What have MP2 been up to this week?
13/12/2017
Maths Day!
What an exciting day we had! Year 4 kicked off the morning by making bauble truffles to share with the school. We needed to use our mathematical knowledge and skills to measure the ingredients and also our literacy skill of following recipe instructions. They looked delicious and tasted it too! But we thought just giving them away was too easy so we made challenge question cards that learners had to answer to get on. We made sure we differentiated these for the various ages throughout the school.
Year 3 worked incredibly hard, making bowling pins with a mathematical theme. With various numbers on the bottom, the players needed to work out the total of the pins they knocked over to decide who the winner was.
We also worked really hard using compasses, measuring and symmetry to make decorations for the event. In the afternoon we all got together as a school to share our food, drinks and games.
Year 4
Maths
In maths we have had an understanding week, revisiting our knowledge and skills that we have learnt or practised over the past 3 learning blocks. We worked as a team to crack a code, which enabled us to find the answers to Christmas jokes. We also applied our addition and subtraction skills to solve Christmas word problems and worked together using fractions to create a Christmas tree.
Literacy
In Literacy this week we have been making connections with our IPC Society learning. We know that different societies around the world have different traditional stories called myths. These myths were told to explain how natural disasters happened. In order to share our learning we are going to make animations of 5 different myths. We are working in our table teams to create the illustrations and a background for our story. We had to re-write the myth in our own words, and thought about how to make it more interesting by including appropriate story language, adjectives and adverbs. We are very excited this project.
Year 3
Maths
In Maths we have been learning about fractions. We found out what we already know about them before building on that knowledge. We now also know how to add fractions and we have started to look at equivalent fractions.
Literacy
We have been learning about myths and legends around the world linking to weather. We read some myths from different countries and learnt about how people used to think about weather. We retold these myths in our own words and acted them out. We then re-wrote the story of Pele and made our own fantastic books, complete with illustrations.
And finally…
What’s been happening in MP2?
6/12/2017
IPC
We have reached the end of our Active Planet learning journey this week and what a journey it has been! We reflected on all the geography, science, history, technology, society and international learning we have focused on over the last 2 learning blocks. Although we are continuing our society learning through literacy, we decided it was time to have our exit point. It was great to see such a fantastic turn out of mums and dads, ready to compete against their children in an Active Planet quiz! A huge thank you for taking the time to join MP2 learners. We hope you all had fun!
Year 4
Literacy
This week we have completed our Roman news reports. It was very exciting to dress up in the appropriate clothing for our character and work on our expression and intonation for the video. We used our script writing skills to help us know what to say and work on our timings.
We have moved on to learning about society by watching, reading and retelling myths from around the world. To show our knowledge and understanding, we have planned the characters, objects and settings we will need to make to produce a stop-motion video next week.
Maths
In maths we have been practising our learning about time. We refreshed our memories with a team quiz and Find the Fiction. We used online games to help us practise converting the time from analogue to digital or vice versa. We later went on to show our understanding by answering challenging word problems involving time, some of us were super resilient and even tried being as accurate as the nearest minute. Let us show you our time skills at home.
Year 3
Literacy
Literacy this week has been linked to the Active Planet unit. We have learnt about a Myth from Hawaii; Pele, the Volcano Goddess. Our learning outcome is to be able to retell the story in our own words and to illustrate it. We first read and then watched a video of the story. We stopped the video to make notes of the most important parts of the story. We found there were six significant events in the story. We are now in the process of drafting the story in our own words.
Maths
This week Year 3 have started learning about fractions. We have learnt that the bottom number of the fraction is called the denominator and tells us the number of equal pieces a whole shape is split into. The top number is called the numerator and tells us how many pieces of the whole shape we are talking about. We practised making fractions by cutting rounds of watermelon. We were then able to eat the watermelon but only if we could say what fraction we were eating!
Next week we will continue to talk about…Winter Animals!
What have MP2 been up to this week?
30/11/2017
IPC
This week in IPC we have been taking some time to reflect on our learning. We understand the importance of this as it helps us to improve. We thought about the different Knowledge and Skills that we learned about in our Science block and were able to self-assess our progress. We now know that some changes in state are reversible or irreversible and are getting better at explaining our ideas. We have also been investigating the water cycle and have conducted some experiments to see what happens to water when heat is applied. We have consolidated our understanding of some vocabulary such as evaporation, condensation, precipitation, water molecules, water vapour and droplets.
