19th February 2007

Hello and welcome back to another half term. We hope that you all had a fantastic break from school and are coming back all refreshed and ready to continue your learning. So far it's looking like a pretty normal week in school so let's crack straight on with it.

LITERACY

In Literacy we have been really pleased with how much your writing has moved on - lots of you are trying to use 2A sentences, and add a word, change a word, etc. You can all recognise the elements that are needed to write a good story and we will keep returning to develop your skills in story-writing further. However for the next few weeks we are going to move onto exploring non-fiction writing skills. This week we will be concentrating on EXPLANATIONS!

http://www.teachers.ash.org.au/jeather/writingfun/writingfun.html - a good site that introduces the idea of explanations, how to structure what you want to write as well as some great examples so you have a very clear idea.

We will continue to develop our skills with writing sentences and will be looking at punctuation too. Check out this lesson based link about sentences - just work through the starter activity then the main and then the plenary.
http://www.ngfl-cymru.org.uk/vtc/sentence_detectives/eng/Introduction/default.htm

If you fancy challenging yourself have a look at the link below - it's for older children but I know how many of you like to push yourself!
http://www.channel4.com/learning/microsites/F/fairground/

NUMERACY

http://www.coolmath-games.com/Timernator/Timernator-multiplication.html - keep those tables ticking over - they are really important.
http://www.amblesideprimary.com/ambleweb/mentalmaths/tabletrees.html - more tables practice.
http://www.amblesideprimary.com/ambleweb/mentalmaths/testtest.html - even more - you'll all be experts if you work your way through this lot!

http://www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/maths/division.htm - now you've got your times tables sorted can you work out the divisions in these games?

http://www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/maths/wordproblems/index.html - can you apply your understanding and skills in number to solving problems (really useful for tests!)

http://www.amblesideprimary.com/ambleweb/mentalmaths/mentalmachine2.html - a real challenge in mental maths - problems presented in lots of different ways including decimals!

In Mrs Harding's math's class this week we will be starting/reviewing decimals. These are a variety of sites. Some are very basic and others will stretch the more able Mathematician!!

http://www.math.com/school/subject1/lessons/S1U1L2DP.html

http://www.bbc.co.uk/skillswise/numbers/fractiondecimalpercentage/

http://www.bbc.co.uk/skillswise/numbers/fractiondecimalpercentage/comparing/comparingall3/index.shtml

http://www.ngfl-cymru.org.uk/vtc/phase4_20030829/Mathematics/Keystage2/Numbers/Anintroductiont/Introduction/InteravtiveWhiteboardActivityPart1.htm

Also we will be reviewing co ordinates/ Carroll diagrams and Venn diagrams.

http://www.primaryresources.co.uk/online/coordinates.swf

http://www.primaryresources.co.uk/online/venn.swf

http://www.echalk.co.uk/Maths/vennDiagram/venn.html

And finally:
http://www.buzzin.net/maths/maths.htm - a great site that covers lots of the topic areas each group will be looking at this half term - get ahead!

SCIENCE

In Science we will be carrying on the topic of habitats and looking at food chains and the problems that could occur in them when one part of it changes. For more knowledge on food chains please visit.

http://www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/Homework/habitats.html

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/revisewise/science/living/03b_act.shtml

http://www.crick.northants.sch.uk/assets/Flash%20Studio/cfsscience/food%20chains/foodchains.html


TOPIC

We are continuing with our theme of Ancient Egypt. Ever wondered what it was like for the ordinary Egyptian people - this week we hope to find out a little more about how they lived.

http://home.freeuk.net/elloughton13/egypt.htm

As a bit of an extra challenge can you use ICT like a researcher. Have a go at this cyberhunt - we'd be so impressed if you came into school with all the answers.
http://www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/cyberhunts/Index.html


HOMEWORK

Homework will be slightly different this week. There will be normal maths homework but instead of sentences we will be asking the children to finish a questionnaire and ask their family the questions. The questionnaire will centre around the current RE topic which is MEMORIES.
In class the children will have compiled lots of questions to take home with them.
These could be the happiest/saddest/most exciting memory etc. We hope you have fun filling in the answers. The children will need to bring this back by the end of week as we will be using the answers in class for a lesson.

Please don't forget that the children will be making their boxed environments this week. They will be given a whole afternoon to do this. There should be a sticker in their diaries about this already.
They will need:
shoe box
materials and objects to make their environment.

If they still haven't decided what they would like to do then have a look at these sites for ideas.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/scienceclips/ages/8_9/habitats.shtml

http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/animals/wildbritain/habitats/

http://www.mbgnet.net/ - a super little site that explores what it is like to live in the many different habitats.


Have a safe and happy week

The Year 3/4 team

xxx