Month: October 2013

The text we will be basing most of our learning around next half term is this one:

 

An Inconvenient Truth by Al Gore.

Click here to link to the website that accompanies the book and film. It contains lots of useful information, as does the wikipedia entry about the film.

 

The film is available to view on youtube (correct at the time of writing) but please ask permission from an adult in your family before using youtube. The film is classified E which means it is an educational video and all ages can view it but it is important to check with adults before using the youtube website.

Here’s how we’ll be linking this book to as many of our lessons as possible.

In Guided Reading – we will continue to read and analyse the book.

In Literacy – we will be learning how the book is both an explanation text and a persuasive text and we’ll be examining the features of both styles of writing.

In Extend Writing – we will be writing our own explanation texts and persuasive writing.

In Geography – we will be learning about climate change and how it effects different parts of the planet.

In Science – we will be learning about Space and in particular about Planet Earth.

In D.T. – we will be designing and making a model eco-home.

In Maths – we will be looking at data handling (graphs, charts and tables) and how they are used in the book.

One book = lots of learning.

 

Here’s an extra bit of learning for you. Al Gore who presents the movie and wrote the book, was the Vice President of the USA from 1992-2000 during the administration of President Bill Clinton. He contested the 2000 Presidential election as a Democratic Party candidate. Although he got more votes throughout the country overall than his Republican opponent, George W Bush, he lost the election after a controversial court judgement. After losing the election, Al Gore returned to pursuing other interests, one of which was raising awareness about the issue of climate change – hence the birth of the film and book An Inconvenient Truth.

Wow! What an amazing performance!

Having reviewed last week’s Mathletics’ statistics, it is entirely appropriate to congratulate everyone in Class 5 for a phenomenal performance.

1) We placed 4th in the whole of the UK due to the cumulative number of points we scored.

2) 96% of the class gained a certificate last week (special mention to Tianna who found a computer with internet access whilst being on holiday and still gained her weekly certificate).

3) Lots of pupils ranked in the Top 100 students in the UK for the quantity of points they scored (special mention to Marko for his Usain Bolt-esque Mathletical abilities).

Previously, we talked about trying to become the #1 point-scoring class in the world and gaining a special reward for achieving that exalted position. But having looked at the amount of points we’d need to achieve this I’d suggest that it would be possible for us to get to #1 but that it would take so long to accumulate enough points that we wouldn’t be spending enough time on other vital learning activities like reading. Mathletics is very important but there are other things we need to be doing as well.

So this is the new plan, I think we should aim to become the #1 Class in the UK and not try to become the #1 Class in the world. So the reward we would have got for becoming the world’s #1 Class we will get if we become the UK’s #1 Class. It’s a short journey from #4′ to #1 – we can do it.

If that all makes sense then let’s get going – http://www.mathletics.co.uk/

Our next science unit is going to be all about space.

This is a very exciting topic is it gives us the opportunity to conduct some fun and creative research on a very interesting topic.

Our first task is to learn some key facts about space – this is a helpful website for doing just that, and, in addition, it can help you to learn about how scientists observe space.

Once you’ve introduced yourself to the key ideas about space, I’d like you to research some of history’s greatest scientists and how their work has informed our understanding of space.

Humans have not always understand that the earth is spherical and that the earth orbits the sun because of gravitational forces. Our understanding of space has developed because of the pioneering work of expert scientists.

Research these famous scientists and see how their work has developed our knowledge of space:

Sir Issac Newton

Edward Hubble

Albert Einstein

Stephen Hawking

Nicolaus Copernicus

Galilei Galileo

This website is a good starting point.

Here’s a quick guide for children and their families regarding homework in Class 5.

Contained in this blog there is: information about homework tasks; as well as guidance on timings; and some suggested resources.

What tasks should pupils be undertaking at home each week?

The following is a list of on-going weekly expectations:

* Learn the list of spellings that will be set (normally on a Monday).

* Every child should be scoring 1,000 points minimum on the Mathletics website (www.mathletics.co.uk). This will earn them a certificate that will be awarded in celebration assembly.

* Children should be reading as often as possible, ideally they would be reading every day. It is important that the pupils are challenged and engaged by the books that they are reading.

* Children should be completing between 2-4 of the maths problems that can be found on the Class 5 blog entry titled ‘Mathematical Problem Solving’. If you click on the link on the blog it will take you to a pdf document containing approx. 30 different maths problems. As previously mentioned, the children should complete between 2-4 of these problems per week.

In addition to these on-going weekly tasks there will be:

1 writing based task per week; and

1 task relating to one of our other subjects.

The details of these tasks will be given to the children on a week by week basis.

How long should the children be spending on homework each day?

