Week beginning 30 November 2020
Hi everyone
We’re really missing you in school and we can’t wait to have you back. We hope you’re managing to stay happy, healthy and safe while you’re not with us here in school. You are still very much a part of our school community so please get in touch with us. You can email me at paulwilks@spherefederation.org.
Here’s a short video from me introducing the week.
Maths
This week’s maths learning continues our unit on multiplication. Please use the following resources:
Lesson 1: video worksheet answers
Lesson2: video worksheet answers
Lesson 3: video worksheet answers
Lesson 4: video worksheet answers
Lesson 5: arithmetic check
You don’t have to print the worksheet. Your child can write or draw their answers on paper. Your child’s learning will be most effective if you sit with them to pause the clip and check / praise / support your child as the clip moves on.
Practise times tables on Times Table Rockstars, too. In Y4, we’re concentrating on the 7 times table. Email me if you need your child’s login and password details.
(Suggested time: 30 minutes of Maths and 15 minutes of Rockstars daily)
Spelling
Look on the homework page to find this week’s spellings. Your child should complete one task each day.
- Day 1: Generate more words linked to the spelling pattern or ‘rule’. You could look out for the words in the book you’re reading at home, or any other text, like a website linked to our science topic of Living Things and their Habitat.
- Day 2: Practise the spellings using two of the ideas in our Super Spelling Strategies guide. (Set yourself and others at home a challenge of using some of the words when you’re speaking, too!)
- Day 3: Write separate sentences, each containing one of the spellings. (Don’t forget to show off really neat handwriting and make sure you sentence starts with a capital letter and ends with a full stop, exclamation mark (!) or question mark (?).
- Day 4: Repeat Task 2 or 3.
- Day 5: Get an adult at home to test you on your spellings. Practise any you spell incorrectly – you could write them out carefully until you’re sure.
(Suggested time: 15-20 minutes daily)
Reading fluency
Click here for this week’s fluency text to build up fluency skills. In school, we generally follow this sequence:
- Day 1: Read the text aloud with your child listening. Read it clearly and slowly, pointing to each word as you read. Have a chat about any unfamiliar words.
- Day 2: Read aloud each sentence (a full short sentence or part of a longer sentence), and have your child read it back to you. Do this ‘echo reading’ for the whole text.
- Day 3: Read the text and talk about the effect of the punctuation on how you read it – pauses for full stops and expression for exclamations (!) or questions (?). Your child reads the text aloud.
- Day 4: Read together with expression (just like you practised on Day 3).
- Day 5: Your child reads independently and fluently.
(Suggested time: 15 minutes daily)
Reading comprehension
Day 1: Click here for this week’s RIC text and questions. It’s a short section of text about the Olympic Games and has some retrieval questions to answer.
RIC stands for:
- Retrieve: finding information in a text
- Interpret: using clues in the text to unlock information
- Choice: thinking about the author’s choice of words, techniques or organisation that make the text interesting and enjoyable to read
Day 2: Agree with your child three words from any text they’ve read which they’re less familiar with. Your child should find out what they mean (eg by checking an online dictionary or simply discuss with you) and how to use them in sentences (both when speaking and when writing). Challenge your child to write a sentence with each word in, or to drop the words into conversations at home.
Day 3: Read this article from First News, a newspaper for children, and complete the activity.
Day 4: Read your fluency or RIC text again. We’re also reading another Greek myth called Orpheus and Eurydice. Click here if you’d like to read this. Next, do one of the following:
- Your child could list at least ten facts they’ve read in the text. (If it’s a fiction text (a story), then the facts would be based on the story, like ‘Harry Potter picked up his broomstick’, rather than actual facts from the real world.)
- Your child could create questions and answers for what they’ve read. (For example, it could be a TV or radio interview based on what they’ve read.)
- Your child could create their own ‘RIC’ questions.
- Your child could draw and label a character or setting that they’ve read about.
Day 5: Book Club. Once a week, we have a relaxing lesson where we sit and read quietly, often with an adult. At home, we’d like you to read your favourite book or text, too. If possible, discuss the book with an adult, talking about some or all of the sections of this sheet.
(Suggested time: 30 minutes daily)
Writing
This week, we’re focusing on apostrophes and their use. Click below for two lessons from Oak National Academy:
(Suggested time: 30 minutes daily)
Topic
Click here for our next Ancient Greek history lesson. It’s an Oak Academy lesson about Ancient Greek philosophers.
Science
Click here for the fifth Oak Academy lesson on sound.
(Suggested time: 45 minutes)
Week beginning 30 November 2020
Hi everyone
We’re really missing you in school and we can’t wait to have you back. We hope you’re managing to stay happy, healthy and safe while you’re not with us here in school. You are still very much a part of our school community so please get in touch with us. You can email me paulwilks@spherefederation.org or Mr Wain oliwain@spherefederation.org.
Here’s a short video from me introducing the week.
Maths
This week’s maths learning continues our unit on addition and subtraction. Please use the following resources:
Lesson 1: video worksheet answers
Lesson2: video worksheet answers
Lesson 3: video worksheet answers
Lesson 4: video worksheet answers
Lesson 5: arithmetic check
You don’t have to print the worksheet. Your child can write or draw their answers on paper. Your child’s learning will be most effective if you sit with them to pause the clip and check / praise / support your child as the clip moves on.
Practise times tables on Times Table Rockstars, too. Email me if you need your child’s login and password details.
(Suggested time: 30 minutes of Maths and 15 minutes of Rockstars daily)
Spelling
Look on the homework page to find this week’s spellings. Your child should complete one task each day.
- Day 1: Generate more words linked to the spelling pattern or ‘rule’. You could look out for the words in the book you’re reading at home, or any other text, like a website linked to our science topic of Living Things and their Habitat.
