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Year 4 HOME PRACTICE Friday 15th October 2021

Date: 15th Oct 2021 @ 1:13pm

Year 4

Home Practice 15^th October 2021

An amazing week in Year 4 – lots of learning and lots of creativity! Well done to everyone who has been on Sumdog during the last week to practise their tables and spellings.  The more you practise, the more confident you will become.

In English, we started our new novel ‘The Firework-Makers Daughter’. We predicted the setting and what we thought would happen in the story by looking at the pictures on the front cover and reading the blurb carefully. In Maths, we have been counting in tenths and multiples of 4. We also used numberlines to help add and subtract 3 digit numbers which were multiples of 10 and consolidated our learning about sequences. In History, we finished our Celtic Roundhouse models and made a small hill fort near the stage. We are extremely proud of our models – please look at our pictures below! We now know days, numbers and months of the year, so we can write the date in French.  We have been practising these skills in our weekly French lessons. In PE, we used all our netball skills in a mini tournament – well done Year 4.

Reading

Please read for 20 minutes each evening to an adult at home.  Make sure you discuss the story and the characters.  Find the meaning of any new words too.  Reading every night will help you read more fluently and with understanding. 

Times tables

You have been given your own individual times table target.  Please make sure you continue to practise your times tables in preparation for your test next week, on Thursday (21^st October 2021).  Ask someone at home to test you on your tables – can you recall them quickly and accurately?  

Remember - you can also practise your tables playing ‘Hit the button’.   

Counting

This week, please practise counting in 4’s and 0.1’s – draw a line and some marks on it like I do in class.  You could write the numbers down as you count up.  When you count down, cover the numbers up, say the number, then reveal what you’ve got written down to check you’ve said the correct number.

Count in 4’s

For example, start at 0 and count to 48 and back again

0   4   8   12  etc                     48   44   40   etc

Start at 20 and count up to 68 and down again

20   24   28       etc              68   64   60    etc

Count in 0.1’s

Start at 2.4 and count to 3.6 and back again

2.4   2.5   2.6   etc           3.6   3.5   3.4     etc

Start at 9.7 and count to 11.2 and back again

9.7   9.8   9.9     etc                11.2   11.1   11.0       etc

Spellings

The spellings this week explore words which have the ‘i’ sound spelt y elsewhere than at the end of words. For example, the word ‘myth’ sounds like it should be spelt ‘mith’; the word ‘gym’ sounds as if it should be spelt ‘gim’. In each case, the ‘i’ sound is spelt with a ‘y’. Please practise your spellings each evening at home.  You will be tested on them next Thursday (21^st October 2021).  We have discussed in class different strategies you could use to help you learn them and you could always use ‘Look say cover write check’.

gym             myth            Egypt          pyramid       mystery

symbol         synonym       lyrics           system         gymnastics

hymn            typical         cylinder       physical       oxygen

Sumdog Challenges

You have been set 2 challenges on Sumdog:

• A spelling challenge based on the spellings above
• A times table challenge based on the 3 and 4 times tables

Number bonds

This week, please practise your number bonds using Hit the Button.

Please complete

• Addition within 10
• Addition within 20

How many can you get right in a minute?

Can you improve your score?

Can you challenge yourself and have a go at ‘Addition within 100 (tens)’

Please make sure you log on and have a go!

PLEASE NOTE – As we break up next Thursday at 3.15pm, there will be no blog or Home Practice uploaded on Friday afternoon.  However, please read and practise your tables every day during half term.   

Year 5 - Friday 15th October 2021

Date: 14th Oct 2021 @ 4:12pm

 Welcome to this week’s Year 5 class blog

The children have had another fabulous week.  They are remaining keen, enthusiastic and eager to learn.  This week we have been investigating levers, creating mythical beasts and had a netball tournament. 

This week in year 5

We have been using protractors and investigating different angles this week, which is a tricky task.  The children have persevered and shown great skills. If you have protractors at home, allow your children to continue to practise using them and looking at angles smaller than a right angle (acute angles) and angles bigger than a right angle (obtuse angles).  They really enjoyed estimating angles and seeing how close they could get. There is a game called Alien Attack on the Topmarks Maths website that they can use at home.

In English we have been reading the Greek Myth of Perseus and the Gorgon.  They have been fascinated by the story.  They have created their own hero, setting and mythical beast that will be used to create their own Myth next week.

In History we focused on the Olympic Games and how the Ancient Greek Olympic games have influenced the Olympic Games we now hold.  The children made 'Fact Files' showing the similarities and differences between the two games.

In PSHE this week the children looked at stereotyping and how we should not judge people on what we see.  We will be examining this further next week and looking at challenging stereotypes and why this is important.

In RE the children have been exploring friendships and what it means to be a good friend.

In PE the children had a spirited netball tournament, where they were able to showcase all the great defending, passing and shooting skills they have been developing this half term.  They have shown real improvement in their technique.

In Science the children investigated levers and how levers can be used to magnify force and help us use little force but achieve greater force.  They used a range of levers including wheelbarrows, dog ball throwing aids, scissors and tin openers.

Don't forget to check in the gallery for photos.

Home Practice all relates to this week's learning - These are the tasks to be completed.

Reading - You all have a Home Reading book for year 5 so reading every night for 15-20 mins is essential. You also have a Reading Journal/Diary that must be completed and signed.

You can change your reading book on any school day (book bags to be left on Mrs Mulgrew's desk)

Spellings (homophones and near homophones). We will look at these in more detail in school next week, they should be practised at home, ready for the test on Thursday.  Now that we are back into the swing of things they have more than 10 spellings.

Some children have been told to complete a different number of spellings, so please check with your child.

past passed aisle isle allowed aloud affect effect witch which where were wear there their they’re

Sumdog challenges

PLEASE ENCOURAGE YOUR CHILDREN TO COMPLETE THE SUMDOG CHALLENGES. MANY CHILDREN ARE STILL NOT ACCESSING SUMDOG.

Times tables have been set to reflect class targets

Maths the children have been set compare and order different angles

Spellings homophones and near homophones

Year 1 Friday Blog 15th October 2021

Date: 14th Oct 2021 @ 10:00am

Welcome to your Friday blog!

We have had another great week of learning. We are constantly amazed by the children's positive attitide towards everything they do!

We have been learning through the story of Percy the Park Keeper. We talked about how he helps his animals and takes care of the park. We did some writing and drawing about what jobs we might like to do when we are older. We have been practicing our letter formation and trying hard to learn to write some Tricky Words. We talk about how these words try to trick us! when, what, was, went, said, have, come, some, like, of.

