Watlington Primary School
Watlington Primary School
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Friday 10th July
Good morning Badgers, this will be our last home learning post. Well, what super stars you have all been over the last few weeks and months! None of us could have anticipated what happened this year but you have adjusted and adapted to a new way of learning and we are so very of proud of each and every one of you!
We would also like to say a huge thank you to all the adults who have helped you along this unusual journey and think they deserve a big rest from being a ‘teacher’ over the Summer holidays!
We hope you are getting excited about coming into school next week and are looking forward to meeting your new teachers. We will be around school and hope to catch up and have a chat with anyone we haven’t seen over the last few weeks.
English
We thought we’d give you chance to finish off any of the activities that you have been working on this week.
Here is another fun activity for you to do. ‘Wordles’ are a fun way of displaying different words in a word ‘cloud’. We would like you to think of some words to describe your time in Badgers class. You can then create a wordle! We have attached an example for you to look at. You can either use the website below or draw one by hand. It’s up to you!
Here are some key words that you might want to include in your own wordle:
- Badgers VE Day
- Fantastic Victorians
- Recorder Inventions
- Debate
- Rainforests
- Brilliant
- Fun
- Ancient Egypt
Maths
Have a look at Mathletics Badgers and have a go at any activities that you haven’t tried yet. You can carry on using Mathletics next week as well. There were lots of puzzles attached on Monday so you might want to choose a couple of different ones.
Art
Why don’t you make a card to give to someone in your house who has been helping you with your home learning? We think they deserve a nice treat. We know how artistic you can be Badgers so create them a lovely card with a message explaining how they have helped you and saying a big thank you!
Have a lovely weekend Badgers, we can’t wait to see you all next week!
Mrs Flynn, Miss Sharman and Miss Brown
Wednesday 8th July
Good Morning Badgers!
We can’t believe that we are in the last week of home learning now-you have all done so well and we are REALLY proud of you all! We are nearly there and Friday will be the last Badgers post for this term. Next week will be an exciting week as you have a chance to be in your new class. Keep up the good work for the last few days…you can do it! This week continues to be about reflecting on recent months and your time in Badgers and celebrating your achievements.
English
How did you get on with writing a letter to your new teacher? Have you included all the things that you want them to know about you? Remember that this is a chance to really show them all your accurate writing skills as well as sharing information about yourself.
Do you need to review it and edit it? Remember at the end of last week you edited your letter writing as Jim? It is a really important part of the writing process. Please edit your letter today if needed. You can bring your letter with you next week when you meet your teachers.
Wednesday
LO: To write to someone who you have missed during lockdown reflecting on what you have achieved.
Continuing on the theme of written communication, we would like you to create a postcard/card for a friend or family member. Maybe it could be to someone that you have really missed over recent weeks or someone who you think would appreciate a card and this might put a smile on their face! Although communicating online is quick and easy, it is really lovely to receive some real post too. Reflect on your experiences over the last few months. Here are some ideas:
- Your lockdown life and the things you got up to at home
- Coming into school and seeing your friends again
- A new skill or hobby you have taken up during lockdown
- Home learning
Once you have written your postcard, you can draw a picture on the front too (you could draw a Victorian topic linked picture!). Remember to write out the address to the person you are sending it to neatly and clearly so the postman can read it properly. We have attached a template that you are welcome to print at home and stick onto card or you can make your own (sticking two pieces of paper together or using card will keep it nice and strong).
Thursday
LO: To create a montage (mixture of all the best bits!) poster of your home learning experiences.
Today we would like you to look at all the work you have achieved over lockdown. Look through your learning book and think about everything you have done. This may be tasks set by us or anything else that you are really proud of. You may want to spend a little bit of time collating (bringing together) everything you have done.
Discuss what you have achieved with someone on your family: What was really hard? What did you enjoy? Which piece of work are you most proud of? What books did you enjoy reading? After you have spent some time doing this, we would like you to put your ‘highlights’ down on a poster. This could be laid out like a page in an information book with small pictures and captions of your achievements. It could be on the computer (Power point, Word or Publisher)-you can choose!
