Friday 3rd December

Good afternoon everybody - Happy Friday!
 It’s the end of another week and it’s ended in a Christmassy jumperathon!
This week, we have been working hard in English and have completed our writing in a biographical style about our inspirational person.  We have also been working on our spelling and handwriting skills.  We have worked hard in Maths, on our unit Statistics, this week we have completed the unit and the assessment for this.   In Science, we have focused on Physical and Chemical Changes, looking mainly at what the key differences are between a physical and chemical change. On Monday, we enjoyed another fun-filled French session with Madame Jordan, learning the names of various animals and how to say whether we liked or disliked them. The children have had their Music and PSHE sessions with Miss Boyce and RE with Miss Penny. 
In art, we have been working on drawing houses, taking a section of our drawings and turning it into a tile for printing, the results have been very pleasing.
Spellings are on Dojo for the groups. There is a digital copy of this half term's Wider Curriculum Home Learning on Dojo. For this, as there was last time, there is a choice of activities, I would like to see 3 completed activities by Thursday 16th December, which is the last Thursday before the Christmas holidays. I have received a few good examples already, a prayer mat, some scientific cooking, some shanty town based artwork and an autobiography. 
  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 assessment week and the children will have a few assessments to look at their progress during the term ansd to help me determine what the next steps are for next term. We will also be continuing work on our new Geography topic area of Housing and our Science area of Physical and Chemical Changes. We will be starting our new English text Imagery in Poetry texts and start our Multiplication and Division unit in Maths.
 
Have a great weekend, whatever you are doing, get outside and enjoy yourselves.
 
See you on Monday.
 
Mr F