- Day 2: Practise the spellings using two of the ideas in our Super Spelling Strategies guide. (Set yourself and others at home a challenge of using some of the words when you’re speaking, too!)
- Day 3: Write separate sentences, each containing one of the spellings. (Don’t forget to show off really neat handwriting and make sure you sentence starts with a capital letter and ends with a full stop, exclamation mark (!) or question mark (?).
- Day 4: Repeat Task 2 or 3.
- Day 5: Get an adult at home to test you on your spellings. Practise any you spell incorrectly – you could write them out carefully until you’re sure.
(Suggested time: 15-20 minutes daily)
Reading fluency
Click here for this week’s fluency text to build up fluency skills. In school, we generally follow this sequence:
- Day 1: Read the text aloud with your child listening. Read it clearly and slowly, pointing to each word as you read. Have a chat about any unfamiliar words.
- Day 2: Read aloud each sentence (a full short sentence or part of a longer sentence), and have your child read it back to you. Do this ‘echo reading’ for the whole text.
- Day 3: Read the text and talk about the effect of the punctuation on how you read it – pauses for full stops and expression for exclamations (!) or questions (?). Your child reads the text aloud.
- Day 4: Read together with expression (just like you practised on Day 3).
- Day 5: Your child reads independently and fluently.
(Suggested time: 15 minutes daily)
Reading comprehension
Day 1: Click here for this week’s RIC text and questions. It’s a short section of text about the Olympic Games and has some retrieval questions to answer.
RIC stands for:
- Retrieve: finding information in a text
- Interpret: using clues in the text to unlock information
- Choice: thinking about the author’s choice of words, techniques or organisation that make the text interesting and enjoyable to read
Day 2: Agree with your child three words from any text they’ve read which they’re less familiar with. Your child should find out what they mean (eg by checking an online dictionary or simply discuss with you) and how to use them in sentences (both when speaking and when writing). Challenge your child to write a sentence with each word in, or to drop the words into conversations at home.
Day 3: Read this article from First News, a newspaper for children, and complete the activity.
Day 4: Read your fluency or RIC text again. We’re also reading another Greek myth called Orpheus and Eurydice. Click here if you’d like to read this. Next, do one of the following:
- Your child could list at least ten facts they’ve read in the text. (If it’s a fiction text (a story), then the facts would be based on the story, like ‘Harry Potter picked up his broomstick’, rather than actual facts from the real world.)
- Your child could create questions and answers for what they’ve read. (For example, it could be a TV or radio interview based on what they’ve read.)
- Your child could create their own ‘RIC’ questions.
- Your child could draw and label a character or setting that they’ve read about.
Day 5: Book Club. Once a week, we have a relaxing lesson where we sit and read quietly, often with an adult. At home, we’d like you to read your favourite book or text, too. If possible, discuss the book with an adult, talking about some or all of the sections of this sheet.
(Suggested time: 30 minutes daily)
Writing
This week, we’re focusing on apostrophes and their use. Click below for two lessons from Oak National Academy:
(Suggested time: 30 minutes daily)
Topic
Click here for our next Ancient Greek history lesson. It’s an Oak Academy lesson about Ancient Greek philosophers.
Science
Click here for the fifth Oak Academy lesson on sound.
(Suggested time: 45 minutes)
Week beginning 23 November 2020
Hi everyone
We’re really missing you in school and we can’t wait to have you back. We hope you’re managing to stay happy, healthy and safe while you’re not with us here in school. You are still very much a part of our school community so please get in touch with us. You can email me and Mr Wain at paulwilks@spherefederation.org or oliwain@spherefederation.org.
Here’s a short video from me introducing the week.
Maths
This week’s maths learning continues our unit on addition and subtraction. Please use the following resources:
Lesson 1: video worksheet answers
Lesson2: video worksheet answers
Lesson 3: video worksheet answers
Lesson 4: video worksheet answers
Lesson 5: arithmetic check
You don’t have to print the worksheet. Your child can write or draw their answers on paper. Your child’s learning will be most effective if you sit with them to pause the clip and check / praise / support your child as the clip moves on.
Practise times tables on Times Table Rockstars, too. In Y4, we’re concentrating on the 6 times table. Email me if you need your child’s login and password details.
(Suggested time: 30 minutes of Maths and 15 minutes of Rockstars daily)
Spelling
Look on the homework page to find this week’s spellings. Your child should complete one task each day.
- Day 1: Generate more words linked to the spelling pattern or ‘rule’. You could look out for the words in the book you’re reading at home, or any other text, like a website linked to our science topic of Living Things and their Habitat.
- Day 2: Practise the spellings using two of the ideas in our Super Spelling Strategies guide. (Set yourself and others at home a challenge of using some of the words when you’re speaking, too!)
- Day 3: Write separate sentences, each containing one of the spellings. (Don’t forget to show off really neat handwriting and make sure you sentence starts with a capital letter and ends with a full stop, exclamation mark (!) or question mark (?).
- Day 4: Repeat Task 2 or 3.
- Day 5: Get an adult at home to test you on your spellings. Practise any you spell incorrectly – you could write them out carefully until you’re sure.
(Suggested time: 15-20 minutes daily)
Reading fluency
Click here for this week’s fluency text to build up fluency skills. In school, we generally follow this sequence:
- Day 1: Read the text aloud with your child listening. Read it clearly and slowly, pointing to each word as you read. Have a chat about any unfamiliar words.
- Day 2: Read aloud each sentence (a full short sentence or part of a longer sentence), and have your child read it back to you. Do this ‘echo reading’ for the whole text.
- Day 3: Read the text and talk about the effect of the punctuation on how you read it – pauses for full stops and expression for exclamations (!) or questions (?). Your child reads the text aloud.
