Squashed sentences!
The first week of the new term is over and the class have settled well into their routines again. We have been learning to add two 1-digit numbers by bridging 10 (see previous post), reading and writing words with the suffix -ing, and learning how not to ‘squash’ our sentences.
A squashed sentence is when two sentences are squashed together without any punctuation.
An example: I went camping it was fun.
This should be: I went camping. It was fun. (…or some other punctuation, but not a comma)
We can also join two sentences with conjunctions.
An example: I went camping and it was fun.
This week, we were focusing on separating two squashed sentences with a full stop. Children found it easy to identify where the full stop should go to separate the sentences when listening to a squashed sentence being read, but found it less easy to do this in their own writing.
To help at home, you could ensure that children are pausing at full stops in their reading. You could also write two sentences which are separated by a full stop in the incorrect place, such as I went. Camping it was fun. Read the sentences together and see if your child could fix it.
‘Squashed sentences’ are something which spoils some older children’s writing, and it’s hard to get out of the habit later on. Please practise this lots at home!
08 January 2016
The spellings this week follow a similar pattern, involving changing a t to a c.
| innocent – innocence |
| decent – decency |
| frequent – frequency |
| confident – confidence – confidential |
| observant – observance – observation |
| expectant – expectance – expectancy |
| tolerant – tolerance – toleration |
| substance – substantial |
These spellings will be practised throughout the week before being tested on Friday 15 January.
08 January 2016
This week’s Practice Makes Perfect homework is due on Wednesday 13 January.
I have been assigned three Mathletics tasks.
The children need to log on to Mathletics where they will find that they’ve been assigned three tasks.
- multiplying by 10, 100 and 1000
- dividing by 10, 100 and 1000
- adding capacity
These tasks must be completed by Wednesday and if there are any problems with accessing Mathletics, I need to be told before so that they can be given time in school.
08 January 2016
This week, we also have Practice Makes Perfect homework:
I can find missing angles around a point.
This continues on from maths lessons recently. Children have learnt how to calculate missing angles in a straight line and should should apply this knowledge to the worksheet.
This homework is due on 13 January 2016.
08 January 2016
For all children in Year 1 to Year 6, the homework this week is Talk Time and is due Wednesday 13 January.
Which two charities should we support at school and why?
It’s time for children to think about our next two school charities. In 2014 and 2015, we have supported St Gemma’s Hospice and Cancer Research UK raising a total of £4370.02. We’ve helped these charities for two years now, so it’s time for a change.
We need you to have a discussion at home about which charities would be best for us to support. Following a class discussion next week, each class will nominate two charities to be considered by the School Council, who will make the final decision.
Once your child has decided on two charities, make sure they have clear, powerful reasons to support their views.
You might want to discuss whether we support…
- a local charity
- a national charity
- an international charity
- a children’s charity
- an animal charity
- a charity which helps a vulnerable group in our community
- a charity that has helped our learning, like Heart Research UK, NSPCC, RNLI
Our new school charities will be announced on Friday 15 January.
Science: Wow!
On Wednesday, Y5 enjoyed a morning jam-packed working scientifically. We saw some awesome reactions that made us gasp as well as taking on some observing, measuring and recording of our own mini experiments.
Here is some of our favourite ‘Wow’ science. Don’t worry… no Y5s were harmed during filming.
What happens when you heat custard powder?
What happens when you set hydrogen on fire?
School charities
Moortown Primary is a happy, healthy and caring place to be.
That’s why we support two charities for two years. In 2014 and 2015, we supported Cancer Research UK and St Gemma’s Hospice.
In 2014 and 2015, we raised £2,205.36 for Cancer Research UK and £2,164.66 for St Gemma’s Hospice. (The amounts are slightly different because of the different fund-raising events over the two years – some are specifically for just one of the two charities.)
Thank you for your support.
Two new charities will be chosen by pupils this month. There will be a Talk Time homework – your child will discuss ideas at home. Following this, each class will discuss ideas so make sure your child can talk about their preferred charities with reasons why they think Moortown Primary should support them. At the end of the discussion, two charities from each class will be nominated. The School Council will then consider the charities from this shortlist and finally agree on the two charities we will support in 2016 and 2017.
Spectacular Science!
Today, we were fortunate enough to visit the science department of Allerton Grange High School.
We completed six experiments using their specialist equipment in the labs; we mixed acid with magnesium and even made our own sparklers!
We also saw some awe-inspiring demonstrations of different chemical reactions. In one of them, Zach had his hands set on fire!
Most importantly, all the children returned to school enthused about science and hungry to learn more. This is great because our current topic ‘What’s The Matter?‘ and our next topic ‘Life‘ are driven by this subject.
This week, by Arran and Bailey
Arran and Bailey spent some time reflecting on some of our learning this week.
Topic
In Year 6, we have started a new mini topic called ‘What’s The Matter’. This topic involves Chemistry. In our first lesson, we learnt about ‘filtration’ and how to separate mixtures and solutions.
Here is some technical vocabulary that we have learnt:
- ‘Mixture’: A mixture is a combination of a solid and a liquid which won’t dissolve.
- ‘Solute’: A solute is solid that dissolves in a solvent.
- ‘Solvent’: A solvent is the liquid used to dissolve a solute.
- ‘Solution’: A solution is the combination of a solid and a liquid that have dissolved.
English
In English we have received a mystery letter from Alexander Wolf. The first few lines of the letter read: ‘Everybody knows the story of The Three Little Pigs. Or at least they think they do. But I’ll let you in on a little secret. Nobody knows the real story because nobody has heard my side of the story.’
Based on this letter we are writing a news report.
What’s the matter?
Our mini topic for the first two weeks is What’s the matter? In this Science-driven mini topic we will be looking at rocks, soil and fossils. Today, we’ve been investigating the properties of rocks. We conducted an experiment to see which rocks were permeable and which rocks were impermeable.
We used pipettes to add three drops of water onto a flat surface of a rock. We then observed what happened to the water. We were looking to see if it would soak into the rocks or just sit there. Why don’t you ask your child about the difference between permeable and impermeable rocks and how this experiment helped us to discover if rocks were permeable or not?
You could also explore whether other materials are permeable or impermeable – materials like raincoats, for example!
