St Freds began the week with an amazing visit from Nicholas, who is a professor for the University of Oxford.  He began the session by speaking to the children about the books written by the author Patience Agbabi. The children were asked to think about what time means to them. We had some really interesting answers such as, time is like a moving time and it waits for no one, time is unpredictable and time is like money, spend it wisely! The children then acted as time travellers and had  to choose from one of the following options to leap through time: An innate gift, a time travel portal or a time machine. Be sure to ask your child what they choose and where they travelled too. 

In English the children have continued to write amazing sentences for their adventure stories. We have been focusing on the following lenses such as: action, personification,  feelings, metaphor and using dialogue, whilst using our spelling, punctuation and grammar knowledge. 

 On Thursday, Discovery class made their own rafts to test whether Fred’s idea of travelling along the Amazon rainforest to get back to Manas would work.

During Maths, we have been looking at what is the best value for money, by comparing prices and quantities.

As geographers we have continued to look at Mount Everest by focusing on the successful ascent by Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay. We have researched both climbers, be sure to ask your child something about their background.

On Tuesday, Discovery class worked with Magdalen college to rehearsal their play. Please can you encourage your child to learn their lines, especially, as our performance day of the 2nd July is approaching fast. ( More information to follow).

We have had another fantastic day of working with Oxford Song today, the children have been thinking innovatively to compose their lyrics.

Year 5 have been developing sentence stacking, working on a range of grammar techniques including parenthesis and relative clauses in English, looking at the diary of the explorer Scott.

As mathematicians, year 5 have been multiplying and dividing decimals by 10, 100 and 1000. We have begun to think about these in real life situations, including measures and money.

As historians, year 5 have looked at the journey that Shackleton took, with his crew on the Endeavour. We found out about the key points in his journey and created timelines, and looked at the tough decisions Shackleton had to make and whether or not we would have made the same choices.

Next week:

Discovery will have their final dress rehearsal with Magelden college on Monday. Before their performance on Tuesday the 2nd July. 

Transfer days will occur for some of the secondary schools on the following days:

• Wednesday- Grey Friars
• Thursday- Spires 
• Friday- Grey Friars and Spires 

St Freds will be working with Oxford song on Thursday to continue composing and writing lyrics. 

Year 5, will be continuing to develop our diary writing, using Scott's experiences in Antarctica, with focuses including subordinating conjunctions and fronted adverbials.

As mathematicians, we will be finding out about negative numbers, how they work and how to calculate with them.

As Theologians, we will be looking at how Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur are important to Jewish children, looking at the celebrations and the meanings behind them.

Homework:

Discovery:

30 minutes of  Sumdog 

Reading 

To practise script lines for Shakespeare from scene 4 onwards.

Cook:

30 minutes of Sumdog 

Darwin:

Maths: pages 107-112

Spellings: practise words 70-80 from both the year 3/4 and year 5/6 spellings.

Reading: Reading plus - 2 reading sessions and 1 writing task.