- Day 4: Read together with expression (just like you practised on Day 3).
- Day 5: Your child reads independently and fluently.
(Suggested time: 15 minutes daily)
Reading comprehension
Day 1: Click here for this week’s RIC text and questions. It uses an extract from The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.
RIC stands for:
- Retrieve: finding information in a text
- Interpret: using clues in the text to unlock information
- Choice: thinking about the author’s choice of words, techniques or organisation that make the text interesting and enjoyable to read
Day 2: Agree with your child three words from any text they’ve read which they’re less familiar with. Your child should find out what they mean (eg by checking an online dictionary or simply discuss with you) and how to use them in sentences (both when speaking and when writing). Challenge your child to write a sentence with each word in, or to drop the words into conversations at home.
Day 3: Read this article from First News, a newspaper for children, and complete the activity.
Day 4: Read your fluency or RIC text again. We’re also reading another Greek myth called Orpheus and Eurydice. Click here if you’d like to read this. Next, do one of the following:
- Your child could list at least ten facts they’ve read in the text. (If it’s a fiction text (a story), then the facts would be based on the story, like ‘Harry Potter picked up his broomstick’, rather than actual facts from the real world.)
- Your child could create questions and answers for what they’ve read. (For example, it could be a TV or radio interview based on what they’ve read.)
- Your child could create their own ‘RIC’ questions.
- Your child could draw and label a character or setting that they’ve read about.
Day 5: Book Club. Once a week, we have a relaxing lesson where we sit and read quietly, often with an adult. At home, we’d like you to read your favourite book or text, too. If possible, discuss the book with an adult, talking about some or all of the sections of this sheet.
(Suggested time: 30 minutes daily)
Writing
Activity 1: This lesson focusses on pronouns. Click here to get a better idea of what pronouns are and then have a go at the activities. Activity1 Activity2 Activity3 Answers
Activity 2: Click here for a lesson on apostrophes for contractions.
(Suggested time: 30 minutes daily)
Topic
Click here for our next Ancient Greek history lesson. It’s an Oak Academy lesson about Athens and Sparta.
Science
Click here for the fourth Oak Academy lesson on sound.
(Suggested time: 45 minutes)
Week beginning 23 November 2020
Hi everyone
We’re really missing you in school and we can’t wait to have you back. We hope you’re managing to stay happy, healthy and safe while you’re not with us here in school. You are still very much a part of our school community so please get in touch with us. You can email me at paulwilks@spherefederation.org.
Here’s a short video from me introducing the week.
Maths
This week’s maths learning continues our unit on addition and subtraction. Please use the following resources:
Lesson 1: video worksheet answers
Lesson2: video worksheet answers
Lesson 3: video worksheet answers
Lesson 4: video worksheet answers
Lesson 5: arithmetic check
You don’t have to print the worksheet. Your child can write or draw their answers on paper. Your child’s learning will be most effective if you sit with them to pause the clip and check / praise / support your child as the clip moves on.
Practise times tables on Times Table Rockstars, too. In Y4, we’re concentrating on the 6 times table. Email me if you need your child’s login and password details.
(Suggested time: 30 minutes of Maths and 15 minutes of Rockstars daily)
Spelling
Look on the homework page to find this week’s spellings. Your child should complete one task each day.
- Day 1: Generate more words linked to the spelling pattern or ‘rule’. You could look out for the words in the book you’re reading at home, or any other text, like a website linked to our science topic of Living Things and their Habitat.
- Day 2: Practise the spellings using two of the ideas in our Super Spelling Strategies guide. (Set yourself and others at home a challenge of using some of the words when you’re speaking, too!)
- Day 3: Write separate sentences, each containing one of the spellings. (Don’t forget to show off really neat handwriting and make sure you sentence starts with a capital letter and ends with a full stop, exclamation mark (!) or question mark (?).
- Day 4: Repeat Task 2 or 3.
- Day 5: Get an adult at home to test you on your spellings. Practise any you spell incorrectly – you could write them out carefully until you’re sure.
(Suggested time: 15-20 minutes daily)
Reading fluency
Click here for this week’s fluency text to build up fluency skills. In school, we generally follow this sequence:
- Day 1: Read the text aloud with your child listening. Read it clearly and slowly, pointing to each word as you read. Have a chat about any unfamiliar words.
- Day 2: Read aloud each sentence (a full short sentence or part of a longer sentence), and have your child read it back to you. Do this ‘echo reading’ for the whole text.
- Day 3: Read the text and talk about the effect of the punctuation on how you read it – pauses for full stops and expression for exclamations (!) or questions (?). Your child reads the text aloud.
- Day 4: Read together with expression (just like you practised on Day 3).
- Day 5: Your child reads independently and fluently.
(Suggested time: 15 minutes daily)
Reading comprehension
Day 1: Click here for this week’s RIC text and questions. It uses an extract from The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.
RIC stands for:
- Retrieve: finding information in a text
- Interpret: using clues in the text to unlock information
- Choice: thinking about the author’s choice of words, techniques or organisation that make the text interesting and enjoyable to read
Day 2: Agree with your child three words from any text they’ve read which they’re less familiar with. Your child should find out what they mean (eg by checking an online dictionary or simply discuss with you) and how to use them in sentences (both when speaking and when writing). Challenge your child to write a sentence with each word in, or to drop the words into conversations at home.
Day 3: Read this article from First News, a newspaper for children, and complete the activity.
Day 4: Read your fluency or RIC text again. We’re also reading another Greek myth called Orpheus and Eurydice. Click here if you’d like to read this. Next, do one of the following:
- Your child could list at least ten facts they’ve read in the text. (If it’s a fiction text (a story), then the facts would be based on the story, like ‘Harry Potter picked up his broomstick’, rather than actual facts from the real world.)
