Parents and Carers

 

Sometimes we all need someone to turn to for advice and support. We're glad to help and are happy for you to talk to us. In addition to what we can offer, please click on the following link where you will find information about organisations that you might find useful. Thank you. 

To share completed work, or if you require any help or advice with the work that has been set,

please contact us at:

advice@mapledeneschool.com

Thank you. 

Friday 5th February 2021

 

 

Good morning and well done for all of your fantastic work this week, Year 4! Both Mr Mac and myself are so impressed with all of the wonderful work that you have been doing at home, and we have both been receiving so many pictures of brilliant home learning. We've nearly finished this week and there's only one more to go until half term now - so keep it up!

 

Today is dress to express day, so make sure you're wearing something that will really show off and celebrate who you are.

 

Here's our timetable for today:

 

 

There will be a Celebration Assembly on YouTube today too, where we will see how well 4S and 4M have done in the Doodle awards! Did you see that last week, Charlie hit a 200-day streak on Doodle? Wow!

 

 

Here are our green champions for Doodle this week:

 

In Doodle Maths, our green children are:

 

Harry, Lexi, Aidan, Grace, Lujaina, Oliver, Noah, Elarna, Jacobi, Charlie, Drake, George G, William, Finley, Harley and Alex!

 

In Doodle Tables, our green children are:

 

Grace, Charlie, Lujaina, Lexi, Noah, Oliver, Alex, Finley, Drake, George G, Paris and Amelia!

 

In Doodle English, our green children are:

 

Elarna, Grace, Oliver, Lexi, Noah, Charlie, Lujaina, Drake, Alex and George G!

 

In Doodle Spell, our green children are:

 

Grace, Elarna, Lexi, Oliver, Charlie, Noah, Drake, George G, William and Finley!

 

The following children have got into the green zone on all four Doodle areas this week and will each receive a merit for their excellent Doodling. So many of you were green in 3/4 of the Doodle apps! If you were really close to being green in all four areas this week, push yourself to earn that merit next Friday.

 

Merit winners this week: Grace, Lexi, Oliver, Noah, Charlie, Drake and George G!

 

 

Also this week, we'd love to wish a very special well done to Grace, Jake and Elarna, who all received their 25 merit certificates this week. Who will be next?

 

You may have seen that there is now a section called 'Celebrating Your Work' on the Year 4 class page. This has replaced the Hall of Fame that we used to upload every week - instead, you can have a little look on there to see if any of your work has been shared. This is so that the many, many pictures of super duper work can still be shared, without causing this page to load or run more slowly.

 

On to today!

 

We'd like you to begin today by doing a little bit of research. This may seem unusual, as we normally jump straight into our maths lesson first-thing. But, this week, something unusual has been uncovered.

 

Click on the link to find out more:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-55902631

 

That's right! This news article was posted earlier this week! What a super coincidence. A group of poorly-preserved mummies have recently been discovered in Egypt, just outside a town called Alexandria. You may remember where this city is, from the geography work we did a few weeks ago. Most unusual of all, one of the mummies had a gold tongue.

 

 

The archaeologists working on the site believe that this gold tongue was made and left with the body to help them communicate with Osiris and the gods in the afterlife. We know from our own learning that the Egyptians used to leave all sorts of treasures and jewels - and sometimes even people and pets - with the mummies, so that they could take them into the afterlife. It makes sense, then, that they might need to have a golden tongue that they could take with them too.

 

Also, this discovery has highlighted how important the subject of history is. Some of you may even grow up to study history further and may even end up working on archaeological digs yourselves! Now that would be a very exciting career.

 

We thought you might like to spend some time today looking through the news websites and finding out more about this discovery. There are already some videos on YouTube if you're interested in learning more. Share what you research with us at advice@mapledeneschool.com.

 

Maths

Today in maths we would like you to visit:

https://www.timestables.co.uk/games/

Spend some time playing on the times tables games. No pressure today to do a speed test (unless you really want to of course). Instead, just have fun learning and practising through playing the games.

 

Non-spelling dictation Zoom

We would love as many of you as possible to join us on Zoom today for a non-spelling test. Today we won’t be doing a spelling dictation, but instead we will take the time to have a chat about how you are getting on and sharing tips for being positive! Remember to dress to impress. Wear whatever you think expresses who you are. It could be a football kit or a superhero t-shirt. It is up to you.

We hope to see you there.

 

If you can’t make today’s meeting then please take the time to get on to Doodle and see if you can get in the green zone, earn lots of stars and update your robots, pandas and passports.

