Issue 24 2011-12

Newsletter Issue 24

Friday 16th March 2012

Dear Parent/Carer,

You will, I am sure, be happy to know that Goldilocks was successfully apprehended last week and no longer poses a risk to porridge, stools or bear’s beds in the area.  There is lots of information on the goings on in school this week on our various class and Year Group blogs.

National Support School

We have been visited this week by colleagues from Great & Little Preston and from Oulton Primary as part of our National Support School work.  It is a privilege for us to work with other schools and to share our practice.  In doing this work we continue to strengthen the quality of our provision at Robin Hood.

Miss Oxley

Miss Oxley has secured a new post with Wakefield Children’s Services and will thus be leaving us at Easter.  We will be sad to see Miss Oxley leave us, having grown as she has as a teacher during her two and a bit years with us at Robin Hood.  Miss Oxley will, of course, leave with our good will and very best wishes for the future.

I am delighted to share with you that the Year One class will be taken over from Easter by Miss Snowden.  Miss Snowden has gained a first class education as a teacher at Robin Hood, having worked alongside outstanding teachers for the past two terms and has grown into a fantastic teacher in her own right.  Miss Snowden has been working in our Year 1,2 for much of the year and has spent a significant amount of time with the Year 1 class already.

Easter Service

Our Easter Service this year will take place at school rather than at Lofthouse Church.  The service, led by Year 3/4, takes place on Friday 30^th March and will replace our usual Friday Celebration Assembly.  The service will begin at 2.15pm and will then be followed by the final of our Decorate An Egg competition.  Our Celebration Friday event for the term takes place immediately after school.  You are welcome to visit our classrooms to celebrate and share your child’s learning from this term.  I would also encourage you to take a walk around school to have a look at our incredible displays, learning and Artworks.

Parent Consultations

Parent Consultations for this term will take place on the 26^th and 27^th March until 6.00pm each night.  The consultations are for parents from Reception through to Year 5, our Year 6 parents having had a consultation early in the New Year.  On Tues 27^th Nursery has its Open Parents Evening from 3.30pm – 6.00pm.  Parents of Nursery children are welcome to talk to our Nursery team and have a good look at their child’s super learning.  If Nursery parents need to discuss an issue in detail with Miss Bradshaw, please book an individual appointment with her for after the Easter break.

Decorate An Egg

It’s time to get egg-cited again… Our Annual Decorate An Egg competition is back once more.  Standards are always egg-cellent, the competition is egg-treme, it is taken very seriously by competitors… it is no yoke.  Exhibits are welcomed from Monday 26th March.  Judging will take place and winners will be announced at the Friday Easter Service, 30^th March.

Golden Owls

A group of young filmmakers from Robin Hood will be attending the Leeds Young Filmmakers Golden Owls Competition Awards Ceremony at Leeds Town Hall on the 29^th March.  This is the first Golden Owls Film Competition. The Awards are a prestigious black tie event in the style of the Oscars during which the winners from the citywide competition will be announced.  The Golden Owls are supported by ArtForms, Leeds Young Film Network and the Leeds Young People’s Film Festival and will be an annual event in the city.  Robin Hood has three contenders short listed for awards.  Well done to Mrs Moore for being the inspiration and driving force behind our participation in this fantastic event.

Call for Pom-Poms

We have had our first pom-pom, brought into school by Harry Argyle in Year 1.  Harry made his pom-pom at home with his Grandma.  There is a photo of his splendid pom-pom on our Art in the Community blog.  If anyone would like to make/ is busily making pom-poms at home, the diameter of the circle template needs to measure 6cm.  Don’t forget that on Monday 30^th April we will be hosting a community event after school for which the School Hall will be open to all children, parents/carers and grandparents, uncles and aunties to help make as many pom-poms as we can.  We will be creating pom-poms to make our very own life-sized sheep.  If you have any wool to donate, or can just turn up to take part – please play your part in helping us to make this a really fun community event… the more pom-poms, the better!

The Big Draw

I am delighted to share with you that our Big Draw Event this year made it to the final shortlist of the Drawing Inspiration Awards – a national award supported by the Campaign for Drawing that recognises significant Arts projects.  To be shortlisted for this national award is an achievement in itself.  Most of all, we really enjoyed the day – yet another memorable learning experience at Robin Hood.  My thanks to Mrs Dale for her organisation of the event and to the whole school team for their contribution to that fabulous day.

