Class Eagles
EAGLES – Summer Term 2021
Summer timetable
Here is the new term’s timetable:
Group reading
There have been a few changes to our reading groups and to the group reading timetable. Your child will be aware of which group they are in. The new timetable is here:
EAGLES – Spring Term 2021
Second half-term
I hope everyone had a relaxing half-term break and you are all raring to get on with our work on the American West. We will be carrying on with ‘Twist of Gold’ and finishing off our work on the Pioneer Trails. We will then look at the environmental impact the settlement by the Europeans had on the wildlife of the USA; we will be focussing our work on the Passenger Pigeon, American Bison and the Wolf. There will be an opportunity to finish your Native American weaving and there will also be a new, exciting DT project which I will tell you all about later!! We will continue to keep adding entries to our journal and use this as a record of our learning. Maths will be based upon the White Rose resources whilst we are learning remotely.
Hopefully, it won’t be too long before we are all back together in the school!!
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 everyone in the class!
School Council
Please watch the school council anti-bullying video and complete the online quiz. You have been sent an email with all the details.
https://web.microsoftstream.com/video/3409cd72-1e66-4211-bfda-81204e2f7222
Morning Catch-Up
Catch-up meetings will continue to be at 9 o’clock every morning.
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.
Guided reading times are:
Seymour – Wed 11am
Aragon – Wed 11.30 am
Tudor – Wed 1 pm
Boleyn – Thu 11.30 am
Resources
We will be starting a new DT project in a week or so (when you have finished your weaving). We will supply you with a pack of everything you need (except some carbaord and glue) Details will follow shortly!
Spellings & Mental Maths
There are no spellings or mental maths targets for week 9 as we will be doing mini-assessments that week,
Spring – Week 8
Friday 5th March
Joke of the Day
Two aerials got married. They invited both their aerial families and all their aerial friends.
The ceremony was rubbish – but the reception was brilliant!
Today is a finishing off day!
- Try and finish the illustrations we were working on yesterday of the prairie wildlife, the landscape and landmarks along the way in your journal.
- Try and finish your diary entry – if you are struggling for time, email me a copy of what you have done so far in Word and we will find some time to finish it next week!
If you can, please bring in any work you have done over Lockdown, especially your journal on Monday. Don’t worry if you have bits missing etc. I’m not going to be making any judgments on your work, I know we were all working in different circumstances and at different paces!!
Could you also bring in your relief maps of America as I would like to put them on display!!
See you at 9 o’clock for our last catch-up!!
Thursday 4th March
Joke of the Day
Why do Canadian cowboys have sticky feet?
Maple stirrups.
Maths
Here are the mental maths answers from yesterday:
We will start with a reminder of equivalents. Have a go at these tests (this should be easy for the Ohio group. The second one is tough and needs a bit of thought:
Here is a list of equivalent faction, decimals and percentages to help you if you need it – but you do need to learn these:
Now try these algebra problems. The first one is okay, the second one is tricky the third one is nasty!!
English
You should be at the writing/typing-up stage of your diary entry!! Remember, editing never ceases – you can change/improve/correct things as you are typing up. In fact it is often a really good time to do it as you have to go through your work thoroughly!!
Keep an eye on these documents to help you.
Success Criteria and explanation of indirect speech
When you have finished email it to me, please.
Topic/Science
Yesterday we had a look at the ecology of the prairie!
Today I would like you to draw some of the plants and animals you mentioned in your food-web into your journal. You could take a couple of pages (or three). You could probably fit three or four species on each pages.
I would also like you to draw a typical prairie landscape on a page. This could include a wagon train or buffalo as a focal point.
You could also sketch a couples of the landmarks like Chimney Rock, Independence Rock or one of the forts along the way.
Fort Laramie
Chimney Rock
You will have time to work on this tomorrow!
Wednesday 3rd March
Joke of the Day
Why did the scarecrow win an award?
Because he was outstanding in his field!
Maths
It’s a mental maths day:
I’ll post the answers tomorrow!
Here are the answers to yesterday’s White Rose:
And here is the last White Rose algebra video:
and the accompanying work:
English
You draft diary entry should be coming along!! I’m going to give you the next two English sessions to edit your draft and then type it into Word. You then need to send it to me.
Here are the documents which should help you:
Success Criteria and explanation of indirect speech
This website has a basic structure of a day on the trail to help you:
https://oregontrailcenter.org/day-on-the-trail
This is an extended writing task so I am expecting this to be at least 2 sides of A4 when typed up!
Get writing!!
Science/Topic
Today we are going to have a look at the ecology of the prairie! This is in preparation for some work we will do when we get back. Ecology is the study of the plants and animals and their environment and how they interact. You will remember studying food chains and food webs in Owls.
Start by watching this video to remind yourself:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hLq2datPo5M
You should understand the following terms: producer, consumer, herbivore, omnivore, carnivore, primary consumer, secondary consumer, tertiary consumer, apex predator, decomposer, food chain, food web, ecosystem and energy flow.
Then watch these videos on the prairies
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oM-rNSsfdks
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KitxeFuqOro
Then have a go at drawing your own food web of the prairie – try and be specific about the species you include (don’t just say ‘deer’ you need to give the species; e.g. White-tailed Deer. And if you want to be really scientific add the scientific binomial name -e.g. Odocoileus virginianus
There is plenty of information on-line. Here is one site but find some of your own.
https://www.exploringnature.org/db/view/American-Prairie-Food-Web
Enjoy your day!!
Tuesday 2nd March
Joke of the Day
What did the buffalo say to his son when he left for school?
Bison!
Maths
Nice easy day, as I want you to spend plenty of time on your writing and topic/science work.
Here are the arithmetic answers from yesterday:
Arithmetic 1: 1. 4/8 or 1/2 2. 11/15 3. 5/8
Arithmetic 2: 1. 24/20 or 1 1/5 2. 2/3 3. 3 ¼
Arithmetic 3. 1. 47 ½ 2. 54 3. 21 22/221
Here are the answers to Monday’s algebra stuff:
We will do the next algebra lesson from White Rose.
English
Hopefully, yesterday you had a good planning session for your diary entry for the Colonel.
