Week ending 24.10.14

It was lovely to meet you all at our parents’ consultations this week. We’re sure you’ll agree that the children have made a brilliant start to the year in their LKS2 classes. We hope you enjoy a well-deserved rest over the coming half term week and look forward to seeing everyone back, refreshed, revitalised and ready for some more exciting learning! If anyone is going out ‘Trick or treating’ on Friday, please remember to stay with an adult and be careful while you’re enjoying yourself! There will be no formal homework over the half term but make sure you keep going with reading, tables practice and spellings. Perhaps you could do a diary of what you get up to during the week too! After half term, as the weather gets colder, please remember to put some jogging bottoms and a sweatshirt in your PE bags as we will still go outside for these lessons. You may also want to have a spare pair of trainers that you don’t mind getting muddy for games lessons on the field. These should be brought to school in a plastic carrier bag.

Literacy Maple Class: This week we have been doing some follow up work from our visit to Kew. We combined our literacy learning about description using the senses to write about the day. Here are some extracts from those pieces of work, can you spot which sense the authors were using?   “When I first went in the Palm House I felt the humidity striking me.”    Olivia   “I learnt that the fan shaped leaves are spread out so they can get more sunshine.”   Ben   “I couldn’t believe that Cacao pods were orange, I thought they would be brown!”   Iona   Lime Class: When did you last write a thank you letter ? In Lime Class we discussed why people write thank you letters and how receiving them makes you feel.  We wanted to write thank you letters to the people who lead our workshops at Kew.  We began planning and drafting our letters this week.   Poplar Class: We have also been writing thank you letters to the people at Kew Gardens. We told them how much we had enjoyed our visit, what had impressed us and asked questions about future plans for Kew gardens.   Useful Websites: http://www.kew.org/

Mathematics   In Mrs Prowle’s group, we have been learning about 2D shapes. We found out that shape names come from Ancient Greek and Latin and that polygons are straight-sided 2D shapes. Some of us found it a bit tricky to sort regular and irregular shapes but got there in the end with some practise.  We also spent some time learning about the different triangles and their properties. Can you identify these triangles from their descriptions: 1.     3 equal sides & angles 2.    2 equal sides & angles 3.    All sides and angles different Some of us challenged ourselves to label different properties of triangles as well.         In Mrs Williams and Mrs Gilder’s group, we have been continuing our work on 2D shapes.  We discussed when a shape is regular (equal length sides and angles) and when it is irregular, and also whether we were able to spot right angles. Ask your child the names of the different triangles (right angled, equilateral, scalene, and isosceles). http://www.crickweb.co.uk/ks2numeracy-shape-and-weight.html#quad Crickweb | KS2 Numeracy Shape & Weight   We also began exploring 3D shapes. We used terms FACES, EDGES and VERTICES (corners) to discuss the properties of the shapes. http://www.primaryresources.co.uk/online/longshape3d.html http://www.bgfl.org/bgfl/custom/resources_ftp/client_ftp/ks2/maths/3d/index.htm   What 2D and 3D shapes can you spot at home ? or outside ? We would love to display some of your photos of your half term findings !    In Mrs Roche’s group we have revisited subtraction this week. The children have worked really hard to try and improve on this difficult area.

Topic In Maple and Poplar we completed some follow up work from our visit to Kew Gardens last week and learned more about the ‘deadly and disgusting’ plants we’d found. We were horrified by some of the effects of these plants and surprised that some of them could actually be used as medicines in small doses.

Art LKS2 used photographs from Kew to create rainforest pictures. We stuck the photograph in the middle of a piece of paper and used clues from it, as well as our memories and imagination to extend the picture. We are really pleased with the results !

We all enjoyed Lime Class’s Sharing Assembly this morning and I’m sure you’ll all agree that the children have learnt a lot since September.  For those of you who couldn’t be with us, here is a video clip :