Learning with 'e's: Conversation as curriculum

Learning with 'e's: Conversation as curriculum

Scholastic Book Fair is in School

The book fair is in school for the week. There are 4 large bookshelf cases loaded with the latest books for 3-12 year olds. I opened up all the cases and told J5 to imagine that they could buy any book that they would like. Before I let them loose on the shelves, I asked them to be conscious about HOW they chose their book. What did they look at first? What were their criteria for choosing a book? I even role-played the process. I perused the shelves carefully, picking out book after book. I analysed the cover, read the blurb, opened each one up and read the opening lines finishing off my charade by flicking through some pages reading random excerpts.

 It was their turn. They raced, pushing unceremoniously past one another to grab the book that they had been eyeing whilst I had been doing my one-man-show. Although the instruction was to refrain from holding on to a book until the five minute choosing session had ended, they knew what they wanted. The Top Gear book, Diary of a Wimpy Kid, the Titanic Diary and D-day were gripped by determined hands. Without letting go, they filled in their quiz sheets and started to read. The result surprised me. Very few children opened any of the books whilst choosing. They made up their minds quickly. Looking at the results, it is clear that they looked at the cover and read the title. If it was a series they knew and loved, that was enough to convince them. If it wasn’t, the cover picture was more important than anything else.

‘I have all the series and I treasure them.’ Diary of a Wimpy Kid – Cabin Fever by Jeff Kinney

‘Because this one shouted at me.’ Titanic by Ellen Emerson White

‘I liked it because the puppy looked sad.’ Dog Lost by Ingrid Lee

My favourite : ‘This one was authorised by my favourite author.’ Diary of a Wimpy Kid – Cabin Fever Jeff Kinney  

So if you are taking your child shopping for a book, you may want to steer them past the front cover and ask them to read the first page. What questions does the opening paragraph bring to mind? Is it going to be worth reading the book to find out?

New 'Diary of a Wimpy Kid' Book Beats Steve Jobs' Sales Record

http://www.michaelmorpurgo.com/books/an-elephant-in-the-garden/

Shape Poem by J3L boys

Footie Dream

Fabulous Fireworks at Rendcomb

From the Local TV of the Cotswolds

Thank you RCJPA for the Flip cameras

In ICT Club the children each had a turn to use the camera. We need to practise a little more but this was a good start. It made us smile!

The Titanic

Follow these links top find out more about the Titanic.

A message in a holy water bottle which was thrown overboard by a Titanic victim while the ship sank has now been donated to a heritage centre in Cork by his family.



http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-15461033

A site full of Titanic information

http://titanic-titanic.com/

Original footage of the Titanic
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZFrDhpzigug&feature=related

Look what James Mayhew gave J2 at the Cheltenham Literature Festival

Friendship by Phoebe and Daisy J3

Working hard - now we are 4th in UK and 10th in the world!

J5 come seventh in the country for Mathletics

Keep going J5, let's see how you do next week.

J4 ICT Advertisement for a Pet For Sale

For sale

One friendly baby leopard

* Well behaved (but isn’t toilet trained)

*He can dust the floors with his tail.

* He can keep you warm if you sit next to him in the winter.

Spot is a young leopard who needs to go out for a run twice a day.

He loves to stay up all night eating salmon, while watching

X Factor, Strictly come Dancing and You’ve been Framed, on TV.

He needs to live with somebody who has a TV.

His favourite food is salmon; he never eats people but quite likes goldfish and dogs.   

By Lucy

Play the Evacuee Game

J5, this week you will be writing letters as an evacuee. We will talk about this game in class but if you want to play it, you will have to click here.

Practice your Tables the Fun Way

Click here to play a fun racing game.

Rendcomb Junior School Parents' Evening

The J5 parents requested that this video be posted on the blog for everyone to share. On those endless days when you feel that all you do is nag, this may help to remind you that you are not alone.

The 'Mom' Song

Gemma's Newspaper Article

Carmen teaches us how to make lemonade

Success!

It was so joyful
 In my mind and heart  
  For my job was done,
    I had written
      At my school.

