First of all, thank you to everyone who attended the parent sessions this week. I really hope that you found them useful and that you have a better idea of how your child is progressing. If you have any comments or suggestions regarding the newly structured system and the feedback I have provided please let me know.
Grammar
This week we have used coordinating conjunctions (for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so) to join adverbs and prepositional phrases. It has gone very well, but we need to take a breather now to consolidate what we have covered before we head off into coordinated multi-clause sentences, or compound sentences to use old money. We have now covered the basics in quite some detail meaning that we can start to join sentences together. It’s at this point that I think we will start to see the grammar making a significant impact on the written work. It is through the correct joining of sentences that punctuation really begins to make sense, especially higher forms such as semi-colons. It’s also the point at which sentences become much more varied in their form, leading to more sophistication and style.
Composition
We have started to study persuasive texts in class while the homework continues to track explanatory texts. Both of these extend the Point, Evidence, Explain template, requiring deeper skills to decide which elements to employ and when. I have provided a lot of helping templates with key sentence stems and structural suggestions. If you would like any more of these printed let me know.
Maths
At the moment we are studying factors and their relationship to multiples. We will take this a little deeper next week to assess the most efficient techniques to work out common factors and multiples and will look at a range of problems that really stretch their application.
Homework
This week the homework is a little lighter to make space for learning the songs for Tuesday’s rehearsal with Reception. After Tuesday I will send out a small amount of maths to run to the end of the week.
As is always the case with homework, what is enough for one family is too much for another with everything you would expect to find in between. If you are finding that the work is unbalanced for you, please let me know and I will help any way I can.
Homework Notes:
Every Friday, once I have set the homework I always dedicate large amounts of the afternoon to the children which they can use to plan and ask questions ready for the weekend. I then make myself as available as I can through the week to deal with any problems that arise in as much detail as I can. The sooner children come to seek help the easier it is for me to factor in the time needed. I then try to get round each child and mark their written work in person so that the quality of their feedback is maximised.
This is an imperfect system and I don’t always get it to work, sometimes pledging time that I then can’t keep, and occasionally letting someone down completely. Please know that this is not for want of trying.