Today is a first draft day. Remember the Top Tips and what we spoke about yesterday at catch-up. I have drafted some success criteria for you but I’ve left a couple of blanks for you to put your own in. Make sure you read this as it will, hopefully, remind you of what will make a good piece of writing. It would be great if you could really focus on getting over the Colonel’s character through his piece of writing. That is easy, if you are reflective in the diary from the perspective of the Colonel. Have fun with this!! Remember, you are the Colonel!
Success Criteria and explanation of indirect speech
Science/Topic
Today is a write-up day for the information you gathered on the American bison (and the wolf, if you did it). You can take a couple of pages in your journal (per species) or more if you have a lot of information. You might need to write quite small. Please include an illustration and facts to accompany it. You need to include some facts about the bison (and wolf) itself – size, diet, distribution, behaviour etc etc and then information about its near extinction. You could do a table on population, reasons it was hunted and what their carcasses were used for. You could also try and find out bigger reasons why the bison may have been hunted (clue – Native Americans.) You could also add a section on what was done to save the bison from extinction.
If you have time look at the wolf and what has been done to reintroduce it into America. This will be important for what we are studying when you return. There is an interesting website here:
https://missionwolf.org/wild-wolves/
Have a look at the animated map!
Enjoy you writing and have a lovely day!!
Monday 1st March
Joke of the Day
My grandfather invented the cold air balloon but it never really took off.
Welcome to a new week – hopefully our last on-line!!
Maths
Let’s start with some fraction revision:
Do as many as you can and if you get stuck try using the Methods Booklet
Here is the next White Rose algebra lesson and accompanying work:
English
It’s a spelling day – so get an parent/adult/sibling to test you!
I’ll post new spellings tomorrow.
Don’t forget to send me your result.
Today we can start on our diary entry. You should have researched a typical day on the trail and analysed the character portrait Michael Morpurgo gave us of French Charlie. Today I would like you to begin a diary entry by the Colonel of a day on the trail. You have had lots of experience of writing diary entries by now so I want you to show off all your skills and I would like you to make an extra-special effort to describe the characters of both the Colonel and French Charlie in your work. This will mean you will have to describe a conversation or interaction between them. It will, of course, be from the Colonel’s perspective. This is quite a tough task and if you are lacking ideas you could base your work on the passage we looked at on Thursday. Today is a planning day – so get some ideas jotted down. You can use these top tips to help you:
Science/Topic
Last week we looked at the remarkable story of the passenger pigeon. Today I would like you to do something similar for the American bison (or buffalo). This was another species which was catastrophically affected by the coming of the European settlers.
Find out as much as you can. Try and think about the reasons the bison suffered so badly and how these were similar to, and different from, the passenger pigeon. You could also try and find out about the efforts to reintroduce them. If you have time, you could also look at the Wolf – another species that has suffered enormously.
Read as much as you can and make some notes. There’s a couple of decent videos on the bison here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-IgvgvDbG-Q
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zwNHsIgMdKU
Richard sent us this website which is about scientists who are trying to bring back the passenger pigeon – amazing stuff!
https://reviverestore.org/about-the-passenger-pigeon/
Spring – Week 7
Friday 26th February
Joke of the Day
I had a job drilling holes for water – it was well boring.
(Happy with that Ethan!)
It’s Friday!!
You have done loads of work this week showing what resilient learners you are! So well done!
Today we are going to do a bit of finishing-off:
English
As thoughtful learners, yesterday we did some work on pulling apart the description of French Charlie and finding evidence from the text. Today I would like you to imagine what he looked like. There are plenty of clues in the text (young, tanned, wearing a coonskin hat etc etc). Have a go at sketching him (if you are feeling ambitious you could have a go at drawing him on his horse). Then do a best copy in your journal. You also need to think what sort of clothes he would wear.
I would then like you to choose some adjectives to describe him and write them around your drawing together with the quote from the text that tells you this is what he was like. Try to concentrate more on his character than what he looked like (you can show this in your picture).
For example;
Pessimistic – ‘You’ll be lucky, Colonel,” said French Charlie, swinging up into the saddle. ‘You’ll be lucky.”
Science/Topic
Yesterday I asked you to do some research into the passenger pigeon (we are curious learners)
You should have discovered that they went from being the most populous bird in America (and probably the world) to being extinct, in little more than 50 years!
Here are some good videos (if you haven’t already seem them):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2zi2JjfLMmc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FPRpX25L5DU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=twr53QVGh0E (This one gets a bit technical towards the end!)
I would like you to write up your notes on the passenger pigeon in your journal. Try and fit them on to one page (but if you can’t – don’t worry). Make sure you include a section on why they became extinct – is this an example of anthropogenic extinction? (Look it up!!) Then on the page opposite try and draw a pair (males and females were different – this is called sexual dimorphism). You could use coloured pencil for this (no felt-tips, please!)
Have a lovely weekend!!
Thursday 25th February
Joke of the Day
You hear quite a few jokes about white sugar, but brown sugar – demerara!
Maths
Let’s start with a bit of dividing by numbers greater than 12, try as many as you can:
Here are the answers to yesterday’s algebra work:
And here is today’s video and accompanying work:
I have posted new mental maths targets and practise tests above.
English
Yesterday I asked you to gather information on what a typical day on the trail was like. We are going to use this as part of a diary entry by the Colonel. However, I also want you to describe an interaction with French Charlie.
In order that we get an idea of his character and appearance (for you to use later) and also as a model for you own writing, I would like you to look closely at Chapter 27.I will read this to you in class today but you need to read it too and use it to complete this exercise:
Science/Topic
For our science this half-term we are going to look at the impact the Europeans had on the environment in America. Your task this afternoon is to find out as much as you can about the Passenger Pigeon. I don’t want to give too much away but it is an incredible and tragic story!! You should search on-line and gather facts in your Topic book. We will do some more work on this tomorrow.
Wednesday 24th February
Joke of the Day
I’m entering the world’s tightest hat competition.
Just hope I can pull it off.
Maths
Here are the answers to yesterday’s algebra work:
And here is today’s video and accompanying work:
Remember it is also a mental maths day, here are today’s tests.
I will post the answers tomorrow together with your new targets. Don’t forget to email me your results.
English
Our next piece of work is another diary entry, however this one will be from the perspective of the Colonel. We will base it around a day on the Oregon/California Trail. First we need to gather some information on what a typical day on the trail would have been like.
