Cedar Class

English: LO: to write a postcard.

Today I would like you to use what you learned yesterday about postcards to write one! We will be looking at how we write postcards (and other types of correspondence) to different people we know over this week, but today we will be writing to a friend or family member. I would like you to create a postcard from a place you either have visited, or would like to visit. Start off by cutting out a postcard piece of paper or card. Draw on the front of it to show where the postcard is being sent from (you could even make up a fantasy land if you would rather!),  on the reverse write a message to your friend or family member. Don’t forget to include an address, and definitely don’t forget that the people who are involved in posting and sending your letter can also read it!

Once you have finished, I would like you to think carefully about the type of language you used in your postcard. Was it very formal, or was it quite informal? Did you say things in the postcard that you wouldn’t say if you were writing to someone who you didn’t know very well, or if you were writing the postcard to me?

Maths: LO: to add fractions.

Yesterday you defined what a fraction was, and I am hoping that creating your poster helped you to remember all of the hard work we did on fractions back in the Spring term!

Today, I would like you to focus on adding fractions. Below I have put some questions I would like you to work through. Don’t forget, when adding fractions with the same denominator we don’t change the denominator!

To help you, you could always create the fractions you are adding up. For example, if you were solving this problem: 2/4 + 1/4 you could cut out a shape into quarters (as per the denominator). You could then take 2 of the quarters, and then add another quarter to it; in total you would have 3/4 which is the correct answer. If you really want to make it interesting, you could cut up things you can eat like chocolate bars or cakes!

Questions 6, 7 and 10 may require you to add the denominators using a column addition.

Questions 8, 9 and 10 are trickier (Y4s please make sure you have a go at these).

Once you complete these, make up some questions of your own.

1) 1/3 + 1/3 = ?

2) ? = 3/7 + 2/7

3) 1/8 + 5/8 = ?

4) 7/9 + 2/9 = ? (This can be written in two different ways).

5) 3/12 + 6/12 = ?

6) ? = 72/100 + 7/100

7) ? = 18/250 + 200/250

8) 3/7 + 10/7 = ? (This can be written as an improper fraction or a mixed number).

9) 10/12 + 10/12 = ? (This can be written as an improper fraction or a mixed number).

10) 14/28 + 42/28 = ? (This can be written in two different ways).

English: LO: to identify features of a postcard.

This week in English we will be looking into postcards and the style of writing we would use in a postcard to someone we know. To start off, I would like you to think about what a postcard is! Write a list of the features of a postcard. How is it different to a letter or report? When would we send a postcard to someone?

Have you ever received or sent any postcards? If you have some at home or can find a picture of one, use this to help you identify the features of it. We will be exploring writing postcards from tomorrow!

Maths: LO: to define ‘fractions’.

This week we will be exploring fractions in our maths sessions. When we talk about fractions in maths, a fraction is an equal part of a whole. For example, if I had a whole cake and sliced it straight down the middle, the two equal parts I now have would both be half of the whole cake. Were I to equally cut those two halves in half again, I would end up with equal-sized pieces of cake; these are quarters.

To start the week off, I would like you to create a definition poster on fractions. Write the word ‘ fractions’ in the middle of the page, and below it write what the word ‘fractions’ means in the context of maths. Are there any other words associate with fractions (see below for some to help you), write what these words are and what they mean. Are there any other words which sound similar to fractions? Why is it important for us to know about fractions? How are fractions used in our lives? On your poster, show how fractions are written (you might be able to label the parts of the fraction using some of the other related words). Finally, draw some shapes on your poster and cut them up into equal parts; label these fractions.

Related words: numerator, denominator, equal parts, whole, proper fraction, improper fraction, mixed number.

Spelling: Can you remember the spelling rule you have been learning this week? Get someone at home to test your memory of it, and then get them to pick out 10 words from your word list and see if you can spell them correctly!

Arithmetic: This week we looked at counting forwards and backwards in different multiples. Get someone at home to give your random multiples to count forward and backward from 5 random numbers and see how quickly you can answer them.

English: LO: to practise grammar skills.

