Cedar Class

Please see the weekly activities post/the corresponding section on the class website for the spelling and arithmetic focus for this week, along with additional tasks which can be completed. The weekly activity post also has a list of tasks for the afternoon work – a project on Japan.

English: Mrs Godbold’s writing challenge; please see the attached picture. You are going to be finishing the story, but firstly try and think of some answers for these questions; they will help your planning!

1) What had happened when Brian fed the biscuits to his dogs?

2) How quickly did they grow to this size do you think?
3)Did Brian give the biscuits to anything/anyone else?
4) Will Brian leave the dogs big, or does he want to change them back?

Story starter:   Brian had often bought things from the market that had turned out to be the most outrageous, disappointing fakes.

He had presumed that the magic biscuits would have been exactly the same. How wrong he had been…

Either, continue the story or write a newspaper article telling people what has happened here!

Don’t forget to use adjectives, adverbs and adverbials! If you are writing a newspaper report, don’t forget the things that a good newspaper article has (headline, writing in columns, a picture, a caption to describe the picture, and maybe some eye-witness quotes!).

Maths: LO: to investigate the 24 hour clock. Last term we spent some time in class looking at the 24 hour clock. We discussed how 13:00 is 1PM, 14:00 is 2PM, and so on. The rule we learned was that if the number of the hour was greater than 12, you can subtract 12 from it to work out the time (it will be a time in the PM). For example 15:00, 15 – 12 = 3, so 15:00 is 3PM.

Today, I would like you to practise telling the time from the 24 hour clock. If you can’t remember doing it in class, use the rule to write down all the hours in a day. We will be doing some tasks around telling the time using the 12 and 24 hour clock over the rest of the week. Don’t forget, there is no such time as 24:00. The 24 hour clock runs up to 23:59 (1 minute until midnight), and then goes back to 00:00 for midnight. Focus on just reading the hours.

Spelling: You should have been looking at the spelling rule of adding ‘s’ or ‘es’ to make a word plural. Get someone at home to see if you can remember the rule and test you on 10 words.

English: If you are still catching up with writing your story, then use today to try and finish it. If you have finished it, try the following:
LO: to improve an author’s writing.

In your reading book, find a page or section of writing which you either really like, or think is a bit dull. I would like you to try and rewrite what the author has wrote but make it better. This could be by adding in some extra adjectives, adverbs, or perhaps even speech. If you are reading a book which has pictures in it, add some writing to explain what the pictures are telling you. If you remember back to when we read Arthur and the Golden Rope, we discussed how sometimes pictures can add detail that the author doesn’t write down. Imagine that you are going to take the picture in your book away, and write down what the picture is telling the reader. Don’t forget that you need to make sure it makes sense as a story still!
When you are done, read what you wrote to someone at home and see if they can tell which version is yours, and which is the original.

Maths: LO: to check my understanding of the 6 times table.
This week for your arithmetic work, you should have been learning and practising your 6 times table. Today, I would like you to get someone at home to give you ten questions around the 6 times table (if everyone at home is busy then you could make up ten for yourself). Make sure that 5 of the questions are multiplication, and five of the questions are for division. (E.g. 3 X 6 =?; 24 ÷ 6 =?).
Don’t forget to keep practising your 3, 4 and 6 times tables whenever you can!

Computing: Carry on with your game design whenever you get a chance.

PSHE: We have all been spending a lot of time indoors lately, so today I would like you to head outside to your garden and try a 5 senses scavenger hunt. Below are some headings, I would like you to find one thing in your garden (or inside too if it’s too cold/raining) for each heading. You could write down what you found in your workbook, make a poster of each item found, or even find a fun way to present it by taking pictures. If you would rather just do the scavenger hunt and enjoy it, that’s also okay. Try and find unusual items which other people may not have in their homes/gardens:

1. Something smooth,
2. Something rough,
3. Something that makes a lot of noise,
4. Something round,
5. Something yellow,
6. Something that came from a plant,
7. Something that has a strong smell.
8. Something long,
9. Something made by humans,
10. Something soft,
11. Something that is edible.
12. Something red,
13. Something that smells like summertime,
14. Something cold,
15. Something sparkly.

Have a great Easter break! – Mr Keeble

Please see the weekly activities post/the corresponding section on the class website for the spelling and arithmetic focus for this week, along with additional tasks which can be completed.

