LKS2 would like to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Here is a selection of photographs from this week!

Other News:

Following our trip to the Lee Valley White Water Centre in September when we met Lindsey from Blue Peter, Year 4 have now all received special  Blue Peter Sports badges in recognition of their canoeing! Mrs Prowle wrote to the programme following the visit to apply for the badges which are only awarded to children who try a new sport having been inspired by others.  We felt that the Year 4s had been inspirational to each other that day, helping and encouraging those that were a little unsure and that they therefore deserved the badge and, fortunately, Blue Peter agreed! 

ESA Principia Launch

On Tuesday we were all really excited to watch Tim Peake blast off to the ISS on board the Soyuz rocket. Everyone clapped and cheered at the successful launch and all of the the children have been writing about why they would like to become astronauts in the future! Many told us that they then watched him and the crew enter the space station later that day and we are now looking forward to the projects that we will be involved in during the next 6 months of his mission.

It was lovely to see so many of you at the Christmas fair.


We have had a lovely week with lots of nativity plays to watch and we have started doing lots of Christmas craft.


Maths

Lime – we have been reviewing our learning over the last term.

Maple  - we have been learning about equivalent fractions using fraction walls and lego!

Maths homework – There is no maths homework set for the Christmas period. Please take the time to practise your times tables. You can also look back through the blog for some ideas on revision and go on Mymaths http://www.mymaths.co.uk/.

English

Following our successful snowflake creations last week, Lime wrote some instructions for Mrs Gilder as she hadn’t made one before. Well done Lime! You remembered all of the ingredients for a successful set of instructions. Can you remember what these are?

Maple also wrote instructions for making a paper snowflake – can you follow them to create a similar snowflake at home! (See homework)

Literacy Homework – Following instructions on how to make a paper snowflake. 

This week’s spelling wall:

We have been looking back at the spellings we have been working on this term and practising any words we haven’t retained, particularly the days of the week and months of the year.

Art

Christmas themed.

Lime-     Watercolour background for Christmas cards.

                Christmas stars with twigs (See below)

Maple – finger painting for Christmas cards
Poplar - Christmas craft (we want to surprise you)

Woodland Learning

We worked in groups to make Christmas stars. We used wool to connect the twigs which was quite challenging. The children worked well together and produced a variety of designs. Please remember wellies! Having the correct footwear means the children can access more of the outdoor classroom.

French

We have been practising our question and answers. Mme Ough linked our French to our Roald Dahl theme. We identified some of Roald Dahl’s books from the titles.

Science/PE

Maple completed a circuit of 7 activities in the hall to see which muscle groups were working. These included triceps dips, bicep curls, crunches and calf raises. The children had to mark, on pictures of the body, where they could feel their muscles working and then used the iPads to research what these muscles are called. Do you know where to find the latissimus dorsi and trapezoid muscles? 

We then completed an investigation to find out whether the people with longer legs run the fastest. We were surprised to find that, in our class at least, it doesn't seem to make much difference. In fact Ollie (who has the shortest legs) is one of the quickest runners!

LKS2 News
We all thoroughly enjoyed watching Poplar Class' sharing assembly all about the Egyptians this morning, particularly the bit when Tia was mummified by Emily, Joshy and Freddie Y. It was very entertaining and reinforced just how much we have learned this term about this fascinating period of history. 

Some children from Maple and Poplar worked together to get creative with the playground toys, building this great 'barbecue'! Certainly an innovative use of tennis racquets!  

This year in the run up to Christmas, children from Lime, Maple and Poplar Classes are being 'Advent Angels'! The idea is that each day each child chooses the name of another child in their class out of a pot. Then, during the day, they do something kind / special for that child. It could be saying something really kind, writing a friendly note, playing with them or helping them with a job or something they find tricky. The possibilities are endless and I'm sure our angels will be imaginative and creative with their ideas for making someone else feel good!

English
This week in English we have been continuing our work on instructions. We began the week by making sandwiches and writing instructions for the process. It was great fun and we all enjoyed eating our sandwiches at playtime. We were surprised at how precise we needed to be with the instructions! 

Homework

Grammar game - do you remember the meaning of each grammar term?  Can you use it to improve your sentence?

Maths
In maths, Maple Class have been using the grid method to multiply 2 and 3-digit numbers. We used our knowledge of place value and partitioning as well as manipulatives to help us with the calculations.
We also started to develop our understanding of time to the nearest 5 minutes, including
quarter past and to the hour. Test us at home!

This week in Lime we have been exploring 3D shapes. We talked about the names of shapes and how we can describe them by looking at the number of edges, faces/surfaces and vertices/corners.

Have a look around your house. What shapes can you find? How many faces etc do they have?

We extended our learning by looking at the nets of shapes and then building them. You could take apart some 3D shapes at home (cereal box etc). How are the faces arranged? Can you cut the faces up and rearrange them so that the you can rebuild the shape?

You could try some of these interactive games to support your learning:

Maths interactive shape games

				Maths interactive shape games A safe site for kids, overflowing pages of educational and entertaining web pages.
				View on resources.woodlands-...	Preview by Yahoo

http://www.bgfl.org/bgfl/custom/resources_ftp/client_ftp/ks2/maths/3d/index.htm

Homework
Maple Class: Online (Active Learn) time activity 'Bubble burst.'
Lime Class: My Maths - 3d shapes


Science
We have been learning about our amazing bodies and now know many of the scientific terms for our bones.  Did you know babies have over 300 bones when they are born but, by the time we are adults, many of these have fused together and we only have 206?

Can you label this diagram of a skeleton?

Art 

We have been finishing our canopic jars and starting to make Christmas decorations for our classrooms.
We made these lovely 3D snowflakes using squares of coloured paper.

           

Lime's Circle Time

The children raised some issues relating to the playground. We discussed how it's important to look out for each other and how it feels to be on your own. We also discussed how, sometimes, some children like to be on their own but that it's always nice to be asked if you want to join in. Mrs Gilder and Mrs Williams are always very proud of the mature way the children listen to each other and reflect on their own and others' behavior. Well done Lime!

French

Madame Ough showed us a passage from the French, German and Spanish versions of 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and we had to work out which language was which with a sheet of clues that she gave us. We also used our French to translate some of the passage and were surprised at how much we could do! It was great fun!

                                                           

RE

Lots of the children have started their Advent calendars and we explored their meaning this week.  The children know that Advent marks the beginning of the Christian year and that it is the four weeks before Christmas beginning on Nov 30th (or the nearest Sunday to it).

We looked at Advent crowns and the symbolism of the candles. We rounded off the learning with the children writing some lovely Advent acrostic poems.