Great trip!

We had a fine trip to the IMAX to see Sea Rex, followed by lunch at Pizza Hut.  I learned a lot about dinosaurs.  I never knew there were so many dinosaurs that lived in the sea.  Did you jump when the shark leapt out of the screen at us?

Last day of Year 4 tomorrow.  Check out the countdown on the right side of the blog page.

Trip tomorrow (Wednesday)

The trip to the IMAX, followed by lunch at Pizza Hut, is tomorrow morning (Wednesday).  If you have paid the money and given in your slip, come to school at the usual time for lining up at 8:00am.  We will stay in class for the first lesson, and go to buses at 9:00am.  We will be back in school before second break, and we will stay in school until 2:30pm.  Remember to wear your normal school uniform.

Investigating maths

Even though we have finished our maths exam, we can still learn and have fun at the same time.  Today we investigated adding sets of three numbers chosen from 1, 4, 7 and 10.  All the possible combinations are shown on the board above, unless we missed any!  We found that the totals are always multiples of 3.  This happens because the difference between the numbers is 3, and we chose three numbers.  Can you work out how to get multiples of 4?  Hint: start with different numbers, and choose four of them instead of three.

Trip to IMAX on Wednesday

Don't forget your trip slip and money if you have not already brought it.  Sunday is the last day to bring slips and money.

Investigation: squares on a chessboard

How many squares are there on a chessboard?  Lots of people think the answer is 64, but in fact you can find 204 squares.  There are 64 single squares, but there are also squares of other sizes, made from single squares.  There is of course one big square (the whole board) which contains all 64 small squares, but there are lots more.  The board above shows how many squares you can find of each size.

We will continue to learn interesting things next week.  The end of exams does not mean the end of learning!

Four colour patterns

Today we investigated the number of colours needed for complicated patterns.  It has been proved mathematically that the maximum number of colours you will ever need to colour a map pattern is four.  I have shown an example on the board above.

No exams today

Although we had no exam today, we did some good work on spelling and maths, in the form of word searches, a crossword and a Sudoku puzzle.  Well done if you solved all of the puzzles today.

Well done!  You have completed all the maths and literacy exams.  It will take time for the teachers to mark all the exams.

Maths exam tomorrow

Today we had our comprehension exam, with fiction and non-fiction sections.  Tomorrow we have our maths exam.  It will begin with some mental maths questions, followed by some written questions.  At home please look carefully through the revision sheets I have given you, including the practice mental questions.  Do not stay up too late studying.  Get a good night's rest and come to school refreshed.  See you tomorrow.

Literacy: writing exam and comprehension revision

Today we did our writing exam.  It will take a few days for the teachers to mark 150 papers and level them.  On Sunday we have our comprehension exam.  At home please review the comprehensions we have done over the last few weeks, and do the final non-fiction practice comprehension about scones.

Maths: general revision

We did more general revision today, answering lots of practice questions about all kinds of maths.  We found an interesting area question on one of our revision sheets.  There are three ways of drawing a rectangle with area 16 square centimetres and two of them are shown on the board above.  The bottom one is a square, but a square is a special kind of rectangle.  A shape with four sides and four right angles is a rectangle, so both the shapes on the board are rectangles.

At home, over the weekend, look through the mental practice papers I gave you, and read the sheet about solid shapes.  You do not need to write any answers or make any of the shapes.  Just make sure you understand all the information.  Ignore the sentence on the sheet about a sqube.  You certainly won't be asked about that in the exam!

Literacy: non-fiction comprehension: Boats

We looked through the Boats comprehension.  The answers are quite easy to find if we read carefully.  Check that you have included all the information needed.

As usual, the harder questions are near the end.  As well as using our own ideas we need to prove that we have read and understood the text.

At home please read through your practice stories ready for tomorrow's writing exam.

Literacy: story practice and non-fiction comprehension practice

This afternoon we wrote our final practice story before Thursday's writing exam.  We spent five minutes thinking and planning, and the rest of the time quietly writing.  We remembered that it was important to plan ahead, and have the ending in mind before we started.  We checked our punctuation and wrote in sentences with full stops and capital letters.

At home please do the non-fiction comprehension about Boats.  Read well and give complete answers.  Enjoy doing your homework.

Maths revision

Today we did more maths revision.  We revised many things including column subtraction.  If you are not sure how to do column subtraction, read carefully through the example on the board.  Each step is written in a different colour.  All the crossing out and borrowing is explained.

Maths revision

We did more maths revision today.  We looked at all the remaining questions in last week's practice exercise.  Those of us who listened well can now do questions which seemed hard before.  Well done!  We have started another practice exercise today and we will continue it tomorrow.

At home please do the revision sheet I gave you.  Work for about half an hour and do as much of it as you can.