In Phonics we have been looking at igh as in night and fight and ie as in tie and lie.

Next week our story is about a witch! Do you know her name? Don't forget to get your costume ready for Thursday!

In Maths we have been looking at how to make numbers from 20 to 29. We have used straws, Base 10, ten frames and cubes. We make groups of 10 and some 1s. We have been doing some great number challenges which really make us think and explain. We have been trying to write our numbers correctly and we are getting really good at checking. We have been counting in 1s, 10s and also 5s when someone suggested this as a way of working out a challenge!

All our collective worships this week have been about Mental Health Awareness. We read a book called The Huge Bag of Worries and talked about anything that might be worrying us. In R.E. we have been talking about our families.

We had French with Mrs Quilliam. In Music with Mrs Winter we got the instruments out! In P.E we have been jumping and rolling in the hall. We got the benches out and had a great time practising our skills!

Look at the Year 1 gallery to see our Golden Stars this week

Home Practice

Read for at least 10 minutes every night. This is so important. please sign the diary so we can change the books. Keep practicing reading the Tricky Words on sight.

Practise counting in 1s. Take particular care when crossing the ten boundary, 29 to 30, 39 to 40 and so on. Ensure that your child is saying the numbers correctly too, twenTY not tweNY!

Start at different numbers, count forwards and backwards. Miss a number out, can your child tell you which number you have missed? How do they know?

We have also been counting in 10s to 100. Use 2 hands to show 10 fingers. Count forwards and backwards from different starting numbers. How many hands would you need for 30? How do you know?

Sumdog challenges

Phonics-ee and ea

Maths-Reading and writing numbers to 20.

Year 3 Friday 15th October 2021

Date: 13th Oct 2021 @ 9:12am

Year 3 Friday Blog

This week we have chosen our School Councillors, Digital Leaders and Eco Team. Henry and Eleanor will represent our class on the School Council, Zofia and Elliott will be our Digital leaders for this term and our Eco Team is made up of Tom, Daenerys and Joshua. Well done and thank you to everyone who showed an interest.

In our English we have continued reading Mr Stink and used the text to create some fantastic pieces of writing. We also explored techniques in poetry and wrote some amazing poems.

In our maths learning we have been learning geometry, length and measurement. We met some new vocabulary and had a good go at accurately drawing a range of shapes and measuring. 

millimetre    centimetre   metre     right angle     quadrilateral     height       width

In science, we excavated our bones and examined the fossils left behind. We discussed how they were formed and similarities and differences with real fossils.

On Friday we explored our grounds in our woodland learning. We created some leave prints and used natural materials to create our own contructions, making links to our Stone Age learning.

Home Practice

First of all we'd like to say a huge well done to everyone for all their practising last week. We are seeing huge improvements in both our spellings and times tables and increasing numbers on our Sumdog challenges. Continue to access your challenges and look out for rewards in your Sumdog bank.

We are also seeing great progress in all our reading groups. You are clearly reading lots at home. Keep it up!

Below we have added some question stems we use in school to promote reading comprehension.

Continue to access the challenges and competitions on Sumdog. Do a little everyday to build up number and spelling accuracy. 

The spelling pattern we are learning this week is the -el ending.

tunnel

squirrel

travel

towel

tinsel

hazel

vowel

angel

jewel

parallel

Your Sumdog spelling challenge will include words with both -le and -el endings. 

Our maths focus this week has been on shape and measure. You have two competitions this week. One on the x2 and x5 times tables and one on shape and measure. Over 70% of the class have practised on Sumdog for over an hour. Well done!

An hour a week = less than 10 minutes a day!

Play Hit the Button to improve speed and fluency in times tables and number facts.

Have a lovely weekend

The Year 3 team

Year 4 Home Practice Friday 8th October 2021

Date: 8th Oct 2021 @ 4:22pm

Year 4

Home Practice 8^th October 2021

You have worked hard this week Year 4 and shown a brilliant attitude to your learning! Well done to everyone who has been on Sumdog during the last week to practise their tables and spellings.  The more you practise, the more confident you will become.

In English, we finished reading ‘How the Whale Became and Other Stories’.  We then wrote our own story in the same style and edited it with a partner. At present, we are trying to build up our stamina, and improve our sentence openers and vocabulary when we are writing.   In maths we have continued rounding to the nearest 10 and 100 – many of us found this tricky but we persevered, and all made great progress.  We also learnt mental strategies for adding and subtracting 1, 10, 100 and 1000. In History, we sketched and labelled a roundhouse and then started to make our own roundhouse out of clay and lolly sticks.  In PE we continued practising our bounce and chest passes and enjoyed playing mini games of netball.  In Science, we discovered how to classify different animals. We learnt that there are lots of different ways to group animals.

Reading

Please read for 20 minutes each evening to an adult at home.  Make sure you discuss the story and the characters.  Find the meaning of any new words too.  Reading every night will help you read more fluently and with understanding. 

Times tables

You have been given your own individual times table target.  Please make sure you continue to practise your times tables in preparation for your test next week, on Thursday (14^th October 2021).  Ask someone at home to test you on your tables – can you recall them quickly and accurately?  

Remember - you can also practise your tables playing ‘Hit the button’.   

Counting

This week, please practise counting in 3’s and 100’s – draw a line and some marks on it like I do in class.  You could write the numbers down as you count up.  When you count down, cover the numbers up, say the number, then reveal what you’ve got written down to check you’ve said the correct number.

Count in 3’s

For example, start at 0 and count to 36 and back again

0   3  6  9  etc                     36  33  30   etc

Start at 30 and count up to 48 and down again

30   33    36       etc              48   45   42    etc

Count in 100’s

Start at 234 and count to 1334 and back again

234   334   434    etc           1334   1234   1134  etc

Start at 3520 and count to 4720 and back again

3520    3620   3720   etc                4720    4620   4520    etc

Spellings

The spellings this week explore words which have an ‘aw’ sound which is spelt ‘a’. For example, the word ‘ball’ sounds as if it should be spelt ‘bawl’ using an ‘aw’ instead of an ‘a’. Please practise your spellings each evening at home.  You will be tested on them next Thursday (14^th October 2021).  We have discussed in class different strategies you could use to help you learn them and you could always use ‘Look say cover write check’.

ball              wall              bald             walk             chalk

stalk            small            called           fall              sleepwalking

tall              baseball       stall             talk             call

Sumdog Challenges

You have been set 3 challenges on Sumdog:

• A spelling challenge based on the spellings above
• A times table challenge based on the 2 and 3 times tables
• A maths challenge, rounding to the nearest 10, 100 and 1000

Please make sure you log on and have a go!

