11 December 2020

This week, the whole school has the same Creative homework, which should be returned by Thursday 17 December.

The children are invited to respond to something from either a cultural or a spiritual perspective.

I can present a review of a book / TV show / film or something else cultural.

We’d like children to present their responses about a recent book they’ve read, film they’ve watched, piece of art they’ve looked at, piece of music they’ve listened to – anything cultural in fact.

We’re interested to read some sort of description (a summary, for example) and then your child’s opinions. This review might include pictures, an interview (your child could write a fictional script between himself/herself and the artist, for example), a letter (eg to or from a character, or perhaps even the author) – anything which might include your child’s responses!

However, your child might prefer to do the following:

I know what a faith celebration means to me.

Over the course of this term, some children in school may have celebrated a religious festival of some sort.  This might have been

  • the Muslim festival of Eid ul Adha
  • the Sikh and Hindu festival Diwali
  • the Jewish festival of Hanukkah, coming up in December
  • the Christian festival (of course, celebrated by many non-Christians) of Christmas
  • and the Chinese New Year festival, coming up

There are lots of other festivals and celebrations, which you and your child together might want to reflect on.

We invite children to respond to the sentence above – they might include a recount (like a diary entry), pictures, an interview (perhaps in a script).  Your child might also choose to research a completely unknown festival, or they might even think about creating a brand new festival, one that everyone will celebrate.

Of course, there are many other ways in which children could respond. Children should be ready to celebrate their learning as part of their homework review by Thursday 18 December 2020. 

3,4O: Super Scientists

We continued our learning about sound by carrying out an investigation into the relationship between volume and vibrations.

First, we observed the vibrations when we played the musical instruments louder or fainter.

We found that the louder the volume, the bigger the vibrations – remember, the vibrations cause particles in the air to vibrate which in turn creates sound.

Then, we carried out a more scientific investigation using a decibel metre. Decibels are the unit we use to measure sound. We played the instruments and recorded the volume.

Finally, just like scientists would, we created a graph to show our results. Take a look at a few of ours…

Week beginning 07 December 2020

Hi everyone

We hope you’re all OK and managing to stay happy, healthy and safe.

Before you get stuck into your home learning, here’s a short video from Mr Catherall.

And, here’s your home learning for this week…

Maths

This week’s maths learning is linked to multiplication and problem solving.

Year 3 children use these resources:

You don’t have to print the worksheet. Your child can write or draw their answers on paper. Your child’s learning will be most effective if you sit with them to pause the clip and check / praise / support your child as the clip moves on.

Practise times tables on Times Table Rockstars, too. If your child is in Y3, we’re concentrating on the 3 times table. If your child is in Y4, we’re concentrating on the 8 times table. Email the class teacher if you need your child’s login and password details.

(Suggested time: 30 minutes of Maths and 15 minutes of Rockstars daily)

Spelling

Look on the homework page to find this week’s spellings. They should choose some past spellings that they feel less confident with. Your child should complete one task each day.

  • Day 1: Generate more words linked to the spelling pattern or ‘rule’. You could look out for the words in the book you’re reading at home, or any other text, like a website linked to our science topic of Living Things and their Habitat.
  • Day 2: Practise the spellings using two of the ideas in our Super Spelling Strategies guide. (Set yourself and others at home a challenge of using some of the words when you’re speaking, too!)
  • Day 3: Write separate sentences, each containing one of the spellings. (Don’t forget to show off really neat handwriting and make sure you sentence starts with a capital letter and ends with a full stop, exclamation mark (!) or question mark (?).
  • Day 4: Repeat Task 2 or 3.
  • Day 5: Get an adult at home to test you on your spellings. Practise any you spell incorrectly – you could write them out carefully until you’re sure.

(Suggested time: 15-20 minutes daily)

Reading fluency

This is the text we’re using in class this week to build up fluency skills.

In school, we generally follow this sequence:

  • Day 1: Read the text aloud with your child listening. Read it clearly and slowly, pointing to each word as you read. Have a chat about any unfamiliar words.
  • Day 2: Read aloud each sentence (a full short sentence or part of a longer sentence), and have your child read it back to you. Do this ‘echo reading’ for the whole text.
  • Day 3: Read the text and talk about the effect of the punctuation on how you read it – pauses for full stops and expression for exclamations (!) or questions (?). Your child reads the text aloud.
  • Day 4: Read together with expression (just like you practised on Day 3).
  • Day 5: Your child reads independently and fluently.

(Suggested time: 15 minutes daily)

Reading comprehension

Day 1: We’ll be using this ‘RIC’ text in class to practise comprehension skills. RIC stands for:

  • Retrieve: finding information in a text
  • Interpret: using clues in the text to unlock information
  • Choice: thinking about the author’s choice of words, techniques or organisation that make the text interesting and enjoyable to read

Day 2: Agree with your child three words from any text they’ve read which they’re less familiar with. Your child should find out what they mean (eg by checking an online dictionary or simply discuss with you) and how to use them in sentences (both when speaking and when writing). Challenge your child to write a sentence with each word in, or to drop the words into conversations at home.

Day 3: Read this article from First News, a newspaper for children, and complete the activity.

