Hello all.

Pupils of the Week:

Firstly, well done to our pupil of the week (and playground star of the week) for this week, Holly.  Holly showed several of our school aims this week particularly during a drama/Health and Wellbeing lesson where she acted the role of “sassy Suzie”.  During this Holly was motivated and successful at meeting the success criteria for the lesson.  Drama can be challenging for many, particularly with an audience, and Holly clearly felt safe and secure in committing to her performance.  Well done!

Homework:

This week’s homework is on google classroom as usual.  The literacy work is spelling words which are tested every Friday.  Learners will receive a paper copy of these from me on Monday so they can take them home and do what they wish to to learn them.  This could be copying them out each night, playing games with them or having someone quiz them on them.  All learners have a mix of words with a similar sound or letter (so that they are easier to remember and learn) and words that are tricky or that their class are misspelling in other lessons (such as favourite this week).

For numeracy the learners all have paper copies of the 3 and 4 times table to learn and if they have access to the internet at home they have challenges on both Sumdog and Education City apps/websites they can complete.  They should have taken home these passwords previously but please contact me if they are required again.

For Topic this week the learners have a quiz to complete as part of our “Showtime” termly topic.  This involves watching a video about a dance choreographer and answering the attached quiz questions.

Topic/IDL:

This week in class we have begun to look at the “Showtime” topic that we will study until just after the Christmas break.  This topic includes many aspects of dance, music and performance as well as the scripting, editing, special effects etc. that support creative endeavours.  This week we have completed a KWL grid as a class to identify things we know, things we would like to know and (at the end of the topic) things we have learned.  This helps to ensure some personalisation and participation in the design and planning of the lessons by the children whilst also being a useful assessment tool.

Showtime topic will be working towards the creation of a short assembly to be recorded and shared with other classes in the school.  Music, drama, performance and dance can be their own rewards as well has having a lot of cross-over possibilities in terms of effective reading, writing, presentation, emotional expression and physical fitness and wellbeing.  An example this week is the combination of a health and wellbeing lesson about supporting those who feel excluded and identifying ways that the learners can manage these emotions themselves.  The children were able to show their thinking and learning in this area by performing their ideas for their peers, who then assessed and provided feedback to them in areas like staying in character and whether the solutions were realistic or not.

Literacy:

In literacy we have begun a new topic this term that will cover surveys, interviews and personal letters.  This week we have taken a break from surveys to work on personal letters.  Although something of a lost art today letter writing encourages writers to think about how to effectively communicate with others in a way that doesn’t allow the instant editing or correction that text etc. allows while having applications outwith school such as writing emails.  Some examples of these letters are included.

Numeracy:

In numeracy we are continuing to study data analysis and also patterns.  We have continued to track a science experiment into hand washing that we are conducting.

Our CLIC maths targets for this week were:

Counting: Counting in -1s.

Learn its: The 3 and 4 times tables (see homework).

It’s nothing new: Smile multiplication (multiplying tenths).

Calculation: Division using smile multiplication facts and in column format.

 

Our CLIC maths targets for next week are:

Counting: Counting along number lines that aren’t broken into scales.

Learn its: The 6 and 7 times table (see homework).

It’s nothing new: Multiplying and dividing 1 decimal place numbers by 10.

Calculation: Column (chimney sums) method subtraction with 3 digit numbers.

 

 

Thank you very much,

Ross.