ks2-home/vtc-ks2-eng/vtc-ks2-eng-writing/vtc-ks2-eng-writing-genres/vtc-ks2-eng-writing-newspapers.htm understanding persuasive writing.

I know there are lots of websites here but now that the children have their own laptops they do not need to be hogging the home computer!!

Numeracy

Mrs Morgan's and Mr Barker's groups will be carrying on with their revision. After completing a past paper before the half term, we now have a really clear idea of what each individual child needs to help them improve their levels.

Science

Again, our Year 6's will be continuing with their revision.

Our Year 5's will be moving onto the topic of Changing Sounds. This week the children should learn:
that sounds are made when objects or materials vibrate
to make careful observations
to draw conclusions about sounds from their observations


Topic

After our assembly on Tuesday we will be using our topic of the environment to create our own recycling raps using the inspiration of the rapping robot. This, I am sure will prove to be a very interesting and fun activity!!

That's all for this week.

Year 5/6 Team.

Week Beginning 9th February 2009

Hi everyone and welcome to the last week of the half term.

First of all we would like to thank everyone for supporting out book fair last week, it was a great success and we were so pleased with the amount of Year 5 and 6 children who entered into the spirit of book week and got dressed up on Friday. You all looked fantastic, well done.
We would also like to thank Miss Knight for organising the week.

This week on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday we will be holding out parent consultations. You will have received your time slot by now. The appointment times are 10 minutes long and we do try to stick to these times. If you feel you need longer then pleased arrange another convenient time with your child's teacher.

There will be a mass held in the school hall at 9.15am on Friday, on the theme of Communion. This is to tie in with our current Here I Am theme and will be led by staff and children from Key Stage 2. All primary schools in the Parish are following the program and each term, a mass will be held on school, on the theme of the Here I Am topic. You are warmly invited to attend, but please remember that space is at a premium in the school hall. If you have prams or buggies, then please feel free to leave them in the infant area if needed.

On Friday afternoon Mr Slavin has arranged a football match with Penketh South Primary School which will take place on the school field at 2pm. The children already know whether they are in the team or not. We would like to thank Mr Slavin for giving up his time to arrange football training each week and also for arranging the game. We would also like to thank Mr Phocou and other parents who have been involved in helping with the football.

Assessment and Review Week

As you know the last week of each half term is assessment and review week. We will be reviewing and assessing all the objectives that the children have covered in this half term which will help to inform our planning next half term.

Literacy

The children have really enjoyed making their electronic books for reception and year 1. We may need to put some finishing touches to them at the beginning of the week but then we will be ready to share them with the younger members of our school. The children cannot wait to do this and we really feel that we have some budding authors and illustrators in the making.

We also be completing an assessed piece of writing this week which we will mark and give the children targets for the next half term.

Maths

Mrs Morgan's and Mr Barker's groups completed a past paper last week. The children will be getting their results this week and we will spend some time working on the subject they found difficult.

Miss Wright's and Mr Slavin's groups will be looking at subtraction next Monday and Tuesday. We will look quickly at counting on and move to column subtraction using the exchange method for subtracting 2 and 3 digit numbers.
On Wednesday, Thursday and Friday we are going to give the children the Y5 paper they took last term to see what progress they have made. The children will complete the paper and then we will go over the answers with them.

Here are some websites to help with subtraction:-

Subtraction Web Sites
Easyhttp://ngfl.northumberland.gov.uk/maths/big%20sums/big20sums%20subtract.html
Medium/Hardhttp://www.bbc.co.uk/skillswise/numbers/wholenumbers/addsubtract/mental/flash11.shtml http://www.amblesideprimary.com/ambleweb/mentalmaths/subtractiontest.htmlhttp://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/ks2bitesize/maths/tests/subtraction.shtml
Challenging Puzzles/Gameshttp://nrich.maths.org/public/index.php

Science

We now have a program on the big laptops which helps us assess the children's learning in each area of the science curriculum.
The children complete a short test on the computer and we can then go into their results and see what they have and haven't understood.
This week they will complete the test on our topic 'more about dissolving' and we will then address an areas that need revisiting.