Here are a few websites, but I am expecting you to do your own research!
https://oregontrailcenter.org/day-on-the-trail
https://octa-trails.org/articles/life-and-death-on-the-oregon-trail/
(There are also some good videos on YouTube)
Annabelle sent me this resource about children on the trail. It is really good and has some FAQs and, more interestingly, some contemporary diary entries. Have a look!
Try and map out a typical day on the trail in some sort of chronological order.
Remember, today is purely an information gathering/note taking day. Don’t start to draft your diary yet. The better idea you get of what a day on the trail was like, the better your diary entry will be!
I have had a bit of feedback that some of you were struggling to finish your FactFile but especially were finding the weaving slow-going. So this afternoon you can spend a bit of time working on these two tasks! I will also give you some time on Friday to continue with your weaving!!
Have a great day!!
Tuesday 23rd February
Just a quicker reminder that there will be no catch-up Teams meeting this morning!
Joke of the Day
I see they’re bringing out another new 50p coin. I can’t stand it!
There again, I hate all change.
Maths
Here are the answers to yesterday’s arithmetic refresh:
Arithmetic 1: 1. 81 2. 232.4 3. 192
Arithmetic 2: 1. 4002 2. 39 3. 53
Arithmetic 3: 1. 3/7 2. 4/15 3. 15/30 or ½
Arithmetic 4: 1. 8 2. 3/8 3. 42
Arithmetic 5: 1. 1,200 2. 170.8 3. 60
Arithmetic 6: 1. 875 2. 3459.6 3. 0.421875
Today, have a go at setting yourself a target area (something you still find tricky) and use the Arithmetic Methods handout you’ve got to remind yourself of the strategies we have learnt. Then set yourself some problems, search on-line or get an adult to set you some!!
Today we will continue with the White Rose Maths algebra unit. Here is today’s video and accompanying work:
English
As we aspire to be curious learners, yesterday you should have drafted a series of fact-files for your journal on the Pioneer Trails. Today is a writing-up day. Ideally, I would like you to use between 2 and 4 pages of your journal to present you information in the best way possible. That may mean you present some info using normal text or you might want to present some as a list (perhaps use bullet points), a table, a graph, or even a mind-map! It is up to you! You could include diagrams and illustrations. Remember we want to present this in a way which is attractive and accessible for our reader. Don’t forget the key questions we were considering. However, you can include anything you think is relevant and interesting!
- What were the three main trails?
- What were the main reasons why people decided to go out West?
- What were their routes?
- Where were the pioneers aiming to get to, eventually
- How far did the pioneers have to travel and how long did it take them?
- What were the main hazards they faced?
- What time of year did they travel and why?
- How many people travelled these routes and in what years?
- Why did the pioneer trails stop being so important?
Your different headings could be: reasons people went, distances and times (and timings), landmarks, hazards, supplies, numbers of people travelling, the reasons they stopped being important etc etc. Remember you could also mention the route although you should have included a lot of this information on your map.
Remember your WOW facts!!
Science
Last half-term we carried out our experiment on the effect of exercise on your heart rate. You should have drawn a graph to illustrate your results. I didn’t give you many clues to help you but you should have produced a line graph with time (in minutes or seconds) on the x axis and your heart rate on the y axis. If you didn’t do this have a go today.
It is now time to consider what our results show. Try and complete the questions below. We will have a chance to properly consider our results when we are back in school, but for the time being try and use what you know from your previous work to give as full answers as you can! You could revisit the websites and videos we looked at before or do your own research.
Exercise investigation evaluation.
Monday 22nd February
Joke of the Day
I’ve given up asking rhetorical questions. What’s the point?
Maths
We will start the week with an arithmetic refresher. Have a go at as many of these as you can. Don’t forget to use SEDIA to check you answers! Remember that we are resilient mathematicians – that means we work methodically and we check our answers to make sure we haven’t made any silly mistakes! Then get an adult to review you answers, use a calculator or mark them against the answers I will post tomorrow and email me your results. You could then target an area to work on. You should have an Arithmetic Methods handout in the pack you were given at the beginning of lockdown – you could use this to remind yourself of the methods, then set yourself some questions or get an adult or older sibling to do it!
Remember you don’t have to complete all of these – just do as much as you can!
English
Today is a spellings day – get an adult or sibling to test you on you spellings and then email me your result!
I have posted new spellings for Week 8 at the top of the page.
As we aspire to be curious learners, you have carried out a great deal of research on the Pioneer Trails – you will recall that we considered the following questions before half-term:
- What were the three main trails?
- What were the main reasons why people decided to go out West?
- What were their routes?
- Where were the pioneers aiming to get to, eventually
- How far did the pioneers have to travel and how long did it take them?
- What were the main hazards they faced?
- What time of year did they travel and why?
- How many people travelled these routes and in what years?
- Why did the pioneer trails stop being so important?
I would now like you to pull this all together into a Fact File for your jourmal.
Today can be a drafting day where you organise the research you have done into different areas such as: reasons people went, distances and times ( and timings), landmarks, hazards, supplies, numbers of people travelling, the reasons they stopped being important etc etc. You can add your own sections too. You could also mention the route although you should have included a lot of this information on your map.
Try and make your work interesting and engaging for you reader. Find some WOW facts and interesting data. You could include some personal experiences of the pioneers (but do keep them brief!) We have done a lot of work on information texts – now is your time to shine!!
Make sure you have enough information to fill a double page of your journal. You will have time to write this up in best tomorrow!
DT
So that we can crack on with our new DT topic as soon as possible, I would like you to spend a bit of time completing your weaving. You will have some more time on Friday!
The instructions are here:
https://mrs-cook.weebly.com/navajo-loom-weaving.html
Have a fun day!!
Spring – Week 6
Spellings
Here are your new spellings with a practice sheet. We will test these on Monday 22nd Feb
Mental Maths
Here are your new targets for Week 7 (test will be Wed 24th Feb)
Friday 12th February
Joke of the Day
Every night, Ms Godbold has a nightmare about the council taking her allotment away.
I think she’s losing the plot!
It’s Friday!!
A bit of a catching-up and finishing-off day!