Year 6 blog and Home Practice Friday 8th October 2021

Date: 8th Oct 2021 @ 4:13pm

Well done to everyone for completing their Home Practice. We have had an amazing 100% changing their Home Reading books this week – let’s keep this up as reading is the key to all knowledge.

Once again, just to remind you, here are the days when you can change your book:

Monday – Roller Coasters

Tuesday – Big Dippers

Wednesday – The Waltzers

This week in Year 6:

• In Maths, we have practised the 9 times tables, rounding numbers to 10 000 and 100 000 and how to use the bridging addition strategy efficiently.
• In English, we continued our novel, ‘Clockwork’, and have worked hard to create a play script, a scene with dialogue (with the correct speech punctuation) and analysed suspense writing and written our own.
• In our topic of Mountains, in Geography, we researched some of the largest mountains in the world and created an informative poster for others to learn from.
• For RE, we have begun our new topic, ‘Vocation and Commitment’, with some excellent debates on what makes a vocation. We also created some questions to interview someone next week who is committed to their role.
• In PE, we continued our learning of the sport of tag rugby, focussing on teamwork through encouragement and feedback.
• In PSHE, we have been learning more about mental health and ways we can manage emotions: things that we can daily and the people we know who can help.
• In Music, we used recorders to learn how to play ‘Hot Cross Buns’ and we learnt a new Harvest song for the Harvest assembly.
• In French, we learnt how to say weather phrases and practiced our phonics.
• In Science, we learnt about the Linnaen system of classification of plants and animals, then attempted to use it to classify many different types. 

Home Practice all relates to this week’s learning. These are the tasks needed to be completed:

• Reading – Use your Home Reading to read every night for 30 minutes. You also have a Reading Journal/Diary that must be used for the title of the book and any reading challenge chosen.

• Spellings (-tion / -sion / -ssion / words)
  • We will be learning the -tion, -sion, -ssion spelling, which will look in detail at from Monday:
    • direction, collection, addition, action, rotation, creation, punctuation, subtraction, division, television, discussion, session, mission, percussion, profession 

• Sumdog challenges:
  • Times Tables x9
  • Adding and subtracting numbers mentally
  • Spellings (-tion / -sion / -ssion, words)
    • I suggest to first write these out on a piece of paper, then play the games. We will look at these spellings in more detail from Monday so the spelling of these words will be easier after we have investigated them.

Reception 8th October 2021

Date: 8th Oct 2021 @ 3:46pm

We have had a great week learning about Autumn in our investigation station. We have drawn pictures and had a go at writing the sounds we could hear. We listened to the story 'You and Me Little Bear' by Martin Waddell. 

In Maths, we have been on a number hunt around our outdoor area and made numbers to 5 in different ways. 

In RE, we have started our new topic 'Welcome' - we thought about how we greet people and make them feel welcome. We have continued investigating colour mixing in art using skittles this week and making our own class rainbow. 

Our woodland session this week was all about team games and listening skills. We also had a go at hitting the leaves with different objects to see what patterns they would make on our materials. 

Have a look at some of our amazing learning!

Year 2 Home Practice Friday 8th October 2021

Date: 8th Oct 2021 @ 3:38pm

Another fantastic week in Year 2, the children are really enjoying their learning and trying so hard to follow the Golden Rules. Some of the work that has been produced this week has been amazing and a few children have been doing extra writing at home! We enjoyed reading their stories and looking at their illustrations, a big well done. The story, Burglar Bill is very popular, the children have role-played parts of the story with burglar masks and their Wanted Posters were excellent. In Maths, we have used a lot of maths equipment to solve problems, and class discussion shows the children are gaining a deeper knowledge of place value. In RE, they wrote beautiful poems about all the things they wonder about God and the illustrations were lovely. It was good to go outside for Geography and look at the human and physical features around the school grounds. The children missed Forest School last week due to the bad weather, so it was great to have another session making wands from sticks and leaves, it is always Year 2’s favourite thing to do.

Reading

In Year 2 children should read for at least 15 minutes every night and discuss the book with an adult or older sibling. This will help with understanding the text and learning new words.

Please sign and leave a small comment when you have read with your child and make it clear that you have finished a book, then we know we can change it.

Reading books are changed every Monday and sent out on Tuesday. However, if you need to change a book, we will change it as needed.

Reading resources:

Oxford Owl – This resource has an exciting range of carefully levelled books to help children learn to read, and love to read.

If parents and children decide to use this resource, we ask they access phase 5 books. Go to https://www.oxfordowl.co.uk/ and select ‘my class login’. Scroll down to the red box ‘eBook Library for Letters & Sounds’

Username: sto2

Password: 1234

Resources for questioning your child while they are reading - https://www.literacyshedblog.com/uploads/1/2/5/7/12572836/ks1_reading_vipers.pdf

Spelling

Your child will know which group they are in for phonics. Please learn the correct set of spellings below.

This week we have been learning how to spell words with the ‘ai’ sound.

Please practise these spellings for your quiz on Friday. A sheet will go home every Tuesday with the spelling list on. This is for home practise only and can be kept with you. You will have a Sumdog challenge to complete by next Friday.

This week’s spellings are:

Miss Gravili’s Phonics Group

Spain

strain

spray

eight

weight

grey

prey

they

flame

flake

Miss Bennison’s Phonics Group

rain

spray

brain

day

train

Sunday

cake

bake

was

when

 Mrs Whitworth’s Phonics Group

 was

when

string

long

chin

rich

kick

back

buzz

puff

Maths

At home count to 100 forwards and backwards. The children always find counting backwards trickier! Stop on a number and ask your child, what is one more/greater than___? What is one less/fewer than ___? You could do the same for 10 more or 10 less.

You will have a times table challenge and a place value challenge on Sumdog to complete by next Friday.

Sumdog

Log in at www.sumdog.com

Sumdog challenges:

Multiplication – x2 tables

Maths – Place value, partitioning numbers and one more/less than.

Spellings – ai, ay, ey, eigh, a-e

Thank you for all your support. Have a lovely weekend.

The Year 2 team.

Year 3 Friday 8th October 2021

Date: 8th Oct 2021 @ 1:14pm

Welcome to your Friday catch up.

We have had an amazing week in Year 3. We have seen everyone make a huge effort and on Friday the whole class got to GOLD! Mrs Wood even dropped by to award us a gold award. Well done Year 3!