By Charlie P

Haiku by Philip

The life of a tree

          Once a small sapling,

Now gazing down at the world,

Swaying in the breeze

Outdoor Week Story from Grace

(I made this story up because during eco week we are learning about bees.)

BEE  vs. WASP

                  “Bees of Bee Land prepare to greet your queen!”

           “Wasps of Wasp Land prepare to greet your king!”

           “Ah my bees I, I have some very depressing news for you, we are at war. At war with the wasps.” Queen Buzzerella (Queen of the bees) told her swarm.

          “My dear wasps, I have some very exciting news. We are at war with the one sting deady weady bees!” King Wasplium the conqueror cried.

Bees can only sting once then they die. They don’t like it when the wasps declare war because most of the warriors die in the war. The wasps however love war because they can sting as many times as they like but they will not die. King Wasplium the conqueror calls the bees ‘the one sting deady weady bees’. 

                   Five days later it was chaos between the two hives because of the war. The sad news is that the Queen of bees died so Prince Casper stepped in to ‘bee’ King. King Wasplium the conqueror didn’t like fighting another King (especially when he was better at fighting) so he stepped down and made his daughter Buzzerina the queen. Casper and Buzzerina became good friends and decided to stop the war and get married. The war became very famous throughout the time when bees and wasps were friends. The war became known as the friendship war because bees and wasps became friends, all thanks to a war. Sounds odd but actually is true.

The End

  

Princess Buzzerina

                                        Prince Casper

J3H film in progress

J3 Make Animation in ICT Club using Jellycam

Make your own song

Try something different:

Write your own lyrics and this website will sing the song back to you.


http://sverigesradio.se/cgi-bin/Src/sing/sing.asp

J5 Greek Project Websites

Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery for Kids

Click on the parts of the 'Ancient Greece' timeline to find out what important ...

Greek pot – design your own

http://www.schoolsliaison.org.uk/kids/preload.htm

Interactive Ancient Greece for Kids

Online Activity - Adventures in Ancient Greece. Ancient Greece - Olympics ...

http://www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/Homework/Greece.html


 BBC - Primary History - Ancient Greeks

BBC Primary History - Ancient Greeks. ... Ancient Greeks: Greek Hero. Go on ...

www.bbc.co.uk/schools/primaryhistory/ancient_greeks/


Free Online Games for Ancient Greece
Print a Deck of Greek God Player Cards and play the memory game • Free Online Games for Ancient Greece (thinkquest) • Design a Greek Pot (and more Greek Fun ...

www.greece.mrdonn.org/games.html



Websites fromThe Usborne Beginners Book - Ancient Greeks
http://www.usborne-quicklinks.com/uk/uk_entity_pages/uk_all_links.asp?lvl=1&id=1547

Philip's Marshmallow Delight

J6 Join in The RSPB Schools' Birdwatch

The results were (for the most of each species spotted together at any one time):


Blackbird 2
Blue tit 14
Chaffinch 2
House sparrow 2
Robin 3
Coal tit 4
Marsh tit 1
Great tit 2
Long-tailed tit 8
Pied wagtail 1
Goldfinch 1
Nuthatch 1
Bullfinch 1

J3L Animation - The Clone Children

GoAnimate.com: J3L The clone children by MrsHaas

Like it? Create your own at GoAnimate.com. It's free and fun!

The Wombles - A Book Review by Jack

Once upon a time the Wombles went to live on – or rather under – Wimbledon common in South-West London. There may be other Womble families in other parts of the world. In fact there are – but the Wombles like to keep themselves to themselves, so once they’ve made a move and built themselves a comfortable waterproof burrow they tend to stay where they are. The head of the Womble family is Great Uncle Bulgaria.

He is very old indeed and his fur has turned snow white and he feels the cold rather badly. So during the winter months he mostly sits in his own room in a large rocking chair wearing a ragged cloak and two pairs of spectacles. He uses one pair for reading the Times newspaper and the other for looking down on naughty children. The reason he has such an odd name is because he has a big atlas which every Womble chooses their name from. Bungo Womble chose his name with his eyes closed.

Ancient Greek Words

J5 have been studying the roots of words that come from Ancient Greek.

