Crazy Christmas Science: It's SNOWING... in Class 5

We had fun this morning when it snowed in Class 5! We enjoyed it so much we visited other classes to show them our experiment.



Mr Short writes: it was interesting today, whilst setting up our experiment I asked the children to draw a picture of a scientist. Without exception every child drew a picture of a middle aged man, with crazy hair and glasses - and no, it wasn't me! We discussed reasons for not drawing a picture of a woman or someone younger. We decided that we shouldn't be put off science or anything else that people might not expect us to do because of our age and gender.

Year 4, 5 & 6 Quiz

Mixed teams - here are the results.

Biscuit Billionaires - 50
Eggheads – 49 ½
The Santanators - 48
The Diving Dolphins - 47
Ben’s Gang – 46 ½
Snowflakes – 45 ½
Team Spark - 45
Jammy Dodgers – 44
Lindel – 42 ½

A poem from our trip

THUMBELINA

Tiny princess,

Heroic journey,

Underground field mouse,

Miniature person,

Born in a flower,

Escaped from a toad,

Little person, big heart,

Icy sparrow just alive,

Nobody is shorter,

A handsome prince awaits.

Stockings Are Up!

Results - ABBA World Cup

Here are the most popular songs!

1st Mamma Mia

2nd Winner Takes It All

3rd S.O.S

4th Slipping Through My Fingers

Back soon...

Class 5 is closed today - business will resume as normal on Monday morning.

Sorry for any inconvenience.

Nativity Stars

Class 5 review the school Nativity.

"The Wriggly Nativity was very good. You should have come to it. The angels were very good!"

"I really liked the Narrators!"

"The angels were really cute."

"I think that there was a lot of work put in to it! It was great."

"I think that the Wriggly Nativity was great, I thought the donkey was really good."

"I think the Wriggly Nativity was very good, the innkeeper I think was the best with the wife."

" I think the Wriggly Nativity was great and I especially liked the angels ."

"I think the Wriggly Nativity was great especially the donkey."

"I think the Wriggly Nativity was great,the donkey was great."

''I think the Wriggly Nativity was great, Mary was great.''

"I think the Wriggly Nativity was very funny."

Decorations

This week the children used the laptops to design their own Christmas paper, adding images and text however they saw fit. Next, they cut these designs into strips and made paper chains that stretched around the room. Other designs with larger images were used to create lanterns as presents for other classes. I was left to hang the rest as instructed! The children had complete control and Christmas in Class 5 feels very personal.

Mr Short

Comments

Happy Christmas!

It is now possible to add your comments - this helps to make the blogging experience a little more interactive for the class. Comments are checked before being published.

Mr Short

Twelve Days of Christmas

On the first day of Christmas my true love sent to me , a partridge in a pear tree.

LOGO

Today in Maths we are using LOGO to draw polygons! Accuracy is the key, one little mistake and you will be scratching your heads.

The picture above was created by defining a circle. First type:
to circle
repeat 360[fd 1 rt 1]

Now type in circle to test your instructions. Did the circle draw okay?

Next, use the circle to draw a repeating pattern by entering these instructions:

to sunflower
circle
pu
rt 321
pd
sunflower
end

These just happen to be the instructions we tested this afternoon - what we were really interested in was creating regular polygons, but we couldn't resist repeating them to make interesting patterns! We might make Christmas decorations...

Please ask for permission before installing LOGO at home!

Mr Short

Keywords:
pu - pen up
pd - pen down
fd - forward
rt - right turn
lt - left turn
repeat
end

You can also change the background colour and the colour of the pen! Try going to the help menu and clicking on demo - LOGO can produce some tricky designs.

Results!

A really close week of voting! One of the favourites has now dropped out!

Mamma Mia and Slipping Through My Fingers were 50-50 most of the week but eventually Mamma Mia edged ahead to win (53-47).

Winner Takes It All has beaten S.O.S in another close battle (56-44).

We now move into the final - it could go either way!

Advent Wish

I pray for the family I once knew.
I give love to them, Hope to them.

Care for them.

I wish they were here for Christmas.



Year 6 girl

Christmas Lights

My Mum and Nanny are raising money for the school by lighting christmas lights. If you would like to see them come to Mays Crescent on the 1st December.