Literacy: non-fiction comprehension: Rivers

 We looked through our answers to the non-fiction comprehension about Rivers.  Although non-fiction comprehension is usually easier than fiction, we must still be careful to include all the information we need in our answers.  We must go back to the text after reading each question, and not simply try to answer from memory.

It is good to avoid copying blocks of text if we can.  Use your own words to prove that you have understood what you have read.  Understanding is the main purpose of comprehension.  The word comprehension means understanding.  Question 10 asks you to think for yourself, using evidence from the text.  Read carefully and think clearly.

Topic: the colour wheel

Today we learned about the colour wheel.  How do clothes makers decide which colours to use?  Which colours should be put together in a pattern?  Read about the colour wheel to find the answers.  You can find more information here.

We tried some clever optical illusions based on the colour wheel.  This one has no green dot, but we think we see one!  The illusion with the black and white picture of a building is here.

Today we did a practice story, as we have our writing exam on Thursday 17 May.  We imagined a mysterious parcel.  We planned our stories and then wrote them in class.  It is important to know how the story will end before you start to write.  Never try to make up a story as you go along.  We should use speech only once or twice, and only if it is really needed.  We should check our punctuation carefully, to make sure that no full stops are missing.

At home please do the non-fiction comprehension exercise about Rivers.  Remember that there will be a non-fiction comprehension as well as a story comprehension in the exam, so we need to practise non-fiction comprehensions.  We will look at the questions and answers together tomorrow.

Maths revision

We looked through our weekend maths revision sheet.  There were a few questions that we needed to look at carefully.  In the perimeter question, don't try to go diagonally across squares, because the diagonal distance is more than 1 centimetre so the perimeter will not be correct.  The proper solution is shown on the board.

Deciding which fraction is larger can be hard.  Imagine a pizza cut up into equal slices.  The more slices there are, the smaller each slice will be.  Thinking like that can help you decide which fraction is bigger and which is smaller.  If the fractions are equal, you can find out by following the method on the bottom right of the board above.

Maths: general revision

We have done a lot of maths revision over the last few days.  We will be doing lots more next week, including mental maths revision.  In the meantime, make sure that you know all your multiplication tables.  If you do not yet know all your tables with instant recall, that should be your main priority now.

The question on the board above is quite easy if you break it down into steps.  0.98m is the same as 98cm.  The shape has 14 sides.  Check the board above for the full explanation.

At home please do the revision sheet I gave you.  We will look through the hard questions next week.

Literacy: A Present for Gran

 We finished looking through our answers to A Present for Gran.  Many of us had made a real effort to answer all the questions, which shows that we are interested in improving our comprehension skills.  Wanting to do well is the most important step towards success.

 The meanings of some of the phrases in the story were quite hard to find, but they could be found by reading carefully around the phrases.  One example is the phrase far from cheerful.  Cheerful means happy and smiling.  Far from means 'the opposite of'.  It has nothing to do with things being far away in distance!  Far from cheerful means unhappy.

The last question is often the hardest.  I tried to find five different ways to show what the story had done for me.  I did not just write a list of things that happened in the story with the words 'I enjoyed' in front of them.  If I did that I would get zero.  I tried to say things about the words and phrases that the author used, the reasons why they used them, and the effect they had on me.

Science: air resistance and revision for quiz

Today was the last lesson our Forces unit.  We looked at air resistance.  We dropped a piece of paper, then scrunched it up and dropped it again.  When it was scrunched up it fell more quickly because its smaller size meant it had less air resistance.  Parachutes increase air resistance so that people fall through the air more slowly.

Next week we will have a short quiz on the Forces unit.  The important points to revise, and the textbook page numbers, are shown on the board above.  The quiz will probably be on Sunday 13 May.

Literacy: more comprehension practice

We started to answer the questions about the story A Present for Gran.  We found the multiple choice questions quite easy.  We need to practise answering the longer questions.  It is important to make sure that we find ALL the information to answer the question, not just some of it.  Also we must avoid saying the same thing twice in an answer.

For example, if I answer question 8 like this:
Jessica was good at school work.  Danny was not good at school work.
I will get only one mark, because I have given only one piece of information.  If I am writing about differences, then if Jessica is good at school work, it is obvious that Danny is not good at school work, or it would not be a difference.  In my answer on the board above I have tried to find as many differences as I can.

For question 9, do not fall into the trap of saying that Danny had forgotten Dad because Dad had moved to Australia.  Distance has nothing to do with it.  The real answer is because Danny has not seen his father since he was a small boy, and it is hard to remember things from when you were very young.  That would still be true if Dad had moved to the next town and Danny had not seen him.

Always remember to read carefully, and go back to the text after reading each question, before you answer.

At home please finish the questions and review your answers.  We will check the rest of the answers tomorrow.

