What a super show!

We all enjoyed the Kuwait National show today, put on by the Arabic department. Well done to everyone who was involved. Thanks also to the kind people who brought in food to share. We did some work as well, designing our own puzzles and word searches on a Kuwait theme, and we also solved some logic puzzles.

Have a wonderful holiday. Whether you are travelling or staying in Kuwait, stay safe and come back refreshed on Sunday 4 March. See you then!

Science: study list for quiz

After the February holiday we will have a short science quiz on Circuits and Conductors. To prepare for the quiz, please look at the information on the board above. Remember you do not have to learn the sentences like a parrot. Understanding is much more important than just remembering words. Check the important pages of the textbook, shown on the board. You do not need to study the whole textbook. You can use your homework time today to begin studying, and you can study during the holiday. We will have the quiz the week after the holiday.

Literacy: techniques used in advertisements

We looked carefully at the advertisements on pages 34 and 35 of the textbook. We identified the tricks that had been used to make the advertisements effective. You can see our findings on the board above. All the adverts had images, because images are noticed more easily than words. All the advertisements used snappy slogans, which are words used in clever and memorable ways.

Maths: sorting diagrams

We used Venn diagrams to sort letters into groups for homework. Those of us who took care, and looked carefully at each letter without trying to guess quickly, managed to put all the letters into the correct places. Well done!

Remember: if a letter goes in both sets, it goes in the middle. If it goes in neither set, it goes outside.

Finally we revised our earlier work on Carroll diagrams. Nothing goes outside a Carroll diagram. Everything fits in somewhere. We have to think about each question separately. Is the letter capital? If so, it goes on the left side. If not, it goes on the right side. Is the letter a vowel? If so, it goes at the top. If not, it goes at the bottom. Lastly we put the two answers together. For example, a capital vowel would go at the top left.

Here is another Carroll diagram with different titles. Where would a capital J go on the diagram? Think carefully!

Maths: Venn diagrams

We did two Venn diagrams in class today. We dragged the numbers on the screen to their correct places in the diagrams. Can you find the number you dragged, and show it to your family at home? Perhaps you can think of other numbers that could be placed on the diagrams.

The second Venn diagram has the word divisible in it. If a number is divisible by 4, it is in the 4x table. A number can be in the divisible by 3 or 4 set if it is in the 3x table or the 4x table.

At home please do questions 1 and 3 on page 64 (just the Venn diagrams). You can do the Explore if you want to. Enjoy doing your homework.

Literacy: looking at advertisements

We had looked at the last two advertisements at home, and we had come up with some super answers. My examples on the board above are not the only possible correct answers. Others are possible too. If you found something that I missed, well done!

Literacy: looking at advertisements

We looked carefully at the advertisements on pages 32 and 33 of the Literacy World book. We completed the first three parts of Resource Sheet 1 together.

At home please complete the last two parts of Resource Sheet 1, about Sounds of the Future and Have you Got an Enquiring Mind? Write what is being advertised; the evidence that shows us what is being advertised; who the advertisement is aimed at; and what they want us to do. If you were listening well in class it should be quite easy. Enjoy doing your homework.

Maths: Carroll diagrams

Our homework was quite easy if we thought about the two questions separately. First decide whether the shape is a polygon or not. If it is, it goes on the left side of the diagram. Then decide if the shape is a quadrilateral or not. That tells us whether to put it at the top or the bottom. Remember:

• a polygon has straight sides only, and


• a quadrilateral has four straight sides.

Can you explain why the top right of the diagram must always be empty?

The second diagram has different titles. Again, think about the two questions separately. First decide whether the shape is regular (all sides the same length). That tells us whether it goes on the left or the right of the diagram. Then decide whether it is a triangle or not.

Today's classwork exercise was to sort the shapes shown on the board above. Yet again there are two questions. Look at the titles of the diagram to see what the questions are. Are all the shapes correctly placed? Check them carefully.