- Your child could create questions and answers for what they’ve read. (For example, it could be a TV or radio interview based on what they’ve read.)
- Your child could create their own ‘RIC’ questions.
- Your child could draw and label a character or setting that they’ve read about.
Day 5: Book Club. Once a week, we have a relaxing lesson where we sit and read quietly, often with an adult. At home, we’d like you to read your favourite book or text, too. If possible, discuss the book with an adult, talking about some or all of the sections of this sheet.
(Suggested time: 30 minutes daily)
Writing
Activity 1: This lesson focusses on pronouns. Click here to get a better idea of what pronouns are and then have a go at the activities. Activity1 Activity2 Activity3 Answers
Activity 2: Click here for a lesson on apostrophes for contractions.
(Suggested time: 30 minutes daily)
Topic
Click here for our next Ancient Greek history lesson. It’s an Oak Academy lesson about Athens and Sparta.
Science
Click here for the fourth Oak Academy lesson on sound.
(Suggested time: 45 minutes)
23 November 2020
We’re really missing you in school and we can’t wait to have you back. We hope you’re managing to stay happy, healthy and safe while you’re not with us here in school. You are still very much a part of our school community so please get in touch with us. You can email me at
benparker@spherefederation.org.
This week’s maths learning is linked to addition and subtraction
These five video lessons will roughly match the teaching and learning happening in class:
Lesson 1: video, worksheets and answers
Lesson 2: video, worksheets and answers
Lesson 3: video, worksheets and answers
Lesson 4: video, worksheets and answers
Lesson 5: Numbots.
If you don’t have your log in, email Mrs Taylor or Mrs Freeman and they will happily email it to you.
You don’t have to print the worksheet. Your child can write or draw their answers on paper. Your child’s learning will be most effective if you sit with them to pause the clip and check / praise / support your child as the clip moves on.
Spelling
- Day 1: Write the words and draw shapes round them to show the ascenders and descenders. (Set yourself and others at home a challenge of using some of the words when you’re speaking, too!)
- Day 2: Write the words using rainbow writing. (Try some of the other activities in our Super Spelling Strategies guide.)
- Day 3: Write separate sentences, each containing one of the spellings. (Don’t forget to show off really neat handwriting and make sure you sentence starts with a capital letter and ends with a full stop, exclamation mark (!) or question mark (?).
- Day 4: Repeat Task 2 or 3.
- Day 5: Get an adult at home to test you on your spellings. Practise any you spell incorrectly – you could write them out carefully until you’re sure.
(Suggested time: 15-20 minutes daily)
Reading fluency
This is the text we’ll read in class to to build up fluency skills this week.
In school, we generally follow this sequence:
- Day 1: Read the text aloud with your child listening. Read it clearly and slowly, pointing to each word as you read. Have a chat about any unfamiliar words.
- Day 2: Read aloud each sentence (a full short sentence or part of a longer sentence), and have your child read it back to you. Do this ‘echo reading’ for the whole text.
- Day 3: Read the text and talk about the effect of the punctuation on how you read it – pauses for full stops and expression for exclamations (!) or questions (?). Your child reads the text aloud.
- Day 4: Read together with expression (just like you practised on Day 3).
- Day 5: Your child reads independently and fluently.
(Suggested time: 15 minutes daily)
Reading comprehension
Day 1: We will be using this RIC lesson in class. RIC stands for:
- Retrieve: finding information in a text
- Interpret: using clues in the text to unlock information
- Choice: thinking about the author’s choice of words, techniques or organisation that make the text interesting and enjoyable to read
Day 2: Watch this video and learn about the ‘or‘ digraph.
Day 3: Watch this video and learn about the ‘oi‘ digraph.
Day 4: Watch this video and learn about the ‘ow‘ digraph
The three videos above were made by one of our teacher friends from another school in the federation.
Day 5: Book Club. Once a week, we have a relaxing lesson where we sit and read quietly, often with an adult. At home, we’d like you to read your favourite book or text, too. If possible, discuss the book with an adult, talking about some or all of the sections of this grid.
(Suggested time: 30 minutes daily)
Writing
Activity 1
Finger strengthening activities support the development of fine motor skills needed for writing.
Challenge your child to have a go at 3 or more of these activities: practise tying shoe laces, fasten and unfasten buttons, attach nuts and bolts, separate dried pasta and dried peas (or similar) into two separate piles, do some mindfulness colouring in, do a jigsaw, cut up drinking straws and thread them on to a shoe lace, attach clothes pegs (the squeezable type) to a shoe box or similar, use a paint brush and water to make pictures or words on a wall, chalk words or pictures on the ground, make a Lego model.
Activity 2
Year 1 children: Talk to your child about a picture or photograph you choose. Write three words or phrases to label different things in the picture (eg ‘a car’ or ‘a red car’). Your child should aim to spell in a sensible way and use finger spaces between the words, joining up letters if they can (use our handwriting guide to help).
(Suggested time: 30 minutes daily)
Topic
We’re continuing our new topic learning about The Great Fire of London.
This week, we’re looking at the impact of the fire and what happened as a result of it. This Oak National Academy lesson will really help to support learning at home. Once your child has watched the video, try the quiz that follows.
(Suggested time: 30-45 minutes)
Science
This half term, we’re learning about animals including humans. This Oak National Academy lesson will really help to support learning at home. Once your child has watched the video, try the quiz that follows.
(Suggested time: 30-45 minutes)
23 November 2020
We’re really missing you in school and we can’t wait to have you back. We hope you’re managing to stay happy, healthy and safe while you’re not with us here in school. You are still very much a part of our school community so please get in touch with us. You can email me at
benparker@spherefederation.org.
