Rocking On with Times Table Rockstars - 31st January 2021

 

A very big well done to all of you who have been rocking up with Times Table Rockstars this week.  Each and every one of you will be receiving a Resilient Tortoise award for keeping practicing those times table skills.

This week we would like to praise the following children in each class for either achieving the most number of coins in the past week or the most time per day spent rocking (or both):

Year 2 Rock Solid Rockers are:  Marissa and Vasilis

Year 3's Rock Legend is: Alfie D

Year 4's Rocking around the clock stars are:  Elsie and Lucas

Well done everyone!

And remember TTRS is not essential, it is an added, extra fun way of building your times table recall.

Keep Rocking!

Mathletics Update - 31st January 2021

 

 Another week of home learning done and a very big well done for all that you do.  We have had lots of children logging in and making use of mathletics and each and every one of you will receive a Marvellous Me Resourceful Spider badge to say well done for your Mathletics learning!

We would like to celebrate the following children achieving their next Mathletics Bronze Awards this week:

Georgia, Ellis, Lucia, Malie, Florence, Joshua, Imogen, Alexander, Mia, George P, Jessica, Kizzy, William, Anna, Asimina, Vasilis, Hollie, Joel, Rosa, Oscar, Jessica, Alfred, Charlie, George, Charlie and Layla.

Well done everyone!

And remember... Mathletics is an optional extra.  Its not essential, but provides an extra platform to practice those important skills if you have time.

Week 5 - You are doing great

 

Hello everyone,

From what I can gather last week was a difficult one for so many. The weather has made it hard to get outside and the novelty of homeschooling has worn off for most children. Please be reassured that you are doing a fabulous job. I know how challenging homeschooling is and I'm so impressed by the quality and quantity of work that is shared with me. 

Please don't worry if you are struggling to follow the work set - we have all been there (trust me!). I also want you to feel confident to tailor your child's timetable around what works best for you and your individual family situations. Aim for some maths and literacy (in some form) everyday if you can but please don't stress yourself if some days this doesn't happen. In my household my husband is doing the maths and reading activities with our children in the day and then I am doing literacy and writing with our children at teatime when I get home from school (surprisingly they really enjoy this set up). 

Please also feel confident to tailor learning activities around what works for you best.  Life skills are also  valuable activities for your child, for example reading and following a recipe can count as a maths, literacy and a life skills activity. 

Buddy letters:

Please can I have all Buddy letters by Monday 1st February (AM) so I can quarantine them before they go out on Thursday. You can either email or deliver these to me. Thank you for all the letters I have received so far.   

Flip grid:

This week we will have one new flip grid which will be to share how we are staying or getting active. We will also continue to use last week's flip grid, sharing our WW2 activities.

Maths:

On Thursday I will be dropping of Book C in power maths, so please do not work beyond the current unit (problem solving or perimeter) in Book A as we will come back to these when we return to school. I have decided that we will jump to book C as it covers many of the units that were missed altogether last year and I also believe they will be more straightforward to follow at home. 

I know that some parents have expressed an interest in doing additional maths with their child and rather than doing additional pages in power maths I would suggest that you give them activities based on telling the time, money and length and capacity. Many of these activities can be done practically at home using real money, rulers, jugs and clocks. 

As ever, if you have any questions, comments or concerns please email me.

Kind regards,

Ms Browne & the Year 4 team                    

Amazing WW2 learning

 

Dear Year 4 children, parent and carers,

Well done for some amazing WW2 learning. 

I'm loving seeing the individual ways that the children are interpreting the learning so thank you for sharing their creations and photos with me and Mr Spracklen. It would also be wonderful if you could also upload your child's learning onto flipgrid so the whole class can enjoy them. The children love seeing each others activities and they learn from each other so please feel free to look at the other uploads even if your child doesn't have one to share yet - it is also lovely if you child wants to positively comment on each other's learning and projects. 

Check out the email sent on Saturday with the link for WW2 activities:

Then if you want to add a video, click on record a response and then click on options and select upload clip:

On Thursday, you will receive a delivery from school. The hard copies of the worksheets are for the home learning next week (although it is fine if they are super keen and want to do them straight away). 

I hope you are all doing well and that your child is enjoying the topic.

Lots of love,

Ms Browne & the Year 4 team.
 
    

TTRS and Mathletics Clarification - 25th January 2021

 

Mathletics / TTRS clarification 

In response to feedback we would like to clarify that participation in TTRS (years 2-4) and Mathletics (years 1-4) learning platforms are an optional way of gaining extra practice in those key maths skills.  They have never been mandatory and we would urge you to use them as you see fit to support your learning at home.  There is no pressure to take part. 