You can find some examples on this website:

http://www.jimloy.com/language/greek.htm

Pablo Gets Lost by Philip HJ in J5

There was once a little blue penguin called Pablo who wanted see a shark. The only problem was that he didn't want to go into the water for there were too many animals that might want to eat him. But, he had an idea.

While Mother Penguin was telling off the other hatchlings, Pablo quickly raced out of the igloo. He was planning to go to the highest iceberg in Antartica so that he could have a good view over the sea.

He raced through snowy blizzards, he raced passed penguin town and finally he slowed down to have a rest. He could see the highest iceberg in Antartica. He made a final leap and clung onto the top of the iceberg. Right below him, there were six sharks circling the iceberg. Suddenly, Pablo slipped and screeched for help. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see his Mummy coming to rescue him. In fact, it was not Mummy Penguin it was Daddy Penguin. Pablo's Daddy scooped him up in his flippers and took him back home.

Now Pablo knows not to go off by himself again.


Philip would like positive suggestions for how he could make this super story even better.

Kitchen Maths

Try baking something at home.

At the weekend I baked these delicious Cookies and Cream Fudge Brownies by Lorraine Pascale. They were delicious. Click here for the recipe.

This week cookery club made

Yummy Cookies
3oz butter
4oz caster sugar

2oz light brown soft sugar

vanilla essence
1 egg (beaten)
6oz self-raising flour
2oz white chocolate buttons
2oz plain chocolate chips
2oz walnuts or cherries
pinch of salt

Method
Cream together the butter, sugar and vanilla essence.
Add the egg.
Fold in the flour, chocolate, salt and nuts.
Space out spoonfuls on a baking tray.
Bake at 180C for 12-15 minutes.

J4 Budding Journalists

During J4 ICT, each class voted for the peron that they thought had made a good start to their newspapers. The winners were:
.

The Tut Times
By Harvey C

An amazing scene has taken place. The tomb of Tutankhamun a previous
Pharaoh of Egypt has been discovered in the valley of kings by Howard Carter. He has been paid a decent amount of money by Lord Carnarvon a rather wealthy man. His tomb was discovered in the valley of kings (a small valley near Ciro).

Tut Telegraph
By Joshua C
Tutankhamen was born in the capital city of Egypt. He was born in the year 1346 BC.

Let's see who can add an interesting quote to their report this week

J5 - Which suffix should you use for 'shun'?

tion sion ssion cian

Spelling rules for these suffixes

cian - where words end in c; jobs / occupations

tion - the most common ending

sion - where the base word ends in d/de or s/se (eg explode, confuse)

ssion - clear soft 'sh' sound

ation - long a is always followed by tion

otion/ution/etion - the base word usually contains the vowel. clearly pronounced

ution words are usually longer than three syllables; usion tends to be shorter

Try the activity where this was taken from:
http://www.saintambrosebarlow.wigan.sch.uk/Y5Spelling/suffixes2Y5t2.htm

BBC KS2 Bitesize Spelling - Good Revision

J3 Assembly Introduction - What are simulations?

GoAnimate.com: J3 Assembly by MrsHaas


Like it? Create your own at GoAnimate.com. It's free and fun!

J6 Find the Sun Travel Project

This is the logo that you need to add to your presentation on Tenerife.






Tenerife presentation checklist:
* Slide 1 - Special Offer, name of travel agency, contact details
* Slide 2 - Average daytime temperature in June in Tenerife
* Slide 3 - URL for a website that gives more information on Tenerife.
All slides must have an appropriate, eye-catching template/background.

Evidence presentation must include screenshots of:
* At least one folder created in your user area
* A picture that has been resized (show before and after)
* How you have navigated between links on a webpage.

This term we are going to create a flyer, a business card and a memo. We are also going to use a speadsheet and e-mail.

The first task you will be required to do is to create a flyer that includes the words:

Special Offer
Three weeks for the price of two
In Tenerife
For all holidays booked in selected hotels in June
Subject to availability
Early booking recommended
Contact Find the Sun Travel at any of our High Street Branches or on 0843 123455.

You must format your text to make your flyer look as good as possible.

You also need to add a bulleted list and more than one graphic. Think carefully about what the reader of a travel flyer on Tenerife would want to know.