Science
You should have carried out your investigation on the effect of exercise on your heart-rate. We will have a chat about this at catch-up! Today I would like you to present your results on a graph. We have done a lot of graph work so far this year and you are all really good at it. So, I am not going to give you any help or hints! Draw the best graph you can (you need to decide what sort of graph you are going to draw), then you should annotate your graph (write on it explaining the shape, where there are changes in the data and what is happening in your body). Then take a picture and send it to me. We will have a chance to chat about it after half-term. You should still have some graph paper but if you need to print some off, there is some here: graph paper
Topic
You now need to put the work you have completed on the Pioneer Trails this week, in your journal:
- Your map of the Pioneer Trails – make sure you have included some illustrations: landmarks, wildlife, pictures of wagons, Native Americans etc.
- Your picture of a Prairie Schooner (wagon on the Pioneer trail). Please make sure you have annotated your picture with the information you have gathered about what the Pioneers took on their journey.
Try and do it using the black pen you were given. You could use a double page if you want.
DT/Art
You could spend the afternoon on your weaving. You could begin your own design now you have got the hang of the different weaves. Use the website to help you.
https://mrs-cook.weebly.com/navajo-loom-weaving.html
Don’t forget a bit of PE!!
Half-term Homework!!
- Practise your spellings and mental maths.
- Practise your poem and then over the half-term send a video to us. The instructions are on the Poetry Festival page on the website.
- Relax and have some fun!!
Thursday 11th February
Joke of the Day
Did you hear about the flea that went to the moon?
What a lunatic.
I have put up your new spellings at the top of the page!
Maths
In all the excitement of snow days etc. I forgot that it was mental maths yesterday so we will do this today!
Here are the new tests and I will put up new targets tomorrow:
Have a go and then send me your result!! Good Luck!
Science
You should have completed the diagrams yesterday. Here they are correctly labelled:
This might need rotating! There’s an icon at the top of the page!
Now we are going to try a bit of an investigation into your heart rate. You should have watched the video of how to take your heart rate – the best place is in your neck using two fingers as explained in the video. To calculate your heart rate, the best way is to get someone with a timer (phone!) or stopwatch. Time 20 secs and in that time count how many times you feel your pulse. This will give you the number of beats in 20s – to find your beats per minute multiply this by 3!
Have a practise then follow the instructions on the sheet below and fill in the table.
Think about your results and how you might present them! We will discuss this more on Friday.
French
As we didn’t do French on Tuesday, you can have a go at some this afternoon! Try and complete the PowerPoint! There’s quite a lot to get through!!
Birthdays, Fete des rois PowerPoint 2
There’s another fun activity here which you can do now or save for Pancake Day (Tuesday 16th Feb)
Have a fun day!!
Wednesday 10th February
Joke of the Day
A cowboy asked me if I could help him round up 38 cows.
I said, ‘Yes, of course. That’s 40 cows!’
Today is another Science and Topic day!
Science
Yesterday we learnt all about the blood. Here are the answers to yesterday’s work.
The circulatory system & function of blood answers
Now we need to consider the circulatory system including the heart.
Watch these videos:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CWFyxn0qDEU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DB5HxSPGVp0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Ijuxu2kbuY
https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/topics/zwdr6yc/articles/ztg6gdm
Then see what else you can learn about the circulatory system and how the heart works.
Then have a go at labelling these diagrams:
Circulatory sysytem – You may need to do a little more research to complete this!
Heart Worksheet – Colour in the parts carrying oxygenated blood in read and deoxgenated blood in blue.
Then watch these videos in preparation for tomorrow:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tF9-jLZNM10
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W5K_HR6hxMY
Now have a practise at taking your pulse. See if you can work out what your resting pulse rate is in Beats per Minute (BPM).
Topic
Yesterday you should have found out lots about the Pioneer Trails.
Today we will have a look at what the people headed west needed to take with them.
There is tons of information on this on-line. Here are a few sites:
https://www.jobcarrmuseum.org/blog/oregon-trail-foods-preparing-for-the-journey
https://westernexpansion.mrdonn.org/oregontrail.html
https://oregontrailcenter.org/supplies
I couldn’t find any really good videos on this but if you do let me know!
This will require quite a lot of reading and the different sources might give slightly different information,
When you have done your research – find out about the wagons that the pioneers used. They were often referred to as Prairie Schooners – see if you can find out why. Then find out about what animals they might have used to pull the wagons (most people tended to use oxen – see if you can find out why) and what other animals they might have taken,
Then try and sketch a Prairie Schooner and around the outside explain what the pioneers would have taken with them (including amounts).
There is an interesting and short video on the Oregon Trail here with some good photos:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YPUZnqo9lB8
Have a fun day!!
Tuesday 9th February
As Monday was a snow day we are starting again this week!
Joke of the Day
My firiend said that onions are the only food that makes you cry,
so I dropped a coconut on his toe!
This week is going to be science and topic week!
First though we need to do this weeks spellings. Get an adult to test you and I will post new ones for testing after half-term, tomorrow!
Science
Our science topic is the circulation system. We will start with looking at blood and the basics of the circulatory system.
Please watch this episode of Operation Ouch!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Efh50dxK3k
You should also watch these BBC Bitesize clips and try the quiz at the end of each one:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/topics/zwdr6yc/articles/zs8f8mn
https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/topics/zwdr6yc/articles/zqv4cwx
https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/topics/zwdr6yc/articles/zw8xb82
Then fill in this table:
The circulatory system and function of blood
You could then research the main parts of the circulatory sysytem for tomorrow.
Topic
We are now at the point in Twist of Gold when Sean, Annie and the Captain are about to set off on the California Trail. We are going to spend the rest of the week gathering information about the Pioneer Trails.
There is loads of information about them on-line. Make notes in your topic book about them.
Today we will be thinking mostly about the people and the routes they took.
Try and find out the following:
- What were the three main trails?
- What were the main reasons why people decided to go out West?
- What were their routes?
- Where were the pioneers aiming to get to, eventually
- How far did the pioneers have to travel and how long did it take them?
- What were the main hazards they faced?
- What time of year did they travel and why?
- How many people travelled these routes and in what years?
- Why did the pioneer trails stop being so important?
Now have a go at drawing a map of the routes the pioneers took. Mark on it the important landmarks along the way and the major obstacles they faced. You could find out where Grass Valley is and place that on your map. Try and put all the important trails on your map. You could mark on the states they passed through (although many of them did not exist at the time!). Eventually we will copy this map into our journal. You could do small illustrations on your map of landmarks, geographical feautures (rivers and mountains) and the pioneeers themselves (wagons etc) on you map.
