Today we looked at the connection between multiplication and division. If you read a times sum backwards, you get a division sum. Look at the example on the board above. See if you can find which times sums go with the divisions on the board.
We read a story we knew well: The Three Billy Goats Gruff. We then read a newspaper report, in the Literacy World textbook, based on the story. We answered questions about the report.
There were some harder questions too. Answers to all the questions, including the harder ones, can be found on the whiteboard images above.
Today we looked at newspaper reports, which are a kind of recount. You can see the difference between a recount and a story on the board above.
Read these two reports. Can you see any differences? They are written from different points of view.
At home please write a fair report on the imaginary playground incident. I have done one on the board above. Use your own words; don't copy my work! Enjoy your homework.
We worked on our tables again today. On the board you can see how to use your tables to do really hard multiplications. Have fun explaining to your family how it works.
We are learning lots about the Romans. It is a really interesting period of history.
Today we practised the 7x table. You can practise saying the 7x table in rhythm at home. No-one can put the knowledge into your head for you. Enjoy learning your 7s so well that you can remember them instantly without having to think.
We looked again at the diary of Gaius Fulvius in the Literacy World non-fiction book. We answered some hard questions about the diary, and we tried writing the diary of Gaius Fulvius's friend, Marcus. Mr Hannay came to the classroom and told us some interesting history about Hadrian's Wall, which is on the line between England and Scotland. The Scottish soldiers were too tough for the Romans to beat in battle. They were Mr Hannay's ancestors.
Next week in literacy we will be looking at newspaper reports. If you can find a newspaper at home, ask your parents if you are allowed to bring a page of it to school, with a headline and other writing on it. Do not worry if you cannot find a newspaper. It is no problem.
This afternoon we watched the first in a series of educational videos about the Romans in Britain. We met the character Barates, the flag seller, from Palmyra in Syria. After that we looked at examples of mosaic patterns, and we made our own mosaics with squared paper. If you want to try creating a mosaic online, click here.
Today we did some more work on our multiplication tables. We need to practise them often so that they stick in our minds. No-one can learn your tables for you. Teachers can give you lots of practice, but we cannot put the tables into your mind. Only you can do that.
We looked at a picture of a mythical creature, the cyclops. We know the cyclops is not real so we will not have nightmares. We noticed lots of features of the cyclops. We made those features into similes and metaphors. Here are some examples.Tomorrow we will read our similes and metaphors aloud to the class, if we had not been chosen to read them today when we ran out of time.
We used our knowledge of times tables to work out the cost of some books, on NHM page 40. We remembered to include pound signs in our answers. Sometimes we had to add two answers together to get the final answer. We also practised using our tables to multiply bigger numbers. We found it surprisingly easy.
We looked again at similes and metaphors. You can see the difference on the board above. We did some shared writing of a poem about our teacher (me). We also read a poem by Ian Souter called My Grandpa. We each wrote a poem in our literacy books about a member of our family. If we had time, we answered some questions about the My Grandpa poem.
The questions are quite hard. Here are my answers. We will talk about them next literacy lesson.
Today we looked at multiplying numbers by 10 and 100. It is really easy when you get used to it. To multiply by 10, you move the numbers one place to the left, then put a zero in the empty units column. What do you do to multiply by 100? Look at the board above to find out.
Today we began our second topic of the year, on the Romans. We know that the Romans lived about 2000 years ago, and that they came from the country we now call Italy. They conquered many other countries. Can you see which words go in the blank spaces on the board above?
This week we are working on times tables. We need to know our tables by heart, so that we can answer questions without having to stop and think. You can practise your tables by trying the multiplication games we saw in class today. Scroll down and look for the links section on the right side of this blog page.
We read the poem Uncle John's Paintbox together. We talked about the difference between a simile (eg I was as red as a tomato) and a metaphor (eg My friend is a bear when he is angry). After that we wrote our own colour poems using similes and metaphors.
We enjoyed the movie Born to be Wild in 3D at the IMAX. When we returned to school we had our Arabic class, and after that we painted pictures of the animals we had seen in the movie. The two pictures shown on the board above are from the website of the movie. You can find the website here.
We did a classwork sheet about counting large numbers in steps of one. You can see the answers to the top part of the sheet on the board above. Some of the lines are counting forward, and others are counting backward.
We began by looking at all the great acrostics we had written at home, after Donavan visited our school yesterday. I put as many as I could fit onto the board. Well done all those who thought of their own acrostics.
Next we read a non-fiction passage about the fairy penguin, a small species of penguin that lives in Australasia. (No, I have not spelled Australia wrongly. Click here to find out more.) We answered questions about the text. We learned that it is no good trying to guess the answers without reading the text carefully first. We also learned that we must link our answers to the text, not just make them up out of our heads. We need to find key words in the text to help us answer each question.
There were some very good answers, showing that we had read and thought carefully. Well done, 4H!
This morning we were visited by Donavan Christopher, a poet and author. He taught us some of his wonderful skills in creating rhythmic poetry. Can you say Get a bit o' butter, get a bit o' bread? Try to say it faster and faster.
