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.

Term 2 started  with the class playing badminton, after several request from the children.  We learned how to hold a racket properly, how to serve and then we had rally games.  We all had a great time trying to improve our badminton skills.

This morning we went over to the Luggie Nature Reserve.  We looked for signs of Autumn and noticed that many of the trees were still very green probably due to the wet summer and warm months of September and October.

We paddled in the Luggie and found some interesting things like Fungi growing on trees and many bricks, probably from the old brick works.  Mrs Pollock then took us to a different part of the Luggie where we had to get in and out of the water ourselves with no help from Mrs Pollock.  Most people managed to do this but some got wet feet and someone fell in.  Fortunately, we all lived to tell the tale and were back in school in time for lunch.

Remember to take any wet socks out of your school bag tonight or they will start to smell, especially if they’re left in there until next Monday!!!!

Have a great October Break.

We are off to the nature reserve tomorrow  so bring your wellies and a jacket or you can’t paddle in the stream.

Mrs Pollock’s wellies- the ones with a hole!!!!!

Today in maths we have been exploring nets. We had 3 stations to move around:

1. We used Polydron to make nets and then we had to decide if the shape was a prism or not.
2. ICT we played Shape Shuttle on Education City. We had to match nets to their shapes and names.
3. We looked a different nets and named the 3d shape they would make.

Today in ICT we were looking at a website for Rights Respecting Schools.  We played a fun game and learned more about the Rights of the Child.

This morning we have been working hard in our reading groups.  One group was writing a newspaper report relating to events in their novel, another group was answering questions from the text and the other group was to rearrange words from the story and then use them to fill in the missing words.

Remember Tables Test on Friday!!! Look at our homework blog for ideas to help you practise your tables.