Happy New Year. We hope you’ve had a fantastic holiday and are looking forward to continuing our learning journey this year. Sorry that you can’t be in school this week but we’ve got plenty of activities to keep you busy.
Maths
In school this week, we’re learning how to calculate fractions and mixed numbers. Children should use these resources:
You don’t have to print the worksheets. Your child can write or draw their answers on paper. Your child’s learning will be most effective if you sit with them to pause the clip and check / praise / support your child as the clip moves on.
Don’t forget to practise times tables on Times Table Rock Stars, too. Even rock legends need to keep their fingers and brains sharp. Email your class teacher if you need your child’s login and password details.
(Suggested time: 30 minutes of Maths and 15 minutes of Rock Stars daily)
Reading fluency
This is the fluency text on the book Sky Song that we’ll read in class this week. In school, we generally follow this sequence:
- Day 1: Read the text aloud with your child listening. Read it clearly and slowly, pointing to each word as you read. Have a chat about any unfamiliar words.
- Day 2: Read aloud each sentence (a full short sentence or part of a longer sentence), and have your child read it back to you. Do this ‘echo reading’ for the whole text.
- Day 3: Read the text and talk about the effect of the punctuation on how you read it – pauses for full stops and expression for exclamations (!) or questions (?). Your child reads the text aloud.
- Day 4: Read together with expression (just like you practised on Day 3).
- Day 5: Your child reads independently and fluently.
(Suggested time: 15 minutes daily)
Reading comprehension
- Day 1: Read the fluency text and answer the RIC questions.
- Day 2: Re-read the prologue to Sky Song. Take photos of yourself acting out different parts of the story, or if you can’t, then draw picture to summarise it.
- Day 3: Re-read the prologue to Sky Song. Summarise the story in 10 sentences.
- Day 4: Book Club. Once a week, we have a relaxing lesson where we sit and read quietly, often with an adult. At home, we’d like you to read your favourite book or text, too. If possible, discuss the book with an adult, talking about some or all of the sections of this grid.
(Suggested time: 30 minutes daily)
Writing
Follow these lessons on journalistic writing from Oak National Academy. There’s a whole series of lessons, but start at Lesson 1 and work through, doing one (or maybe even two) each day. (If you’re self-isolating in your second week, stick with the series of lessons you’ve already started and aim to complete the full series.)
(Suggested time: 30-40 minutes for each)
Spelling
This week’s spellings are on our spelling page. Complete one task each day:
- Day 1: Generate more words linked to the spelling pattern or ‘rule’. (You could look out for the words in the book you’re reading at home, or any other text, like a website linked to our learning.)
- Day 2: Practise the spellings using two of the ideas in our Super Spelling Strategies Guide. (Set yourself and others at home a challenge of using some of the words when you’re speaking, too!)
- Day 3: Write separate sentences, each containing one of the spellings. (Don’t forget to show off really neat handwriting and make sure you sentence starts with a capital letter and ends with a full stop, exclamation mark (!) or question mark (?).
- Day 4: Repeat Task 2 or 3.
- Day 5: Get an adult at home to test you on your spellings. Practise any you spell incorrectly – you could write them out carefully until you’re sure.
(Suggested time: 15-20 minutes daily)
Topic
Our topic this half-term is about climate change. This geography unit from Oak Academy is called Water, Weather and Climate.
Follow these. There are six lessons in total, but start at the first lesson and work through, doing two or three in the week.
(Suggested time: 30-40 minutes)
Science
Our focus this half-term is Space.
These six lessons from Oak National Academy link closely to what we’ve been doing in class. Start at Lesson 1 and work through, doing two or three in the week.
If Science really motivates your child, you could also use look at these lessons all about practical Science.
(Suggested time: 30-45 minutes)
PE
Don’t forget to do some daily exercise!
Do two or three of these Five Minute Moves from Joe Wicks each day – spread them across the day as if they were playtimes, maybe!
Try working through this series of 25 lessons from the Association for Physical Education – do two or three in the week.
(Suggested time: 5 minutes daily, plus 30 minutes for the longer PE lessons)