Travelling Book Fair comes to Robin Hood

Our all new book fair will be in school from Monday 19^th to Friday 23^rd March. It will be open every morning from 8:15am to 8:45am and after school from 3:00pm to 3:45pm. Bring along your World Book Day Voucher to receive £1 off any book.

Have a great weekend,

Mr Wilson

Nursery Newsletter

NEWS ROUND UP

The children have been full of “beans “(ha-ha) this week as we shared the story of Jack and the beanstalk. Thank you so much for finding the time to support your child with their home learning, it is clear to see the children are full of enthusiasm when they come into Nursery, fully prepared for their week of learning.

THIS WEEK

We have been re-enacting our traditional tale, using the puppets in the far away land to retell the story. The children took turns to act out the different roles of the characters and worked together as a group to make our very own picture story boards.

Within number the children have been learning about measure, focusing on length and height. The children have been using non standard units (paperclips, unifix cubes, etc) to measure objects around the room, and compare which is the tallest and which is the smallest.  

NEXT WEEK

We will be continuing with our traditional tales and sharing the story of The Gingerbread Man.  The children will also be learning about the changing states of materials, as we decorate our own gingerbread men, by melting and cooling chocolate... let’s hope we get to eat them before they run away!!

In Numeracy the children will continue learning about non standard units of measure (e.g. hands, feet, paperclips, unifix cubes etc) to measure and compare heights and lengths of different objects.

How you can help us

·         Continue sharing stories, using connectives (then, after, next etc) to sequence events in order.

·         Compare objects in size and height e.g. line up shoes at the door from biggest to smallest

·         Practise naming the different letters in the alphabet alongside the sound they make (jolly phonics), particularly those in their own name.

·         Provide opportunities for writing development e.g. making shopping lists, taking orders for    drinks, sending cards etc.

Many thanks for your continued support

Have a wonderful week.

Miss Bradshaw and the Nursery team

RECEPTION NEWS ROUND UP

We have been overtaken by beanstalks in Reception this week! Thanks to your amazing home learning and the wonderful vision of our creative team we even have our own giant beanstalk in the classroom. Mr Wilson has told us that we absolutely must not climb it though......!

THIS WEEK

We have shared the story of Jack and the Beanstalk using Pie Corbett actions in our retell which has really helped the children to write their own versions of the story. The props you made for home learning have really enhanced our role-play areas and there has been some amazing learning going on every day. In our numeracy sessions we have challenged ourselves to measure the beanstalks, using a variety of non standard (paper-clips, pencils, hands) and then move on to standard units of measure such as cm rulers.

NEXT WEEK

We will be sharing the traditional tale of The Gingerbread man and the children will be retelling it using role-play and props, they will be re-writing it and we will even be baking our own gingerbread men. In numeracy we will be thinking about multiplication and getting those gingerbread men to help us work out how many we will need to make sure Miss Lambert and Mrs Steel have two each (or may be three or four biscuits each!)

Next week is also the whole school assessment week where we will be looking at the fabulous progress each and every child has made so far. It may be necessary to change reading days so we would appreciate you making sure that your child has their reading bag in school every day. Thank you.

HOW YOU CAN HELP US

• By listening to your child read for five minutes every day and noting a comment in their reading record
• By reading and writing their keywords daily
• By completing and bringing in the home learning on Monday morning
• By regularly telling your child just how brilliant they are!
• By ensuring they can now write their FULL name

Thank you, as ever, for your fantastic support.

 KS1News

We are very proud of all the children in KS1 this week due to the fabulous effort they have put into all their learning every single day!

Thank you to all the parents/carers who have donated their weekly recycling.   Please continue to bring in any unwanted cardboard boxes and tubs for our up and coming design technology topic.

Just a quick reminder to ensure all reading records are brought into school every day and given to the class teacher on a Monday morning. This is important so we can track your child’s reading and give out spellings on a weekly basis.

Literacy

This week in literacy the children have watched a video clip and been investigating the kidnapping of two little mice, and writing recounts to send to the police. The children have had such a positive attitude to their learning which has shown in their writing.  By engaging with their targets, and evaluating their own writing, they have all produced some super recounts. They have continued to develop the structure of their writing using the style Opening sentence, 1, 2, 3, (3 sentences about the event) then writing a Close.  This has required the children to look closely at video and add as much detail as possible.  The children have also tried to include adjectives (describing words), verbs (doing words) and adverbs (describes what the verb is doing) within their writing.   

