Monday 28th April

Wow! How fast the month of April is going!! Hopefully it won't be too long before the weather starts to get better. We will start to take the children out for PE so make sure that they have pumps or trainers in their kits. It may be an idea to put named sun tan lotion in their bags so that the children can put it on if the weather starts to really get sunny in the coming weeks. I live in hope that that this will be the case!!!

Thank you to all the parents who attended the Holy Communion Meeting last week and of course every one who came to the presentation Mass the other Sunday. It was really amazing to see how many of the children who are going to make their communion this June.

The Year Three children started keyboard skills this week with Dawsons. We have about seventeen keyboards in school and we had two groups of twenty children learning to play different scales and rhythms. The Year three had a lovely time and their behaviour was excellent. The lessons are going to go on for a further nine weeks and at the end there has even been a mention that there could be a little assembly to show you their skills that the children has acquired in the previous weeks.
The following site is for a piano key board. Please copy it into your task bar if the link does not take you to a piano on Primary resources.

http://www.primaryresources.co.uk/music/piano.html

Please remember that we go swimming on a Thursday. We need some parents to accompany us on a Thursday morning at 9.30 and 10.00am. Any help would be great even if it is not every week. There were ten children out of ninety who did not have their kits this week. Please remember to send us a little note to excuse them from swimming. Thank you.

Homework will be a little different from time to time from now on and it centres around talking instead of writing. We intend to do this homework every few weeks. It has been proved that talking can actually improve a child's writing skills!! This week's homework will be about famous people and we would like you to simply talk with your child about this subject. Please could you make a note in their diary or homework book or they will get a sad face because we have no proof of their homework Thank you. The children will get their spellings and Numeracy as normal but don't expect them to complete their sentences /stories while we are doing this other talk homework. If any confusion evolves please do not hesitate to drop in and see one of the team.



LITERACY
We will be carrying on with myths and be starting to do lots of new things. We are going to be starting a BIG WRITE this week and the children will receive an intensive lesson on a writing topic then have a break then do 35 minutes of silent writing. We will be doing this most weeks and hopefully it will really improve the children's writing.

By the end of the week the children:

COULD be able to tell you the characteristics of a myth.

COULD be able to use homophones in different contexts in a sentence.

SHOULD be able to retell a myth.

MUST know that there are words that sound the same but are spelt differently and mean different things.


http://www.amblesideprimary.com/ambleweb/quizes/spell1.htm


http://www.amblesideprimary.com/ambleweb/quizes/spell2.htm


http://www.amblesideprimary.com/ambleweb/quizes/confusewords1.htm

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

http://teacher.scholastic.com/writewit/mff/myths_mymyth.htm


NUMERACY

Mrs Bethell's and Mr Slavin's groups will be doing rounding 3 digit numbers to the nearest 10 and 100, and solving real life problems including money problems.

By the end of the week the children:

MUST be able to round a 3 digit number to the nearest 100.
SHOULD be able to round a 3 digit number to the nearest 10 and 1000.

COULD answer a variety of rounding problems in different layouts.

MUST be able to record money correctly using £ and p.
SHOULD be able to solve simple word problems including money.
COULD work out change from £1 £2 and £5.

http://www.crickweb.co.uk/assets/resources/flash.php?&file=MMATCH

http://www.crickweb.co.uk/assets/resources/flash.php?&file=Quiz-Times-Tables

http://www.stfx.ca/special/mathproblems/welcome.html

http://www.teachingideas.co.uk/maths/files/roundingws2.pdf

http://www.primaryresources.co.uk/maths/powerpoint/Rounding_Numbers.ppt
Please remember to copy this site to directly into your task bar unless it may not take you to the right place.

Mrs Harding's group will be concentrating of reflective symmetry and rotational symmetry.By the end of the week the children:

COULD rotate and reflect shapes.
SHOULD be to say the order of symmetry for a selection of shapes.
MUST be able to recognise a line of symmetry. MUST know decimal, fraction and percentage equivalences off by heart.

http://www.crickweb.co.uk/assets/resources/flash.php?&file=MatchingPairs3Dshape

http://www.crickweb.co.uk/assets/resources/flash.php?&file=vpinboard4#Scene_1

http://www.ngfl-cymru.org.uk/vtc/ngfl/maths/greg_morgan_symmetry/index.htm

http://www.numeracysoftware.com/line%20symmetry.pps

SCIENCE

In Science this week we will be starting to look at pollution and global warming. This is part of our wider topic of the world. We have already looked at habitats and animals as well as different habitats around the world.

