Monday 1st December

Welcome to this week's blog spot and Christmas is fast approaching. Thank you to everyone who came to the Christmas Fayre on Saturday it was really busy and very successful. There were lots of stalls and Santa's grotto looked amazing. Thank you to every one who sent a shoe box in for operation Christmas child. I am sure we will put a lot of smiles on the faces of children who are less fortunate than ourselves.

Please remember that costumes for the play are due in on Monday and we will start to use them early on in the week so the children get used to them. We will be doing lots of practices and putting the finishing touches to the play.

Communion dates have now been finalised and year Three parents should have seen a letter a couple of weeks ago. Here are the final dates.

Presentation Mass - All year three are presented into the parish on the start of their preparation. Sunday 26th April 2009.

Parents' Meeting - Wednesday 29th April 2009

Away Day for all communicants - Tuesday 16th June 2009

9.30am Mass in church. Activities and lunch in St Joseph's centre.

Practice in church - Friday 19th June 2009.

First Holy Communion - Saturday 20th June 2009.

LITERACY

We will be exploring ways of further improving our writing - focusing on SENTENCE STARTERS. The children will be learning how to start a sentence with an adverbial phrase. A HOW, WHEN or WHERE starter.

For example:HOW - Turning around slowly, the man began to cross the room.

WHEN - As the minutes turned to hours, the sun slowly set over the horizon.

WHERE - In the distant field, the excited children played football.
http://www.mape.org.uk/startower/menu.html - check out all the different parts on this fabulous writers site.

http://www.kidsonthenet.org.uk/ - another great site for writers!

http://goodnightstories.com/stories.htm - a huge range of story activities where you can read, see, hear, finish or decide stories.

All the children are keen to improve their reading skills and so we are working on improving comprehension skills. Don't forget that their reading ages and decoding skills get assessed in January. You can help at home by checking out the sites below. There are a variety of different levels so find the one that suits where your child is at.

http://www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/revision/engindex.html

http://www.manatee.k12.fl.us/sites/elementary/palmasola/psmain.htm

http://www.eslbears.homestead.com/Map_and_Directions.html - We have been continuing to develop our spelling skills too - check out the language game site below for some different ways to work on your spellings.

NUMERACY
This week in all three groups we will be starting to assess the children's levels in Numeracy. Therefore, this week we will be reviewing lots of themes in Numeracy. To revise some of the main topics click below:

http://www.crickweb.co.uk/ks1numeracy.html

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

http://www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/maths/wordproblems/index.html - have a look at these if you want to get the hang of test style questions

http://www.teachingideas.co.uk/maths/timestables.htm

http://www.kidsnumbers.com/

http://www.topmarks.co.uk/Interactive.aspx?cat=20

http://www.funbrain.com/brain/MathBrain/MathBrain.html

Don't forget one of our favourite sites for all things mathematical:

http://www.mathszone.co.uk/ - the children really enjoy working and playing on this site.

ICT

This week the children in all three classes will be introduced to the new laptops that are being used in school. Each class has been assigned to a 5 and 6 class to help them learn about them. The children in 5 and 6 have planned and prepared a lesson for our children. Listen out for the ripples of excitement with this fantastic new resource in school.

And finally, now that we are officially in December check out some Christmas Activities

http://www.btinternet.com/~tony.poulter/xmas/xmastlinks.htm - a super site with lots of festive links!

http://www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/customs/Xmas/calendar/ - lots of different activities to try out.

http://www.akidsheart.com/holidays/christms/chgames.htm

http://www.themouseclub.co.uk/flash/mouseclub.html

http://www.mape.org.uk/ChristmasCrackers/

http://www.northpole.com/ - the old favourite is back!!

Have a great week,

The Three and Four team.

xxx

Monday 24th November

Welcome to this week's blog.

Homework

To help with the pressures of Year Four learning lots of lines, Christmas and everyone finding their costumes we have decided to not give out sentences etc but to just keep the Numeracy homework going. We will still be sending spellings home to learn for a test on Fridays.

