Author Archives: birdwellmrmathieson

World Book Day

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We’ve had such a fantastic morning, we chose one of our favourite books and read for pleasure.

”This is the best day ever, can we have a nap and read!?” – I don’t think that’s possible!

Check us out below, reading in our pyjamas.

Inside the cave…

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This afternoon, we put our art skills to the test.

We replicated a cave-like feel within our classroom so we could get a sense of what it was like drawing cave art in the Stone Age.

Some of us complained of stiff backs and necks, and even complained that we couldn’t see what we were doing. Maybe we should have had a fire torch in the classroom!

Stone Age Cave Art

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We have started our new topic in class this week. The Stone Age!

Our hook for the topic was Cave Art, we had a look at Cave Art and replicated the skills cavemen/ women would have used back in the Stone Age.

Keep your eyes peeled for us working in a cave-like, dark classroom. 

Computing

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This afternoon, we became IT experts!

For our computer session we learned about how computers worked. We looked at the different symbols in a flow chart and how they are used.

  • Start/end – An oval represents a start or end point.
  • Arrows – a line is a connector that shows relationships between the shapes.
  • Decision – a diamond indicates a decision.
  • Process – a rectangle represents a process.

We used our knowledge to put together a flow chart for making a cup of tea… safe to say I will be avoiding some of them in class!

Science experiment

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This afternoon, we were under a spell from the White Witch.

She sneakily, gave us enchanted hot chocolate. Our job was to get as much enchanted hot chocolate out of the water as possible.

We worked scientifically and used some of the following pieces of equipment:

  • Sieve
  • Filter paper
  • Measuring cylinders
  • Funnels
  • Pipette

We found that the filter paper worked best but it was a very slow process and it didn’t even remove ALL of the enchanted hot chocolate!

At the end, Mr Mathieson showed us that by boiling the hot chocolate it would evaporate and once cooled down turn into condensation and then back to a liquid of purified water!

Maths challenge – STEM

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This afternoon, for our STEM challenge we were set with a task of ‘breaking the code’.

To break the code, we had to work in teams and answer the questions that were hidden around the classroom.

Check us out, we had so much fun!

Factor pairs

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This week, in maths, we have been learning about factor pairs. 

Factors are often given as pairs of numbers, which multiply together to give the original number. These are called factor pairs.

We have used counters to make different groups with the original amount – we even drew on the tables! (Mr Swallow caught us doing this… he was not impressed!)

 

STEM Challenge

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This afternoon, we started our STEM learning.

STEM learning, simply means educating in four specific areas – science, technology, engineering and maths.

Our challenge this afternoon was specifc to maths.

We researched sports stars and had a look at their annual earnings, we were then able to workout their monthly breakdown and even daily earnings!

Homework – Spring 1 Homework 2

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Hi Year 4’s, apologies about the delayed handing out of your homework sheets. I’m going to blame it all on you guys for keeping me extra busy throughout the day!

You are all aware of your spellings, you will be tested on these on Friday. Just a reminder, you are spelling homophones and near-homophones. These are words that sound the same but have different meanings and are spelt differently. Please see the list below for your spelling list.

  • through & threw
  • weather / whether
  • here / hear
  • there / their / they’re
  • rain / rein / reign

SHELDON homework!!! 

Now, as you are all aware, we have a new school mascot in the name of Sheldon and what a brilliant addition he is! However, I have a funny feeling that Mrs Swift is not 100% sure for what she has get herself in to…

So, what I would like you to do is put together a fact file, all about the horsefield tortoise. Mrs Swift should be able to read your fact file and become very informed, as that is the purpose of the fact file.

Can you include different subheadings? Making it easier for Mrs Swift to find key information about Sheldon.

You could include subheadings such as: dietary requirements, expected life, friendliness of the animal, fun facts, history and anything else you can think of!

I’m really looking forward to reading these.

Banksy stencils

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This afternoon, we produced our very own stencil artwork in the style of Banksy, this is the emulate stage of art.

We had a look at some of Banksy’s most famous pieces and the messages behind them, we focused in on certain aspects of the images that we like. The heart balloon, from ”There is always hope” was a popular one amongst the class.

Next, we’re going to innovate Banksy’s work – this is where we will come up with our own inspiration for a piece of artwork that portrays a message in our own style but using the same skills as Banksy.