See you there!

Who is Alan Taylor?

Who is Alan Taylor? A gingerbread billionaire with electric muscles who thinks that money can buy friendship!

5 of the most expensive things in Alan Taylor's mansion
(You will just have to buy the book to find out the other 5!)

1. Portrait of Leonardo Da Vinci painted by Mona Lisa.

2. Suit of armour worn by Beethoven in a fight against Mozart.

3. Valuable golden peanut.

4. Machine that can video your dreams.

5. Signed photo of the Loch Ness Monster.

yum yum

My mum creates art on fruit - how cute! What will she do next?

Class 5

ICT for Monday afternoon

Step 1: change all of the text to black and check the spelling

Step 2: change the font for the four sentences below

This would be an amazing fint for a ghost story

This would be an amazing fint for something about Art

This would be an amazing fint for a poem about flowers

This would be an amazing fint for a sign about handwriting

Step 3: insert a picture
Insert a small picture of a flower below (resize if necessary).

Step 4: use synonyms and columns

Use synonyms to change these 3 words then put them into 3 columns

Tired

Difficult

Storm

Step 5: find and replace

Use ctrl + f to change amazing to excellent

World Premiere - Making Sandwiches

Below is just a taste of what Class 5 & Class 1 got up to on Wednesday. The pictures used are a small selection from Class 5's camera monitor that day..

Results of the Quarter Final

Mamma Mia beat Money Money Money (51-49)
S.O.S beat Take A Chance On Me (62-38)
Slipping Through My Fingers beat I Have A Dream (72-28)
Winner Takes It All beat Fernando (83-17)

Suffix Test!

To follow up on Friday's suffix word work click here to play an interactive game on the BBC

The dragon is following me!

Today Year 5 visited us and we followed complicated instructions to fold and make an optical illusion. If you would also like to try click here to go to Grand Illusions.

You will need to fold it very carefully before closing one eye and moving side to side for the illusion to take place!

Enjoy

Mr Short

ABBA World Cup - Round 1 Results

Winner Takes It All beat Under Attack (78-21)
Slipping Through My Fingers beat Voulez Vous (76-23)
I Have A Dream beat Thank You For The Music (52-48)
Take A Chance On Me beat Gimme! Gimme! Gimme!(62-38)
S.O.S beat Waterloo (60-40)
Money Money Money beat Does Your Mother Know (76-24)
Fernando beat Chiquitita (51-49)
Mamma Mia beat Dancing Queen (52-48)

It looks like Winner Takes It All could be one of the favourites but it was only up against Under Attack in Round 1. How will it cope against a song like S.O.S which beat the popular Waterloo? Will Fernando receive late votes to squeeze through again?

A song to watch out for in the Quarter Final is Slipping Through My Fingers - it may be the dark horse in the competition as it easily beat Voulez Vous. Perhaps people are remembering their favourite parts from Miss Selby & Miss Dinardo's Mamma Mia production? The quarter finals will be posted later today and will last until Friday 23rd - keep voting!

The Stickers

Class 5 get stickers for things like doing good work or being helpful. We sometimes get them for being monitor as well. We each have a paper cloud that we put the stickers on. When we have 10 we get a certificate and we stick the stickers on it.

R.E this afternoon

Follow the link below to the Dreidel template and print a copy for each person in your group (ICT)


Make the Dreidel (Literacy - following instructions, Maths - Shape & Space)

http://www.akhlah.com/holidays/hanukkah/hanukkah_crafts/dreidel_decoration.htm

Fractions

Here are your links for Maths this morning:

Race against the clock to match equivalent fractions!

http://www.learningplanet.com/sam/ff/index.asp

Equivalents - a visual game

http://pbskids.org/cyberchase/games/equivalentfractions/index.html

Dinosaur memory fraction game!

http://www.harcourtschool.com/activity/con_math/g04c20.html

Abba world cup rules

We are doing a vote on sixteen Abba songs. We are going to narrow the votes down round by round. If people would like to vote please feel welcome. There is one winner only so choose carefully.

Find & Replace

Think about any targets that you may have from last week (read my comments in your ICT books first).

Please copy the two nursery rhymes below and paste into Microsoft Word. Your aim is to use Find & Replace to change the mistakes (the shortcut is Ctrl + f).

