Calling all children aged 4-11 years – sign up to the

‘Silly Squad Summer Reading Challenge 2020!’ 

The annual Summer Reading Challenge for children aged 4-11 years is being delivered online this year and  supports reading and literacy and helps promote reading for pleasure. 

This year’s challenge is already underway, but you can join in at any time. The theme is Silly Squad with a focus on the enjoyment of reading for pleasure; you can read anything that makes you happy and  youcan register for the challenge here   https://summerreadingchallenge.org.uk/

You can read books available at home, provided by school or those free to download and borrow from Worcestershire Libraries. Remember, library membership is free and Worcestershire residents of all ages can join instantly online with a digital membership – a wide range of junior fiction is available from the digital library including a dedicated ‘Silly Squad’ collection of books in ebook and eaudio format using the ‘Borrowbox’ app. 

Unfortunately, due to the impact of Covid-19, Worcestershire Libraries are unable to host the Summer Reading Challenge in their library buildings or run any face to face events and activities. However, many library services, events and activities are now available online - visit the Digital Library Hub to explore or access the SRC events and activities via Worcestershire Libraries Facebook page. 

Winners of the Haiku Competition 

I am thrilled to announce that the winners of the Haiku Competition for Abbeywood are...

Harry Carter in Year 2 and Leo David in Year 3.

Here are their winning entries: 

Tiny, fragile eggs 

Wriggle in their warm nest, 

Crack and see the world! 

Harry Carter Year 2 

A sparkling ocean. 

Thunderstorm moving quickly. 

The ocean is calm. 

Leo David Year 3 Pine 

Selfies with a difference photography competition

The winners of our final photography competition Selfies - with a difference are Luca, who used leaves to obscure his face, Lauren, who chose an interesting reflection and Isla, who headed underwater!

The entries this week were brilliant, so in addition to the winners, there are many highly commended entries displayed too.  

TTRS Battles

Cedar are smashing it in the recent battles. They haven't lost a single battle in May so far - mainly down to Lucie! 

Keep up the great work - some of you are getting super-speedy!

A battle each day setup for this week + a special week-long battle for the following week.

REMINDER: email on help@abbeywood.worcs.sch.uk if your child wants to take part in the choir sessions  

We love this from Lucie...

What historical event could this tapestry show?

Googly Eyes Winners

Well done to Jess and Romain who have won the Easter competition with 'Toilet Face' and 'Clown Light Switch'!

A small prize is on its way to both of you.

A big well done to Alfie for being the first to complete this week's Reading Eggspress assignment.

Go, Alfie!

Historical Tapestries

Can you guess the events represented in these 'tapestries' created on Purple Mash?

The activity is still live, so please login and have a go.

Friday's battle - oh dear, Cedar. Lets get back to winning ways on Monday!

A very close battle today - well done, Cedar + all that played, but especially to Lucie and George.

Year 4 Easter Challenge

UPDATE!

Thanks Ellie-Mae, Romain, Daizy, Mrs Allen and Miss White's dad for the pictures below...

Look closely and you can find 'faces' hiding in objects all around us!

See some examples below

Add a pair of googly or paper eyes and you can make faces out of all sorts of household objects.

We challenge you to beat the efforts below.

The most creative, or the one that makes us laugh most, will get a prize in the post!

You have until 16th April to get photos to us by emailing to the cedar@... or beech@... class email accounts.

Mahri's Kennings

Can anyone guess what they are?

Mini pig

Foot runner

Earth warmer

Warm keeper

Rooster stone 

Metal bird

Red bread

Air bag

Game square

Live Storytime Test With Mr R

Tomorrow (Friday 27th March) we are going to hold a live story time using 'Zoom' video meeting tool.

I've never used it before, so this is a test.

If it works well, we will do it everyday.

It will at least be a chance to catch up via a video screen!  

You need to follow the link below on a device.

If it has a video camera on, you can join in and talk with us as we read. 
https://zoom.us/j/259211551?pwd=RldTdm9zekgwUm9IS3V2emZmeXNpQT09 

Meeting ID: 259 211 551
Password: 026834

I'll start tomorrow with something short and we can all catch up. If it goes well, we'll start a longer text and have a few chapters each day.

See you there!
 

Mr Reeves' really bad dinosaur

Times Table Progress

We would just like to say a massive well done to all in Cedar Class for their efforts and improvements in their learning of times tables. Last week, the children recorded some amazing scores on their 'soundchecks' in TTRS that show how far they have come in a few months and how times tables are becoming embedded. 

Parents, you may be aware the planned times table test for Year 4 in the summer term has been cancelled along with all other testing, but this was not the reason we were learning them.

Times tables play a major part in so many areas of maths, so being able to recall them instantly / quickly helps in so much of the mathematics children need to use.