The children have also impressing us with their super comprehension skills within guided reading this week. It is great to see all children fully engaged with their learning.

Numeracy

KS1 have been learning all about multiplication this week during numeracy. They have been learning how to solve a range of worded problems using new strategies. Why don’t you ask your child to teach you the new strategy? Not only this, the children have been carrying out some tricky missing number investigations! Please continue to practice counting in 2’s, 3’s, 4’s, 5’s and 10’s with your child at home.  In order to support your child’s multiplication and division knowledge they need to be confident in counting in the above sequences. We are all really impressed with the effort and enthusiasm the children are putting into their numeracy.

Topic

We have had an amazing time learning all about London landmarks. The children have been accessing a variety of London maps to direct their way to different locations, and tourist attractions. The children have been gathering information about specific tourist attractions in order to produce a class fact file. It has been great hearing about different London stories from the children, everyone has learnt lots of super facts.

Next week

Next week the children will have a chance to show off their learning in some focused group activities. This will be an opportunity for the class teacher to make formal assessments of your child’s progress in literacy and numeracy, and set targets for the summer term. 

In topic the children will be making London vehicles out of plasticine. They will then be learning how to create a start stop animation using these models and ‘I Can Animate 2’. We are very excited to see what the children produce!

LKS2 Newsletter

We have had yet another fantastic week in 3/4 full of amazing and exciting learning! We have been finding out all about the mysteries surrounding the Bermuda Triangle and researching the strange disappearances of many planes and ships in this area. The children have had lots of fun using all of their factual information to write and perform their very own TV News Broadcasts.

We are extremely excited to be hosting this year’s Easter service and are currently busy preparing for the celebration. The service will be held in the school hall on Friday 30th March at 2:15 pm. We look forward to sharing the children's Spring time poems, musical performances, Easter egg designs and art work portraying scenes of the Easter story with you.

Numeracy

In Numeracy, the children have been learning different written strategies to solve problems involving division. Ask your child to show you how to use arrays or the bus stop method to solve a division problem involving remainders.

We have been busy learning all of our times tables in 3/4 and next week will be practising them all the way up to 12 x 12.

Here are some fun games for the children to play and practice their times tables.

http://www.fieryideas.com/tnt-tables-46-c.asp (TNT Tables - an addictive activity to practise times tables)

http://www.mad4maths.com/multiplication_table_math_games/ (Mad 4 Maths - times table games for x3, x4, x5, x6, x7 and x8)

http://www.bgfl.org/bgfl/custom/resources_ftp/client_ftp/ks2/maths/school_booster/busstopdivision.html (Bus stop division to practice your written strategies)

Literacy

This week we used Maddie and Grace's holiday home learning about the Bermuda Triangle as our stimulus for our News Reports. We watched and took notes on Maddie's Uncle, Mr Carter's, mysterious encounter and the children have written fantastic detailed news articles. We are really impressed with how the children are developing their ideas into both compound and complex sentences and using 'WOW' words and powerful verbs to further enhance their writing. We have also been developing our dictionary and thesaurus skills so we can use a deeper range of vocabulary in our writing. We look forward to sharing the outstanding writing from across the phase with you at our parent consultations. .

ICT
The children have been continuing to retell the events of Palm Sunday and Holy Thursday. The children have shown a great understanding of the Easter story as they are applying their learning from RE sessions.

Reminders

Please can children ensure they have an art shirt in school with them all the time as we are painting for the next few weeks. Can all children bring in their reading records on a Monday morning so we can reward the children with merits for all their reading over the week.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank all parents and carers for the level of engagement we receive in the children's reading records. It gives us great joy to reward the children for all of the amazing reading they are doing at home. Thank you for all of your support with this.

Next half term in 3/4 we will be learning all about our magnificent city, Leeds. As part of our learning experience, the children will be creating their very own tour guides of the city highlighting key attractions to go and visit. In order to allow the children to draw on personal experiences for their tour guides, we will be visiting various Leeds landmarks. All the children have been given the opportunity to select a preference for the landmark/s that they would like to visit. The letter informing you of which trip your child will be going on has gone home with your child today. We have tried our very best to match the children up with their first choice option, however, we have to ensure even numbers for each trip and therefore some children have been given their second choice. All of the trips present rich and interesting learning opportunities which the children will draw upon and apply in to their writing.