Things to ensure:
- You have a clear heading
- You label/write explanations for each item
- Try to include: hardest work, most fun work, proudest work, most interesting learning, most enjoyable book read (plus your own ideas!).
We would love to see pictures of these Badgers!
Reading
You have hopefully enjoyed some excellent books over recent weeks and we hope you continue to do so over the summer. Choose your favourite book from lockdown and think about what the sequel (next book) might be: What would happen to the characters next? Where would it be set? How does it start after the end of the last book?
Design a front and back cover for this sequel including: A Title, front cover picture, blurb, quotes by people who have loved it. Look at other book covers for inspiration. You might even be inspired to write the first paragraph of the new book too!
Maths
Continue to pick some of the puzzles from the sheets from Monday and we have attached some Summer themed challenges here too-you will need to draw on all your maths knowledge when having a go at them! We will post the answers on Friday.
Science
Have a go at this investigation and think about the questions.
Picking up an ice cube
Using only a length of thread, can you pick up an ice cube?
Try different ways to use the thread to pick up the ice cube.
Why is it difficult to tie the thread in a loop around the ice cube and pick it up?
What happens when you put the salt on the ice cube?
Why do you think salt is used in winter on the roads?
Nearly there you BRILLIANT BADGERS, you can do it! We will be in touch for our last post on Friday.
Miss Sharman, Mrs Flynn and Miss Brown
Good Morning Badgers!
This is our last week of home learning as next week will be a transition week and you will have an opportunity to be in school meeting new teachers.
With that in mind we wanted you to have a think about transition and moving on to new and exciting challenges!
English
Monday - As you will be meeting your new teachers next week we’d like you to think about what questions you would like to ask them? What do you want to know about your new class in September? You can jot some of these questions down as they will be useful when you write your letter to your new teacher tomorrow. Tuesday – Today you are going to write a letter to your new teacher. Remember to lay out your letter correctly. You should include a paragraph about yourself, including hobbies and interests. A paragraph about your favourite subjects and why you like them. You could maybe include some things you find difficult as this will be helpful for your new teacher. Finally you could include what you are looking forward to next year.
Spelling
This week, can you look over your spellings for this term and highlight any that you found tricky. Use some of the spelling activities that we have suggested before and have a go at practising them.
Maths
As it is our last week of home learning we thought it would be a good opportunity to revisit any areas of mathletics that you haven’t tried or any areas you found a bit tricky. We have assigned some revision activities but feel free to try some others aswell. We have also attached some year 3 and 4 problems and puzzles.
Art/Design
Design your perfect classroom. What would you have in there? How would it be laid out? Would you have children sitting in groups or individual desks? Would your classroom have any extra features?
P.E
As we can’t all be together to enjoy a Sports day at school why not set up your own at home for you and your family? You can make up your own events or look at the attachment and use the suggested ideas. Good luck Badgers lets hope the sun is shining for your sports day!
That’s it for today Badgers, check the website on Wednesday for another update.
Mrs Flynn, Miss Sharman and Miss Brown
Friday 3rd July 2020
Good Morning Badgers!
We hope that you have all had a good week of learning so far Badgers-what are you most proud of with your learning? It is nearly the weekend and today’s focus will be finishing off anything you are yet to complete and making some improvements in your English writing too.
English
LO – To edit and improve your writing
By now you should have completed (or nearly completed) your letter from Jim to his sisters. Which events and experiences did you describe in your letter? He certainly would have described some of the hardships he has gone through and the joy at finding his safe home with Dr Barnardo.
Today we would like you to review your letter and complete these tasks in this order to help ensure it is the best it can be:
- Read your writing for sense: Are there any sentences that do not make sense? Reading this to an adult aloud will help you check this. Then make any adjustments you need to so all your sentences say what you want them to say.
