Maths

In maths this week we have been learning about rounding numbers. We have rounded numbers to the nearest 10, 100 or 1000. E.g. 38 rounded to the nearest 10 is 40, 3785 rounded to the nearest 10 is 3790. 437 rounded to the nearest 100 is 400 and 6820 rounded to the nearest 1000 is 7000. We then used rounding to help us estimate the answers to addition calculations. E.g. What is 748 + 182? We could round these numbers to the nearest 10 and get 750 + 180 and get an estimated answer of 930. Or we could round the numbers to the nearest 100 and get 700 + 200 and get an estimated answer of 900.

Next week, we will be learning mental strategies for addition and subtraction.

English

In English this week we finished our writing units about recounts. The final skill the children learnt was to include compound sentences in their recounts. They then finished the unit where they tried to use of all the skills learnt; they did brilliantly!

We then began our new book called The Iron Man by Ted Hughes. Our first writing unit for this text is to learn how to write character descriptions. We have explored the features of a good character description in a WAGOLL (what a good one looks like). As we read the beginning of our book, we found out about the main character, the Iron Man. We drew pictures of this colossal metal man and used ambitious adjectives to describe him. We then put the adjectives into expanded noun phrases to write a paragraph describing him. E.g. glowing, red, laser eyes.

Next week, we will continue to learn more skills needed to write a good character description, such as verbs, adverbs, superlatives, similes and fronted adverbials.

Thematic

In Thematic this week, we continued our themed learning unit ‘Make some noise!’ We investigated the link between the strength of vibrations and the volume of sounds. We had great fun making quiet, loud and very loud sounds in the classroom and recording the volume of them in decibels using an iPad app. We found out that if vibrations are given more energy and are stronger, the sound made will be louder. We learnt how to draw a quiet and loud sound wave, made a scientific conclusion, and then presented the data we had collected in a bar graph. The bar graphs were incredible! We finished the week finding out about some past and present scientists who have made important discoveries to do with sound; Ernst Mach, Heinrich Hertz and Jaap Haartsen.

Next week we will be planning and carrying out an investigation to find out what happens to the volume of sounds as the distance from them increases.

Spellings

Spellings to practice this week for a test on Thursday are:

happier, lazier, tidier, prettier, heavier, stickier, creepier, scarier, dirtier, question, circle, calendar

Challenge words (optional to learn): pricklier, feistier

Love to Learn

This week’s Love to Learn task is a maths one. We would like you to complete the rounding numbers challenge below. You can choose to do all of the numbers or pick 4 numbers from each column if you like.

 

Dates for the diary

25th September – Chilton Fundraisers Family Quiz

8th October - Harvest Festival for Year 4 at 9am

23rd October – Halloween Disco – All children come to school in fancy dress. Year 1, 2 and 3 Disco from 2pm-3pm and year 4, 5 and 6 disco from 3.15-4.15

23rd October – Final day of term

 

We hope you have a lovely weekend,

Mrs Cousins, Mr Cook and Miss Davey