Dear Parents and Carers,

Please remember that it is the Spring Fair this Saturday! Please come down from 12pm.

Thank you to the parents who came on the school trip to Hornsey library this week. We had a lovely session with Dianne Hofmeyr reading her story The Magic Bojabi Tree to us. The children joined in with acting out the story, listening to some African music and playing traditional African instruments.

Literacy – We used last week’s observational drawings of a bicycle to help plan and write a story of our own this week. We thought about what special powers our bike would have, who the characters would be, where the story would be set and what would happen. The children put these ideas down onto a planning grid before writing their story the following day. There were some fantastic ideas from the children’s imagination and some really wonderful writing. We have really focussed on using exciting language to describe our characters and setting for the story.

Maths – We have looked this week at the idea that addition and subtraction are the inverse of one another. We talked about this notion as the two being part of a number ‘fact family’ – they are not related like people, but they have a lot in common and are closely connected. We thought about all of the different number sentences we could create from 3 numbers (e.g. 6, 4 and 10 or 2, 3 and 5)  using the plus, minus and equals signs. This showed that there are always 2 addition and two subtraction possibilities from these three numbers:

Phonics – Our sounds of the week have been o-e (Phone home) and u-e (huge brute). We have tried to use these sounds in our writing and thought of all of the different words which use these sounds. We also wrote some silly sentences using these sounds, such as “I hope the tube is not broken” or “I spoke to the dude, he joked that I was rude.” Please try writing a few of these at home in your yellow books. Our words of the week are they, all and are – can you include these into your silly sentence?  

D+T – We have made our own cotton reel racers this week. These are made from a cotton reel, a rubber band and a pencil which you wind up to enable the reel to move. We thought about how the energy stored in a rubber band creates movement and what different toys this mechanism might be used for. We also raced our creations to see which ones could move the fastest and furthest. We then moved on to a new topic of puppets. This week we looked at different types of puppets; marionettes, finger puppets, shadow puppets, glove puppets and sock puppets. We looked at what materials were used to make these different puppets and how they operate. Next week we will be making our own glove puppets, using skills we have practised this week including designing, sewing and sticking fabric.

Science – We wanted to find out what material would be the best for sunglasses lenses. We investigated different materials; transparent, translucent and opaque and looked at which was most effective in preventing light coming through. The children made a range of predictions about which material would be the most effective and explained why.

Homework – To continue our work on descriptive language, please choose a character from the story The Magic Bojabi Tree by Dianne Hofmeyr: The monkey, the zebra, the elephant, the tortoise, the snake or the lion. Draw a picture of this animal and write a description of them using lots of exciting adjectives. Try to think about their personality. Were they clever, crafty, foolish, forgetful?

Have a great weekend and see you at the spring fair!

James and Karl

Dear Parent/Carers,

This week the children have been learning about the life-cycle of plants. They have been planting and growing sunflowers. We also said goodbye to the chicks. Having looked after them for 2 weeks they have outgrown their pen and have been returned to the farm.

Next week:

Topic: The children will be writing about ‘Jack and the Beanstalk’ and imagining what they would find at the top of their beanstalk.

Maths: The children will be answering their own questions and showing the information in bar graphs.

Reading books: Try to read for 5 minutes every night. It is reading mileage that makes a difference to progress.

Sound books: We recapped the 00 (zoo), oo(look), ar and or sounds this week  along with the red words ‘are, my, her, of’’. Please help consolidate these by recapping them with your children.

Next Week’s Observation children: Please also write your child’s interests on the sheet in their red special book. This week it will be Kitty, Lucian, Mary, Miranda and Moin.

Don’t forget it is the spring fair tomorrow!

Thanks again for all your support.

Craig, Sue, Vee and Asfa

Notices

• Please keep your money for the trips coming in.
• I will be on a course on Thursday afternoon about moderating work at the end of KS1. Sanaa and Ruth will be taking the class.
• Hopefully, you all received Sanaa’s letter in the book bags yesterday. Here is what it said.

My name is Sanaa Ali I am studying at the Institute of Education and will be working alongside Felicity for the next seven weeks. I am on my final school placement for my initial teaching training. I will be doing the majority of the teaching after half term with Felicity’s support. Feel free to have a chat; I will be around mornings and afternoons. I look forward to meeting you and working in Rose Class. Kind regards, Sanaa Ali.

English

This week we have been looking at Stick Man and Room on the Broom by Julia Donaldson. We have been concentrating on using ambitious word choices, adjectives and similes. We have also been trying to start our sentences in different ways e.g. by using adjectives, adverbs, time connectives or speech.

Next week we will be planning and writing our own stories based on the Room on the Broom.

Sounds of the week: tion (pay attention, it’s a celebration) u-e (huge brute)
Words of the week: once, two, buy, worse.

Maths

This week we have been looking at measuring. Have a look at the blog to see what fun we had!