The final English task for the week is also on grammar skills. Like yesterday, if you can print off the following to work on, then please do so. I have also placed the below work on a Word document on the class website to make printing more easy for you. If you don’t have access to a printer, you could copy the sentences out first which would give you a chance to practise your handwriting!

Common noun = person, place or thing that doesn’t need a capital letter e.g. woman, sweet, tablet, city.

Proper noun = person, place or name of something that starts with a capital letter e.g. Bob, Mr Keeble, Norfolk.

Adjective = describing word.

Verb = doing word.

Adverb = Describes the verb (doing word) e.g. Swam quickly, hopped slowly.

Task one

Write four common nouns beginning with P

_________________________________________________________________

Write four proper nouns beginning with P

_________________________________________________________________

Task two

Write an adjective next to each letter:-

I           _____________         

J           _____________

K          _____________

L          _____________

M         _____________

N         _____________

O         _____________

P          _____________

Task three

Circle the verbs and underline the adverbs in these sentences

1. Jack quickly dribbled passed his opponent.

• Finlay kindly stacked the chairs in year 3.

• Catherine neatly brushed her hair.

• Rosie accurately scored 3 goals in netball.

• Joseph swiftly ran the 100m race.

• Mya carefully carried in her 8 teddy bears to school.

• Harriet played the piano sweetly.

• Sarah skilfully sewed her puppet.

• Stacey cleverly solved the maths problem.

Maths: LO: to use multiplication and reasoning skills.

For today’s investigation I would like you to use your multiplication and reasoning skills using the below PDF worksheet. The last 2 questions use the bar model; we used this in our fractions work last term. Once you have completed the questions, you could challenge yourself by choosing a random even number and creating a bar model for it where you break it into 2 or 4 parts.

Topic: LO: to investigate the human body.

Today is the last day of our science focus on the human body. Use today’s topic session to research anything which you find particularly interesting, or something which the past 2 weeks of work have made you wonder about. What amazing things can you find out about the human body which not many people might know about?

Present your findings in an interesting way and share them with someone at home. Did they know what you had found out? If you want to practise your presentation skills we learned last week, you could create paper or PowerPoint slides of your findings.

English: LO: to practise grammar skills.

Today I would like you to practise your grammar skills. In particular, nouns and adjectives. If you can print off the following to work on, then please do so. I have placed the below work on a Word document on the class website to make printing more easy for you. If you don’t have access to a printer, you could copy the sentences out first which would give you a chance to practise your handwriting!

Common noun = person, place or thing that doesn’t need a capital letter e.g. woman, sweet, tablet, city.

Proper noun = person, place or name of something that starts with a capital letter e.g. Bob, Mr Keeble, Norfolk.

Adjective = describing word.

Task one

Underline all of the common nouns and circle all of the proper nouns in each sentence.

1. Henry plays games on his computer.
2. Mr Fan runs in the park every Sunday.
3. Caroline lives in an apartment in Caston St.
4. Dr Flood is flying on a plane to Norway.
5. Neena’s birthday is in March.
6. Fluffy likes playing catch in Victoria Park.
7. Did you see William at the party on Saturday?
8. Gerrard scored a goal for Liverpool on Tuesday night.
9. New Brighton was flooded because of the heavy rain.
10. Quinn saw Venus through her telescope.

Task two

Underline the adjectives in these sentences:

• The little man carried the heavy box across the wide street.
• The red house stood at the bottom of the deep valley.
• The narrow road was long and the children were tired.
• The log burned brightly in the old fireplace.
• The young lady sat down on the soft, green cushion.
• The busy bee flew to the bright flowers to gather honey.

Maths: LO: to investigate measuring and perimeters.

Today’s investigation will be on different ways of measuring and calculating perimeters. There are 4 activities; try and complete as many as you can!

1) Find a large book (e.g. an atlas). Write its perimeter in 3 different ways, e.g. using m and cm or cm and mm.

2) See the below image. This rectangle has a side of 10cm and a perimeter of 36cm. What is the length of its other side?