There is a short videos here but you should also do your own research:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dbjpemcYF7Y
Friday 5th February
Joke of the Day
I asked my pirate friend how old he was.
He said “Aye matey!”
Maths
Here are the answers to yesterdays work:
Thu 4th Algebra reasoning answers
Today is a catch-up day!!
I have sent you all your letters back with some comments and something to do to improve them. Please try what I have suggested and then write the new and improved version in your journal.
Then you need to make sure you have:
- Made sure your journal is up to date. So far, it should have the following in it:
- Picture of Sean and Annie
- Diary entry
- A picture of The Pelican,
- The description of Fiddler Donnelly
- A sketch of Capt. Murray
- A map of the route from Boston to Wheeling
- Then you should copy in your letter to Father
- Then put in your picture of the Henry Martha
- Then copy in your map of the river journey between Wheeling and Independence
- Make sure you are happy with your algebra learning up to and including the work on substitution
- Remember to read to page 209 in Twist of Gold
- Finish your Columbia picture from an Native American perspective
Then have another go at adding to your sample weaving. Here is the link:
https://mrs-cook.weebly.com/navajo-loom-weaving.html
PHEW!!
Then maybe do a bit of outside exercise to keep Mr C happy!!
We will have a bit of a science week beginning on Monday!!
Have a great weekend!
Thursday 4th February
Joke of the Day
Why don’t ants become ill?
Because they have anty bodies!!
Maths
Here are the answers to yesterday’s mental maths:
Here are the answers to yesterday’s algebra lessons: Wed 3rd Algebra answers
I’ve posted your new targets above.
Here is the next algebra lesson. https://vimeo.com/500489180
And the accompanying work: Thu 4th
If you want something else to have a go at, there are some algebra questions here: Thu 4th Algebra reasoning questions
If you have any problems mention it to me at catch-up or email me at the eagles email!
English
Hopefully you have had a go at learning the poem. Keep practising as we will upload some videos of you reciting the poem next week! Remember we are resilient learners!
In Twist of Gold Annie and Sean are soon to embark on the California Trail. We will be doing a lot of work on this, beginning next week! In order that we are ready, I would like you to do the following:
- Read up to page 218 in Twist of Gold – that is quite a chunk of reading so you might want to spread it out over the next few days and try and complete it by Monday.
- You should have sketched a map of their journey from Boston to Wheeling – could you now do a best copy in your journal, please.
- As we are curious learners you might want to find out about the steam boats that were used all across America at this time. They were a really important mode of transport, especially before the railways became widespread across America. Then have a go at sketching one in your journal. We don’t know exactly what the Henry Martha looked like, but it was probably something like this:
- You could then quickly try to work out Sean and Annie’s route from Wheeling to Independence along the Ohio, Mississippi and Missouri rivers. This map might help you. https://whatsanswer.com/maps/us-mississippi-river-map Remember Wheeling is quite close to Pittsburgh and Independence is now part of Kansas City. You could try your own sketch map.
Topic
You should have done a preliminary sketch for your version of American Progress by John Gast. Now have a go at a proper version. Remember you can choose your medium – you could go for water-colours or other paint but coloured-pencils may be better to add the necessary detail.
Think a little about what your equivalent of Columbia would be like (remember as Empathetic and Thoughtful historians we need to put ourselves in the mind-set of the Native Americans). He might be a soldier or a settler but you might like to portray him in a negative way.
Remember to refer to the table we made, here: Columbia picture table completed
Have fun with this!
Wednesday 3rd February
Catch-up
Sorry the connection was bad today!! Very frustrating but still lovely to see you gorgeous faces! I mentioned I’d like you to have a go at a quick sketch of a map of Sean and Annie’s journey from Boston to Wheeling (we will put this in our Journal later). Google the route on Google Maps and then have a go at doing a quick sketch of their journey. You could put in the states they crossed (although they might not have been the same in the 1840s) and other major landmarks. You could find out the distance between Boston and Wheeling too. Sketch the East Coast and you could put the great lakes on too.
Something like this:
Then read to page 170.
Joke of the Day
I’ve been told crocodiles can grow up to 15 feet but I’ve never seen one with more than four.
Maths
Today is a mental maths day. Here are today’s tests. I will post answers and new targets tomorrow.
Here are the answers to yesterday’s algebra work
Here are the answers to yesterday’s reasoning problems: algebra questions answers
Here is the next algebra lesson. https://vimeo.com/499980673
And the accompanying work: Wed 3rd Algebra questions
If you have any problems mention it to me at catch-up or email me at the eagles email!
English
We aspire to be resilient learners and the task we began yesterday takes a great deal of patience and practise! Yesterday we all had a go at learning the first-half of our part of If by Rudyard Kipling. Now see if you can learn the second-half and then put it all together! We can have a chat about this at catch-up in the morning!
Luke, Annabel, Ethan and Martha – learn verse 1
If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:
Sonny, Annabelle, Richard and Florence – learn verse 2
If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;
If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools:
Alex, Jonathan, Toby and Cassie – learn verse 3
If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: ‘Hold on!’
Maurizio, Bertie, Harry and Gracie – learn verse 4
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son!
We will try and make videos of this working in teams!!
I will post details later this week.
Keep practising!
Remember you could try and learn more if you wanted!
Extension: If you would like something else to do you could try writing a couple of lines yourself. The poem is about being a strong, brave, kind person who shows resilience and fortitude. You could think of some other qualities of a worthy person and try to put them into a couple of line. Look at the structure Rudyard Kipling has used and use this a model for your own lines!
Topic
On Monday we looked at the painting by John Gast called American Progress (1872) depicting Columbia (a personification of America) bringing ‘civilisation’ to the American West.
At catch-up yesterday, we discussed the table we completed listing things being bought to the West and things being driven out from a European American perspective. We then have had a go at writing similar lists from the perspective of a Native American. I have summarised these in the table below:
If you find this difficult to read there is a better copy here: Columbia picture table completed
Today, I would like you to start having a go at trying to reproduce the painting but from a Native American perspective. We aspire to be thoughtful and empathetic historians – that means we should be able to put ourselves in the place of the Native Americans and see things from their point of view and not the traditional way depicted in the painting. That means using the things in the last two columns we discussed. These are not the only things you could include – you could use your own ideas too. You should show the things being bought to the West coming from the East, as in the original painting and the things being driven out in the West.
