How to engage with Antony over Christmas

Whilst we are all getting in the festive spirit here at home, Antony will still be alone on the ice, so we would like to encourage you and your pupils to keep in touch with Antony throughout the Christmas holidays. Students can engage with Antony over the Christmas holiday using the login details we have provided for you and sending their Christmas wishes to him using the discussion boards and comments on his blog. 

Remember you can keep up to date with Antony's journey so far by visiting Antony's Blog and Pictures on www.eteteachers.org,

Click on Antony's blog on the South Pole profile or listen to Antony's daily audio blog podcast at http://www.ipadio.com/broadcasts/AntonyJinman.
Antony's route can also be tracked via: https://share.delorme.com/southpoleexpedition2013

ROCK AND ROLL CHRISTMAS

Rock and Roll Christmas.

The children are rehearsing hard for our KS2 Christmas production. Have you got your tickets yet?

Science Challenge

The children were faced with the question

WHAT MAKES THE BEST PAPER SPINNER?

Having looked at a template they then tried to improve on it with their own designs.

We then had great fun launching them off our stairwell.

Ready to launch.

Class champion

Landing Assembly

The cast of our assembly presentation.

This week we finished our topic on the Ancient Greeks, with a presentation of some of our Horrible Histories play scripts, in the topic 'Landing' assembly.Dr Who visited us again and this time we were able to tell him all about the Ancient Greek Olympics.

WEEK BEGINNING 2-12-13

These are the outcomes for this week’s Literacy genre on information writing.

Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday
1. Distinguish between fiction and non-fiction books. 2. Discuss and identify features of non-chronological reports.	1. Identify nouns, adjectives, verbs and adverbs. 2. Classify words in sentences. 3. Recognise simple, compound and complex sentences.	1. Brainstorm a list of informal words. 2. Rewrite an informal report changing it to 3rd person and present tense.	1. Add suffixes to words using spelling rules. 2. Use dictionaries to check words are not made-up.	1. Research information for a report using books and the internet. 2. Make notes. 3. Plan heading and sub-headings.

This week’s Maths success criteria

Marking /success criteria.

Know the 3,4,6 and 8 x and divides; Use efficient methods to divide numbers just beyond the tables, including remainders.

Know the 3, 4, 6 and 8 x

Know the 3, 4, 6 and 8 divides

Understand that multiplication is the opposite of division.

Divide by 3, 4 and find a remainder

Divide by 6 and 8 and find a remainder

Use the most efficient division method to divide numbers just beyond 10x tables knowledge

MAGICAL GREEK MUSEUM

Zeus, Perseus,Medusa all came to life in y3/4AF’s Ancient Greek class museum.

 Gods and goddesses gave commands, heroes and heroines told their stories and evil creatures  threatened menacingly.

 Each member of the class researched a mythical character from Ancient Greece. It has been a chance to hear and tell stories. A chance to act and perform

 Next, the class worked on a short script for their character. They learnt it at home with their parents.
 

We set the classroom up with lights and plinths and drapes. Classes and parents visited during the morning bringing the statues to life with a touch of a button.
 

The younger children were entranced as they moved around ,listening carefully to each of the characters.

 Some had a sad story to tell like Arachne. Others provided a sudden shock such as Perseus pulling the severed head of Medusa out of his bag. Evil characters such as Hades threatened terrible things.

 Many thanks to all parents for their support with costumes and learning lines. 

Week beginning 25-11-13

On Wednesday we will be opening our Greek museum to visitors. Parents are welcome between 10.30 and 10.55. If you are unable to visit I will post some clips and photos on the blog next week.

In Literacy,we will be completing our Greek myths using the success criteria listed last week. In Maths, this will be a consolidation and assessment week using the success criteria listed from this term (see posts from previous weeks).

Week beginning 18-11-13

What will we be learning this week?

Use grid method to multiply a 2-digit number by a 1-digit number; Use efficient methods to divide numbers just beyond the tables, including remainders.

Know the 3 and 4x

Know the 3 and 4 divides

Understand that multiplication is the opposite of division e.g. 6x 4 = 24 so 24 ÷ 4 = 6

Use grid method to multiply TU x U. × 20 4 3 60 12 72

Divide by 5 and find a remainder.