We have started reading our new class novel in English. We are reading Mr Stink by David Walliams. We are really enjoying it so far and have been picking up some good vocabulary and writing techniques. We have loved creating our own character and writing our own story in the style of David Walliams. 

In our maths we have been using our number lines to add two 2-digit numbers and bridging through the next 10. It was a new strategy but everyone has enjoyed the challenge and made great progress!

All our counting practice has really helped the children with their maths learning this week.

Remember to practise counting often at home.

Counting forwards and backwards in 2s, 5s and 10s.

Counting forwards and backwards in 10s from any number.

We will add a counting challenge on Sumdog this week as well. Do as much as you can. Every little helps.

In PSHE we have been talking about how to be a good friend to everybody and also about persevering with our learning when things get tricky.

We learned that when things are tricky and we make mistakes, the neurons in our brain get stronger and make connections. We love a challenge.

We have finished our RE topic on Homes. We celebrated our learning by reflecting on the work we have done and thinking about our family and our homes. Some of the children did a fantastic job at planning this celebration. 

In our science we created our own fossils and talked about how fossils are formed over thousands of years. We had some fantastic questions. Super science Year 3!

We have loved seeing you bring in your books on Rocks and the Stone Age and showing such enthusiam for your learning. This week we were lucky enough to receive a library loan of books on our history and science topics. We can't wait to read them all! We are going to read these books during quiet reading time after lunch every day next week. We love our quiet reading time, everybody is loving their book and it is a nice relaxing time. 

Home Practice

Reading

Read to somebody at home every night for 20 minutes. Talk about what you have read.

Maths

Please practise the following skills for Maths – even if you already know them, you need to be quick. Hit The Button

• Number facts, click on Doubles – Doubles to 10.
• 5x table, click on Times tables – x5.

On Sumdog we have set 3 maths competitions this week.

Number Facts

Counting

Addition and Subtraction

There is no limit on the amount of questions. Do as many you can on each challenge.

Spellings

The spellings this week all have the /ul/ sound spelled –le at the end of words.

Words ending in ‘le’ are usually pronounced /ul/ following a consonant.

This is the most common spelling of this sound at the end of words.

table     apple     bottle     little     middle   

bubble     uncle     horrible     possible     impossible

You will be tested on your spellings and 5x times tables on Tuesday 12th October. Make sure you practise every night.

Our spelling and tables tests are a check on how well the children are learning their spellings. It is still important to keep practising every night, even after the tests on Tuesday. It is wonderful when we use the spellings we have been learning in our writing. 

Have a great weekend!

The Year 3 team.

Year 5 Friday 8th October 2021

Date: 7th Oct 2021 @ 5:57pm

 Welcome to the Year 5 class blog

What a week we have had!  The children have remained hard working and enthusiastic throughout the week, impressing me with their dedication.  They have carried out a water resistance experiment, written an exciting newspaper article and worked so hard on subtraction in Maths.

This week in year 5

We have looked closely at subtraction this week.  The children have used various methods including number lines, partitioning and column method to subtract whole numbers and numbers with up to 2 decimal places.  Their enthusiasm to complete different sums has been amazing.

In English the children have completed a newspaper report relating to the last chapter in Goth Girl.  They have identified the different feature of a newspaper report and then planned and completed their own.  We have had some snappy headlines and even some puns.

In History we have been researching Greek Myths and different Greek Gods and Goddesses.  The children have read different myths and read about different Gods and Goddesses and chosen their favourite to write about.  We will be looking at myths in more detail in English leading up to half term.

In DT we have finalised our Greek feast plans and look forward to preparing and eating it on the last week.  More details of our Greek day will follow.

In RE the children led a lovely Collective Worship to celebrate all we had learnt in the first topic and we have begun to explore our new topic ‘Life Choices’. The children were able to reflect on our first topic and really thought about the ways they could make a difference.

In PE the children continued to develop skills in netball.  They learnt techniques for effective shooting into the net and began to understand the importance of marking players on the opposite team in order to try and intercept the ball.  The children are really starting to show increasing control and looking for opportunities to outwit the other team.

In Science we had a great time learning about water resistance.  The children carried out an experiment with salted and unsalted water to see which would provide buoyancy for the greatest weight and they made tinfoil boats and tested which shape of boat created the least water resistance.  They were very sensible given the excitement of water in the classroom!

Don't forget to look our photos in the class gallery.

Home Practice all relates to this week's learning - These are the tasks to be completed

Reading - You all have a Home Reading book for year 5 so reading every night for 15-20 mins is essential. You also have a Reading Journal/Diary that must be completed and signed.

You can change your reading book on any school day (book bags to be left on Mrs Mulgrew's desk)

Spellings (words ending with ible, ibly, able and ably). We will look at these in more detail in school next week, they should be practised at home, ready for the test on Friday.

comfortable,  enjoyable, sensible, terrible, horribly, impossibly, reasonably, valuable, possibly, understandably

Counting - the children are really enjoying the counting challenges in class, why not set them challenges at home.  This week give them a number and ask them to count forwards by 9 or backwards by 9 for the next 6 numbers.  We have been practising this by adding 10 and then taking away 1 or if completing subtraction, subtracting 10 and adding 1 more.  Example 32, 41, 50, 59, 68, 77, 86 or 137, 128, 119, 110, 101, 92, 83. 

Sumdog challenges

Please ensure your child logs onto Sumdog and completes these challenges, all log ins and passwords have been sent home.  If lost send in a note and i can re-print them.

• Times tables have been set to reflect class targets

• Maths - the children have been set a number of addition and subtraction calculations using 4 digit numbers

• Spellings - able, ible, ably and ibly

The children have worked really hard this week and have been trying their best to be good friends to one another.

Year 1 Friday Blog 8th October 2021

Date: 7th Oct 2021 @ 10:01am

Welcome to the Year 1 Friday blog!

In English this week, we have finished Dogger and linked the story to our PSHE lessons. We have explored how the characters (especially Bella) have been kind and why they chose to be kind. We loved writing a special thank you note to Bella from Dave thanking her for getting Dogger back. The class have produced some super sentences!

In Phonics, we have been making comparisons between phase 3 and phase 5 sounds, in particular ai and ay. We are now more able to question which sound to use in our writing.

In Maths, we have been making the numbers 11-20 using tens frames, straws and cubes. We have learnt to make a group of ten and then count on to our specified number. We have used our mathematical reasoning to solve problems and make number sentences.

In Science, we have been comparing different animals and spotting their similarities and differences. In P.E. we have been developing our running and bouncing skills in the hall and worked together as a team to pass the ball to each other. 