3) A room measures 4 metres by 3 metres. What is its perimeter? If another room has walls half as long, is its perimeter also half?

4) The perimeter of a book is 22cm. Both sides measure an exact number of centimetres. If one side is 3cm longer than the other, what is the length of each side of the book?

Topic: LO: to compare and contrast humans and other animals.

For today’s activity, I would like you to consider how humans are similar or different to other animals. Think of 5 different animals, try and choose ones which aren’t very similar. For example, a sheep, a horse, a dolphin, a lizard and a pigeon.

Now, use what you have researched in our science topics to present what similarities there are between these animals, and what the main differences are.

Are there any animals which are very similar to us? Which animal is the most different to humans?

English: LO: to write a letter using empathy.

Today, for empathy day, I would like you to write a letter to someone, with empathy in mind. Below are two people and a story about what is happening in their life. Write a letter to one or both of these people and use empathy to show you understand how they feel and, if possible, share their feeling.

Mike – Mike’s pet parrot Nigel isn’t very well. Nigel has hurt his wing and needs an operation. Mike is really upset because he talks to Nigel to make him feel happy when he has had a bad day, and he doesn’t know what he will do whilst Nigel is at the vet. Nigel will be okay and will be back home in a few days, but until then Mike is really scared and anxious about how he will make himself happier if he has a bad day at school.

Jess – Jess is moving house next week and will also be moving schools. She is excited to move because she will get a bigger room in the new house, and her parents have said that they will be buying a dog because they will have a bigger garden. Jess is really excited to get a dog. However, she is also feeling sad because she will be an hours drive away from her friends, and won’t be able to see them as much as she used to. She is also a bit anxious and worried about starting a new school and having to make new friends.

Don’t forget how we structure a letter!

Maths: LO: to investigate symmetry.

For today’s maths investigation I would like you to consider symmetry. Can you split each of the shapes below in half so that the two parts are exactly the same?

If you have access to/can print off some dotted paper, you can challenge yourself by trying to create the most complex shape you can which can still be cut in half. Can you create a 7 sided shape which can still be split into 2 equal halves? What about a 9 sided shape?

Topic: LO: to investigate the brain.

For today’s topic lesson, I would like you to find out as much as you can about the brain. Here are some questions to prompt your investigation:

What is the brain?

Where is the brain in humans?

Do all animals have brains?

Do all animals have brains in the same place?

What is the brain made of?

What does the brain do?

Which other parts of the human body is the brain connected to?

How does the brain send messages to other parts of our bodies?

English: LO: to create a definition poster.

Tomorrow is empathy day, and today I would like you to do some work to prepare for an activity tomorrow.

Empathy is defined as: the ability to understand and share the feelings of another. In more simple terms, this means being able to understand how other people feel, and be able to share those feelings they have. For example, if you saw someone crying because they had fallen over and hurt themselves you could be empathetic by understanding that they were sad because of this, and feel a bit sad as well.

Today, I would like you to create a poster to explain what empathy is. Put the word ‘empathy’ in the middle and write a definition of it in your own words. You could decorate the poster with some drawings of things you think are linked to empathy, and write some examples of things you have done where you have been empathetic towards someone or something else.

Maths: LO: to carry out a shape investigation.

This week we will be carrying out some mathematical investigations. Today’s investigation is all about building, balance and weight. If you have access to 3d shapes, you could use them to actually build the shapes in the investigation, if not you can still solve the problem by thinking very carefully about how the structures would look in real life.

We have a box of solid shapes. In it there are cubes, triangular prisms, cones, cuboids, cylinders and tetrahedrons.

Which of the buildings below would fall down if we tried to make them? Which ones would be unstable and possibly collapse?

As an extension, try and draw the biggest structure you can which would still be able to stand upright.

Topic: LO: to investigate the 5 main senses.

Today I would like you to investigate the 5 main senses humans have. What are these?

Which body part is linked to each of these senses? Do some senses require more than one body part to work?

How would life be different if you no longer had one of your 5 main senses? Do you think that you could still live your life in the same way if one of your main senses suddenly disappeared?