Use the most efficient division method.

Children could practise here

In Literacy, we will continue with writing our Greek myths (See last week for marking scheme and useful websites). We will be focussing on using paragraphs and writing fabulous descriptions.

In History we will be planning our Greek museum ready for Wednesday 27^th November.

This week is also anti-bullying week. We will be focussing on cyber bulling. This would be a good opportunity to discuss these issues at home. See this site for details 

WEEK BEGINNING 11-11-13

Greek Play scripts. This week we had great fun performing our Ancient Greek Olympics play scripts that we had created.

Maths Marking /success criteria. Week beginning 11-11-13

Tell the time to the nearest min; use analogue, digital and Roman numeral clocks; use am and pm times appropriately; convert units of time, work out time intervals crossing the hour, collect data and organise into bar charts and pictograms.

Tell the time to the nearest minute on analogue clocks some with Roman numerals.

Convert between digital and analogue times using am and pm.

Find times that are 30, 40 and 45 mins later crossing the hour.

Time events in seconds.

Collect data and record results in bar charts where one step represents 5 or 10 units.

Present data in pictograms where one symbol represents 4 units.

Here are some links to some related sites

http://www.wmnet.org.uk/wmnet/custom/files_uploaded/uploaded_resources/503/clock.swf

http://www.teacherled.com/resources/clockspin/bigbenload.html

In Literacy this week we are beginning a new genre of Greek myth writing.

Literacy Marking /success criteria. Week beginning 11-11-13 (for 3 weeks)

My myth includes a beginning, a build-up, a climax, a resolution and an ending

I explained a natural phenomena

I used a traditional opening and ending

I used adjectives and powerful verbs to help describe characters

I used alliteration

I used repetitive sentences

I included speech between the main characters

I used time connectives

I included an adverbial phrase

I included a sentences with ‘but’ in it

I included a question

Here are some links to some related sites

http://www.dltk-kids.com/world/greece/index.htm activities and resources

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/primaryhistory/ancient_greeks/gods_and_heroes/ Ancient Greek Gods and Heroes

http://www.mythweb.com/gods/index.html an interactive look at the Olympians – hover over a god or goddess to find out about them

http://www.mythweb.com/heroes/heroes.html find out about Greek heroes

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/primaryhistory/ancient_greeks/ play a game where you are the hero

http://www.starfall.com/n/level-c/greek-myths/load.htm?f simple Greek myths which are easier to read

http://greece.mrdonn.org/greekgods/index.html click on the names of gods to find out more about them

http://www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/Homework/greece/gods.htm about Greek gods and goddesses

http://storynory.com/2008/08/24/the-boy-who-flew-too-high/ the story of Icarus

This week's success criteria.

Subtract 3-digit numbers using expanded decomposition; choose a subtraction calculation strategy.

Quickly find pairs of numbers with a total of 100 e.g. 35+ ? =100.

Use counting up to subtract numbers on either side of 100, answers less than 20 e.g. 103-98=

Use decomposition to subtract, moving a 10 from the 10s to the 1s. e.g. 345-227=

Use decomposition to subtract, moving a 100 from the 100s to the 10 e.g. 345-163=

Check a subtraction using addition e.g. 72-56=16 so 56+16=72

Estimate what the answer to a subtraction question will be.

This week, in Literacy, we will complete our play scripts genre (see previous success criteria) .

ANCIENT GREEK OLYMPIC DAY

 Children in Year 3/4  went back through time to Olympia in Ancient Greece in 700BC.

After much research, the children planned a schedule of events to represent  the week of Olympic competition.

They represented Ancient city states as they paraded through all the classes at school.

Next they gathered in the temple of Zeus where they swore an athlete’s oath and made an offering to the gods.

Then it was onto the games.

Chariot racing traditionally opened the games

The athletes competed at javelin

 the standing long jump

 and hopolite racing(in armour).

The champions were presented with an olive leaf crown in assembly.

When the sports were over it was on to the ‘Feast of champions’ 

at local Greek restaurant ‘Socrates’.

We all had a fabulous fun day and learnt a lot by bringing our topic alive.