By the end of the week the children:

COULD know what global warming means.
SHOULD be able to list some of the things that we do to help stop global warming.
MUST know what causes global warming.
http://epa.gov/climatechange/kids/index.html

http://tiki.oneworld.net/

http://globalwarmingkids.net/


That's all about all for now. Have a great week from the 3 and 4 team.

Monday 21st April 2008

Welcome to this week's blogspot. Thank you to everybody who came to parent's evening and we hope you found them informative about helping your child with their learning. Mrs Harding's class went to the High School this week to learn more about Penketh in the past. Even though we all got drenched the children's behaviour was excellent while we were out. The children really liked looking at the old photographs and the objects from long ago. We thank Mrs Bethell who organised these trips up to Penketh High School.

As you will have heard on the news, the National Union of Teachers has called for a national day of strike action this Thursday. The school has been working with Warrington Borough Council and local union representatives to determine how we manage the situation. A risk assessment has been completed to determine whether the school can open or whether full or partial closure is appropriate.
School will be open as normal for all Junior classes and the only classes not to come in are Mrs Malone's and Mrs Pinto's. Children who are in these classes are not to come to school on Thursday. Sorry about the inconvenience.

Miss Robinson continues to improve and she expects to be coming back to work part time in the next month when her doctor allows her to!

This week we have a very important event for the Year Three. We have a Holy communion meeting at 6 pm on Thursday the 24th of April. It is a very important meeting and includes lots of important information about the preparation and the day itself.


The letters and phonics group will begin again next week at 2.15pm every day except Friday. There are twenty Year Three children who will be involved in this group which will improve their reading and writing capabilities. We are very grateful to Mrs Narraway for providing her expertise and Mrs Higgins who will be covering her class every day. The group will run until the end of the year when they will be reassessed to find out how much progress they have made. Please look out for extra stickers in the children's diaries with letters and sounds which could really help them improve with your help.


READING SCORES

63% of Mrs Harding's class were heard read last week.

63% of Mrs Bethell's.

75% of Miss Robinson's.


LITERACY
In Literacy this week the children will be editing their traditional story work and doing three stars and a wish to make it even better. They will be given the opportunity to rewrite it up on special paper and decorate it. We will also be starting to learn about Myths and fables and be exploring more prefixes in words.

http://www.aesopfables.com/


http://www.pagebypagebooks.com/Aesop/Aesops_Fables/


http://www.ivyjoy.com/fables/


http://www.bbc.co.uk/skillswise/words/spelling/wordbuilding/prefixes/quiz.shtml


http://www.primaryresources.co.uk/english/powerpoints/Prefixes_LC.ppt
Please copy primary resources address into your task bar!


By the end of the week:
The children could have written, edited and presented a traditional tale whilst including, ambitious vocabulary, connectives, adjectives and adverbs.
The children should know the meaning of a variety of prefixes and be able to use them to make words.
The children must be able to edit and present a short traditional tale.


NUMERACY
Mrs Harding's group will be doing about percentages and by the end of the week:

Children could be able to write percentage/decimal and fraction equivalences.
Children should be able to find 10% of a number.
Children must be able to know what percent means.

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

http://www.cimt.plymouth.ac.uk/projects/mepres/book7/bk7i17/bk7_17i3.htm

http://www.crickweb.co.uk/assets/resources/flash.php?&file=100square

http://www.primaryresources.co.uk/maths/powerpoint/percentages_fractionsof100.ppt

Please remember to copy and paste this into the task bar otherwise it won't take you to the right place with Primary resources!

Mrs Bethell's and Mr Slavin's groups will be carrying on with compass points and co ordinates.

By the end of the week the children:

Must: Understand vocabulary related to position and movement (x and y axes).

Should: Describe and find the position of a co-ordinate.

Could: Recognise and use the four compass points N, S, E, W.

http://www.instantdisplay.co.uk/coordinates.ppt

Find the dinosaurs

http://www.counton.org/games/virtualmathfest/dinosaur.html

What is a co-ordinate

http://www.lgfl.net/dbmaterial/web/learning%20objects/ls/Year%205%20Numeracy%20Co-ordinates%20QCA%201957/menu/?backto&verb

SCIENCE

We will be continuing about habitats and animals. We will be doing about food triangles and feeding habits of animals.

By the end of the week:

Children could know the meaning of predator, consumer producer, herbivore, carnivore and omnivore.
Children should be able to make a food chain.
Children must know what a predator is.
Children must know that some animals eat meat and some animals eat vegetation and are called carnivores and herbivores.

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

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

http://www.crickweb.co.uk/assets/resources/flash.php?&file=foodchains
.

That's about all from the 3 and 4 team. Have a great week.