We have done some French with Mrs Quilliam and Music with Mrs Winter. 

In R.E. we have started our new topic of Belonging. We have talked about the groups that we belong to and how we can work together as a team!

Thank you for all your Harvest donations, we have filled two boxes in our class! All our collective worships this week have been about Harvest. We had a lovely Harvest Celebration in golden assembly.

Lost items

We seem to have children losing their jumpers and cardigans each day. Please can you make sure each piece of clothing is named.

Look on the class gallery to see our golden stars for this week.

For your Home Practice,

Please read for at least 10 minutes every day. It really does make all the difference. We change the books on a Friday, please sign the diary.

There are also tricky words on green card which your child needs to be able to read on sight. Play games with these words, match them, find them when you are out and about.

Sumdog challenges this week...

Phonics-ay and ai

Maths- 1 more, 1 less

Please do lots of counting in 1s.Start at different numbers, count forwards and backwards. When you stop at a number what number is 1 more? 1 less?How do you know?

Have a go at counting in 10s. Start at 20 and stop at 80, start at 50 and count back in 10s to 30 and so on. Write the numbers on pieces of paper, order then then remove one. What number has been removed? How do you know?

Have a lovely weekend!

Reception 1st October

Date: 1st Oct 2021 @ 3:57pm

What a super week we have had! 

This week we have been reading 'The Three Little Pigs'. During literacy, we have drawn story maps, sequenced the story with pictures, acted out our own version of the story and followed instructions to make piggy biscuits.

We have been looking at the numbers 1-5 in maths and have loved watching the numberblock stories to help us understand the amounts. We have loved looking back at our baby pictures thinking about the differences from then to now. 

We took our first visit up to the school pond, it was amazing to listen and look at all the different things we could see up there. The children really enjoyed themselves. 

Year 2 Home Practice Friday 1st October 2021

Date: 1st Oct 2021 @ 3:49pm

We have had a great week in Year 2, well done to everyone for trying so hard with their learning. Our new novel is Burglar Bill by Janet and Allan Ahlberg. The children made some great predictions about the story and created a list of ideas to help Burglar Bill with the baby. In Maths, we started the Red Rose Mastery scheme, the lessons focused on number and place value. In Geography, the children have drawn and labelled the school grounds and explored the key features of maps. In RE, they wrote their own Psalms thanking God for our friends. The portraits they drew were fantastic, very colourful and in the style of Picasso.

Keep up the good work everybody, we are looking forward to next week, and have a great weekend.

Reading

In Year 2 we aim to read for a minimum of 15 minutes every night and discuss the book with an older sibling or adult to help deepen your knowledge.

Please sign and leave a small comment when you read with your child.

Reading books are changed every Monday.

Reading resources:

Oxford Owl – This resource has an exciting range of carefully levelled books to help children learn to read, and love to read.

If parents and children decide to use this resource, we ask they access phase 5 books. Go to https://www.oxfordowl.co.uk/ and select ‘my class login’. Scroll down to the red box ‘eBook Library for Letters & Sounds’

Username: sto2

Password: 1234

Resources for questioning your child while they are reading - https://www.literacyshedblog.com/uploads/1/2/5/7/12572836/ks1_reading_vipers.pdf

Spelling – Your child will know which group they are in for phonics. Please learn the correct set of spellings below.

This week we have been learning how to spell words with the ‘ue’ sound.

Please practise these spellings for your quiz on Friday. A sheet will go home every Tuesday with the spelling lists on. This is for home practise only and can be kept with you.

This week’s spellings are:

Miss Gravili’s Phonics Group Spellings

statue

glue

tubes

flute

screw

nephew

juice

afternoon

super

you

do

Miss Bennison’s Phonics Group Spellings

fair

dear

pure

rain

ship

tweet

church

fork

goat

cow

 Mrs Whitworth’s Phonics Group Spellings

 no

go

into

the

he

she

Maths

This week our focus in maths has been number and place value. Activities have included; understanding tens and ones in a two digit number and representing numbers using a range of apparatus.  Please have a go at the challenges set on Sumdog.

At home count in 10’s forwards and backwards. Some of you might try counting in 10’s from any given number forwards and backwards, for example 7, 17,27,37.

Sumdog

Well done to the 19 children who had a go at their Sumdog challenges this week.

Sumdog can be played from home, as well as in the classroom. To log in from home, students use the same details as they do in class. We will add them into reading diaries next week.

Log in at www.sumdog.com

Sumdog challenges:

Multiplication –  x5 tables

Maths – Place value

Spellings – ue, oo, ew, u-e, u and ui

Thank you for all your support.

The Year 2 team.

Year 6 Blog and Home Practice Friday 1st October 2021

Date: 1st Oct 2021 @ 3:33pm

Another super week of learning from Year 6. Since the beginning of the term, we have continued with our ‘Daily Mile’ exercise, rain or shine, and I have been impressed with everyone’s commitment to it. Well done to 87% of you for changing your Home Reading book this week – remember that reading is the single most important thing you can do to improve your learning.  

As a reminder, these groups can change their books on the following days:

Monday – Roller Coasters

Tuesday – Big Dippers

Wednesday – The Waltzers

This week in Year 6:

• In Maths, we have practised the 4 and 8 times tables, rounding numbers to 10, 100 and 1000, and even discussed various strategies of adding, which we will be exploring next week.
• In English, the children did an amazing job creating their own Aladdin sequel story, ‘The Return of the Moor’. We then started a new novel, ‘Clockwork’, also by Phillip Pullman, and used evidence from the text to describe the characters of Karl, Fritz and Dr. Kalmenius.
• In our topic of Mountains, in Geography, we have used the atlases and maps to find all the main mountains in Europe.
• For RE, we have completed our topic of ‘Unconditional Love’ through creating our own Beatitudes to help make our school a better place.
• In PE, we moved our learning of invasion games to the sport of tag rugby, where we are learning the rules, ready for our first sport competition in over 18 months.
• In Art, we have continued to use Keynote to complete our self-portrait art. You can see some of this great artwork in our Year 6 gallery page.
• In Music, we played the Boomwhackers to a song called, ‘Paris’.
• In French, we learnt the vocabulary for the seasons of the year.
• In Science, we completed our research into different plant groups and presented our findings as a poster. We then revised vertebrate classifications: birds, mammals, fish, reptiles and amphibians.

Home Practice all relates to this week’s learning. These are the tasks needed to be completed:

• Reading – Use your Home Reading to read every night for 30 minutes. You also have a Reading Journal/Diary that must be used for the title of the book and any reading challenge chosen.