The general rule-of-thumb is that the children should spend 10 x their year group in mins. Or to put it simply, 50mins (Year 5 x 10mins). This is, of course, a rough guide and the timings are not an absolute, it is, however, important that the children are completing every task to the best of their ability and this could be less than or more than the 50mins per day recommendation. It is important that children are working on all homework tasks and paying particular attention to the areas of development (e.g. mental maths or handwriting or maths problem solving) that have been identified for them.

Are there any helpful resources?

There are links provided on the Class 5 blog that will take you to websites that provide particularly helpful resources for when the pupils are learning at home. Please look through the different blog entries and if you would like a particular resource then please leave a message in the comments section and we’ll do our best to find you additional resources to help the process of home learning.

We are trying to develop our maths skills in two ways:

1) We are working on Mathletics to solidify our key mathematical skills (and can I say well done to everyone for scoring so many points that we were ranked 5th in the whole of the UK – the next stop is 1st place for Class 5).

2) We are working on problem solving to really stretch our thinking and engage our mathematical brains in creative ways. If you’d like to try some mathematical problem solving then click on the link below and try to solve these problems. You may find some ideas tricky but if you can think through, and correctly answer these problems then you will be really improving your maths skills. Have a go.

http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20081231141138/http://www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/primary/publications/mathematics/able_pupils_challenges/nns_mathchallenge008300_y5y6.pdf

We are going to be making some changes to the way that we set homework over the course of this academic year. We want to make homework more challenging, more fun, more interactive, more investigative – all in an attempt to help you to learn more.

This is your chance to be part of the process of changing homework at Cathedral school. What types of homework do you enjoy the most? Which bits of homework help you to learn the most? Do you enjoy working independently or with friends and family members? Are there any types of homework that you don’t like and that you don’t think help you to learn?

Let us know in the comments section below and you can help to create the sort of homework that you want to be set by your teacher.

The Ice Cream Flavours Maths Investigation certainly got people talking about maths, and that was precisely the point. We want people to be discussing their mathematical ideas and exploring concepts in a way that promotes dialogue (this word means to have a conversation if you’re unsure).

In Cathedral school we are going to be conducting more maths investigations because we believe that this is a really good way to help children improve their mathematical skills. (And this is why we are visiting Lambeth CLC on 22.10.13 because they will be setting us investigative maths challenges to solve).

But back to the Ice Cream! What did you think about the investigation? Was there anything that helped you to solve the problem? Leave a comment beneath this blog to share your mathematical ideas.

In the next few days I should be able to book our class a visit to the Science Museum. If you haven’t visited the museum then you’re in for a treat. It’s a genuinely world class museum and it provides many fascinating educational opportunities. But the question I’ve got for you is this – what should we do during our visit to the museum? That’s right I want you to organise the trip – you get to be the teacher and make the decision as to what we do on our trip!

But there are some things you’ll need to take into consideration. First of all you’ll need to visit the Science Museum website (www.sciencemuseum.org.uk) and have a look at what exhibitions, workshops and attractions they offer.

Next you’ll have to consider our budget and our available time. The bad news is that we don’t have a budget, i.e. we have no money available for this trip so you can’t choose any of the attractions that cost money. The good news is that the vast majority of attractions are free, so there’s still plenty of things to select from.

The final consideration is perhaps the most important, you’ve got to link what we visit with what we’re learning about in school. You can link our activities to what we’ve been learning about this half term or you can link our activities to what we will be learning about next half term (the main topics are: investigative maths; climate change; space; planet earth; and architectural design).

Be creative and be adventurous in your thinking. I’ll provide an idea of how your proposal should look in the comments section and then it’s over to you – what should we do on our trip?

Class 5 have been studying lots of different poetic styles in their literacy lessons. One style that had a strong resonance with them was the poetic style of Charles Causely.

Causely’s poems were often both autobiographical and metaphorical which gave them a richness that struck a chord with our class. He wrote about the death of his father (which happened when Causely was just 7 years old) in WWI and his own experiences of serving in WWII, and he articulated his feelings about these seismic events by writing metaphorical poems.

So we thought of a personal experience of our own that we wanted to articulate in our poems and then we thought of a metaphor that we could use as a vehicle to discuss this personal experience.

Read some of the thought provoking poetry written by the children in Class 5. Can you believe that these pupils are only 9 and 10 years old? Jed’s poem about the dangers of smoking written via a metaphor about Piper’s playing their pipes is a particularly impressive piece of work.

 

It is Class 5’s privilege to perform the Nativity Production at Southwark Cathedral this year. I’m sure you’re all aware that the school has a proud tradition of hosting very impressive Christmas productions and this year will be no different as we aim to show off our theatrical talents.

Take a moment to think about Christmas productions you have watched in the past, would you like to take part in the nativity story? Would you like a speaking part or would you prefer to be a singer in the choir?

We will be asking pupils to register their interest over the coming weeks and we’ll start practicing the story and the songs after the half term holidays. Let me know in the comments section what type of role you would like to have in the production.