Next week we will be looking at telling the time (half past, quarter to and quarter past) and will go on a right angle hunt around the classroom. We will also continue to practise our addition and subtraction skills.

Design and Technology

Next week we will be making hand puppets! This week we have looked at a range of puppets and practised various skills: the running skitch, cutting templates, cutting fabric and joining fabric. We will select our favourite Julia Donaldson character and begin the week by designing our puppets. If anyone is a keen sewer and would like to help with the puppet making we will be sewing on Thursday and Friday afternoon.

Home Task

In your child’s book bag please find a sheet related to telling the time.

There are 2 different types of sheets.

If your child has the sheet with the clock faces on they need to cut out the clock faces and order them from earliest to latest. Then they match the time written in words and stick these underneath. Please can this be stuck into their home task books and handed in on Wednesday.

If your child has the sheet with the pictures of the bears they need to cut the different activities and put them in order. Then the children can suggest the time of the day when the bear might do this activity. At what time of the day do the children do this activity? They could also see how many hours might pass between 2 activities.  It would be great to encourage the children to use time related words such as: morning, evening, before, after, later, first, second. If your child is really enjoying this activity perhaps they might like to draw pictures to show someone else’s or their own day J Please can this be stuck into their home task book and handed in on Wednesday.

Have a lovely weekend

Felicity

Friday, 17 May 2013

Dear Parents/Carers

We have had a great week which included our trip into Town where we even saw Prince Charles visiting Buckingham Palace!  We were also lucky enough to be visited by Sally who talked about the role of wardrobe mistress and Klee who explained how she put music to film.  Next week James will be coming in to do music with the children and we have an actor visiting us on Friday. .

Next week is also our final cycling session.

I understand that a text was sent to you all asking for a donation of £1.50 from each child to support workshops by Magic Lantern.  We are very grateful to those of you who have donated and ask those of you who have not to please consider doing so.

In English we looked at types of noun.  The children also wrote the story of the animated film ‘The Piano’ that we have been looking at.  Their stories are fabulous.

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In maths we took another look at symmetry.

There was no trumpet/clarinet session this week due to SATs.  These music sessions will start again next Thursday so please send your child to school with their instrument.

It is our Spring Fair this Saturday.  This is always a great event so do all please go along.

Enjoy the weekend

Judy

Homework for Wednesday, 15 May

English

Since we didn’t have a test this week, please revise the following plurals for a test on Monday:

calculators

characters

competitions

directions

exhibitions

ghosts

investigations

musicians

professors

reflections

adventures

pictures

knives

celebrities

emergencies

photocopies

vacancies

echoes

predictions

neighbours

Please complete the sheet on and the work on types of noun.

Maths

Please carry out the maths investigation.

                       17.5.13

Dear Parent/Carers,

Topic: This week the children have been learning about the life cycle of the frog and crated a fantastic display about this, in the classroom. Next week, we shall be learning about how plants grow and will be planting beans.

Maths: Estimating and counting sets, using math’s vocabulary: fewer and more, to compare quantities.

English: We shall be reading ‘Jack and the Beanstalk’ and writing about what we would like to find at the top of the beanstalk.

Sound books: Continue to practice the sounds and check if your child has any new ones.

Cooking: Helpers needed for next week. Let us know if Thursday or Friday are free for you to help.

Observation children: Check in the special books to see if it is your child’s turn to be observed and write your own comments.

Finally, remember it is the Spring Fair on Saturday.

Thanks again for all your support.
Jo, Nanette, Rita and Louis

We managed to fit in a little music and PE as well as a writing activity, which allows us to form an assessment of the children’s levels outside of the SATs framework.

Next week most of the lessons will be taken by our student teacher, Mary, who has begun her final practice in year 5 this week before re-joining us. The first week’s focus will be on getting our ‘Sister Schools’ project up and running with our partners in Brooklyn, New York.

A few dates of activities so far confirmed for the rest of this term:

Wednesday 5^th June: visit by Met Police on safety on the streets;

Wednesday 5^th June to Friday 7th: camping trip, Scout Park, Bounds Green

Wednesday 12^th June: Sailing, West Green reservoir starts for six weeks

Monday 17^th June to Thursday 20^th: Sports Week including Highgate Wood Sports Day and swimming gala

Friday 21^st June: Sports Day, Finsbury Park

Tuesday 11^th June: A Winter’s Tale workshop

Friday 28^th June: Magic Lantern workshop

Tuesday 9^th July: A Winter’s Tale, Regents Park Theatre

Thursday 11^th July: Thorpe Park

Other dates, including the end of year performance, to follow.

No homework this weekend – treat your children for their hard work!