Maths: Carroll diagrams

We looked at Carroll diagrams last term in the run-up to our exams. Now we have time to look at them again, more thoroughly. We have to be careful when choosing titles for the rows and columns of Carroll diagrams. Whatever the first column is entitled, the second column must be NOT what the first column is. The same applies to the first row and the second row. The second row must be NOT whatever the first row is. Can you think of a number that could go in the bottom left part of the diagram? It must be less than 50, and it must be a multiple of 10.

The Carroll diagram on the board above is taken from the Abacus book. The two sentences at the bottom of the board are true, based on the information in the diagram. Can you think of other true sentences that fit the information in the diagram?

At home please finish Abacus page 63. Remember to use a full page for question 8, and a full page for question 9. That way you have enough space to draw the shapes inside the Carroll diagram. Did you know that the Carroll diagram was invented by Charles Dodgson, the writer of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland? He used the name Lewis Carroll.

Literacy: verbs revision, and persuading people

We began by looking at the basic exercise on verbs that we had done for homework. Generally we had done it well. Almost all of us had used a ruler to underline the date, and written the sentences neatly with full stops and capital letters. Well done, 4H!

Next we moved on to our new unit, persuasive writing. We looked at some video clips of TV commercials, including this one for Evian water. All of the commercials had images and words that were easy to remember. They were trying to persuade us to buy their products. Persuading someone means making them want to do something. The image shown above is meant to persuade us not to play games or text on our mobile phones while we are crossing the road. Do the words GAME OVER have more than one meaning? Yes. They can mean the end of the game on the mobile phone, and the end of the boy's life. Tomorrow we will look at more examples of persuasive writing and images, and we will start to make our own.

Literacy: tenses

We all need to take care with our tenses when we are speaking English. We find it easier when we are writing, because we think carefully. It is harder when we are speaking quickly and we have less time to think. The solution is to practise often. Speak English outside school as much as you can, and listen to English being spoken well. Audio books and BBC radio are good. Check the whiteboard above for examples of tenses.

We did two exercises on tenses in class. The first one is on the board above, with the past tense verbs in red. At home please do the verbs exercise on page 9 of the JE2 book (parts A and B). Write the full sentences in your literacy book.

Click here for the interactive basketball game, all about tenses, that we tried in class.

Maths: World Maths Day practice

We did not manage a maths lesson in class today because of our music lesson, postponed from yesterday. If you want to keep your maths skills sharp, get onto http://www.worldeducationalgames.com/ and keep NES at the top of the hall of fame! World Maths Day is on 7 March.

Science: different kinds of circuit

This afternoon we caught up with our science lesson, after switching it from yesterday. We used cells, bulbs and buzzers to make more complex circuits. We found a way to make the buzzer loud and the bulb bright, by first making a simple circuit with a buzzer only. We then added a bulb by connecting it to both sides of the buzzer.

Literacy: example comprehension answers

We answered the comprehension questions for the story A Close Shave in class. We had to read carefully to find evidence to support our answers. Guessing, or just trying to remember, does not get high marks. Scan the text for key words but do not copy blocks of the story. Try to use your own words to prove that you understand.

Here are my example answers. Some of the questions are harder than they look. At home please compare your answers with mine. I gave you the sheets back to take home. Perhaps you can think of even better answers than I have! Enjoy doing your homework.

Maths: grams and kilograms

We looked again at grams and kilograms, using the Abacus books. We practised converting between the two ways, getting the zeroes in the right places.

Update: World Maths Day practice

Well done Bander, Yousif, Omar El D, Abdulwahab, Nadeen, Maria, Bakr, Saba, Chantal, Raghad, Jassim, Wei Qian, Othman, Salman, Fadi, Lulwa, Rahaf, Fahad, Dalia and Arwa for getting yourselves into the Hall of Fame already, on the World Maths Day website. Keep practising, or other people will rise above you in the Hall of Fame!