 

Banksy’s use of stencils!

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We’ve figured out that Banksy is so fast and mysterious with his work that there must be something he uses to help him!

We recognised that he uses graffiti stencils, this afternoon, we had a go at crafting our own stencils using VERY sharp knives so we had to be extremely careful with our cutting skills.

Tomorrow, we’re going to have a go at painting with our stencils and see if we can produce our very own Banksy style artwork with slogans.

Reading about Banksy

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This week, we have started our art week!

We’ve had a brilliant start to learning about Banksy and come across a lot of vocabulary that we haven’t heard of before. Such as:

  • political activist
  • anonymous
  • conceal
  • speculation
  • identity
  • slogans
  • imitate

We’ve used our VIPERS vocabulary skills to match the words to their definitions. Why don’t you ask us at home what the words mean?

Rudolph Run – sponsored event!

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We had so much fun taking part in our sponsored event, The Rudolph Run, today!

We even saw Mr Crouch with a HUGE smile on his face!

The Summarising reading VIPER

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This week, we have had another look at the Summarise VIPER. In class, we are reading Oliver Twist and we noticed that the book does not have any chapters. So, being the reading experts that we are, we decided to use our summarising skills to come up with our own chapters.

We identified the main idea using a range of pages, AND then acted the chapters out!

Archery time!

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Today, we have had a belter of a time! We have been practising our archery skills, we even used a real bow to shoot the arrows!

Check out the images below to see us in action.

COME ON ENGLAND!!!

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England supporters are out in full force for the Euros!

End of Topic Roman day!

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We had such a brilliant end of topic day celebration, thank you to all of the parents that helped make this happen!

We really enjoyed dressing up in our Roman attire and heading down to the field to hunt the Celt (thanks, kids!!)

In the afternoon, we were split into small groups and sampled some famous pizzas from around Italy, we even got to wash them down with some delicious dessert, tiramisu (yum!)

Behave… or be punished!

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This morning, the dregs of society were placed in prison to work.

We found out that the ceilings in prison were extremely low and there wasn’t much room to move around.

One child, not mentioning names (Heidi), wasn’t impressed by the working conditions and asked, ”How do we escape this punishment?”

Improper fractions to mixed numbers

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We didn’t quite get away with writing on the tables in our maths session. I wonder what Mr Bailey would have to say about this!?

TT ROCKSTARS!!

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Today’s maths consisted of times tables battles! We know the importance of being able to quickly recall all of our times tables – lets keep practising at home too!

Roman buildings

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This week, we have brought Ancient Rome to life in our classroom!

Doesn’t the spring water look inviting in the baths?

 

Roman portraits

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Our art skills have come on such a long way!

The children should be very proud of themselves for the amazing work they have produced, they look like actual photos!

Year 4, can you spot yours?

The SHINING STAR of the Half Term

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Well, today wraps up the first half term and here is out shining star of the half term!

Well done – 7 children were nominated out of 204, what an achievement Mr! This is something to be proud of :mrgreen:

Easter Egg hunt

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WE FOUND THE EGGS!!!

Building our ships

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We had so much fun building our ships.

There was a lot of work involved. We used hot glue guns, pva glue, card, art straws, frog tape, tin foil and cardboard… the list goes on.

I can’ wait to see the finished products!

World Book Day – READING DENS!

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Check out some of the dens that have been submitted today! :mrgreen: 

Our car manufacturing is well underway, will they be spotted cruising up and down Sheffield Road!?

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Check out some of the portraits and even SIMS characters of the teachers we received!

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Isabel’s science experiement

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Isabel has sent in a wonderful write up of her science experiment.

I particularly like how Isabel has included labelled diagrams to give the reader a clear image of what the different stages of her experiment looked like.

I think I might start to wrap my tea in tin foil after reading your conclusion!

[embeddoc url=”https://birdwellyear4.edublogs.org/files/2021/02/my-seince-experten-IH.pdf” download=”all” text=”Download – Science write up” viewer=”google” ]

This was a very thorough inspection of the house!

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Well, Birdwell’s chief fire inspector turned up at this house and put the grown ups through a very thorough, formal inspection.

 

Fortunately, the grown ups have done a superb job and passed the inspection. The inspector sent a report in the post to let the grown ups know the outcome.

flashmul

 

Snow DAY TWO!!!