Day 4: Read your fluency or RIC text again. Next, do one of the following:

  • Your child could list at least ten facts they’ve read in the text. (If it’s a fiction text (a story), then the facts would be based on the story, like ‘Harry Potter picked up his broomstick’, rather than actual facts from the real world.)
  • Your child could create questions and answers for what they’ve read. (For example, it could be a TV or radio interview based on what they’ve read.)
  • Your child could create their own ‘RIC’ questions.
  • Your child could draw and label a character or setting that they’ve read about.

Day 5: Book Club. Once a week, we have a relaxing lesson where we sit and read quietly, often with an adult. At home, we’d like you to read your favourite book or text, too. If possible, discuss the book with an adult, talking about some or all of the sections of this sheet.

(Suggested time: 30 minutes daily)

Writing

Follow these lessons on non-chronological reports from Oak National Academy. There’s a whole series of lessons, but start at Lesson 1 and work through, doing one (or maybe even two) each day. (If you’re self-isolating in your second week, stick with the series of lessons you’ve already started and aim to complete the full series.)

(Suggested time: 30-40 minutes for each)

Topic

Our topic this half-term is about history – all about Ancient Greece.

Follow these lessons on pre-historic Britain from Oak National Academy. There are ten lessons in total, but start at the first lesson and work through, doing two or three in the week.

(Suggested time: 30-40 minutes)

Science   

Our focus this half-term is sound.

These six lessons from Oak National Academy link closely to what we’ve been doing in class. Start at Lesson 1 and work through, doing two or three in the week. If you’ve previously completed on of these lessons, have a go at the ones you haven’t completed yet.

If Science really motivates your child, you could also use look at these lessons all about practical Science.

(Suggested time: 30-45 minutes)

Week beginning 07 December 2020

Hi everyone

We hope you’re all OK and managing to stay happy, healthy and safe.

Before you get stuck into your home learning, here’s a short video from Mr Catherall.

And, here’s your home learning for this week…

Maths

This week’s maths learning is linked to multiplication and problem solving.

Year 4 children use these resources:

You don’t have to print the worksheet. Your child can write or draw their answers on paper. Your child’s learning will be most effective if you sit with them to pause the clip and check / praise / support your child as the clip moves on.

Practise times tables on Times Table Rockstars, too. If your child is in Y3, we’re concentrating on the 3 times table. If your child is in Y4, we’re concentrating on the 8 times table. Email the class teacher if you need your child’s login and password details.

(Suggested time: 30 minutes of Maths and 15 minutes of Rockstars daily)

Spelling

Look on the homework page to find this week’s spellings. They should choose some past spellings that they feel less confident with. Your child should complete one task each day.

  • Day 1: Generate more words linked to the spelling pattern or ‘rule’. You could look out for the words in the book you’re reading at home, or any other text, like a website linked to our science topic of Living Things and their Habitat.
  • Day 2: Practise the spellings using two of the ideas in our Super Spelling Strategies guide. (Set yourself and others at home a challenge of using some of the words when you’re speaking, too!)
  • Day 3: Write separate sentences, each containing one of the spellings. (Don’t forget to show off really neat handwriting and make sure you sentence starts with a capital letter and ends with a full stop, exclamation mark (!) or question mark (?).
  • Day 4: Repeat Task 2 or 3.
  • Day 5: Get an adult at home to test you on your spellings. Practise any you spell incorrectly – you could write them out carefully until you’re sure.

(Suggested time: 15-20 minutes daily)

Reading fluency

This is the text we’re using in class this week to build up fluency skills.

In school, we generally follow this sequence:

  • Day 1: Read the text aloud with your child listening. Read it clearly and slowly, pointing to each word as you read. Have a chat about any unfamiliar words.
  • Day 2: Read aloud each sentence (a full short sentence or part of a longer sentence), and have your child read it back to you. Do this ‘echo reading’ for the whole text.
  • Day 3: Read the text and talk about the effect of the punctuation on how you read it – pauses for full stops and expression for exclamations (!) or questions (?). Your child reads the text aloud.
  • Day 4: Read together with expression (just like you practised on Day 3).
  • Day 5: Your child reads independently and fluently.

(Suggested time: 15 minutes daily)

Reading comprehension

Day 1: We’ll be using this ‘RIC’ text in class to practise comprehension skills. RIC stands for:

  • Retrieve: finding information in a text
  • Interpret: using clues in the text to unlock information
  • Choice: thinking about the author’s choice of words, techniques or organisation that make the text interesting and enjoyable to read

Day 2: Agree with your child three words from any text they’ve read which they’re less familiar with. Your child should find out what they mean (eg by checking an online dictionary or simply discuss with you) and how to use them in sentences (both when speaking and when writing). Challenge your child to write a sentence with each word in, or to drop the words into conversations at home.

Day 3: Read this article from First News, a newspaper for children, and complete the activity.

Day 4: Read your fluency or RIC text again. Next, do one of the following:

  • Your child could list at least ten facts they’ve read in the text. (If it’s a fiction text (a story), then the facts would be based on the story, like ‘Harry Potter picked up his broomstick’, rather than actual facts from the real world.)
  • Your child could create questions and answers for what they’ve read. (For example, it could be a TV or radio interview based on what they’ve read.)
  • Your child could create their own ‘RIC’ questions.
  • Your child could draw and label a character or setting that they’ve read about.