Monday 14th of April

Welcome to our blog this week. The week was really busy and the Year Four children had an excellent time. Thank you all for allowing your child to participate in such a great activity. There will be a Kingswood performance from the children in a few weeks and we will let you know when. We thank all the staff who accompanied the children. Without their commitment and support the trips could not go ahead.The Year Three were a pleasure to teach and were well behaved while the other half of their class were away.


On Sunday the 20th of April there is a Mass at 10.30am at St Joseph's
for the children who are making their first Communion in June. The children should have brought home an invitation for you that they made in school.This is a traditional initiation into the spiritual process and where the children and family remember their Baptismal promises. There are a few children who will read a bidding prayer and two who will do the offertory. We always ask the children to come and sit together by the choir and Mr Barker. We hope that all of Year Three will be there on Sunday and we will see you there.


On Tuesday the Mrs Harding's class will finally manage to get up to to Penketh High School for our visit about the local area. We will be leaving school at about 10.30am and the children will need to bring a snack with them to eat on the way.

We have two parent's evenings this week and you should have received a time for an appointment. Please remember that the appointments are only for five minutes and the teachers try not to keep people waiting too long. If there is something important to discuss please remember that the Wednesday drop in time provides a longer period of time with teachers. Thank you for your patience and understanding.

Parent's evenings are:

Tuesday between 3.30 - 6.00 pm.

Wednesday between 6.00 - 7.30pm.


The letters and sounds group made an excellent start this week with Mrs Narraway. The children have been enthusiastic and switched on to their own reading and writing. Unfortunately the student that was taking Mrs Narraway's class has had to go off sick. Mrs Narraway has had to return to teaching her class but is busy trying to work out a solution to being able to teach the group again. We thank Mrs Narraway for trying to help the Year Three even though she has a full commitment to her own class still. In the mean time please work on the letter sounds/names that have been stuck into your child's diary this week if they have been in this group. Thank you.


On Thursday six children will be going to the cathedral to meet the Arch bishop and present the money raised to the Nugent Care. This is the charity we all raise money for during Lent. We feel really privileged to be asked to go and are very proud of the children who have raised all the money.


NATIONAL YEAR OF READING
Mrs Narraway has asked me to inform you of a book exchange which she has organised. There is basket outside Foundation Stage classroom, which has an array of books for parents. If you would like to borrow one, then please feel free to take one and return it when you have finished. All that we ask is, that you follow a ‘one in – one out’ rule. Why not have a look through the books that you have at home this weekend and place them in the basket on Monday? We could eventually have our very own St.Vincent’s Library!

LITERACY

We will be carrying on with the second week on our traditional tales. So far we have looked at different tales, how they start, the characters and the settings. The Year Three children really enjoyed doing their fairy tale homework last week.This week the children will be writing a fairytale using what they already have been taught and using their ideas for settings and characters.

By the end of the week the children:

COULD be able to write a traditional tale including the different elements that they have been taught.

SHOULD be able to talk about the characteristics of a traditional tale.

MUST be able to talk about a good and bad character and settings.
http://www.bgfl.org/bgfl/custom/resources_ftp/client_ftp/ks1/english/story_telling/index.htm

http://www.genrerange.co.uk/cws/tales.html

http://www.topmarks.co.uk/stories/gingerbread.htm

NUMERACY

Mrs Harding's group will be doing about capacity this week. We will be learning about converting measurements and also be considering appropriate units of measure for liquids.At home get the children to read how many litres/millilitres the containers are in the fridge etc. It can be quite amazing how far out they might be!!!


By the end of the week:


Children could be able to convert litres and millilitres.
Children could be able to convert ml as part of a litre using a decimal.
Children should be able to solve capacity word problems.
Children must be to decide what unit of measure to use.

http://www.abc.net.au/countusin/games/game15.htm

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/ks2bitesize/maths/revision_bites/measures2.shtml

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/ks2bitesize/maths/revision_bites/measures4.shtml

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

Please remember to copy this site into the task bar or it won't take you to the right place!!

Mrs Bethell and Mr Slavin's groups will be learning about angles in 2D shapes and co ordinates.

By the end of the week the children:

Must: Be able to identify right angles in 2d shape and their environment.
Should: Recognise that a straight line is equivalent to two right angles.
Could: Compare angles with a right angle.