Year Four get learning your words for the play please so we don't need scripts this week. Thank you.

As already mentioned last week this is a list of information about the play costumes.


Trees - Long sleeved green top and brown tights/leggings.
Villagers - Girls with an apron and a scarf round their head. Shawls around their shoulders.
Tiddles - cat costume.
Babouskas - old woman with scarf, apron, shawl.
Boris old fashioned male costume.
American tourists - modern day, loud shirts, big over the top glasses, toy camera round their neck, clashing colours of clothes.
Children - Traditional children, not modern day. No posh frocks, no strappy tops but playing out clothes.
Pop stars - modern day dress - boy band image
Pizza men - Red t- shirts, jeans, moustache, neck chief
Shepherds - traditional dress
Angels - traditional dress no wings please as they get in the way.
Wise men - traditional dress
Stars - Please remember that they have to be able to dance.
Mary and Joseph - traditional dress
Beggar - unkempt female costume
Body guards - men in black!

On Saturday we have our annual Christmas Fayre starting at 11.00am at school. Please send into school things for the tombola and other stalls too. We are having a non uniform day this Friday to help collect things for the Fayre. Thank you.

Operation Christmas Child

If you would like to send a shoebox into school, filled with Christmas gifts, then please do so by WEDNESDAY of this week. You will have received a leaflet explaining the types of things which are suitable to include for each age range. The boxes need to be able to be opened by customs, so securing the lid on with an elastic band is the best way to do this. Please also ensure that you remember to include the correct amount for postage costs.

LITERACY

We will be continuing to work on our comprehension skills - have a look at this site which will help you to develop your skills brilliantly:

http://reading.ecb.org/

As well as continuing to develop our comprehension skills this week we are looking at improving our sentences to help us to write detailed descriptions for our narrative writing. We will be exploring and extending our ideas using 2A sentences - where we choose two interesting adjectives to describe a noun:

e.g. the _____, ______ street becomes the dark, winding street or the loud, bustling street.

We will be looking at how our choice of adjectives can determine the mood of a piece of writing. We will also be challenging the children to extend their sentences to become more complex by adding in a HOW phrase.

e.g. She skipped down the road. HOW? She skipped down the road, singing loudly.

We will be working intensively on using adjectives (describing words). Look at these websites to brush up your knowledge:

Can you recognise sentences? http://www.bbc.co.uk/skillswise/words/grammar/sentencebasics/whatisasentence/flash3.shtml

Can you improve sentences?

http://www.ngfl-cymru.org.uk/vtc/ngfl/english/monmouthshire/choose_adj_monmouthshire.html - can you choose adjectives that fit the text?

http://www.cogcon.com/gamegoo/gooey.html - a really strange and unusual website for building up various word skills and knowledge. Weird but definitely memorable!!

Tables tests

Most Year Groups in the Juniors are doing a tables challenge every Friday morning. They have to try to complete a 100 timetables in a set amount of time.
The younger the child the more time they have.

100 correct get a gold certificate.
90 - 99 silver.
80 - 89 bronze.
After the children get three golds then they can move onto a division test then a mixture of multiplication and division.

Miss Robinson's and Mrs Bethell's groups are concentrating on number bonds and times tables.

http://www.wmnet.org.uk/resources/gordon/Hit%20the%20button%20v9.swf



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


NUMERACY

Mrs Harding's group this week will be carrying on with fractions and starting to learn about negative numbers.

By the end of the week the children:

COULD be able to cancel fractions and change mixed numbers into improper fractions.

SHOULD be able to understand a negative and positive scale and calculate sums related to this.

MUST know what a negative number is and the meaning of improper fractions and mixed numbers.

