Maple Class Blog Friday 11th November
We have had a super start to the day today with our Woodland School session. I was amazed at the expertise in Bushcraft that certain members of our class had and we all learnt a lot – I certainly will be going home knowing many more ways to get a fire started. They also had the opportunity to examine a badger skull and pelt and were challenged to make a waterproof gnome shelter. The Chagford gnomes are in good hands and you will be glad to know that they will remain warm and dry throughout the torrential downpours that we keep having! In English, we have finished writing our persuasive leaflets which will be published on Chromebook over the coming weeks as and when we are able to use the devices. In the meantime, we are starting a piece of narrative based on The Snow Leopard by Jackie Morris. If you have or are able to borrow from the library any other Jackie Morris stories, they all use similar very poetic language and will delight with their wonderful illustrations. The more that we can read, the more we shall absorb her style. The aim of the English unit is to write a similar story ( it is in fact a modern creation myth) but with a different central character in a different setting (the rainforest) so please start researching rainforest animals that would make good protectors of a realm and noting their features (how they look, move and sound) In Maths, we have been learning about factors and are beginning to use them for division but we shall also be grappling with division by a 2-digit number (long division). We have had a couple of visits from other Trust staff observing Maths and I would like to congratulate the children on the confident way in which they were able to talk about their maths learning. In Geography we are about to start a unit on informal settlements and how they come about. I hope you all have a lovely weekend. I have included a few pictures of our Woodland School session.
0 Comments
Maple class blog wk beginning 17th Oct
As we approach the half term break, I wanted to say how proud I am of the children for their hard work. All have at least doubled their times tables facts recall speed and performed really well in the end of unit test for our maths Place Value unit. This week in Maths we shall be consolidating our knowledge of tests of divisibility – please ask your child how to test whether a number can be divided by 3 !! This enables us to quickly identify prime numbers. We shall also be securing our understanding of multiplication and its associated written methods which we shall use to solve multi-step multiplication problems. Our unit on persuasive writing continues and we should all now be able to talk confidently about techniques that are commonly used in persuasive texts. We shall be jointly composing a class leaflet based on the flooding in Pakistan. Home reading is also going well and we have begun to fly into space as our astronauts have taken to the skies on our rocket reads wall. Keep it up everyone and remember that we’re aiming for 5 home reads (at least) of about 20 mins per week. I cannot impress enough that it is through reading that we acquire most of our language for writing. You will have noticed that the children have come home with spelling lists this week. The columns for them to focus on have been highlighted. We shall be addressing the spelling pattern from the centre column during class as well as looking at ways to remember the tricky words. Some of the words will be included in our end-of-week spelling dictation. Please encourage your child to practise the words using Look-Cover-Write-Check until they are able to write them confidently. Have a good week everyone. What a great day we've had (in the sun!). The child labour must have worn them out because it was a sleepy journey home.