Look at the background – how would that change?
Look at how Columbia is depicted – do you think the Native Americans would have seen her in the same way? You could include your own Columbia like figure (it doesn’t necessarily have to be a woman) and it might not be very complimentary.
Remember, you can look at the original picture in detail here.
Today you could just come up with ideas and a planning sketch of your finished piece. Eventually, you could work in whatever medium you like. You could use paint but as there is going to be quite a lot of detail, you could choose coloured-pencils or felt-tips instead (I would go with coloured-pencils, but it is up to you!)
You don’t have to finish this today – you could just sketch some ideas, making a rough plan of your picture. I will give you some more time tomorrow to finish it!
Tuesday 2nd February
Joke of the Day
I met the man who invented the window sill.
What an absolute ledge!
Maths
Here are the answers to yesterday’s arithmetic.
Medium
- 1152 to SEDIA you could do an alternative method (50 x 24) – (2 x 24)
- 128 to SEDIA use an inverse 1872 + 128
- 566 to SEDIA use an inverse 566 x 7
Extension
- 180,540 to SEDIA you could do an alternative method (200 x 410) + 410
- 0.521 to SEDIA use an inverse 1.879 + 0.521
- 202 this is a tough one to SEDIA; you can use an inverse 566 x 202 but this is rather long-winded. Instead of doing a long multiplication it is probably easier to do (200 x 566) + (2 x 566). All you are doing is doubling 566 and adjusting for place value.
Here are the answers to yesterday’s algebra lessons: Monday 1st answers
Here is the next algebra lesson: https://vimeo.com/499980302
And the accompanying work: Algebra 2nd Feb
If you want something else to have a go at, there are some algebra questions here, they get harder as you go through them! Algebra reasoning questions
If you have any problems, mention it to me at catch-up or email me at the eagles email!
English
It is the Aplington Poetry Festival for the next couple of weeks. It would be great if we all joined in. You can find out about it here: https://alpington.norfolk.sch.uk/poetry-festival/
KS2 are learning If by Rudyard Kipling, which was voted the nation’s favourite poem in 2017. You can email Mrs Welch to get your line for the group performance but I thought it would be a challenge to try and learn it all as a class!
We could break it up as follows:
Luke, Annabel, Ethan and Martha could learn verse 1
If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:
Sonny, Annabelle, Richard and Toby could learn verse 2
If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;
If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools:
Alex, Florence, Maurizio and Cassie could learn verse 3
If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: ‘Hold on!’
Jonathan, Bertie, Harry and Gracie could learn verse 4
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son!
You could copy out your verse (or all of it) in best and put it up in your room. You could illustrate and give it a nice border. This may help you learn it!!
Then we could make videos between us and stream them!
Have a go at learning the first half of the verse today and we can review this at catch-up tomorrow!
You could try and learn more if you wanted!
French
Have a go at the second-half of Madam Brown’s PowerPoint 1 this afternoon.
Music
You could also practise one of your Ukulele songs to keep your ear (and fingers) in!
Monday 1st February
Joke of the Day
We will be looking at the North American bison (also known as the buffalo) after half-term, but do you know the difference between a bison and a buffalo?
The answer is: you can’t wash your hands in a buffalo!
Maths
Let’s keep practising those arithmetic skills. I’ve only put two sets up today but I would really like you to use SEDIA on these to check your answers in as many ways as possible!
We will do some algebra for the next couple of weeks. It will be good for everyone to start at the basics so watch the video and complete the accompanying questions.
Monday 1st Feb Algebra
If you have any problems, mention it to me at catch-up or email me at the eagles email!
English
It’s a spelling day! Get someone to test you and then send me your result. Remember to write out the ones you get wrong 5 times. I will put up the new spellings for next week at the top of the page!
Although it looks like you will not have to do SATs, in order that you are ‘high school ready’ you still need to be good at comprehension exercises. Reading a text quickly and accurately and then answering questions on it are a vital skill. Therefore today I would like you to read the first text in Set A of the practise SATs pack (you should have) and then answer the questions.
When you have done that you need to go through your answers carefully checking them against the answers in the answer pack. If there are any questions you didn’t understand email me or mention them at catch-up on Tuesday morning!
Topic
Last week we learned about the concept of Manifest Destiny – the idea that it was the European settler’s God given right and destiny to settle and bring civilisation to the continent of America.
This is a famous picture by John Gast called American Progress (1872) depicting Columbia (a personification of America) bringing ‘civilisation’ to the American west.
On Friday I asked you to look at these videos about the expansion west:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LkXc8z1uOko
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tiCUN209hWw
You can find out more about Native Americans here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uxNDKlh-Vjo
In the picture Columbia is moving west across America bringing ‘civilisation’.
Have a go at coming up with seven things she is bringing to the West. You will need to look closely at the picture (there is a link where you can zoom in here) and see what is depicted in the right-hand side (the East). For example, there is a train (or two). This represents communications and technology that is being bought into the west.
Now see what she is driving out – this is what is in the left-hand side (the West). Can you see seven things? Think how nineteenth century European Americans would have thought about this. For example there is a bear on the left-hand side – this shows that Columbia is driving out wildlife or nature or danger!?
Now try and think how the Native American people would have seen this. What was Columbia bringing with her and what was she trying to get rid of? They would have seen this in a very different way the the settlers! If you watch the videos and, if you can, do some more research on what happened to the Native Americans this will help you.
Try and complete the table here:
We will discuss this at catch-up tomorrow and on Tuesday.
Friday 29th January
Joke of the Day
I went to the doctor the other day and he told me that I had hypochondria.
I said ‘Oh no, not that as well!”
It’s Friday!! It’s not an catch-up day (as we had one on Tuesday – however it is a bit of a PE art day!!)
Make sure you do some physical exercise to keep Mr C happy!