 

Writing

Next up, it's writing. We're going to be writing a set of instructions on how to mummify a body. You should have started this by drafting out an introduction yesterday. Now, today you are going to put into practise all of the grammar that we have covered over the week.

 

We need to see:

• time conjunctions (these could be fronted adverbials)
• imperative verbs

 

And we'd like to see some of the grammar we've covered previously:

• correct punctuation (e.g. commas after fronted adverbials, full stops at the end of each sentence etc.)
• expanded noun phrases
• prepositions

 

You can use many of these together within each sentence. For example:

 

1. Next, cut out the liver, lungs, intestines and stomach with a razor-sharp knife and place them carefully inside the correct canonic jars.

 

Here's a WAGOLL (What A Good One Looks Like) that we have found to show you an example, but we think that you could do much better than this one, simply by including everything listed above:

Year 4's positive afternoon!

Miss Smith and Mr Mac wanted to let you know just how utterly brilliant we think you all are. Your work this week has been fantastic and your smiling faces on the pictures we have received and the faces of the children in school has made us feel so happy to be part of such an amazing group of people (and, as Mr Mac always says, that includes your mums, dads, nans, grandads, aunts, uncles, friends, neighbours, dogs, cats and budgies too).

 

Our focus all this week has been on children’s mental health and this afternoon we are going to do things a bit differently because as McFly would say, “It’s All About You”.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NyDyllvEFfs

 

Today in our Zoom, we focused on being able to recognise the positives in a situation, even when life gets tough. Trying to keep a positive outlook doesn't necessarily mean that we can't feel sad or recognise that things can go wrong. It's totally normal to feel sad or worried or anxious sometimes. But, we have to also try to see that there will always be something to feel positive about too.

For example, when learning from home, we know that you miss your friends and adults around school. You might miss going up to the ICT room for times tables on a Friday morning, playing football at break or eating lunch in the Quiet Room with a friend. BUT, we are still able to feel grateful and positive for other things, like:

• we get to spend more time with people in our household
• you can choose which order to do your lessons in
• you can eat and drink whenever you'd like to (Miss Smith drinks about 673 cups of tea a day when she's working from home!)

 

So, for this afternoon, we'd like you to begin by making a list or a poster of all of the things that you can feel positive about. Keep it somewhere so that you can remind yourself that there are still things to smile about, no matter what. 

 

Then, we'd like you to do something for the rest of the afternoon that will make you feel positive. Here are some of our suggestions:

 

1. There's nothing quite like losing yourself in a really good book. So today, we want you to get absorbed in a great story, adventure, non-fiction book, comic, newspaper or pamphlet. We really don’t mind what you choose to read but find somewhere calm, maybe put on some quiet music and relax into your reading.

2. Have some good, educational fun! Click on the link below and you can download a model mummy and sarcophagus that you could make!

3. Let off some steam: sing, dance, do some exercises. Get your heart pumping.

4. Create: build a den, make something with LEGO or get busy in the kitchen making something delicious.

5. Spend some time with somebody you love. Share how you are feeling. Ask them how they are feeling. Remind each other that there are lots of positive things happening in our lives.

A final note...

Next week in our sound lesson in science, we will be asking the children to make a good old-fashioned string telephone like this:

To do so, they will need:

• cups (these could be paper, plastic, tin cans - or yoghurt pots work really well!)
• wool, thread, fishing line or string
• something sharp to make a hole (and maybe some adult supervision here too)

 

We're telling you now so that if you or your family finish a tin of beans or munch through some yoghurts over the weekend, it would be fantastic if you could keep the tins/pots/cups, clean them out and save them until Tuesday.

 

Of course, please do not worry if you don't have the equipment, as the children will still be able to join in with the learning through a demonstration and a video about how it works.

 

Have a great afternoon and we will see you back here on Monday.

 

Miss Smith and Mr Mac

Thursday 4th February 2021

 

Good morning everybody! It was so lovely to see lots of you on Zoom yesterday, especially those of you who were dressed to express. Thank you for sharing some of your favourite possessions or pastimes with us too - it really made us smile. Remember to send us a photo of you to be included in this week's assembly... If you can send it over this morning, we may just be able to sneak it in in time.

 

Here's our timetable for today:

 

 

Let's start with the Beautiful Oops video that Mr Mac was talking about on Zoom yesterday - proof that it is always okay to make a mistake! Whatever life throws at us, we need to make the best of it!

