Author: Mr Catherall

This week, our homework is Practice Makes Perfect: I can use brackets to show parenthesis.

Recently, during our writing lessons, we’ve been learning to use brackets to show parenthesis. Parenthesis (shown by using brackets, dashes and commas) is extra information that is not essential for the sentence to make sense.

For example, if I was writing, ‘I went to the cinema last night to see a scary film.’

I could add extra information at the end and use brackets to show this.

I went to the cinema last night to see a scary film (Scary Film 3: The Return of the Scare Factor).

The name of the film is not needed but the parenthesis adds extra information.

For their homework this week, children should complete the worksheet they’ve been given – they should be able to do this on their own – by Thursday 24 October 2019.

worksheet:

Add brackets to the sentences below:

1. Ellie my older sister lives in Manchester.
2. Jupiter the largest planet is made of gas.
3. The twins Ben and Billy have just played their first football match.
4. The ambulance which had sirens blaring and lights flashing moved swiftly through the traffic.
5. The student who was new to the school got lost to her first lesson.

Rewrite these sentences adding extra information to the main clause – use brackets to show parenthesis.

1. The monstrous boy howled in the corridor.
2. They walked down the corridor.
3. Edward V. Vinctus was an interesting man.

Times Tables

This week, we will continue to focus on the 7x table. Children should be ready for a test on Thursday  24 October 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:

8 x 7000 = ______ = 700 x 20 0.7 x 60 =

56 ÷ 7 = 7700 ÷ 7 = _______ = 3.5 ÷ 7

How many sides would there be on… 9 heptagons? 90 heptagons? 900 heptagons?

Friday 11 October 2019

This week, the whole school has the same Talk Time homework. In preparation for the upcoming School Council elections, children should complete one of the following tasks:

• I can prepare a speech (School Council elections).
• I know the importance of voting.

It’s time for children to consider if they would like to stand for election for our new School Council.  With two representatives from each class chosen democratically by their peers, all children are encouraged to take an active part in pupil voice.

Elections for our new school council will take place on Thursday 24 October with our polling station and ballot boxes at the ready.  Candidates will have the opportunity to give their election speech in class to their peers.

What makes a good school councillor has been considered by our current school council.

• ‘use all the 8 Rs for learning’
• ‘be respectful’
• ‘help others’
• ‘be a good speaker and listener (to members of your class and in the meetings)’
• ‘tell the truth’
• ‘be confident with your ideas’
• ‘accept the views of others even if you don’t agree’
• ‘be friendly and approachable’
• ‘make good choices in class and around school’

Hints for your speech include:

• What skills and abilities would a good school councillor have?
• What are you particularly good at that would help you to be a great school councillor?
• What do you think would make the school better?
• What could you do that people would really like?
• Think of things that are realistic, maybe that you could do yourself, rather than having to ask other people to do.

Thank you to our current school councillors for all their ideas and contributions.  We hope you have enjoyed this role and responsibility.  You’re welcome to stand again for election.

Good luck to all children who decide to stand in the elections.

If you choose not to stand in the election, you should instead consider the importance of voting.

This week, our homework is Talk Time: Should children be encouraged to take part in eSports.

Recently, two British teenagers we incredibly successful at an e Sports Gaming World Cup – a sixteen year old won £2.6 million. The enormous prize money has made some people question whether children should be encouraged to get involved in eSports.

The prize money earnt at the competition raised a few issues: whether rewarding children with enormous cash sums is right; the fact that, to be a world champion at eSports, you have to spend a lot of time practising – time spent sitting still, not doing physical exercise; the definition of sport, and whether eSports is a real sport.

However, one thing we know for sure is that eSports is becoming hugely popular worldwide. It now has a regular audience of around 300 million people. In total, fans spend 6.6 billion hours a year watching eSports – up from 1.3 billion hours in 2012. There’s big money in it, too. It is predicted that eSports will generate £1 billion worldwide by 2020, thanks to sponsorship, advertising and broadcast deals. But the eSports audience is quite narrow. Industry experts reckon that around 60% of American eSports viewers are young, aged 18-34. Traditional sports, such as football or rugby, tend to have a much wider age range of fans. The International Olympic Committee has already met to discuss introducing eSports to the Olympics. They decided against doing it for now but have not ruled it out for the future.

Is eSports a positive, sociable, fun activity that kids should be encouraged to get involved in?

Or, do they do more harm than good for youngsters?

Children should discuss this question at home with an adult and be ready to debate this during our homework review by Thursday 09 October 2019.

This week, the whole school has the same Creative homework: I can see maths all around me.

Maths is all around us. But, how often do we appreciate this? This homework is all about spotting maths in our everyday lives and we’re exposed to it more than we realise sometimes. We’d like to children to find some examples of maths from their everyday lives and show these creatively. There are many examples of maths in the world around us but here are a few examples:

• travel, TV or film timetables
• measuring ingredients
• finding examples of shapes in buildings
• counting out objects
• spending money when shopping
• distances on road signs
• %s in sales
• cutting food into the correct amount of slices or pieces

Children should be ready to celebrate their learning in our weekly homework review in class by Thursday 03 October 2019.

Please note: this homework should take no longer than 30 minutes.