Change the font to Garamond, size 16 and black. Choose an appropriate picture to insert for both rhymes.

James and Joan

James and Joan went up the hill
To fetch a pail of water
James fell down and broke his crown
And Joan came tumbling after


Harold Dumpty

Harold Dumpty sat on a wall
Harold Dumpty had a great fall
All the king’s horses
And all the king’s men
Couldn’t put Harold together again

ABBA World Cup

Coming soon...

Andrew Goldsworthy & Me

I read about Andy Goldsworthy, so I decided to make a collection. In class I used some pictures I took to make a video.

Class 5

(I'm really proud of this pupil - she has used ICT & Art to inspire everyone in class including myself. Mr Short)

ICT: Monday afternoon

Below you will find some information all about the author Andy Stanton.

Your aim today is to use a spellcheck, but you will need other skills.

Your task:

1. Copy the information below (including the title)



2. Paste the information into Microsoft Word



3. Use a spellcheck (remember that some words might not show up in a spellcheck so read it to see if it makes sense)



4. Change the font to size 14 Trebuchet



5. Change the colour to black, add your name and print out.

Andy Stanton

Andy Stanton liives in London but he stedied English at Oxford until they threw him out. Hea has ben a stand-up comedian, a film script reeader, a cartoonist and lots of other fings. He has many intorests, but best of all he likes cartoons, books and mewsic (even jazz). One day he’d like to live in New York or Berlin becaose he likes to be different. His favourite saying is ‘Good evening’ and his favourite word is ‘captain’. Andy has now written more than onne book, but less than ten. We are reading ‘You’re a bad man, Mr Gum’ in cllass.

Instead of Halloween

I went to a Light Party. At the Light Party I drew on a glass cup, played parachute football, did sculpture making with playdough and EVERYONE got to dip a biscuit/marshmallow in the

white chocolate fountain.

By class 5

Book on a door

Do you know which classes are behind these two doors?

Pyjama Day for Children in Need

On the first of November 2007 it was book week and we came to school in pyjamas and each teacher read a bedtime story to every class. The books were We are Going on a bear hunt, The Gruffalo, Hairy Mcleary, Guess how much I love you! and Not now Bernard.

By class 5

Satellite Quiz

Can you recognise these 3 places from a bird's eye view? I will give you the answers on Tuesday!

Modern Languages

Click Here

Here is an interesting webpage for all those children who enjoy trying out different languages. I have been trying to remember how to say good morning in Lithuanian but each time I open the register my mind goes blank!

Geography Challenge

Click Here

How quickly can you find Northleach using Google Maps? Try using the Satellite view to make it more challenging!

Northleach Conker Championship

This week's Conker Championship was great fun, but we have also been remembering those pupils who first began swinging conkers in 1868. Below is some old footage from a great final back in 1908! Look out for the strange clothes and hair styles...

Conker championship!!!

Today it was the conker championship. The two finalists in ks2 were playing. The whole of the school were watching in the playground. It was a lot of fun to see who won. The trophy was very shiny!!! We wonder who will win next year? Whether it will be a boy or a girl? It was a boy last year, this year it is a girl!

Class 5

Time

There's never enough of it, we waste it and it can disappear when we are having fun! Class 5 have 'time' all this week before it is time for the holidays. Click on the picture if you need extra help with time.

Mr Short

Harvest Sale!

Class 6 were selling Harvest produce today

Drumming/Percussion lessons

Music is very popular in Northleach C of E Primary School. The new drummers start with their permanent teacher on Tuesday 16th of October .There is a beat called the paradiddle and it goes right, left, right, right, left, right, left and left!

Home/School Communication

Autumn 2007
Class 5



Dear Parents/Carers of Class 5,

I would like to take this opportunity to tell you about life in Class 5 and the exciting year we have planned. Class 5 is an absolutely wonderful class and we have bonded quickly, adapting to the changes this term...namely myself being a new teacher and our new location! But we are not alone, we plan to work alongside Class 6 whenever the opportunity presents itself and we are also having fun sharing our work via the blog. If I haven’t met you yet please feel free to call in at the end of the day, even if it is just to see some work your child is particularly proud of!

