Tuesday 28th April – Home Learning

 

Monday down…Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday to go. Show that resilience people and make Captain Shelby proud!

With regards to the learning today, do as much as you can and, remember, if there’s a piece of your child’s learning you would like to share, please feel free to send me a picture or video at t.prior@southill.dorset.sch.uk. I will be making a ‘home learning’ blog post at the end of the week so the more the merrier.

Final reminder- Thank you to those parents who have already emailed me in order to let me know they’re all ok. It is essential that you do email me at some point just to let me know that you’re all safe and well.

Apart from that, have an amazing day.

 

Mr. Prior 🙂

 

Spellings

 

Here are your spellings to learn in preparation for Friday. Hopefully you are beginning to recognise them as we have already looked at these earlier in the year.

 

bicycle
breath
breathe
build
busy

 

Challenge- find out what the spellings mean using a dictionary and try to use the words in your own brilliant sentence.

 

Reading

 

Please ensure your children reads daily for at least fifteen minutes. A combination of them reading independently, out loud to an adult and letting them listen to the story being told by the adult is advisable. Simply record any reading in your child’s reading record book. Remember to also quiz your books.

 

IMPORTANT REMINDER- we are still monitoring book quizzes on Star Reader so please ensure your child is still doing them. Children are more likely to do well on quizzes if they are able to quiz the book straight after reading it. Parents- you are also more than welcome to read the question out loud for your child if it helps them.

 

Challenge- As you have already written a film review, why not have a go at a book review as well? Think about how you are going to introduce your review and how you are going to structure it using subtitles.

 

Writing Task- Non-Chronological Report

 

Over the past few days we have been focusing on grammar. We have learnt about adjectives, fronted adverbials and relative clauses. I’m hoping that we will see these appearing in our piece of writing over the course of this week

 

In order to prepare for our non-chronological report this week, you were then asked to find some fascinating facts about three prehistoric creatures. Here are just a handful of creatures you could have chosen…

 

Woolly Mammoth

Saber-Toothed Tiger (Smilodon)

Megabears

Quinkana

Direwolf

Woolly Rhino

The Irish Elk

American Mastodon

Megatherium (Giant Sloth)

Cave Hyena

 

This week, we are going to start turning these bullet points into a non-chronological report. To begin with, Write the title ‘Prehistoric Creatures’ nice and big at the top of your page and underline it with a straight edge.

 

Today, we are going to write our first section of our non-chronological report. In order to do this, pick one of the prehistoric animals that you found facts on, leave a line space under your introduction and write a subheading. e.g.

The Savage Saber-Toothed Tiger  – Don’t forget to underline it with a ruler.

 

Your task for today is to turn those random facts into a paragraph. REMEMBER- can you use any:

-impressive adjectives for description

-fronted adverbials to begin your sentences

-relative (drop-in) clauses?

 

I have written the first section of my trolls non chronological report in order to give you an idea on how to structure your writing and how detailed to make your first paragraph. It also demonstrates how you can include the grammar that we have previously learnt about- The Truth about Trolls

 

Top tip- write your paragraph on a scrap piece of paper first. That way you can proof read it and you will definitely produce your neatest handwriting when writing it into your exercise books. Remember, everything we write must give us a sense of pride.

 

Arithmetic Task- Speed Tables

 

Speed table grid…check!

7 minutes on the stopwatch…check!

Pen or pencil…check!

Time to smash those speed tables people. Best of luck!

 

 

Maths No Problem Task- Picture and Bar Graphs

 

First of all, here are the answers to the review from yesterday…

 

Today, we begin a new chapter in our Maths learning. Over the next week or so, we will be learning all about graphs. How to read the information accurately and, perhaps, even draw some!

 

In focus task (page 96)- Cover up the ‘Let’s learn’ part of the book for now. Take a look at the tally chart. Ask children what they know about tally charts? Hopefully they should know that when you get to 5 tally marks, the fifth line crosses diagonally through the four other lines to make a block of 5. Ask the children why do they think we do this? The reasoning behind it is that it makes it a lot quicker to count it all up.  Ask the children how else they could show the number of each type of fruit…

 

The children may come up with the following ways:

• Pictures
• Bar graph
• A table
• A picture graph (pictogram)
• Using resources (and a key)

 

Can the children create one of these themselves in their exercise books. Encourage children to use a straight edge if they are drawing a graph or a table.

 

Let’s Learn (pages 96 and 97)- Watch the following video first so that children understand the relationship between tally charts and pictograms-

It’s important that children understand that both charts represent the same data (data means information).

 

Take a look at the picture graph on page 97. Say to the children that this graph must be wrong because they have only drawn 4 squares for the orange when there were 8, 3 squares for the pair and there should be 6 and 5 squares for the strawberry when there should be 10. Hopefully, the children will notice that this graph is actually correct because the key below shows that each square stands for 2 fruits.

 

Remind children that it is really important to look at all the information on the graph before having a go at the questions. Most people get answers relating to graphs wrong, not because they do not know the answer, but because they did not look at the information carefully.

 

Guided Practice (pages 97 and 98)- Get the children to look very carefully at the graph on page 97. Ask them what the graph shows them. Then have a go at answering the questions on page 98. Top tip- Question a is looking for the children to do a tally chart and question b wants them to do a pictogram using orange circles.

 

Take a look carefully at question b because for classes 3b and 3c, they need to create an odd number using the pictures. Ask the children how can they do that if each circle stands for 2? – they will need to draw a semi-circle (semi means half).

 

You may wish to help draw the tables on a piece of paper, or in their exercise books, to help them.

 

Workbook  (pages 61-64)- Take a look at the questions in the workbook. Remind children to really take their time and look at the graphs carefully before completing the tally tables and picture graphs.