Maths: general revision

Today we revised lots of different kinds of maths.  We looked carefully at the parts we found hardest.  The board above shows a question about area and perimeter.  Area is the number of squares that fit into a shape.  Perimeter is the distance around the outside of the shape.  To find the perimeter, imagine you are a tiny ant.  Start at one corner and crawl all the way around the edge until you get back to the corner where you started.

 Adding decimal numbers is easy if you get the columns right.  The decimal points must all be in line.

If you have to compare lengths, first change them all into centimetres.  It will then be easy to see which is the smallest, and the next, and so on.

Over the next few days we will do lots more maths revision.

Maths: capacity using litres and millilitres

The coloured table on the board above comes from page 102 of the NHM book.  On that page, children have containers that hold different amounts of water.  The table shows two different ways to write each amount of water.  2 litres 500 ml is the same as 2500ml, because one litre is the same as a thousand ml.

At home please do as much as you can of the revision sheet I gave you today.  Work for about half an hour and see how far you get.  We will look at the questions together tomorrow.

Literacy: putting mistakes right

We looked carefully at the sheet that was full of deliberate mistakes.  We found that some of the mistakes could be corrected in different ways.  The story makes much better sense and is easier to read when the mistakes have been corrected.

As the exams come nearer, be extra careful with your spelling and punctuation.  Don't forget you can find helpful material on the Y4 revision website.

Literacy: Diary of a Killer Cat: answers

We checked our answers to yesterday's questions on Diary of a Killer Cat.  We read well and found lots of evidence.  Beware of reading too quickly and missing things.  It is dangerous to try to answer questions without looking back at the text.

At home please finish correcting the sheet of deliberate mistakes that I gave you.  Also, if you wish to write a story using another of the story openers, you may.  Enjoy doing your homework.

Maths: reading a timetable

Today we practised reading a boat timetable.  The boat visits four places in the morning, and the same four places in the afternoon.  The times are shown on the timetable.  Extra question: how many hours and minutes does the boat work each day, from the start of the first trip to the end of the last trip?

Maths: times before and after

We looked again at how to tell the time, and we moved on to looking at times before and after.  There is an example on the board above.  The first clock says 2:35 or 25 minutes to 3.  What is the time 50 minutes later?  If the minute hand moves forward 50 minutes, it will be 25 minutes past 3.  Don't forget that the hour hand moves too!  You can find a good website here to practise time work.

At home please finish and check page 87 (classwork).  Also please do questions 1, 2 and 3 on page 88.  Enjoy doing your homework. 

Literacy: Diary of a Killer Cat

We read an extract from Diary of a Killer Cat by Anne Fine.  The cat, Tuffy, has killed a bird in the garden, and not everything he says in his diary is completely true.  We learned how to know when the cat was not telling us the truth.  Did the bird really throw itself into his mouth, or land on his paws?  No, and the evidence can be found if we read further.  Tomorrow we will think again about the answers to the questions on the board.

Literacy: Musket Bay comprehension, and using story openers

We checked our answers to the Musket Bay questions.  We tried to find key words and evidence in the text for each of our answers.

We did not need to use a dictionary to find the meanings of the pirate words.  We were able to work out the meanings by reading the story.

The last question was the hardest.  It had 5 marks, so we had to find five different things to say.  Everything we say must be about THIS story, not things that could be about any story.  Also we must mention parts of the story in our answer.

After that we moved on to story writing practice.  We looked at story openers.  I chose the opener about Ingrid and the flowers, and I made up a story to fit it.  You can read my story on the boards above and below.  I planned the ending before I began to write.

At home please finish and check your story.  Check punctuation, vocabulary and WOW words.  Make sure you have not used the word then too much.  Avoid starting sentences with the words so or because.  Enjoy finishing and improving your story.

Maths: a different method for division

Today we learned another way of doing division.  It is repeated subtraction.  Look at the method on the right side of the board.  We want to divide 53 by 3.  We could take away 3 lots of times, and count how many times we do it.  That would take a long time, so we take away multiples of 3 instead.  Follow the steps on the board to see how it was done.  Warning: this is not the same type of long division that parents and teachers learned when they were at school!  However, it is easy to understand how it works.

Literacy: Musket Bay comprehension

We began to look through our answers to the Mystery at Musket Bay questions.  We found the multiple choice questions quite easy because we just had to look for clues and answers in the text.  The longer questions are a little harder.  We had time to discuss the first three longer questions.  You can see our answers on the board above.

At home please look carefully through your answers to the rest of the questions and improve them if you can.  Try especially hard with the last question, about whether you enjoyed the story or not.  All the marks are for your explanation of your reasons.  Try to find parts of the story to support what you say.  Do not just write that parts of the story were good.  You need to explain why you enjoyed them.  Don't just write that the story was exciting and interesting.  That answer could fit a million stories.  Prove that you have read and understood this one.  Make a good job of your homework and enjoy doing it.  We will go through the rest of the answers tomorrow.