• Spellings (-ious and ous words) which will be looked in detail from Monday:
  • cautious, various, vicious, precious, conscious, conscientious, gracious, suspicious, perilous, hazardous, marvellous, adventurous, dangerous, glamourous, famous

• Sumdog challenges:
  • Times Tables x4 / x8
  • Rounding numbers to 1, 10, 100 and 1000
  • Spellings (-ious words)

One month completed, Year 6, congratulations! Keep up the hard work in October.

Year 3 Friday 1st October 2021

Date: 1st Oct 2021 @ 1:09pm

Year 3

Welcome to your Friday Blog

We have had an amazing week of learning in Year 3. Everyone is showing a brilliant attitude to everything we do and we are very impressed!

We have finished reading The Twits now and can’t wait to start reading Mr Stink by David Walliams next week. We loved writing about The Twits and have been improving our writing by including inverted commas (speech marks) and by writing in paragraphs.

 Everyone is trying their best to improve their writing. Amazing effort everyone!

In our maths we looked at adding and subtracting 10s and 100s from three digit numbers. We found this tricky but nobody gave up. Super resilience Year 3! Check out Sumdog for your maths challenge to practise these skills. Well done to everyone for their practise last week. 

This week we have continued learning about The Stone Age and learnt some great facts about the Palaeolithic period and early human life. We had some great questions and had an interesting discussion on transport, food, shelter and clothes.

In computing, we learnt how to to debug algorithms to help Scrat find to his nut. Super problem solving and teamwork. 

• Algorithm - A list of steps to finish a task.
• Bug - Part of a program that does not work correctly.
• Debugging - Finding and fixing problems in an algorithm or program.

In Science we have been looking at different types of rocks and learning how fossils are made. We learnt that fossils can only be found in sedimentary rocks.

Fab Fact! - Sedimentary rocks are formed over millions of years from sediments (bits of other rocks and remains of plants or animals).

I wonder if we will be able to find any while we are out and about?

Home Practice

On Sumdog we have set three challenges. Well done to everyone who went on last week. We could see how all the practise is helping with understanding in our lessons.

The spellings this week all have the /j/ sound spelt –ge at the end of words.

 Carriage       Challenge        Change        Village       Arrange    

  Range      Orange      Courage    Stage

You can practise these spellings on Sumdog.

Continue to read to someone every night for at least 20 minutes.

Remember -  We will change the books whenever you need a new one.

Your maths challenges are on the 5 times table and adding and subtracting ones, tens and hundreds to/from a three digit number.

10 minutes Sumdog practise every night will improve number fluency and understanding.

You will be tested on your spellings and 5x times tables on Tuesday 5^th Make sure you practise every night.

You can also practise your number facts by playing Hit the button. Its a great game for improving speed and number fluency.

Have a fantastic weekend

The Year 3 Team

Year 4 Home Practice 1st October 2021

Date: 1st Oct 2021 @ 1:07pm

Year 4

Home Practice 1^st October 2021

Another great week of learning in Year 4! Well done to everyone who has been on Sumdog during the last week to practise their tables and spellings.  The more you practise, the more confident you will become.

This week, we have practised counting in 5’s, 10’s, 100’s and 1000’s. In addition, in maths we have learnt how to compare whole and decimal numbers using the words ‘is less than’ and ‘is more than’, as well as the symbols < and >.  We also learnt more about multiples of 10 and 100 as well as rounding to the nearest 10 and 100. In English, we have read some more stories from our class novel ‘How the Whale Became and Other Stories’.  Following this, we wrote a letter from Polar Bear to Peregrine Falcon, and planned our very own story which we will be writing next week. In History, we discovered that Celts lived in ‘roundhouses’ and considered the similarities and differences between Celtic homes and our own!  Why not ask us what roundhouses were made of!

Reading

Please read for 20 minutes each evening to an adult at home.  Make sure you discuss the story and the characters.  Find the meaning of any new words too.  Reading every night will help you read more fluently and with understanding. 

Times tables

You have been given your own individual times table target.  Please make sure you continue to practise your times tables in preparation for your test next week, on Thursday (7^th October 2021).  Ask someone at home to test you on your tables – can you recall them quickly and accurately?  

Remember - you can also practise your tables playing ‘Hit the button’.   

Counting

This week, please practise counting in 5’s and 100’s – draw a line and some marks on it like I do in class.  You could write the numbers down as you count up.  When you count down, cover the numbers up, say the number, then reveal what you’ve got written down to check you’ve said the correct number.

Count in 5’s

For example, start at 0 and count to 60 and back again

0   5   10   15 etc                     60  55  50    etc

Start at 80 and count up to 125 and down again

80   85   90    etc              125  120   115    etc

Count in 100’s

Start at 0 and count to 1200 and back again

0  100  200    etc           1200  1100   1000  etc

Start at 455 and count to 1455 and back agin

455   555    655   etc                1455   1355   1255   etc

Spellings

The spellings this week explore words which have an ‘o’ sound after a ‘w’, ‘wh’ or ‘qu’. For example, the word ‘what’ sounds as if it should be spelt ‘wot’ using an ‘o’ instead of an ‘a’, the word squash sounds as if it should be spelt ‘s-qu-o-sh’. Please practise your spellings each evening at home.  You will be tested on them next Thursday (7^th October 2021).  We have discussed in class different strategies you could use to help you learn them and you could always use ‘Look say cover write check’.

what            quality         quantity       squash         squad

squabble      squander      squadron      wanted         swallow

quad             swap            swapped       wallow          wasp

Sumdog Challenges

You have been set 3 challenges on Sumdog:

• A spelling challenge based on the spellings above
• A times table challenge based on the 2 and 3 times tables
• A grammar challenge based on punctuation at the end of sentences (remember there are 4 types of sentences – questions, statements, exclamations and commands)

Please make sure you log on and have a go!

Year 5 Friday 1st October 2021

Date: 30th Sep 2021 @ 5:23pm

Welcome to the Year 5 class blog

We have had a great week, the children have worked hard and remained well behaved despite a week with wet plays.  They have carried out a friction experiment, written a missing chapter to our class novel and looked at ways they can use their special gifts to help others in RE.

This week in year 5

We have looked closely at decimals this week. We have explored the place value of decimals; place value of decimals, sorting decimals, rounding decimals and addition of decimals.   We also investigated increasing and decreasing numbers to the power of 10 to help with addition problems. 

In English we have worked so hard planning, developing and writing a missing chapter to Goth Girl, featuring their own villain.  The children learnt about adding tension to their writing through the vocabulary that we use and the length of our sentences.  They have used our similes and metaphors and added dialogue between characters.  We have finally reached the end of the book and have really enjoyed the action throughout.