To find out more please see:

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

http://www.dositey.com/addsub/Mystery11.htm

http://www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/maths/fractions/#Fractions

http://www.mathsnet.net/fractions/

In Miss Robinson's group we will be continuing with our topic on Data Handling. Due to the hall timetable for rehearsals we did not manage to look at Venn Diagrams. The children worked very well on Tally Charts and Frequency Tables and so this week we will be reviewing and working on Venn Diagrams at the start of the week - moving on to Bar Charts and Pictogram by the end of the week.

The children

MUST know how to collect and use data from a Venn Diagram or Bar Chart.

SHOULD be able to answer a range of questions using data, graphs and charts.

COULD be able to interpret the information on a Pictogram accurately.

Please use the websites form last week as well as those below.

http://www.crickweb.co.uk/assets/resources/flash.php?&file=triangles - venn diagrams

http://www.bbc.co.uk/education/mathsfile/shockwave/games/datapick.html - frequency tables and creating a graph

http://www.amblesideprimary.com/ambleweb/mentalmaths/grapher.html - collect your own information to create a graph

http://nces.ed.gov/nceskids/createagraph/ - create different graphs

http://www.wmnet.org.uk/wmnet/custom/files_uploaded/uploaded_resources/850/carrollv4.swf - try to really challenge yourself - have a look at Carroll Diagrams - can you work them out?

In Mrs Bethell’s group this week we are continuing with data handling. We will be interpreting graphs and pictograms and answering word problems. Also we will be collecting information to create bar charts and pictograms. Part of the week will also be spent on reviewing time and multiplication.

Children must be able to collect information and create a simple bar chart

Children should be able to interpret a bar chart and pictogram

Children could solve data word problems involving adding and finding the difference between categories.

http://www.amblesideprimary.com/ambleweb/mentalmaths/tabletrees.html - practice tables

http://www.amblesideprimary.com/ambleweb/mentalmaths/testtest.html - practice tables
http://www.amblesideprimary.com/ambleweb/mentalmaths/clock.html - practice telling the time

http://www.amblesideprimary.com/ambleweb/quizes/brain2.htm - easy mental maths test

http://nces.ed.gov/nceskids/createagraph/ - create a graph

http://www.bbc.co.uk/education/mathsfile/shockwave/games/fish.html - chance and probability

That's all for now.

Have a great week

The Three and Four Team
xxx

Monday 17th November

Welcome to this week's blog spot.


We have just started doing the Christmas play and we have sent home a few details about the Christmas play costumes. Here are a few more details. All Year three children are involved in the dancing so all the costumes have to have this in mind please. Year Four have been given the main parts in the play.

Trees - Long sleeved green top and brown tights/leggings.

Villagers - Girls with an apron and a scarf round their head. Shawls around their shoulders.

Tiddles - cat costume.

Babouskas - old woman with scarf, apron, shawl.

Boris old fashioned male costume.

American tourists - modern day, loud shirts, big over the top glasses, toy camera round their neck, clashing colours of clothes.

Children - Traditional children, not modern day.

Pop stars - modern day dress - boy band image

Pizza men - Red t- shirts, jeans, moustache, neck chief

Shepherds - traditional dress

Angels - traditional dress no wings please as they get in the way.

Wise men - traditional dress

Stars - Please remember that they have to be able to dance.

Mary and Joseph - traditional dress

Beggar - unkempt female costume

Body guards - men in black!

DISCO

On Thursday there is a disco for the Juniors starting at 6.00pm until 7.30pm.

RAINBOWS/BROWNIES AND GUIDES.

There are spaces available and they meet up at Bewsey Barn every three weeks on a Saturday. The session starts at 9.45 until 3.45. Please see the poster with a contact telephone number on it in the Junior area or see Mrs Harding for details.

LITERACY

In Literacy this week we will be focusing on developing our comprehension skills and applying what we learnt about the fact finding and inference last week.

http://www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/revision/engindex.html

http://eslbears.homestead.com/map_and_directions.html

In our sentence level work we will be investigating verbs, challenging ourselves to build up a bank of interesting verbs in our writing.

In the Big Write we are looking at character description this week.