Year 4
Literacy
In literacy this week we have been continuing to rehearse and improve our News Reports on the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in 79 AD. In order for us to make our News reports as fantastic as possible, we have been engaging in self-assessment as a team. We recorded a practise run, so that we had the chance to watch our report back. We then looked at our Skills rubric and were able to independently identify which areas we need to focus on in order to improve. We then discussed it as a team and wrote ourselves ‘next steps’. This was really helpful, and now we know how to make our final recording the best it can be!
Maths
In maths this week we have been finding the matching decimals and fractions. We applied this to real life money situations and made giant number lines on our tables to show the fractions and corresponding decimals. We then went on to add fractions, beginning with the same denominators. We developed to adding mixed numbers with the same denominator and unlike fractions where we needed to apply our equivalent fraction skills. Some of us really challenged ourselves and headed for mastering by practising adding mixed numbers with unlike denominators.
Why don’t you try some at home?
grade-5-adding-unlike-fractions-b.pdf
Download File
grade-5-adding-fractions-like-denominators-d.pdf
Download File
Year 3
Literacy
In Literacy, Year 3 have been writing diary entries based on the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in Pompeii. We wrote drafts, edited and redrafted. We had to remember to write in the first person, using past tense. We used adjectives and similes to make our words paint a picture. When we were happy with our diary entries, we published them using microsoft word and google docs. We used an art technique using tea to make them look old and authentic.
Maths
In maths, Year 3 have been practising addition of three digit numbers using the column method. We have been generating 3 and 4 digit numbers and adding them together vertically. It is important to ensure that numbers are lined up the correct column to represent it’s value. We have become very good at this. Next week, we will move onto learning fractions.
This week we were very excited because we have been talking about toys! We considered how our choices of toys have changed over time and why that is. We also thought about the developing technology that changes the types of toys we play with and their cost.
Next week we will be talking about…winter animals and hibernation.
What’s been happening in MP2 this week?
23/11/2017
IPC
This week there have been more exciting science Investigations taking place in MP2. The learners have been practising making predictions and writing up their science investigations using the correct format of prediction, equipment, method, observations and conclusion. The learners also had the opportunity to visit the Middle Years Science Lab where Mr Travis conducted investigations to show that the flame of a candle uses oxygen and when it is deprived of oxygen the flame will go out. The candles were covered with glass jars of different sizes and made predictions of what would happen. Some learners predicted the glass would break, others thought the flames would get bigger and others predicted the flames would go out. The learners were excited to observe what happened and noted how the candle under the largest glass jar burnt for the longest. From their observations they were able to come to a conclusion and express their understanding.
Year 4
Literacy
In Literacy this week, we have been making connections with our history learning. We are being time travelling news reporters! We have traveled back in time to the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in Pompeii on the 24th of August 79 AD. We have been learning about the features of a news report, and have begun to write down our ideas and start our scripts. We are including witnesses who luckily survived the deadly eruption and are going to share their terrifying stories with us!
Maths
In maths we have continued our fraction learning. We had a lot of fun experimenting with lego to make fractions and then find their equivalents. This was quite challenging so we needed a lot of practise with this skill.
Year 3
Literacy
Year 3 have continued their diary writing about the eruption of Mount Vesuvius and the destruction of Pompeii. It has been great investigating and learning about this eruption and imagining what it must have been like for the people. The focus in literacy has been to edit and redraft their writing before publishing the final piece of work. When editing and redrafting the learners needed to check spellings and ensure that their writing was grammatically correct. They have learnt that it is important to consider who will be reading their diaries. They are publishing their diary entries onto a scroll with illustrations which will be displayed in the classroom.
Maths
Maths learning this week has focused on strategies for addition of 2 digit and 3 digit numbers. The learners have been practising using partitioning as well as learning column addition. To do this the learners have been practising and further developing their understanding of the place value of the digits in 2, 3 and 4 digit numbers.
MP2 Climbing Adventure
MP2 had a fantastic time at Kid City, taking part in our Climbing Adventure. We practised many of our personal goals throughout the morning. We were respectful to the coach driver and our learning facilitators; following instructions and listening, super adaptable by changing the times and sessions on our time tables, huge risk takers; taking on challenging walls, racing against the clock and seeing how high we could climb, and resilient as we tried to beat our personal bests, and kept trying even when it was difficult. It was also a lot of fun! We look forward to our next school outing.
