Today in maths we calculated the cost of the material we need for the Christmas Fayre.  Some children went to three different shops to buy and pay for the materials we needed. We need to earn £27.92before we can make a profit.

Remember 50p for the raffle tomorrow.

This morning, the children were excited to be playing badminton.  Everyone wanted a big green raquet, even though Mrs Pollock explained that some children would find it easier to control the blue raquet. The children started to practise their back hand and overhead shots.  When  it came to the rallies some children swapped their raquets for the smaller blue ones and found it easier.

Today we finally got to write our thriller stories. We planned our stories three weeks ago. We tried our best to hook the reader and create suspense for the reader.

This afternoon we started our new learning about the Victorians. We worked with a partner and discussed the things we already knew about the Victorians and what we would like to learn about the Victorians.  We did this outside because it was dry and we had been stuck in during morning break and lunchtime. We then had a quick quiz based on the Victorians. If we thought the statement was true we ran to the left if we thought the statement was false we ran to the right.

We we also discussed our plans for the Christmas Fayre.  If you can please bring in a chocolate or sweet for our fundraising- thanks.

This afternoon, in groups, we started our Christmas wall display for the hall.  Those children who didn’t get a turn, will get a turn tomorrow.  If you want to see this finished display you will need to come along to the Christmas Fayre on Saturday 28th November!

It was lovely to return to school today and receive a warm welcome from  P5/6, especially on such a miserable day- thank you boys and girl!!

In Maths we continue to look at money. Some children are working on money to £1, £5, £10, £20 or £100 so the activities below can be adapted to allow the children to practise with the amounts of money they are most comfortable with.

Create some special offers Ask children to make up some special offers for a favourite product. They show the price for an individual item and the special deals. Back in class they share the deals they created.

Using coins Ask your child to choose an item from home with a price shown on the item (e.g. from a pizza menu, food packaging or newspaper, etc.). Ask children to record the coins or notes that could be used to pay exactly for this item. Can they make up a different combination for the same total?

Price list Ask children to choose a type of shop and think of items that the shop is likely to sell. They think of three items costing less than £5 and three items costing more than £5. They write these in order from lowest to highest price to make a price list for the shop.

Catalogue buying catalogues Give your child a catalogue page. Tell them they have £5 to spend. What items or combinations of items could they buy? Discuss the combinations together.

My budget Ask children to imagine they earn £5, £10, £20 or £100 a week. They draw up an imaginary budget showing how they plan to spend and/or save that money.

Saving up Ask children to select some items advertised in a catalogue and record different ways that these items would be saved up for. For example, they could save up at £12 per month over 10 months for an item costing £120, or £10 over 12 months, £5 over 24 months etc. They bring these into school and ask a partner to see whether they agree with their calculations.

Bank words brainstorm Ask children to create a display of as many words as possible connected with different bank accounts. They traffic light these to show their understanding of the words.

Here are some websites that you may find useful!

The Cost of Money Quiz – http://www.nationwideeducation.co.uk/finance-education/personal/students/07-11_cost-of-money/int_quiz.php

Financial Soccer – http://www.financialsoccer.com/index.php?language=12&countryID=49

http://www.crickweb.co.uk/ks2numeracy-shape-and-weight.html#quad

Many children still need to spend time learning their tables. It would be helpful if the children could have their times tables “at their fingertips”. The times tables help the children in so many areas of maths. Each child in the class knows what tables they should be working on. Here are some ideas to help your child learn their tables:

TGT (Team Game Tournament) children can make the cards at home.

Chant/Sing/Write the tables out

http://www.teachingtables.co.uk/ (this website has links to many other websites)

Between now and Christmas we will have a tables test every week.

Literacy

Choose a book you have read previously. Think about Bloom’s Taxonomy (see separate sheet given to you by Mrs Pollock for help). Choose at least six reading activities- at least one from each of the six taxonomies. Record them in your thinking jotter.

Create a poster or power point presentation to help teach other pupils about Bloom’s Taxonomy. Use this website to kick start your ideas:

http://www.teachthought.com/critical-thinking/blooms-taxonomy/14-brilliant-blooms-taxonomy-posters-for-teachers/

 St Andrew’s Day

Use sources to research the life of St Andrew. Select key information to create a fact sheet possible areas to consider could be: St Andrew’s Life; St Andrew’s Day Traditions; The Saltire and Patron Saint of Scotland and Other Countries.