I hope that they have lots to tell you about the mining at Morwellham because the trip certainly reinforced lots of what we had covered in class last Tuesday. We have come to the end of our topic on Place Value in Maths and are moving on to arithmetic. After reinforcing our addition and subtraction written methods we shall spend time becoming fluent in multiplying by 2 digit numbers and in division. I shall send a sheet home next week outlining our methods to you as we have all learnt in different ways. Times tables score are going up! We have focused on the 7s, 3s and 8s so please do some quizzing at home. Our writing is focused around persuasion. If your child has a particular cause that they are passionate about persuading support for then it would be really useful if they could research and have to hand some facts and figures to support their presentation of the problem and the solutions that your organisation provides. Have a super weekend and enjoy the photos. Dear everyone,
What a super week we have had. Our poems are finished and ready for display (and very thoughtful and beautifully presented they are too). Everyone has made a concerted effort with home reading this week and it is lovely to hear about books other than school books that you are sharing at home. Today we have enjoyed the mummers play which I’m sure there is more about in the newsletter but we felt quite inspired to give one a go ourselves – maybe later in the term! Junior life skills was a valuable experience. Unfortunately for us, some of the presenters weren’t able to attend which resulted in a rather truncated afternoon but I was delighted with the way that the year 6s conducted themselves and the sensible and thoughtful questions that they had to ask and the mature way in which they were able to contribute to the sessions – thank you year 6, you were a credit to our school. Our times tables recall is getting much quicker too. Next week we need to work on our 8 times table so any preparation would be great. Last but my no means least, we are a week away from our trip to Morwellham. The following link gives some child-friendly information about mining in Devon and Cornwall for those of you who would like to explore the topic at home. Please can you return the reply slip and arrange for the financial contribution via the School Gateway if still outstanding – Cornwall and West Devon Mining Landscape Facts for Kids (kiddle.co) Let’s hope that next Friday’s weather will be kinder to us than today. Have a lovely weekend. Dear all,
This morning our year 6s turned 'teacher' on us and took their presentations on The Respiratory System and Asthma' to the year 3s. They all rose to the challenge and our younger pupils were treated to tours of the respiratory system courtesy of a team of air particles! Year 3 commented that they had learnt a lot and the presentations were fun so well done, all. There are a couple of photos attached for you to enjoy. We are still working hard and have ventured into the realms of spooky stories this week. We have investigated several stories from the 'Short'/'Short and Spooky' collection of books and have used a text called Norton's Hut by John Marsden and Peter Gouldthorpe. The children have really been immersed in creating spooky atmospheres - I'm looking forward to reading their stories. Next half term, we shall be looking at the different writing styles incorporated within walking guides. If any of you are out walking over the half term, it would be good if you were able to browse any guide books that you might have. We shall be looking at the mix of instruction, information and description. Have a good week everyone. Hello all,
Thank you for all the support that you gave the children running up to and during their SATs week. It could not have been calmer and we were so impressed with the way in which each and every one of them approached the tests with such maturity and determination. We are so proud of them all. I think that the cinema trip last week went down well too. It was really funny and was made even more hilarious through the references to many other heist-type movies (Ocean’s 11, Point Break, Kingsman – some extra moments to raise a smile for the adults). This week has been a much more relaxed affair with the children grappling with technology to produce slide presentations with script about the respiratory system and what happens during asthma attacks. They’re looking really great and I have been in conversation with year 3 to whom they shall make their presentations so ‘get practising those accents!’ (they’ll tell you what I’m talking about.) The next project will be to study spooky stories and write one of our own. In Maths, we shall continue to revise and practise our arithmetic and consolidate all the units covered this year. In between times, rehearsal for A Midsummer Night’s Dream are now in full swing and there are some superb performances in the making. We have also been squeezing in time (during class novel times) for making a pom pom garland in Ukranian colours to grace the front of school as our sunflowers grow. Thank you also for all the wonderful baking contributions for the cake sale today. Have a super weekend Maple Class blog 8th April 2022
HAPPY EASTER HOLIDAYS EVERYONE! Well … throughout the last half term the children have really done themselves proud and made some really super progress. I have sent home a couple of revision booklets (one for Maths and one for English) and would encourage them to chip away at the worksheets to keep things fresh in their minds. After the holidays, there are two school weeks before the SATs which are during the week of 9th May from the Monday through to the Thursday at times set by government. However, they all coped extremely well with the mock SATs test that we did recently so just want to maintain the learning. In English we have been having a lot of fun with our class novel ‘Smith’ and are compiling information leaflets about highwaymen – the description and imagination has astounded me: ‘The appearance of a highwayman strikes fear into the hearts of even the bravest of men.’ ‘The glint in his eye would charm any lady but behind the shimmer, there are secrets untold.’ ‘Without doubt, his red-speckled mask will be pulled over his scarlet face, but leaving hazel-brown eyes glimmering, as if to hide secrets not ready for the harsh world.’ ‘His black, leather boots, littered with buckles are like the solar system, the black leather being the endless void and the buckles, the planets.’ In Maths, we have been learning about ratio and scale factors. Scaling up/down a recipe in the holidays could be a fun activity. Revision shall continue after the holiday and after Sats we shall be embarking on a project to include a lot of data handling. It would be great if the children could collect any examples of graphs, charts, timetables etc that they find in magazines, newspapers or leaflets. Please see the Birch Class blog for details of afternoon work. Best Regards and Happy Easter. Hello all,
Everyone has approached the mock sats this week absolutely brilliantly and progress is evident right across the board - well done everyone. It has not been the most exciting week in year 6 in the mornings but please see the Birch class blog for details of afternoon activities. Just a reminder to all that reliable revision materials are produced by CGP, Rising Stars and Exam Ninja should you be wanting to purchase any for use at home. The real SATs week is the week of the 9th May. Next week, we shall be moving onto information text about how to be a highwayman in English so start gathering together ideas re costume, habits, tone of voice, riding ability, persona etc. In Maths we shall be starting to look at ratio and proportion. Have a super, sunny weekend everyone. Thank you everyone for the wonderful book characters who arrived in school on Thursday. Wow - you all really looked the part!