Spellings

Group 1	Group 2
1. many	1. loose
2. very	2. loosen
3. house	3. simple
4. three	4. simplify
5. tree	5. pure
6. sister	6. purify
7. brother	7. class
8. another	8. classify
9. please	9. solid
10. come	10. solidify

We hope you have a lovely weekend.

Team 3/4

UKS2 News Roundup:

·         Our achiever this week is Kurtis for his beautiful and detailed design, inspired by patterns from Kimonos. Well done Kurtis. You can have a look at the design on 56D's blog! http://robinhood56d.blogspot.com

·         Reminder: Mrs Darroch's class will be visiting Wagamama’s in Leeds this Tuesday (20th March). Please ensure that you bring a coat and a water bottle. The children will have some food to taste at Wagamama’s throughout the morning and will return to school during lunchtime. The children will have time to eat their lunch when we return to school. Miss Gascoigne's class will visit Wagamama’s on Tuesday 27th March.

Numeracy:

·           This week in Numeracy, our focus has been on angles. We've been using protractors to measure angles and using our new learning to find the missing angles in shapes. We've also explored ratio and proportion.

·           Next week, we will be continuing to learn all about ratio and proportion and apply our learning to some really challenging multi-step problems, which will really get us all thinking! We will also be starting to learn about fractions, including simplifying fractions and finding common denominators to help us order fractions.

·           Home Learning: Take a look at some of the following websites for a ‘One step ahead’ with fractions...

·            http://www.vectorkids.com/vkfractions.htm

·            http://pbskids.org/cyberchase/math-games/melvins-make-match/

·            http://www.teachingfractions.co.uk/

·           Literacy:

·           This week, we've been looking at the anime character, Mercedes, around which we'll be writing an adventure story. Our focus has been on developing the character of Mercedes in the opening paragraph to the story as well as the setting using details to suggest information. Here's a short film trailer of the Mercedes' adventure http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GBhZOlYqspQ

·           The children have also chosen their own targets for their writing based on feedback from the tourist guide for Japan written last week. These have been recorded on our new target cards. Thank you to those children who returned these to school on Monday. We also continue our focus on punctuation as it's essential that capital letters and full stops are 100% accurate in writing. There are games to practise these forms of punctuation as well as others at http://www.bbc.co.uk/skillswise/topic/punctuation

·           Home Learning: Please learn the spellings which prepare the children for spelling accuracy in next week's adventure story based around Mercedes- Elluel, Leafre, elves, completely, totally, cautiously, frantically, wandered, wondered, despair

Other areas of the curriculum:

·           This week, we have been focusing on kimono designs. Each class has practised designs and transferred these onto fabric which will then be stitched to form a kimono. Thank you to Mrs Holland who measured and cut the fabric ready for our designs!

·           In ICT, the children have, in teams, been designing a character to promote safe technology use at Robin Hood along with a poster to share top tips. Each team will 'pitch' their designs and a decision will be made as to which campaign will be used at Robin Hood. We're looking forward to sharing our designs with you towards the end of the half term.

·           In Music, 56D have been planning their video soundboards for Robin Hood. 5/6G have been continuing to develop their sign language skills by learning Greatest Day by Take That. 56B have been composing musical rhythms using their bodies!

Visit our blogs:

http://robinhood56d.blogspot.com

http://robinhood56b.blogspot.com/

http://robinhood56g.blogspot.com/

Issue 23 2011-12

Newsletter Issue 23

Friday 9th March 2012

Dear Parent/Carer,

We began this week with an alien spaceship and a meteorite from outer space landing on the school field. The Police and scientists were on hand to investigate, along with our Year 3/4 children and staff.  Police Officers then went on to investigate an incident in Reception class. Goldilocks had snuck into our Reception classroom during the weekend.  We were left with a broken chair, half eaten porridge and a trail of footsteps leading a way from the scene of the crime.  Police Officers cordoned off the area and the children spent Monday gathering evidence. They found gloves, a bobble, and - in true CSI style - a strand of golden hair.  If you see a golden-haired young girl in the area... who may be being chased by a group of angry-looking bears… please let me know.  Our Reception pupils have produced posters, descriptions, scene of crime reports and much more if you need any further information.