Please keep up the good work so they are still embedded going into the future.

Audiobooks / Free Online Stories

Some lovely audio stories (all free) on this site.

Click here.

Children's University Resources

Some great home-learning resources can be found on the Children's University website.

Follow the link in the Children's University section on our website.

Borrow Box App

This free app can be installed on tablets and smartphones from your usual app store. It allows you to download and use free ebooks and audiobooks to your device, as long as you have a library card. You may find at least some of the 100 books list on here, or another great book to listen to / read.

Fractions Learning Journey

To compliment your learning on fractions in school, try following the fractions learning story / journey on Oppia. You may find the start easy, but work through all the levels so you get the whole story as one part leads into the next. You can find it here... http://www.oppia.org/collection/4UgTQUc1tala 

Scan the QR code to be directed there

100 Books To Read (or have read to you) In Years 3 and 4

You may already have read some of these, or maybe someone read them to you?

There are some great books to try on the list, if you haven't yet. 

Click on the link to the synopsis sheet to find out a little more about the books, or head over to Amazon and try a few pages, using the 'Look Inside' option. 

Let us know any you enjoy and we'll try to find you a copy. 

What 5 books would you add that are not on the list? 

Why? 

Thanks to all who supported the children in researching their surnames. It was an extremely interesting home-learning share; many of the names' history will link to learning we have upcoming in class.

Over the course of the spring term, we will be basing our learning around the theme of 'Articulate'. We will be exploring the arts, further developing our oracy skills, delving into the past to help us build a better future and continuing all of the hard work we have put in in year 4 so far!

Exploring Sound

We discovered today that the new artwork that Laurie has made from our inspiration represents some speech as sound waves. This set us off on a morning exploring sound waves, vibrations, volume and pitch through 12 hands-on activities. There were some moments of awe and wonder, as well as some great fun. We learned loads and also have some questions we want to investigate further over the next few weeks.

We also watched an interesting film about the magic of the science behind sound and how we hear. If you have Amazon Prime, it is on there. Ask your child to talk you through some of it!

First School Reunion - The Business Of...

We have learned about all sorts of careers this term, but each decided on one we thought would suit us in the future. After exploring possible routes into our new jobs, we imagined how our lives may have been between now and 2049. We shared these journeys we had written about as speeches at showcase and displayed 'photos' from our exciting future lives!

It all starts with the teeth!

We've explored the types of teeth and their jobs, as well as investigating how to keep them healthy:

The Digestive System

Ask your child to explain what happens to your food on its journey through your body. We recreated this amazing process, starting from before it even enters your mouth to what you can see below!

Don't worry; it's not real!

 We are in the process of supporting one another in editing our Monsterpedia pages. We will have no trouble meeting the publisher's deadline, so you should expect to see a finished book very soon!

 Enjoy a sneaky peek of our amazing work. Watch this space for updates on the finished product. 

BATTLE!

I am sure you are aware that Cedar and Beech have been involved in some heated battles on Times Table Rock Stars this half term. I am pleased to announce that Cedar are the first winners of a chocolate maths lesson after winning 3-2 in the first round of battles.

Our next set of battles start now. 

Having speedy recall of multiplication and division facts is so important as they are used in so many other areas of mathematics. Rock Stars is a great way to increase speed.

Please support the children in developing this important skill, as well as in getting the chance to eat more chocolate in class!  

Join the conversation on our twitter page by clicking here

Welcome to Cedar Class

We are starting the term by learning all about the business of books.

Our job will be to produce a class book, based on The Monsterpedia that appears in the David Walliams book, Fing.

To help us when we are authors, we have become scientists and biologists to gain the expertise we need to write. We have learned so much about animals and their habitats, as well as how they adapt for different reasons. 

All of this knowledge will be put to great use as we create our own creatures for The Monsterpedia.

We want our Monsterpedia book to be informative, interesting, entertaining and believable. We have got inspiration from these books on little-known animals.

Becoming illustrators has been our next job. 

We used the Austin's Butterfly video to inspire us to show a growth mindset in improving our drafts so we ended up with some illustrations that will be a good addition to our text.

This week, we have taken a slight break from our Monsterpedia project to hear from some other authors. We spent an amazing day at the Beeline Storytelling Festival at Worcester University. We enjoyed fantastic tales, spooky stories, magical myths and rude yarns about all manner of things. We've got a great story from there to adapt and innovate for our next storytelling assembly, so look out for that!

If that wasn't exciting enough, we joined with Beech Class to take part in some interesting projects. 

We have been working with an artist on a project to brighten up our courtyard, as well as planning our latest social action project to pitch in London at the upcoming RSA Takeover event. Busy times!