Class Eagles

EAGLES – Spring Term 2021

Email

Please be aware that if you want to email me do it to Eagles Class email address (eagles@alpington.norfolk.sch.uk) and not the Eagles1 account, which emails eveyone in the class!

Morning Catch-Up

Catch-up today at 9!

Group Reading

I have sent out new invites to your group reading sessions – log on to your personal account and click on the calendar and it should be there or go to the email and there should be a link there too.

Resources

PAINTBRUSH ALERT!! 

This weeks project will require a very fine tipped paintbrush on Wednesday (onwards). If you haven’t got one, we have a supply in school. Please come and pick one up – sticking to all the usual protocols of course!

This week we will be starting a new activity that requires some PVA glue for a bit of papier-mâché. If you cannot source some before Tuesday, please come into school and I can provide you with some. Please enter via the Eagle’s door following the usual Covid protocols and bring a container (jam jar sized!). You will also need some green, brown, white and blue paint and a fine paint brush (once again I can provide this if you cannot source it yourself). You will also need a large (A3 ish) piece of cardboard – from a cardboard box will be fine!

Spellings & Mental Maths

I have posted new spellings for Week 3 below. I will post mental maths tests and new targets and practise test on Wednesday.

Guided Reading

Guided reading times are:

Seymour – Wed 11am

Aragon – Wed 11.30 am

Tudor – Wed 1 pm

Boleyn – Thu 11.30 am

Spring – Week 3

Spellings

Here are this weeks spellings with a practice sheet. We will test these next Monday (25th Jan)

Ohio Group – Week 3

Georgia Group – Week 3

Mental Maths

Here are the targets and practise tests  for testing this week. We will test these next Wednesday  (27th Jan). I will post the actual tests next Wednesday and new targets and practise tests.

Montana Target 2

Georgia Target 2

Ohio Target 2

Here are the solutions to last weeks

Georgia answers

Montana answers

Ohio answers

Friday 22^nd January

Joke of the Day:

I used to work at the cats home.

I had to leave because they reduced meowers!

Now that is a classic!!!

It’s another finishing off day (ish)!

Maths

Make sure you have finished your mountains graph and spend some time working on your mental maths targets.

English

Reading – read to the end of Chapter 14 of Twist of Gold (you can do this over the weekend)

You should have written up your character description of Fiddler Donnelly. Now write it in your Journal.

Before you do that have a go at sketching The Pelican on the page after your diary entry. Remember it is a barque from the 1840s and probably looked something like this:

Then write up you diary entry – remember to put a heading Fiddler Donnelly and do it in a cursive handwriting style.

You could then have a go at doing a sketch of Captain Murray based on the description on pages 54 and 55.

For both of these sketches use pencil only – no colour please. This will make it look like an authentic journal!

Topic

Today we will try and finish our map!

Stage 5 – Now it is time to label you map. This is tricky. You need to cut some small pieces of white paper for your labels, write on them using your black pen and then stick them carefully on your map. You will have to use tiny writing. Alternatively you could number the features using some small pieces of paper and then have a key on the edge of your map. Try and label as much as possible. That should include all the oceans (including the Gulf of Mexico), mountain ranges, rivers, lakes, the Great Plains, the Central Plains, the Gulf Coastal Plain, the Atlantic Coastal Plain and any other features you have added. Your labels will need to be small to fit all this information on (or you could use a key).

There is a good video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sLs3KJQdLxg

Then please make sure you have completed as much of the comparison sheet (USA, Ireland and UK) as possible. If you are feeling confident you can do the grey parts and even add some of your own data at the bottom! We will be looking at this next week!

Then stick anything topic related in your topic book and anything else in your work book.

Have a great weekend and remember to send me pictures of your map, any other work and anything else you would like to share!

Thursday 21^st January

Joke of the Day:

I surprised my wife by getting romantic last night.

Best scrabble score I’ve ever got!

