Tuesday 6th January

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO YOU ALL!!!

Welcome back. We hope that you all had a lovely Christmas holiday and that the children are all coming back refreshed and raring to go!

We have some wonderful baby news - Mrs Narraway has had a little girl, Ellen Rose, over the holidays and from the photographs we have seen already, she is a beautiful daughter for her and her husband and a lovely sister. Both mum and baby are doing well and I'm sure they are back in the routine! We wish her and her family all the best and look forward to seeing them very soon.

Please remember that there is an Inset day on Monday 5th January.

There will be no homework this week to help us all ease our way back into the routine of school life. This is also a short week which makes it difficult for you to complete the tasks in time.

PANTOMIME

On Friday the whole school are going to the Parr Hall to see a Robin hood pantomime.

SWIMMING
Please remember that we are starting swimming this term on the 19th of January. We need a few helpers for each session. One year group leaves school at 9.15 am and the other at 9.45am. If you would like to stay in school to hear readers instead of going home again that would be a great help too.

READING

Please can you try to ensure that you hear your child read every week. We will shortly be checking their Reading Ages and it is amazing the difference that just ten minutes reading a day can make. Helping your child develop their reading skills will open the doors to all the learning they will ever do so please persevere.

We would like the children to read more during the weekend and for comments to be put into their diary ready for the next week. Some children already do this and are making excellent progress with their reading.

WEEKEND HOMEWORK IS READING.

Please don't forget the High frequency words in your child's diary. We test these regularly.

LITERACY

In Literacy this half term we are starting out by looking at Stories From Other Cultures. We will be linking this to our topic of India. We will be reading and exploring a fabulous story by Jamila Gavin called 'Grandpa Chatterji' and lots of our Literacy work over the next couple of weeks will follow alongside this. As the term moves on we will also be becoming familiar with Hindu stories too.

This week a lot of our Literacy time will be engaged in 'getting into' the story - talking about the main characters, setting, and making predictions about what might happen.

Alongside this we will be reviewing our knowledge of plurals and the many rules that go with them. This can be quite tricky so please have a go at the activities below to help you understand it better:

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

http://www.bbc.co.uk/skillswise/words/spelling/plurals/pluralrules/index.shtml - try the game - you choose which rule you want to practise.

http://www.lancsngfl.ac.uk/curriculum/literacy/lit_site/lit_sites/plurals/pl_2/esplurals.htm

http://www.lancsngfl.ac.uk/curriculum/literacy/lit_site/lit_sites/plurals/pl_3/yplurals.htm

http://www.lancsngfl.ac.uk/curriculum/literacy/lit_site/lit_sites/plurals/pl_4/plurals4.htm

http://www.lancsngfl.ac.uk/curriculum/literacy/lit_site/lit_sites/plurals/pl_7/plurals7.htm

NUMERACY

Keep plugging away with the times tables. Here are some reminders of the games you may have used last term. Get in as much practice as you can:

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

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

http://www.mathplayground.com/Balloon_Invaders.html - a new challenge - choose either multiply or divide and the table you want to improve and pop those ballons!

This term we will be reviewing lots of topics as well as learning lots more of the curriculum. Mrs Harding's group will start to do more work on decimals after we have reviewed fractions.

COULD be able to change decimals into fractions and be able to add and subtract decimals.

SHOULD be able to write a decimal as a fraction and write a fraction as a decimal.

MUST be able to recognise place value and tell you what the tenths, hundredths and thousandths are in a decimal number.

To help with learning about decimals please click on:

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

http://www.bbc.co.uk/skillswise/numbers/fractiondecimalpercentage/decimals/introductiontodecimals/

http://www.coolmath.com/decimals/index.html

http://www.mathsisfun.com/decimals-menu.html

In Miss Robinson's group we are moving onto investigate FRACTIONS

By the end of the week the children

MUST know what a fraction is and name it's parts (numerator and denominator)

SHOULD be able to label or shade a given fraction on a shape.

COULD be able to find a fraction of a number e.g. half of 12, a third of 12 etc.

Please use the links and games below to get a head start!

http://www.visualfractions.com/Games.htm - try FIND GRAMPY and COOKIES FOR GRAMPY

http://www.primarygames.com/fractions/start.htm - anyone for PIZZA?

http://www.bgfl.org/bgfl/custom/resources_ftp/client_ftp/ks2/maths/fractions/index.htm - start at Level 1 and work your way through - you'll be an expert in no time!

http://www.mathsyear2000.org/games/map-fractions/falling/ - can you challenge yourself to find fractions of numbers?

http://www.amblesideprimary.com/ambleweb/mentalmaths/fractotron.swf - do you know how big a fraction is?

THINKING SKILLS

This week we will be reviewing some of our thinking skills. Check out this questionnaire if you want to find out what type of learner you are. Find out what your strengths are and identify areas for improvement with your learning.

http://www.brainboxx.co.uk/A3_ASPECTS/pages/VAK_quest.htm - what type of learner are you?

http://www.brainboxx.co.uk/A3_ASPECTS/pages

We are starting a new topic this term on INDIA. The children really enjoyed learning about world war two last term. We will begin to compare our lifestyle to that of people living in India, and in particular Chembakolli.


This week we are examining land use in the village and learning how to use maps and keys.

http://home.freeuk.net/elloughton13/india.htm - India information to explore

http://www.oxfam.org.uk/coolplanet/mappingourworld/mapping_our_world/index.htm - a site that looks at the differences between maps and globes and lots of different activities to find your way around a map. It's a teachers site but don't let that put you off.


In particular we are looking closely at Chembakolli. What can you find out?
And just to keep you busy have a go at:


http://woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/Games/lengame/tower.html


That is all for the first week. I'm sure we''ll be kept very busy!
Take care and best wishes for the New Year

The Three and Four team

xxx