What’s been happening in MP2 this week?
15/11/2017
IPC
This week in IPC, we have become investigative scientists! We learned about making predictions for our experiments. It was important to know what a prediction was first before we started making them. Once we knew, we practised predicting for dice and paper aeroplane games. Later in the week we learned about reversible and irreversible changes to matter. We predicted whether some materials would change it’s state of matter if heated, cooled or frozen and then whether the change was reversible or not. There were some surprises!
We also connected our knowledge of states or matter and their changes to another experiment, linked to the lava of a volcano. We used the wax of a candle to signify the lava changing from a solid to a liquid when it grows hotter, when the lava is poured into water (cooling it down), it then solidifies. What a super science week!
Year 3
Literacy
Year 3 literacy learning has been linked to the history in the Active Planet unit. The learners have been learning about life in Pompeii before Mount Vesuvius erupted in 79AD. They have watched very interesting videos reenacting the catastrophic eruption. This event has been linked to learning about diary writing and the learners have been imagining themselves as different characters such as children, builders, shop keepers, farmers etc. who lived and worked in Pompeii. They have been recording the events in diary format using adventurous vocabulary to describe their thoughts and feelings as the days of the eruption unfolded.
Maths
In Maths, Year 3 have been working on the addition and subtraction number bonds to 20 and continuing to master the 4 times table. Quick recall of these facts is what the learners are working at and this is being done using a variety of strategies. The addition and subtraction bonds are initially learnt by counting on and back in ones and then progress by using bridging and partitioning. Once the learners understand the process they begin to become very fast at recalling the answers and begin to be confident to work with larger numbers.
Year 4
Literacy
n literacy, Year 4 have been continuing their history learning about the Romans. We have watched videos and read texts to gather research about the famous Pompeii eruption of Mt Vesuvius in 79AD. We practsied taking notes about our findings. These were later used to help us write a short, descriptive text about the eruption. We had created a word bank of antonyms and synonyms for a variety of words which we then applied to our writing. We also practised using imaginative verbs and adverbs to add extra detail and create a mental image. At the end of the week, Year 4 turned their learning about Pompeii into a verbal news report, interviewing eyewitnesses and using expressive language to describe the event.
Maths
In maths this week we have applied our learning about weight, to word problems. We practised converting amounts such as grams to kilograms and back. We even went on to use matching decimal numbers. This set us up nicely to begin our fraction learning. To begin we revisited our learning from last year, naming fractions of shape and number with visual clues. Next we used our knowledge to answer fraction questions when playing Snakes and Ladders. This was a lot of fun! At the end of the week, we practised matching and finding equivalent fractions with lego.
his week we have been talking about Festivals. As we are such international learners, we had a variety of festivals that we celebrate to share with each other. We found that lots of them involve celebrations with food and bright colours or lights.
Next week we will be talking about…thanksgiving.
What’s been happening in MP2?
9/11/2017
On Friday, all of primary and early years attempted to spend some lesson time without using speech to communicate. MP2 spent an hour of literacy communicating using prop cards, whiteboards, actions and sign language. We also had a go at singing a song about the Romans to help our history learning, however, as we could not use words, we used sign language instead!
IPC
In IPC this week, MP2 have been practising some science. We were very excited to get to try out a few different investigations helping us to learn about matter and it’s three different states – solids, liquids and gases. We looked at the volume of liquids and predicted the volume in a variety of containers. We learned that liquid particles change shape to fit their container but that the volume stays the same. We sorted a variety of materials into solids, liquids and gases. We learned about how liquids have varying degrees of viscosity. We tested some liquids by racing them on a ramp to see which was the most viscous. Luckily, some of our parents were in class with us to share our learning this week, so thank you mums and dads, we hope you learnt some science too. We will apply our knowledge of the different states of matter to help us understand how the matter in volcanoes changes state. We have some exciting practical investigations coming up to assist us with this understanding. We are beginning to understand what is fair testing and the importance of writing up our predictions and conclusions in science. We will be developing this further in next week’s learning.
Year 4
Literacy
Over the next few weeks, year 4 will be linking their history learning through their literacy. We began this week by learning some of the background of the Romans. We used various cooperative learning structures to record notes about our learning. Alongside this, we have practised using a variety of apostrophes, for contractions, possession and omission. We worked hard to display our understanding of verbs, adverbs and onomatopoeia within our sentences. Our visitors did a great job of helping us with this during family learning day.