Introduction to identifying Right Angles
http://www.primaryresources.co.uk/online/powerpoint/rightangles.ppt

Kung Fu Angle Game
http://www.bbc.co.uk/keyskills/flash/kfa/kfa.shtml

Interactive Football/Snooker Game to help identify angles

http://www.mystery-productions.info/hyper/Hypermedia_2003/Jobling/htt.swf

Co-ordinates

Must: Understand vocabulary related to position and movement (x and y axes).
Should: Describe and find the position of a co-ordinate.
Could: Recognise and use the four compass points N, S, E, W

Find the dinosaurs
http://www.counton.org/games/virtualmathfest/dinosaur.html

What is a co-ordinate
http://www.lgfl.net/dbmaterial/web/learning%20objects/ls/Year%205%20Numeracy%20Co-ordinates%20QCA%201957/menu/?backto&verb

SCIENCE/TOPIC


We will be looking at different groups of animals and the different places that animals can live. We will also be remembering what different habitats are and the animals that live in them. We will also be finding out out some animals are suited to the environment in which they live.


Children could know animals that are suited to their habitats.
Children should be able to classify groups of animals.
Children must know what habitat means.
Children must the names of different groups for animals.

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

http://atschool.eduweb.co.uk/sirrobhitch.suffolk/habitats/

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

http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/

http://library.thinkquest.org/11234/

That is about all for this week. Have a good week.

The 3 / 4 team.

Monday 7 th April

Welcome to this week's blog spot. The children had a really good week during Science week and loved exploring the themes of electricity and magnetism. All the children had practical hands on with materials relating to the topics. Fiddler's ferry came in and showed the children how electricity is made and explained by electricity and safety issues in the home. The children really enjoyed the Science show on Friday afternoon which was about electricity. Adrian Bowden always provides a really entertaining and interactive show for the children with thousands of activities and resources.


On Wednesday there is a theatre company coming into school to teach the children about bullying or rather not to bully!!


The Year four children are off to Kingswood this Wednesday dinnertime until 2.30pm on Friday . You should have already received a letter about what they need to take and the arrangements.

Children need to arrive at school at the normal time and bring their bags into the hall just before the bell. They can wear their own clothes but please make sure that they are wearing long sleeves.

Children will not be allowed to ring home or take a mobile with them. School will be contacted once they have arrived at the centre. In case of emergency the number of the centre is 01745 817629.

Please do not send good clothing especially if it has been raining . Long sleeves need to be worn all the time. Please remember to send a coat as it could go chilly.

The children are not allowed to bring expensive electronic equipment. Only a few pounds in a purse/wallet. Some snacks can be brought in a named bag please. Let's hope that the year 4 have a lovely time. Our children love going to Kingswood.

READING
In reading this week the results for each class are:
Mrs Harding's class 73% of children were heard read.
75% in Miss Robinson's.
50% in Mrs Bethell's.

We welcome Mrs Narraway to our team for seven weeks. Mrs Narraway will be coming up nearly everyday for an hour to work with a large group of Year Three children. Mrs Narraway will be concentrating on phonics and this is an excellent opportunity for the group of children to make progress with their reading and writing. We are really grateful to Mrs Narraway for her support and expertise on teaching phonics and giving up her time because she has a student.
Mrs Harding and Mr Slavin will be teaching the Year Three children while Mrs Bethell is away with the Year Four and three other members of staff.

The Year three children will enjoy a whole hour swimming on Thursday morning. We will need some extra help from Year 3 parents please. Year 3 will receive some homework this week but it will be a little different and creative because the Year four children are away. It concentrates on fairy tales which is a topic that we are doing at the moment. There are all different activities for the children to do during the week. They can bring it in on Friday to show the rest of their group.
The Year three will be doing lots of preparation for their Holy Communion.

LITERACY

We will be carrying on with traditional tales. We will be looking at how to write a story. We will specifically looking at settings. We will be looking at contractions such as don't, won't, can't etc.

http://www.bgfl.org/bgfl/custom/resources_ftp/client_ftp/ks1/english/story_telling/index.htm

http://pbjc-lib.state.ar.us/mural.htm

http://www.oswego.org/ocsd-web/match/dragflip.asp?filename=jwildecontraction2

http://www.lancsngfl.ac.uk/curriculum/literacy/lit_site/lit_sites/alpha_drag/widepage.htm

NUMERACY

Mr Slavin's and Mrs Bethell's groups will be doing a Math's assessment to find out their level. All children in the three groups will be concentrating on the four rules of addition, subtraction, division and multiplication. Please remember that in a normal week all children are tested on 100 multiplication or division questions.

They receive certificates for the different amounts that they get right. Once they have three multiplication golds they can move onto the division questions. After that there is a mixture of the two awards.

For sites on the four rules please click below. The children can never get enough practice on multiplication and it helps all aspects of their Numeracy.

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

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

http://www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/maths/division.htm

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

http://www.10ticks.co.uk/s_showGames.aspx?gameID=5#gamesContent

We all hope that every one has a good week even though the children are in different countries. Let's hope the weather holds out for us all.

The Three/Four team.