 

Maths

Today, we are going to be learning all about symmetry in 2D shapes. Start by following this link and watch the video:

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/topics/zrhp34j/articles/z8t72p3

 

After watching the video, please work through the PowerPoint and the two activities below.

 

The symmetry work for today shouldn't take you too long, so please log onto Doodle and complete all of your Added Extras for the week today too. These Extras cover all of our week's learning about shape - from parallel and perpendicular lines to identifying shapes based on their properties. We can't wait to see you in the green zone.

Reading

Today, we would like you to continue reading about the Story of Osiris. Please read Chapter 2 and then answer the questions below. 

Writing

Do you remember what a rhetorical question is? Don’t answer that, it’s a rhetorical question.

 

Today we are going to revise rhetorical questions. Every great set of instructions starts with an introduction and your introduction should always include some rhetorical questions. Do you know why? Don’t answer that either, it was another rhetorical question. The answer was: to engage the reader!

 

Asking your reader a question helps by making them them mentally answer the question, which can get them interested and make them want to read on. Have a look at the information below and then we would like you to have a go at one of the sheets below. Choose 1, 2 or 3 stars.

After you finish the sheet, we would like you to write an introduction to your instructions for making a mummy. It should look something like this…

 

Do you need to prepare a dead body for the afterlife? Have you got lots of bandages just sitting around? If you have answered yes, then why not mummify your corpse? It’s incredibly easy to do if you just follow these simple instructions.

 

Now keep your introduction somewhere safe as tomorrow we will be writing our fabulously gruesome instructions.

PE

For this afternoon, we are going to be continuing with our gymnastics. This week, we would like you to try some rolling. You may find this a little tricky, but there is a presentation below with videos to help you. Don’t worry if a forward roll is too tough, there are other rolls to try.

 

Remember to make sure you have plenty of space around you and a soft floor before you begin.

Music

Here is a lesson from Miss Sanders.

 

As it is Children’s Mental Health Week this week, I thought it would be good to remind ourselves of the song ‘It’s OK! Just say’. Sing or sign along depending on where you are and really listen to the message that the words are telling you. Remember, to talk to someone if you are not feeling OK.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RaIuIhsN44Y

 

I also have a new song for you to learn this week. First of all, click on the link below to warm up your bodies and voices. Make you sure you have clicked on the tab ‘Move to the Pulse’ and have fun following the actions.

 

https://charanga.com/resources/36878-flexible-games-track-bringing-us-together

 

Now, click on this link to listen to the chorus and follow the words. When you are confident have a go at joining in.

 

https://charanga.com/resources/36874-learn-to-sing-the-song-bringing-us-together

 

We are going to learn about music from Ancient Egypt this week. Click on the powerpoint below to learn all about when and where music was played in Ancient Egypt and what the instruments looked like.

 

Advance warning: Next week, we will be making our own Ancient Egyptian instruments. You will need to have 2 pieces of A4 card (these could be cut from a cereal box) and some string, wire or a pipe cleaner. You will also need something that rattles such as milk bottle tops, beads, metal washers or pasta. Don’t worry if you can’t find these things as you will still be able to join in with the lesson.

Wednesday 3rd February 2021

 

Good morning and a happy Wednesday! Here's our timetable for the day:

 

 

Maths

Today we're starting with some maths! We're going to look a little closer at the angles we find within shapes. Watch the video below from Miss Smith and then follow the link to the lesson from BBC Bitesize. After this, we have two activities for you to complete.

 

Follow the lesson here:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/articles/zfbc3j6

Reading

Today, we would like you to start to read the short story below, The Story of Osiris. We'd like you to begin by reading Chapter 1. Please read through it carefully; we will continue the story throughout the rest of this week and it will also help to inform some of the work we have planned for you for next week too.

 

In the first chapter, we meet two very different characters: Osiris and Seth. Once you have read it, please come up with a list of qualities or traits that these two characters have. For example:

 

Osiris

• bright
• extremely kind

 

Seth

• resentful
• jealous

Grammar

As we continue to build up to writing our own instruction texts, we would like you to remind yourselves about imperative verbs. These are 'bossy' verbs that we use when writing instructions, and you have probably come across them in Key Stage 1.

 

Here's a quick recap: https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/topics/zrqqtfr/articles/z8strwx

 

You should also through the presentation below to remind yourself how they are used and then complete the 3 activity sheets below. They are slightly different to the usual worksheets we have been giving you but hopefully you will enjoy the challenge and have fun practising.