I’m sure you’ve been working very hard on writing your story, so today will be a more relaxed day!

English: LO: to edit and review my story.

If you haven’t yet finished your story then use today to finish it off; take your time with it and make sure you’re happy with it. If you have finished your story, use today to go through and use your editing skills to fix any spelling or punctuation mistakes you may have made.

Then, put your best story-teller hat on and read your story to someone at home. Don’t forget to read with emphasis and use speed and noise level to make your listener focus on what you are saying!

Maths: LO: to measure accurately.
Today I would like you to practise your measuring skills, with a particular focus on weight. If you have ingredients at home with which you could make a cake, you could use this as a way to practise! If not, experiment with weighing things using kitchen or bathroom scales. What is the heaviest thing you can find in your house? Is there anything in your home which is too lightweight to weigh?

Computing: As per yesterday’s post, please carry on with your game design today!

Italian: Today start by practising any Italian words you can remember from our lessons. Can you remember how to count to 10, or how to say your name?
I would like you to create a poster for me using some Italian words. Think of a topic, for example: food, places, etc., and use a translation website to find some Italian words linked to that topic.

E.g. if you were doing a topic of food, you would find the names of foods in Italian. Write them down and draw pictures next to them so you know what they mean.

Please see the weekly activities post/the corresponding section on the class website for the spelling and arithmetic focus for this week, along with additional tasks which can be completed.

The tasks on Purple Mash have been reset so that any children who did not get a chance to complete them can have a go. If you already did complete the tasks, you do not need to do it again; ignore the “soil quiz” and “plant diary” on your 2Do page.

There is a video file below which has a picture to help with English, and a maths problem. The video will be viewable as slides on the class website, and available to download, if this is easier for you.

English: LO: to finish off my story.

Yesterday you wrote the first part of your story, up to where the problem was introduced.

Today, you are going to finish off your story. Use your story map (which you created on Monday) to help you. In Arthur and the Golden Rope, the bits you would be writing today are:

– Arthur’s journey to the land of the Viking Gods (you could do this as a picture like we discussed in the Mundford junction for an extra challenge – see the video below or the slides on the class website).

– Arthur arriving at the land of the Gods and asking Thor for help.

– Arthur having to capture the sound of a cat’s footfall and the root of a mountain for Thor.

– The golden rope being created.

– Arthur and Thor finding Fenrir, the gigantic battle, Arthur capturing Fenrir using the hand of time.

– Arthur and Thor returning to Arthur’s home, relighting the fire.

– Arthur being a hero and all of the town liking him again.

Once finished, check your work and make sure you have included some of the language devices I listed yesterday (also below). If you want to illustrate your work as well that would be brilliant to see. I am looking forward to reading your stories!

As per yesterday’s post:

I expect you to be using capital letters, full stops, and joining your handwriting. I would really like to see the following in your writing:

Exciting adjectives,

Use of adverbs (these describe a verb: Arthur slowly walked – slowly is the adverb as it describes HOW Arthur walked),

Adverbials (which state where, how, or when something is happening – In the sea, At the town, Without warning, Unexpectedly, All of a sudden, Next, etc.),

And, as an extra challenge, some direct speech punctuated correctly with speech marks.

Maths: LO: to solve a problem.
In class we have had two problem solving sessions in maths, where we look at a word problem and try to solve it logically. These problems are all about trial and error, and experimenting with numbers to see how we can find the answer to a problem. In the video below, and also available on the classroom website, I have placed a problem I would like you to try and solve. Show me how you worked it out in your workbook – I would like to see how you used trial and error to solve the problem. The video (also available as slides on the class website) has a few tips to help you get started – using counters (or anything similar you can find) for this can be a big help! If you want an example of a table you can use to help your problem solving, look at the third slide on the video.

Take you time and see how you get on.

Computing: In computing we have been using 2Code to start creating a game. I have set a 2Do of a game planning sheet for you to outline what your game will be about. I have also set 2Code – Gibbon level for the whole of April. Use the Gibbon level to create your game using all of the skills we learned in class. If you have trouble, search Purple Mash for ‘2Code video tutorials’. This might be quite tricky, which is why I will leave the task open all month long. If you can create a fully working game, save it and hand it in so I can see! Any completed games will be used in class once we are back, we will have a competition to see which game is the best!

Please see the weekly activities post/the corresponding section on the class website for the spelling and arithmetic focus for this week, along with additional tasks which can be completed.