This week’s maths learning is linked to addition and subtraction
These five video lessons will roughly match the teaching and learning happening in class:
Lesson 1: video
Lesson 2: video, worksheets and answers
Lesson 3: video, worksheets and answers
Lesson 4: video
Lesson 5: video, worksheets and answers
You don’t have to print the worksheet. Your child can write or draw their answers on paper. Your child’s learning will be most effective if you sit with them to pause the clip and check / praise / support your child as the clip moves on.
Spelling
- Day 1: Write the words and draw shapes round them to show the ascenders and descenders. (Set yourself and others at home a challenge of using some of the words when you’re speaking, too!)
- Day 2: Write the words using rainbow writing. (Try some of the other activities in our Super Spelling Strategies guide.)
- Day 3: Write separate sentences, each containing one of the spellings. (Don’t forget to show off really neat handwriting and make sure you sentence starts with a capital letter and ends with a full stop, exclamation mark (!) or question mark (?).
- Day 4: Repeat Task 2 or 3.
- Day 5: Get an adult at home to test you on your spellings. Practise any you spell incorrectly – you could write them out carefully until you’re sure.
(Suggested time: 15-20 minutes daily)
Reading fluency
This is the text we’ll read in class to to build up fluency skills this week.
In school, we generally follow this sequence:
- Day 1: Read the text aloud with your child listening. Read it clearly and slowly, pointing to each word as you read. Have a chat about any unfamiliar words.
- Day 2: Read aloud each sentence (a full short sentence or part of a longer sentence), and have your child read it back to you. Do this ‘echo reading’ for the whole text.
- Day 3: Read the text and talk about the effect of the punctuation on how you read it – pauses for full stops and expression for exclamations (!) or questions (?). Your child reads the text aloud.
- Day 4: Read together with expression (just like you practised on Day 3).
- Day 5: Your child reads independently and fluently.
(Suggested time: 15 minutes daily)
Reading comprehension
Day 1: We will be using this RIC lesson in class. RIC stands for:
- Retrieve: finding information in a text
- Interpret: using clues in the text to unlock information
- Choice: thinking about the author’s choice of words, techniques or organisation that make the text interesting and enjoyable to read
Day 2: Watch this video and learn about the ‘ee‘ digraph.
Day 3: Watch this video and learn about the ‘ie‘ digraph.
Day 4: Watch this video and learn about the ‘ay‘ digraph
The three videos above were made by one of our teacher friends from another school in the federation.
Day 5: Book Club. Once a week, we have a relaxing lesson where we sit and read quietly, often with an adult. At home, we’d like you to read your favourite book or text, too. If possible, discuss the book with an adult, talking about some or all of the sections of this grid.
(Suggested time: 30 minutes daily)
Writing
Activity 1
Finger strengthening activities support the development of fine motor skills needed for writing.
Challenge your child to have a go at 3 or more of these activities: practise tying shoe laces, fasten and unfasten buttons, attach nuts and bolts, separate dried pasta and dried peas (or similar) into two separate piles, do some mindfulness colouring in, do a jigsaw, cut up drinking straws and thread them on to a shoe lace, attach clothes pegs (the squeezable type) to a shoe box or similar, use a paint brush and water to make pictures or words on a wall, chalk words or pictures on the ground, make a Lego model.
Activity 2
Year 2 children: Write three sentences about a picture or photograph you choose. Your child should remember capital letters, finger spaces, joining up letters if they can (use our handwriting guide to help), and a full stop, exclamation mark (!) or question mark (?) to end the sentence.
(Suggested time: 30 minutes daily)
Topic
We’re continuing our new topic learning about The Great Fire of London.
This week, we’re looking at the impact of the fire and what happened as a result of it. This Oak National Academy lesson will really help to support learning at home. Once your child has watched the video, try the quiz that follows.
(Suggested time: 30-45 minutes)
Science
This half term, we’re learning about animals including humans. This Oak National Academy lesson will really help to support learning at home. Once your child has watched the video, try the quiz that follows.
(Suggested time: 30-45 minutes)
Week beginning: 23 November 2020
Hey everyone!
I hope you’ve had a lovely weekend no matter what you’ve been up to!
Here is a quick video from me explaining the tasks for this week!
If you need any help or want to ask any questions, please don’t hesitate to send an email to jenwilson@spherefederation.org!
Now, onto this week’s learning.
Maths
In school, this week, we’re carrying on with the same topic: fractions.
Children should use these resources:
- Add fractions: video, worksheet, answers
- Subtract fractions: video, worksheet, answers
- Add and subtract (part one): video, worksheet, answers
- Add and subtract (part two): video, worksheet, answers
- Mixed addition and subtraction: video, worksheet, answers
You don’t have to print the worksheets. Your child can write or draw their answers on paper. Your child’s learning will be most effective if you sit with them to pause the clip and check / praise / support your child as the clip moves on.
Practise times tables on Times Table Rockstars, too. We’re concentrating on a mix of times tables, so your child should focus on the times table they find most difficult. Email me if you need your child’s login and password details.
(Suggested time: 30 minutes of Maths and 15 minutes of Rockstars daily)
Spelling
Look on our spelling page for this week’s words.
Your child should complete one task each day.
- Day 1: Generate more words linked to the spelling pattern or ‘rule’. (You could look out for the words in the book you’re reading at home, or any other text, like a website linked to our learning.)
- Day 2: Practise the spellings using two of the ideas in our Super Spelling Strategies Guide. (Set yourself and others at home a challenge of using some of the words when you’re speaking, too!)
- Day 3: Write separate sentences, each containing one of the spellings. (Don’t forget to show off really neat handwriting and make sure you sentence starts with a capital letter and ends with a full stop, exclamation mark (!) or question mark (?).
- Day 4: Repeat Task 2 or 3.
