Swagbagging!!!!

Hi there!

What on earth is the title of this week's blog?! You might well ask...

A number of staff across the school attended a course this week, the theme of which was 'Big Writing'. Not a reference to the size of the script which your child writes, but more a development of the quality and quantity of their writing. Enthused by some of the ideas, each teacher returned to school, eager to try some of them with the children...thus 'SWAGBAGGING' came to fruition!

Why not try this out at home. All you need is your child's home reader or any magazine or newspaper that you are reading. They will also need a 'SWAGBAG', which could just be a sandwich bag with the word SWAG written on it! Read it out loud to your child and get them to 'steal' any WOW words that they think are interesting - particularly adjectives or adverbs. Then, get them to write it down on a piece of paper and put it in their swagbag. At the end of the week, empty out the swagbag and they will find that they have lots of words that they now can try to incorporate into their writing. This also works if you use 'POSH' words during conversations, which they can also try to swagbag!

You will laugh, furrow your brow and amaze at the number of times that your child pretends to grab the air during conversations...they are swagbagging your vocabulary!! We would love to hear of any successes you have at home with this.

Literacy

A great opportunity to use some swagbag skills this week, as we move onto looking at Information Texts.

Using the children's own interests as a starting point, they will pose their own questions about what they want to know about what interests them. In shared reading, we will be using information books (or ICT sources) to find answers, exploring how to use an index and alphabetical order. We will also be reviewing dictionaries and glossaries to find definitions of words from reading. The children will also be expected to know some of the differences between fiction and non-fiction texts. The children will also learn how to use the Smartboard as a presentation tool for them to display their information text and photographs or drawings. Maybe some children could even write an information section on this blog next week to inform you of what they have been doing this week!

http://www.kidsgowild.com/animalfacts information about animals which will help the children who chose this as their area to write about

http://www.settle.co.uk/local.htm an example of how an information text can be set out

http://www.bbc.co.uk/cbbc/wild/pets/ a great site from CBBC

http://www.abc.net.au/oceans/alive.htm information about animals of the sea – good for interaction

http://www.topicbox.org.uk/browse.php?item_ID=5426&subject=English&topic=Text%20-%20Non-chron%20report a non-chronological report on elephants. This link takes you to a powerpoint that can be downloaded to view at home.

Numeracy

The children did really well with their multiplication investigations last week, so this week, we are moving onto looking at division.

A really good visual way of doing this is with, yes you've guessed it...food! Instead of using sweets or biscuits, why not try this will grapes or raisins? Begin with dividing amount into 2. Start with 10 raisin each and divide them between 2 people. Make sure your child can tell you how many you have EACH - 5.

Then move onto showing them how this looks when it is written down:

10 ÷ 2 = 5

Can they spot how the numbers can be manipulated to make the multiplication sum?

2 x 5 = 10

By the end of the week, the children:

MUST: Be able to bein to subtract a 1 digit number from a 2 digit number: subtract by counting back to a multiple of 10.

SHOULD: Be able to introduce multiplication as repeated addition:record facts using x and =

COULD: Be able to understand division as grouping.

http://www.rainforestmaths.com/ click on Year 2 and the division. Fancy a challenge? Why not click on Year 3 or even 4 division?

http://www.teachers.ash.org.au/jeather/maths/dictionary.html bookmark this site! It will be so useful when trying to work out the definitions for any mathematical vocabulary. Not only is it an online dictionary, it also has practice examples for you to try.

http://www.wmnet.org.uk/resources/gordon/Hit%20the%20button%20v9.swf an old favourite - just click on the division facts although the others will be just as valuable!

http://www.ngfl-cymru.org.uk/vtc/grouping_and_sharing/eng/Introduction/default.htm division as grouping or sharing

http://www.sums.co.uk/playground/c3a/playground.htm I loved this site! Choose easy to begin with, but then you will be able to move on to the more challenging section

http://www.amblesideprimary.com/ambleweb/mentalmaths/dividermachine.html begin with level 1, but as you become more familiar with all the tables, you will be able to move onto levels 2 and 3.

Here I Am

We continue with the final week of our Holidays and Holydays topic, where the children will consolidate all their work on the Holy Spirit and Pentecost. Please see the links from last week to support our RE curriculum.

Science

The children will be reviewing all the work done on plants so far this term and completing a short assessment to enable us to move on.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/scienceclips/ages/7_8/plants_grow.shtml
http://www.ngfl-cymru.org.uk/vtc/factors_plant_growth/eng/Introduction/default.htm http://www.topicbox.org.uk/browse.php?item_ID=5584&subject=Science&topic=Life%20-%20Plants click on the cress picture to download a great powerpoint which explains how you can help plants grow well.
http://www.ngfl-cymru.org.uk/vtc/factors_plant_growth/eng/Introduction/default.htm this is actually a KS2 site, but I think the children will be able to access the ‘main session part 2’ section. Ask them what ‘hypothesising’ means!
http://www.walkers-crisps.co.uk/flavours.html click on the GB potatoes link at the top and then ‘from field to crisp.’ This is a really interesting site!
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/scienceclips/ages/5_6/growing_plants.shtml can you find the right conditions for the plant to grow? http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/scienceclips/ages/7_8/plants_grow.shtml a little more challenging http://www.topicbox.org.uk/browse.php?item_ID=5584&subject=Science&topic=Life%20-%20Plants this is a really useful powerpoint to download and keep for the whole of the topic. It is aimed at Year 3, but we really do need to push the children on, as their knowledge on this subject is very good already. http://www.bgfl.org/bgfl/custom/resources_ftp/client_ftp/ks2/science/plants/index.htm click on the seed growth leaf for a great animation of what a seed needs to grow. http://www.crickweb.co.uk/assets/resources/flash.php?&file=plantlabelmx a very simple resource to drag and drop the labels onto the right part of the plant. As you move through this site though, you will be expected to explain the functions of each part. This is also really useful in supporting the literacy for this week. http://plantsinmotion.bio.indiana.edu/plantmotion/earlygrowth/germination/germ.html how fascinating! You will need to sit with your child for this, but the use of stop motion photography is fantastic. Just click on the sunflower germination – it’s really interesting! The movies for flowers are also beautiful!

PE KITS

As the weather seems to more promising at the moment, we are going to try to make the most of the great otudoors for their PE sessions. A few of the children have mentioned about their pumps being a bit uncomfortable, so maybe a check on them would be useful. We will send their kits home this Friday to enable you to check them. Many thanks with this.

Have a good week!

Year 1/2 team