Day 5: Book Club. Once a week, we have a relaxing lesson where we sit and read quietly, often with an adult. At home, we’d like you to read your favourite book or text, too. If possible, discuss the book with an adult, talking about some or all of the sections of this sheet.

(Suggested time: 30 minutes daily)

Writing

Follow these lessons on non-chronological reports from Oak National Academy. There’s a whole series of lessons, but start at Lesson 1 and work through, doing one (or maybe even two) each day. (If you’re self-isolating in your second week, stick with the series of lessons you’ve already started and aim to complete the full series.)

(Suggested time: 30-40 minutes for each)

Topic

Our topic this half-term is about history – all about Ancient Greece.

Follow these lessons on pre-historic Britain from Oak National Academy. There are ten lessons in total, but start at the first lesson and work through, doing two or three in the week.

(Suggested time: 30-40 minutes)

Science   

Our focus this half-term is sound.

These six lessons from Oak National Academy link closely to what we’ve been doing in class. Start at Lesson 1 and work through, doing two or three in the week. If you’ve previously completed on of these lessons, have a go at the ones you haven’t completed yet.

If Science really motivates your child, you could also use look at these lessons all about practical Science.

(Suggested time: 30-45 minutes)

New books!

Recently, we made a significant investment in some new ‘dip in’ books for all classes across KS2.

It was very exciting when they were delivered and our book shelves are now full to the brim with exciting and engaging non-fiction / poetry books.

We spent some time this week enjoying them – it was awesome to share what we were learning with other people in the class.

 

3,4O: certificates

We’ve enjoyed another great week in 3,4O. We’ve been historians, writers, mathematicians, athletes, friends, team mates – the list could go on!

Here are this week’s certificate winners…

For great learning…

Ethan – You’ve smashed your learning across all subjects this week. You’re ready to learn and you always try your hardest.

For living and learning…

Jessica – You’re a great friend to many people and a generally awesome member of Team 3,4O. Keep being kind!

For sport and physical activity…

Harry – For demonstrating excellent teamwork during our PE lessons. You are passionate about sport and help others to enjoy it, too.

For Times Table Rockstars…

Noah – You consistently use TTR to improve your times table recall and have done for some time. Keep it up!

03 December 2020

This week, the whole school has the same Creative homework: I can illustrate different emotions.

This homework, which links to our living and learning statement, is an opportunity for children to show that they can recognise, and show, different emotions. As humans, we display a huge-range of emotions. Sometimes, it’s obvious how we’re feeling. Sometimes, it’s trickier for us to show, or recognise, an emotion. This statement allows us to spend time thinking about the different emotions we experience and how we can recognise these accurately in ourselves and others.

Children could respond creatively to this in a range of ways:

  • create a piece of art that shows a range of emotions
  • take pictures of themselves (or others) displaying different emotions
  • write a short-story in which a character shows lots of emotions
  • devise a poem, song or rap about emotions
  • create a comic strip to illustrate different emotions

Of course, there are many other ways in which children could respond. Children should be ready to celebrate their learning as part of their homework review by Thursday 10th December 2020. 

04 December 2020

This week, we’ve been practising adding er or est to the end of words to change their tense. Because the English language is really tricky, there’s lots of ways to do this. Complete the table that shows you some different ways to do this (one has been done for you. Then, use some of our ‘super spelling strategies’ form this week’s post (go to the Scholes website, learn more, spelling, Year 3 & 4).  There’s more than usual but when you can spell the root word you just need to apply the rule to spell it correctly.

rule root word -er -est
Just add er / est brave braver bravest
nice    
  later  
Double up and add er / est   hotter  
tall    
    smallest
Drop the y for an i and add er / est happy    
    loneliest
funny    

Children should practise in preparation for a test on Thursday 10  December 2020.

3,4O: Marvellous Maths

This week, we’ve been learning / recapping column subtraction. Take a look at this page on our website which tells you all about how we teach calculations in school.

The maths was impressive, but something else impressed me more – our attitude! We were resilient, resourceful and really took responsibility for our learning. In one lesson, Mr Catherall and Mrs Thorn didn’t even need to be there – we were teaching each other, choosing our own challenges and asking for quick interventions from an adult. What an awesome place to learn 3,4O is!

Well done, everyone.

History: How did Ancient Greece influence us?

Today, we continued to be historians by thinking about the ways in which Ancient Greece has influenced us.

We’d already learnt about Greek democracy and how we adapted and improved this aspect of Greek life. And, this week, we’ve been learning about the ancient Olympic games during our reading sessions.

This afternoon, we went on a hunt around the playground to find out loads of interesting facts about how Ancient Greek life has influenced ours.

Ask your child what they found interesting.

At the end of our lesson, we like to reflect on our learning. Here’s what two members of our class had to say:

‘I enjoyed this lesson because we got to go outside and find information out – we helped our friends, too’

‘I enjoyed this lesson because it was challenging’