English: LO: to write the beginning of a story.

Yesterday you created a list of sub-headings with key information about your story, you also created a story map of the order things will be happening in your story.

Today, I would like you to use your story map to begin your writing. Start with your introduction: introduce the place and the main character. Then, set up the problem that the story will feature. Don’t write any further than this. In Arthur and the Golden Rope, this would be you writing about the Icelandic town, introducing Arthur and writing about all the adventures he had been on, writing about how Fenrir came to the town and knocked over the great fire, and then writing up to the part where everyone was saying that Arthur should go and he was in his room packing his things to leave. I expect you to be using capital letters, full stops, and joining your handwriting. I would really like to see the following in your writing:

Exciting adjectives,

Use of adverbs (these describe a verb: Arthur slowly walked – slowly is the adverb as it describes HOW Arthur walked),

Adverbials (which state where, how, or when something is happening – In the sea, At the town, Without warning, Unexpectedly, All of a sudden, Next, etc.),

And, as an extra challenge, some direct speech punctuated correctly with speech marks.

Once you have written up to the problem, go back and read your story and check that you have included at least some of the items above!

Maths: LO: to calculate change.
Last week and yesterday, you have been working on adding and subtracting amounts of money. Today I would like you to work on how to calculate amounts of change as if you were buying something in a shop using a bank note. For example, if you had a £5 note and went into a shop to purchase a 60p can of drink, how much change should the person on the till give you? To work this out, you would need to subtract 60p from £5 (500p). You can change the bank note used (£5, £10, £20 or £50) to make the challenge more or less difficult. If you aren’t very confident you could even start with using a £1 or £2 coin.
If you want to really challenge yourself (I would like the Y4s to try this), you can create a list of items to be purchased from a shop and then calculate the change. For example, if you had £20 and purchased a pack of AA batteries for £3.75, a four pack of soup for £2.50, and some washing up liquid for £1.20 how much change would you expect to get back? To work this out, you need to add up all of the purchases (£3.75 + £2.50 + £1.20 = £7.45) and then subtract this from your £20 note (£20 – £7.45 = £12.55 change).  Try and record 5 questions in your book,
Optional task: If someone in your house has money, use this to set up a small shop in your home. You could sell items to your family from your cupboards. If you don’t have lots of change lying around, you could make some!

Music: LO: to create an instrument.

Today I would like you to look around your home and see which materials you could create an instrument out of. For example, I could take a cereal box and cut out a circle in the middle of the front. Then, I could wrap elastic bands of different thicknesses around the box and pluck them – this would be like a home made guitar or ukulele. See how unusual an instrument you can create!

Please see the weekly activities post/the corresponding section on the class website for the spelling and arithmetic focus for this week, along with additional tasks which can be completed.

This is a long post, but only because there is an example of the English work in the middle of it.

English: LO: to create story map.

Last week you designed a character for an Arthur-inspired story I told you we would be writing this week. Today, I would like you to start thinking up the plot of your story; a story needs a problem for our character to solve, otherwise it won’t be a very interesting story!

Write these headings in your book, underneath them write down the details of your story:

‘Place’, ‘Good characters’, ‘Evil characters’, ‘Problem’, ‘Solution’.

Here is an example of what this may look like (I will use Arthur and the Golden Rope as my example story):

Place – A small Icelandic town, it has a magical forest nearby which the character explores, there are also strange mountains and old abandoned castles around the town where the character has had adventures before the story.

Good characters – Arthur (the main character), Atrix (the town wisewoman who sends Arthur on his quest), Windweaver (a magical bird who Arthur once helped, she gave him a magical feather and promised to help him if he ever needed saving), Thor (Viking God who Arthur has to go and see to get help).

Evil characters – Fenrir (monstrous wolf who knocks over the fire to destroy the town), Fenrir has lots of evil friends (ogres, evil dragons) who will be in the battle at the end of the story.

Problem – Arthur is out exploring one day and he wakes up Fenrir. Fenrir runs to the town and knocks over the Great Fire of Protection. Without it, the town and all the people will freeze. Everyone became injured when Fenrir came to the town, and someone needs to go and find Thor to get him to relight the fire. Arthur is the only person who isn’t injured, but he is only a small boy.

