Newsletter 30.09.16

Good Afternoon,

A few quick notes for you from the Chameleon class. 

Children have been continuing to develop in all areas of the curriculum this week.

We were able to finish our addition pathway which lines up perfectly to fit the subtraction pathway into the next week. Once that has been completed children will have received all of the teaching that they get before the first formal assessment, this will take place on Thursday 13^th October, and will be based upon all the work covered up to this point. I’m confident in pupils’ abilities going into this assessment. 

Children have shown excellent development in their writing as they’ve been taking on the idea of ‘show, don’t tell’ I’m starting to see this emerge in their writing more and more. Once a child has mastered this skill their writing automatically steps up a level and it sounds far more effective and emotive. 

Children seemed to be incredibly interested in science this week, we looked at 5 major religions from around the world and their origins. The religions we looked at were Christianity, Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam and Judaism; children were fascinated to learn the differences between them. 

Important Dates:

-          13^th October, Math formal assessment.

Here is an overview of the areas of study we will focus on during the coming week:

English:

This week in writer’s workshop I will be handing out the formal assessment rubric that I will be using to assess children’s writing at the first check in phase. I will begin to conference with children for this formal assessment after the October break. During the conferences running up to the break I will be using the rubric in lesson conferences to help point pupils in the right direction with their writing.

Pupils will be pushing their reading further this week and we will be revisiting the library on Thursday to return and take out new books. I’m thrilled with how enthused about reading the majority of children in the class are.

Math:

We will be starting the subtraction pathway, focusing on the column method of subtraction and ensuring all pupils have a full understanding of how to borrow when subtracting. This is a key skill that many children often struggle with.

Science:

Within science we will be looking at three capital cities from different countries in different continents, these are Berlin, Tokyo and Sao Paulo. Children will investigate different images of the cities identifying the similarities and differences between them. Children will then apply their improved reading skills to discover and create a small fact file about each city.

Humanities:

Pupils will think about the idea of a growth mindset and think about how having this can help them in their everyday life.

Art:

This week children will begin to be reflective about their art work, they will take time to develop a rubric to assess minimalist pieces of art. Using that they will critique their pieces from last week and then finally create another, ideally, improved piece.

Sports:

Last week we ensured all students ran for 8 minutes without stopping. This week we will be pushing it to 10 minutes.

We will continue to work on our character strength of perseverance by working towards running at a steady pace for 10 minutes straight.

Have a wonderful weekend.

Sincerely,

Mario Civico and the entire Chameleon team.