World Education Days: 6th, 7th and 8th March

World Education Day is coming. It will in fact be three days: the 6th, 7th and 8th March. World Maths Day is the middle one, 7 March. You can start practising online right now. Everyone has been given a user name and a password. Go to http://www.worldeducationgames.com/ and sign in. Click on the Maths tab and away you go! Have fun practising and polishing up your skills. Your homework today is to log in and get started.

Maths: grams and kilograms

We looked at ways of writing mass. We can write in grams, or we can write in grams and kilograms. Check the examples on the board above. Sometimes we need to put a zero to show that a column is empty. If we do not put the zero, the other numbers will be in the wrong columns.

We finished with two harder questions about mass. The solutions are in blue on the board above. I have shown my working, and I have used words in the answers to match the words in the questions.

Literacy: reading for understanding

We looked through our answers to the comprehension questions about Catherine and the Carrot King. As usual, those of us who had looked back at the text had done best. If we try to guess, or to answer the questions from memory, we are likely to get a low mark. We need to find evidence from the text to back up our answers. We also need to listen carefully to the help we get in class, before we do a written task.

Literacy: punctuation and comprehension

We looked again at the simple rules of speech marks and other punctuation. We all know what to do. We just have to make sure we do it, in all our writing. Think carefully about which letters need to be capital, and which do not.

We read through the story of Catherine and the Carrot King. We noticed clever techniques used by the writer, like repeating words so that the reader can predict what is coming next, and splitting speech by putting the reporting clause in the middle of the sentence for emphasis. We pretended to be literary critics, and we gave reasons why we liked or did not like the story.

At home please answer the comprehension questions on the sheet about the Carrot King story. Enjoy doing your homework. Aim for a great mark!

Maths: adding and subtracting masses

We looked at adding and subtracting masses. When one mass is in g and the other is in kg, we have to change one of them. We need both masses in the same unit. We can have them both in grams, or we can have them both in kilograms. Check the example on the board above. 8400g is the same as 8.4kg, so we get the same answer whichever way we use.

Maths: weighing using kg and g

We used kitchen scales to weigh pieces of fruit. First we estimated the mass of the fruit in kg, by holding it in our hands. Then we weighed it on the scales to see how close our estimate was. If we were wrong, it did not matter, because we learned to adjust our estimates in the right direction. We also tried writing masses in kg using a decimal point. We became quite good at it, getting the zeroes and other figures in the right places.

Click here to practise reading a scale online.

For homework, please do the right side of the sheet I gave you. Show your working in your orange book. The challenge at the bottom is harder. You can try it if you want to. Enjoy doing your homework.

Literacy: using punctuation in speech

Again we practised punctuating speech, and we added reporting clauses and adverbial clauses, as last week. The conversation on the board is a made-up one, with jokes in it. Can you see the jokes? Because the old ladies are rather deaf, they do not hear each other correctly, and they misunderstand each other.

Well done, Blues!

Congratulations to the Blue team on winning this year's annual NES Junior Sports Day! Well done also to everyone who made the effort to take part, and scored points for their team. It was a very enjoyable day. Thanks to the PE department for organising everything.

Literacy: reporting clauses and adverbial clauses

We looked again at reporting clauses (shown in blue above) and adverbial clauses (shown in red). Today we thought of our own reporting clauses and adverbial clauses. There are some examples on the board above, but there are other possible answers too.

At home please do the exercise on adverbs, on page 43 of the JE2 book, part C only. Write the whole sentence please, in your literacy book. I will collect the homework in on Sunday morning, because it is Sports Day tomorrow and we do not need to bring books to school. Enjoy doing your homework.

Science: making a Morse Code circuit

We are good at making circuits now, and we can identify which part of the circuit is not working if the bulb does not light. We find out by borrowing parts from other groups whose circuits are working. By testing one part at a time, we can find out which of our parts is no good, and we can ask for that part to be replaced. Well done, circuit troubleshooters!