All the best

Trevor

Jasmine Class Letter – Thursday 16th May

Dear Parents/Carers,

English:

We have moved onto work on persuasive leaflets, we began by identifying the features of persuasive leaflets for tourist attractions.  We discussed the devices used to capture the reader’s interest, e.g. snappy slogans, details of activities on offer, superlatives and eye catching layouts and designs. The children have created a plan for their own leaflet advertising an outdoor activities centre and they will go onto create their leaflets tomorrow.

Maths:

In Maths we have returned to fractions, the children have calculated fractions of amounts by dividing an amount by the denominator and multiplying the answer by the numerator. They applied this understanding to a baking investigation. I had lost the recipes to my favourite cakes, I could remember roughly what fraction of each ingredient I used e.g ¼ of a 500g bag of flour, the children had to try to piece together my missing recipes and some children went onto work out the total cost of each recipe. We have also developed our understanding of mixed fractions e.g. 2 ¾ and revised how to find equivalent fractions.

Maths Homework:

Please support your child in completing the practice Year 4 SATs questions. The focus this week is on fractions. We will be undertaking our maths assessment next week so this will be the final SATs homework practice.

IPC: We have been focusing on the work of the pop artist Roy Lichtenstein, the children have experimented with his technique of using benday dots and a palette of primary colours against the white of the page to create different tones. Lichtenstein was heavily influenced by comic strips, advertising and popular culture. The children have created their own image of a comic strip in Lichtenstein’s style. Lichtenstein’s exhibition is on at the Tate Modern until 27^th May, I know lots of Jasmine Class have already been, but if you haven’t yet made a visit, I highly recommend it!

We have also worked with Sarah Burman on the ipads to use the app Strip Designer to create a comic strip using Lichtenstein’s images.

Spellings: We have been learning how to use connectives for addition, in order to add extra information to a sentence. Please can you support your child to learn the spellings of these connectives. The scores from this week’s test were rather low and it is apparent a number of children are not learning their spellings. Here are some creative and hopefully fun methods you might like to try to learn your spellings:

• Fancy Letters – Use old magazines, catalogues, or newspapers to cut out letters and glue them down to spell your words!
• Water Wash – (Warm day required!) Use a paintbrush and water to write your words on the pavement.
• Colourful Words – Use two different colour pens to write your spellings. Use one colour to write the consonants and the other for the vowels or highlight the spelling pattern we are learning each week.
• Finger Tracing – Use your finger to spell out each of your words one letter at a time on your Mum or Dad’s back.

If any of the children have their own ideas please do share them with the class!

Have a lovely weekend!

Adelle

The class took part in a science demonstration based on the work and discoveries of Benjamin Franklin, whose former London house we will visit later in the term.

All pupils have a log-in for the website www.sumdog.com which allows them to score points, earn coins and exchange these for virtual goods. They may continue this at home if they wish.

Please ensure your child gets early nights next week, has a good breakfast in the morning and a snack for break time. In addition there is no delay for the start of the tests so punctuality is essential.

No homework this weekend!

All the best

Trevor

Dear Parent/Carers,

Topic: This week the children will be learning about the life cycle of a frog. We have already started creating a display illustrating this. Other developments in Reception: the chicks have hatched and the caterpillars are building their cocoons! Even the tadpoles are beginning to look more froglike.

English: We shall be reading a non-fiction book about the life cycle of a frog and the children will be writing simple captions to go with the photos of the different stages.

Maths: Counting in tens to 100, using 10p coins. Then progressing to counting in twos and fives, using 2p and 5p coins, respectively. We will also practice counting in ones, using 1ps, to 100. We shall continue to use Maths vocabulary for comparing quantities, such as more and less,

Reading books: Please write in the reading diary, at least once a week, so we know how reading is progressing at home.

Sound books: Continue to practice the sounds and check if your child has any new ones.

Cooking: Thanks for all the help offered. We shall cook on Thursday and Friday this week, which will allow more children to have the experience.

Observation children: We have a few books missing, so please check at home.

Next week, we shall be planting, as the focus of the topic moves away from animals and onto plants. It would be great if some of you could come and help with this. Let us know if you can spare any time.

Thanks again for all your support.
Jo, Nanette, Rita and Louis

Dear Parent/Carers,

This week the children have been learning about the life-cycle of a frog. This was punctuated as many of you have seen by the birth of several chicks. They will be with us for next week before being returned to the farm.

Next week:

Topic: The children will be planting sunflower seeds in pots and learning about what helps them to grow.

Maths: We will be voting for names for the chicks and showing this information by creating bar and tally charts.

Reading books: Try to read for 5 minutes every night. It is reading mileage that makes a difference to progress.

Sound books: We recapped the ch, th, sh, ch, qu, nk, ng, i, and e sounds this week. Along with the red words ‘was you they all’. Please help consolidate these by recapping them with your children.

Next Week’s Observation children: Please write your child’s interests on the sheet in their red special book. Gabriela, Hunter, James, Jayden, Joe.

Thanks again for all your support. Enjoy the long weekend!
Craig, Sue, Vee and Asfa