Because...!

Because...How many times have we all said that as a response to a question?? Well, we shall be encouraging the children to use this word lots this week during our writing activities BECAUSE we would like them to start extending their sentences. This is a target for them, designed to improve their writing and extend beyond simple, short sentences.

Literacy

We complete our work on Explanations this week, with the children using all the skills and knowledge learned over the last two weeks and applying it to their own writing.

When they are writing, the will be introduced to Elmer the explanation elephant. He has been on display in the school hall for the last few weeks, and he is designed to help the children with ‘prompts’ to help them remember what to include in their own explanations. They will also be using their very own ‘marking ladder’, which they can use to mark their own work and see what things they can add next time.

The children will be checking their own writing and looking to see if they have included the following:

· I used the present tense

· I used a heading in a large, clear font

· My main text is written in the order that things happen

· I used illustrations and diagrams with labels and captions

· I used arrows to show the order things happen

· I used subheadings to give extra information

· I used sentences beginning with a capital letter and ending with a full stop

The children really enjoyed doing their experiment with the toy cars and the ramp last week and we certainly have some budding scientists in our midst! See if they can tell what ‘hypothesising’ means!

http://www.teachers.ash.org.au/jeather/writingfun/writingfun.html click on Explanations and fill in the boxes to write an explanation of how tadpoles turn into frogs. If you click on the examples as the bottom, it shows you some samples of children’s writing. See how many connectives your child can spot.

http://www.crickweb.co.uk/assets/resources/flash.php?&file=forecast can the children become a weather forecaster for the day?

Phonics

We will be reviewing all the phonemes learned so far this term and seeing if the children are able to apply the sounds learned when spelling unfamiliar words. You will be informed of any sounds they need to work on in their diaries by the end of this week. Please look back through previous blogs to see the sounds we have been working on.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/wordsandpictures/index.shtml lots of different activities to help reinforce phonics activities in school

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/starship/english/index.shtml another favourite which practices lots of skills, including spelling, grammar and punctuation

http://www.ictgames.com/lcwc.html enter the high frequency words you are working on and type them in to this site. Using the look, say, cover, write, check method, see how many they can get right.

http://www.ictgames.com/tellAtRex_v3.html choose level three or level four and then choose yes or no. This helps the children to read for understanding, and also improve the speed of their decoding of the words.

Science

This week, the children will take their understanding of forces one stage further, by investigating how they can make their experiments a ‘fair test’. They will learn about what friction means and investigating how this can make a difference to how fast the car travels. They will have to use a stopwatch to time how long it takes the car to reach the bottom of the ramp and then use this information to complete a results table. Some children could even use this information to create their graph to show the results in another way.

By the end of week, the children:

MUST be able to say how to make the car go faster.
SHOULD be able to say that different surfaces will make the car speed up or slow down.
COULD use the term friction to explain what happened when different surfaces were used on the ramp.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/scienceclips/ages/6_7/forces_movement.shtml an online version of the experiment that the children have done last week.

http://www.ngfl-cymru.org.uk/vtc/identify_forces/eng/Introduction/default.htm which force is needed to get the object moving?

Numeracy

A very practical week in store – the children will be investigating weight! There will be scales in the classroom, but I shall be avoiding them!!

The children will be investigating objects which are heavier and lighter than each other and should be able to order them from lightest to the heaviest and vice versa. As always, we are developing the children’s knowledge of mathematical vocabulary, so this week, they will need to learn:

Ascending order – from the lowest amount to the highest

Descending order – from the highest amount to the lowest

How can you help at home?

Look at different of packets, tins, jar, bottles etc. that you have in the kitchen or bathroom cupboards. Look out for how much the packet weighs and see if it is measured in grams or kilograms. Talk about how ‘g’ is short for grams and that ‘kg’ is short for kilograms. Try to order the objects you have chosen by the weight on the packets and then check by estimating their weight by hand. You could then check by actually weighing them on kitchen scales. Point out what each of the lines mean on the scales and explain how each division might be 10 grams, 50 grams etc.

At the end of the week, we will also be reviewing the children’s knowledge of time, using o’clock, half past and quarter past. The children will also look at how the digital clock is used alongside the analogue time. Can they remember which way is clockwise and anti-clockwise from last week?

I have come across a great website for this, this weekend, which teaches the children not only the analogue and digital time, but also shows the children the words to use too! By far the best example I have come across, so well worth bookmarking in your favourites!

http://www.virneth.co.uk/apps/clock.htm

By the end of the week, the children:

MUST: be able to compare weights by direct comparisons using non-standard measures, need to be able to use appropriate mathematical language.
SHOULD: be able to recognise the relationship between grams and kilograms.
COULD: be able to read simple scales to the nearest division.

http://www.wmnet.org.uk/wmnet/custom/files_uploaded/uploaded_resources/853/numberlinev2.swf the children will use this in school to help find out how much each of the divisions on a number line are worth. This will also help them when they come to read numbers on a scale.

http://www.ictgames.com/mostlyPostie.html drag the parcel onto the scales and then read the scale to see how heavy it is. Enter the amount on the till and click check. If you are correct, then the postvan will drive off.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/starship/maths/aliencookbook.shtml this is quite challenging, as it ask you to measure not only weight, but capacity as well, but the children will get experience of reading a variety of scales, not least to make an upside down cake!

http://www.crickweb.co.uk/assets/resources/flash.php?&file=simplescales2 a simple way of introducing how to read scales, by weighing how much each toy weighs.

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

http://www.crickweb.co.uk/assets/resources/flash.php?&file=fruitbalance3 this is good for developing the vocabulary of which is heavier or lighter. See if you can find out which is the heaviest fruit?

http://www.crickweb.co.uk/assets/resources/flash.php?&file=scales3 a very similar site, but this time, the children have to try and guess which is the heaviest alien! Very funny!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/ks1bitesize/numeracy/time/index.shtml read the time on the analogue and digital clocks

http://www.harcourtschool.com/activity/willy/willy.html a game to play at home with 2 players. Play the game and when you land on a time, the player has to say the time out loud and set the clock to that time.

Domestics

There are quite a few things happening this week, so here goes...

On Tuesday, Mrs Worrall will be joining the Year 5 children on their Away Day as they receive the Sacrament of Reconciliation. Her class will be taken by Mrs Jackson, whom the children have met before. For those parents who have children in year 5 and will attending the service, a crèche will be provided in school for younger siblings until you are able to collect them around 3.30.

Mrs Walker will be on a course this week until Thursday, so she will not be available in school.

Also on Thursday, it is World Book Day. There will be a second-hand book fair in the hall after school, where you will be able to buy both books for children and parents. Obviously for this to be a success, we would be grateful for any donations of books from both children and parents, so use this weekend as an opportunity to start the spring clean (is it that time already?!) and sort out some books to send in. It is also a great opportunity to find some really good ‘reads’ for the Easter holidays!

http://www.storylineonline.net/ why not listen to some of these online stories, read by some famous American actors.

And on THURSDAY...the year ¾ children have been working to raise funds for the Nugent Care Society Lenten Appeal, and on Thursday they will be holding a fun afternoon for the whole school. We ask that the children bring between 50p and £1 so that they can buy something from the stalls. Not only will they be practising their money skills, but they will be helping to raise money for a very worthwhile cause.

Hope you all have a good weekend and mums...Have a very relaxing Mother’s Day on Sunday!

Year ½ team