- Check for punctuation and spelling: Have you spelt words correctly? Look at ones that look wrong or that you know are incorrect. Either use a dictionary to help correct these or ask an adult to review them with you. Have you got full-stops, capital letters, commas, question marks and exclamation marks in the correct place?
- Check your writing against your plan: Tick off each thing in your plan that you have written about in your letter? Is there anything you have missed?
- IMPROVEMENTS: Now it is time to choose one paragraph that you think could be improved. You could do this with another coloured pen just like we do in school. Things to consider:
- Have you written enough sentences?
- Can you extend any sentences with further descriptions of what he saw or experienced or how he felt about what happened?
We would love to see your finished letters please!
Maths
We hope that you have got on well with your fraction work this week. To finish off this unit of work here are links to assessments for both year 3 and 4. This will help you spot if there are any gaps that you need to address or areas to revisit.
Year 3 fractions assessment:
https://wrm-13b48.kxcdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/2019/04/2019/04/Year-3-Fractions.pdf
Year 4 fractions assessment:
https://wrm-13b48.kxcdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/2019/04/2019/04/Year-4-Decimals.pdf
Art
We looked more closely at William Morris last week and how he worked with pattern. We are now going to look at how pattern has been used in art and design across the world. Look at the attached power point on Islamic geometric patterns and the instructions on how to create these patterns. There is a template that you could print (or copy onto a piece of paper) to have a go at this design method. A ruler would be helpful for this too! Have fun creating a different sort of repeating pattern.
We hope that you have a lovely weekend-relax and have fun!
Miss Sharman, Mrs Flynn and Miss Brown
Wednesday 1st July 2020
Good Morning Badgers!
Happy July folks!
We hope that you have had a good couple of days. Have you managed to get into the Wimbledon mood and practise some tennis moves, or maybe even eaten some strawberries and cream…mmmmm yum yum!?
English
Have you managed to get to the end of Street Child? If you haven’t then try and do that first and have a go at the comprehension questions too, then you are ready to move on to these next tasks. The answers to the comprehension questions are attached so do check how you got on, the wording will be slightly different to yours.
Wednesday: LO – To plan an informal letter.
Now we have finished Street Child, you are going to pretend to be Jim and write a letter to his sisters about his experiences on the streets and to let them know that he is now living somewhere safe and that he is well. As the letter is from Jim to his sisters, it is an informal letter, meaning it is a friendly, personal letter. Today you are going to think about what you will include in your letter and create a plan. Remember you might like to include some of the facts you learned yesterday about Dr Barnardo and the Ragged schools to describe what his life is like at the end of the story.
We have attached an example plan for you to look at. You can either print out our planning format or draw one into your books.
Thursday: LO – To compose an informal letter based on events in a story.
It is time to write! Use your plan to write your letter. Attached is an example letter to give you some ideas, but it would be lovely to see you thinking about what experiences Jim had that you think are important to talk about. Remember that you are writing about events that have already happened so you must stay in the past tense. The ONLY time you will write in the present tense is if you are describing what life is like for him at the time he writes the letter; if you describe life in the Ragged school this may be in the present tense.
Try to write your letter out as neatly as possible and check it carefully for any little mistakes. Tomorrow you will have time to edit and make any changes to your letter. We will then look forward to seeing some of these letters if you send them in-we will share them on the star learning page here!
Spellings
Wednesday and Thursday
How did you get on with the dice game? If you haven’t played that yet, please have a go, thinking carefully about the graphemes that spell the phonemes (sounds) as they are not the ones we would normally expect.
Attached are some activities linked to these spellings (there are more words on the sheet than on our list that follow the same rules).
Maths
There will be some more fraction tasks on mathletics for you to complete, and as well as that see these links to some fraction problems. Some have ways to do them on the screen or you can copy or print out the activity in your books.
https://nrich.maths.org/7392-this one looks at making an origami flower too!
Science
Fun with density/fireworks in a jar/lava lamp
This week we have 3 different experiments that explore density. Density is how much mass is in a volume (or space).You can choose to do as many of this weeks’ experiments as you like and this weeks’ science skill is observation – What can you see happening in front of your eyes? Why do you think this might be happening?