Maths

We will try another White Rose unit today:

First you need to watch the video: https://vimeo.com/487196408

You will also need the worksheet: Thu 21st 

If you feel confident have a go at these revision questions: Thursday reasoning

English

Reading – read to the start of Chapter 13 of Twist of Gold.

Yesterday you should have written six sentences which described Fiddler Donnelly. Your task today is to compose these sentences into a short passage.

You need to think about your sentence openers  and how you make your work flow. You might want to mix your sentence constructions up and use subordinate clauses etc. Here is an example of a very confident woman entering a room:

Striding confidently into the room, she surveyed the room and spotted the friends she was looking for. Golden hair fell across her eyes which she brushed away with aplomb.  She was wearing a smart black suit and shiny high-heeled shoes. Pushing her way through the throng, she waved frantically at the group she was meeting and shouted someone’s name at the top of her voice. Although she was tall and imposing, nobody seemed to react. Suddenly she stopped. Her bright-green sparkling eyes filled with tears because she suddenly realised those were not her friends and this was not even the right pub!

Have a go at drafting it and then check it against the success criteria below. Then write up a best copy in Word and email it to me. Remember to keep editing and improving it as you go along.

Topic

Another day on your map!

Stage 4 – Hopefully you should have painted your map and now it is time to put the rivers and lakes on. Try and paint them very carefully using a fine pointed brush.

Take your time! You can get a fine point by getting your paint on and then rotating your brush against the side of your paint pot, making the end of your brush really pointy! Practise this and then do some thin practise lines before you start on your map proper!

Remember there are some fine pointed brushes in school if you need one.

Try and include the following:

The Great Lakes, The Great Salt Lake, Mississippi, Missouri, Ohio, Rio Grande, Colorado and Arkansas rivers.

Here is a map showing the rivers – you don’t have to put all these on!

Wednesday 20^th January

Joke of the Day:

Did you hear about the fire at the campsite? The heat was in tents.

Maths

We will continue with some White Rose maths today:

First you need to watch the video: https://vimeo.com/485550430

You will also need the worksheet: Wed 20th Jan

Today is also mental maths day. Here are your tests:-

Georgia 2

Ohio 2

Montana 2

4 minutes on Ohio and Montana and 10 minutes on Georgia

I will post answers tomorrow.

The new targets and practise sheets are now posted at the top of the page

English

Reading – read to the end of Chapter 11 of Twist of Gold.

On pages 54-55 Michael Morpurgo gives a brilliant character sketch of Capt Murray. It not only tells us his physical appearance but also gives us big clues as to his character. I would like you to have a go at coming up with a description of Fiddler Donnelly modelled on that of Michael Morpurgo’s one. I have set out key elements of the description of Capt Murray in a table below.

Can you come up with similar sentences to describe Donnelly? I’ve done one for the first one, you can use it or not. Imagine Fiddler Donnelly entering steerage and looking around the crowded room. Your descriptions should be the opposite of Murray as Donnelly is much more of a positive, benevolent (kind and caring) character. You can decide what Fiddler Donnelly looks like – use this to add to what his character is like.  See what you can come up with.

In the last sentence Murray is compared to a gargoyle – can you think of something to compare Fiddler Donnelly to (tough one).

I have set these out in the table below:

Topic

Today we will continue with our map!

Stage 3 – You should now have a lovely relief map of the USA with all the mountain ranges etc.  modelled in papier-mache. Now you need to paint it. Don’t paint it if your papier-mache is still wet!! Stick it in an airing cupboard or on a radiator and wait for it to dry!!

Refer to the physical maps we looked at on Monday and try and paint you map in accordance with them. Normally it is dark green for low lying land, then lighter green as the land rises, beige for smaller mountains and brown for higher ones On a proper physical map these colours represent specific elevation ranges (there is always a key on the map). This is a good map to work from. You can see the key on the right.

When you have finished, spend a little time looking at the major lakes and rivers. This is our next task which we will get going with on Thursday.

