Monday 29th October

Welcome to our second half term. We hope that you all had a lovely holiday and will come back to school all refreshed and eager for more learning. Don't forget that your children don't start back until Tuesday this week. We have a busy INSET day for the teachers on the Monday.



Thank you to all the parents who attended the parent's evenings at the end of last half term - we hope you found them useful, and feel you know your child's targets for the next few months. Any support or work with your child on them at home would be fantastic.



By now the children have settled in and every one is aware of the targets that they need to achieve to help them make progress. We also encourage you to hear your child read every day no matter what their reading capabilities are. Even the most fluent reader needs to be heard read. All the children will have stickers or written targets in their reading diaries for you to work on. Thank you.




Please make sure that PE kits are back in school on Tuesday as PE lessons will resume as normal straight away.




This half term is always very busy - particularly with our Christmas production to look forward to. During the next few weeks we will be starting to learn the songs for our Christmas play. We will giving out parts too. We try to give out most of the speaking parts to the Year Four and the Year Three do more of the acting, singing and dancing. The children and teachers always have a great time preparing the children and it really helps in promoting the children's confidence no matter how small their part.

LITERACY

To start this half term we are going to focus on STORY WRITING. We will be having a go at writing a short story this week and then we will be learning lots of 'tricks of the trade' to improve our descriptive writing. Remember it is important to think like a reader when you are writing - ask yourself "would I enjoy reading this?" Check out the links below for some ideas:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/starship/english/storyplant.shtml - grow your own story...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/ks2bitesize/english/activities/planning.shtml - how to plan a story.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/ks2bitesize/english/activities/beginnings_endings.shtml - looking at beginnings and endings.

http://www.magickeys.com/books/index.html#books - lots of stories to read.

http://www.starfall.com/n/level-c/index/load.htm?f

http://www.britishcouncil.org/kids-stories-dinosaur-dig-popup.htm - coninuing with our DINOSAUR theme just a little bit longer! There are lots more stories to read on this site too.

http://www.lancsngfl.ac.uk/curriculum/literacy/lit_site/html/fiction/bigbooks/groovyg/index2.html - a simple story start - can you finish the story?

http://www.lancsngfl.ac.uk/curriculum/literacy/lit_site/html/fiction/bigbooks/coldlight/index.html - a more detailed and dramatic stroy start - what would you like to happen next?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/starship/english/penguinsonice.shtml - think about your sentence work too.

http://www.mape.org.uk/startower/starpunc/index.htm - more work on using punctuation.

NUMERACY

Keep going with your times tables - this week try

http://www.freewebtown.com/weddell/mw/multiples/intro.htm

http://www.oswego.org/ocsd-web/games/Ghostblasters1/gbcd.html - can you hit the right ghosts? Remember a multiple is just the times table you want to practice.

In Miss Robinson's group this week we will be investigating TIME. We will be making our own clocks to use in school and will be focussing on reading and recording units of time accurately on analogue clocks this week, moving onto digital as the week progresses with some children.

By the end of the week:

The children must know how to read the time accurately on an analogue clock.

The children should be able to record digital time.

The children could be able to problem solve using time.

http://www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/maths/measures.htm#Time - try the selection of time games on this super site.

http://www.mrmyers.org/Math_Mania/Math_Games/Jude_e-Clock/clock.htm - a clock to play with to get you used to different times.

http://www.mrmyers.org/Math_Mania/Math_Quizzes/Time/time101.htm

http://www.mrmyers.org/Math_Mania/Math_Quizzes/Time/time202.htm

In Mrs Harding’s Numeracy group we will be finishing our work on triangles and the different types of triangle. We will also be working on subtraction using counting on and finding the difference using traditional written methods.

By the end of the week:
The children must know all the names of the triangles and be able to identify them by looking at the degrees in each corner..
The children should be able to divide with remainders.
The children could subtract using different methods.

See below some useful sites:

http://www.mathcats.com/explore/polygonplayground.html

http://www.mcwdn.org/Geometry/Triangles.html

http://www.icteachers.co.uk/children/sats/triangles.htm

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

http://www.primaryresources.co.uk/maths/powerpoint/Y5T2U10D1_3.ppt

http://www.primaryresources.co.uk/maths/powerpoint/subtraction_partitioning.ppt
In Mrs Bethell's group we are consolidating our skills in telling the time. The children will be making a clock in school to bring home to practice telling the time in 5 minute intervals, for homework. Most children will also bring home a digital clock with a push through strip to tell the time in 5 minute intervals. It would be helpful if you could help your child to tell the time on both digital and analogue clocks – making the same times on both types of clocks. Please use the websites on last week’s blog to review work on time.

We will also be learning about pairs of numbers that make 100 using the link with pairs to 10 and with money – 100 pennies make £1.00.
We will be using the rule : Make the tens make 90 and the units make 10 to help us find two numbers that make 100.
So if 1 + 9 = 10 then 10 + 90 = 100
2 + 8 = 10 20 + 80 = 100
3 + 7 = 10 30 + 70 = 100
4 + 6 = 10 40 + 60 = 100
5 + 5 = 10 50 + 50 = 100
In our final part of this week we will also be learning how many of each coin makes £!.00. If you have any coin collections maybe you could let your child sort them and count them into £’s.
I must know : There are 100 x 1p’s in £1.00
There are 50 x 2p’s in £1.00
There are 20 x 5p’s in £1.00
There are 10 x 10p’s in £1.00
There are 5 x 20p’s in £1.00
There are 2 x 50p’s in £1.00
Pairs to 100
www.amblesideprimary.com/ambleweb/mentalmaths/numberbond.html

SCIENCE

All classes this week will be learning/reviewing why we need a skeleton and the functions of the skeleton. We will also learn some of the names of the most important bones in our skeleton.

The children could know all the functions of the skeleton and the names of some of the bones.

Children should know that the skeleton is used for protecting the organs and be able to name some of these organs.


The children must know that the skeleton is used for support and movement.

http://www.primaryresources.co.uk/science/powerpoint/Moving_Around.ppt


http://www.primaryresources.co.uk/science/powerpoint/moving_and_growing_wwtbam.ppt
http://www.klbschool.org.uk/interactive/science/skeleton.htm



That's all for now folks.



Have a safe and happy week back.



The Year 3/4 Team

xxx