Monday 24th September

Firstly, thank you to all the parents who attended the Induction Meeting on Wednesday. We hope you found it useful. We have another busy week ahead of us so here are some dates for your diary.

Harvest Festival

On Wednesday, we will be having our Harvest Festival Mass in the hall, celebrated by Father Richard at 2pm. You are most welcome to join us. Thank you all for the generous donations sent in on Friday.

Circusology

On Thursday, the circus comes to St. Vincent’s! Each of the three classes will be having their Circusology workshops during Thursday or Friday.

Diaries

Lots of parents are making comments in their children's diaries and hearing them read during the week. Unfortunately, there are a few children who are not reading or having comments put in their diary.

Homework

Please make sure that your child hands in their homework on a Thursday so we have time to mark it. Thank you.

Literacy

This week in Literacy we are exploring the differences between fact and fiction. We will be linking this as much as possible to our topic work too. Please check out the link below:

http://www.primaryresources.co.uk/english/powerpoints/non-fiction_books.ppt - how is a factual book laid out? How is it different from a story book?

Alongside this we are also going to work on our sentence writing.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/starship/english/penguinsonice.shtml

http://www.childrensuniversity.manchester.ac.uk/interactives/literacy/wordclasses/adjectives.asp - improve your sentences by learning about adjectives

http://www.funbrain.com/grammar/index.html

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/ks2bitesize/english/activities/lang_structure.shtml

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/ks2bitesize/english/activities/adjectives_adverbs.shtml

Numeracy

It is really important that we get ahead with knowing our times table facts so use the games below to check how well you know them.

http://www.wmnet.org.uk/wmnet/custom/files_uploaded/uploaded_resources/851/Hitthebuttonv7.swf - on this site you can practice your number bonds, times tables and division facts!

http://www.amblesideprimary.com/ambleweb/mentalmaths/tabletrees.html

We are also going to be starting building up our Mental Maths skills so have a look through the games and activities on:

http://www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/maths/wordproblems/index.html

In Miss Robinson's Numeracy group we are going to be using our knowledge of number bonds to ten, twenty and a hundred to speed up our addition calculations. We will be finding out ways to add several numbers together quickly.

http://www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/maths/interactive/index.htm#addition - lots of games at different levels to have a go at!

http://www.ictgames.com/submarinenopad2.html - adding ten

Mrs Harding's Math's group made a great start this last week and Mrs Harding was very impressed with how much they knew already. This week the children will be carrying on their work with place value and ordering four and five digit numbers. They will also be reviewing the signs for less than and greater than as well as as positive and negative numbers.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/skillswise/numbers/wholenumbers/whatarenumbers/writingbignumbers/game.shtml
http://www.beaconlearningcenter.com/WebLessons/AlligatorLunch/default.htm#page1
http://www.crickweb.co.uk/assets/resources/flash.php?&file=ncmenu

http://www.bbc.co.uk/skillswise/numbers/wholenumbers/whatarenumbers/negativenumbers/game.shtml
http://www.athena.bham.org.uk/negnpos1.htm

Topic

This week the children change topics and teachers. They will be moving on to learning about another area of OUR WORLD. Miss Robinson's class will be moving to Mrs Bethell for Topic sessions, Mrs Bethell's class to Mrs Harding and Mrs Harding's class to Miss Robinson.

Check out the links from last week for Miss Robinson's and Mrs Harding's topics.

In Mrs Bethell's the children are learning about energy and will be spending time learning about fossil fuels (gas, oil and coal), conserving energy and alternative energy sources such as the wind. This week they will be exploring how we use energy in our lives and homes. We will be finding out about the 3 fossil fuels : oil, gas and coal, why they are called fossil fuels and where they are found. We will find out about the history of mining and write the diary of a miner.

This website helps explore initial information about energy and fossil fuels.
http://www.energychest.net/energy_in_buildings/index.html

This website is for the National Coalmine Museum and gives information about mining in past.
http://www.ncm.org.uk/index.asp

http://managenergy.net/kidscorner/en/u11/u11.html - photos and animations

http://tiki.oneworld.net/energy/energy.html - games to play helping Tiki save energy and play renewable energy linked games.

Science Review

In Science this week we will be reviewing and learning about dissolving. The children will learn that there are some solids that dissolve and some that do not. For more information see the sites below.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/ks2bitesize/science/revision_bites/reversible_irreversible3.shtml

http://www.nwnet.org.uk/pages/ict_curric/science/downloads/science_unit6c.ppt#262,7,Slide 7
http://www.primaryresources.co.uk/science/powerpoint/dissolving_and_changes_WWtbaM.ppt

Spanish

We are all still trying hard to remember our Spanish. If you've forgotten a lot over the summer too then check out the links below.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/primaryspanish/

That's all for now.

Have a safe and happy week.
Take care.

The Year 3/4 Team
xxx