Topic

Last week the children began to make power points on an area they were concerned about in the environment. This week we will be finishing the power points and then sharing them with the rest of the class.
A lot of thought and research has gone into these presentations and we can't wait to see the results.

That's all for this half term. We hope to see you at the parent consultation meetings and wish you a very happy and restful half term.

Year 5/6 Team.

Week Beginning 2nd February 2009

Hi everyone and welcome to book week.

First of all we would like to thank the Year 6 children for their excellent behaviour while attending Young Citizen 2009 at the Peace Centre on Friday. The Year 5 children were also extremely well behaved while in school.
Thank you children we are really proud of you when we take you out of school.

On Wednesday evening there will be a meeting held in school for the parents of Year 5 children who will make their first Reconciliation this year. Please send the reply slip back so we know how many people will be attending this meeting.

We have the book fair in school this week and as usual on book week we base a lot of our curriculum work on books to tie in with this event.

Please do come in and have a look at the book fair this week after school. The children will have the opportunity to browse the book fair on Monday and choose a wish list of books for their class which parents can donate to school. These books will have a sticker inside telling everyone that your child has donated the book.
The friends of St. Vincent's are also holding a cake sale on Friday afternoon to tie in with the book fair.
Please remember that for each book you buy school will receive commission to buy resources. Thank you.

We have been monitoring the children's diaries and have noticed that the number of comments made about children's reading is dwindling. Please make sure that you hear your child read each week and make a comment in their reading diary.
We have asked the children to read for 15 minutes each night and then try to speed
up the next night to beat the amount of pages the read the night before. This is because 15 minutes is the amount of time they get to read the booklet in the reading SAT so they do need to fully concentrate for this amount of time on reading and be able to take all the information they have read in.
We will be monitoring the children's diaries again this week and will let you know the percentage of children who have been heard read that week.

Curriculum...

In literacy this week we will be concentrating on the theme of book week and basing our work on our favourite books and authors. Please take the time this week to let your children look through their book collection and decide which their favourite books and authors are.

We will be using the laptops to research our favourite author and then write a biographies of the author.
We will also be writing reviews of our favourite book, looking at illustrators and doing art work based on illustrators work and sharing our favourite books with each other.

On Friday the children will be allowed to come to school dressed as their favourite character from a book. Please ensure that if your child is taking part in this they do come dressed as a character from a book and not from a movie. There will be a prize for the best costume in each class.

Numeracy

Mrs Morgan's and Mr Barker's groups will be continuing with their revision this week. The children are working really hard on this and we can see the benefits in their class work from the revision they have been doing at home. We feel that having the mini laptops is making a big difference with this. We would love to hear how you feel about this , if you have any comments about how the mini laptops our helping your child at home please let us know through the diaries.
We think that we are raising a generation of computer technicians as the vastness of the children's knowledge in sorting them out never ceases to amaze us!!
Keep it up guys we are really pleased with you!!

Miss Wright's and Mr Slavin's groups will be looking at strategies for adding strings of 1, 2 and 3 digit numbers and multiples of 10.
The will be looking at all the possible strategies and then choosing the one they feel the most comfortable using.

Try these websites to help:-
http://www.ictgames.com/technowithflock.html
http://www.bbc.co.uk/skillswise/numbers/wholenumbers/addsubtract/mental/flash9.shtml
http://www.10ticks.co.uk/s_showGames.aspx?gameID=5#gamesContent

Topic

Our topic this week will involve us becoming authors and illustrators ourselves. We will spend the time designing and writing our own books aimed our foundation stage and Year 1 children. We will then make them into electronic books using software on our school computers and scanning in the illustrations that the children have prepared to go with their books.
After the books are completed we will invite the younger children to book readings from the authors.
We will then hope to put the finished books on our school website.

This promises to be a really interesting and exciting week!

Hope to see you at the book fair.

Year 5/6 Team.