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

To keep your spelling ticking over see the links below:

http://www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/interactive/literacy.html#3

http://www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/interactive/literacy.html#7

NUMERACY

Knowing your times tables as soon as possible is crucial. Your tables facts come into so many different bits of Maths - we found out that you need to know your 5 times table to work out TIME!!! Get learning....

http://www.mathsisfun.com/numbers/math-trainer-multiply.html

http://www.northwood.org.uk/times%20table%20trivia%20x%205.swf

http://www.transum.org/Software/Tablesmaster/Tablesmaster.asp

Mrs Harding's group will be carrying on learning about fractions. We will be carrying on with mixed numbers and equivalent fraction.


Well done to the children who have joined tut pup. The children now know the class code and can join anytime. Nine children had been on the game last week when I checked. I hope all thirty one children are playing as it can really help their Maths.


By the end of the week the children:

COULD be able to find equivalent fractions and cancel fractions down.

SHOULD be able to change a mixed number into an improper fraction.


MUST know what a mixed number is and an improper fraction.


To find out more see:

http://www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/maths/fractions/#Fractions


http://www.mathsnet.net/fractions/

http://www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/primary/teachingresources/mathematics/nns_itps/fractions/num_itp_fractions_1_1.swf

Miss Robinson' group are moving onto DATA HANDLING this week. Through the course of the week the children will learn about reading, using and making tally charts, frequency tables, and collecting data on Venn Diagrams. Check out the links below as a starting point:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/education/mathsfile/shockwave/games/datapick.html - tally charts adn frequency tables

http://pbskids.org/cyberchase/games/bargraphs/bargraphs.html - collect data straight into a bar chart.

http://www.ngfl-cymru.org.uk/vtc/carroll_diagrams/eng/introduct/default.htm - work your way through the different parts of the lesson in order.

http://www.ngfl-cymru.org.uk/vtc/ngfl/maths/dinas_powys_sian_mansfield/venn_1.htm - a simple introduction to Venn Diagrams

http://pbskids.org/cyberchase/games/logic/logic.html -can you sort the animals?

http://www.mathszone.co.uk/ - choose and explore the games in the section HANDLING DATA.

By the end of the week the children
MUST be able to collect, read and record data on a tally chart.
SHOULD know the difference between a taly chart and a frequency table.
COULD also record data on a VENN DIAGRAM and answer questions on it.

Mrs Bethell’s Numeracy Group
This week we are continuing with improving our addition skills and also moving onto data handling. We will be interpreting graphs and learning about tally charts and pictograms.

Children must be able to interpret a simple bar chart and pictogram
Children should be able to read and create a tally chart
Children could collect, organise and interpret selected information

http://www.primaryresources.co.uk/maths/mathsF1.htm

http://www.ictgames.com/submarinenopad2.html

http://www.ictgames.com/5andabit.html

http://www.ictgames.com/octopus.html

http://www.amblesideprimary.com/ambleweb/mentalmaths/functionmachines.html
Don’t forget to continue learning to tell the time at home- use the websites from the last two weeks as well.

HISTORY

Keep your knowledge growing and check out these fantastic links below:

http://www.nwlg.org/pages/resources/living_blitz/ - first hand accounts of what it was really like to be in the War.

http://www.nwlg.org/pages/resources/homefront/

http://www.nwlg.org/pages/resources/liverpool_blitz/

That is all about now for this week. Have a lovely week and good luck with the costumes.

The 3 and 4 Team.
xxx

Monday 10th November

Welcome to this week's blog spot. All the children had a great time at the air raid shelters and their behaviour was excellent. Thank you to everyone who came with us and for every one's support helping to pay for the coaches and entrance fee.

There have been letters about Christmas lunch and a trip to a panto in January this week. Please find them in your child's bag or pop into school.

Homework will commence again this week now that we are all in. Numeracy will be set by their Math's teacher again and Mrs Bethell's group and Miss Robinson's group will write down what task they are on in their diaries on Monday.