PHSE

We hope you watched the Children's Mental Health assembly at the beginning of the week. Join us for a Zoom lesson this afternoon, where we will be talking all about our mental wellbeing. After the Zoom lesson, or if you cannot make it to the Zoom lesson, we would like you to think about what expressing different emotions might look like.

 

You can start by watching how we can use sign language to express emotions:

 

 

Following this, we'd like you to complete the following activities:

 

Activity 1

Begin by coming up with a range of emotions together. If you're struggling to think of some, use some from the YouTube video or any of the ones listed below:

 

gratitude

surprise

boredom

happiness

calmness

disappointment

frustration

worry

confidence

pride

jealousy

excitement

 

Explore the emotions that you have come up with. What do we mean by that word? What do you think of when you hear that word? When might you feel that way? How might it affect our body?

 

Activity 2

Look at the different situation cards below. Can you explain how somebody might be feeling in each situation? There may be more than one appropriate emotion for each.

 

Then, think about what you could do in each situation. If it is a situation that  would make you feel bad, how could you make it better? Who could you speak to if you were worried?

Spanish

This week, we are going to be learning some new vocabulary based on animals. Do you know any animals in Spanish already? 

 

Watch the video with Miss Cook to learn some animals in Spanish. Don’t forget to join in and repeat the words after Miss Cook! 

 

Once you have watched the video, play some of the games on the website below. Make sure the selection is animals. 

 

https://www.spanish-games.net/spanishgames

As always, stay safe and enjoy all of your learning! Please send us your hard work at advice@mapledeneschool.com.

 

Miss Smith & Mr Mac 

Tuesday 2nd February 2021

 

Good morning, Year 4!

 

 

Zoom Aerobics Session- Children's Mental Health Week

Miss Ellgood is holding a one-off aerobics session on Zoom in aid of Children's Mental Health week today at 4pm. If you would like to join, please complete the form below by midday today and you will be emailed the Zoom details. Places will be given on a first-come first-served basis (if you are able to fill the form out then your child(ren) has a place.) https://docs.google.com/forms/d/17mcqzaUb337qXGPH8V-NDgvWt7lyiRLhjjfCvEl-RT4/edit

 

Here's our timetable for today:

 

 

All instructions and resources can be found below.

 

Maths

Well done for all of your work yesterday! We have some more shape challenges today. First, follow the BBC Bitesize link below, where you will find a recap about the different types of triangles and some follow-on activities.

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/articles/z348cmn

 

 

Then, please watch the video and complete the activities below.

 

Please note: Usually, one short strike along the side of a shape (as you can see on the triangles above) signifies that the sides are of equal length. For example, in the isosceles triangle, you can see that two of the sides are identical as they have a strike along them. In the equilateral triangle, all three sides share a strike as all three are equal. In the video below, the PowerPoint uses a strike to represent parallel lines too, which is incorrect. Miss Smith has explained in the video that usually we would signify parallel lines using arrows instead, like below.

 

 

 

Reading

After all of the mummification work yesterday, you should know EVERYTHING there is to know about mummies. Have a go at the guided reading text below about canopic jars and see if you can answer all of the questions.

 

As always, the texts range form 3 stars which is the hardest down to 1 star which should be slightly easier. Choose the level which you think is the right challenge for you.

English

This week we are going to write instructions for making a mummy. There are lots of important things to remember when writing instructions. Today we are going to remind you about time conjunctions. These are really useful when ordering our instructions but do you remember what they are?

Look at the presentation below then answer the two sheets when the presentation asks you to do so.

Science

 

Last week we looked at changing the pitch of a sound by altering the speed of the vibration. This week, instead of asking you to make sound, we are going to ask you to try to stop it!

 

Firstly we would like you to join in with this lesson by Miss Roberts who will tell you about how to make sounds louder.

 

https://classroom.thenational.academy/lessons/what-is-acoustics-6tj6at

 

Now look at the presentation below and think about how you can use what you have just learnt to make sounds quieter. After looking at the presentation we would love you to spend some time experimenting with materials in your house and recording your learning on the sheet below. Happy experimenting scientists. We look forward to hearing about all your findings.

Express yourself!

For the final part of our day, we'd like you take some time for yourself and do something that shows off your personal interests; for example, building something out of Lego, painting a picture, helping someone, or expressing how you are feeling through music, dance or drama. Self-expression is all about communicating who you are as a person - your story, your thoughts and your feelings. We'd love to see pictures or videos of what you come up with!

We'd love to see your work today, so please send it to us via advice@mapledeneschool.com.