When we had all our circuits working properly we tried using Morse Code to flash our names. You can see the Morse Code on the board above. It has been used for many years to send messages. People who use Morse Code all the time have learned it by heart, but we do not need to learn it. We can look it up online if we need it.

Maths: dividing using arrays

Today we looked at arrays, which are patterns made by numbers. You can make a division sum using an array. The first array shown has 18 parts. There are 3 rows and 6 columns, so 18 divided by 3 is 6.

Here are some arrays for 36. There are lots of arrays with 36 parts, so we can make lots of division sums that start with 36.

Some numbers cannot make an array at all. They are called prime numbers. You will learn lots more about prime numbers in the next few years of your education. They are very useful in mathematics.

Maths: division by 7

We thought of new ways of dividing by 7. We tried to use mental methods, because that will teach us much more than simply repeating old-fashioned written methods in a robotic way that involves no understanding. We split the numbers up into parts, using our knowledge of the 7x table to help us. You can find an explanation on the board above.

At home please do sheet 50, which has a mixture of inverse tables questions that involve division. Enjoy your homework and check your answers carefully.

Literacy: reporting clauses and adverbial clauses

This afternoon we looked at reporting clauses and adverbial clauses. The reporting clause tells you who is speaking. On the board above, the reporting clauses are in blue. The adverbial clause tells you how the person spoke, or what they did while they were speaking. The adverbial clauses are in red.

Literacy: other words for said

We began by looking again at the story Journey to Jo'burg, which contained other words for said. After that we thought of lots of our own words. You can see them on the board above.

We wrote some example sentences using other words for said. At home please finish your own three sentences, using good words instead of said. Make sure you follow the rules of punctuation carefully. Enjoy doing your homework.

Maths: multiples of 9

Today we looked at the 9x table, and some larger numbers that are multiples of 9. How can we recognise a multiple of 9? Check the board above to find out. Have fun and amaze your family be recognising huge numbers that are multiples of 9.

Maths: decimals again

Today we revised last term's work on decimals. We remembered that there are 100 centimetres in one metre. We learned how to convert cm to m by moving the numbers on the number columns.

At home please do the 8x table sheet I gave you. Enjoy doing your homework.

Literacy: stories from other cultures

Today we read part of the story Journey to Jo'burg, which is about a young girl and her younger brother on a 300km walking journey. They meet a boy in a white shirt who would like to help them but does not dare to, because of what might happen to him. We thought about the dilemma facing the boy in the white shirt. A dilemma is a really difficult decision, when it seems that something bad will happen whatever you decide to do. We acted out our dilemmas in drama groups.

Topic: junk food

As part of our topic on Ourselves and Others we thought about junk food. What is junk food? It is food containing a lot of fat and sugar, that young people like to eat. If we eat junk food occasionally it will not harm us. If we eat junk every day, we can damage our health, and become sick when we are older.

Parent-teacher meetings

Please remember to bring back your reply slip on Sunday morning, regarding the parent-teacher meetings on Monday and Tuesday evenings. If your parents cannot come to the meeting, please ask them to write on the slip that they cannot come, and bring the slip back. If they can come, please ask them to sign the slip, and bring it back. All slips must be brought back please.

Literacy: speech marks

This morning we looked at speech marks in sentences. We followed these very simple rules:

1. Words that are spoken must go inside speech marks.



2. Other punctuation marks (commas, question marks etc.) always go before speech marks.



3. Speech marks in the middle of a sentence must have other punctuation marks before them.

The rules apply to all the examples on the board above.

Maths: division with remainders

We looked at division today. The board above shows a division sum with a remainder. Look at the boxes to see what each number means. When we answer word problems, we have to think carefully about what the numbers mean. It is no good just writing the numbers on their own without explaining what they mean.

Science: conductors and insulators

Today we tested different objects in the classroom to see if electric current would pass through them. We found that metal objects were conductors. Electric current passed through them and caused the bulb to light. We were surprised by the pencil refills. They are made of graphite which is a kind of carbon. Graphite is a conductor.