Please remember all the people who have died for the freedom of our country in every war. We will have a special assembly tomorrow and will remember them especially on Tuesday.

http://homepages.tesco.net/~derek.berger/holidays/remembrance.html

http://www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/customs/Remembrance.html

http://www.warrinerprimaries.com/Topic/poppies.htm

The university groups on a Thursday afternoon have all been swapped last week and there is a wide selection of activities going on.

Activities related to Narnia

Outdoor games

Art and Craft

Drama

Gardening

The old gardening group have now gone into Mrs Hemming's group and will need an outdoor kit for the colder weather.

LITERACY

This week in Literacy we are moving on to look at stories with historical settings. The children will become history detectives learning how to look for clues in a story. They will be investigating time, setting and characters. This will be linked to our continuing topic on world war two.

http://www.ltscotland.org.uk/storybook/# - a great site with stories and activities.

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

http://www.teachers.ash.org.au/jeather/writingfun/writingfun.html - how to plan a story and lots of helpful examples.

Sentence level work will allow the children to learn about verbs. They will be looking for synonyms for words such as walk, run, sleep, eat etc. We hope this will impact on the words they choose to use in their own writing. Example:Strolled instead of walked etc.

http://www.funbrain.com/verb/index.html - verbs

http://www.crickweb.co.uk/assets/resources/flash.php?&file=word link - more work on verbs

http://www.cogcon.com/gamegoo/games/squanky2/squanky2.html - a great synonyms game

http://www.saintambrosebarlow.wigan.sch.uk/Fun_and_games/nicewords.htm - don't use nice!

NUMERACY

And don't forget it is still so important that you keep learning your times tables. Check out the links below or from last week for some good games to help you remember them.

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

http://www.bgfl.org/bgfl/custom/resources_ftp/client_ftp/ks2/maths/a_mental/index.htm - keep going on times tables and try giving yourself a maths workout while you are there!

In Mrs Harding's group we are going to start a think and solve book for homework. This week it will be task one. Some of the questions may prove a little more difficult until the children get used to the style of questions.

In Numeracy this week we will be starting to learn about fractions.

We will be starting with simple fractions, fractions equalling one whole, equivalent fractions and recognising mixed numbers/improper fractions.

By the end of the week the children:


COULD be able to change a mixed number into an improper fraction and vice versa.
SHOULD be able to recognise equivalent fractions.
MUST know a fraction is part of a whole and recognise common fractions of shapes such as one quarter etc.


To find out more see:


http://www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/maths/fractions/#Fractions


http://www.mathsnet.net/fractions/

Miss Robinson's Group are continuing to investigate time this week moving onto the connection between reading analogue and digital time. Please check out the links from last week to continue your learning.

Also check out the MEASURING section on:

http://www.mathszone.co.uk/

Mrs Bethell's Group
This week we are continuing to learn to tell the time and solve simple time problems. We will also be adding to the nearest mutliple of 10 and adding a unit onto a 2 digit number.

http://www.ictgames.com/funkymum20.html

http://www.ictgames.com/submarinenopad2.html

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

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

http://www.ictgames.com/100huntplus10.html

http://www.ictgames.com/hickory4.html

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

TOPIC


We are going to be linking rationing and the war effort. We will be looking at lots of examples of war posters and how they were used and what for.

The study posters are to encourage people to grow more food, make do and mend, swap clothes etc. The children will be using their own ideas to create a poster to help with the war effort. Some children will be making up a slogan and adding pictures and diagrams.


Design Technology


We are going to find out more information about air raid shelters and all the different types of shelters that were used. The children are going to be designing their own shelters that they will be able to make with available junk materials.


http://www.bbc.co.uk/ww2peopleswar/stories/87/a2045387.shtml


http://www.fortunecity.co.uk/meltingpot/oxford/330/shel/shel2.html

That is all about now for this week. Have a lovely week,

From the 3 and 4 team.

xxx