In History we have continued our topic about the Ancient Greeks and this week focused on the similarities and differences between our life and that of the Ancient Greeks.  We examined Greek homes, food, jobs, toys and clothing.  We also discussed slaves and the reason why people became slaves in Ancient Greek civilization. 

In DT this week we continued our work on Greek cuisine.  We read a number of different Greek recipes and decided upon items we would include in our class Greek feast.  The children had to identify and describe the ingredients and equipment they would need and how they would stay safe throughout, including food safety (hygiene/allergies).

In RE we have been completed our first topic 'Ourselves'. We looked at scripture and made links to how we could live our lives as children of God, how we could share the gifts we had with others to help them and read the poem Footprints and discussed how God is always there for us, even though we don’t always realise it.

In PE, our topic is invasion games. Sadly due to the rain we had to remain inside but Mrs Cookson organised an action packed game of dodgeball, encouraging the children to work together as a team.

In Science we investigated friction this week. We carried out an experiment using different materials to find which one would cause the greatest amount of friction.  The children had to spin a bicycle wheel and use tinfoil, bubblewrap, sandpaper and fabric as brakes.  They had to use a stopwatch and think about variables and how to perform a fair test. 

Home Practice all relates to this week's learning. These are the tasks to be completed:

Reading - You all have a Home Reading book for year 5 so reading every night for 15-20 mins is essential. You also have a Reading Journal/Diary that must be completed and signed.

You can change your reading book on any school day (book bags to be left on Mrs Mulgrew's desk)

Spellings (words with silent letters). We will look at these in more detail in school next week, they should be practised at home, ready for the test on Friday.

doubt, lamb, debt, thumb, solemn, autumn, column, knight, knuckle, knot.   

Sumdog challenges

times tables x3/x6

maths

Spellings (words with silent letters)

The children have worked very hard this week and used their manners.  They have impressed other teachers with their amazing story writing.

Reception Meet the Teacher 2021

Date: 30th Sep 2021 @ 3:33pm

Year 1 Friday Blog 1st October 2021

Date: 29th Sep 2021 @ 2:21pm

W/C 27/09/21 Year 1 blog

We've had another super week of learning in Year 1! The children have been so busy and we are so proud of them all.

We continued to read our 'Dogger' story and we learnt that Dave's favourite toy Dogger was found on a toy stall at the fair! We wrote about our favourite toy and Miss Fisher even brought in some of her favourite toys. 

In Phonics, we have practiced using the 'ee' and 'ea' sounds in our sentences. We had some brilliant sentences in our morning work which made us giggle, such as 'The bee had teeth and went to the beach.'

In Maths, we have started to use the mastery approach in our learning. We have been looking at ways to make 10 and how teen numbers are made up of  1 group of 10s and some 1s. We have also been learning about  1 more and 1 less. All of the children have responded really well and have been doing lots of problem solving and they have also enjoyed being responsible for their own resource packs.

In Science we have been grouping animals by their features. We have been continuing our Geography learning by talking about the changes in our locality over time by comparing photos of Longton to seeing what has changed and what has stayed the same. We had P.E. in the hall this week and we did really well with our fundamental skills. In French we learned how to say colours. We also celebrated European Languages Day by singing a song with ways to say hello in different languages.

In our collective worships we have been thinking about how we can look after God's world. We have talked about practical choices we can make every day. In R.E. we have been listening to psalms and we wrote a thank you prayer.

Thank you for all the donations you have sent in for the Harvest.

Look on the class gallery to see our golden stars for this week.

For your Home Practice,

Please read for at least 10 minutes every day. It really does make all the difference. We change the books on a Friday, please sign the diary.

There are also tricky words on green card which your child needs to be able to read on sight. Play games with these words, match them, find them when you are out and about.

Sumdog challenges this week...

Read and write numbers to 20

Please do lots of counting.Start at different numbers, count forwards and backwards. When you stop at a number what number is 1 more?,1 less? Ask your child how they know.

Reading challenge sh,th and ch.

Have a great weekend!

Friday 24th September Year 2 Home Practice

Date: 24th Sep 2021 @ 4:11pm

We have had a brilliant start to Year 2. Well done everybody for trying so hard to follow the Golden rules and class routines. In English, our novels so far have been ‘The Day the Crayons Quit’ and ‘The Day the Crayons came Home’. We have written some super postcards and have planned a story for Esteban the Magnificent. In Maths, we have focused on place value, number skills and arithmetic. The children have thoroughly enjoyed going outside for Forest School lessons. They have made some lovely natural print patterns, cross sticks with wool, a bug habitat and wood art. We have attached some photos of the great learning we have done so far in Year 2. Keep up the good work everybody.

Reading

In Year 2 we aim to read for a minimum of 15 minutes every night and discuss the book with an older sibling or adult to help deepen your knowledge.

Reading books are changed every Monday.

Reading resources:

Oxford Owl – This resource has an exciting range of carefully levelled books to help children learn to read, and love to read.

If parents and children decide to use this resource, we ask they access phase 5 books. Go to https://www.oxfordowl.co.uk/ and select ‘my class login’. Scroll down to the red box ‘eBook Library for Letters & Sounds’

Username: sto2

Password: 1234

Resources for questioning your child while they are reading - https://www.literacyshedblog.com/uploads/1/2/5/7/12572836/ks1_reading_vipers.pdf

Spelling

This week we have been learning how to spell words with the ‘ee’ sound.

Please practise these spellings ready for your quiz every Friday. A sheet will go home every Monday with the spelling lists on. This is for home practise only and can be kept with you.

This week’s spellings for Miss Gravili's Phonics group are:

three

bee

clean

steal

thief

chief

happy

penny

she

me

Spellings for Miss Bennison's and Mrs Whitworth Group will start next week.

Maths

We have been looking at place value. Please have a go at the challenges set on Sumdog.

At home count to 100 forwards and backwards. Some of you might try counting in 2s, 5s and 10s forwards and backwards.

Sumdog

Sumdog can be played from home, as well as in the classroom. To log in from home, students use the same details as they do in class. We will add them into reading diaries next week.

Log in at www.sumdog.com

Sumdog challenges

Multiplication –  x10 tables

Maths – Place value

Spellings – ee y ie  e  ea

Well done to the children who went up in Golden Assembly this week.

Thank you for all your support.

The Year 2 team

Year 1 Meet the Teacher

Date: 24th Sep 2021 @ 12:42pm

Here is the presentation from the meeting.