- Day 5: Get an adult at home to test you on your spellings. Practise any you spell incorrectly – you could write them out carefully until you’re sure.
(Suggested time: 15-20 minutes daily)
Reading fluency
This is the fluency text on mummification that we’ll read in class this week. It also contains our RIC questions.
In school, we generally follow this sequence:
- Day 1: Read the text aloud with your child listening. Read it clearly and slowly, pointing to each word as you read. Have a chat about any unfamiliar words.
- Day 2: Read aloud each sentence (a full short sentence or part of a longer sentence), and have your child read it back to you. Do this ‘echo reading’ for the whole text.
- Day 3: Read the text and talk about the effect of the punctuation on how you read it – pauses for full stops and expression for exclamations (!) or questions (?). Your child reads the text aloud.
- Day 4: Read together with expression (just like you practised on Day 3).
- Day 5: Your child reads independently and fluently.
(Suggested time: 15 minutes daily)
Reading comprehension
Day 1: Read the fluency text and answer the RIC questions at the bottom of the page.
Day 2: Read this extract from the Hobbit, by JRR Tolkien. Do the activity on this link: Hobbit – inference matching lesson.
Day 3: Re-read the Hobbit extract. Take photos of yourself acting out different parts of the story, or if you can’t then draw pictures to summarise it.
Day 4: Re-read the Hobbit extract. Summarise the story in 10 sentences.
Day 5: Book Club. Once a week, we have a relaxing lesson where we sit and read quietly, often with an adult. At home, we’d like you to read your favourite book or text, too. If possible, discuss the book with an adult, talking about some or all of the sections of this grid.
(Suggested time: 30 minutes daily)
Writing
We’re starting a new unit of work linking to our new learning about the Stone Age and Ancient Egypt. We’re going to write stories!
Use these slides to help you.
Day 1: Read the Fire and Water extract from the hobbit. Find eight words that you’re less familiar with, find out their meanings and write sentences with them in to show to you understand how to use them in context.
Day 2: Create a story map of the extract. This is where you draw a simple picture or icon to represent each part of the story. You could just look at the slides, or cut up the statements on this sheet to sort them physically.
Day 3: Create a table to analyse the different ways that Tolkien starts sentences, having a go at creating your own versions. Use the slides to help you. You could use this sheet to record your own sentences.
Day 4: On a subject of you own choosing, write a paragraph showing that you can start sentences in different ways.
Day 5: Recap what parentheses are and practise adding them to sentences. Use the slides to help.
Topic
This week’s topic learning is about history. We’re continuing our topic all about prehistoric Britain compared to Ancient Egypt – an advanced ancient civilisation.
This week, just like we’re doing in class, you’re going to learn about how life was in Ancient Egypt for different groups of people.
First, have a look at this website and use the different tabs to read about a day in the life of a pharaoh, nobleman, craftsman, priest, solider, farmer and woman.
Next, use these slides and complete the tasks involved.
(Suggested time: 30-40 minutes)
Science
We’re carrying on with our learning about forces. This lesson from Oak National Academy links closely to what we’ve been doing in class.
Email me to let me know how you got on!
Week beginning: 16 November 2020
Good morning Y6!
It’s anti-bullying week this week. Watch this video to find out about Odd Socks Day!
If you haven’t already, check out the Times Tables Rock Stars class news post.
Remember, if you want to listen along to the class novel, Wolf Brother, you can find parts one and two (and more!) on YouTube.
If you need any help or want to ask any questions, please don’t hesitate to send an email to jenwilson@spherefederation.org!
Now, onto this week’s learning.
Maths
In school, this week, we’re focusing on a new topic: fractions.
Children should use these resources:
- Simplify fractions: video, worksheet, answers
- Improper fractions to mixed numbers (recap): video, worksheet, answers
- Fractions on a number line: video, worksheet, answers
- Compare and order: video, worksheet, answers
- Arithmetic worksheet with answers at the bottom
(Let me know your score via an email. If there’s one you don’t know how to do, leave it and move on. We will be practising these papers on roughly a weekly basis and they test areas of maths we haven’t covered yet in Y6; it is good to get used to them! We will be doing this paper in class, too.)
You don’t have to print the worksheets. Your child can write or draw their answers on paper. Your child’s learning will be most effective if you sit with them to pause the clip and check / praise / support your child as the clip moves on.
Practise times tables on Times Table Rockstars, too. We’re concentrating on a mix of times tables, so your child should focus on the times table they find most difficult. Email me if you need your child’s login and password details.
(Suggested time: 30 minutes of Maths and 15 minutes of Rockstars daily)
Spelling
Look on our spelling page for this week’s words.
Your child should complete one task each day.
- Day 1: Generate more words linked to the spelling pattern or ‘rule’. (You could look out for the words in the book you’re reading at home, or any other text, like a website linked to our learning.)
- Day 2: Practise the spellings using two of the ideas in our Super Spelling Strategies Guide. (Set yourself and others at home a challenge of using some of the words when you’re speaking, too!)
- Day 3: Write separate sentences, each containing one of the spellings. (Don’t forget to show off really neat handwriting and make sure you sentence starts with a capital letter and ends with a full stop, exclamation mark (!) or question mark (?).
- Day 4: Repeat Task 2 or 3.
- Day 5: Get an adult at home to test you on your spellings. Practise any you spell incorrectly – you could write them out carefully until you’re sure.
(Suggested time: 15-20 minutes daily)
Reading fluency
This week, we’ll be reading this text about hieroglyphics to build up fluency skills.
In school, we generally follow this sequence:
- Day 1: Read the text aloud with your child listening. Read it clearly and slowly, pointing to each word as you read. Have a chat about any unfamiliar words.
- Day 2: Read aloud each sentence (a full short sentence or part of a longer sentence), and have your child read it back to you. Do this ‘echo reading’ for the whole text.