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Check out the pictures I received on snow day! I have added a caption to each one, make sure you read them. 

Earthquake proof building challenge

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Some pieces of work from the week commencing 11.01.21

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Some pieces of work from the week commencing 4.01.21

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Here are some snaps of the work that has been completed this week.

We are so proud of you guys, keep it up!

Mr Mathieson and Miss Housley

Can YOU survive!? – ZOOM 1:30pm

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Hi Year 3 and Year 4,

Mr Swallow, Miss Housley and I are the proudest teachers in school this week! You have all been amazing! From logging onto Teams, being ready for your learning and having a fantastic attitude to working from home – well done guys, keep it up!

This afternoon, at 1:30pm, we will be hosting a ZOOM video call. Yes… ZOOM, not Teams. I have included the information below:

Meeting ID: 997 2651 1850

Password: survive (make sure it is typed in correctly, otherwise it won’t allow you to join.)

We will have a full room of Year 4 and Year 3 children – we can’t wait for the fun to begin! You will be making some informed choices where we will decided if you would survive… OR NOT!

See you at 1:30 🙂

Mr Mathieson, Mr Swallow and Miss Housley

 

Microsoft Teams registration

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Hi Year 4,

You should have received a letter from school regarding our online learning.

As we have already done this before we are in a good starting position! You will use Microsoft Teams for registration again. Morning register will be at 9:00am and the afternoon register will be at 1:30pm.

After the register, we will share our screens and go through the work on the blog and discuss the day’s learning.

We are going to run the day’s learning over three sessions – reading/SPaG or Literacy, Maths and then a Topic session. We can discuss this in our morning registration.

Take care Year 4 and see you all tomorrow!

Mr Mathieson & Miss Housley x

 

Resources for Lockdown learning

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Hi Year 4,

We have put together a pack for you to use at home. This includes a book, writing pencil, handwriting pen, line guide, white board and a white board pen as well as a few sheets (blank maps) that will be useful later in the topic. They can either be collected from school, at our entrance steps or I can deliver them to you if you are struggling to get here.

We are going to treat these books the same as our topic books in class! That means that every piece of work we do is to our highest standard and completed with lots of pride – resulting in something that we will be proud of!

We will write in pencil, or if you have a pen license you may write in a handwriting pen. All of the titles will be underlined in blue, with a ruler. I am very confident that your books will look superb, just like they do in class! 

Lockdown learning!

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Here we go again kids!  Well, don’t worry!  We have got a FANTASTIC online topic planned and Mr Swallow, Miss Housley, Mr Crouch and I are really looking forward to working on it with you!

It’s called:

“DISASTER ZONE!  Surviving Planet Earth!”

Each week, we shall upload a timetable, telling you what lessons are happening each day and then we will be adding work here on the blog, over video and on Microsoft Teams, to keep you all busy at home.

Log onto the register every day to show us you are ready to learn and we will talk you through the activities. We already have an advantage at doing this as we have done it before! I like to think we’re the professionals!

See you all online,

Mr Mathieson

Creative Christmas Wreaths

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Check us out, we have been super creative this week designing and making our own Christmas wreath.

We designed the wreath in our topic books and then we had to go on a hunt on the school field to find all of the necessary items.

Working on our Dr Seuss biography

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This week, we have been learning about Dr Seuss – we have started writing a biography about his life.

We enjoyed reading our drafted versions to each other, it was helpful as we spotted mistakes in our sentence structure so we were able to green pen our edits in! 

I can’t wait to see the final product.

Mr Mathieson

What is the most important thing about Christmas?

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We are so excited to introduce our new topic! What is the most important thing about Christmas?

Have a look at the topic map to see what we have coming up over the next 4 weeks in our runup to Christmas! 

We have lots of exciting things coming up:
Christmas dinner
Meeting the Grinch!
Christmas traditions
PRESENTS!
It’s a Christian holiday 

[embeddoc url=”https://birdwellyear4.edublogs.org/files/2020/11/Grinch-Poster.pdf” download=”all” viewer=”google” ]

 

Challenge 8 – Indiana Jones and the Tunnel of DOOM!

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We are going to risk life, limb and laundry on our quest to find the Pharaoh’s relic…behold the tunnel of terror!!!!  Somewhere in all of the gunk, leaves and creepy crawlies lies the relic that will help us unlock the chest!