You will need a very fine paintbrush; something like this:

Remember we have them at school so get your parents to pick one up if you need to.

Please enter via the Eagles door and take all the usual Covid precautions.

Have fun!!

Tuesday 19^th January

Joke of the day: My niece works for British Gas. Do you wanna meet ‘er?

Maths

Today in maths we are going to have a go at some of the White Rose maths, This is strightforward revisiony stuff, but it will get more challenging as we progress through the unit:

First you need to watch the video: https://vimeo.com/485432781

You will also need the worksheet: Tuesday 19th Jan

Georgia and Ohio groups can have a go at these problems too (try and explain your answers clearly): Reasoning Tuesday 19th Jan

English

Reading – read to the end of Chapter 10 of Twist of Gold.

You should have all finished your diary entry for when Sean met Will. It is now time to write this up in your Journal. Use the black pen you were given or a pencil. It would be nice if you could make it look like a genuine Victorian diary entry by using  cursive writing. Here is an example:

Have a practise before you start writing it in your Journal. You may not want to write  your whole diary entry – you could just use an extract, but please make it fill at least 2 pages. Don’t draw lines in your Journal – try and write in neat straight lines without them. Don’t forget to date it so it looks like a genuine diary entry!

Topic

Today you need to continue with your relief map – try to get to a stage at the end of the day where you have got your mountains etc. modelled onto your map. You can add as much detail as you want. See yesterday for full instructions. It might be good to put it in an airing cupboard or somewhere warm to dry out so it is ready for the next stage, tomorrow. Please send me a picture of your work in progress!

Have a lovely day!!

Monday 18^th January

Joke of the day:

I got sacked from my job at the bank today. An old lady came in and asked me to check her balance so I pushed her over.

Maths

Today in maths I would like you to have a go at showing the relative sizes of mountains in the USA, Ireland and UK compared to Mt. Everest.  You should have gathered some of that information on your comparison table.

You will need the A3 squared paper from your resource pack and you should end up with something that looks like this:

(This is one to compare mountains in UK and Antarctica with Mt Everest)

Here is a table showing the information you will need:

1. You need to decide the scale on your y axis. Remember the tallest mountain is Mt Everest at 9,000m, so you need to be able to fit that on. Remember the other scales we have calculated this year. Work in landscape.
2. Divide up your x axis by the number of mountains you want to include. (if you use the table above then it will be 5 (you may want to include some others – the highest in the Appalachians  or Europe?) This will be the width of each mountain.
3. Draw in each mountain so its height is correct on the y axis.
4. Then illustrate your mountains so they look like … er … mountains!!

English

Reading – see if you can read up to Chapter 10 (page 79) of Twist of Gold. Then spend ten minutes making a few notes on what you think might happen before they reach America. If you’ve already read the book, then you can see how accurately you can recall what happens!

Today is SPELLING TEST day.

Get an adult to test you on your spellings! Then write each one you got wrong out 5 times each. Then email me your score – I won’t post it anywhere public!

Next week’s spellings will be at the start of ‘Week 3’ on the website.

As your spelling and reading should take you some time, that is all you need to do for English today.

Topic

This week’s task is to make a 3d relief map of the USA.

It should eventually look a bit like this.

 Stage 1 – you need to map out the major physical features of the USA on one of your blank USA maps (in your resource pack). Firstly you need to find a good physical map of the USA online or in an atlas. There are a few good ones here but you can always find one of your own:

https://www.freeworldmaps.net/northamerica/united-states/map.html

https://www.amazon.co.uk/USA-Physical-Map-Paper-Laminated/dp/B00WULE6WA

https://www.wayfair.com/school-furniture-and-supplies/pdp/national-geographic-maps-kids-physical-usa-wall-map-graded-4-12-gw1483.html

You can move your cursor over the last two for more details.

This one is also good but you need to zoom in a bit. You can do this by clicking on the three dots at the top right of the browser page and using the zoom facility https://osgis.org/2020/08/physical-map-of-the-united-states/

Remember you don’t need to mark on the states or cities etc. just the main physical features.