Maths
This week in Maths we did some skills consolidation to help us feel more confident when using the grid method. This really helped, and we agreed that we have improved! On Tuesday we had lots of fun for family learning day! We were able to follow the question and answer treasure hunt and show our visitors what we understand by putting our knowledge and skills into action! To practise measurement and weight, we followed a recipe to make rice crispy cakes – that involved lots of concentration to make sure we put in the right amount of ingredients.
Year 3
Literacy
Year 3 have continued learning about play scripts. After enjoying acting out a play they are now writing their own scenes for a well-known story. They need to use the correct format for writing a play script using brackets and colons. After reading Scene 1 of Little Red Riding Hood, they went on to write Scene 2. This was on Family Learning Day so parents were able to join in with the writing and acting out of the scene. They have continued working on their scripts and are now working on the final Scene 3 and are looking forward to acting out their stories.
Maths
In Maths, Year 3 have been showing their understanding of place value by plotting two and three digit numbers accurately on a number line. They have learnt that certain information needs to be displayed on the number line so they can position given numbers accurately. They have had discussions and drawn up a list of ‘Helpful Hints’ to help them draw up their own number lines. They have also been practising their 2, 5 and 10 times tables and new learning includes the 4 times table.
This week we have been discussing Bon Fire Night and other festivals of light and colour. Some of us did a little learning about the story of Guy Fawkes and we had a fantastic assembly sharing the story and traditions of Diwali.
Next week we will be talking about…other festivals people around the world may celebrate.
What have MP2 been up to this week?
25/10/2017
IPC
It’s been an exciting week in MP2! We have finally finished our rescue-bots! They look fantastic and showed lots of knowledge about what may be needed in an earthquake situation! To display our understanding of all our technology learning, MP2 held a ‘Showcase’ for MP3 and some of the teachers. We practised presenting our rescue-bots by explaining their purpose, features and why we had used these features. We considered the real materials that would be used to make our rescue-bots for the real world. Some of us had come upon problems when making our models, and needed to be really adaptable with the materials that were available to us. Some of us reflected on our designs and decided that we might include different features in the future that could be more valuable. Overall, we decided that, as a Milepost, we have all extended our knowledge of rescue-bots, practised a variety of skills when designing and making them using numerous tools, and we have some understanding of what might be useful on an invention when trapped, or in a dangerous situation. Fantastic effort MP2!
Year 4
Literacy
In literacy, we have continued our learning about play scripts. We practised writing speech using speech bubbles for some familiar characters. Some of these were quite funny! We learned that contractions are words joined together to make one word. By learning about apostrophes, we practised using them in contractions and then transferring these into our written speech.
Next we looked at how to write stage directions, including the characters entrance, exit and position on the stage, their expression and their actions. We know that stage directions must be written inside brackets.
Finally we watched a short film, The Moon that didn’t have any speech. As a team we cooperated to write a playscript for it. Later we swapped and had a go at acting each others out. This meant we could share positive feedback and advice on how to improve further.
Maths
This week in maths, Year 4 have been consolidating knowledge and skills by revising our maths learning from LB1 and 2. This has allowed us to demonstrate our understanding. We have been working in pairs to support and challenge each other to review place value to 1000, inequalities (using the greater than/less than symbols < / >) and use the rounding method to practice our mental addition skills. To further demonstrate our understanding of inequalities we have been giving our partners incorrect inequalities for them to re-write! This was a great way to show that we have a deep understanding of how to use these symbols.
Year 3
Maths
In maths this week we have continued learning about time. We are now starting to be able to tell the exact time to the nearest minute and are beginning to be able to solve word problems relating to time. Test us at home! I’m sure we will be able to figure out what time it is!
Literacy
In literacy we have been finishing off our amazing comics. We have made some great ones and will display them in the class for you to come and see. We have moved on to learning about play scripts. We have started to know some of the features of play scripts. We had lots of fun playing drama games whilst acting out lines. Now we are working on an Australian story from the dream time called Tiddalick The Frog.
This week we have been talking about the up and coming Water Festival. We have been finding out about what knowledge we already have and what happens during this event. All of MP2 wish you a fantastic Water Festival!
On Thursday evening, Year 4 had their sleepover! It was a lot of fun! We got to toast marshmallows on a camp fire and make delicious s’mores with chocolate and biscuits. We played lots of fun games and watched a movie with popcorn. Then it was time for bed. Fortunately, we had put our tents up in the afternoon and made our beds. We snuggled down with our stuffed animals and had a peaceful nights sleep.