The Real Story Behind the McGuffins | Movies | Empire

Can I just say a huge thank you to all of our parents!  Today was so much fun!  The rain didn’t stop us and every single pupil went through the Tunnel of Doom.  We had LOTS of squealing and screaming but all of them had a ball!  Even the ones who were really scared before they went in wanted another go!

Thank you so much for sending their old clothes and allowing us to get them in such a state!  We have been really frustrated that we haven’t been able to take them on a trip to the museum so it gave us the chance to end a truly fantastic topic in a way they will remember!  Thanks again

Challenge 7 – Cracking the code

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The Pharaoh’s ancient stone tablets are littered around the school field.

 

The children will use all of their finely honed archeology skills to locate the tablets and decipher the hieroglyphs to crack the code.  Once they decode every word and reassemble them in the right order, they will be able to solve the ancient riddle left by the Pharaoh centuries ago…

Why don’t mummies like holidays?

Well done everyone…I think most groups got most of the words (no thanks to the wind and rain doing their best to make all of the clues disappear!!!)  The answer is…

They are afraid they will relax and…UNWIND!

Boom boom!

Thank you for that one Mr Swallow 🙄 

Challenge 6 – Mummy mayhem!

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The raiders have disturbed the remains of the Pharaoh, making him very angry and cursing all archeologists!

The children have got to use their scientific knowledge of anatomy to rearrange the bones correctly!

Six fun facts about the human skeleton

Challenge 5 – History mystery

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Breaking news, Ancient Egyptian scroll found.

A cryptic message, ancient and mysterious artefacts found, a tricky puzzle to solve… it looks as though we are going to need all of our knowledge about Ancient Egypt to succeed!

The Great Pyramid Was Not Built by Slave (+ 9 Other Surprising Facts About Ancient Egypt) - HistoryExtra

Challenge 4 – Nile Valley know-how

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Here, the children are going to apply their knowledge of the Nile valley and their understanding of the water cycle.

Can the children explain how it all works and links in together to you at home?

We did have another video that we wanted to upload but unfortunately names were mentioned! Ask your child at home if they can retell the water cycle process 🙂 

Nile River Map, Nile River Facts, Nile River History - Journey To Egypt

 

Challenge 3 – Indy’s bootcamp

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WARNING! 

Enter at your own risk! 

This is where the children will be dodging for their lives. The children must enter the bootcamp avoiding all contact with the near impossible tripwires.

Once the wires have been activated the children will be pushing their physical fitness to the limits. They will  be dodging boulders, avoiding spears and crawling through gooey, sticky leaves!

Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular Being Revamped For 2021 – /Film

 

Challenge 2 – Indiana’s leap of faith!

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First, the children must complete a daring assault course. They will be applying their PE skills to balance, travel at height, control movement, push their endurance and SURVIVE! 

At the end of the assault course, the children will be presented with a daring leap of faith! Each child will choose the dismount from the apparatus that is suitable for them.

Do they have the courage they need to make it to the Pharaoh’s tomb? Or will they be stopped at this early stage?

Raiders of The Last Crusade | Deja Reviewer

Lest we forget

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We had a 2 minute silence in class today, followed by a visit to the ‘memory garden’ to plant our poppies in the ground and reflect on what we are grateful for today.

THANK YOU MR. CROUCH AND MR. BAILEY

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We were really fed up of having nothing to play with in our play area so Mr. Crouch persuaded Mr. Bailey to get his wallet out (YES I KNOW!!!!) and pay for lots of sports equipment, not only just for our class but the WHOLE SCHOOL! Thank you Mr. Bailey and Mr. Crouch.

Now we just have to work on our frisbee skills so Mr. Mathieson doesn’t spend half of his break up and down Sheffield Road collecting them!

Bringing mummification to the classroom!

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Today, our classroom was converted into an Ancient Egyptian museum.

We have written instructions in literacy which were key to the mummification process. We used them to make sure everything was done correctly and in the right order.

Check out some images of the museum.

You could even ask us some questions about the mummification process!

Year 4 Halloween HORRORS!

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We’ve had such a fantastic and scary day in Year 4 🙂

Check out some of the wonderful and terrifying outfits!

Mummification

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This week, we have been learning about mummification.

Check us out mummifying each other in class.Parents, make sure you hide your toilets roll at home!

