Goldfinch Home Learning

The following timetable will help you plan your home learning over the week and give you an idea of the expectations in Goldfinch class.

Homework choices

1. English – set on Thursday and due the next Thursday

2. Maths - set on Thursday and due the next Thursday

3. Spelling is set on Thursday but should be practiced little and often. Your spelling journals are needed every Thursday.

4. Reading – a question is set every Friday but reading should happen every day. Your Reading Records are needed every Friday.

5. After school Activity eg Guides, football, swimming, chess etc

6. Completing work from class ( not always applicable)

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. What a busy time we have had in the past few weeks. We're sure that you are all ready for a relaxing break and spending some precious time with your families. Thank you so much for all the generous Christmas cards and gifts which were all very much appreciated.

We look forward to welcoming our new teacher on the Goldfinch team, Mrs Osmond, who has met with Mrs Wirth to plan our learning for next term. Follow the link to find out what we will be covering next term.

Science: How does the circulatory system work?

We answered this question by acting out the circulatory system. Some of us were the heart, lungs, muscles, brain and digestive tract. The rest of us were blood cells transporting oxygen, carbon dioxide, water and nutrients around the body.

Could you memorise the circulatory system in a minute?

We played Memory Tag  in teams to complete a drawing of the circulatory system. We worked in a relay to memorise sections of the original diagram with only one minute each to remember and draw what we had seen. It was quite a challenge but we all felt we had really paid a lot of attention to the original diagram and had to work well as a team to complete our own versions.

Hello Goldfinch Class. 

We hope that you've had some fantastic fun in the snow over the last couple of days. Did any of you manage to make a World Book Day inspired snowman. If you did, don't forget to post a photo of it  on my post on the school's Facebook page.

Just in case you want to come inside and warm up at any point, Mrs Gan and I have some home learning for you to look at, including the spelling activities that you should have had in school on Thursday.

Year 6: make use of the extra time to get ahead with some pages in your SATs revision books.

Year 5: what can you learn about Roman numerals?

Keep warm and stay safe. See you on Monday.

Year 6 SATS -  Meeting for Parents/Carers

Dear Parents/Carers

I am pleased to invite you to attend our ‘Year 6 SATs Preparation’ meeting for parents at 2.30pm on Wednesday 7^th February 2018 in the School House classroom. We hope that as many of you as possible will be able to attend but for those who can’t, handouts of the information will be provided.

As you may be aware, in the Summer Term, the children in Year 6 will take the new SATs (Standard Attainment Tests.) These tests in English and Maths will reflect the new National Curriculum, and are intended to be more rigorous and even more challenging than previous years.

The Year 6 KS2 SATs will be carried out in school during the week commencing Monday 14th May 2018. The children will sit tests in reading, mathematics and spelling, grammar, punctuation and vocabulary

To help prepare you and your child for the experience of SATs, we invite you to meet with us so that we can:

• Explain what ‘SATs’ are;

• Talk through ‘SATS’ week and what will happen;

• Explain how results are assessed and reported;

• Share what the tests may include and the types of questions the children will need to be able to answer;

• Explain how we prepare the children for this in school;

• Share ideas and tips for how you can help your child at home;

• Answer questions and concerns that you may have.

   

  We are very proud of all the children and their achievements at Finchampstead School and working together, we can help our Year 6s to do as well as they possibly can. It would be great if you could join us on the date stated above; this will be a good opportunity for you to ask questions and become better informed so you can support your child during this time.

   

  Please do speak to me if you have any queries.

Dear Parents

Y6 - SATs Revision Books

The children are working hard and starting to think about their SATs assessments in May. You may be considering buying some revision books for your child to use at home. In past years, we have used the CGP SATs revision books which have proved to be useful and popular with the children. If the books are ordered though school, we will be able to obtain a school discount of 50%. Letters and order forms have been sent home and I will be placing an order for revision books on Wednesday 17^th January. These will useful for our revision/homework program before the tests.

Whilst some children may have older siblings who have used the books in recent years, the English test changed in 2014 and the new updated English revision book has also changed to account for this. The Maths book has also been updated to match the latest calculator-free SATS introduced for May 2014 and mental arithmetic test introduced in 2016.

It is expected that the children will work through these books at their own pace although we would recommend a page from each book throughout each week. The books come with answers which parents may wish to keep and use to check their children’s work. Any identified areas of difficulty could be brought to revision sessions in school.

If you would like to order these books through the school then please send a cheque (payable to the school) for the appropriate amount by Wednesday 17^th January. Please don’t hesitate to see me if you have any queries.

DT Week Request

In the week commencing Monday 11^th  December 2017, Goldfinch class will begin their DT project which is to design and make a model of an iron age round house. In order to do this, the children will need a good collection of straight sticks between 30-60 cm. Some thinner, more  flexible sticks would also be useful for weaving. Please may the children collect sticks over the week and weekend if possible.  It would also be helpful if they could bring some string or twine.

Many thanks for your support

Rehearsals are now underway for our Christmas Production. Your child has been assigned a part and we would be very grateful if you could help provide your child with an appropriate costume. To give you an idea, please see the list below:

• Stars: any kind of star outfit with a  large gold or silver star on the front
• Stella and  Aurora: as stars but with extra tinsel, sparkly accessories and headband etc
• Mr Marr: white shirt, trousers, optional tinsel trim, a small pair of wings,
• Narrators: smart clothing
• Apprentices: trousers, colourful shirts and tabards with L plates on front and back
• Wise men: traditional kings costumes ( with crown and ‘gift’ for the king)
• .Herod: flamboyant robes and a crown
• Herod’s guards: dark tunics over tops and trousers, ‘Roman’ helmets and spears.
• Courtiers: ‘silk’ robes and cloaks

The costumes will need to be ready for our final rehearsal day on Friday 8^th December.

Please don’t hesitate to contact us  if you have any questions.

Welcome to Goldfinch

Bread baking fun