22 April 2016
This week’s spellings will cover two different areas. Our main spelling list focusses on plurals and the different rules we need to follow when adding ‘s’. However, the children will be asked to write a sentence for their test on Friday which will include a homophone that they’ll be required to spell correctly.
- the laboratory – 10 laboratories
- one photocopy – 6 photocopies
- my memory – lots of memories
- large chimney – 2 large chimneys
- the display – 5 displays
- nice accessory – multiple accessories
- one wolf – a pack of wolves
- a knife – sharp knives
- a cliff – some cliffs
- delicious loaf – tasty loaves
We’ve discussed homophones throughout the week, particularly those we often get wrong: their, there, they’re; of, off; here, hear; to, two, too. See how many you can think of and have fun with it. We managed to think of a group of four homophones; can you? How many lists of three can you come up with? Time yourselves and see who can write the greatest number of pairs of homophones in 30 seconds.
22 April 2016
This week’s Practice Makes Perfect homework is due on Wednesday 27 April.
To be able recognise different word classes.
There are a number of SPAG questions for the children to answer this week all to do with recognising different word classes: noun, verb, adjective, conjunction, preposition, adverb, determiner.
Answer the questions as best you can and we’ll go through them together on Wednesday to see if there are any we’re not sure about.
22 April 2016
This week’s Creative homework has been chosen by the children following our topic lesson on Tuesday and is due on Wednesday 27 April.
To explore the technology of optical toys.
On Tuesday, we looked at how films came to be invented way back in the 1800s. It all started with optical toys which are based on the idea that if we look at a lot of images very quickly that change very gradually and it looks like the picture is moving.
There are a number of different types of toys and the children have brought some instructions home with them but there’ll be many different varieties and ways of changing them to make them their own. You might decide to design your own optical toy; write a set of instructions for how to make one; make one yourself; tell us all about optical toys; or even write a diary entry as though you’re a child from 1824 who’s just received a thaumotrope for their birthday.
We’re really looking forward to Wednesday’s homework review to see what everybody comes up with.
New topic: ‘Food’
This week, we have started a new topic: ‘Food‘. Before the Easter holidays, every child in Year 6 suggested a topic they would like to explore. After creating a shortlist, the children voted and decided on ‘Food‘.
So far, we’ve focused on the geography of the food we eat: where some foods originate from; how they travel to our plates; and why some foods are imported while some are produced here in the UK.
We’re excited to explore this topic further and will keep you updated about all our food-related learning.
You can help at home by (amongst other things!):
- discussing the origin of the foods you eat at home
- looking at the food packaging together and making sense of some of the information you are given
- discussing why some foods might be grown in specific countries
- discussing how foods are advertised and how this might affect us as consumers
- encouraging your child to think about the choices they make when choosing food to eat (are they healthy choices?)
Moortown PE kit
Has your child recently taken part in a sporting event wearing one of our Moortown polo tops?
If so, please could you ensure it is returned to the office asap to ensure we have all tops available for our next sporting events.
We had a whale of a time!
Rocket seeds
You may have seen on Newsround recently that many schools have received some seeds from outer space; we are one of those schools! Today, Year 5 were set the very important challenge of planting our schools ‘red’ and ‘blue’ seeds.
Each school has received two sets of seeds (red and blue); one lot is from space and the other are plain old Earth seeds. We don’t know which one is which but we’ve planted both and so begins our experiment to find out: will seeds grow if they’ve been cultivated in space?
This is a six week experiment through which we’re required to observe, record, measure and question – all essential scientific skills. Although Year 5 have planted them, children from across the school will be involved in looking after and monitoring them throughout the project. We’ll keep you updated as the seeds grow and let you know which ones we think are from space.
Which do you think?
Lights… camera…action…
Before the holidays, Year 5 were asked what they’d like their next topic to be about. Obviously we had lots of ideas which covered all of our different interests:
- food
- film
- sport
- mythology
- technology
After Miss Rushbrooke narrowed down the selection to just four, we voted on which topic we’d most like to learn about and the one with most votes became our first topic for the Summer term. Film snatched it and so we have begun our ‘Lights…Camera…Action…’ topic.
The children ‘oood’ and ahhhhd’ when they walked in on Tuesday afternoon to find many interesting and unknown objects to explore and question.
We identified what we could see, thought about what they might do and wondered who made them; when they were made; and whether they still worked now.
We then went on to look at how films began by making some optical toys which were the foundations of the technology to transform still pictures into moving ones.
It’s been a fantastic start to the topic with many more exciting things to come!
Scratch!
Today, we have been creating algorithms using scratch. We wrote a code to manipulate a sprite. Why not ask your child what a sprite is?