Maths
Here are the answers to yesterday’s mental maths:
Hard: 1. 30 2. 36 3. 49
Really Hard: 1. 280 2. 13.2 3. 210
Mind-blowingly Hard 1. 3480 2. 2205 3. 10212
And the Angles problems
Montana – Reasoning angles answers
Ohio and Georgia – Reasoning angles answers
Extension – Reasoning angles answers
Art
Mrs Godbold would like to get you started on a weaving project.
The Navajo are a Native American tribe from the South-West. Like all tribes they had distinctive tribal designs which they used in their textiles and pottery. They used to trade their goods with settlers and people on the Pioneer Trails.
Below is a link to a website giving full instructions on how to do Navajo weaving.
https://mrs-cook.weebly.com/navajo-loom-weaving.html
This week try making a sampler using the different techniques. You to need make warp your loom board using cardboard and strong wool. The instructions for this are on the website under the final assignment –you don’t need to do a design yet, just make a warped loom and then practise the techniques which are detailed on the website.
Here is some more information on Navajo design
https://www.canyonroadarts.com/quick-guide-to-navajo-rugs/
Remember we have all the necessary resources in school. (Except cardboard)
Topic
On Wednesday and Thursday we learnt about the concept of Manifest Destiny – the idea that it was the European settler’s God given right and destiny to settle and bring civilisation to the continent of America.
This is a famous picture by John Gast called American Progress (1872) depicting Columbia (a personification of America) bringing ‘civilisation’ to the American west.
Have a really close look at it. What can you spot? What is she bringing to the West and what is she driving out (make a list). Do you notice anything about the background? What is she carrying? How is Columbia depicted?
How do you think the Native America people felt about ‘Manifest Destiny’. You can find out a bit about what happened to them here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LkXc8z1uOko
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tiCUN209hWw
You can find out more about Native Americans here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uxNDKlh-Vjo
You can also do your own research on what the European settlement of America meant for Native Americans.
Now try and do a list of what Manifest Destiny meant for Native Americans.
We will do some more on this next week!
Have a great day and a lovely weekend!!
Thursday 28th January
Joke of the Day
Is it just me, or is there more than one pronoun?
(SPAG joke – who would have thought!! Thank you Sam!)
Maths
Mental Maths answers from yesterday:
To get started, try some fractions of whole number problems:
Remember the work we have done on angles:
There’s a poster below which contains all the necessary information:
Now have a go at these questions:
English
Today is a chance to write up your letter in best. Remember editing never finishes – so as you are typing up your work keep improving and correcting. It would be best if you typed it in Word. Read through my Top Tips for this letter. Also remember to use the book to help you – refer back to see how Annie and Sean reacted in certain situations (like leaving their mum). You can use this in your work – MAGPIE!!!
Then think about the success criteria you set for yourselves. Are you ticking all the boxes?
Remember three things:
- Be ambitious with your vocabulary.
- Don’t forget to describe, even in a letter, describing character and setting (and creating atmosphere) is vital. Little details are important!
- Make your work sound grown-up – Year 9 not Year 5. MATURE VOICE!!
Have fun with this – see if you can make your reader cry!!
When you have finished, email it to me.
Topic
Try and finish the questions which I gave you yesterday: The Making of the West. As I said yesterday, make your answers quite short. But, investigate further if anything really interests you.
We will have a chat about it in catch-up tomorrow!
When you have finished you can begin to read up about the California/Oregon Trail. There is loads of stuff on-line. Just do lots of reading and information gathering. You can make notes in your topic book but just have a general read around and watch some videos!
Here is a good video to get you started – there is loads of other stuff on-line:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dbjpemcYF7Y
Wednesday 27th January
Joke of the Day
I phoned the local gym and asked if they could teach me the splits.
The trainer asked how flexible I was?
I said, “Well I can’t make Tuesdays or Thursdays”
Maths
Today is a mental maths day.
I’ll post new tests and targets in the morning and the answers Thursday morning.
Now let’s have another go at some coordinates work:
- Draw out your -10 to 10 four quadrant grid and label it
- Draw a triangle with the coordinates (2,2), (6,2), (6,4) (Write your coordinates on all your triangles)
- Translate your triangle Up 3 Right 3 and put your coordinates on
- What do you notice about the coordinates
- Now reflect your triangle in the line x=0 (the y axis) and label it
- What do you notice about your coordinates?
- Now translate your shape down 12 right 4
- Look again at your coordinates – what do you notice?
- EXTENSION – If you took YOUR FIRST TRIANGLE and translated it down 6 and right 2, can you work out what your coordinates would be before you draw it on?
- Send me a photo of your work.
English
Reading – Read to the end of Chapter 16 in Twist of Gold.
Try and spend a bit of time today drafting your letter from Sean or Annie to their father. Imagine that they are writing to him to tell him about the famine, what has happened to their mother (gulp!), how Will helped them and how he and their mum persuaded them to leave Ireland. You don’t have to explain about the journey – you can skip over that bit. Then you can tell him that you are on your way to find him in Grass Valley, California.
Try ‘brainstorming’ some ideas, you could chat to an adult about it, do a bit of role play, set out your thoughts on a mind-map or draft some emotionally impactful sentences.
Use the book to help you – refer back to see how Annie and Sean reacted in certain situations (like leaving their mum). You can use this in your work. Remember – MAGPIE!!
I have given you some top tips here: Top Tips.
You should then come up with your own success criteria.
Have fun – we’ve got plenty of time to spend on this so don’t rush it – concentrate on making sure you have generated some good ideas!
Topic
You should have marked the ten largest cities on you map of the USA and also the distances between New York and some of them.
- Next you need to mark on the ten largest cities in 1850 (roughly the time Annie and Sean arrived in the USA) Here is a good website with all the information you might need.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_most_populous_cities_in_the_United_States_by_decade#1850
Do this in a different colour so you can see them clearly (red for example). What do you notice?
- Then watch this animation of how the population of America has changed. It shows how the population grew. There is a key on the right which shows the density of the population (how many people there were per square kilometer). Basically, the darker the colour the more people live there. See what you can spot. You might like to watch it again after you have watched the video below.
https://www.visualcapitalist.com/visualizing-200-years-of-u-s-population-density/
- Then watch this video about the expansion of the USA.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1LcdcevNnvs
Now start to answer The Making of the West questions (see how far you can get; I will give you more time tomorrow). You might need to do a little more research. Don’t make your answers too detailed but if something sparks your interest, use some of your time to investigate further and leave the other questions until tomorrow!