In the morning, we needed to make our own breakfast. We chose from a selection of food. After that we had to wash, brush our teeth and get dressed ready for another school day. This was all great practice for when we go on residential next year. We managed to get through Friday, even if a little sleepier than usual (especially the teachers!). Check out our photos of all the fun we had.
What’s been happening in MP2 this week?
18/10/2017
IPC
Milepost 2 have continued their Technology learning in the IPC unit, Active Planet. This week the learning goal has been to design and build a rescue-bot to meet specific needs. We looked at a range of different rescue-bots that are used and what features they had such as cameras, microphones and sensors. Each group then designed a rescue-bot incorporating features that would be useful in an earthquake rescue mission. Once they were satisfied that their design met all the specific needs they recycled the junk material to build their rescue-bot. During the building of their rescue-bots, some groups realised they had to be adaptable and change their designs to suit the materials they were using. We are being really principled and working hard to make sure these are our absolute best designs and models as we will be doing a ‘Showcase’ of them to show our understanding to MP3 next week.
Year 3
Literacy
In literacy we have been making comics. We started by planning out who our characters would be and the setting it would take place in. Next we practised drawing them. Then we used a story board to draw the comic out before using the ipad app, Comic Life, to create funky, colourful comics. The main learning goal was to be able to use speech and thought bubbles to communicate. This meant we had to write in a different way than we would if we were writing a story, and we didn’t need speech marks! We are super proud of the amazing results!
Maths
In maths we have been learning how to tell the time on digital and analogue clocks. We timed our partner, using the ipads, doing tasks like standing on one foot, holding their breath or doing the plank. We used the small clocks to help us learn o,clock, half past, quarter past and quarter to. We have just started practising telling the time to the nearest 5 minutes, for example 5 past 3. Please help us practise at home!
Year 4
Literacy
In literacy, Year 4 have been looking at play scripts. Firstly we needed to gain some knowledge on what the features are. We learnt that a play script needs characters, speech, setting and character descriptions, and all sorts of punctuation such as colons and brackets. We practised reading a script and performing it, considering the stage directions and descriptions given. Next we practised writing descriptions of stage settings and characters. We related some of our previous learning to help us with this. Later in the week, we practised using contractions, which we often use in our speech, by writing speech bubbles for a number of characters. Some of them were quite funny!
Maths
This week in maths, Year 4 have been consolidating their skills when using the grid method to multiply numbers greater than 10 together. We have been applying these skills to find the area and perimeter of regular shapes. We have also been working cooperatively in our teams to work out challenging word problems. To do this we have to use lots of skills: place value skills, multiplication skills, mental addition and subtraction skills … and we also need to know when and how to use these skills for the different problems!!! In order to help us feel more confident when using the grid method, we have also been using different clapping patterns to help us practise our times table facts .
This week we have been talking about ‘Languages’. In our Together Time we discussed how many different languages we can all speak fluently and which languages we are currently learning. We decided that this also linked with our personal goal this month, communicator. The learners at iCAN are clearly very talented and work extremely hard on learning and speaking languages, there are around 15 languages being spoken in MP2 alone! How many languages do you speak?
Next week we will be thinking about our up and coming holiday, the water festival. What do your children know about this? Discuss…
Year 4 Sleepover is fast approaching…Thursday 26th October.
As you may already know, one of MP2’s favourite times of the year is coming up next week. Year 4 will have the opportunity to return to school on Thursday 26th October at 5:30 for fun, games and films. There will be lots of activities provided for the children, some snacks and a movie night with their friends. It would be great if all the year 4 learners were able to attend. School will go on as usual on Friday, after they have made their own breakfast and got themselves ready. This is a great opportunity for the children to prepare themselves for their future residentials and it is also a lot of fun!
Don’t worry Year 3, your sleepover will be coming up later in the year.
What’s been happening in MP2 this week?
12/10/2017
IPC
This week during IPC Year 3 and 4 have been focusing on developing their design and technology skills. As we have been learning about the destruction that earthquakes can cause, we decided to look at how we can make buildings stronger and more earthquake proof! We experimented with straws and blue-tac to make a house that could survive the Earthquake Simulator!!! After our first attempts, we knew that we could improve them to make them stronger. We researched different ways that this could be done, then made improvements to our designs. All our buildings were much stronger and lasted longer on the Earthquake Simulator!!!
