Assembly - three stars and a wish

What a great assembly!  I was so proud of you all.  So many teachers came up to me to say how well you had done.

When we think about what we have done, we often use three stars and a wish to help us think of positive comments and points to work on next time.  Here are some of our ideas about our performance.

Elijah...you star!

Amazing commenting by Elijah today.  You commented on about 4 posts and showed that you had read the linked articles carefully.
Keep up the great reading.
Mr W

World mountains

To help you get an idea about where the largest mountains and mountain ranges in the world are, have a look here for a map, here for some mountain facts, and here for some Everest facts.

Which coast of Africa is Mount Kilimanjaro nearest to?

The dangers of Everest

Read this webpage and think about the dangers of Everest...
Can you think of 5 dangers of climbing high mountains like Mount Everest?

Answers, as usual, as comments on the blog...and please remember to add your name - no name = no comment.

Conquering Everest

We're learning about the first successful ascent of Mount Everest.
Here are some important details of the first successful expeditions which you could use to help you write your recount.

Here is a video from National Geographic.  It's about the dangers of climbing Everest and a particular expedition which ended in the deaths of 8 climbers.  When did this expedition take place?   Answers as comments to the blog please.

But what is in a Recount?
Features of Recounts
Recounts list and describe past experiences by retelling events in the order in which they happened (chronological order). Recounts are written to retell events with the purpose of informing or entertaining the reader (or both).

Recounts should:

·       Focus on individuals or events.

·       Have a title, which summarises the text.

• Have specific participants (Mallory, Mum or Dad)
• Often consist of three parts:

1.    The setting - background information answering who? when? where? why?

2.   Events are identified and described in chronological order.

3.   Concluding comment expresses a personal opinion regarding the events described.

• Details help the reader reconstruct the activity or incident.
• The ending may describe the outcome of the activity.
• Details of time, place and incident need to be clearly stated.
• Descriptive details (adjectives) may also be required to provide additional information to help paint a picture.
• Include personal thoughts/reactions.
• Be written in the past tense.
• Make frequent use is made of time connectives, such as next, later, when, then, after, before, first, at the same time, as soon as she left, late on Friday.
• Describe events through the use of adjectives and adverbs.
• Use personal pronouns like - I, we (1^st person) & he she they (3^rd person).

Here is a poster which you could print off which has some features of recounts.
Read this and see if you can answer this question: What time of day did Hillary and Tenzing reach the summit of Everest? 
Answers as comments on this blog post please.

Science Quiz Home Learning

Home learning

Set on Thursday 24th November, 2011
Due in Tuesday 29th November

So you think you know about gases?
Read this table of information carefully.
At the bottom of the table is a quiz.  The answers are shown in the boxes.

Your home learning this week is to make up a gases multiple choice quiz. 
You will need to think of one right answer and two wrong answers for each question.
Your multiple choice quiz

1. should have at least 5 questions
2. should have at least 3 answers to choose from
3. one of your answer choices should be silly, one should be quite close to the actual answer and the third should be the right answer

E.g. Which gas makes up most of the air around us?

• oxygen
• nitrogen
• potatoes

Please write your answers in your Home Learning Book OR post them as a comment to this blog.

Good Luck!

Fractions

We'll be looking at fractions this week.

Have a look at this fraction wall activity for some extra practice.

First Connect Three

Here's a great game which helps you practice addition and subtraction of positive and negative numbers.
You want to connect three numbers by adding or subtracting the numbers you roll on a dice.
You can play against the computer or against a friend.
Click on the link here to have a go.

Read the instructions first...

Adverts and scripts

We will be looking at how adverts are scripted using dramatic rules or conventions.
Have a look at these lemsip adverts.

Look at the transcripts and see how the advert has been planned.

Here's a Sarah Jane script.  How has the speech been set out?  Is it different to other scripts you have read?

Read this Rastamouse script.  Are there any similarities with the other scripts?

Here's the Dr Who Smith and Jones script.

Science - Solids, Liquids and Gases

Here are the animation which we have been using in class to help explain why solids liquids and gases behave differently.

Slides seven and eight are particularly useful.

Here's a song about gases and states of matter! 

5C Gases - James P and Luca from Simple Science on Vimeo.

Instructions Home Learning

This week you have all written amazing instructions on a huge range of topics...from how to fish (by Molly) to How to chat (by Saskia) to How to play Modern Warfare (by Elijah).

This week's home learning is to either:

1. Make a made up recipe for a strange Halloween potion OR
2. To follow a recipe of your choice.

Please stick your made up recipe or evidence of what recipe you have followed into your home learning book.

If your book is at school, then you can do it on paper and stick it in.

This week's home learning can be handed in by Wednesday 9th November  Monday 14th November...so that you have time at the weekend to make the recipes..

Go to this link if you need a reminder of how to write instructions, but most of you have shown me that you are experts already.

Well done for an amazing Make a Difference Day, especially to Morgan, Dillan and Molly who were incredibly helpful and responsible.