Outdoor Ed 3

Here's a couple more photos from the Outdoor Ed day. I don't know if you can see them. I can't but that might be a problem with my computer. Leave a comment if you can't see them.

Student Council

As I mentioned on Saturday, each class needs to vote for one person to go on the Student Council. There could be many things that the Student Council do: helping decide the food for the cafe, deciding what the playground should look like, organising and choosing play equipment for the playground, deciding on reward systems for the school, meeting teachers to pass on student concerns and many other things. Even if we don't do all of those things, just being on the Student Council would be a great opportunity for you to get involved in how the school works.

Anyway, if you want to be on the Student Council you need to do a talk to the class, explaining why you think you should be on the Council. It doesn't have to be long talk; you could explain what you want to do, what the Student Council should do, why you would be best at helping people, listening to them or working with other people.

After the talks, we'll vote. If you're not in it, you can't win it!

Homework

I was a bit disappointed today to find that some people hadn't done their homework. Not many, only three or four but as I'd given everyone four days to do it, I wasn't expecting people to say that they hadn't had time. So this message is partly for our class and partly for the mums and dads.

If there is ever any problem with the homework: you don't understand it, you can't remember what to do, you've left your books at school, you didn't have time to do it, you were visiting grandparents, you went to a party or even the cat was sick on it ASK YOUR PARENTS TO WRITE A NOTE IN THE DIARY.

Coming to school and telling me that you didn't have time or you forgot it in the car is not good enough. It isn't acceptable in Y4. You should be able to organise yourselves to bring your books to and from school when you need them.

Now I don't mind this happening once. Everyone forgets things once or twice, even me! But some people are telling me the same excuse every time they have homework and time's up.

Thanks for reading.

Outdoor Ed 2

The first day went really well and everyone had a nice time, even those who forgot their swimming kit, towels or lunches. Let's hope everyone is a bit more organised today.

Here's a couple of photos of the day.

Outdoor Ed

Remember everybody, Saturday and Monday are our Outdoor Ed days. We will be spending most of those days on the beach and in the water, learning team work, co-operation and independent problem solving. It will be a lot of fun but it is also an important part of our social and physical education in Y4 so, see you there!
Mr Patterson reminded us of things that we need to bring with us on those days and, in case anyone has forgotten (not my class!) here's the list again:

• Lunch - bring lots as you 'll be using a lot of energy
• Water - in a plastic bottle. It will be hot! (no fizzy drinks)
• Swimming costume or trunks
  
• 3 old t-shirts
• Plastic bag - for your wet clothes
• Mask and snorkel - no mask = no diving!
• Sun cream - make sure it is water proof, otherwise it will wash off straight away
• Flip flops - for wearing to and from the beach
• Dive boots or water sports shoes - so they don't fall off in the water. Not trainers!
• No cameras!

There we go then. Try to bring all that stuff, and yourselves and we'll have a great time!

The First Module

So, we're beginning with our first unit of study: Significant People. The sub-title of it is 'They Made A Difference' and in it we'll be researching and studying people from different cultures and different countries, looking at the way that they have changed the world and what effect they have had on the people around them.

We'll be asking the children to think about famous people and to consider whether famous is the same as important. They'll be looking for famous artists and musicians and trying to find out what it is that has made those people famous. Why do we know their names all these years after they lived? Or perhaps they are famous now.

To help you in your research, I have listed some internet resources in the sidebar on the right. Please use them, along with anything else you might find, to help you find out about the lives of these significant people. Please remember though, the information that you find is for you to take and use, changing it into your own words. Do not just print off a page from a website and try to hand it in.

If you find anything interesting anywhere else that you think might help the rest of us, post a comment on this post and I'll share it with the class.

Our New Curriculum

This year, we will be using the International Primary Curriculum as the basis for our study, instead of an adaptation of the English National Curriculum.

There are quite a few differences between the two, one of which is the greater flexibility that we have when using the IPC. It allows us to choose different units of study, or modules, instead of following whatever they do in the UK. Another difference is the way that all of us work together.

If we had the idea before that the teacher passes on information to the children and the children soak it up, that isn't the case any more. Teachers and children will be working together, with teachers acting as guides. The children will be given a lot more responsibility over their own work this year. Of course, teachers will still be supervising and helping, but they will not be there to stand at the front and talk at the class.

It's going to be an interesting, challenging year. Let's get it started!

