Monday 8th February
Daily News
Good morning and welcome to the final week of this half term. Things will look a little bit different this week as I give you the opportunity to complete two ‘Independent Learning’ activities in the usual English timeslot. Full details can be seen below. I have given over the Maths session today and tomorrow to this too, allowing you some time to really get your teeth into these projects.
I thought a timetable of the coming week may help:
With the Independent Learning topic, do not feel that you have to submit work every day. When I receive work at the end of the project, I will tick your ‘marksheet’ for Monday-Friday. (Of course, if you have any questions or would like me to check something, please do submit your work for me to look at on ClassDojo).
And, with 3 days to go in the Times Table Rockstar battle:
Very well done to everyone who has played and have managed to eek ahead of Year 4 over the last few days. It’s pretty tight at the top, so please try to fit in a few games to maintain the advantage!
Mr Simmons’ Joke of the Day
Independent Learning
You did a lot of writing last week as you completed your Highwayman newspaper reports so I thought we would do something a bit different this week instead of our standard English sessions. I hope you will enjoy working on these projects.
As you start to prepare for secondary school, one of the key skills is to manage your time and work on longer tasks over a number of days. There are 2 topics I would like you to work on during this week. Think about how you will manage your time – will you do a bit on each day or will you focus on one topic first?
- A Project on Vikings
- Biodiversity: A Home for Nature – A Challenge
The Vikings
During this week a fantastic opportunity is being provided by the Yorvik Viking Centre. I don’t know if any of you have ever had the chance to visit this museum in York – it is on my list of places to go to. This week, the museum are putting on a full week of activities as part of their ‘That JORVIK Viking Thing: Schools Week’.
The live-streamed sessions will take place daily at 10am and 2pm from 8 – 12 February 2021. You only need to watch one of these sessions at any point during the week, as each will have broadly similar content. Each session will last 20-25 minutes. Choose the broadcast on the day and time that suits you the best.
You will find all the links you need here:
In addition, on the website there is a wealth of pre-recorded video content, book readings and even a virtual tour of the museum. There are videos with aspects of Viking life (ranging from helmets to board games) and much more information which you can browse at your leisure. You can, of course, then find out extra information about The Vikings from other sources. You will find another great section on their website here.
Choosing your own preferred way to present the information you gather this week, I would like you to complete a Viking project. This could be through a selection of art work, written reports, a play, PowerPoint presentations, posters, a documentary style video, animation – any way you think would be interesting to share your knowledge of this period of history.
I really look forward to seeing your projects and hope you will enjoy this opportunity to “visit” the museum – something we would never be able to do under normal circumstances.
Biodiversity Challenge
The bp Educational Service Ultimate STEM Challenge invites young people across the UK to come up with a design for an amazing wild area, that includes natural and technical solutions for improving biodiversity in school grounds, at home or in the community, and helps to tackle the decline in our native wildlife.
The challenge is open to 9 to 14-year olds across the UK. Entries will be judged in two categories: age 9-11 and age 11-14. Students may enter as
individuals or teams of 3-4. A winner will be chosen from each age category, as well as an overall challenge winner. The overall winner will receive a £3,000 prize to spend on creating their home for nature, while the category winners will receive £1,000 each.
Working towards the challenge are a number of videos and challenges along the way. Follow the link below to start the challenge.
Reading
I would like you to read for at least 30 minutes each day. You can get more ideas and suggestions of reading material from the Reading@Home section above.
Science
We develop our classification topic today with the skill to construct a classification key. Have a go at the activities here and construct your own keys.
Family Challenge
You have tried one problem like this before in class. Here is another grid to try and solve remembering that if the number at the side said 5, then the buildings would go 1-2-3-4-5 as they went away from you, so you could see a bit of each building.
Stay in Touch
Please stay in touch, letting us know how you are getting on with your learning.
wow this is AWESOME!
Excellent! I hope you enjoy working on these topics this week.
I definitely will.