We checked our homework and we did a page of classwork (NHM page 3) using the same skills. Those among us who listen well, and are willing to try hard and learn new ways of doing things, make a good job of their work. Some of the answers are on the board above.
If you have a harder question, like 10000 - 100, try covering up the tens and units. Why do we cover up the tens and units? We cover them up because we are subtracting 100, which means we need to work in the hundreds column. Now it looks like 100 - 1, which is easy. 100 - 1 = 99 and all we have to do now is copy the 00 that we covered up. The answer is 9900. 
Remember to bring back your trip slip tomorrow, with KD1.500, please. Our trip will be on Thursday morning this week, to see the IMAX movie Born to be Wild, in connection with our Animals topic.
We started by checking yesterday's homework sheets. Each line on the board above is a sequence of numbers, counting in steps. Sometimes the step number is 10. Sometimes it is 100. On one line the step number is 50.
On this board the numbers go vertically, from top to bottom. Again, the step number is either 10, 100 or 50 in each column. Well done all those students who completed their homework correctly and brought it to school.
Reading for understanding is always more difficult than we think it is. That is why many of us are often disappointed with our comprehension marks. To do well, we need to read really thoroughly, making sure that we understand everything we have read. The questions on the board above, all about the Kraken on pages 2 and 3 of the Literacy World book, are very hard. Answers to all of the questions can be found on those two pages, but some are difficult to find. I have given example answers in blue.
This week we are practising counting in steps. We started by adding 10 to a set of number, and then we tried subtracting 10. We can also count in steps of 50 and 100, both forward and backward.
Today we looked at a non-chronological report on the mangot, a mythical creature. We identified key words that make the mangot appear fierce and nasty. We changed those words to make it seem much more friendly. Compare the descriptions on the boards above and below. Click to enlarge as usual.
Changing the key words makes the animal seem completely different. We used a thesaurus and dictionary to help us find suitable words.
As we had not yet finished our work on endangered species, we continued in today's topic lessons. We looked at three endangered species:
We looked at yesterday's homework and we collected examples of facts, verbs and adjectives that we had found. We found a lot! After that we started to think of our own imaginary creatures. We began to write non-chronological reports on our mythical creatures, like the one we did together in class yesterday.
At home, please finish writing about your creature in your literacy book. Remember to write:
- About the Beast (name, type, size, habitat, food)
- Distinguishing Features (things that make the creature special)
- Behaviour (what the creature does)
Each section should have about five sentences or bullet points. Enjoy doing a good job of your homework.
Working in pairs, we looked at pictures of solid shapes and made them out of multilink blocks. Some were hard because the lines between the blocks were not printed. Nevertheless, we managed to build all of the shapes with the right number of blocks. Well done, 4H!
We looked at the non-chronological reports on mythical creatures in the Literacy World book, and we used the same subheadings to create a report on our own shared mythical creature. Mythical means it is not real. It exists only in the imagination. Our creature is called a turticorn. If you look at the board above, I think you will see why we chose that name.Enjoy doing your homework.
We looked through our homework from yesterday. We thought hard about examples to prove, or disprove, the sentences on the sheet. When a sentence talks about all prisms or all pyramids, we need only find one example to prove the sentence false. When a sentence is true, we have to think of a reason why it must be true for ALL prisms or ALL pyramids.
We remembered our experiment with three different beakers of water, and we wrote about it today. We thought carefully about the method, the results and the conclusion. The brain can be fooled easily. One person, using fingers on two different hands, can feel that the same water is hot and cold at the same time!
Next week, on Wednesday, we will have a short test on the first science unit. That is why I have given you the books to read at home. You do not need to learn everything in the textbook! It would be too much. You need to know the things on the board really well. Understanding is more important than just learning to repeat the sentences, though.
We looked carefully at page 104 of the NHM book and we counted the vertices of various solid shapes. Some of the solids have names that are difficult to spell so we had to take extra care. A vertex is a corner. Instead of saying vertexes, we say vertices.
Next we counted the straight edges of the solids. We had to take care not to miss any of them. Some of the solids do not have any straight edges at all.
Every one of us gave a fact, a verb or an adjective that we had found during our homework yesterday. Our words and phrases are on the board above. Each of the adjectives, verbs and phrases comes from pages 9 to 11 in the Literacy World non-fiction anthology. Well done, 4H, for good reading.
We read a factual report about dragons. We discussed why dragons appear in a non-fiction book. If this was a story about dragons, it would be in a fiction book. A non-chronological report belongs in a non-fiction book, even if it is about creatures that are not real. What is a non-chronological report? It is a set of facts about something, when the order they are in does not matter.
At home please read pages 9, 10 and 11 again. Find one fact, one verb and one adjective that we did not find in class. Write them in your literacy book. Enjoy doing your homework.
We began by checking our homework from yesterday. We had named the shapes correctly. Some of the spellings are challenging, though. The words were all printed on page 103.
After that we had a very interesting discussion about prisms. We decided which of the shapes on the board were prisms, and which were not. We sorted them all correctly. Well done!