Mr Mac & Miss Smith

Zoom Aerobics Session- Children's Mental Health Week

It's a fact that exercise can improve mental health- especially during a lockdown! Therefore Miss Ellgood will be holding a one-off aerobics session on Zoom in aid of Children's Mental Health week. This will take place on Tuesday 2nd February at 4pm. If your child(ren) would like to join, please complete the form below by midday on Tuesday and you will be emailed the Zoom details. Places will be given on a first-come first-served basis (if you are able to fill the form out then your child(ren) has a place.) https://docs.google.com/forms/d/17mcqzaUb337qXGPH8V-NDgvWt7lyiRLhjjfCvEl-RT4/edit 

Monday 1st February 2021

 

Here is the timetable for today:

 

 

Assembly

We hope you had a great weekend. Before we start working for today, we would like you to watch this assembly about Children’s Mental Health at 9am.

 

https://classroom.thenational.academy/assemblies/childrens-mental-health-week-2021

 

This week is all about raising awareness of the importance of our mental health. The theme this year is 'Express Yourself' and we will be looking at ways in which we can do this over the course of the week. This might be sharing your feelings, thoughts or ideas through being creative - perhaps through art, writing, dancing or singing! It's about finding a way to show other people who you are and how you are feeling. This is a great way to improve your mental wellbeing. The assembly will cover lots of important information for all of us, all around the country, currently at home, and will spread a positive message about the power of creative self-expression. You might even spot some famous faces taking part live from their homes!

 

Now for the week that lies ahead… this is the week when we talk about mummies, and we're not talking about mummies and daddies, but Ancient Egyptian mummies. BEWARE, gory and gooey disgusting stuff lies ahead this week.

 

But first…

 

Maths

Time to get into shape… no, we don’t mean exercising, we mean shapes. Look at the information below and then answer the sheets to show that you understand all about the properties of different 2D shapes.

 

In the video, Miss Smith talks about some of the language that you will become familiar with this week, including the names given to shapes with up to 10 sides in total. She will also show you how to sort shapes using a Venn diagram.

 

After watching the video, have a go at some of the activities below.

Reading

Today we would like you to read the information sheet about mummies that you will find below.

Now if you are able to, join us for a Zoom lesson at 10:30 am where we can discuss the text together.

 

If not write down some subheadings that you could use to organise a piece of non-fiction writing about the mummification process. For example, your first subheading may be:

 

Washing and Purifying the Body

 

English

We are going to do things a bit differently today, as we feel it will really help with your writing later on in the week if we start with some information about mummification.

 

Watch Mr Mac’s video and then have a go at the tasks beneath to explain how Egyptians turned the dead into mummies. Make sure you include interesting facts that you have picked up from the video. If you have forgotten anything, don’t forget that you can watch the video again or look at the presentation which you will find below.

History

It certainly has been a very mummy heavy day. When will the daddies get a look in?

After all of your learning about mummies this morning, we would like you to think about the steps that were taken when preparing the mummy. Look at the presentation below and then have a go at the activities beneath.

 

Activity 1 - From memory, order the steps involved in mummification from beginning to end. You can print the sheet out and cut out the steps and reorder them, or print it out and number each step from 1-8, or simply write the steps out into the correct order.

 

Activity 2 - Think about the messages that the Egyptians might have placed between the layers of bandages, to inform the gods about the person being buried, show their good deeds and prove that they deserved a safe passage into the afterlife. What would you write about a person to prove that they had lived a good life?

PE

Just another Manic Monday!

 

This week, our focus is on you and your mental health. Did you know that exercise is proven to improve your mood, improve your energy levels and reduce feelings of stress? Therefore, our first activity this week centred around mental health is going to focus on getting active!

 

In fact, exercise is as important to your health (both mentally and physically) as food. And you wouldn’t even try to go a whole day without food, would you? It is the start of the week and, if like us you have been doing lots of sitting around watching TV, then it’s time to get moving. Get on your feet and make up a circuit of activities that you can do for at least 20 minutes. It could involve press ups and sit ups, or it could be juggling with a football, or balancing a ball on a tennis racquet. Think of about 5 activities and do them for a minute each, complete the circuit 4 times, and you will have done 20 minutes. See, it’s easy. You could even get members of your family involved and each think of one activity to do.

 

Can’t think of anything? No problem. Find a Joe Wicks video or some other fitness guru, there are loads of examples online. Just make sure you find something enjoyable, so that at the end of it you feel a little bit tired and a big bit happy.

 

SEE YOU TOMORROW!

Miss Smith and Mr Mac