Author: Mr Catherall

20 November 2020

This week, we’ve been learning about some common homophones: words that sound the same but mean different things and are spelt in different ways. This is a helpful guide from BBC teach that children, and adults, can use to remind themselves of what homophones are – the link is available on the spelling page of our website (go to the Scholes website, learn more, spelling, Year 3 & 4).

there                                     their                                      they’re                                  here

hear                                      wear                                     where                  we’re

To keep it fun, practise these spellings in different ways, check out the ‘super spelling strategies’ on this week’s spelling post (go to the Scholes website, learn more, spelling, Year 3 & 4). Children should practise in preparation for a test on Thursday 26  November 2020.

Fancy a challenge? Use these words in sentences. Or, create silly sentences using as many of them as you can – can you use them all?

Also, if you haven’t checked out our class news page recently, please do. Teachers post regularly to update adults at home about our learning in school (go to the Scholes website, learn more, class news, Year 3 & 4).

20 November 2020

This week, the whole school has the same Creative homework which children should be ready to discuss as part of our homework review on Thursday 26 November.

I know how to STOP bullying.

This homework is a response to our learning this week during anti-bullying week. Throughout the week, each class has had the chance to talk about what bullying is, what the different types of bullying are and how can we STOP it:

  • Start
  • Telling
  • Other
  • People

As part of your discussion you may find our school definition of bullying useful, as agreed by our School Councillors:

Bullying is when you hurt someone, physically or emotionally, several times on purpose.

As the homework is creative, you can do anything you want to respond to the statement. Here are a few ideas to help you:

  • Create a cartoon strip of a bullying scenario and how it is solved.
  • Create an acrostic poem using the word bullying.
  • Write your own ‘kindness statements’ for your class.
  • Create a scenarios quiz for your class to decide what they would do.

History: democracy

This week, we’ve learnt about democracy. We knew a lot about it already – mainly because of our School Council elections (Did you know that we’ve recently rebranded our School Council? They’re now the Junior Leadership Team).

Democracy is a legacy of the Ancient Greeks. In particular, the Athenian people.

We discussed what we already knew, and came up with our own definition (ask your child what democracy is).

First, we found out about Athenian democracy. We were really frustrated to find out that you had to be a citizen of Athens to have a vote; on the face of it, this seems OK. But then we found out that to be a citizen you had to be a male who was born in Athens and had completed one full year in the Athenian army.

In our next lesson, we compared Athenian democracy to British democracy now – ask your child what’s the same? What’s different?

We all agreed that we’re very lucky to live in a country that is so fair – even though we know it could be even better!

Week beginning 16 November 2020

Hi everyone

We hope you’ve had a happy and healthy weekend. We also know that some of you are feeling a little disappointed about having to stay at home; we understand completely but we thank you for doing your bit to keep our school safe. Even though you are at home, you’re still very much a part of our school community and we’d love to hear from you. Get in touch with your class teacher as often as you like – our email addresses are at the bottom of this page.

Before you dive in to your home learning, check out this video from Mr Catherall.

Here’s your home learning for the week…

Maths

This week’s maths learning is linked to number.

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

Activity 1: This lesson about prepositions from BBC Bitesize links to some of the learning that we’ve been doing in class recently.

Activity 2:

Children should write six sentences about a picture or photograph you choose. Your child should remember capital letters, finger spaces, joined up letters (use our handwriting guide to help, paying particular attention to tall letters and letters that go beneath the line), and a full stop, exclamation mark (!) or question mark (?) to end the sentence. Encourage interesting words to make their writing more interesting.

(Suggested time: 30 minutes daily)

Topic

This week’s topic learning is all about our new history topic: Ancient Greece. This video lesson from Oak National Academy links to some of the learning we’ve been doing in class recently.

(Suggested time: 30-45 minutes)

Science   

We’re continuing our learning about sound (physics). This week, we’re learning all about what sound is.

Have a go at this Oak National Academy video.

(Suggested time: 30-45 minutes)

Please do get in touch, our email addresses are…

3,4O – olliecatherall@spherefederation.org

3,4EV – emmamccormick@spherefederation.org & vickyrichardson@spherefederation.org

3,4NV – nicolawadsworth@spherefederation.org & vickyrichardson@spherefederation.org

Week beginning 16 November 2020

Hi everyone

We hope you’ve had a happy and healthy weekend. We also know that some of you are feeling a little disappointed about having to stay at home; we understand completely but we thank you for doing your bit to keep our school safe. Even though you are at home, you’re still very much a part of our school community and we’d love to hear from you. Get in touch with your class teacher as often as you like – our email addresses are at the bottom of this page.