- Day 3: Read the text and talk about the effect of the punctuation on how you read it – pauses for full stops and expression for exclamations (!) or questions (?). Your child reads the text aloud.
- Day 4: Read together with expression (just like you practised on Day 3).
- Day 5: Your child reads independently and fluently.
(Suggested time: 15 minutes daily)
Reading comprehension
We’re continuing to read Wolf Brother in class, but we’ll also be reading other things too.
1 and 2: Matilda, Who told Lies and was Burnt to Death by Hilaire Belloc (it’s a comedy, honest!)
Follow these slides and complete the lessons explained on them.
3. Do this RIC on bullying.
4. Read this First News article and answer the questions. The answers are at the back.
5. Book Club. Once a week, we have a relaxing lesson where we sit and read quietly, often with an adult. At home, we’d like you to read your favourite book or text, too. If possible, discuss the book with an adult, talking about some or all of the sections of this grid.
(Suggested time: 30 minutes daily)
Writing
Activity 1: Your child should practise skills they’ve learnt recently by using the following sequence:
Task 1:
- define relative clauses
- list different examples of relative clauses
- find and highlight relative clauses in a book you’re reading at home
Task 2:
- write sentences, each with a different relative clause.
Task 3:
- write a short piece of writing about Ancient Egypt using lots of relative clauses
Activity 2:
Children should write six sentences about a picture or photograph you choose. Your child should remember capital letters, finger spaces, joined up letters (use our handwriting guide to help, paying particular attention to tall letters and letters that go beneath the line), and a full stop, exclamation mark (!) or question mark (?) to end the sentence. Encourage interesting words to make their writing more interesting.
(Suggested time: 30 minutes daily)
Topic
This week’s topic learning is about history. We’re continuing our topic all about prehistoric Britain compared to Ancient Egypt – an advanced ancient civilisation.
This week, just like we’re doing in class, you’re going to learn about what hieroglyphics were and have a go at writing some with this lesson from BBC Bitesize.
Next, we’d like you to learn about what pyramids were built for using this website.
- Why were they built?
- How were they built?
- How did different people feel about them being built?
- How do we know all this information?
- What is your opinion on the pyramids?
(Suggested time: 30-40 minutes)
Science
We’re carrying on with our learning about forces. This lesson from Oak National Academy links closely to what we’ve been doing in class – gears, levers and pulleys.
Email me to let me know how you got on!
Week beginning 16 November 2020
Hi everyone
We’re really missing you in school and we can’t wait to have you back. We hope you’re managing to stay happy, healthy and safe while you’re not with us here in school. You are still very much a part of our school community so please get in touch with us. You can email me at paulwilks@spherefederation.org.
Here’s a short video from me introducing the week.
Maths
This week’s maths learning continues our unit on addition and subtraction. Please use the following resources:
Lesson 1: video worksheet answers
Lesson2: video worksheet answers
Lesson 3: video worksheet answers
Lesson 4: end of unit assessment answers
Lesson 5: arithmetic check (inc answers)
You don’t have to print the worksheet. Your child can write or draw their answers on paper. Your child’s learning will be most effective if you sit with them to pause the clip and check / praise / support your child as the clip moves on.
Practise times tables on Times Table Rockstars, too. In Y4, we’re concentrating on the 6 times table. Email me if you need your child’s login and password details.
(Suggested time: 30 minutes of Maths and 15 minutes of Rockstars daily)
Spelling
Look on the homework page to find this week’s spellings. Your child should complete one task each day.
- Day 1: Generate more words linked to the spelling pattern or ‘rule’. You could look out for the words in the book you’re reading at home, or any other text, like a website linked to our science topic of Living Things and their Habitat.
- Day 2: Practise the spellings using two of the ideas in our Super Spelling Strategies guide. (Set yourself and others at home a challenge of using some of the words when you’re speaking, too!)
- Day 3: Write separate sentences, each containing one of the spellings. (Don’t forget to show off really neat handwriting and make sure you sentence starts with a capital letter and ends with a full stop, exclamation mark (!) or question mark (?).
- Day 4: Repeat Task 2 or 3.
- Day 5: Get an adult at home to test you on your spellings. Practise any you spell incorrectly – you could write them out carefully until you’re sure.
(Suggested time: 15-20 minutes daily)
Reading fluency
Click here for this week’s fluency text to build up fluency skills. In school, we generally follow this sequence:
- Day 1: Read the text aloud with your child listening. Read it clearly and slowly, pointing to each word as you read. Have a chat about any unfamiliar words.
- Day 2: Read aloud each sentence (a full short sentence or part of a longer sentence), and have your child read it back to you. Do this ‘echo reading’ for the whole text.
- Day 3: Read the text and talk about the effect of the punctuation on how you read it – pauses for full stops and expression for exclamations (!) or questions (?). Your child reads the text aloud.
- Day 4: Read together with expression (just like you practised on Day 3).
- Day 5: Your child reads independently and fluently.
(Suggested time: 15 minutes daily)
Reading comprehension
Day 1: Click here for this week’s RIC text and questions. It uses an extract from the Greek Myth Daedalus and Icarus. Click here to read the full story.
RIC stands for:
- Retrieve: finding information in a text
- Interpret: using clues in the text to unlock information
- Choice: thinking about the author’s choice of words, techniques or organisation that make the text interesting and enjoyable to read
Day 2: Agree with your child three words from any text they’ve read which they’re less familiar with. Your child should find out what they mean (eg by checking an online dictionary or simply discuss with you) and how to use them in sentences (both when speaking and when writing). Challenge your child to write a sentence with each word in, or to drop the words into conversations at home.
Day 3: Read this article from First News, a newspaper for children, and complete the activity.
