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.