Reception Friday 24th September

Date: 24th Sep 2021 @ 9:54am

This week we have been reading lots of different Elmer stories. We have enjoyed thinking about all the ways we are all different to each other. 

We have discussed how to be a lovely friend in PSHE. In Understanding the World, we have been talking about the changes we go through from when we are babies to what we can do now.

Our focus numbers this week in Maths have been the  numbers 1 and 2. We have also been having a go at lots of counting songs and investigating making the numbers.

In Art, we have explored colour mixing, focusing on the primary colours, Red, Yellow and Blue.  

We introduced Phonics to the children this week, learning the sounds s ,a, t - all the children have been amazing with their sounds and joining in the different games we play. 

Another super week Reception, Well done to all of you :) 

Year 4 Home Practice Friday 24th September 2021

Date: 24th Sep 2021 @ 8:29am

Year 4

Home Practice 24^th September 2021

Welcome to the Year 4 Blog.  Each week the blog will include a brief summary of our learning and the children’s Home Practice to be completed during the week.

Year 4 have made a super start to the new school year.  They have transitioned well into their new routines and been enthusiastic about their learning.

This week, we have practised counting in 2’s, 10’s, 100’s and 1000’s. In addition, in maths we have learnt more about whole numbers upto 4 digits as well as decimals (tenths). In English, we have read some more stories from our class novel ‘How the Whale Became and Other Stories’.  Following this, we wrote our own questions about a story for someone else to answer. We went outside during Science and looked at different trees and their leaves. Back in class, we grouped the leaves in different ways, for example, according to whether they were a large or a small leaf, or serrated or lobed.

Reading

Please read for 20 minutes each evening to an adult at home.  Make sure you discuss the story and the characters.  Find the meaning of any new words too.  Reading every night will help you read more fluently and with understanding. 

Times tables

You have been given your own individual times table target.  Please make sure you continue to practise your times tables in preparation for your test next week, on Thursday (30^th September 2021).  Ask someone at home to test you on your tables – can you recall them quickly and accurately?  

Remember - you can also practise your tables playing Hit the button   

Counting

This week, please practise counting in 2’s and 10’s – draw a line and some marks on it like I do in class.  You could write the numbers down as you count up.  When you count down, cover the numbers up, say the number, then reveal what you’ve got written down to check you’ve said the correct number.

Count in 2’s

For example, start at 0 and count to 24 and back again

0 2 4 6 8 10   etc                     24 22 20 18 16    etc

Start at 90 and count up to 114 and down again

90 92 94 96    etc              114 112 110 108    etc

Count in 10’s

Start at 0 and count to 150 and back again

0 10 20 30 40    etc           150 140 130 120  etc

Start at 55 and count to 185 and back agin

55 65 75 85  etc                185 175 165 155 etc

Spellings

The spellings this week explore different letter patterns for the same ‘ei’ sound. Please practise your spellings each evening at home.  You will be tested on them next Thursday (30^th September 2021).  We have discussed in class different strategies you could use to help you learn them and you could always use ‘Look say cover write check’.

prey            wait             bait             afraid          grey

eight           weight         sleigh          neighbour    freight

paint            eighteen      eighty          reign           vein

Sumdog Challenges

You have been set 3 challenges on Sumdog:

• A spelling challenge based on the spellings above
• A times table challenge based on the 2, 5 and 10 times tables
• A maths challenge based on 4 digit numbers (and place value) and tenths

Please make sure you log on and have a go!

Year 4 Meet the Teacher

Date: 24th Sep 2021 @ 8:08am

Welcome to Year 4.

Thank you to all those who made the 'Meet the Teacher' meeting.  For those who were unable to attend please have a read through the slides attached to this blog.

Should you have any queries, please contact the school via email or telephone and we will get back to you as soon as we are able.

Mrs Tipping

Year 5 Friday 24th September 2021

Date: 23rd Sep 2021 @ 5:42pm

Welcome to the first Year 5 class blog

The class have had a fantastic start to the new school year. They have settled in nicely with the new routine and new teacher and have shown an excellent attitude to learning.  Our Greek feast, parachute experiment and creating a villainous character have been a lot of fun and the children have enjoyed all of them.

This week in year 5

We have been working a lot on place value and number in maths. The children have been looking at the value different digits have in a number, ordering numbers, rounding numbers up to 10,000, partitioning numbers and understanding decimals up to hundredths.  They have used place value tables, counters and talk partners to help embed this understanding. We have also had a challenge day, where the children moved around the room, taking part in a number of challenges and problem solving activites to check their understanding.  

In English we have been reading Goth Girl by Chris Riddell and reached an excting part of the book. The children cannot wait for the concuding chapters next week.  We have created a video tour of Ghastly-Gorm Hall, where the children have imagined they are tour guides, explaining the different rooms of the hall.  We watched them in class at the end of the week.  We have also created a new villain for the book and written a descriptive piece.  As part of our writing, we have been working on using similes and metaphors in our work.

In History we have been learning about the Ancient Greeks and looking at how artefacts and architecture helps us understand what life was like in Ancient Greece.

In DT this week we had the long awaited food tasting lesson. There were mixed reviews on the Greek cuisine but we have agreed that as a class that we mostly enjoyed pitta breads and tzatziki, so we will plan recipes in the coming weeks.

In RE we have been exploring our first topic 'Ourselves'. We have looked at the different talents and qualities we have, how we can use these to show we are children of God and how we can use them to help others.

In PE, our topic is invasion games. The children have been learning different passing techniques including chest pass, bounce pass and shoulder pass. They have then used these skills to play an informal game with Mrs Cookson.

In Science we are learning all about forces. We have a good understanding of gravity and how air resistance works against gravity.  We have made parachutes with different variables and tested them to find the most effective parachute.  

Home Practice all relates to this week's learning - These are the tasks to be completed

• Reading - You all have a Home Reading book for year 5 so reading every night for 15-20 mins is essential. You also have a Reading Journal/Diary that must be completed and signed.
  • You can change your reading book on any school day (book bags to be left on Mrs Mulgrew's desk)

• Spellings (words with endings that sound like /ow/ and /oo/ but spelt with ough).  We will look at these in more detail in school next week, They should be practised at home, ready for the test on Friday.
  • though, although, thought, bought, dough, brought, through, fought, throughout, breakthrough.

• Sumdog challenges
  • times tables x4/x8
  • maths
  • Spellings (ough words)

The children have been very kind, well-behaved and polite during their first few weeks. They have made me feel welcome and settle into my role here at St Oswald's.