Public Meeting – date clarification

The Public Meeting being held by Persimmon Homes at the school is on Tuesday 13^th March between 4.30pm and 7.00pm, not Wednesday as stated in last week’s newsletter.  My apologies for the mistake.

Parent Forum

My thanks to the parent who used the Parent Forum last week to share her views with Ann Parker (Governor).  The issue raised was very quickly acted upon and resolved.  Our Parent Forum will continue with the next date to be announced shortly. We are a listening school and we pride ourselves on how fully we engage with our community.

National Support School

Robin Hood has been designated as a National Support School by the National College for School Leadership.  This means that we will be working with the National College to support schools that are, for one reason or another, facing challenging circumstances.  This recognition by the National College of what Robin Hood has to offer to the education system as a whole is testament to the quality of staff and Governors at the school.

PTA Meeting

There is a PTA Meeting at The Halfway House Public House next Wednesday, 14^th March.  Everyone is welcomed to attend.  We enjoy a fabulous community spirit at Robin Hood.  Our celebration events are extremely well attended.  The PTA is a fabulous way to develop social ties and community spiritedness in support of the children.  Our PTA has struggled in recent times, which is a shame as it has so much potential to be a force for good and to be yet another way in which our children’s experience at Primary School can be enhanced.  Please consider whether you could make a contribution to a refreshed PTA and to the wider school community.

Have a fabulous weekend,

Mr Wilson

Nursery Newsletter

NEWS ROUND UP

We have been on high alert in Nursery this week as we had a break in to our home corner! The children put on their detective hats and collected evidence that led us to believe we had in fact been visited by Goldilocks! Should you see her around the local area please let us know so we can lock away our porridge!

THIS WEEK

We have shared the story of Goldilocks and the three bears. The children have thrived on the drama and excitement of the hunt for Goldilocks, and it has been a delight to see the true enthusiasm they have for learning about the characters and events of the story. As a result of our hunt for Goldilocks the children have made their very own Goldilocks wanted posters in literacy and in Numeracy have been learning about size and ordering objects in size order, using language such as biggest, smallest, large, tiny etc.

NEXT WEEK

We will be continuing with our traditional tales and sharing the story of Jack and the Beanstalk.  They will continue to develop their knowledge and understanding of story language and how stories consist of characters, settings and events, a beginning a middle and an end.  The children will also be planting their own beans, alongside a science investigation, looking at conditions for growth. In Numeracy the children will be learning about non standard units of measure (e.g. hands, feet, paperclips, unifix cubes etc) to measure and compare heights and lengths of different objects.

How you can help us

·        Compare objects size and height e.g. order your toys on the bed from biggest  to smallest

·        Practise naming the different letters in the alphabet alongside the sound they make (jolly phonics)

·        Continue sharing stories

·        Provide opportunities for writing development e.g. making shopping lists, taking orders for drinks, sending cards etc.

Many thanks for your continued support

Have a great week.

Miss Bradshaw and the Nursery team

RECEPTION NEWS ROUND UP

We have had another brilliant week in Reception with the children taking full advantage of the fine weather to enjoy our amazing outdoor provision!

We will be doing our PE sessions on Fridays as usual so please make sure your child has their PE kit in school every Friday. Hopefully we will be doing some outdoor PE after the Easter break so your child will need trainers and a sweatshirt or hoody too.

THIS WEEK

We had a major incident on Monday when we realised that Goldilocks had broken into our classroom and left a mess in the home corner. She even left footsteps as she made her escape. The Police came to investigate and the children have been very busy compiling crime reports and looking for evidence. 

We have also been sharing the story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears with the children, looking at alternative versions and comparing them to discuss things that are the same and different. The children are really enjoying talking about characters and settings in the story.

NEXT WEEK

We will be sharing the story of Jack and the Beanstalk using Pie Corbett actions to act out the story which will be great fun! The children will be talking about the beginning, middle and end parts of the story and will be talking about the characters and the settings with confidence. In numeracy we will be helping Jack to organise his beanstalks by size and measuring using non standard units such as paper-clips, hands, pencils before we move on to measuring using rulers and recording our findings in cms.

In topic next week we will be planning our bean planting investigation and making something special for Mother's day (shhh....)