Year 4
Literacy
In literacy this week, we continued our film review learning. We already had the knowledge of the features of a film review, and had practised summarising, recommending, giving our opinions and describing settings and characters. Now it was time to put it all into action. First of all, of course, we needed to watch a film! We watched The Curse of the Were-Rabbit which was funny but also kept us on the edge of our seat. Afterwards we did lots of speaking and listening to practise retelling the story and made group story maps. Finally, we wrote our own film reviews. Some will be on display very soon…watch this space!
Maths
This week in maths Year 4 have been learning what happens to a number when you multiply it by 10, 100 or 1000; this helped us to consolidate our place value skills. We were even able to answer the class challenge question: 450 x 10,000! We have engaged with peer-assessment and self-assessment to determine how confident we feel about our times tables. We have also learned about how to the partitioning method can help us when multiplying two digit numbers. We can apply this mental strategy when using the written grid-method. We have been showing resilience whilst trying to remember our times table facts.
Year 3
Literacy
In literacy this week, Year 3 have been looking at comic strips. We started by finding the features of them. We found that they were always quite funny. It also became clear that the story was being told through pictures. Speech and thought bubbles are added for extra detail. We had to practise writing in this style to entertain the reader.
Maths
In maths we have been learning about the units of time such as minutes, hours, seconds, years and many more. We practised comparing ages and lengths of sport matches. We also had a go at estimating how long a minute is by closing our eyes and sitting down when we thought a minute was up. It was a lot longer than we thought! We counted in seconds clapping on every beat.
4G were super adaptable, cooperative,
great communicators and resilient when putting together
their class assembly and practising for it.
What have MP2 been learning this week?
4/10/2017
Learning Journey
This week in IPC we reviewed our learning so far and reflected on our knowledge of geographical terms. We are getting really good at using scientific words. Next we made seismograph. A seismograph is a machine that measures how big an earthquake is. We used boxes, markers, cups and string to make our seismograph. Fortunately there was no earthquake, but it meant we had to shake our machine to see how it works.
Year 4
Maths
In maths this week we have been investigating angles.
We have worked on our knowledge by remembering the names of certain angles: acute, right-angle, obtuse and straight angle.
We then developed our skills by identifying angles by estimation and by measuring accurately with our protractor.
Literacy
Last week in Literacy, we ended our instructional writing by making our own potions, just like George did in George’s Marvelous Medicine! Some of us made potions to make people invisible, another team made one especially for Ms Gemma as it turned people into a minion and others even made one to help Mr Shannon grow hair! We had a lot of fun doing this and they came out in all sorts of colours and textures. We hope you like the pictures of our magic medicines.
This week in Literacy, we have been identifying comparative and superlative adjectives which we practised using in our sentences. We have also identified the difference between fact and opinion as next week we will be applying our new knowledge and skills to write film reviews.
Year 3
Maths
This week in maths we have been extending our multiplication knowledge. After spending last week exploring doubles and halves we moved onto the three and four times tables. We found out about the aliens zios, who have three legs and the zors who have four legs. When zios and zors get scared they dive into the sand and hide themselves so that only their legs are showing. We had to work out how many zios and zors there were if we could see 24 legs. It was pretty tricky, it turned out there was more than one correct answer. Maths is awesome!
Literacy
In literacy this week we continued with our diamante poems. We consolidated our knowledge of nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs. We also learnt about opposites. Did you know antonym is a fancy way of saying words whose meanings are opposite? Some examples are good and bad, tall and short or even push and pull. Finally, we published our poems online. Our next step is to link our diamante poems with our learning journey. Check out some of our poems.
This week, after recent natural disasters making the world news, we have been talking about earthquakes, volcanoes, hurricanes and tsunamis. MP2 have been thoroughly interested in this and have linked their talking to their new knowledge from our IPC unit.
Next week we will be talking about….
Your Future
What do you want to do for a job? Where do you want to go? What do you imagine your life to be like?
Please take the time to talk to your children at home about their talk topics.
What have MP2 been up to this week?
