It has been lovely to see some sunshine this week despite the freezing weather! However, the cold temperatures have linked nicely to our numeracy work where we have been learning about negative numbers by reading thermometer scales, playing a variety of games and carrying out addition and subtraction questions.   We are still getting the hang of calculations involving negative numbers and will continue to practise next week.  If you would like to learn more at home, you could have a look together at the website www.mathsisfun.com or follow this link  Adding and Subtracting Positive and Negative Numbers (mathsisfun.com)

Literacy & English work has also been keeping us busy. We have been using close reading skills and strategies to work out the meanings of unfamiliar words within a story , we call this Metalinguistics.  This activity also helps develop dictionary skills as we look up each word to check our own ideas based on the clues in the text.  The APOSTROPHE ‘   has been the focus punctuation mark this week and everyone has had a good go at using it in contractions and to show  possession; we will build on this next week by looking at how to show possession when a word is plural.  The main challenge now is to remember to use apostrophes when writing independently.  In Taught Writing, we have started a block on character descriptions which was introduced with some VCOP activities; everyone made a great effort to use ambitious vocabulary and connectives in these activities.

Interdisciplinary Learning has taken place though our World War 2 topic, which is coming to an end soon.  Listening and talking skills were being well used as the class discussed the changing roles of women through the 1930s and 40s as they took up employment as part of the war effort.  There was some great teamwork on display as pairs worked together to produce propaganda posters to encourage women into the Women’s Land Army, Air Raid Precautions, Women’s Voluntary Service and the Munitions Factories.  The class took to the playground for an outdoor reading challenge too, locating information to complete a crossword about The Battle of Britain.  This was a tricky task but it was super to see pupils working together and persevering to try to use the information and solve the clues.

Drama was about improvisation this week, there was lots of thinking on the spot and role-play going on.  The excellent skills developed through last year’s Aladdin production were clear to see.

Swimming was back with a splash today and was a big success.  Everyone took part with a positive, enthusiastic attitude and great progress has been made already!

Have a great weekend when it arrives.