New Start

Ok, here we are again. Hmm. Not much has changed here in a while, has it? Well, I'll use the excuse that I thought that the class names were all changing, so y4-5.blogspot wouldn't be the right name any more. But, we've kept the old names so I guess that I can keep the old blog as well.

Now, that's not the only change. There are lots of new things happening at school this term, including a new class (Hello!) so I'll get around to adding the necessary new bits as soon as possible.

One of those is about the new units of study we'll be covering. I've been looking for some useful websites to help with research and I'll be adding them to the link list on the right. In the meantime, be patient!

Back soon.

Problems

It's fraction time again in Y4-5. Lots of us are having problems with fractions, especially converting one fraction to another. Here's an idea!

Look at the maths links in the side bar. There is a lot of information about fractions on the Marvellous Maths site.

Here's another one that's good. Click on this link. If you go to the bottom of that page, you can change the worksheet so that it gets harder, as you get better!

New Bits

I've added a link to the collection on the side. It's under the heading 'Science'. As we're now studying electricity, I've found a site about safety and electricity. Some of it is for older kids but there are games and other things that will be helpful to us.

Have a look at it and see if there's anything you already know!

Writing it right

Congratulations to our winners! I don't know if you have noticed but the handwriting competition winners, which have been posted outside our room for the last couple of weeks, have had stars added to them. The stars tell you who came 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th in all of Y4 and the best two calligraphers in the year group are...

Arshee and Cara!!!

Well done you two. More apples are being grown, as we speak. I shall have to plant a special orchard for all of the apples that Arshee is winning.




Well done also to our other winners from Y4-5: Abdullah (who managed to spell his name right), Damian and Nadia.





Apples for you as well. Someone needs to keep track of them all!

Earthquakes in the news

As we're on the subject of earthquakes and volcanoes and general geological activity, there has been an earthquake in Indonesia. Have a look at the BBC report here. It mentions a little bit about the centre of the earthquake and which parts of the world were affected. It also gives a little bit of information about other areas of Indonesia which have suffered from tsunamis and earthquakes over the last 5 years. A housepoint for anyone who can first tell me which months and years they happened in.

Reading it Right

It was our class Book Week performance reading competition today. It seemed that everyone had practiced at home, which was encouraging, and there were some really good performances. Honourable mentions should go to Omar and Serena, who did very well but, when I added up the points that you gave them, the winners were: Tamara, Nadia and Arshee. Apples all round and well done to everybody else.

Getting to the bottom of the problem

Oh, look at this.
It's a chair. But hold on though. It is sitting nicely on the floor and not being rocked backwards and forwards, from side to side or spun around on one leg. It can't be a chair from our classroom, can it Abdullah, Gasim, Omar, Mohammed, Nadia, Tara, Hamid or Damian?

Could everybody please try to remember how to use chairs this week? Pretty please? Thank you so much.

Star of the Week

This week, I chose Arshee. My main reason was for her exceptional art work. Her latest piece, a mosaic, is now on display in the Art Room. Pretty much everything she does is extremely careful, extremely thorough and extremely good. Well done Arshee!

Things to remember for Book Week!

• Choose a reading for the competition. Maximum 1 minute.
• Think of a costume for Wednesday. No movie characters!
• Choose a cartoon character to draw for our book cover.
  

Book Week!

As you know, it's Book Week coming up and to celebrate that auspicious occasion we will be 'doing' an author. I have scoured the literary world to find an example of the kind of educational, improving, informative and morally uplifting art that will inspire our children to become better people, for there is no greater aim than that.

After an exhaustive elimination process I have decided upon

Of course, there is much more to Dav Pilkey than merely 'Captain Underpants'. You can find out all about him and his characters on his website. Just click here.

Star of the Week

This week I chose Nadia. She might be very chatty in class and has trouble sitting properly on her seat but she has really made a big effort to improve her work, especially her maths and handwriting. When I think about what she was like before Christmas, oh my goodness! But now; amazing! Well done Nadia!

Sports' Day

Ok, it was Sports' Day a while ago but I haven't had a chance to put any pictures up yet. It seems to be taking ages as well so I won't do them all at once. I think I managed to get everyone so your picture will appear, just maybe not at first.

Star of the Week

This week I chose a new boy; Majed. He's settled into a new school very well and has surprised me by doing some really good work straight away. Usually new children take time to fit in with the rest of the class but Majed looks like he has been here for much longer than a few weeks. Well done!