Maths: division with remainders

We used the standard method of short division again today, but this time with remainders.  You can see the steps on the board, just has they were explained in class, yesterday and today.  If you are still not sure how to do this, please ask.

After that we looked at equations with missing numbers.  An equation is something with an equals sign in it.  The equals sign means that both sides are equal.  The left side has 32, so the right side must also have 32.  Brackets mean do this part first.  We know that 6 x 5 = 30, so the missing number must be 2.

Science: measuring the friction of shoes

Today we used a Newton meter to drag a shoe along the table.  The pulling force is equal to the friction force, so we were able to measure the friction force with the Newton meter.  To keep the test fair we used the same surface (a table) for each shoe.  We took each measurement three times, and wrote the three measurements in order.  We used the middle measurement (the median) each time.  Finally we looked at our results and drew conclusions.  Whose shoe had more friction?

Maths: division

There are lots of ways of doing written division.   On the board above you can see an easy way using dots, divided into groups of 4.  At the bottom of the board is a common written way.  There are other written ways too.  This way is quick and easy to do.

At home please do question 1 of the money problem sheet I gave you.  You can do question 2 and the challenge if you want to.  Enjoy doing your homework.

Literacy: finishing the pirate story

 After reading the beginning of Mystery at Musket Bay we wrote our own endings, about the adventures of the pirate crew when they visited Dead Man's Island.  I wrote an ending which you can see on the boards here.

 I tried to make the characters behave as they did in the printed story, and I added two extra characters.  One was the villain, Pirate Pete, and the other was Redbeard, an old friend of Cap'n Bluebeard.  I tried to create suspense in the story, as though there was a terrible monster in the dark cave.  It turned out to be something harmless.

My story has a happy ending.  I planned the ending before I began to write.  It is very important that you do not make up the story as you go along.

Literacy: writing the end of a story

 We read the beginning of the story Mystery at Musket Bay, and we thought about what might happen next.  The crew of the Saucy Sally have received a mysterious message in a bottle, from someone shipwrecked on Dead Man's Island.  We began our work by drawing a map of Dead Man's Island.  My map is shown above.  Yours might be different, according to your imagination.

Next we planned what was going to happen in our continued stories.  The first thing to plan is the ending.  Have the ending in your mind before you start to write.  Also plan any problems your characters will have to solve before they reach the ending.  My planning notes are shown on the board above.  I made up two characters, one good and one bad.

At home please spend half an hour working on your story.  If you do not manage to finish the story in that time, do not worry.  Here are some points to remember:

• Write in sentences with full stops.  Read your work aloud to hear where the full stops go.
• Plan ahead.  Do not make it up as you go along.
• Use speech only once or twice.  Most of the story should NOT be speech.
• Make the ending worthwhile.  It could be a surprise, or a happy ending, or something that the reader has guessed might happen because of clues you have written.

Enjoy writing your story.

Maths: standard written multiplication

Yesterday we used the grid method of multiplying.  We could see where each number came from.  The grid method is shown on the left side of the board above.  On the right side, the same multiplication has been done using a standard written method.  I have used a colour code to help show that the numbers on the right are the same ones that appear on the left.
560 on the right comes from 80 x 7
63 comes from 9 x 7

Here are two more examples.  Next to the numbers you can see explanations of where they came from.  The last step is to add the two numbers to get the final answer, which is shown in green.

Topic: choosing the right fabric

We visited the BBC Education website and chose clothing for different seasons.  In the winter we need to wear wool, polyester and nylon.  Wool is a good insulator and keeps us warm.  Polyester and nylon are warm, waterproof in the rain, and easy to wash.  In summer we need to stay cool.  Cotton and linen allow the air to circulate, so our skin can breathe and stay fresh. 

Maths: grid multiplication

We practised grid multiplication today.  We learned it in the first term and we called it partitioning.  We know how to split a 2-digit number into tens and units, multiply them separately, and then add the answers.  This is the same thing written in a different way.  We became so confident that we extended our work and multiplied 3-digit numbers too.

At home please do sheet 40 which has 2-digit numbers.  It is easier than today's classwork.  Enjoy doing your homework.

Literacy: Katy's Dog comprehension

 We looked very carefully at our answers to the comprehension questions about Katy's Dog.  Questions 5 and 6 were quite hard because we had to read carefully and think.  When Katy called Dylan after she had returned from the park, he did not bark an answer to her and he did not come to her.  That tells us that he would usually have done both those things, or the writer would not have bothered to tell us that he did not do them.  Katy's father said that Dylan was bright (clever) and would find his way home, which Dylan did.

Getting full marks for question 7 was not easy.  Dylan was battered because he had fought with two other dogs (that's the easy mark) but he was muddy because he had been out all night.  If we read carefully, we see that it was the next morning when he came home.  Always look for evidence in the text before answering.  Well done for having a good try.