We need to start with the elevation (height) of the land in America.

In the east there is the Appalachian Mountains, then moving west, the land is fairly flat for a while before it very gradually starts sloping up and eventually it forms the Rocky Mountains. Then there is a high plateau (a high flattish area) then it slopes down and then in the north there is the Cascade Range and in the south the Sierra Nevada mountains. Try and mark these on your map. (Mark them on lightly in pencil – they are only a guide for when you do the next stage)

Then stick you map onto a thick piece of card and let it dry.

Stage 2 – Now you need to make some really smooth Papier-mâché by mixing PVA with a little water and tiny pieces of paper (you could get an adult to help you with this).

Then use this to model the elevation of the land (form the mountains etc). This will require a lot of patience and fiddly work. You could build up layers gradually.

You could also include other features such as the Ozark Plateau, Edwards Plateau, the Great Basin, Colorado Plateau and the Central Valley. Spend some time studying the physical maps closely.

I will give you a couple of days to complete these first two stages.

Have fun!!

Spring – Week 2

This week’s PE with Mr C!

https://web.microsoftstream.com/video/bf658659-ffab-46fe-bf16-efaf61084599?list=studio

Spellings

Here are this weeks spellings with a practice sheet. We will test these next Monday (18th Jan)

Georgia Group This one was has the wrong test date – it should be Monday 18th Jan!!

Ohio Group 

Mental Maths

Here are the targets and practise tests for this week. We will test these next Wednesday  (20th Jan)

Montana Group 

Georgia Group

Ohio Group

Friday 15th January

Joke of the day:

My friend asked me what I thought about voluntary work. I said I wouldn’t do it if you paid me.

If you didn’t see this yesterday, this is what I found out about a barque, the ship Annie and Sean sail to America on:

I found this on Wikipedia about a barque: A barque, barc, or bark is a type of sailing vessel with three or more masts having the fore- and mainmasts rigged square and only the mizzen (the aftmost mast) rigged fore and aft. Sometimes, the mizzen is only partly fore-and-aft rigged, bearing a square-rigged sail above. Here is a picture of one from the 1870s (I’m sure the Pelican would not have been much different).

ANSWERS to yesterday’s maths:

Reasoning questions: 1. 6 coaches  (no marks for 5.86 you can’t have 0.86 of a coach!) 2. 98,643,  499,999,  564,843,  564,854, 578, 843  3. 2.047

Arithmetic questions 1. 25  2. 39  3. 42

Arithmetic extension questions 1. 350  2. 1,125  3. 2 ½

Today is a finishing-off and admin day!! (It’s also a PE day so try and look at Mr C’s video!)

Please remember:

• Don’t panic if you haven’t completed everything perfectly. This is a new way of working and I know we are all in different circumstances and work at different paces. Just do your best and if you have bits missing, it doesn’t matter! If you have been finding it tough getting down to work, maybe just resolve to try a bit harder next week!
• Don’t put anything in your journal until you are asked. At the moment you should just have your picture of Annie and Sean on the first page – that’s it!

Try and finish what you can. Your priorities are the diary entry (which you can spend a little more time on if you want) and the drawing of Sean and Annie in your journal:

1. Dragoon picture – stick this in your topic book.
2. Map of the British Isles – in your topic book.
3. USA map – stick in your topic book.
4. Potato Famine poster – stick this in your topic book
5. Ireland map – which you should also stick in your topic book.
6. Trout picture and collage (if you did one)– in your topic book.
7. Salmon life cycle (if you did one) – in your topic book.
8. Pencil sketch of Annie and Sean – this should be on the first page of your journal.
9. Pencil sketch of a trout – keep this handy we will use this next week.
10. Diary entry – if you can, email this to me as a Word doc or take a good photo. We will need this next week too, so save a copy.
11. Table of comparisons between UK, Ireland and USA – stick in your topic book (even if you haven’t finished it yet).
12. Maths work – you could stick this in your other work book or put it in a file.

