Friday 18th February

Good afternoon everybody - Happy Friday!
 Another action packed week - 4 days full to the brim with learning!
This week, we have been working hard in English on our Wider Curriculum essay based on The Middle East, we have been working to think of an answer to the question 'How can peace be achieved in the Middle East?'.  We have worked hard in Maths, on our unit Multiplication and Division, this week we have focused on formal written methods for multiplying 2, 3 and 4 digit numbers by 1 and 2 digit numbers.   In Science, we have focused on Magnetism, looking particularly at electro-magnets.
On Monday, we enjoyed another fun-filled French session with Madame Jordan, thinking about months of the year, numbers and how to say our birthdays. The children had a day of DT on Wednesday, when they learnt about Bridges, the forces that act on them and the different types of bridges. Then we tested the strength of different designs. We made a prototype Truss bridge from spaghetti, this is in prepartion for making our own Truss bridges from wood. Unfortunately, wind stopped making!  (See PicCollage at the bottom)

 We finished the week off with swimming on Thursday afternoon and then a switch to remote learning for Friday, because of the wind - I hope everyone stayed safe.
 
Spellings are on Dojo for the groups and I have been impressed with how many people are reading every night, keep it up!  The Wider Curriculum home learning is on the website and on Dojo and the children have had a paper copy, I have had some great examples in so far (see photos), including some great Electro-pop tracks and some very Picasso-esque Cubist interpretations of the staff!   Any late pieces of home learning need to be handed in straight after half term.
 
  In terms of home learning, can I remind everybody that the expectation is that children read for at least 10 minutes at home every day, this can be magazines, newspapers, manuals, cookery books, as well as their reading books, as it is all reading. This is to promote reading for pleasure as there is nothing better than a good book. Remember, that you are your child’s greatest role model, so if they see you enjoying a good book, it really promotes good learning habits.  I will ask that reading is recorded in their new reading journals and that these come in every day so that I can monitor their reading.
  I would also like children to spend time working on their times tables, which are vital in so many areas of the Maths curriculum.  They can do this through Times Tables Rock Stars, I have also posted a list of great websites to practise on.
Next week, is half term, I have put a slides presentation about Rivers on Google Classroom, if you could have a look at this as it is our next Wider Curriculum Geography area of learning and will give you a bit of knowledge before we start the topic.
 
Have a great week, get outside (when the wind stops!), be active, read and enjoy family time.
 
See you on Monday 28th February.
 
Mr F