Tuesday 26th February
Joke of the day
I recently took a poll amongst some campers – they weren’t happy!
Maths
Answers for yesterdays work:
Hard 1. 7 2. 16 3. 15
Nasty 1. 14.4 2. 632 3. 0.9
Impossible 1. 1.3 2. 176.17 3.0.00045
We will look at the coordinates work tomorrow in catch-up!
Today is a catching up day!!
You need to make sure you have:
- Finished you map adding all labels: 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. Then take a photo and email to me at the eagles class address.
- Made sure your journal is up to date. It should now have a picture of Sean and Annie, your diary entry, a picture of The Pelican, the description of Fiddler Donnelly and a sketch of Capt. Murray.
- Completed your spellings and sent me your result.
- Completed your mountains graph.
- Completed the coordinates work from yesterday and sent me a picture (and any other maths you haven’t finished).
- Completed the map work from yesterday.
- Revised your mental maths for Wednesday.
- Come up with a plan/draft for your letter to Annie and Sean’s father and your own success criteria
- Stuck everything in your book.
French
Watch the PowerPoint from Madam Brown – she thinks this should take you two lessons, so try and get about half-way today and I will post it again next Tuesday for you to complete.
Have a lovely day!!!
Monday 23rd January
Joke of the Day:
My doctor told me I was going deaf.
That was hard for me to hear.
Maths
Let’s start with a few percentage problems
Now have a go at a bit of coordinates work – you will need your square paper.
First draw a 4 quadrant grid going from -10 to 10 on both the x and y axis. Like this:
Then plot a triangle with the coordinates (1, 3), (1,6), (3,7) on your grid. Then:
- Translate that triangle Down 4 and Right 1
- Reflect the resulting triangle in the y axis (x = 0)
- Translate the resulting triangle Up 4 and Right 2
- If you are feeling ambitious reflect the resulting triangle in the line y = -1 (the line where y is always -1)
Now colour your triangles in and take a photo and send email it to the Class Eagles email.
We should end up with 16 identical grids!!
If you want to do more – make up your own and then send instructions to me and I will post some tomorrow! Stick with triangles or quadrilaterals (no bigger) and keep them within a -10 to 10 grid!
English
Reading – read to the end of Chapter 15 of Twist of Gold
Today is Spellings Day. Get an adult (or older sibling) to test you. Remember to write out the ones you got wrong five times and then emil me you results. Good luck!
Writing – Our next piece of writing is a letter from Sean or Annie to their father in California.
You need to imagine that when Sean and Annie are in Boston they decide to write a letter to their father in Grass Valley explaining what has happened to them.
You need to choose to write from Sean or Annie’s perspective saying they are now in Boston and telling him about leaving Ireland and travelling across the Atlantic. You need to keep it quite short (we need to fit this onto 2 pages of our journals), so don’t go into too much detail about the crossing of the Atlantic. You will need to explain about the famine, Will and the rather difficult subject of leaving their mother.
Remember to write in the first person (‘I’) and try and make it emotional. We want to have a real impact on our reader!!
Today is an ideas day – so have a go at coming up with a rough plan for your letter. You might want to draft some dramatic sentences/phrases (e.g. Believe me father, it broke my heart to leave her. or We met Will by the river and if it wasn’t for him I am sure we would be in the graveyard with our brothers and sisters. etc. etc.)
Then have a go at coming up with your own success criteria.
Remember – you need to bring a lump to your reader’s throat!!
Enjoy your yourself!
Topic Work
A little more map work. Take one of your blank maps with the outline of the states on and then mark the postition of the ten largest cities in the US in 2020 on it. You could then mark on their populations (to the nearest 100,000 like this: 2.9m). This will require a bit of research! Then choose the most westerly and southerly and a few more and find out their distance from New York (again a bit of research needed here!) We will do some more on this on Wednesday! Find out how far it is ‘as the crow flies’ (you might need to find out what this means!) Mark it on like this and then write the distance in miles above the red line.
Spring – Week 3
Spellings
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.
Here are the solutions to last weeks
Friday 22nd 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 21st 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.
| Fiddler Donnelly Description – Success Criteria | ||
| 1. | Mirrors the model piece on Capt Murray | |
| 2. | Portrays Donnelly as a benevolent, happy and positive person. | |
| 3. | Uses a variety of sentences openers. | |
| 4. | Uses subordination | |
| 5. | Uses a variety of sentence structures | |
| 6. | Is written in a mature voice | |
| 7. | Includes a physical description with detail to engage your reader | |
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 20th 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:-
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:
| Captain Murray | Fiddler Donnelly |
| He looked down at this new batch of emigrants below him and despised them. | He surveyed the room, nodding and smiling at people he had already met, and to those he had not. |
| The sneer on his face was that of a cruel and greedy man. | |
| He was small in stature and thick-set in a blue long-tailed coat and a flat peaked cap. | |
| His eyes were heavily over shadowed by thick bushy eyebrows that joined above his nose. | |
| His great black side-whiskers crawled from his earlobes down to the corners of his mouth. | |
| He resembled more a gargoyle than a man. |
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 19th 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 18th 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:
|
Mountain |
Height (m) |
| Mount Everest (Nepal/China) | 8,848 |
| Denali (Alaska USA) | 6,191 |
| Mt Whitney (Mainland USA) | 4,421 |
| Ben Nevis (UK) | 1,345 |
| Carrauntoohil (Ireland) | 1.039 |
- 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.
- 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.
- Draw in each mountain so its height is correct on the y axis.
- 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
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!!
Mental Maths
Here are the targets and practise tests for this week. We will test these next Wednesday (20th Jan)
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:
- Dragoon picture – stick this in your topic book.
- Map of the British Isles – in your topic book.
- USA map – stick in your topic book.
- Potato Famine poster – stick this in your topic book
- Ireland map – which you should also stick in your topic book.
- Trout picture and collage (if you did one)– in your topic book.
- Salmon life cycle (if you did one) – in your topic book.
- Pencil sketch of Annie and Sean – this should be on the first page of your journal.
- Pencil sketch of a trout – keep this handy we will use this next week.
- 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.
- Table of comparisons between UK, Ireland and USA – stick in your topic book (even if you haven’t finished it yet).
- 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