NB Many thanks to everyone for such a great effort with the costumes.Please keep the costumes safe because we will need them again after half term.

Spooky Halloween Disco.

Can you recognise these members of the class?

The week ahead

Of course we're all looking forward to our Ancient Greek Olympics day on Thursday. The children have planned the day and we're looking forward to seeing their costumes on the day

Linking in with this,the children will be making 'Horrible Histories' style comedy sketches in Literacy. This is part of the play scripts genre. We will be filming the sketches to use as part of our class assembly.
The success criteria are as follows:

Our script includes a cast list at the start.

It has a narrator.

The speakers’ names are on the left.

We have not used speech marks.

We started a new line for each new speech.

Our play script has scenes.

We wrote stage directions in brackets.

We used adverbs and powerful verbs.

Maths. This week we will be using our knowledge of place value to speed up our mental addition and subtraction.

Congratulations to the children who climbed up a bit higher up tables mountain last week. Who will be climbing this week?

The success criteria are:

Add or subtract 1s, 10s or 100s to a 3-digit number, without crossing the tens or hundreds boundary

Add a near multiple of 10 to a 2-digit number e.g. 35+29(30)

Add a near multiple of 10 or 100 to a 3-digit number without crossing the tens or hundreds boundary.

Subtract a near multiple of 10 or 100 from a 3-digit number without crossing the tens or hundreds boundary..

Decide on the most efficient mental methods

VISIT FROM ARCTIC EXPLORER

Anthony Jinman, arctic explorer got a very warm welcome when he visited. Unfortunately, this will be the last time he's warm as he sets off to walk ,unaided, to the South Pole. We will be following his progress as he uploads to his blog. The children tried on expedition equipment, learnt about glaciers and the wildlife of the Antarctic.

This week's marking ladder for Literacy.

Year 4 Poetry on a Common Theme

Objective

I used an expanded noun phrase Eg The slightly curling petals of the flower

I have kept to a rhyme pattern using sensible rhymes

My verbs are powerful

My adjectives are strong

I used alliteration

I used similes

This week's success criteria for maths.

Marking /success criteria.

Use place value to add or subtract 4-digit numbers; Add and subtract 1, 10, 100, 1000 to and from 4-digit numbers.

Say what each digit represents in a 4-digit number.

Write place value related additions eg 345+ 30(only the tens change)

Write place value related additions and subtractions eg 345-30

Use place value to find which numbers have been added or subtracted eg 345 - ? = 325

Use this knowledge to add and subtract 1 and 1000 eg 4567-1001

Use this knowledge to add and subtract 10 and 100 eg 4567-32

This week's success criteria for Maths.

Objective:Double two-digit and three-digit numbers using partitioning; Halve two-digit and three-digit numbers using partitioning; Know 3, 4, 6, 8 times tables and associated division facts

I can double and halve all numbers to 10

I can double and halve all numbers to 20

I can double and halve 2 digit numbers using partitioning    24   -      20  +  4 .                                   /        \                                   10  +    2  =  12

I can double and halve 3 digit numbers using partitioning.

I can double the 4x to get 8x and double 3x to get 6x.

I can give a division fact for 3, 4, 5, 6 and 8 times tables 3x6=18 so 18/6=3

The children are busy climbing Tables Mountain (See their homework and ask them for details).

Literacy: Our new genre is Poetry. This week we will be learning how to use a selection of poems to explore how to create images using words.

The children will find and use adjectives and adjective phrases (eg ‘the really slimy worm’) to convert a poem to prose.

They will use their voice to add excitement to a poem performance and, next week, compose poems using the themes of animals & weather.

Creative Curriculum: In our time travellers topic we will be learning about the Ancient Olympic Games and planning our own event.

SUCCESSFUL OUTCOMES FROM OUR INSTRUCTION WRITING.

Today marked the end of our Literacy lessons focused on Instruction writing. Our Guided Reading has involved the use of recipes and we created recipes for Rocky Road. Of course that was a great excuse to make some (yummee!).

This week we have switched our attention to designing an Ancient Greece board game and making rules for how to play it. The children wrote some great instructions using bossy verbs they'd practised for their spelling test. Of course the best bit was playing the games. Hey....no cheating!