Welcome back!
As most of you already know, I taught the current Year 4 two years ago in Key Stage 1. They were a wonderful group of children then and it’s great to see that Mr Wilks has had such a positive impact.
In literacy, Year 4 are currently story-writing in literacy. Further into the term, they will be learning about promotional writing (advertisements, leaflets) as well as writing reports (information texts – often a website or factual book). Encourage your child to read these different types of text when you’re out and about or if you spot an interesting report in a newspaper or magazine.
In maths we’re investigating place value (this is all about knowing the value of digits in a number, such as knowing 357 has three hundreds, five tens and seven units) as well as the four basic operations (addition, subtraction, multiplication and divide). By the end of the year, your child has to know all times table facts up to 10 x 10. It is imperative that they practise their times tables every day for a few minutes until they can recall any times table within five seconds.
Parents’ evening will be towards the end of October; in the meantime, please feel free to drop in if you have any queries. Finally, I’d like to welcome Luca to our class. He’s slotted perfectly into our learning community and has already made excellent contributions– especially in art!
I look forward to seeing you all again soon.
New beginnings
As we start the new school year, our SEAL (Social and Emotional Aspects of Learning) theme focuses on New beginnings.
New beginnings allows children the opportunity to discuss and reflect on how they or others may feel in a new situation or setting. This SEAL theme offers children the opportunity to see themselves as valued individuals within a community, and to contribute to shaping a welcoming, safe and fair learning community for all.
The key areas of learning throughout this theme are empathy, self-awareness, social skills and motivation.
Through discrete SEAL lessons, circle times and across the curriculum, children will explore feelings of happiness and excitement, sadness, anxiety and fearfulness, while learning (and putting into practice) shared models for calming down and problem-solving.
New beginnings supports the development of a learning community in each classroom where all members feel that they belong. Class contracts, produced at the start of the year, allow children to contribute to how they feel they can achieve a safe and fair learning community.
Fruit tuckshop returns!
Our fruit tuckshop, to be run by the Year 5 class this year, returns next week on a new day – Tuesday.
The tuckshop is open to all Key Stage 2 children during playtime. Reception and Key Stage 1 children receive free fruit at playtime.
Each item costs 20p and the fruit can be a snack for playtime or used to top up their packed lunch box – all contributing to their 5 a day!
As stated in our Food Policy, fruit is the only snack allowed at playtimes for Key Stage 2.
Maths websites
Today we looked at choosing the most appropriate number operation in maths. Based on the television programme Countdown, here is a website the children used to test out their skills – well done to Yasmin and Ayesha for your hard work today.
http://www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/maths/countdown/index.htm
Another version can be found on the excellent nrich maths website:
SEAL statement 07 September
This week we begin our new SEAL theme, New Beginnings, and the weekly statement is ‘I can make someone feel welcome.‘
Over this half term, as the children are experiencing new beginnings, each class will be looking at how they can all contribute to establishing a welcoming and safe environment for learning.
Welcome to Year 5
Welcome to the Autumn term of 2012. It is a new start for everyone including me; a change from Year 1 to Year 5 is interesting and so far it has been a very enjoyable one. Having taught most of the children before, it has been fantastic to see how they have progressed and matured and the first week back has been a pleasure.
A big welcome to Brannoc who has made a fantastic start at Moortown; he was nominated by Pavanpal and Amit to receive a certificate in his first assembly as they felt that he had made a “brilliant start with a smile on his face”.
Our first mini topic, over the next couple of weeks, will be “Materials and their Properties”. This is a science-based topic with investigations, predictions and lots of questioning. The brain will then be investigated (not literally!) in a “Brain Box Week” before our main topic starts which is “Rich and Poor”; more on this at a later date.
A busy half term with lots of learning to be done. As always, my door is always open if you have any problems or questions. I look forward to seeing you all at parents’ evening in October if not before.
Thank you.
07 September 2012
This’s week homework is creative. We would like to find out more about the children and their interests. It should be handed in by Wednesday 12 September.
“I can show something interesting about myself.”
Just a quick reminder for our new friends at Moortown: homework should not be more than one page of A4 and can be as creative as you like.
We look forward to finding out more about our children.
07 September 2012
Spelling is an integral part of the writing process. Pupils who spell with ease are able to concentrate on the content of their writing. With this in mind, we carry on with the letters and sounds programme on a daily basis in Year 1.
Spelling lists will be given out on Mondays and will be linked to the sounds being taught that week, or a list of frequently used words. Sometimes the list will link to the class topic.
This week’s list is words the children encountered in Reception and will need in their day to day writing.
| and |
| in |
| it |
| on |
| you |
| but |
| up |
Hint: Practice little and often works best.
07 September 2012
The spellings this week are all words where you have to drop the ‘e’ at the end of the word when adding ‘ing’.
The chant we use to remember the rule is drop the ‘e’ for ‘ing’.
The children have ten spellings to learn but will only be tested on eight out of the ten words.
| 1. | hope | hoping |
| 2. | use | using |
| 3. | write | writing |
| 4. | take | taking |
| 5. | shake | shaking |
| 6. | joke | joking |
| 7. | share | sharing |
| 8. | smile | smiling |
| 9. | have | having |
| 10. | shuffle | shuffling |
07 September 2012
This week’s spellings are words using ‘oi’ and ‘oy’. A useful way to remember which to use is ‘oi’ is usually in the middle of a word and ‘oy’ is usually at the end. These spellings will be tested on Friday 14 September.
- coin
- foil
- join
- oil
- point
- joy
- toy
- enjoy
- destroy
- employ