Author: Mr Catherall

Friday 29 November 2019

This week, we will be focussing on using apostrophes to show possession. In the English language, we can use an apostrophe to show that something belongs to someone. For example, David’s bike. The apostrophe here tells the reader that the bike belongs to David. To help children to practise using apostrophes for possession, they should add, or remove, apostrophes in the paragraph below to make it correct. Children should have done this by Friday 06 December 2019.

On Sunday, Anthony went over to Jonhs house to play basketball. They

played a game of one-on-one. At the end of the game, Anthonys score was

six, but Johns score was eight. John was the winner. After the game, the boy’s

went inside to have some snacks’ and watch television. They played with

John’s new puppy. The puppys name is Fido. Fido’s ears are long and floppy

and he wag’s his tail non-stop! The boy’s had a great day. Johns mum is going

to ask Anthonys mum if Anthony can come over again next weekend.

Friday 29 November 2019

Friday 22 November 2019

This week, our homework is Practice Makes Perfect: I can name the countries of the British Isles and their capital cities. Linked to our Where in the World geography topic, this homework is all about learning, and remembering, a few important facts. Children should use the table below to learn the countries and their capital cities in preparation for our homework review by Thursday 05 December 2019.  

 

country capital city
England London
Scotland Edinburgh
Wales Cardiff
Northern Ireland Belfast
Republic of Ireland Dublin

Times tables

This week, we will focus on the 12x table. Children should be ready for a test on Friday 06 December 2019. Here are a few examples of the kinds of questions children could be asked and the type of questions children could be practising in addition to the times table facts:

9 x 120 =

______ = 1200 x 30

1.2 x 6 =

 

 72 ÷ 12 =

4800 ÷ 12 =

_______ = 8.4 ÷ 12

  

 

Friday 22 November 2019

This week, we will be focussing on words ending in the suffixes –ible or –able. As a general rule, although there are some exceptions which we’ll explore in our spelling sessions, we add –able when you are able to do it eg. breakable means you are able to break it. When there is no clear root word, we add –ible. This week, we’d like children to practise spelling the words below in preparation for a test on Friday 29 November 2019.

invincible legible incredible
forgivable reliable enjoyable
valuable breakable  

Friday 22 November 2019

This week, the whole school has the same Talk Time homework: Which charity should our school support?

Next week, a charity will be decided for us to support for the year ahead – for example, when we have a performance, we’ll collect money for this particular charity. What charity does your child think we should support?

You could talk about:

  • what a charity is
  • why charities are important
  • what sort of work they do
  • charities that have meaning to your family, to school or the community
  • national and international charities and their work

Next week, each class will vote (because in our school we make democratic decisions) for the charity they would like to support to form a shortlist. Then, our recently elected School Council will decide which charity we will support for the next year.

Friday 15 November 2019

 

This week, we will be focussing on adding suffixes to the ends of words to change their meaning. We will focus specifically on adding –ful, -ness, -less and –ly. To practise this rule, children should do two things. Firstly, complete the activity below by matching the root word to the correct suffix.

 

root word   suffix
success   less
meaning   ful
shy   ly
weak   ness

 

Secondly, children should now practice spelling these words (any other words that these suffixes can be added to) in their homework books.

Friday 15 November 2019

Friday 15 November 2019

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 21 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 we can 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.

Watch Us While We Work

Thank you to the parents who came to visit our classes on Tuesday – we fully appreciate that many parents would have been unable to attend due to work, etc. It was great to see so many faces and hopefully you found the session useful.

For those that couldn’t make it, here’s a few tips for helping your child at home.

Maths

Make sure you child is confident with their x tables up to 12 x 12. Rapid recall means being able to reply to a question accurately in just a few seconds. Once we’re confident with our tables, we can start to use this information to help us tackle trickier questions. At home, practise like this…

If we know that 3 x 4 = 12

we also know that…

30 x 4 = 120                                                                   0.3 x 4 = 1.2

30 x 40 = 1,200                                                            0.3 x 0.4 = 0.12

300 x 40 = 1,200                                                          0.03 x 0.4 = 0.012

300 x 40 = 12, 000

Here we are using the fact but making it 10, 100, 1000 times bigger or smaller.

Make it even harder by asking your child questions that involve using this skill:

7 x 90 =

600 x 3 =

12, 000 x 2 =

Reading

Here’s a few top tips for reading at home:

  • give opportunities for your child to read in their head
  • give opportunities for your child to read aloud
  • model reading aloud with expression to your child
  • ask your child to tell you things they know (facts), think (inferences) and wonder (inferences)
  • challenge your child to come up with their own fact finding questions
  • pretend to be two characters from the book they are reading and have a conversation (use things you’ve learnt about the character to get across their personality

It would be great if children were reading daily. If they’re a reluctant reader, let them read whatever they enjoy – reading is reading after all. If they love reading, try and encourage them to read a broader range of things.

Finally, it really helps our discussions as a class if your child has read to their target page – this is set every Friday.

If you have any questions or concerns about helping your child at home, please do not hesitate to come and speak to your child’s class teacher.

Friday 08 November 2019

This week, we will be focussing on the ‘ough’ letter string. This common string of letters can make a range of sounds. Children should practise spelling the words below in preparation for a spelling test on Friday 15 November 2019.

thorough

although

sought

brought

ought

plough

though

thought

Friday 08 November 2019

Friday 08 November 2019

This week, our homework is Practice Makes Perfect: I can use expanded noun phrase.

In our recent writing lessons, we’ve been learning loads about expanded noun phrases and how to use them. An expanded noun phrase gives more detail or information about a noun. An expanded noun phrase has a determiner (like ‘his’), an adjective (like ‘green’) and a noun (like ‘eyes) – his green eyes. In the sentence below, the expanded noun phrase is underlined.

The angry, little elf stomped furiously out onto the ice.

For their homework, children should practice using the adjectives below (and their own ideas) to create their own expanded noun phrases.

isolated determined blazing hideous menacing
reckless rippling trembling deafening crisp

 

This homework should be completed and returned by Thursday 14 November.