26/9/2017
Learning Journey
MP2 have been continuing their geography learning this week and started to learn about the structure of the earth. Some of us found it tricky to believe that the earth we live on was made up of different layers! In the centre of the earth is a solid ball called the inner core, it is surrounded by the outer core which is made up of liquid metal. The larger mantle surrounds this and is constantly moving, whereas the crust is a thin, solid layer that we think of as the earth’s surface. We are beginning to think about how these layers can cause earthquakes. When learning about the crust, we learnt that it is made up of different sections called tectonic plates. Sometimes the plates collide or vibrate; this is when an earthquake happens and it causes continents to move further apart or closer together. To help us understand this, in teams we built cities of our own. Unfortunately, they were built over two tectonic plates, therefore a fault line ran right through the centre! The inevitable happened…earthquake! As our cities were not structurally sound, our buildings collapsed! Check out some of our before and after photos.
Year 4
Maths
Year 4 have been continuing our shape learning this week, particularly focusing on 3D shapes. We used Venn and Carroll diagrams to sort a mixture of shapes according to their properties. Towards the end of the week we have been showing our understanding by applying all our shape knowledge and skills to answer word problems.
Literacy
This week during Literacy year 4 have been reading, following and practising writing sets of instructions! We wrote some instructions on How to Brush Your Teeth for Milepost 1. If our instructions are correct, then Milepost 1 will have squeaky clean teeth! We have also been reading some of Roald Dahl’s book, George’s Marvellous Medicine. Even though it was disgusting, we wrote a set of instructions for how to make his medicine. Next we are going to make our own horrid concoction using lots of strange ingredients and write a set of instructions for that too!
Year 3
Literacy
This week in literacy we used our previous learning to write a recount about our Pchum Ben holiday. We planned our story, making sure we had all the events in chronological order. Before writing we were given a checklist so we could remember all the things our writing needs to have. After our recounts, we started exploring a new type of poem – Diamante poems. Do you know diamante is Italian for diamond?
Maths
In maths this week, we practised doubling and halving. We used blocks to demonstrate the link between repeated addition and timetables. We worked as a class to find a pattern for doubles. We discovered double 3 is the same as 3 + 3 and 2 times 3. We then worked in our groups to find doubles all the way up to 24. Once we had completed this using blocks, we used Minecraft to show this pattern. It was really fun!
I’m enthusiastic and adaptable with my learning!
I start my work on time to show my best learning!
I always make good choices!
I am great at communicating interesting facts in IPC.
This week we have been talking about healthy food. Next week we will be moving on to discuss Natural Disasters. This links very well with MP2’s IPC unit, Active Planet. Ask us about our talk topic at home. We have a lot of knowledge to share with you.
What has been happening in MP2 this week?
13/9/2017
IPC
On Tuesday, Milepost 2 went outside into the garden to learn about how and why volcanoes erupt. Luckily there wasn’t an erupting volcano, but Mr Rupert and Ms Abbey did an experiment to show what happens when a volcano does erupt. The learners found out that if you shake a can of fizzy drink, the pressure inside the can builds. When the can is opened, the drink sprayed up into the air. This experiment was to demonstrate how the pressure from molten lava builds up and when there is a weakness in the earth’s crust, the lava will escape, creating a volcanic eruption.
We have also being learning about the different types and states of volcanoes; active, dormant and extinct. Next, we used different coloured play dough to build models of shield, cinder cone and composite volcanoes. We thought about how the volcanoes were formed of different layers and tried to build them up in the same way. We had a lot of fun displaying the lava shooting out of the top!
Year 4
Literary
This week in literacy we were working hard in order to write our own adventure stories! We have been focusing on the structure of an adventure story and looked at examples from Doctor Who and the Wizard of Oz! We were resilient and great thinkers when we had to sequence an adventure story that had been mixed up and put into the wrong order. We have also been talking about how important it is to be descriptive in our writing so that the reader can see the picture in their mind of the setting and our characters.
On Friday we put all of our learning over the past three weeks into action when writing our own Adventure story. We used our literacy toolkit to remind us to include pronouns, plurals, expanded noun phrases and descriptive vocabulary to make them exciting and interesting for the reader.
Literary
In maths this week we have learnt how to use compasses with the help of Year 9. We practised drawing circles accurately and even challenged ourselves to make circles of different diameter and radii. Later in the week we went on to gain knowledge of 2D shapes, ensuring we knew the names of some of the more obscure shapes and groups of shapes such as polygons and quadrilaterals. We also practised describing shapes by the properties using the right vocabulary. This was fun when we got to play guess the shape with our partner!
Next we moved onto 3D shape. Again we focused on the vocabulary we needed to describe the shapes. We went on to sorting shapes into different groups based on their properties.