It was super to have such enthusiastic book recommendations from the children and we all decided that we would not judge a book by its cover in future after an activity where we chose books purely from their blurb (the cover being covered). It was surprising how many books were really great when we started reading them but wouldn't have grabbed our attentions from the book cover. We also had a bit of a scavenger hunt for Wally who guided us to some really unusual reads. The morning flew past and it was a joy to feel the buzz around books that there was in the school. This next week, we shall be concentrating on Time (analogue and digital), 24 hour clock and reading timetables(calculating differences in time). Any extra practice that you can give you child in this respect will be greatly appreciated. Hello everyone! I trust that you managed to spend some extra quality time with your children during half term. They have certainly returned with energy and are working very hard.
I wince at mentioning the S word (SATs) but this is the key half term of revision prior to these tests which are in the week of the 9th May (just a couple of weeks after the Easter holidays). Should you wish extra home revision materials, the best publications are CGP and Rising Stars ones which are widely available online and from WH Smith. All past papers are freely available online KS2 SATs Papers - SATs Papers KS2 [1999-2022] - Free Downloads (sats-papers.co.uk) and on other sites. Obviously, I don't want them to use them as tests at home but to have questions to practise. The reading papers are brilliant as they are all limited length extracts at exactly the right level of difficulty. However, we are having a lot of fun with our class novel Smith and writing composition pieces for the coming half term will include several pieces based on the book.
In Maths, the remaining topics to cover this half term are reading time in 12 and 24 hour formats and calculating time differences; Measure (mass, capacity and length) including reading scales that are calibrated in different amounts and being able to convert between units of measure ( e.g. ml to l and vice versa) and Ratio and proportion (ratio can be explored in a fun way by scaling recipes up and down). Most importantly, it is crucial that times tables facts are quick so please regularly quiz your children at home and encourage regular Times Tables Rockstars practice. Don't forget that World Book Day is next Thursday - children do not have to dress up for the day but they may if they choose to. We will be having a special day filled with bookish joy. We will be welcoming a pop up bookshop from our friends at The Bookery in Crediton who will introduce children to some fun, age -appropriate books and give them a chance to buy a book from the shop. The bookshop will remain open until four o'clock at the end of the day in case any parents or carers would like to visit it. To buy a book children need to bring cash in a sealed, named envelope and give it to the class teacher at the start of the day. Children will be able to buy one book for six pounds or two books for ten pounds. On that note, we shall be sharing favourite books in class that day and I would like to invite the children to bring in a book with a synopsis and recommendation to go with it - this can be in written form or as an oral presentation. It would be great if they could think about books they've read that others would probably not have so as to inspire and inform our wider reading. Above all, let's enjoy the longer daylight hours and hopefully some more Spring-like weather. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. Archives
April 2024
Categories |