Have a lovely day and a relaxxxxxing weekend!!

See you Monday

Thursday 14th January

Joke of the day:

I told my wife I had got a job at the bowling alley. ‘Ten-pin?’ she said. ‘No it’s a permanent job’, I replied.

Maths

Have a go at these reasoning questions: Thu 14.1.21 Reasoning

Then try these arithmetic problems: Thu 14.1.21 Arithmetic

If you are feeling confident try these extension questions: Wed 14.1.21 Arithmetic extension

ANSWERS to yesterday’s maths:

Reasoning  questions: 1. 1.46  2. 7 x 11 x 5  3. You divide the numerator by the denominator

Arithmetic questions 1. 134.4  2. 4,424  3. 929

Arithmetic extension questions 1. 456  2. 503r6 (sorry Mr S messed up!) 3. 222

English

Reading – read to the end of Chapter 6 of Twist of Gold.

Today is write up day! You should have an edited version of your diary entry: now is time to write it up in best. If you can, type it up in to a Word  document so that you can email it to me when you have finished (you don’t have to do that today!) Remember your editing process should continue as you write it up! Keep referring to the success criteria and top tips documents you have been using all week and the guide to editing. You may make minor changes, equally you may decide to rewrite whole passages. Don’t make it too long; try and get it on one piece of A4.

Topic

One of our learning objectives is to compare the Republic of Ireland, the UK and the USA. Have a go at filling in as much of this table as possible. You will have to do plenty of research and choose the correct units for some of the entries. You may also need to do some rounding. If you are feeling more confident – have a go at the section with a grey background. These will be a little harder to find! There is a link below to help you with the really difficult ones.

http://statisticstimes.com/economy/countries-by-gdp-sector-composition.php

Art/Topic

Most of you did an illustration of a trout. You could have a go at doing this as a pencil drawing, which we will eventually put in our journal. Don’t do it in you journal yet, just try some practise sketches.

Have fun and get typing!!

Wednesday 13th January

Joke of the day:

Why do you never see elephants hiding in trees?

Because they are so good at it

Maths

Have a go at these reasoning questions: Wed 13.1.21 Reasoning

Then try these arithmetic problems: Wed 13.1.21 Arithmetic

If you are feeling confident try these extension questions: Wed 13.1.21 Arithmetic extension

ANSWERS to yesterday’s maths:

Reasoning  questions: 1. 67  2. -12 and 20  3. 11hr 26 min

Arithmetic questions 1. 12  2. 36  3. 250

Arithmetic extension questions 1. 65  2. 0.015  3. 675

English

It’s day 3 of our diary entry!! Hope it’s going well. Today is an editing/rewriting day. See my editing guide – make sure you have read this before you start. You will also need your Success Criteria and explanantion of indirect speech , the Top Tips for Diary Writing and a coloured pen to improve things with.

Remember editing is just as important as the drafting/writing bit. The more time and care you spend on it, the better your work will be!! You can rewrite your work completely and /or change minor details, whatever you feel will result in your very best writing. Editing should take you as least as long as your original writing has taken. When you have finished, try reading your work to an adult or an older sibling. You will need to explain the context and could share the success criteria with them.

Also – don’t forget to MAGPIE!! Even from the book itself (but don’t make it too obvious!)

Have fun with editing, it is really satisfying once you get into it.

Topic

As your editing should take you some time, todays topic work is not hard. You need to put the final touches to your map of Ireland, making sure it looks perfect and is completely coloured in (if you haven’t got coloured pencils then you could hatch carefully with a felt-tip. You could then spend some more time looking at your map of the USA. We will be doing some work on this next week. You could find out more about the physical features (mountain ranges, rivers, lakes etc), put on the 10 most highly populated cities, begin to learn the states and where they are and if you are feeling ambitious learn the state capitals and try and add a scale to your map!