Spelling: Can you remember the spelling rule you have been learning this week? Get someone at home to test your memory of it, and then get them to pick out 10 words from your word list and see if you can spell them correctly!

Arithmetic: This week we looked at quick subtraction skills. Get someone at home to ask you 10 quick-fire subtraction questions and see how fast you can tell them the correct answer!

English: LO: to have a P4C discussion.

Today I would like you to have a P4C discussion at home. There is an expression which is ‘an eye for an eye’. Is this a good way to live your life? Talk through this with someone and remember to give clear reasons for your opinion and be respectful of the opinions of others.

Maths: LO: to use different forms of measurement.

I would like you to try and bring all of the different forms of measurement we have studied this week together in a mini-building project. I would like you to try and make a 3d shape which can contain some liquid. To do this, you will need to use your measurement skills to work out the lengths of the sides of your shape. Once you have built it, I would like you to try and work out the capacity of your creation. Use a jug with measurements on the side to work out how many litres of water it can hold. How much does your creation weigh when it is empty? How much does it weigh when it is at full capacity? Take some pictures of your object and share them so that others can see what you have made.

Topic: LO: to investigate the skeleton.

Today I would like you to look into skeletons. What is a skeleton? What does a skeleton do? Find a drawing of a human skeleton and look at which bones correspond to your body parts. Try and learn some of the names of the main bones in the human body and label them onto a drawing of a skeleton.

How many bones do humans have?

What do you think would happen if we didn’t have a skeleton?

Do all living things have skeletons? Find and compare a skeleton of a different animal to a human skeleton, what differences can you see?

Do insects have skeletons?

English: LO: to use a wide range of adjectives.

Today I would like you to think very carefully about the words you use in your writing, particularly when it comes to descriptive writing. Adjectives are words which describe nouns: In the sentence ‘The short, happy man was running’ the adjectives are ‘short’ and ‘happy’, and they describe the man. Whilst this sentence is a lot more interesting than a sentence without any adjectives (‘The man was running’), it could still be improved. How small is the man? If he was very, very small I could instead write, ‘The tiny, happy man was running’. If he was also the happiest he had ever been I could write, ‘The tiny, ecstatic man was running’. These more complex adjectives describe what is happening in more detail, and so the reader can picture the scene better.

I would like you to find some of your existing writing, or take a passage from your reading book, and go through it and try and improve the adjectives. You could use a thesaurus to help you find words, or use the internet. Make sure that the sentence still makes sense, as some words which appear to mean the same thing actually don’t in some sentences!

Maths: LO: to accurately measure.

Yesterday you practised accurately measuring smaller objects using both centimetres and millimetres. Today, I would like you to practise the skill of drawing to a set length; using a ruler and a pencil to draw to a length can be tricky, and so you need to take your time and learn this skill.

Pick a shape, then choose how long each side will be on the shape. Write this at the top of a piece of paper. For example: Square, 4 sides of 4cm and 5mm. Then underneath, do your best to draw the shape to your specified measurements. Once you have drawn it, remeasure the shape to check you drew it correctly.

To challenge yourself, draw shapes with sides of different lengths (right-angled triangle, rectangle) and label the lengths of the sides.

Topic: LO: to investigate different types of teeth.

For your topic work I would like you to investigate the teeth that humans have. What are the 3 types of teeth we have? What does each tooth type do? When describing the appearance and function of the tooth, try and use some interesting adjectives like in English.

Do all animals have teeth? Do all animals have the same layout of teeth as humans? What differences are there between the teeth of a dog, a cow and a human? If you can access pictures of teeth, you could use your labelling skills to label each feature.

English: LO: to identify features of a non-chronological report.

Today I would like you to think very carefully about the features of an information report. If you can find an example around the home in a magazine or newspaper, that would be very helpful. Alternatively you could search the internet, or look back at some of the work your completed on the Japan project.

Write down all of the necessary features of a report. For example: headings, sub-headings, use of specific language.

Write some examples under each feature and practise creating descriptive headings and sub-headings. Your afternoon topic work requires these skills, so use your English session to prepare for writing a report.

Maths: LO: to accurately measure.