We know that you are doing a wonderful job at home and by sharing success here we wanted to celebrate your child's achievements in using these resources.  We will continue to celebrate some of these each week through our blogs, but the majority of praise for your child's effort will come through marvellous me. 

Thank you all for your continued effort in supporting your children learning at home. 

TTRS Weekly Rock Update - 24th January 2021

 

Well done 67% of you have logged on this week to learn your times tables and related division facts.  That is amazing.  Each minute you spend on Times Table Rockstars means that you are getting better at remembering those important facts.  A big well done to:

Dylan, Elliot, Jacob, Charlie Bu, Logan, Harry C, Isaac C, Lily, Emily, Lucas, Benji, Noah M, Orson, Thomas, Max, Evie, Layla, Isaac S, Arlo and Harry H.

And spending a record amount of time - on average, nearly 10 minutes a day, a special well done to:

Gracie-Mae and Elsie

Weekly Mathletics Update - 24th January 2021

 

 Well done everyone for continuing with your Maths online by using Mathletics!  

This week we had lots of you logging in to earn more points and certificates.  Well done to these children for their efforts:

Elliot, Evie G and Evie P

Well done everybody, keep working hard and trying your best.  You are amazing!

Welcome to week 4

 

Hello everyone,

I hope you are doing well in these strange times. I don't know about you but the more I think about World War 2 the more I find myself finding similarities with our current situation. Just like in WW2 we are all making sacrifices for the greater good. If our critical frontline key workers are the army and navy then the rest of us are the home guard, the ARP wardens and the land army. We all need to pull together and do our bit and I know that so many families are doing just that. Thank you.

This week in distance learning, the activities are taking on a more practical feel. The children will be invited to make a rations poster, recreate the evacuation of Dunkirk and create a timeline. In the afternoons (or you can also do these in the morning of course) there is a range of activities for the children to choose from based on rations, air raid shelters, ARP wardens and make do and mend. I don't expect you to do all of them and you may come up with your own brilliant ideas which I would love you to share. A preview of the activities can be found here  but generally they include model making, cooking, sewing or junk modelling and gardening.  

As ever, please share any learning with myself and Mr Spracklen and this week it would be wonderful if your child could flipgrid their WW2 activities to inspire one another. 

Take care and know we're all in this together.

Love from,

Ms Browne & the Year 4 team. xx

 

Weekly Mathletics Update - 17th January 2021

 

A big shout out to all of you working hard on Mathletics whilst homeschooling.  As you progress through a range of tasks, games and mental maths questions you can earn points and certificates.  This week's super Mathletes who have earned 1000 points in a week and earned their weekly certificates are:

Silver Awards:

Rosa D

Alfred M

Bronze Awards:

Hollie B

Asimina

Vasilis

Evie G

William G

Oscar G

William W

Well done everyone from Year 1 to 4 for making the most of this resource at home!  I wonder who will be our amazing Mathletes next week?

Year 4 - Rocking Times Table Rockstars - 17th January 2021

This Week's Update:

Well done year 4, you are rock legends!  73% of the class have logged on this week and I would like to praise you all for your efforts.  Each week I will be looking at your stats and seeing how much you are improving with your times tables.  I will give a big shout out to all of you taking part.  A special well done this week to:

Dylan, Harry, Eliot, Arlo, Jacob, Isaac, Charlie, Layla, Logan, Evie, Harry, Max, Isaac, Lily, Thomas, Florence, Orson, Evie, Noah, Emily, Benji, Lucas and Gracie-Mae

You are amazing! and Zooms and flipgrids

 

Hello everyone,

I just want to start by telling you that YOU ARE AMAZING! Home schooling your child is really tough and I want to say thank you on behalf of the school and the wider community for everything you are doing. You are the home front in the fight against Covid19 and by keeping your child at home we will hopefully be able to come back to school sooner. 

Flip Grid

Thank you for those people that have engaged with Flip Grid. It is a great way for us to keep class discussions going and for the children to see each other. Looking at the number of views the earliest videos have had the children have certainly enjoyed viewing them. This Friday please encourage your child to share what they are proud of this week (they can cover the camera and just record their voice if they are camera shy). I will email out links for more flip grids next week. 

Zoom Calls

I will start doing small group Zoom calls from tomorrow (Friday). If you haven't received your zoom invite email please let me know as soon as possible. You may need to check your spam folder or there may have been some technical difficulties. Emails are sent weekly from The Prince of Wales School. If you haven't received any emails recently please let me Mr Edmonds in the office know. 