HOW YOU CAN HELP US

• By listening to your child's amazing reading every day for at least five minutes
• By supporting them to complete their home learning and bringing it in on Monday morning
• By practising our words of the week which are :here, saw, very, put, oh, their
• By sharing the story of Jack and the Beanstalk ahead of next week in order to enhance their excitement and engagement. - on the Ipad - Jack Lite HD or on the Internet http://learnenglishkids.britishcouncil.org/en/short-stories/jack-and-the-beanstalk, on Cbeebies http://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/misc/stories/misc-jackandthebeanstalk or on http://storynory.com/2008/07/14/jack-and-the-beanstalk/

Thank your for your support.

KS1 Newsletter

What a lovely week we have had in Key Stage 1. The sun has been shining and we have, as always, had lots of fun!

In the next few weeks the children will be starting their design technology topic which is based around building models. We are in great need of any spare boxes, kitchen roll tubes, lids etc that you collect at home in order to restock our workshop areas. We are sure the children will turn them into something fabulous to bring back home!

This Week in School

In literacy the children have been writing Police reports, recounting what happened to Basil the mouse when he was caught and strapped to a deadly mousetrap! Luckily Basil escaped but the children have been trying really hard to include a greater level of detail into their writing through the use of connectives, adverbials and detailed paragraphs in the hope of assisting the police in catching the villain.

In Numeracy the children have begun a new unit of learning on multiplication. We started the week with the children solving picture problems such as how many wheels on 5 bikes, how many fingers on 4 hands. The children created their own strategies to solve these problems and then moved on to developing number sentences using the multiplication sign (x). Towards the end of the week the children have developed quick methods for solving simple multiplication sentences including the use of a 100 square, arrays and by counting groups on our fingers. You can support your child at home with this learning by encouraging them to count in 2’s, 3’s, 5’s, 10’s and even 4’s whenever possible.

In topic the children have been learning all about germs and how they spread. The children started the week by investigating how well they wash their hands. The children covered their hands with glow in the dark “germs” that showed up underneath a light box. The children had to then wash their hands and check them again to see if they had managed to get rid of them, with varying success! The children also received a video message from another school asking for their help in combating germs. The children in groups then spent the week learning about germs and creating video clips, leaflets and hand washing instructions to educate others about germs and how to defeat them.

 Next Week

In Literacy we will continue to write and develop our Police reports ready to send to the investigators on Friday. The children will be encouraged to develop their writing even further with the use of adverbs and adverbials to describe key elements. In Year 2 they will continue to enhance and organise their writing into paragraphs to create a clear and concise interpretation of all the facts.

We will be continuing with multiplication next week as the children apply their already amazing skills and strategies to a range of word problems and missing number investigations. The children will be using mental methods to solve simple multiplication for example: 3 x 5 = (The children will use 3 fingers to represent the groups and then count them in 5's) You can practice this at home by asking your child to multiply any number up to 10 by either 2, 3, 5, or 10! When tackling more complex word problems such as: "Miss Oxley washes her car. She uses 12 buckets of water. Each bucket has 5 litres of water. How many litres does she use altogether?" the children will draw 5 circles to represent the groups then they will represent the 12 in each group using T's and U's (12 = 1 packet/ ten & 2 ones/units) before counting how many altogether. This is a complex skill so why not practice at home and invent your own word problems?

Topic learning will focus on London and it’s landmarks with the children exploring the various ways in which tourists travel around London. Many of our children have had the pleasure of visiting London themselves so we look forward to them sharing their experiences with the rest of the class!

LKS2 Newsletter

Monday was a very mysterious and eventful start to our week!  Mrs Dale made the fascinating discovery of a meteor and a crop circle within the school field. We have read actual news reports from the weekend where meteors had been spotted around the UK and have been highly motivated by the new learning this has encouraged. 

Numeracy

In Numeracy, the children have been applying their written multiplication skills to word problems and we have been finding the area of Areas 51! Next week we will be looking at written methods for division and strengthening our division number facts.

We have been practising our 2, 4 and 8 times tables.  Next week we will be looking at the tricky 7s, 8s and 9 times tables! Here are some great activities to support your child's learning of times tables:

http://www.fieryideas.com/tnt-tables-46-c.asp (TNT Tables - an addictive activity to practise times tables)

http://www.mad4maths.com/multiplication_table_math_games/  (Mad 4 Maths - times table games for x3, x4, x5, x6, x7 and x8)

http://www.topmarks.co.uk/Flash.aspx?f=gridmethodpvcardsv3 (A resource we plan to use in class to support place value when multiplying)

Literacy
We have used the fascinating events from the beginning of this week to write fantastic reports all about UFOs. The children have thoroughly enjoyed learning new and exciting facts about the thousands of UFO sightings that have been reported around the world.