In the ‘Fun with density’ experiment you might like to explore whether or not you can float different objects on the layers that you make.
Draw diagrams or take photos of what you see during this weeks’ task and HAVE FUN!
Can you come up with something that you’d like to explore next?
Value of the Month
The value of the month is TOLERANCE.
This is such an important value for us all to understand and make part of our daily lives.
Look at the attached power point. Think about how you are tolerant in your daily life-how could we all be more tolerant? The key words used are in the table below. If you are unsure of their meaning, you could use a dictionary to find out what they mean.
|
Open-minded |
unprejudiced |
judgement |
stereotype |
discriminate |
|
injustice |
opinion |
tolerant |
opinion |
accept |
|
fairness |
snub |
deny |
listen |
support |
We would love to see any work you have completed at home and especially your famous Victorian work.
Have a good couple of days of learning!
Miss Sharman, Mrs Flynn and Miss Brown
Monday 29th June
Morning Badgers!
It was so nice to see so many of you at school over the last two weeks. If you didn’t see one of us when you were in because we all had to stay in our bubbles, then please don’t worry; we will make a point of coming to find you for a chat at playtime or lunch break when you are in for your transition week. Keep looking in the class work ‘home learning’ star folder here for updated pieces of work-there are some lovely pieces of art work!
We are back to some home learning for the next 2 weeks Badgers so we will go back to posting on the website on a Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
English (including reading)
We have uploaded the rest of Street Child for you to read over the week. This will help you with some of the activities we set. We are going to be finishing the story this week and thinking about the whole book ready to write a final piece about Jim’s experiences at the end of this story.
Monday
LO To reflect on the development of the story.
Read through the last few Chapters and have a chat with someone in your house about what has happened. As there is quite a lot of reading maybe take turns with an adult in your house and read a few pages each. Have a go at reading with expression, can you get into character and try and read the words how the characters would?
If you are ready, you can now read the comprehension questions attached and have a go at answering them and writing in full sentences. Or save this until tomorrow if you have spent a long time enjoying the chapters and talking about them.
Tuesday
LO To draw conclusions and opinions about a story using sentences with conjunctions.
When you read the last couple of Chapters did the ending surprise you? Did you enjoy it? Do you think it is a cliff hanger? Are there any unanswered questions (perhaps about his family)? Now you have finished the book, have a go at writing sentences practising using conjunctions (see attached sheet). If you have got your reading comprehension to complete today, you can always do this tomorrow.
Spellings
The spellings this week are words with the /ay/sound spelt ei, eigh or ey (see your spellings for the whole term from 1st June). These patterns are quite rare for this phoneme.
Use a dice, a timer, a ball and something to write on for this activity. When you roll a certain number complete the activity below for each word:
1=bounce a ball for each letter in a word, shouting out the spelling as you bounce.
2=Time 30 seconds. How many times can you spell the word accurately?
3=Put the word into a sentence accurately.
4=Write the word with your eyes closed.
5=Spell the word forwards then backwards aloud
6=Draw a picture that represents the word and ad the word to the picture.
You could also ask someone else to play hangman with these words with you like we did in class last week.
Maths
This week we are going to continue our work on fractions.
This link to White Rose has some good videos to explain our work on fractions in more detail (scroll down to the bottom of the page on these links to see the previous weeks). The children in class last week requested some further help in this area, please let us know if you need further assistance.
https://whiterosemaths.com/homelearning/year-3/ (look at week 8, 15th June)
https://whiterosemaths.com/homelearning/year-4/ (look at weeks 6 and 7 and 8)
We will have assigned some tasks on mathletics for you to work on.
Topic
Have you finished your research project on a famous Victorian? Please send us a picture when it is completed.
It might include the following if possible:
- Information about their life
- How they came to do the work that made them famous
- Information on their invention or work
In our star folder there is a picture of Indy’s work on Charles Darwin; we’d love to see all of your work!
