Monday 19th January

Welcome to the third week back!! We cannot believe how fast the weeks are flying by.

Can we ask you to hear your child read as there are still a few children with no comments in their diaries at all.

HOMEWORK

Homework for the next seven weeks is a little bit different. Last Monday the children had a great day doing their Mantle of the Expert day on Land Tax.
Therefore, we are going to follow it up with a homework about an ISLAND.

There will be different activities to do over the weeks. Your child will bring a sheet home with them all on. Please keep this sheet safe as it needs to last lots of weeks!

The first week the children have to design an island. They have to make a map and make it as colourful as possible. They have to decide on what they want to include such as forests, rivers, paths, roads, mountains etc. The island can be real or imaginary. Remember the children can use a key and they do not need people or animals on the map just permanent features.

LITERACY

We continue to explore the fantastic story of Grandpa Chatterji and how his relationship with his family grows and develops as he spends time with them. The children are really enjoying this story and finding out more about the characters and situations. Our discussions have been very interesting with the children surprising us with what they have picked up from the text.

This week we are concentrating on how to write conversations. It is important that the children know how and where to put speech marks to show a character is speaking and that we start a new line for a new speaker. This could really help their writing in general, perhaps you could help by talking to your child about how speech looks in their reading books too.

http://www.mystery-productions.info/hyper/Hypermedia_2001/Edd_Hartley/Artefact/index.htm - follow the link and you'll be an expert in using speech marks in no time!

http://www.lancsngfl.ac.uk/curriculum/literacy/lit_site/lit_sites/speech_marks/index.htm

http://www.ngfl-cymru.org.uk/vtc/ngfl/english/bgfl/dont_use_said/

For our Word Level work this week we are investigating silent letters. Check out the links below to see how much you know:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/skillswise/words/spelling/soundandspell/silentletters/index.shtml

http://www.saintambrosebarlow.wigan.sch.uk/Fun_and_games/silentletters.htm

Keep general Literacy skills ticking over too by looking back at:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/starship/english/index.shtml

NUMERACY

You all know what I'm going to say - TABLES TABLES TABLES!!!

http://tutpup.com/

http://www.sgfl.org.uk/games/games/maths/multiplicationstation

http://www.mathplayground.com/balloon_invaders.html- a different game that checks your multiplying and dividing!

http://www.channel4learning.net/sites/puzzlemaths/md_machine_game.shtml

In Numeracy this week Mrs Harding’s group will be finishing off a few things with decimals and will be moving onto multiplication methods.
By the end of the week the children:
COULD use 3, 4 and 5 digit no.s to x
SHOULD be able to x 2 and 3 digit no.s.
SHOULD be able to x decimals by 10, 100 and 1000.
MUST know common fraction and decimal equivalents off by heart.

Example:

0.2=1/5

0.25=1/4

0.5=1/2

0.125=1/8

0.1=1/10

0.01=1/100

0.33=1/3

0.75=3/4

http://www.multiplication.com/interactive_games.htm

http://www.coolmath.com/prealgebra/02-decimals/index.html

http://www.crickweb.co.uk/assets/resources/flash.php?&file=washindex6

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

http://www.bbc.co.uk/skillswise/numbers/wholenumbers/multiplication/written/worksheet.shtml

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/

http://www.bgfl.org/bgfl/custom/resources_ftp/client_ftp/ks2/maths/measures/index.htm - follow the READING LENGTH link

http://www.channel4learning.net/sites/puzzlemaths/pinpoint_game.shtml

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

As well as that can you keep your addition and subtraction skills going on:

http://www.mathszone.co.uk/ - number facts +/-

Mrs Bethell's Group are concentrating on multiplication as repeated addition and division as sharing out or grouping. At the end of the week we will be having a times tables test to see how many children achieve their Bronze and Silver awards.

Yr 3 Bronze = 10x, 5x, 3x, 2x tables

Silver = 10x, 5x, 3x, 4x, 2x tables

Yr 4 = all tables aiming to achieve 90% or more in 10 minutes or less.

We will also be focusing on doubling and halving.

Please help your child to know the doubles of all numbers to 15 off by heart.
10 doubles to 20
11 doubles to 22
13 doubles to 26
14 doubles to 28
15 doubles to 30
I must know that multiplication is repeated addition
I should know the 2, 3, 4, 5 and 10 x tables
I could know that division is the opposite of multiplication

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

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

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

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

http://www.ictgames.com/rhoodbeyond10.html

SCIENCE
The children and staff had a great start to the topic on moving and growing. At first we got the children to sketch what they thought a human skeleton was like then they constructed them using lots of bones. Mrs Harding’s needed a bit of changing as some of them resembled spiders and ET. Things have now got a bit better and we have excellent examples of human skeletons in every room in three and four! Great fun and amusement was had by all!!!

This week we are learning the names of the bones and will be looking at different skeletons belonging to living things. We will be asking questions and comparing different skeletons.

By the end of the week:

Children could know the names of the bones of the body.
Children could be able to compare and contrast similarities and differences of different skeletons.

Children should be able to ask questions about different skeletons.

Children must know the names of the bones of the skeleton.

http://aolsearch.aol.co.uk/aol/image?invocationType=topsearchbox.image&query=animal+skeletons

http://www.hitchams.suffolk.sch.uk/skeletons/index.htm

Have a great week,

The Three and Four team.

xxx