Our Book this term is Cinderella of the Nile

Our English lessons this term begin with the discovery of a bottle that contains a map and a message. After interrogating the scenario presented and writing a short news report using the present perfect tense, the children then share the first part of Cinderella of the Nile. They develop skills of inference before exploring the author’s use of literary language and the effect that this has on the reader. Suffix fixers are used to investigate abstract nouns which are then used to create an emotions graph before being woven into a diary entry in role that also draws upon literary language from a previous session. Once the story has been read, the children sort statements about traditional Cinderella tales and statements about this version onto a Venn diagram and then go on to devise their own version of a Cinderella story complete with fable!

English Week 6

This week we have identified verbs used in our text.  We wrote them in the past, present and progressive tense and then went onto write commands to advise Rhodopis what she should do.

We have also identified a theme in a text.  We re-read the fable that Aesop told Rhodopis and discussed the message.  Shivansh answered this question by simply saying that, 'Rhodopis should be strong and not give up.'

We also used conjunctions (because, while) to join two sentences.  

English Weeks 3, 4 and 5

Mulberry Class have read up to page 20 of the Cinderella of the Nile.  The children have been using their inference skills to discuss Rhodopis' feelings in this part of the story.  They have also started to write a diary entry in role as Rhodopis following her being sold on and moved again.  They have all included literary language such as similes, metaphors and noun phrases and should be very proud of their work! We will be posting some of our work on Friday 4th October so watch this space!

Mathematics

Week beginning Monday 30th September

Unit 2:  Addition and Subtraction

This unit is important because it builds on the strong foundation of place value from Unit 1 to develop key concepts in addition and subtraction. Children explore additions and subtractions gradually, by considering in detail the adding of 1s, 10s and 100s separately. They then explore the need to exchange where addition or subtraction may cross the next place value column. This unit and the next unit are the real foundations for addition and subtraction for children’s whole mathematics career. This is why it is essential that time is taken to discuss the ideas and problems. This unit focuses heavily on the use of efficient mental strategies to answer problems and prepares children to understand mental methods ahead of using more formal strategies in the next unit

Mathematics

Unit:  Place Value within 1,000

Why is this unit important?

Children begin with learning how to count in 100s. They will learn that a 3-digit number is made up of some 100s, 10s and 1s and they will be able to represent this in many ways (for example, on a place value grid with counters or in a part-whole model). They will extend the number line to 1,000 and know where different numbers lie. They will compare and order 3-digit numbers as well as count in 50s. This unit underpins a lot of the subsequent work this year and it is essential that children gain a solid understanding of the key concepts within this unit.