Year 3
Literary
Year 3 have continued enjoying Adventure Stories. This week our focus has been The Gruffalo’s Child. The learners have used a ‘story mountain’ to break down the story into the different parts. In doing this they have looked at the beginning, the build up to the dilemma or problem, the resolution and the ending. We have also thought about what the character, the Gruffalo’s Child, had learnt from their adventure. They are now using the ‘story mountain’ to plan and write their own exciting adventure stories which we look forward to sharing.
Literary
Year 3 has continued practising solving addition and subtraction problems. This week after reading through the problem we went into groups and did a role play. This helped us to work out whether it would be an addition or subtraction problem. We are getting much faster at solving them and better at explaining to others how we got our answer. We also hunted for patterns. We picked any two digit number, reversed it and added them together. We then tried to find the pattern. Do you know what happens to the answer when you do this?
I am resilient with my learning and have been adaptable at a new school.
I am resilient and more confident with my learning.
I am a cooperative learner and I always put in my best effort.
I am principled and put my best efforts in.
This week we talked about Pchum Ben on the lead up to our week holiday. We learnt a little bit about the festival and talked about what we might be doing next week. MP2 wish everybody a wonderful break!
In learning block 2 we will be talking about;
Healthy Food
What’s wrong with eating lots of sugar?
Why do I need to eat fruits and vegetables? Have a think over the holiday…
This week in MP2…
7/9/2017
IPC
This week in Learning Journey we have been focusing on International Mindedness. We investigated where some famous volcanic eruptions and earthquakes have happened around the world. To develop our atlas skills we used our atlases to find the countries and then plotted the volcanoes and earthquakes onto our own maps.
For the next lesson, we began to think about the impact that these natural disasters have had on people’s lives all over the world. We looked at a variety of pictures of real people who had survived a natural disaster and thought about how they might feel and how their lives were changed. We have begun to think about how different countries experience natural disasters, and what the international knock-on effects are.
I wonder what next week will have in store?
Year 4
Maths
In maths this week, we have been focusing on our understanding of using rounding and mental strategies for addition and subtraction. We practised calculations, selecting and applying the correct operation. Next we went on a calculation ‘treasure hunt’, solving problems to follow the trail around the room. It was a lot of fun! We ended the week by applying our knowledge and skills to investigate word problems. Some of them were multi-step and involved decimal numbers. We had to think carefully to select the correct strategy and answer the questions accurately.
Next week we will be learning about the properties of shape…
Literacy
This week in literacy we have been consolidating our knowledge and skills from last week. We have also been focusing on expanded noun phrases – now we know what they are and can write them! We worked independently and in our teams to describe different nouns. We have been focusing on characters and settings in order for us to write our adventure stories next week. On Thursday we created our own characters for our stories! It was really exciting getting to use our imaginations and creativity!
Next week we will be applying all our learnt knowledge and skills to write our own adventure story independently…
Year 3
Maths
In maths, Year 3 has continued using addition and subtraction to solve word problems. We have to go through the story carefully and extract information. We need to write down what we know and find out what we need to know and that will help us to decide if it is an addition or subtraction problem. We then need to write our number sentence and work out the answer. We know it is important to show how we got our answers and we shared our different ways of solving the problem. We have also practised counting in 2’s, 5’s and tens.
Literacy
This week Year 3 has continued our topic on Adventure stories. We have focused on the story The Snail and the Whale. We have been looking at the different characters and settings. We made mind maps, of all we know about snails and whales. We used a Venn diagram to show the similarities and differences between the snail and the whale in the story. We discussed the different dilemmas the characters experienced during the story and how they solved them. After talking about how the dilemmas were solved we then thought of different ways they could be solved. Many exciting and different solutions were thought of by both 3R and 3T.
I have been adaptable starting a new school.
I have been a great enquirer, asking and answering questions.
I have been adaptable in Year 3.
I am caring, kind and have a positive attitude towards my learning.
iCAN
This has been our talk topic this week. Learners have been thinking about the following questions:
What do you like best about your school?
What have you learnt so far this year?
What are you looking forward to in this academic year?
Pchum Ben
Next week we will be talking about the Pchum Ben holiday coming up. The learners will be thinking about the following questions:
Where are you going on your holidays?
What happens in Phnom Penh for Pchum Ben?
Do your family do anything special for Pchum Ben?