LO To explore and understand school life in the Victorian Times.
(You can work on this over the week)
Our last part of this topic is to think about school life in Victorian times. Some of you will have heard from Mrs Hammerton-Jackson a couple of weeks ago in school about the punishments in Watlington Primary school in the Victorian Times (she showed us some school books from the turn of the 19th Century that listed all the punishments given out each week to the children!). We are going to think about what this life would have been like in more detail and particularly the ‘Ragged Schools’.
Look at some of these links for information:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0078b97/clips
https://www.bbc.co.uk/teach/class-clips-video/true-stories-thomas-barnardo/zky7pg8 (this one focuses on the work by Dr Barnardo and his Ragged Schools)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FOmrCi-mh_k
http://www.victorianschool.co.uk/schoolday.php
We would like you to have a go at a few activities this week that Victorian children would have had to do in school. After you have completed some, make some comparisons in your book about how it is different to our school day today.
- Copy Writing book: see attached sheet, either print it off and practice writing like the Victorian or copy into your book. Read the instructions at the bottom of the sheet. You may like to use an ink pen if your family has one you could borrow.
- Drawing: Victorian schools often carefully sketched from nature. Choose a flower of plant outside to sketch very carefully.
- Learning a poem: Read the attached poem by the famous poet William Wordsworth. Children would have had to recite part or whole poems ‘off by heart’. Can you try and learn one verse and present it to someone in your family?
- Research other Victorian lessons and see if you can have a go at them.
P.E.
Sadly, Wimbledon should have started today but like all the big sporting events this year, it has been cancelled. But don’t despair, if you have a tennis racquet or any sort of flat bat and a ball, try these exercises to get you on the road to becoming tomorrow’s tennis champions!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=znbpWMuORa4
Happy learning Badgers, we will be in touch on Wednesday,
Mrs Flynn. Miss Sharman and Miss Brown
Monday 22nd June
Morning Badgers! How did you get on with the home learning grid last week? It was lovely to see some of you in school. The Badgers classroom felt like it had come alive with children in again!
Have a look at the home learning grid attached this week which has activities for you to complete while you are at home.
How did you get on drawing or learning the map? This week we are going to think about our own life and how it might be different to that of children in Victorian Times. We are going to think about what we would include in a letter if we were leaving a time capsule like Percy. Think about who you might leave it for…anyone in the future or maybe yourself in 50 years time-you can choose!
Remember to have a look at Mathletics, we are looking at fractions this week so there will be some activities assigned for you to try. We have also attached extra activities on fractions.
If you are coming into school this week, remember to put sun cream on in the morning and bring in a hat and a water bottle. It looks like the weather is going to be hot, hot, hot!
Happy learning Badgers,
Mrs Flynn, Miss Sharman and Miss Brown
Story Map
Time capsule hook.MP4
Monday 15th June 2020
Morning Badgers! We hope you’ve all had a lovely weekend.
How did you get on with guessing our ‘up close’ pictures? Here are the actual photos-did you get any of them right? We’d love to see some if you had a go at home too.
Take a look at the home learning grid attached which has activities for you to complete while you are at home.
How did you get on with the English at the end of last week comparing your life to Jim? This week we are taking this one step further, thinking about our own life and how it might be different to that of children in Victorian Times. We have also attached any resources we think you might need over the week. Remember to have a look at Mathletics, if you have finished any assigned tasks you can always look at other activities that you haven’t tried yet. There is also a couple of links to some other activities on the grid.
Have a great week,
Mrs Flynn, Miss Sharman and Miss Brown
Friday 12th June
Wednesday 10th June
Monday 8th June
Mondat 3rd-Friday 5th June
Happy half term Badgers!
Here is a display we have put up in the class celebrating your home learning. If you would like to contribute, please feel free to send any pictures to the office and also don't forget to send your Invention reports if you would like them to go in our class book. Well done Badgers-you are all doing a great job!
