17 March 2017
Spellings for this week are words, chosen at random, from the Year 3/4 statutory list.
It is important to check that your child knows the meaning of each word and can use it correctly within a sentence.
To help:
- say the word
- say it in a sentence
- say the word again
- write the word
- write the word in a sentence
- check it’s spelt correctly
- repeat – lots!
The spellings are:
- various
- question
- guard
- calendar
- famous
- peculiar
- medicine
17 March 2017
This week’s homework is creative and is due in on Thursday 23 March.
To design a quiz to show what I’ve learnt about our topic.
To celebrate bringing our current topic to an end, I have asked the children to design a quiz. They will need to think about a period of time throughout history and create questions about it. It is important that some of these questions are transport related as this has been our focus throughout. We discussed in class how to present a quiz and how to vary the answers. For example, multiple choice, use pictures, lift the flap and so on.
During our homework review session, the children will be able to try out their quizzes on their friends.
17 March 2017
“i before e except after c!”
Many of us have heard this rule but just how true is it? Children should investigate this ‘rule’ and find out how true it is. Are there many exceptions? Can you find examples where the rule does help? Children should evidence their investigation on the spelling page of their homework book.
17 March 2017
This week, children have two pieces of homework. Both are due on Thursday 23 March.
The first piece is Practice Makes Perfect: To be able to add parenthesis.
Children have been given a worksheet that will help them practise this writing skill. We’ll be using this skill in our independent writing next week during our English lessons.
The second piece is Talk Time: I can see things from other people’s point of view.
Children should discuss next week’s SEAL statement with someone at home. We will reflect on these discussions as part of our homework review next week.
17 March 2017
This week’s spellings all have unstressed vowels in them. This means that you don’t hear part of the spelling when you say it: animal (we don’t really hear the ‘i’ when we say it).
Create some tips for us to share on how to spell these words accurately which we’ll share with each other on Thursday 23 March.
17 March 2017
This week, the children have a reading comprehension and a Maths test which we’ll go through together on Thursday 23 March. These are the two tests which children are finding the most difficult and making silly mistakes on so it would be helpful to them if they could go through it with an adult to discuss difficult parts or identify errors made.
Marble Run Mayhem
Yesterday, we were finally able to get our hands on the marble runs we made a few weeks back as part of our big Time Travel topic – we’ve been waiting for the glue to set properly!
After a little ‘free play’, and after making a few alterations, we evaluated our finished products against the criteria we decided on during the design process. It was really impressive that each group managed to make marble runs that fulfilled the initial criteria: fun to play, works, correct level of challenge, clear start and end point and structurally sound.
Finally, we thought about what we’d do differently next time. Most groups agreed that they could have planned their marble runs with a little more precision (it’s hard not to get carried away during the design phase).
Help others take part in the Big Pedal
Do you have any bikes or scooters that you no longer use?
If you’d like to donate them, please bring them to school any morning this week and provided they are in a working condition, we’ll offer them to people who don’t have one to use in the upcoming Big Pedal event. Please hand them to Dom Jacques who will be in the playground to take receipt.
Any that aren’t roadworthy or are unwanted will be donated to local recycling charities such as the Yorkshire Bank Bike Library. The nearest Bike Library is at Moor Allerton Library (near Sainsburys) and they offer loan bikes to families for up to 14 days for free.
Three days to go
The Big Pedal starts on Monday 20th March for two weeks and we’re looking forward to seeing as many people as possible take to two wheels for their journey (or final part of their journey) to school. There are two lots of prizes up for grabs:
Big Pedal national prizes for all participating schools
Drawn daily for schools who achieve a minimum 15% participation (roughly 31 children for Moortown Primary) each day.
Details of the national prizes on offer are shown below.
- DAY 1 – BMX World Champ Visit & Show
- DAY 2 – Bespoke Travel Map For School
- DAY 3 – Three Brand New Islabikes
- DAY 4 – Superheroes/Moves Sample Pack
- DAY 5 – Alastair Humphreys Visit + Books
- DAY 6 – Three Brand New Islabikes
- DAY 7 – £100 Sustrans Voucher
- DAY 8 – Cyclepods Cycle Storage
- DAY 9 – Three Brand New Islabikes
- DAY 10 – Extreme Mountain Bike Show Visit
Individual prizes for pupils and supporters (parents/carers) at Moortown Primary
The more days you take part, the more entry tickets you’ll have in the prize draw.
Pupil prizes include two stunt scooters, an action camera, a bike pump, a copy of ‘The Boy who Biked the World’ by Alastair Humphreys and a Gruffalo Easter egg. Supporter prizes include two £5 M&S vouchers, a ‘hot drink and cake for two’ at Filmore & Union and a Lindt chocolate bunny.
Winners will be drawn during assembly on 31 March, the final Big Pedal day and last day of term.
How to win – pupils
Please fill in the tickets on the letter sent home, cut them out and put them in your school bag. Each morning you scoot or cycle, put your ticket in THE BIG PEDAL CONTAINER in your classroom.
How to win – parents/carers/supporters
Wherever possible, please take part and join your children on their rides to school. It’s a bit of fun, helps to reduce congestion and you could even win a prize. Each day you scoot or cycle, simply pick up a ticket from the school playground, write your name on it and pop it into the Big Pedal container. The more days you join in, the more chances you have of winning a prize.
Thank you in advance for your support. Please get in touch if you have any questions. Enjoy the ride!
Share your photos or stories: moortownoffice@spherefederation.org
Reasoning in maths
We’ve been thinking recently about what we can do to explain our maths. Yesterday, we got out some physical resources and had to prove our answers using the resources, images, pictorial representations, words and mathematical strategies.
It can be tricky to understand what a multi-step question is actually asking you do calculate and thinking of the problem like this is one way we can help ourselves. It also helps us to improve our reasoning skills: one of the three key areas in the National Curriculum alongside fluency and problem solving.