Finally... home schooling realities

I just want to remind you to be kind to yourselves when it comes to home schooling. I will always provide you with a full day of activities that are there to give you ideas about what you do with your child, but I am not expecting you to do everything. 

I home schooled my children on Wednesday and I didn't do everything (and I had actually set the work for one of them!). 

I love my children very much but I truly find it easier to teach a class of 32 than my own 2 children at home. 

I would recommend doing some sort of maths activity and some sort of literacy activity everyday if you can - but that can take many forms. Maths could be cooking, literacy could be reading a book. 

As ever we are here to support you so please get in touch if there is anything I can do to help. 

You are all amazing. Thank you for your part in the fight against Covid19,

Love and respect,

Ms Browne and the year 4 team. xxx

Don't forget to apply to middle school

 

Dear parents and carers,

Just a quick reminder that middle school applications should be made by 15th January 2021.

For more information please visit  Dorset council website. 

Kind regards,

Ms Browne

Next week's learning

 

Hello everyone,

I hope you are well and have had a good week. I just wanted to give you a few updates about next week's learning. The timetable for next week can be previewed here. 

From Tuesday, year 4 will have a timetable of learning activities selected and personalised by me. I have designed the week so that Friday's activities will be a lighter touch and will give children the chance to catch up with any learning they may have missed throughout the week.  Fridays will also be the perfect day for children to conduct their own projects and learning (World war 2, Science, cooking, crafts etc). 

Flip Grid invitations

I will be sending parents an email to three FlipGrid links. FlipGrid is a great way for children to connect with each other and share questions and their learning through short videos.  If you haven't received this email by Monday afternoon please get in touch. The  links will be:

• World War 2 Questions (Tuesday's topic) - What would you like to find out about World War 2?
• Power maths (Tuesday - Thursday) - Do you have any questions? Is there anything you're finding tricky? Would you like to share your learning?
• What are you proud of? (Friday) - Share what you have done this week that you are proud of. 

Please do not share the flipgrid links on social media. They are only intended for use by year 4 children and their parents and carers.  

Zoom Calls

I will also be sending an email to parents inviting your child to a zoom call. These will either be in small groups or 1 to 1 and will hopefully start next week. These calls will be an opportunity for children to share their learning, ask questions and connect with school staff and each other. 

Learning activities

Hopefully, you have all received your learning packs from school now. These will only be needed from Tuesday of next week. For most children, they contain power maths book, reading book (to read during RWI after assembly), sketch book, RWI spelling book, maths book, an exercise book (to record topic literacy and reading activities), ELSA support materials and a sheet for children to record their questions and what they already know about World War 2.     

I would request that children do do work beyond the activities for the week set for maths and RWI. This is to ensure that children are at the same place when we return to working as a whole class again. 

However, if your child would like to do some additional learning about World War 2, mathletics, purple mash, times tables rockstars, reading and AR quizzes then that would be wonderful.  

Please send your learning to me and Mr Spracklen. We love to see what you have been getting up to and it is a lovely way for us to connect with your children and for them to feel that their learning is valued and important to us (which it is). 

As ever, please get in touch if you have any questions, comments or suggestions. 

Love and hugs,

Ms Browne & the year 4 team. 

Year 4 Superstars

 

Congratulations everyone on getting to Wednesday!

After a lovely day with the class on Monday, it was quite a shock to not have them back on Tuesday. I'm sad that our term has been cut short and I miss them already but it was a pleasure to spend the day with them and I can't wait until we can all be together again. 

I hope you have all begun to adjust to lockdown 2. I've tried to call as many of you as possible, although if you have any questions, comments or concerns please get in touch via my email c.browne@princeofwales.dorset.sch.uk 

I have been really impressed with the learning that has been going on so far - well done year 4 Superstars!  If you haven't discovered our distant learning site yet, it can be found on our website by clicking on the distant learning tab. Alternatively, click here for the link. 

I have personal experience of the challenges of home schooling my own children and so I would urge you to not worry if things don't always go to plan. However, I do still strongly encourage you to start some learning routines with your child as soon as possible. Even if your child doesn't complete every activity, setting a routine will help your child know what is expected of them, will relieve boredom and we help them appreciate their free time more. If the school time table doesn't suit you and your child you may want to custom your child's learning and a tick list or individual timetable can be a great way to keep your child motivated.  

From Tuesday I will have personalised the learning activities and I am looking into setting up some group zoom calls and other ways that we can share our learning. Tomorrow (Thursday) you can come and pick up your child's learning pack which will have resources for next week's learning. Year 4's time slot is 2pm - 3pm. 

I hope it's not too long until we can be together again.  

Sending you all lots of love.

Ms Browne & the Year 4 team. xx