Students become teachers
I was able to put my feet up earlier this week as the children became the experts. First, we recognised what aspects of our learning we were stronger and weaker at. We then practised how to teach somebody else something we were confident with. Finally, we paired up and had a go at teaching.
Both student and teacher were positive about this approach and asked if we could do it more often.
8Rs for learning
Resilience, resourcefulness, readiness, responsibility, risk-taking, responsiveness, remembering and …reflection.
This week we complete our 8Rs SEAL theme. Children will have the opportunity to not only reflect on their learning in general but also reflect on how the 8Rs supports their learning.
Talk with your child about what they’ve learnt, asking questions about how they learnt, why they learnt it, when they’ll use their learning, how they would teach this to someone else, what learning might link with what they’ve learnt today…
Can your child remember the 8Rs and the associated animal?
Maths and English
Maths
This week in maths, we’ve been looking at mental methods of subtraction. We started the week by looking at a method called “forcing bonds”. Let’s have a look at this in practice…
To make this calculation easier, we can start by subtracting down to the previous ten. This would mean we would subtract four to get to thirty.
Having subtracted four, how much more would we need to subtract the full eight?
We would then subtract the remaining four which gives us an answer of twenty six.
We’ve also looked at the “add and adjust” method of subtraction which we usually use when subtracting nine.
To start, we add one to our nine which gives us ten. As a class we agreed that finding ten less is much easier than subtracting nine.
We would then use a blank number line to clearly record our methodology.
We then have to “adjust” our answer because we want to subtract nine not ten. To do this we add one back on.
English
In English, we’ve been looking at how to punctuate direct speech. Here is an example of correctly punctuated direct speech.
We use inverted commas (speech marks) before and after speech in a sentence. Ask your child how their “speech hands” can help them punctuate speech.
Direct speech is always finished with punctuation – usually a comma. Can your child think of any other punctuation that could be used at the end of direct speech? Since this punctuation is part of the speech it must come before the closing inverted commas.
After speech we often see the word said or a synonym of said. We’ve been exploring said synonyms in class.
To make our speech sentences more interesting, we’ve also looked at adding in adverbs. Adverbs describe a verb and in this sentence the verb is said.
Library
I hope your child has enjoyed having a book from our library. Please could you make sure they bring their library books back to school next week as we are having a rotation of stock.
The run up to Christmas
There are two weeks left before we all disappear for the festive season. It’ll be busy, as usual, in Y5. What will we be up to?
Topic – We’re starting to round off the learning we’ve enjoyed about space through Tim Peake’s mission to the ISS (International Space Station). To celebrate what a fantastic topic this has been, we’ll be collating all of our knowledge to take on a D&T/Science project to create our own rocket for launch. We’re still using Makewaves to showcase our learning.
English – Our noses are in newspapers at the moment. We’ve explored reports of the moon landings from 1969 and we’ll be coming back to the present next week to report on Tim’s upcoming mission. For the final week, we’ll get our creative juices flowing again and see if we can write for a given audience. The aim will be to create a Christmas story book to be read to the children in Reception and Year 1.
Maths – Dig out your protractors next week as we start learning how to measure angles. We’ll recap the names of different angles before learning how to measure them and then explore angles in shapes.
I can make healthy choices
We had lots of brilliant, interactive pieces of homework this week. During our homework review, it was great fun not only looking at what we had all done, but playing the different games and challenges that had been set.
There were all sorts of different challenges: word searches, pairs game, top trumps, voting slips and much more.
Healthy drinks update – day 4
These pictures were taken on Monday. So far, the children have been most shocked by the Fruit Shoot and the Monster. We had to throw the milk away as it had started to smell bad!
Healthy drinks update – day 2
Preparing a healthy wrap
Year 2 are continuing to develop their food technology skills, this time by creating a healthy wrap as an option for packed lunches. Spreading, chopping and grating were some of the techniques used in this simple recipe that I’m sure will be recreated at home.
Learning new skills and respect
In Health week, Reception enjoyed a session with Rob from Tsukuru Judo Academy. As well as the physical skills, Rob taught us about the importance of respecting each other in the discipline of judo.
There were some brave volunteers!
Tsukuru Judo Academy will be starting judo sessions locally at Carr Manor in December.
Maths in Reception
In our maths learning this week, we’re concentrating on counting and using numbers.
In order to count effectively, children need to:
- learn number names in order
- count objects by touching them
- understand that the last number they say is the total number of objects in the group
- transfer these skills effectively from one context to another
- move from counting concrete objects to counting abstractly
Children need to be motivated to count for a purpose. In Reception, we try to provide lots of interesting objects and activities for children to use and improve their counting skills.
Children should also have the opportunity to order numbers. At the moment, the children are enjoying matching the correct number of flies to the spiders’ webs.
Look here for more information and some ideas for you to try at home.