Have a look at web link below.

http://digital.nls.uk/oor-wullie/

It comes from The National Library of Scotland. It is all about Scots Language learning and features one of Scotland’s best kent cartoon characters, Oor Wullie.  Choose at least three of the activities and when possible record them in your thinking jotter.

Today in writing, we wrote a character description on Miss Trunchball from Roald Dahl’s Matilda. We watched a clip from the DVD and then we focused on showing our reader what Miss Trunchball was like rather than telling them what she was like.  This will help us write our Thriller Stories next week.  Mrs Pollock is going to practise “trunchballing” children out the window.

Yesterday and today we have been learning about lower order (skinny questions) and higher order thinking questions (fat questions).  Skinny questions don’t require much thinking and can usually be answered with one or two words. Fat questions require much more thinking and therefore we learn more from fat questions.

In  our groups, we created questions for the story of The Lost Sheep using Benjamin Bloom’s Taxonomy (question groupings).

In maths this morning we had our last look at nets.  We investigated nets by using polygon, art straws, 2d shapes to make nets and the ICT game Shape Shuttle from Education City.

• In Maths we have looked at Place Value:
  Football Transfers newspapers, computer with internet access. Ask children to find out information about football players’ transfer fees in the paper or on the internet. They list up to ten prices in their learning logs. They underline one digit of each transfer fee and identify the value of the underlined digit using words or figures, e.g. £764 000 is seven hundred thousand pounds or £700 000.
• Globe Trotters atlases, computer with internet access. Investigate the distances between home and five cities they would really like to visit. Put the distances in order, starting with the highest. Think about which destinations would cost most to visit and why?
• Digit shuffle Ask children to write the last three digits of a phone number (their own or a friend’s). The three digits must be different. They write all the different 2-digit numbers that they can make with the digits. For each number, they partition the digits and give their values, e.g. 24 = 2 tens and 4 units = 20 + 4.
• The digit 3 Ask children to investigate how many numbers between 0 and 100 have the digit 3. They list all the numbers and say whether the digit 3 is a tens digit or a units digit (include the number 33 that has both). How many numbers do you think would have a different digit such as 7?

Here are some websites that you may find useful

http://nrich.maths.org/1272 – Got it!

http://www.ictgames.com/sharknumbers.html – Shark Numbers

 http://www.softschools.com/math/place_value/teaching_place_value/ Find the value of the underlined digit.

http://www.toonuniversity.com/flash.asp?err=503&engine=15 Type the number in numerals and then fire the cannon

• Shape Work Continued
  Use a variety of material to make 3d models, solid and skeletal. You can either take a photo of them or bring them into school.
  Times Tables
• Most children wanted to improve their scores on our last Times Tables Test on 9th October. Most children should continue to learn their times tables facts.

Literacy
• We have been learning more about speech marks. Use this link to find three different activities for the children to choose from:http://www.teachingideas.co.uk/english/speechmarks.htm
• Here are some other websites to help you learn more about speech marks:
http://www.lancsngfl.ac.uk/curriculum/literacy/lit_site/lit_sites/speech_marks/
http://mrcrammond.com/games/literacy/dont_use_said.swf
https://www.studyladder.co.uk/games/activity/quotation-marks-19072?lc_set=

• Visit the library again or find another book to read. Make sure to record the book’s title and author in the back of your Thinking Jotter. Perhaps you could make a character map or write a book review to encourage other children to read it?
Halloween’s Coming….
• Interview family and friends. Find out what types of things they did when they were children for Halloween. Can they remember any songs, rhymes or poems they were taught?
• Use the internet, to research Halloween. Think about – Why do we celebrate Halloween? Halloween Customs and Traditions, Halloween Superstitions and Fascinating Facts About Halloween. You could present your research as a power point or in your thinking jotter.
• Will you be guising at Halloween or perhaps going to a Halloween disco? Prepare your costume and make sure you can tell a joke, do a dance, sing a song or recite a poem.