Art/Topic

Yesterday you should have completed a draft pencil sketch of Sean and Annie for your journal. Spend some time improving your work and when you are really happy with it, copy it on to the first page of your journal. Take care with this as it is the first thing a reader will see of your work. When you are happy with it you could go over it with the black pen you have been given or if you prefer you can leave it as a pencil sketch. I will leave that up to you!

Hope you have a productive day – remember editing IS fun!!!

Tuesday 12th January

Joke of the day:

I was playing Frisbee with my son the other day. He threw it to me and as it was flying through the air, I was wondering to myself why it was getting bigger and bigger. And then it hit me!

Maths

Have a go at these reasoning questions: Tue 12.1.21 reasoning  The first one takes a bit of thinking about (remember when we  do ‘Detail’ in SEDIA – this may give you a clue to one of the digits!!

Then try these arithmetic problems: Tue 12.1.21 arithmetic

If you are feeling confident try these extension questions: Tue 12.1.21 arithmetic extension

ANSWERS to yesterday’s maths:

Reasoning  questions: 1. 0.993   2. 33  3. 11

Arithmetic questions 1. 6/7  2. ½ or 3/6 3. 11/15

Arithmetic extension questions 1. 2 1/6 or 13/6  2. 1 5/8 or 13/8  3. 1 41/65

English

Reading – Read to the end of Chapter 4 of Twist of Gold

Click on links in blue!!

You should have made a start on your diary entry with a few ideas and some rough drafting.

Today have a go at pulling this together into a proper draft. I have already written up a Success Criteria  (with a bit about direct and indirect speech). Here are some other Top Tips  for a good diary entry. These should help you to really get over to the reader of the diary how Sean is feeling. Remember this does not need to be too long and should only cover the part where Sean interacts with Will!!

Make sure you read the Top Tips and Success Criteria before you start on you work!

Topic

Click on links in blue!!

You should have completed a rough map of Ireland. Today you need to do a perfect finished copy where you focus much more on presentation (you should have another blank map in your pack). Remember to make it super neat: your handwriting should be small and neat (you could write in capitals), you should colour it in appropriately (blue for lakes and rivers and the sea), you could even use different colours to reflect the elevation (the height of the land) like in this example,  although this is quite hard. Remember to try and include everything I mentioned yesterday and add as much detail as you wish. If you use any symbols you need to provide a key.

Art/Topic

We will soon be using our Journal to record Sean and Annie’s journey. It would be nice to have a picture of Sean and Annie as a first entry. This should be a pencil sketch only – Annie is 10 and Sean is 13. We haven’t been given much information about what either of them look like so far, so it is rather up to you! They will obviously be thin and showing the effects of the famine. Their clothes will be ragged and they won’t be wearing shoes – the rest is up to you!!

Just do some initial sketches, for the time being.

Monday 11th January

Joke of the day: 

I broke four of my fingers yesterday. On the other hand, I’m okay!

Maths

Have a go at these revision questions: Mon 11th Jan Reasoning

Then try these arithemtic problems: Mon 11th Jan Arithmetic

If you are feeling confident try these extension questions: Mon 11th Jan Arithmetic Extension

ANSWERS to yesterday’s maths:

Reasoning  questions: 1. 37m   2a. 3  2b. 0  3. 200 and 5,000

Arithmetic questions 1. 210  2. 225  3. 24.5

Arithmetic extension questions 1. 2.32  2. 1,100  3. 6.08

English

We are going to be keeping a journal to accompany our reading of Twist of Gold!! Your parents can pick up yours anytime in the next couple of days (see above). Eventually it will contain lots of different types of writing from different perspectives and of different genres.  It will also have illustrations and maps. The first piece of work I would like you to do is a diary entry written by Sean. In it, I would like you to write as Sean (in the first person), recounting his first meeting with Will (in Chapter 1). 