Blogging

Defined as an online journal or diary, writing a blog is gradually catching on in schools and Class 5 has already begun to use one to improve their writing and ICT skills. It is also a great way to share what we are doing with other classes, parents, carers and relatives abroad! We have already received kind words from a thrilled grandparent who doesn’t always have the opportunity to see what her grandchildren have been learning and I know that some parents work long hours and perhaps having their children’s work a click away will compensate. If anyone would like to see what all the fuss is about there is a link from the school webpage or alternatively the following address can be typed in: http://class5northleach.blogspot.com/


L-i-t-e-r-a-c-y

I will be sending a list home with all the words that your child should know how to spell this year. Of course, they will also focus on strategies to improve spelling in class and I intend to have other activities run alongside this. Memorising these words is different from being able to use them correctly in context, but I intend to check on the children to make sure they are making progress.

Interactive Maths

I am extremely grateful to the volunteers who have produced laminated times-table packs for each child; these will help your child rehearse multiplication facts at home as well as being used in class to quiz each other. Class 5 really enjoy quizzing each other and if your child can bring them in and out of school daily that would be helpful. You might like to quiz them also! As usual your child will also bring a maths game home on a Wednesday and return it on the following Monday, giving the children better opportunity to play the games with an adult on the weekend. As the games rotate there will be areas that we have not yet covered – on such occasions can I ask that you support your child by simplifying the game. From time to time I hope to share useful maths websites that will supplement these games and support those children who respond to more interactive maths.



Topic

Beginning with Geography this term, the children’s topic will be based around rivers, maps and the environment. This will feed into other subjects such as Art, where children have already begun to produce waterfalls inspired by Hokusai. Any links made to other subjects will be useful and add value - for instance the children will progress from mapping the familiar surroundings of their classroom to larger buildings such as Northleach church.

Ourspace

On Monday mornings the children are given time to brainstorm an idea for a display and divide what needs to be done between their group members. They have found making their own displays rewarding; producing really imaginative work whilst increasing their confidence and independence. It shouldn’t create extra work for your child at home unless they are particularly engaged by their idea! It is a good time for me to see how they negotiate with each other and it is particularly satisfying to be involved as a facilitator for their ideas, developing specific skills as their needs arise. I am already highly impressed with the improvements being made each week. I am sure that by the end of Year 4 your child will be able to brainstorm ideas, negotiate with other children and work within a time limit to produce quality work at the drop of a hat!


ICT

ICT will be embedded throughout the curriculum to ensure Year 4 maintain their skills, yet go one step further. I am teaching it as an individual lesson but links will be made wherever possible to other work e.g. last week the children used cut & paste to organise familiar rhyming couplets from a poem they had enjoyed in literacy. ICT equipment is not just for the teacher so having a camera monitor in class means the children record what we are doing; it helps them to evaluate their own work. They will soon have the experience and confidence to apply meaningful ICT wherever they see a need.

Homework

I have created homework folders for the children to keep the majority of their work. However, certain pieces may follow up work started in class so these will be added to their books. One thing I would like to do over the year is help prepare Year 4 for particular types of writing that occur time and again in test situations e.g. persuasive writing. If the children are presented with familiar writing tasks I hope to reduce any anxiety they may feel when presented with test situations. This is a fantastic class and I don’t want them to be judged by one performance.

Thank you to all those parents offering assistance, time and cake! My first few weeks in Northleach have disappeared at an alarming rate but I do intend to call upon those offers eventually!

Yours sincerely,

Mr Short

p.s Thanks to all those parents who attended the curriculum evening with myself and Mrs Bradley

They're on the move...

Coming soon...

Maths Mentos Millilitre Challenge!

Each day last week Class 5 were really involved in their Maths. On Friday we added Science & ICT into the mix. We hope you enjoy it as much as we did!

At the start of the video there is a brilliant picture of a Cola fountain (one of many taken by a pupil using a digital camera). The child in question earned a camera licence by recording our lesson and will now pass skills, tips and a licence to his classmates.

I feel that this ownership of ICT represents a more realistic use of technology and helps the children recognise how ICT can support their learning. With the availability of extra laptops Year 4 are already regularly ticking ICT objectives in the new term as well as maintaining some old ones!