Solution: Arthur travels to the land of the Viking gods and is given 2 tasks to complete by Thor (capturing the sound of a cat’s footfall, and finding the root of a mountain). He brings these back to Thor. Thor makes a golden rope with which he can capture Fenrir. Arthur and Thor battle Fenrir and his evil friends and capture him. Thor takes Arthur back to the town and relights the fire. The town is saved and everyone likes Arthur.

Once you have written out something like what is above, draw a picture story map of what will happen in what order in your story. Think back to the story map I drew of the story of Thor getting his hammer (where Sif’s hair had been cut off), or the work we did using the mighty write. Draw pictures to show how your story will be written out, but don’t write anything yet. See if you can tell someone a rough idea of your story just by using the pictures you have drawn.

Maths: Last week you looked at adding and subtracting money, using both number lines and column addition/subtraction. Today, can you please revisit this. Create 5 problems for subtracting money, and another 5 for adding money. If you only used actual money to help you last week, see if you can use a number line today. If you only used number lines last week, see if you can use a column method today. Don’t forget to line up your pounds, tens of pence and ones of pence. Also, don’t forget to line up your decimals! If you want to see an example of this, there is a subtraction example using column subtraction on the class website under the 27 MAR 2020 work. Once you have done 5 addition and 5 subtraction questions, which one do you find trickiest? Try and do 2 more questions on the whichever type you found most difficult!

D.T.: LO: to design a burh.
A burh was an Old English fortified settlement (fort) used by Anglo-Saxons to defend themselves against the Vikings. King Alfred the Great was ruler when these forts started to be built across the country. The idea was to have these fort towns close enough together so that they could help each other if they were ever attacked by Vikings. A burh usually had a system of mud walls and ditches around the edges which were held up by wooden or stone walls. This made them a very safe place in the countryside for people to gather and sell their crops, buy food, and come together for company. Today, I would like you to draw a map of a burh of your own. Give the town a name (you could name if after yourself!), and be sure to include everything you think a fort town would need. There aren’t any pictures of burhs, but you can find drawings of what people think they may have looked like on the internet.

Some things to include:

• Outer ditches and mud walls,
• Wooden or stone walls holding the mud walls up,
• A gate (or gates) to allow people to come in and out of the town,
• A big townhall where people could gather, eat, and talk to the town leaders,
• A marketplace for people to buy and sell goods,
• A stable,
• A market for buying and selling livestock,
• Watch towers (for guards to stand on at night and keep an eye out for Viking invaders).

Spelling: Get someone to test your understanding of the ‘ch’ or ‘tch’ rule. Can you remember the rule off by heart? Get someone to test you on 10 of the words from your list (like how we do our Friday spelling test in school).

English: LO: to create a character. Next week we are going to be creating our own Arthur-inspired story. To get started, I would like you to create the character for your story today. Make sure they have a name, and write down at least 5 characteristics they have. For example, in Arthur and the Golden Rope, we found out very early some of Arthur’s characteristics: he likes exploring, he has lots of magical items from his adventures, he doesn’t have many friends, he lives in a small Icelandic town, he was quite short, he had glasses, he didn’t look like how a hero normally looks. Draw a picture of your character to show what they look like. Make sure that you like your character, as they are going to be the main person in the story we create next week!

Maths: On Wednesday you worked on adding amounts of money together. Today I would like you to create and solve similar problems, but subtracting money. Again, start off with problems which don’t cross boundaries, for example: £2.79 – 65p = ?. Which method do you think is best for solving this? If you have access to coins at home, you could use these to help. If not, try and draw a number line like you did on Wednesday; see the class website for an example of this. If you want a challenge or are a year 4, try some trickier problems (ones which cross boundaries such as £4.26 – £2.38). You might want to use column subtraction to help you find the solutions; an example of this will be on the class website. If you use column subtraction, don’t forget to include the decimal point.

Arithmetic: Please continue to practise your three times table, and see how well you can solve quick-fire multiplication and division problems using your three times table skills.

