Oakwood’s foxy friend

It has been lovely to see our resident fox enjoying the early morning Autumnal sunshine on the field. Here are a couple of photos that Mrs Prowle took yesterday before school began. 

Lime Maths - Measures

This week we have been learning how to measure accurately and how to compare the length of different items. Some of us used cm blocks to help other, others measured to the nearest cm using a ruler and some measured to the nearest mm!

Have a look around your house, estimate and measure some items you find. How close are your estimates?

Homework this week is set on mymaths but you may also enjoy these interactive games to practise your measuring skills:

http://www.bgfl.org/bgfl/custom/resources_ftp/client_ftp/ks2/maths/measures/index.htm

http://www.funbrain.com/measure/

Maple Maths - Measures

This week we have also been learning how to measure accurately and how to compare the length of different items. Y3 used cm blocks to help other, others measured to the nearest cm using a ruler and some measured to the nearest mm!

Y4 and some of the Y3 children challenged ourselves to measure in m, cm and mm using metre sticks and long tape measures.  Some of us went in to the hall to find larger objects to measure and then wrote the measurements in different ways such as 1m 36cm = 1.36m = 136cm = 1360mm!

Homework this week is to find objects around the house to estimate and measure. Please complete the homework on the sheet and stick it in your book.

Spelling - sub

We have been investigating words that begin with  ‘sub’. We had some interesting discussions about what some of the more unfamiliar words on our word wall mean. Can you find any other words that begin with ‘sub’? Can you find these words in a dictionary to work out their meaning?

French

We have continued to practise our vocabulary:

les bras = arms

le nez = nose

la tête = head

les jambes = legs

les yeux = eyes

la bouche = mouth

Can you remember the pronunciation and the actions?

We also recapped on the following words and read a story about a ‘bonhomme de neige’. Can you remember what happenend to the main character in the end ?

English

During The Big Write this week we studied punctuation. Can you read a paragraph from your reading book, adding in the sounds and actions we learnt?

Full Stop - Throw a short, right-handed punch at the air in front of you. Make the noise, Ha!

Comma - With your right arm bent so that your hand is in front of your face, make a short twisting motion at the wrist to signify the comma shape. Make the noise, Shi!

Semi-colon - Do the full-stop punch, then the comma shape directly underneath it. Make the noises, Ha! Shi!

Colon – Follow the full-stop punch immediately with one directly beneath it. Make the noises, Ha! Ha!

Question mark – Separate the curly bit into three cutting movements with the hand: one horizontal left to right, one curved around, and one vertical coming from the bottom of the curved one. Then at the bottom of the shape you have just drawn in the air, bung in a full-stop punch. Make the noises, Shi! Shi! Shi! Ha!

Explanation mark - A long vertical slash, from top to bottom, followed by a full stop. Make the noises, Shiiiiii! Ha!

We also looked at how to organise ideas on the same topic into paragraphs.

The children really respond well to the atmosphere of The Big Write.  The music, darkness and candles provide a very creative atmosphere. Following our first drafts, they used the ‘Purple Polishing Pens’ to improve and edit their work before publishing their improvements into a final draft.

Apart from our great Big Write session, we have also been learning about and writing our own limericks. These are great fun and we have thoroughly enjoyed playing with our ideas!

RE – Hinduism

Our learning in RE has moved onto Diwali. We looked at how and why Hindu’s celebrate the ‘festival of light’. We particularly looked at how the lotus flower is used to inspire Rangoli patterns.  We began to design our own Rangoli patterns and will be using coloured salt to bring these designs to life in the next couple of weeks.

History – Ancient Egypt

We have continued to look at the seasons of the river Nile and the activities that the Ancient Egyptians took part in during each season.

Science

We have learned more about mirrors this week by testing how they reflect different things.  We were interested to see that our hands looked very similar in the mirror but any writing was back to front! We thought about why the word ‘AMBULANCE’ is written backwards on the bonnet and had a really interesting discussion about why our reflections are the right way up on the back of a spoon but upside down on the top.

Try writing the alphabet on a piece of paper and then look at it in the mirror. Which letters look the same and which look different?

Art

We have now finished our Quentin Blake style pictures and we’re really pleased with the results! This week we have been using what we have learned to begin our designs for the annual Christmas card project. We will be sending these home very soon for you to order if you wish.