Dog

My favourite animal is cuddly and brown

Yesterday I took it to town

His fur is soft, his nose is wet

Sometimes he has to go to the vet

My dog sometimes has flees

And this can really make me sneeze

he's a very cute male

And has a very long tail

Yesterday he caught a mouse

Then he took it in the house

I tried to get it off from him

So I could put it in the bin

The rain was splashing down and down

There was a mouse about to drown

This poem was written just for fun by a girl in class. We are looking at poems in Literacy and we are writing our own verses for a poem about a gross cake!

Class 5

Jeremy Strong

For our homework we had to write about a famous person and one of us wrote about Jeremy Strong. We found out that he fell on his head when he was three, he was in hospital for a week with a broken arm and a headache. He started playing the electronic violin. He does all his work in his shed at the bottom of the garden. His first job was putting jam in buns in a bakery. He was born on the 18th of November he published over 60 children's books. Here are some to try

Trouble with animals, Fat bag, Money doesn't grow on trees, Bungle to the rescue, Little pig goes to school, Giant Jim and the hurricane, Viking at school, My mum is going to explode, My brothers bottom gets pinched.

by Class5

Using digital cameras to record our work

Good timing, skill, patience or luck? Perhaps all four, but you have to agree that this picture taken by a pupil in Class 5 is excellent and I couldn't do better myself. It was part of Class 5's maths & science investigation last week...more to follow soon!

This dictionary helped us today

It might help your class also!

Click here if you need extra help with your maths.

Spy Games

At Playtime Class 5 have spy names...we all have a code name such 009, 008 etc...

We all have a den in the playground and a place we can have secret meetings. We all have different sorts of gadgets like lasers, microphones and radios. Can you guess who we are?

Legolas/009

001 evil robot

0011

00strong

robot

0038

00evil

003

006

0030jessiecowgirl

005

0037pinkpowerranger

travis0051

0055snowflakeiceysnowgirl

0099buzzlightyear

0060coolgirl

00EA

Class 5

Making a display

We have been working on our displays this morning. We have been learning different skills e.g. using ICT (fonts, cut and paste). One skill we have been working on is talking to each other, making sure there is some room on the display and that everybody joins in. Sometimes it's tricky. One group that works very well every week is the roller coaster group, they work well together and their display looks good because they are really focused and tidy. This week the four displays are roller coasters, sport, sea creatures and food around the world.

Class 5

Class 5 measure up

On Wednesday we made our own scales in maths. We used 2l plastic bottles and filled them up 100ml at a time. We used permanent pens to mark all the numbers so if we got it wrong we would have to start again. We had 3 buckets of water and we split into 3 groups (we did this outside!). Here is a picture.

Class 5

Tashlich

On the afternoon of the first day of Rosh Hashana, the Jews go down to some water that has living creatures preferably fish, because their eyes are always open, like G-d's. The Jews throw bread crumbs or stones into some water and it symbolises throwing away their sins.

Class5

Planning a story

Today we have been writing a storyboard where a character travels through time into the past e.g. stepping through a mirror. In the story we created a problem for our character to solve.

Class 5

Rosh Hashanah

What is Rosh Hashanah?

It means the head of the Jewish New Year. During Rosh Hashanah Jews go to the synagogue; they hear the Shofar which is a ram’s horn. They eat apples and honey and pomegranate. The apples, honey and pomegranate symbolise a sweet new year.

Every child in the class had a go at blowing the Shofar.

Class 5

Recipe for Honey Cake

Honey Cake
Traditionally served on Rosh Hashana and Erev Yom Kippur symbolic of our wishes for a sweet new year.


3 eggs 1 pound honey (11/3 cups) 1/3 cups sugar 1cup strong coffee2 tsps. Baking powder 3 Tbsps. Margarine Baking soda 4 cups flour 1 tsp. Cinnamon

Preheat oven to 325 Grease and flour a 9 x 13 inch pan. Beat eggs and honey together. Add sugar and mix again. Mix coffee with baking powder
and then add with margarine to the egg mixture. Add baking soda, flour and cinnamon and beat together well. Bake in greased 9’’x 13’’pan at 325 for 55 minutes to an hour.

Assembly

We have assemblies in the church because our hall is being extended, we do the same things as normal, but we are learning about families at the moment. We think the hall is going to be due in October or November we can't quite say.