8th October

Welcome to our Blog this week. Wow! this has been a very busy week. The children really enjoyed the visit by Mr Bennett who came in with lots of pictures and information about oil rigs. As part of our topic theme Mrs Bethell has been teaching about fossil fuels and energy to the three classes in year three and four.

Parent’s Evening

Please remember that parent’s evening is the week after next so we really need your slips back as soon as possible so times are allocated. This week your child should come home with their time. I f there are any problems please contact the teacher to change the time if it is possible. Please remember that sometimes it is not possible to give a lot of parents the same time slot but we do try to accommodate requests of times. Thank you for your understanding in this matter.

Dates for Parent’s Evening are:Tuesday 16th October & Wednesday 17th October.

Choir

Miss Robinson’s choir will start on Wednesday after school until 4.00pm.

Spanish

We have been working hard this week on our Spanish again. At the moment we are having twenty minute sessions with a Spanish linguist to help us all learn the language. We hope to rotate the classes so all three have this invaluable teaching and learning experience with a real Spanish lady.
This week we concentrated on numbers to ten and greetings. All three classes have made hand puppets to help them with their Spanish conversation. See below to learn more about how to say hello and to learn the numbers.

http://www.jvlnet.com/~liliana/1_to_20.html

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

www.ictgames.com/datechartEspana.html Great site for the date and weather in Spanish.

Literacy

In Literacy this week we will be continuing our work on writing reports. So far the children have enjoyed learning all about dinosaurs. In teams they are making big books about dinosaurs.

Check out the links below for lots of extra facts about dinosaurs that you may want to use in your writing.

http://www.show.me.uk/topicpage/teachers/tDinosaurs.html - lots of information. Make sure you check out these activities first!http://www.dinodictionary.com/ - fact filled site - can even hear how to say those more difficult dino names.

http://www.cotf.edu/ete/modules/msese/dinosaurflr/diorama.html

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sn/prehistoric_life/dinosaurs/

http://www.childrensmuseum.org/dinosphere/teachers/activities.html - an American site that talks to you.
http://www.rain.org/~philfear/download-a-dinosaur.html

The children are having lots of opportunities to use books about dinosaurs in their research. Please encourage your child to read an information book to you. Can they tell you what a:

Caption is?
Heading?
Subtitle?
Text box?
Glossary?

This week the three classes will be celebrating a class Mass on Wednesday afternoon. This is a very important part of our year when Father Richard comes in to school to celebrate the Holy Mass. Some of the Year Four children will be doing a few readings. If they bring a reading home please could you practise a little with them. Thank you.


Numeracy

Miss Robinson's Numeracy Group this week are exploring measuring length. The children will be learning about mm, cm, m and km. They will be able to draw and measure objects, as well as give estimates and accurate readings of length. The websites listed below will be great to have a go at:

http://www.funbrain.com/measure/ - you can choose your level then see if you can read the ruler correctly.

http://www.bgfl.org/bgfl/custom/resources_ftp/client_ftp/ks2/maths/measures/index.htm - choose to measure length.

http://www.rainforestmaths.com/ - have a go at all the activities!

http://www.rainforestmaths.com/ - a slightly harder set of activities than those above

http://www.echalk.co.uk/Maths/PrimaryNationalStrategy_Yr6/DfES-MathsActivitiesforyear6/throwing.html - want a real challenge? This activity even goes into decimals too!

By the end of the week the children:
MUST know the basic units of measuring length and how to read them.
SHOULD be able to estimate length and check they have measured objects accurately.
COULD be able to use decimals to show units of measurement, e.g 1m 64cm = 1.64m


In Mrs Harding’s Math’s group this week we are learning more about multiplication and division. We will be practising the different methods of multiplication. We will also practise dividing when there are remainders too.


By the end of the week:


The children could be able to multiply 4 and 5 digit numbers using the grid method.
The children should be able to divide numbers and learn to divide with remainders.
The children must be able to know their 6 and 7 timetables off by heart.

http://www.icteachers.co.uk/resources/numeracy/xbygridmethod.doc

http://www.primaryresources.co.uk/maths/docs/multiplying_gridmethod.doc

http://www.bbc.co.uk/skillswise/numbers/wholenumbers/multiplication/timestables/game.shtml

http://www.primaryresources.co.uk/maths/powerpoint/Multiplication_gridmethod.ppt

http://www.primaryresources.co.uk/maths/powerpoint/grid.ppt


http://www.mathsisfun.com/long_division2.html

Mrs Bethell’s Math’s group will be doing mainly subtraction. Subtracting units from TU and HTU and multiples of 10 from TU and HTU

Subtraction up to 20
www.sums.co.uk/playground/c1a/playground.htm

Subtracting at 3 different levels

www.amblesideprimary.com/ambleweb/mentalmaths/sutractiontest.html

Against the clock subtractions-includes a few minus answers

www.oswego.org/ocsd-web/games/SpeedGrid/Subtraction/urikasub3res.html

100 square - taking 11away from a target number

www.ictgames.com/100huntminus11.html

Science

All three classes this week will be doing reviewing sound and what pitch means. We will be doing experiments with rulers and bottles of water to find out about pitch. Pitch is how low or high a sound is. Volume is how loud or quiet a sound is.
Could we please ask Mrs Bethell’s class to bring a torch in next week to do with the topic work that they are doing on light with Mrs Harding. To learn more about sound see below.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/scienceclips/ages/9_10/changing_sounds.shtml

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/scienceclips/ages/5_6/sound_hearing.shtml

http://sfskids.org/templates/musicLabF.asp?pageid=13

By the end of the week:

Children could know how sound is produced and the meaning of volume and pitch.
Children should know how to change the pitch of something.
Children must know what we mean by pitch.

We hope you have a good week, best wishes from everyone in the Year Three and Four team.