This does not have to be a long entry (maybe 1 side of A4) and does not need to go into a lot of detail. However, you need to try and get across to your reader how Sean feels about seeing a British soldier on his river and how his attitude might change when Will offers him the biscuits. I have written a success criteria here.

This work will take you a few days to complete and today you should be jotting down some ideas and then maybe some draft passages. Remember what I have set out in the success criteria. You could spend 5 minutes discussing your ideas with an adult. Today is just an ideas/very rough draft day. Reading the extract carefully will take you a while. Altogther you should spend  about 40 – 45 minutes on it.

Topic

In your resources pack you should have two blank maps of the island of Ireland. Can you go online and research the geography of Ireland. On your map you should try and show the following: the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, the major cities (Dublin, Belfast, Cork etc.), the major rivers (the Shannon, the Boyne etc.), the major lakes (Lough Neagh, Lough Derg etc.), the mountain ranges (Wicklow Mountains, Silverlines etc,) and the tallest mountains. You could also mark on the seas and oceans that surround the island and the major bays (such as Galway Bay). Today you could do your research and mark the features on one of your blank maps and tomorrow you can have a go at presenting your work in best, on the the other map. Remember you can mark on anything you think is of geographical interest.

Have a great day!

Spring – Week 1

Friday 8th January

Joke of the day (by popular request):

Last night my wife told me I was really immature. I was really upset and I told her how unkind she was and to get out of my fort!!

Maths

Have a go at these revision questions: Fri 8th January reasoning questions

Then try these arithemtic problems: Fri 8th January arithmetic questions

If you are feeling confident try these extension questions: Fri 8th January arithmetic extension

ANSWERS to yesterday’s maths:

Reasoning  questions: 1. 195   2. 17 & 7, 19 & 5, 13 & 11  3. 4/5 and 23/28 greater than 0.75,  1/2 and 0.078 less than 0.75.

Arithmetic questions 1. 49  2. 405  3. 89

Arithmetic extension questions 1. 29  2. 405  3. 54

English

We are going to be keeping a journal to accompany our reading of Twist of Gold!! Your parents can pick up yours anytime in the next couple of days (see above). The first piece of work I would like you to do is a diary entry written by Sean. In it I would like you to write as Sean (in the first person), recounting his first meeting with Will (in chapter 1).

This does not have to be a long entry (maybe 1 side of A4) and does not need to go into a lot of detail. However, you need to try and get across to your reader how Sean feels about seeing a British soldier on his river and how his attitude might change when Will offers him the biscuits. I have written a success criteria here.

This work will take you a few days to complete and today you should be jotting down some ideas and then maybe some draft ideas. Remember what I have set out in the success criteria. You could spend 5 minutes discussing your ideas with an adult. Remember today is just an ideas/very rough draft day. Reading the extract carefully will take you a while. Altogther you should spend  40 – 45 minutes on it.

Topic Work

Task 4  You will remember that on Monday we started filling in our map of the USA. I have included your map in your resource pack – complete this: label the states (and their 2 letter abbreviations), you could also find out the state capitals and put in major geographical features, such as river, mountains, lakes etc. However, we will be doing more work on this next week.

This is an ongoing project as your real mission is to learn as many of the states as you can and where thay are (and if you want to, the state capitals). We will have a quiz later in the term!

Big prizes for the winners!

Fun Activity

Yesterday you had a go at drawing a brown trout – now try it using collage. You will need a glue stick and coloured paper although pages from colour magazines work really well too. Try and show the detail of the of the scales and spots on its body.

If that’s not your idea of fun you could find out about the lfe-cycle of the Atlantic Salmon (a close relative of the trout which Will and Sean may have fished for too). You could make notes or try a life-cycle poster.

PE

Friday is normally our PE day so make a big effort to get out in the garden and do some exercise. Practise your footie skills or make up a dance!