Before you dive in to your home learning, check out this video from Mr Catherall.

Here’s your home learning for the week…

Maths

This week’s maths learning is linked to number.

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

Activity 1: This lesson about prepositions from BBC Bitesize links to some of the learning that we’ve been doing in class recently.

Activity 2:

Children should write six sentences about a picture or photograph you choose. Your child should remember capital letters, finger spaces, joined up letters (use our handwriting guide to help, paying particular attention to tall letters and letters that go beneath the line), and a full stop, exclamation mark (!) or question mark (?) to end the sentence. Encourage interesting words to make their writing more interesting.

(Suggested time: 30 minutes daily)

Topic

This week’s topic learning is all about our new history topic: Ancient Greece. This video lesson from Oak National Academy links to some of the learning we’ve been doing in class recently.

(Suggested time: 30-45 minutes)

Science   

We’re continuing our learning about sound (physics). This week, we’re learning all about what sound is.

Have a go at this Oak National Academy video.

(Suggested time: 30-45 minutes)

Please do get in touch, our email addresses are…

3,4O – olliecatherall@spherefederation.org

3,4EV – emmamccormick@spherefederation.org & vickyrichardson@spherefederation.org

3,4NV – nicolawadsworth@spherefederation.org & vickyrichardson@spherefederation.org

Times Tables Rockstars Tournament

We’re a couple of days into our weekly Times Tables Rockstars tournament. Here’s the results so far…

So, Mrs Allaway’s maths group are currently in the lead in the group tournament. However, Year 3 are beating Year 4 at the moment.

In the past seven days, 50% of the children in Y3,4 have been on Times Table Rockstars. We’d love this figure to be 100% so, if you haven’t been on yet, give it a go.

Keep it up everyone!

If you don’t know your username and password, email your class teacher.

3,4O – olliecatherall@spherefederation.org

3,4E – emmamccormick@ spherefederation.org

3,4N – nicolawadsworth@spherefederation.org

13 November 2020

This week, our homework is Practice Makes Perfect: I can use Times Tables Rockstars.  

As a school, we sign up to Times Tables Rockstars. Many of our children already use this resource to practise their times tables. However, lots of us don’t. We think this is a great way to practise times tables – those children who play it regularly are definitely quicker at recalling times table facts. This week, we’d like you to spend as much time using the website as possible. Can you play everyday? Can you set a target for coins and smash it? Can you challenge other people in a duel?

If you don’t know your child’s login details, please email your child’s class teacher.

Homework should be completed by Thursday 19 November 2020 and will be reviewed / celebrated in class.

Our email addresses are below:

3,4O – olliecatherall@spherefederation.org

3,4NV – nicolawadsworth@spherefederation.org & vickyrichardson@spherefederation.org

3,4EV – emmamccormick@spherefederation.org & vickyrichardson@spherefederation.org

If your child is in 3,4N or 3,4E please send emails to both teachers.

Times Table Rockstars

Times Tables Rock Stars is an app and website that we use in school to quicken the recall of tables facts. It’s something that you can use at home, too – your child has their own username and password. (If you don’t have these, or you have any questions, email your child’s class teacher.) Each game is short so you don’t need lots of time. ‘Garage’ is where you’ll find tables set by us whilst ‘Soundcheck’ includes all facts up to 12 x 12.

We’ve just signed up to Numbots, too. Perhaps more suited to younger children or children who need a bit of extra support with the basics, this is a great app and website for practising addition and subtraction facts. Your child can use it at home too – they login using the same details they use for Times Tables Rock Stars. There are 15 different games, each with a different focus. Topics covered include doubles and number bonds to 10, 20 and 100.

13 November 2020

This week, we’ve been learning about the different ways to write the ‘ue’ sound. Because spelling in the English can be tricky, there’s lots of ways to write the ‘ue’ sound in our spelling (u, u_e, ue, ew, oo). This week, we’d like you to practise the following words to help consolidate this learning. Remember, the words may appear ‘random’, but we are being exposed to different ways of writing similar sounds.

continue                               popular                                 rescue                                  knew

peculiar                                regular                                  venue                                   conclude

To keep it fun, practise these spellings in different ways, check out the ‘super spelling strategies’ on this week’s spelling post (go to the Scholes website, learn more, spelling, Year 3 & 4). Children should practise in preparation for a test on Thursday 12  November 2020.

Fancy a challenge? Use these words in sentences. Or, create silly sentences using as many of them as you can – can you use them all?