Science: On Purple Mash there are 2 items on your 2Do page (These go live on the 27 MAR 2020). Firstly, complete the soil quiz to test your understanding of the properties of individual soil types. Then write down in your home learning book which soil type you think you have in your garden. Use the descriptions on Purple Mash to explain why you think this.
Secondly, there is a ‘plant diary’ task on Purple Mash to complete. If you have access to seeds at home and want to keep a diary in your home learning book of what happens as it grows, that would be great – do this instead of the Purple Mash activity! If you don’t have access to seeds, the Purple Mash activity has pictures of each stage of a plants growth for you to describe. Drag an image of each growth stage into a box and write about it. If you click the ‘plus’ symbol in each box there are photos of plant growth you can use instead. Think about the key words we learned about when studying plants: roots, stem, leaves, flowers, light, soil, seeds. This is a chance to show off you writing skills as well as your understanding of plants.

Additional tasks: 20 minutes of daily reading, continual revision of times tables (2s, 3s, 4s, 5s, 10s), red carpet run. All of the children should have their Purple Mash logins stuck into their yellow reading diaries. If you can’t find your child’s Purple Mash login, please comment on this post and I will send it over to you – Mr Keeble.

Spelling: Continue to practise the ‘ch’ or ‘tch’ rule. Don’t forget, the ‘t’ protects lonely vowels. Make sure you can remember the rule without having to read it. Try and correctly spell 5 of the words on your list.

English: On the class website I have uploaded the final few pages of Arthur and the Golden Rope. I can’t upload it to Facebook as it would breach copyright. There are links to a downloadable PowerPoint with the final few pages on it; the password to open the document is ‘CedarAATGR’. Please read the final few pages of the story. Then, in your workbook answer the following questions under the LO: to review a book. Did you enjoy the story? What were your favourite parts? Did the story finish in the way you thought it would when we first started reading it? Finish off by doing a full book review – see the class website for a template book review form (the ones we use in class) which you could copy or print off.

If you have any problems with the downloads, please comment on this post and I will try and find a way to get the files to you.

Maths: Measurement – Find a tape measure or ruler, then go around your home and measure the length of 10 objects. Draw a table in your book to record the data – a heading for one column could be ‘item’ and the other could be ‘length’. Make sure you are accurate in your measurement. Use centimetres, unless the object is very large (in which case you may need to use metres) or very small (for which you might need to use millimetres). Finish off by putting the objects in order from smallest to largest.

Arithmetic: Please continue to practise your three times table, and see how well you can solve quick-fire multiplication and division problems using your three times table skills.

Geography: In your books, write the LO: to use position and direction. Write a set of instructions to direct a partner around a room in your home, or around some obstacles in your garden. Use compass directions to provide your instructions. For example: move 3 steps north. If you have access to a compass to work out which way is north, that will make this easier for you (some phones and iPads have compass apps on them). If you don’t have a compass, you can work out which way is north by seeing which direction the sun is at at midday, be careful not to stare at the sun though!

Additional tasks: 20 minutes of daily reading, continual revision of times tables (2s, 3s, 4s, 5s, 10s), red carpet run.

Spelling: Continue to practise the ‘ch’ or ‘tch’ rule. Don’t forget, the ‘t’ protects lonely vowels. Make sure you can remember the rule without having to read it. Try and add 5 more words to your list which follow the rule.

English: Last week you learned how to use speech marks to punctuate direct speech. Today, I would like you to think of a scene from your favourite film or television show. Write down what happens as if you were writing a story about that part of it. Include some speech between some of the characters and punctuate it correctly using speech marks. If you can include some adverbs to describe how the character is speaking I would be very impressed! For example: Todd carefully said…

Maths: Adding money – Today I would like you to practise adding money. You could see what coins there are around the house to help you. Write down some addition problems in your book and try and solve them. You could start off with easier problems like £1.40 + 20p. If you are finding these too easy, you could try some problems where you cross boundaries, but don’t forget, 100 pence is the same as £1.

For example: £1.27 + 98p = ?

You could use a number line to solve this. Start off by doing a jump to £2 (by adding 73p), and then do a final jump from £2 of 25p (because 98p – 73p is 25p) to get the answer of £2.25.

If you are a Y4, please try to do some of the trickier problems.

See the photo below for an example of using a number line.

Arithmetic: Please continue to practise your three times table, and see how well you can solve quick-fire multiplication and division problems using your three times table skills.

Music: What is your favourite genre of music? Write down a paragraph about what you like about it. Are there are genres of music you don’t enjoy? What is it about them that you don’t like? In your writing, make sure to discuss tempo, pitch, and the instruments commonly used in that type of music.

Additional tasks: 20 minutes of daily reading, continual revision of times tables (2s, 3s, 4s, 5s, 10s), red carpet run.