Swimming

Just a quick reminder that my year 2s are *not* swimming tomorrow (20th May). My year 3s are swimming, but it will be their last visit to the pool this year.

Mrs Barker and Class 3 in the Abingdon Herald

Have a look at this article in the Abingdon Herald.

Mrs Barker on the radio

It was very exciting being interviewed live on the BBC Oxford breakfast show on Monday morning. If you weren’t able to tune in, here is a link to an MP3 of my interview. Be warned, it’s nearly 8MB so it’s quite a large file to download.

Please tune in…

to BBC Radio Oxford on Monday morning at about 10 past 9. I will be interviewed about being a regional finalist in the BECTA Next Generation teaching awards!

Space Homework Projects

The space homework projects were fantastic! I was really impressed at how much the children knew about their chosen planets. The projects were of a very high quality and really showed how interested the children were in this project. Thank you for all of your help at home. We’ll be running another short focused project next half term.

Newsletter- week ending 30th January

Dear parents/carers,

This week in English we have been examining atmosphere and description in film texts. We’ve looked at extracts from “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory”, examining how the film makers created atmosphere through use of lighting, camera angle and camera shots. We’ve also looked at writing descriptive sentences, inspired by the short film “Little Wolf” (which you can watch at home on YouTube!). We started with some simple sentences and looked for places where we could add descriptive phrases. Next week we will be looking at writing our own story settings, based on photographs of familiar places. We will be using vocabulary and sentence structure to create atmosphere in our writing.

In maths we have been looking at fractions of shapes, including halves, quarters and eighths. We’ve worked on measuring accurately to split a shape into halves or quarters, and looked at equivalent fractions such as 1/2, 2/4 and 4/8. Next week we will be investigating number patterns, including in addition/subtraction sums as well as multiplication and division. We’ll also be recapping adding 2 digit numbers together.

In science this week we have investigated how we can use mirrors to see round corners as well as looked at the difference between opaque and transparent materials. Next week we will investigate shadows, and will find out what affects their shape and size.

Next week I will be out on a maths course on Monday, and also out of class on Wednesday. On Wednesday afternoon I will be meeting with the ICT team to find out about the new virtual learning platform which is being implemented in Oxfordshire. I’m looking forward to finding out how we can use this new platform to increase the bond between home and school.

Our mission to Mars is going well- so far we have worked out what is important to our community here on Earth, as well as planned decided what 5 things we couldn’t live without. I’m very pleased to say that books were on the list! Next week we’ll be continuing by finding out what surface conditions are like on Mars, so we can decide what sort of shelter we might need.

Mrs B

Three things to ask your child this week:
1 How can you use a mirror to see round a corner?
2 Can you split a triangle into quarters?
3 What happened to Little Wolf?

Newsletter- week ending 16th January

Dear parents/carers,

In English this week we have been writing our own shape poems about rockets. In order to use the most descriptive language that we could, we spent a few lessons looking at photographs and videos of rockets taking off. As well as describing and discussing what we had seen, we came up with a set of word banks of suitable vocabulary for our poems. The children have written and illustrated some excellent poems, and those will be on display in class shortly. Next week we’ll be looking at story setting and how authors create atmosphere and mood.

In maths we’re going to be looking at classifying and sorting 2d and 3d shapes. This will also include identifying lines of symmetry using a mirror. This also fits in with our science work on light, as next week the children will be investigating how mirrors form images and looking at reflective and shiny surfaces. This week in science the children investigated what you could see with your eyes closed, and worked out how light from a light source travels to your eyes.

The children did a wonderful job in their guitar lesson this week, working enthusiastically and showing a really good sense of rhythm. I’m looking forward to seeing how the children improve with this specialist teaching.

Next week we’re going to start a new, more personalised spelling list for my year 3 children. I’m hoping that this (in conjunction with our regular phonics work) will help to avoid the problem we have with children learning the words short term for the test, but then the spellings don’t actually make it into their work! I’m going to run it for a while and see if I’m happier with spelling. Next week will also be the point when the next homework project will be announced. There will be some changes to the structure, which I hope will make things even better than last time.

Mrs B

Three things to ask your child this week:
1 How can we check whether Mrs Barker has done her taking away correctly?
2 How would you describe a rocket blasting off?
3 What do we need to see? Where does this stuff come from?

Newsletter- week ending 9th January

Dear parents/carers,

This week in English we have been looking at shape poetry. The children created their own one word shape poems, as well as learnt how to use Word Art to enhance a poem visually. Next week we will be continuing with this project, and will be writing shape poems about rockets.

In maths we’ve been recapping some work on place value and rounding. The children have been measuring objects in the classroom and then rounding the measurements to the nearest 10cm or half metre. The children have also been investigating efficient ways of sorting numbers. Next week we will be looking at quick ways of adding and taking away. We’ll be covering partitioning (e.g. splitting 43+32=? Into 40+30 and 3+2), checking our subtraction using addition and looking at some number patterns.

In Science we have started a new topic- Light. This week I asked the children to tell me what they already knew about light and light sources. Some of the answers were very interesting! Next week we’ll be looking at how light travels from a source and bounces off an object before arriving in our eyes.

Next week our class will start their guitar lessons. They’ll be taking place on a Wednesday morning for the time being (we’ll need to change that once we start swimming).

Quick reminders- please make sure that your child has a PE kit in school every day and a suitable pair of indoor shoes. I have quite a few children in stocking feet at the moment and I’m expecting a fire alarm at some point soon!

Mrs B

Three things to ask your child this week:
1 How do we know whether to round up or down?
2 What’s the difference between a shape poem and a normal poem?
3 How do you make a one word shape poem?

Nativity time

I had the wrong end of the stick over the Nativity open dress rehearsal this afternoon- we’re starting at 2.30pm, not 2pm. Apologies for any inconvenience.

Newsletter- week ending 12th December

Dear parents/carers,

This week in English we have been writing our own mystery stories, based around “The Lost Thing”. I have been showing the children the importance of the editing process to help them to make their stories more exciting. The stories are really fantastic, I’m very impressed with how they’ve all been taking my feedback on board and trying to improve their writing. Next week we’ll be writing the stories out in a final copy, to make into our own class book of lost thing stories.

In maths this week we’ve been looking at division methods. These have included repeated subtraction, dealing with simple remainders and using known multiplication facts. The children were very good at simple division in practical circumstances, including dealing with remainders. Next week we’ll be having a Christmaths challenge, incorporating some of the maths work we’ve done so far this year.

We’ve been making some Christmas crafts this week, including cards and stained glass windows. The stained glass windows look fantastic, and this year we made smaller versions which I laminated. This would be a great project for over the Christmas holidays. Next week we’ll be making calendars as well as having lots of end of term fun!

Next week will be incredibly busy though, so here’s a quick run down of what’s going on…

Monday: Christmas lunch
Tuesday: Panto trip (Oh no it isn’t! Oh yes it is!)
Wednesday: Nativity play performance with class 1 (in the church, 2pm).
Thursday: Carol concert (including our nativity performance) 6pm
Friday: 1.15pm, the end of term!

The Wednesday afternoon Nativity play performance is mainly for parents/grandparents who can’t make it on the Thursday evening to see the nativity. If you’re able to attend the carol concert you’ll be hearing our versions of “Away in a Manger” and “Little Jesus, Sweetly Sleep” with Class 1, so you won’t be missing out! If you can’t make the main carol concert but are free on Wednesday afternoon, please do come down to the church, we’d love to see you.

Mrs B

Three things to ask your child this week:
1 How do you make a switch for a circuit?
2 Where did you find your lost thing?
3 How can number families help us with division/sharing problems?