Week ending 12.9.14

Literacy This week we have begun looking at stories from familiar settings and we have been focussing on Horrid Henry and books by Dick King-Smith! Useful Websites: http://www.horridhenry.me/games What does Henry look like? What does Henry think of Peter? How does Henry feel in different situations? What sort of things does Henry do? Think of a familiar setting (home, school, the park) – what can you see? Hear? Smell? How do you feel there? Homework: Talk Homework, including a letter explaining.

Spellings Children are being tested on key words this week and will be issued with weekly spellings next week.

Mathematics In Mrs Prowle’s group, we have been reading and writing 4 and 5-digit numbers in figures and words as well as practising our place value skills with larger numbers. We found it challenging when we were asked to add 10, 100 and 1000 to numbers that included a 9. e.g. 1984 + 100 =       1297 + 10 = In Mrs Williams and Mrs Gilder’s group we have been reading and writing numbers in figures (numbers) and words. We found that using the headings in our books helped us.  Th      H       T        O NB we now refer to Ones rather than Units! We found it challenging when 0 was used as a place holder. Useful Websites: http://www.hbschool.com/activity/elab2004/gr4/1.html http://resources.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/maths/interactive/numbers.htm#Place The children have also been issued with a maths target. 1 - Recall rapidly multiplication and division facts for the 2 and 10 times tables. Begin to know facts of the 5 times table. 2 - Count in 2s, 5s and 10s up to/from x10. Recall some facts from the 2, 5 and 10 times tables. 3 - Recognise multiples of 2, 3, 4, 5 and 10 up to x10. 4 - Quickly answer multiplication and division questions from the 2, 3, 4, 5 and 10 times tables. 5 - Be able to quickly answer multiplication and division questions from the 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 10 times tables. Children may like to practise their times tables using the following websites: http://www.oswego.org/ocsd-web/games/SumSense/summulti.html http://www.arcademicskillbuilders.com/games/meteor/meteor.html Homework:  Maths Group 1: A sheet on ordering numbers using place value Maths Groups 2 & 3 This week, homework is a page from the Schofield & Sims calculations book. Please spend no more than 30 minutes on this; if your child does not complete the page, it doesn’t matter. Please just let us know where the difficulties were so that we can address them in class. Remember, the maths itself may appear quite easy; it’s the language focus that is important in order to get the children used to a variety of mathematical vocabulary. If your child finishes in less than 30 minutes, please use the extra time to practise tables and your child's targets.

Topic Ask your child where tropical rainforests are located. Can they show you the equator, tropic of Cancer and tropic of Capricorn in an atlas? Useful Websites: http://www.rainforestanimals.net/ The children have enjoyed looking at the huge variety of animals and drawn pictures, colouring using pastels, pencils or felt pens.

Science Linked to our work on the rainforests, our science is about changes of state and, in particular the water cycle. Ask your child about the properties of solids and liquids. Can they explain why flour is a solid? Useful Websites: http://resources.woodlandsjunior.kent.sch.uk/revision/science/changingmaterials.htm#2

PE  Maple and Poplar had their first session with Mr Murphy. They enjoyed practising their football skills.

French Mme Ough taught Maple and Poplar this week. The children practised saying numbers 1-10 and learned how to say ‘my name is…’ Can your child answer with their name when you ask “Comment t’appelles-tu?” Ask them to count to 5 (Y3) or 10 (Y4) in French. Useful Websites: http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/primarylanguages/french/