Today I would like you to practise measuring objects as accurately as possible, using centimetres and millimetres. Find a ruler with millimetre markings and find some smaller objects around your home. Measure them and accurately record the length of each object in your workbook. Are there any objects in your home which are smaller than 1 millimetre? As an extension you could research smaller units of measure using the internet.

Topic: LO: to investigate a balanced diet.

A balanced diet means eating a different range of foods from the main food groups in order to make sure that we stay healthy. Today I would like you to investigate what the main food groups are, and find some foods which fall into each of these food groups. Do you think you eat a balanced diet? Work out how balanced your dinner is tonight by seeing which food groups you have on your plate.

Would a balanced diet for a human be appropriate for all mammals? Do any animals have diets which are similar to ours?

English: LO: to use labels.

Labelling is used to identify specific items within text, pictures, and other items someone wishes to draw the attention of a reader to. We have used labels in class to identify the key features on a drawing of a stone age house, of a Viking longboat, and of different word classes within texts. In science, labels can be used to show a reader what specific parts of an object are. For example, a diagram of the mouth could be labelled with all of the different types of teeth. Find something in your home you can label (a picture of an animal, a drawing of a person, a plant from your garden). Now, identify the proper (scientific) names for the things on the picture. Using a ruler, neatly draw a line from the thing on the picture you are going to label, and write the proper (scientific) name for the part next to it. Remember when we dissected and labelled the daffodils if you need any ideas to get you started!

Maths: LO: to investigate the relationship between weight and capacity.

Yesterday you looked at the weight of objects in and around your home. Today, I would like you to look at capacity. Capacity is different to weight, in that capacity refers to how much an object can hold, absorb or receive. For example, 1 litre jug has a capacity of 1 litre. 1 litre of water will be a different weight to 1 litre of sand, but they both take up the same capacity in the 1 litre jug.

Today, find a vessel like a jug and fill it to a set capacity of a certain object. Then, weigh the contents of the jug and see how much weight was in it. Then, find a different object and fill it to the same capacity and then compare the different weights. The example I gave above of using a litre jug to measure 1 litre of water and 1 litre of sand is the kind of thing I would like you to try.

Write down your findings.

Topic: LO: to investigate the digestive system.

The digestive system is the part of our bodies in which we extract all of the things we need from the food we digest, and excrete the bits we don’t need or can’t use. Today, I would like you to investigate the digestive system and create a diagram of the different parts of it. You could use your labelling skills you practised in English to help you label your diagram neatly!

If you have some materials around the home, there is a fun practical task you can complete to model the digestive system, see this link:

https://www.stem.org.uk/resources/elibrary/resource/35396/digestive-system-experiment

English: Big write challenge.

Below is a diary entry. Your challenge is to finish it off!

Month: June Year: 3015

Dear diary,

It has now been 2 years since we moved here. Leaving Earth was tough, but we are beginning to feel more at home with every single week that passes.

When we came to our new home, we were allowed to bring everything with us from our Earth homes. It still feels a bit strange though. Life without gravity really takes some getting used to!

Some questions to help you get started:

• Where is it that you now live?
• What is gravity? Can you include descriptions of what it is like to live without it?
• How is it different from your previous life?
• What do you do in the daytime or at night time? Are the days longer or shorter here?
• Do you prefer living in your new home?

Maths: LO: to weigh items around the home.

Today I would like you to look at weight and how we measure weight. Find some scales in your home and measure some common household items. What is the heaviest item you can find? What is the lightest item you can find? Are there any items which are too light or too heavy for your scales to weigh?

If you have access to ingredients, make a batch of cookies or cakes by weighing out each of the ingredients. If you want a challenge, you could try and double up on the recipe to make double the amount. This is a good way to check your doubling skills, a cake won’t work out too well if you double up the eggs but not the flour!

Topic: LO: to investigate the heart.

Today I would like you to research the heart. What is the heart? What does it do? Where is it in humans? Do all other living things have a heart? Draw a picture of a heart. Do hearts really look like the shape of a heart we often seen drawn and in cartoons?