Next week we are using Maddie and Grace's holiday home learning as the stimulus for our classroom learning. Their engaging news report about the Bermuda Triangle is sure to get us all investigating!

ICT
The children have been retelling the events of Palm Sunday and Holy Thursday. The children have shown a great understanding of the Easter story as they are applying their learning from RE sessions.

PE

This half term our PE unit is basket ball where we will be learning lots of skills from dribbling to shooting. The children will then put these into a dance routine in the style of 'High School Musical'.

Reminders

Please could children bring an art shirt with them to school.

Spellings

Group 1	Group 2
1. seen	1. break
2. been	2. breakable
3. night	3. reverse
4. down	4. reversible
5. first	5. straight
6. next	6. straighten
7. after	7. strength
8. again	8. strengthen
9. new	9. tight
10. now	10. tighten

Thank you,

Team 3/4

UKS2 News Roundup:

• Our achiever this week is all of Year 5/6 for their fabulous Japanese Koinibori flags! Have a look down our mall to see the finished results. Well done, everyone!
• This week we welcomed Sensei Ron, Sensei Jackie and Sensei Martin from Go-Kan-Ryu at Lofthouse to support our learning of Japanese Martial Arts in PE; the children had a fantastic time learning all about the history of Karate and even got to perform some Karate moves!  
• Today, everybody has taken home a target card, please decorate this and bring it into school on Monday as we will be developing its use in our Literacy session.
• Reminder: Mrs Brook's class will be visiting Wagamama’s in Leeds this Tuesday (13th March). Please ensure that you have a coat and your lunch as usual, school dinners will be provided with a meal. Miss Darroch's class will visit on Tuesday 20th March and Miss Gascoigne's class on 27th March.

Numeracy:

• This week in Numeracy, our focus has been on translation, rotation and co-ordinates. We've explored how techniques such as using tracing paper can help answer questions on these themes.
• Next week, we will be learning about angles, ratio and proportion. We will be measuring, drawing angles and calculating angles on a line and within shapes. We will also be using and applying our measures, fractions and number skills to ratio and proportion multi-step problems.
• Home Learning: Why not take a look at the following websites to brush up on your angles learning ahead of next week?

http://www.mathplayground.com/alienangles.html

http://www.primaryresources.co.uk/online/angle.swf

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/ks3bitesize/maths/shape_space/parallels/activity.shtml

http://www.what2learn.com/home/examgames/maths/angles1/

Literacy:

• Our focus in Literacy this week has been writing a tourist guide for Japan. We started the week by watching a short film clip about all the attractions and sights that Japan has to offer. We then took these ideas and formed a plan for our tourist guide and drafted paragraphs which contained grouped and developed points. We also continued our focus on punctuation as it's essential that capital letters and full stops are accurate in writing. There are games to practise these forms of punctuation as well as others at http://www.bbc.co.uk/skillswise/topic/punctuation
• Home Learning: Please learn the spellings which prepare the children for spelling accuracy in next week's writing activities on characters and settings. The spellings are Mercedes, leapt, crouched, darted, transformed, effortlessly, quickly, steadily, determination, courage

Other areas of the curriculum:

• We have continued to create amazing outcomes this week as part of our Japan topic! This week, Miss Darroch's class were producing artwork on plates, inspired by Hokusai and his interpretations of The Great Wave and representations of Mount Fuji. Miss Gascoigne's class have created high quality animations to showcase Japanese technology and gadgets and Mrs Brook's class have created Japanese Koinibori flags. Next week, we will be designing and making Japanese kimonos!
• In Music, 56D are developing video soundboards for Robin Hood using an app called Mad Pad. This week, we've explored our surroundings and taken photos of potential sounds for the sound board. 5/6G have been developing their sign language skills even further by learning Greatest Day by Take That! 5/6B have been composing musical rhythms using their bodies!

• Visit our blogs:

http://robinhood56d.blogspot.com

http://robinhood56b.blogspot.com/

http://robinhood56g.blogspot.com/