Day 4: Read your fluency or RIC text again. Next, do one of the following:
- Your child could list at least ten facts they’ve read in the text. (If it’s a fiction text (a story), then the facts would be based on the story, like ‘Harry Potter picked up his broomstick’, rather than actual facts from the real world.)
- Your child could create questions and answers for what they’ve read. (For example, it could be a TV or radio interview based on what they’ve read.)
- Your child could create their own ‘RIC’ questions.
- Your child could draw and label a character or setting that they’ve read about.
Day 5: Book Club. Once a week, we have a relaxing lesson where we sit and read quietly, often with an adult. At home, we’d like you to read your favourite book or text, too. If possible, discuss the book with an adult, talking about some or all of the sections of this sheet.
(Suggested time: 30 minutes daily)
Writing
Activity 1: Complete this lesson about a setting description.
Activity 2: Complete this lesson from Oak National Academy about setting descriptions.
(Suggested time: 30 minutes daily)
Topic
Click here for our next Ancient Greek history lesson. It’s an Oak Academy lesson about Athenian Democracy.
Click here for a Kahoot quiz about Athenian Democracy.
Science
Click here for the third Oak Academy lesson on sound.
(Suggested time: 45 minutes)
Week beginning 16 November 2020
Hi everyone
We’re really missing you in school and we can’t wait to have you back. We hope you’re managing to stay happy, healthy and safe while you’re not with us here in school. You are still very much a part of our school community so please get in touch with us. You can email Mr Wain at oliwain@spherefederation.org or me at paulwilks@spherefederation.org.
Here’s a short video from me introducing the week.
Maths
This week’s maths learning continues our unit on addition and subtraction. Please use the following resources:
Lesson 1: video worksheet answers
Lesson2: video worksheet answers
Lesson 3: video worksheet answers
Lesson 4: video worksheet answers
Lesson 5: arithmetic check (inc answers)
You don’t have to print the worksheet. Your child can write or draw their answers on paper. Your child’s learning will be most effective if you sit with them to pause the clip and check / praise / support your child as the clip moves on.
Practise times tables on Times Table Rockstars, too. Email me if you need your child’s login and password details.
(Suggested time: 30 minutes of Maths and 15 minutes of Rockstars daily)
Spelling
Look on the homework page to find this week’s spellings. Your child should complete one task each day.
- Day 1: Generate more words linked to the spelling pattern or ‘rule’. You could look out for the words in the book you’re reading at home, or any other text, like a website linked to our science topic of Living Things and their Habitat.
- Day 2: Practise the spellings using two of the ideas in our Super Spelling Strategies guide. (Set yourself and others at home a challenge of using some of the words when you’re speaking, too!)
- Day 3: Write separate sentences, each containing one of the spellings. (Don’t forget to show off really neat handwriting and make sure you sentence starts with a capital letter and ends with a full stop, exclamation mark (!) or question mark (?).
- Day 4: Repeat Task 2 or 3.
- Day 5: Get an adult at home to test you on your spellings. Practise any you spell incorrectly – you could write them out carefully until you’re sure.
(Suggested time: 15-20 minutes daily)
Reading fluency
Click here for this week’s fluency text to build up fluency skills. In school, we generally follow this sequence:
- Day 1: Read the text aloud with your child listening. Read it clearly and slowly, pointing to each word as you read. Have a chat about any unfamiliar words.
- Day 2: Read aloud each sentence (a full short sentence or part of a longer sentence), and have your child read it back to you. Do this ‘echo reading’ for the whole text.
- Day 3: Read the text and talk about the effect of the punctuation on how you read it – pauses for full stops and expression for exclamations (!) or questions (?). Your child reads the text aloud.
- Day 4: Read together with expression (just like you practised on Day 3).
- Day 5: Your child reads independently and fluently.
(Suggested time: 15 minutes daily)
Reading comprehension
Day 1: Click here for this week’s RIC text and questions. It uses an extract from the Greek myth Daedalus and Icarus. Click here to read the full story.
RIC stands for:
- Retrieve: finding information in a text
- Interpret: using clues in the text to unlock information
- Choice: thinking about the author’s choice of words, techniques or organisation that make the text interesting and enjoyable to read
Day 2: Agree with your child three words from any text they’ve read which they’re less familiar with. Your child should find out what they mean (eg by checking an online dictionary or simply discuss with you) and how to use them in sentences (both when speaking and when writing). Challenge your child to write a sentence with each word in, or to drop the words into conversations at home.
Day 3: Read this article from First News, a newspaper for children, and complete the activity.
Day 4: Read your fluency or RIC text again. Next, do one of the following:
- Your child could list at least ten facts they’ve read in the text. (If it’s a fiction text (a story), then the facts would be based on the story, like ‘Harry Potter picked up his broomstick’, rather than actual facts from the real world.)
- Your child could create questions and answers for what they’ve read. (For example, it could be a TV or radio interview based on what they’ve read.)
- Your child could create their own ‘RIC’ questions.
- Your child could draw and label a character or setting that they’ve read about.
Day 5: Book Club. Once a week, we have a relaxing lesson where we sit and read quietly, often with an adult. At home, we’d like you to read your favourite book or text, too. If possible, discuss the book with an adult, talking about some or all of the sections of this sheet.
(Suggested time: 30 minutes daily)
Writing
Activity 1: Complete this lesson about a setting description.
Activity 2: Complete this lesson from Oak National Academy about setting descriptions.
(Suggested time: 30 minutes daily)
Topic
Click here for our next Ancient Greek history lesson. It’s an Oak Academy lesson about Athenian Democracy.
Click here for a Kahoot quiz about Athenian Democracy.
Science
Click here for the third Oak Academy lesson on sound.
(Suggested time: 45 minutes)