OL’s Egypt work

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Olivia has been working hard at home.

She has completed her VIPERS reading papers and research Egyptian animals – look at how beautifully presented her work is! I can also spot how Oliva has used a fronted adverbial in the crocodile description ‘During ancient times,’

Well done, Olivia!

Keep it up 🙂

Mr Mathieson x

Indiana Jones PE!

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In PE, Mr Crouch has been training us to become fearless explorers, just like Indiana Jones!

We have used different skills and techniques to travel across the hall without touching the floor, otherwise the crocodiles will catch us! We have focussed on maintaining a strong core to help us balance at different heights and angles.

Ask us about the egg Mr Crouch has been hiding!

 

Homework – 5

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Hi Year 4.

This week’s homework is based on the water cycle that you have been doing this week in school.

  • Draw your own version of the water cycle.
  • In your own words, tell me what you can remember about the water cycle.
  • Make sure you include the 4 keywords – evaporation, condensation, precipitation and collection.

I have included an imagine you may want to magpie some ideas from!

Water Cycle - The Definitive Guide | Biology Dictionary

Spellings

Well done on the fantastic scores of spellings, Year 4 – they have drastically improved over the past couple of weeks so please continue the hard work you are doing at home!

Here is your list (this week, I will be reading them out in a random order)

They are adverbials of frequency and possibility

  • regularly
  • occasionally
  • frequently
  • usually
  • rarely
  • perhaps
  • maybe
  • possibly

Have a fabulous weekend and see you all on Monday!

Mr Mathieson x

Homework – 4

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Hi Year 4,

Please find this week’s homework below with the spellings.

Using your letter writing skills I would like you to write a letter to me (Mr Mathieson!) explaining why you think you deserve extra playtime on a Friday afternoon. You can write the letter as formal or informal, it’s your choice!

I’m going to be strict and only read your letter if you have used the correct layout. The address you are writing to is Year 4, 16 Hay Green Lane, Birdwell, Barnsley S70 5XB.

Remember to include:

  • date
  • address
  • greeting
  • introduction
  • main body
  • ending farewell

Spellings – adding the suffix -ous (Words ending in ‘y’ become ‘i’).

various
furious
glorious
victorious
mysterious

Mr Mathieson x

 

Mini archaeologists!

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Check out the mini archaeologists!

We headed down to the field to see if we could locate any of the Egyptian artefacts that had been buried there thousands of years ago.

We looked at 3 key vocabulary words too.
archaeologist
excavate
palaeontologist

Ask us about them!

Homework – 3

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Hi Year 4,

Please find this week’s homework and spellings below.

Reading questions

  1. How long was the River Nile?
  2. Where does the river start?
  3. Which colour was the desert land?
  4. Who moved stones on the water?
  5. Why do you think rivers are so important?
  6. Name two precious metals found in Egypt/
  7. What is a shaduf?

Spellings

tremendous
enormous
jealous
serious
hideous
fabulous
curious
anxious
obvious
gorgeous

Homework – 2

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Here is your homework, can you crack the hieroglyphics?

If you like, you can even write your own secret message that we can crack when you bring in your homework book!

Spellings

This week’s spellings links in with our literacy, we are going to be writing a recount regarding a visit to the pyramids!

We are going to look at the spelling rule Adding the suffix -ous (no change to the root word). The spelling list that the children will be tested on is:

dangerous
poisonous
mountainous
joyous
synonymous
hazardous
riotous
perilous
momentous
scandalous

Mr Mathieson x

 

Homework – 1

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This week’s homework is literacy focused.

In literacy, we have been writing about who Indiana Jones is. We have used expanded noun phrases to create a clear image for our readers. We have used 2 adjectives and a noun, the 2 adjectives are separated by a comma.

We have also up levelled our vocabulary this week through the use of a thesaurus. For example, instead of using a ‘boring’ word such as big, we have used colossal, monstrous, humongous etc…

For your homework, I would like you to pick a family member and write about them in a similar way you have done with Indiana Jones.

Spellings

I will also be testing you on all of the key spellings for our topic on Friday.

tomb
Egypt
mummy
pyramid
ancient
mummies
pharaoh
sphinx
buried
treasure
sarcophagus

Please remember – Homework is uploaded to the blog every Friday. The following Friday will see a new homework task along with the answers to the previous week’s homework.

Mr Mathieson