YEAR 3
And then there were 3! Although it is coming to the end of the year, Year 3 have been making great efforts and pushing through the tiredness of the summer term.
In English we have been continuing our stories. It has been great to see students independently using paragraphs and fronted adverbials. It makes the writing so much more creative and engaging for the reader.
In Maths, we started the week with a Maze 100 problem solving task.
In this maze there are numbers in each of the cells. You go through adding all the numbers that you pass. The challenge of this task is to add up all the numbers in the way through the maze to equal exactly 100. Many of us found the total to be 102 or 97, but the students found the 100 in the end. The task, if you would like to try can be found: https://nrich.maths.org/91
We have also been looking at subtraction with the emphasis on regrouping using a column method. This strategy is useful and quick to solve and the effort the students have put in has been excellent.
In Science, we have been introduced to Newton metres and their purpose and we planned different investigations with using these.
Finally, in Topic we have been looking at the different countries that have hosted the Olympic Games since its (modern) inception in 1896. The students have been using different maps and their own prior knowledge very effectively in this task.
YEAR 4
This week, we typed our persuasive writing in Microsoft Word and are very proud of our achievement!
In Maths, we have started writing our last Arithmetic and Problem-solving Tests of the year. In Topic lessons, we continued to focus on the history of the Olympic Games and Olympic flag, and in Art, we continued with our compositions, featuring the five interlacing rings.
Daniel brought his father’s high altitude helmet to school and demonstrated to us why it can’t be used by astronauts in space. It’s a strange piece of equipment and even has the letters CCCP on it, which is the abbreviation for the former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. Thank you for showing us this interesting helmet, Daniel!
Vera also showed us a beautiful drawing she did at a private Art lesson of a Pomeranian dog, using coloured pencils! We were very impressed!
YEAR 5
As the Summer holidays are getting closer, the children are getting super excited about their planned vacations with their families. Amongst the sand, sea and other exotic places, they are also looking forward to the Olympic Games. We are learning about some of the great traditions of the Olympics, such as the Olympic Torch, the Olympic Hymn and the Olympic Rings. The Olympic Flame was lit on 25 March in Fukushima, from where it is taken by runners in a relay event to Tokyo. The Flame will arrive in Tokyo on July 23rd, the day the Olympics officially starts. We will explore the other traditions in more detail in the weeks to come. I hope to get everyone as excited about the Olympics as I am. (So by the way, what is your favorite item to watch? Mine is Swimming and Gymnastics).
The English we are revising is all about Parts of Speech: Nouns, Verbs, Adverbs, Adjectives. The children are getting really good at analyzing texts, and they started to create sentences where these parts of speech are cleverly emphasized. In Math I noticed that the children need extensive practice with Perimeter, Area and Volume. As this forms the basis of Algebra and Geometry later in their school careers, it is important that they fully understand these concepts. We will therefore be busy with this topic during the next week, or at least until I am satisfied with their understanding of this knowledge.
I wish you all a happy Russia Day on the 12th of June, it is a privilege to work in this great country!
