07 December 2018
This week, the whole school has the same Creative homework which should be returned by Thursday 13 December 2018.
I can show what I know about a festival.
Over the course of this term, some children in school may have celebrated a religious festival of some sort. This might have been
- the Muslim festival of Eid ul Adha
- the Sikh and Hindu festival Diwali
- the Jewish festival of Hanukkah, coming up in December
- the Christian festival (of course, celebrated by many non-Christians) of Christmas
- and the Chinese New Year festival, coming up
There are lots of other festivals and celebrations which you and your child together might want to reflect on.
We invite children to respond to the sentence above – they might include a recount (like a diary entry), pictures, an interview (perhaps in a script). Your child might also choose to research a completely unknown festival, or they might even think about creating a brand new festival, one that everyone will celebrate.
30 November 2018
Focus: Practice makes perfect
Rounding
This week, we’ve been rounding numbers to the nearest 10, 100 and 1000. The children are all confident with the method of doing this and now just need to practise eg:
when rounded to the nearest 10, 45 rounds to 50 but 44 rounds to 40
when rounded to the nearest 100, 455 round to 500, but 439 round to 400
Children need to complete the table which is glued into their books about rounding different representations of numbers.
23 November 2018
Homework for the whole school this week is Talk Time: Which charity should our school support?
Next week, a charity will be decided for Wetherby St James Primary to support in the year ahead – for example, when we have a performance, we’ll collect money for this particular charity. What charity does your child think we should support?
You could talk about:
- what a charity is
- why charities are important
- what sort of work they do
- charities that have meaning to your family, to school or the community
- national and international charities and their work
16 November 2018
This week, the whole school has the same Creative homework which children should be ready to discuss as part of our homework review on Thursday 22 November.
I know how to STOP bullying.
This homework is a response to our learning this week during anti-bullying week. Throughout the week, each class has had the chance to talk about what bullying is, what the different types of bullying are, and how we can STOP it:
- Start
- Telling
- Other
- People
As part of your discussion you may find our school definition of bullying useful, as agreed by our School Councillors:
Bullying is when you hurt someone, physically or emotionally, several times on purpose.
As the homework is Creative, you can do anything you want to respond to the statement. Here are a few ideas to help you:
- Create a cartoon strip of a bullying scenario and how it is solved.
- Create an acrostic poem using the word bullying.
- Write your own ‘kindness statements’ for your class.
- Create a scenarios quiz for your class to decide what they would do.
09 November 2018
This week’s homework is talk time and is due on Thursday 15 November.
This half term, our Christian value is perseverance.
Discuss this scenario with your family:
One day, Sam’s teacher set his class a challenge. The challenge was to learn to count in 3s and recite it to the teacher next week. Sam always found maths challenging but wanted to give it his best go. All week, Sam practised and practised and practised because it wasn’t an easy challenge. The next week came and, after much practice, Sam managed to count in 3s. He excitedly told his best friend Lucy. Lucy laughed and showed Sam her arm – all up her arm were the numbers to count in 3s ready to recite to the teacher.
- Who showed perseverance in this scenario?
- Was it ok for Lucy to write the answers on her arm?
- How would you show perseverance when set a difficult challenge?
19 October 2018
This week, the whole school has the same Talk Time homework. In preparation for the upcoming School Council elections, children should complete one of the following tasks:
- I can prepare a speech (School Council elections).
- I know the importance of voting.
It’s time for children to consider if they would like to stand for election for our new School Council. With two representatives from each year group, chosen democratically by their peers, all children are encouraged to take an active part in pupil voice.
Elections for our new school council will take place on Thursday 25 October with our polling station and ballot boxes at the ready. Candidates will have the opportunity to give their election speech to their class on Wednesday 24 October or Thursday 25 October.
What makes a good school councillor has been considered by our current school council.
- ‘use all the 8 Rs for learning’
- ‘be respectful’
- ‘help others’
- ‘be a good speaker and listener (to members of your class and in the meetings)’
- ‘tell the truth’
- ‘be confident with your ideas’
- ‘accept the views of others even if you don’t agree’
- ‘be friendly and approachable’
- ‘make good choices in class and around school’
Hints for your speech include:
- What skills and abilities would a good school councillor have?
- What are you particularly good at that would help you to be a great school councillor?
- What do you think would make the school better?
- What could you do that people would really like?
- Think of things that are realistic, maybe that you could do yourself, rather than having to ask other people to do
Thank you to our current school councillors for all their ideas and contributions. We hope you have enjoyed this role and responsibility. You’re welcome to stand again for election.
Good luck to all children who decide to stand in the elections.
If you choose not to stand in the election, you should consider the importance of voting.
12 October 2018
Focus: Creative – numbers to 1000
Over the last few weeks we have been studying place value and the number system. Your task this week is to create a quiz, game or any other task that we could use in the class to help with numbers to 1000.
You could choose to make your game about:
• adding and subtracting 10, 100 and 1000
• ordering numbers
• partitioning numbers
We will of course be looking at all the games and hopefully playing a few of them.
05 October 2018
Focus: Practice makes perfect
This week, we have been adding 10, 100 and 1000 to different starting numbers and paying attention to which digits in the number will: always, sometimes or never change.
Complete the sheet of problems stuck into your book. If it helps, you could always draw out base 10 or place value counters to help you.
We also now offer a weekly homework club where children can use maths resources to help them complete this task if they find it tricky.
28 September 2018
This week the whole school has the same Talk Time homework which should be completed by Thursday 04 October.
If I could travel in time, who would I take with me and why?
This homework, which links to our current big topic (Time Travel), is a chance for children to think about who is important to them and why. There are many factors which may influence your child’s decision:
- What makes a good travel companion?
- Are there any skills that would help during time travel?
- Who do they enjoy spending time with and why?
- Do they choose someone they know or someone they know of?
Children should discuss this with someone at home and be ready to discuss their viewpoint as part of our weekly homework review next week.
21 September 2018
Focus: Creative
Over the last few weeks in our ‘Where in the world?’ topic, we’ve learnt lots of facts about our world: continents, countries, capitals etc.
Your task is to create a board game, quiz or other style of game that you could play at home or in school to help you learn and remember facts about the world.