News Good Learners: Our LKS2 good learners this week were Ellie (Maple), Lucia (Poplar) and Imogen (Lime). Well done to all of them for a fantastic start to the New Year.

Literacy We have continued our work on calligrams, focussing on shape, line and colour to represent words in relation to their meaning. We have used our work in French to write calligrams in French, including in the shape of the Eiffel Tower.   LKS2 have started to create alliterative phrases and similes from a photograph to form the basis of a shape poem next week. Here are some examples of what we came up with:  “majestic, magical, mammal” “silent, secret, stealthy lion” “…as wild and free as the wind roaming across the never ending African plains.” “…as power hungry as Henry VIII.”     Homework: Choose a poem and write it out using calligrams for some of the words.

Mathematics   In Mrs Prowle’s group This week we have been practising using standard methods of column addition and subtraction.  For a bit more challenge we had to fill in missing digits to make calculations correct. Some of us then tried to arrange 5 or 6 digits to make calculations of 3-digit numbers  with target totals.   In Mrs Williams and Mrs Gilder’s group This week we have been solving problems involving addition and subtraction. We have used place value discs to support our learning. We used columns to record the numbers, making sure that we put the digits in the right places.  Practise your skills using the websites below: http://www.oswego.org/ocsd-web/games/speedgrid/addition/urikares.html http://resources.oswego.org/games/SpeedGrid/Subtraction/urikasub1res.html   Mrs Roche's group have been looking at subtraction of three digit numbers from three digit numbers. We have used a number line and jumped up or down the line. Lots of practice is needed still in subtraction.

SCIENCE We continued learning about sound and used homemade ‘ear gongs’ made out of metal coat hangers and string to investigate whether sound travels better through a solid or a gas. Most of us were very surprised by what we discovered!      http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/educators/teaching_resources/activities/ear_gongs.aspx

HISTORY We were excited to begin our Tudor topic. We talked about when the Tudor era was and how the Tudor Rose was formed. Looking at a portrait of Henry VIII, we thought about questions we would like to find out about Henry VIII. We then researched Henry's wives using the laptops and put their portraits in chronological order. We labelled them with what happened to them. Can you child remember the song? Divorced, beheaded and died... Here's a website you may like to take a look at. http://ngkids.co.uk/did-you-know/Tudor_Facts#

FRENCH Mme Ough taught us some words for the weather. We also looked at some French calligrams. Did you know that calligrams originated from France?