News

We are having a go at the BBC’s 500 words writing competition. The children have been introduced to it today (Friday) and will be writing their stories next week. It would be great if you could find some time to think about and discuss ideas – the BBC Website has some great tips and resources to get you started – so that we can get those creative juices flowing!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00rfvk1

SNOW AT OAKWOOD

On the 5^th of February more snow arrived in St Albans.  This gave us a chance to play with the snow and build a snowman.  Well done to whoever built this snowman – we love it!

Literacy

We have started learning about writing playscripts using a Tudor based play by Julia Donaldson (The Gruffalo) called “A Jumble for the Queen”. We have been thinking about the importance of stage directions and characterisation and enjoyed some role play activities this week.

Homework: Talk homework. Please make notes (bullet points or a mind map) in your green books and be prepared to write them up next week.

Spellings

This week we are consolidating our work on homophones.

Can you write some sentences showing that you know the meaning and spelling for different homophones? Can you find even more examples of homophones that are not on your word wall?

Mathematics

In Mrs Prowle’s group we have moved on to using the grid method to multiply 3-digit numbers by 2-digit numbers. Some of us even managed to multiply 2x 3-digit numbers and decimals!

 

Homework: More multiplication practice using the grid method.

Mrs Gilder and Mrs William's group have been practising multiplication.  We learnt to use doubling to multiply by 4 and halfing to divide by 4.  We could even extend this to multiplying by 8 and 16!

Homework: Mental maths booklet.

In Mrs Roche’s group we have been looking at measuring the area and perimeter of rectangles and squares. Remembering that the area is like the carpet in the shape and the perimeter the fence going around it.

Homework: The next test in Schofield and Sims – you should by Tuesday have completed test 10

In Maple class we have been exploring different ways of changing the pitch of an instrument. We made elastic band guitars and discovered the thinner the elastic band the higher the pitch. Some of us worked out that if we really stretched a wide band it would also make a higher pitch because it had been made thinner.  We also filled bottles with water and tested the pitch created. It was interesting to see that the bottle with the most water produced the lowest pitch note when it was tapped but the highest pitch when we blew over the hole at the top. Can you explain why?

Finally we made instruments from straws and blew balloons up with different coins inside – ask the children how the pitch of the note was affected.

In Lime and Poplar Class we have been looking at the ear and how it works. The children watched a video of how we hear and we looked at a model of the ear. 

HISTORY

This week, Maple Class learned about the problems surrounding Henry VIII’s marriage to Catherine of Aragon and why he felt he had to divorce her. Can you explain why it was such a complicated situation and some of the reasons for Henry’s decision?

FRENCH

In French in Poplar class this week we learned about the festival of Candle mass and how it is celebrated in France. The children learned that this date is 40 days after Christmas day and celebrated the presentation of Jesus at the temple. Many years ago Christians would attend church on the 2^nd February and carry a candle home with them, if they managed to arrive home with it still lit then they would have prosperity during the coming year. Nowadays the French have pancakes on 2^nd February if they manage to toss the pancake holding the pan in one hand and money in the other this symbolises prosperity.

The children all had a go at tossing pancakes.

RE

This week we have been comparing the Sikh naming ceremony (Nam Karan) with the Christian baptism. We found out that they were very different but had similar ideas of welcoming and community behind them.

Can you explain some of these words and why they are important in the Sikh Nam Karan:

• Singh
• Kaur
• Guru Granth Sahib
• Granthi
• Langar