Thursday 7th January

Maths

Have a go at these revision questions: Thu 7th Jan reasoning questions

Then try these arithemtic problems: Thu 7th Jan arithmetic questions 

If you are feeling confident try these extension questions: Thu 7th Jan arithmetic extension questions

Topic Work

Task 3 In Task 2 you researched the Irish Potato Famine. Now have a go at presenting your findings as a pamphlet or poster. Your target audience should be another Year 6 pupil. It needs to be short, containing only the most important facts. A good summary is here. You could add illustrations and fact-files etc. if you want. It should be no bigger than one side of A4  and you could present it as a Word document. Remember all the work we have done on information texts, such as our posters on Kett’s Rebellion, and use all the same skills.

Fun Activity

In Twist of Gold Will (the dragoon) and Sean catch trout. See if you can find out a bit about trout and have a go at drawing/painting one. I think the trout they were  catching were probably brown trout: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brown_trout

ANSWERS to yesterday’s maths:

Reasoning  questions: 1. 72 cm2   2, You need to explain that 9,996 is only 4 away from 10,000 whilst 10,006 is 6 away.  3a. 3.45 pm  3b. 4km

Arithmetic questions 1. 408  2. 4,005  3. 7,200

Arithmetic extension questions 1. 181.3  2. 28.16  3. 12.9306

Wednesday 6th January

Maths

Have a go at these very straightforward revision questions: Wed 6th Jan reasoning questions

Then try these arithemtic problems: Wed 6th Jan arithemtic questions

If you are feeling confident try these extension questions: Wed 6th Jan arithemtic extension

Topic Work

Task 1 Our book, Twist of Gold, begins in Ireland. To get started, here is a blank map of the British Isles. Can you draw in the borders and label the 4 countries of the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland? You could also mark in the capitals and other major cities. See if you can find out the populations of the countries of the UK and of Ireland and their areas (in square kilomemtres). You could note these carefully on your map then colour in the countries.  Remember, the Republic of Ireland is a separate country to the UK. There will be bonus points for presentation!

Task 2 The beginning of Twist of Gold is set at the time of the Potato Famine in Ireland. Go on-line and see what you can find out about it. Remember our research questions – who, when, where, why etc. It is a very sad and potentially upsetting bit of history so make sure you have an adult to help you with this research bit. Make a note of the important facts and we will use this information later in the week.

Fun Activity

One of the the characters from Twist of Gold is Will, a Sergeant of Dragoons – go on-line and see if you can find an illustration of a dragoon from the 1840s and draw it!

Dear Parents

Our topic for this term is ‘Here and There’. This will be an opportunity to look at the geography of the United States and compare it with the UK and Ireland. We will be focussing on the Yosemite National Park for the American element of this learning. We will also be basing much of our learning around the book ‘Twist of Gold’ by Michael Morpurgo which tells the story of two children who escape the Irish Potato Famine and travel to the American West. As we have been forced to work on-line for the time being, our learning activities are limited by what we can reasonably expect you to do at home, however I will try to stick to the original educational intentions of the unit.

In the near future we intend to furnish each child with a pack which will include a copy of the book and various other resources. Once we have distributed these to you all we can embark on our work properly but until then I will provide some activities related to the topic which should keep the children interested and busy.

We will begin new spelling and mental maths tests next week. Because of the new regime of working remotely I will have to reorganise the groups which means there may be slight changes to the spellings and mental maths targets which you child(ren) has been working on (although they will not be vastly different!) I will also post some simple maths activities for the next few days to keep the class ticking over. Looking ahead we will attempt some more demanding maths!

It is our intention to keep guided reading going via Teams. We hope to get this operational by next week and I will post a timetable and inform you of the details as soon as possible.

Our science topic to begin the term will be the human circulatory system and I hope to get resources and activities on this page in the near future. We will also have the opportunity to look at the natural history of Yosemite later in the term and the scheme to reintroduce wolves there.

All activities will be posted on this page (see below) and reponses and example of work on the ‘Eagles in Action’ page.

If you need further clarification on any of the above or need to contact me in any regard, please do this via the Eagles email.

Best wishes

Michael