This week during ERIC each group is having a turn at performance poetry. So far we have heard two groups perform their poems confidently using expression, actions and clear voices.

As well as this, we have been working hard editing our mystery and suspense stories which we are now writing up as hot task. We cannot wait to share the polished versions with you!

In maths re recapped the equivalent fractions and decimals that are easy to remember…

We then found out that to work out trickier equivalent decimals you divide the numerator by the denominator.

As this week was our last spelling lesson, in Mrs Wren’s group we did a revision session of all the rules learnt since September. We split into boys and girls teams to enter into a spelling challenge. This involved several games of hangman and writing silly sentences using a selection of words from the learnt patterns. It was a very competitive lesson with both teams spelling many of the words correctly but in the end the boys took the lead to claim the success stamps!

Here we are in action…

Continuing with our fractions unit, we learnt how to multiply fractions today. We learnt two different methods. The first one involves multiplying the numerators and denominators, before cancelling the fractions down into their simplest form. The second method teacher you to cancel down the fractions before multiplying.

After having a go at lots of these questions, some of us have decided that we prefer method 1 and some prefer method 2.

Here are some of our tweets for the lesson…

At the start of our English lesson we continued to focus on the next 5 common exception words. We discussed which parts of the words may be tricky to spell and then created bubble writing posters for our spelling display….

Please ask us how to spell:

category

cemetery

committee

communicate

community

Or….

century

certain

circle

complete

consider

Today we had  a professional fire fighter in to tell us what we would do if there was a fire in our house. You do not jump out the window. You should have at least one fire alarm on each floor. Do not have them in a kitchen and a bathroom. You should test them once a week! If you do have a fire in the middle of the night test the door handle with the BACK OF YOUR HAND! If it is hot get your duvet and put it on the bottom of the door so the smoke does not come in, then open the window and shout FIRE! If you are able to get out of the house LEAVE EVERYTHING BEHIND! Go to a neighbour and call 999. Then the fire fighter will try to rescue your pet and put the fire out.

We have all taken home fire safety check sheets to carry out at home with an adult.

Today in English we continued experimenting with different sentence types and vocabulary to create suspense in our writing.

First of all, we worked with a partner. Our inspiration was an image of a gnarled tree. Here are some of the powerful images we created…

‘Crows cackled like witches. The floor was cloaked in mist. Branches creaked!’ By Bonnie and Fred

‘The battered tree stood in the mist like a wounded soldier after battle.’ By Ronan and Tiger

‘ The silhouette of the tree was as dark as night. Prancing leaves swayed. A single crow perched on a branch.’ By Jarrad and Daniel

After this we listened to a piece of mysterious music that built up the tension. We closed our eyes and used all of our senses to imagine the scene…

‘ In a deep, dark forest. I touch trees. Rough bark underneath my fingernails. Moving slowly, I could taste blood….’ by Amber

‘Unknown eyes watch him. Staring closely as he paces down the corridor. Minuscule lights flicker like a candle on a stormy night. He doesn’t feel alone…’ by Bonnie

‘Soldiers marched swiftly through the deserted land. Machine gun shots rang in my ears. The bitter taste of war came to mind. I was outnumbered… Thirst, homesickness, exhaustion- which would kill him first?

Blindfolded, I stumbled to walk and felt a throbbing pain in my stomach. Breathless. Tearstruken, I moved cautiously closer.’ By Jake

At the end of the lesson we were asked what we thought about the lesson…

Jake said ‘ I loved listening to music to get inspiration!’

Jed explained ‘Once I get inspired, ideas burst into my head!’

We cannot wait to start planning and writing our hot task!

Today in our maths lesson everybody worked extremely hard to simplify fractions using the highest common factor. We know that this is also called cancelling down. Mrs Wren was very impressed with the amount of work we completed and how well we could explain our answers.

We finished our lesson by checking Mrs Wren’s answers! On one of the question she we proved to her that she was wrong! Finally we enjoyed writing tweets about the lesson…

John said ” I figured out how to cancel down and it was fun!” #simplifyfractions

Jarrad explained ” I learnt how to cancel down and simplify!” #itsreallyfun

This years anti-bullying week is entitled ‘Power for Good’. More information can be found on www.anti-bullyingalliance.org.uk

This afternoon we spent some time discussing scenarios where children were being bullied. We identified the type of bullying and spoke about ways that we could find help.

After this, we spent some time focusing on cyber bullying and identified what this might look like. We have created comic strips explaining how we could deal with these situations if we find out anyone’s we know is being bullied in this way.

At the end of the afternoon Mrs Wright led a whole class assembly where we discussed the difference between being rude, mean and bullying.

Booklets for parents have also been sent home today.

Our art this term links to our topic ‘Footprints from the past’. Today we were exploring patterns in nature. Looking around of school grounds, we were hunting for patterns we could see in nature. We could take a maximum of 5 up close photos. Some of us chose leaves, whilst other looked bark on trees or intertwined twigs. Our photography skills were very impressive!

On our return to the classroom, we used these photographs to create a sketched piece of art. We had to interweave elmememts for each of the patterns that we had found in nature. This is a working progress and we should have pictures to follow…