Oak Week Beginning 19th February 2024
We have been straight back into work mode on our first week back starting all the new areas of learning for this half term. In Maths we are returning to Fractions for Year 5 children but starting it for the for time in Year 4. The Y5's have been learning how to multiply unit, non-unit and mixed number fractions and used their understanding of simplifying improper fractions too. The Y4's have been doing lots of counting in fractions, over the whole, and looking at what a whole actually is. They have partitioned mixed numbers and added them to number lines. Next week they will be exploring ordering and sequencing fractions. In English we have been developing a skill we started in guided reading; looking at features of persuasive text. We have been writing a persuasive letter, using lots of stock phrases which often appear in this genre, to persuade Mrs Peacey and the Governors not to shorten Key Stage 2 break times in the morning and at lunchtime. The letter sparked some strong reactions, perfect to generate the ideas they needed to respond. They have done a very good job at writing in a formal tone. Next week we will be writing persuasive speeches and having a debate!
Our new Topic for this half term is Violent Earth and yesterday we explored the structure of our earth and investigated its layers. We especially looked at the crust and learned how it was divided up into different plates and had a mini introduction to plate tectonics! They were fascinated by how the earth's continents were constantly moving around on a layer of molten rock (the mantle) which I demonstrated using a map of the worlds plates floating no some golden syrup! We will be looking at how these plate tectonics cause volcanoes and earthquakes over the next few weeks and where the most dangerous places on our planet are.
Our computing topic is all about data collection, so we have started to collect our own data by observing the traffic at different times of the day this week. The children have been very excited to do this task and want to beat the previous days results. Next week we will be using the BBC Micro:bit's to make some pedometers to collect data on how many steps we make in a day. This will, again, be an exciting way to capture live data and improve our coding skills at the same time.
We also completed the next stage of our Art and DT printing project, by doing some test prints with our lino tiles and modifying them as needed. We then made a paper pattern of the pencil case, which we will start to sew next week, and printed our tiles on those to show what our final creation will look like. The children had great fun, even though some got a little too messy! The final results were really good, showing that a perfect print wasn't always necessary.
Even though there were no star learners this week, all have settled back into school and I am looking forward to sharing their progress with you at next weeks parents evenings.