Top tip- the final question (2b) on pg. 64 requires the children to draw the same chart again but using a different key (each circle stands for 2 pupils).

 

I will post the answers to these problems in tomorrow’s blog post.

 

 

Topic-based task – Cave Paintings

 

 

The Stone Age occurred over 65,000 years ago! The only things that still exist from this period are:

 

-skeletons (that have been dug up by archaeologists)

-monuments

-cave paintings

 

This means that a lot of things that occurred during prehistoric times we are still unclear about. A lot of guess work is involved. For example, we are still unsure as to why early man and woman painted on cave walls. Was it to warn others that a cave was cursed? Was it just for enjoyment? Was it a way of communicating with others. Who knows, but it is fascinating!

 

As the video describes, the main things you will see in a cave painting are – people (normally carrying weapons and tools), prehistoric animals and hand symbols (either coloured in or outlined).

 

Your task for this week is to create your very own cave painting. Here’s one that I prepared earlier…

You will have ALL WEEK for this task because it’s essential to take your time and make it look authentic. Here’s how you could split it up across the week…

 

Monday- tea stain some pieces of paper (preferably A4 or A3 however whatever you can get will be fine).

 

Tuesday- Split your exercise book up into quarters (you may need an adult to help with this). Practice sketching different prehistoric animals, stick figures carrying tools sketching around your fingers.

 

Wednesday- Continue to practice sketching some of the creatures, stick figures and hand symbols you would normally see on a cave painting.

 

Thursday- Using either black (and red) paint, pencil or pen, have a go at sketching out your design onto your tea-stained paper. Remember to take your time. Ask an adult if they can singe the edges for you.

 

Friday- Find some information about cave paintings and write it on a small piece of paper to go next to your cave painting. The information should explain what we know about these unusual markings.

 

Challenge- If you really want an authentic experience, try some of these with the other pieces of tea-stained paper…

 

-Use a stone or stick in order to paint your picture

-Draw or paint your picture inside a den or under a table (with limited light).

-Why not put the pieces of paper on a wall so that you are standing up whilst doing it? Obviously ask parents first (we don’t want black paint all up the kitchen wall).

 

I would love to see some pictures of the children doing this task so please feel free to send me any for the ‘end of the week’ blog.

Other Fun Ideas and Activities

 

Keen to do more?  Not ready to call it a day? Then why not give some of the activities below a go (who knows, you might enjoy it)…

 

Science Experiments- Rummage around in the cupboards and you may like to have a go at some of these wicked science experiments! Make a massive marshmallow, create a bouncing egg, make pepper swim (link to the importance of washing hands) create a tornado in a glass, create dragon eggs, make your own slime, make a hovercraft balloon or even a skittles rainbow.

Get the children making predictions as to what may happen, draw labelled diagrams and then carry out the experiment. What did you learn from the experiment? Write a little conclusion to show what you have found out.

Want to know how to do these experiments? Visit some of the websites listed below…

 

https://www.dayoutwiththekids.co.uk/blog/easy-cool-science-experiments-for-kids

https://sciencekids.co.nz/experiments.html

https://mashable.com/article/science-experiments-for-kids/?europe=true

 

JOKE BOOK- Did you enjoy video last week? If you haven’t seen Jester Prior delivering his all-time favourite jokes yet, then visit the Year 3 news page. Why not create your very own joke book? You could create a title page and note down some of the funniest jokes you can think of. I’m sure your parents could do with a laugh! 🙂

 

Audible- a great app which you can download and contains many free books (great to listen to before bedtime).

 

Prior’s Top Audible Picks – Kid Normal by Radio DJ Greg James and Chris Smith.

-Diary of a Wimpy Kid – Wrecking Ball by Jeff Kinney

-Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by JK Rowling

-The Gift of Dark Hollow (the sequel to Podkin One-Ear) by Kieran Larwood

– Slime by David Walliams

 

Alternatively, if you’re a real keen Walliams fan, he is currently releasing a lot of chapters of his books for free! This includes an audio story from The World’s Worst Children every day for the next 30 days! Check out this link- https://www.worldofdavidwalliams.com/elevenses-catch-up/

 

Sumdog- Online maths and literacy questions delivered through entertaining games. Simply create a login totally free of charge, create an avatar and let your children explore and play. Mr Prior’s favourite game…JUNK PILE! It’s addictive- be warned. Parents- you can also set certain questions on there for your children to focus on. Any questions, please email me.

 

Maths Factor-  KEEN FOR EVEN MORE MATHS? Carol Vordeman has made her website free during this strange time…feel free to login and check out some of the activities- https://www.themathsfactor.com/

 

ICT- Fancy becoming quicker at typing and brushing up on your fine motor skills? Why not have a go at BBC Dance Mat Typing…Dancing for your fingertips…you know the drill…follow the link- https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/topics/zf2f9j6/articles/z3c6tfr

 

French- Bonjour! Can you find out the names of the following colours in French?

 

Blue, Green, Red, Black, Yellow, Pink, Purple and Orange

 

Then can you explain what is your favourite colour…

Ma couleur préférée ________________

 

Challenge- Create a ‘French’ rainbow to stick in your window. Simply write the names of the colours in French inside each arch.

 

Lego Construction- Can you create Stone Henge or even a cave out of Lego?

 

Lexia- If you have a Lexia account, please feel free to login and try to do it for at least 15 minutes.

 

The Daily Mile- If you have a garden big enough (or a quiet field nearby) why not head out for the Daily Mile? 15 minutes…how many laps can you do?

 

PE- Don’t you know PUMP IT UP! You’ve got to PUMP IT UP!