Marvellous Mathematics Day - Origami Books

Your challenge is to make an origami book...from only a sheet of A3, and you are not allowed to use any glue. (Clue: You only need to make one cut to the paper). Upper School girls will have to work it out for themselves; lower-school girls will have a little help!

When finished, you can use the book to write down a times table!

Here is another way to make an origami book:


Going further: Origami books are a great way to collect an anthology of poetry. Why not make an origami book, copy in your favourite poems, and illustrate it?

Year Six are working on wiki-based biographies on our pupil wiki, and know it It is is important to acknowledge your sources - so visit an English teacher's blog, http://andrewleggett.wordpress.com/, to see where I pinched the diagram!

Year 5 Comprehension- Questions about Similes

L.O. To understand that questions about explaning similes require one to (i) explain the comparison the author has made in your own words, and (ii) explain why it is a good comparison.

Click here to learn more about answering simile questions.

Homework: Please complete the comprehension paper

Fun Stuff!

Year 5 Fiction - Designing a 'Bad Guy'

L.O. To understand the benefits of a distinctive nemesis to create tension/excitement in an adventure story

We are going to be writing some spy stories, but to do so we need some 'bad guys'

In a short story, you don't have long to grab your reader's attention. One way to do this is to create a powerful, original 'bad guy' - and think about how they look, speak and act.

Homework: In the picture above you can see a mug shot. Learn more about mugshots by clicking here.
These are the photos the police take when they arrest someone. They take one photo 'face on', and one from the side. Here is a shot of a famous criminal:



Your task is in two parts:

1. Either dress up a member of your family as your criminal (use hats/wigs/makeup/an patch) and take two 'mug shot' photos with a digital camera - and send the file to baldworm@baldworm.co.uk. We'll display these around school.

or

Draw/paint a mug shot. We'll scan these and put them up on the wiki.

2. Write a description of the character in your draft book. Write 5/6 lines, and concentrate on how they look. Click here to revise this skill. This is an example, taken from Stormbreaker:

The man was ordinary to look at. Grey hair, grey suit, grey lips and grey eyes. His face was expressionless, the eyes behind the square, gunmetal glasses completely empty. Perhaps that was what disturbed Alex. Whoever this man was, he seemed to have less life than anyone in the cemetery. Above or below ground.

We'll be using these character descriptions to record mini-podcasts - and we'll need them next week when we begin to revise suspense techniques.

Year 5 Homework

1. Learn the '-cian' suffix spellings for your test tomorrow. Click here for the final list.

2. Make sure your instructions are finished...

3. Read your description of the base to someone at home. Is there anything else you could add?

Year 5 Comprehension: Inference

L.O. To include the word 'infer' in comprehension answers

In class, in a break from our Spy project, we studied Jacqueline Wilson's use of inference.

Homework: Please complete the J. Wilson comprehension. Make sure you use the word 'infer' in your answers.

Year 4 Fiction - A Blazing World - Describing Your Submarine!

L.O. To include a range of prepositions in a passage of description.

In class, we used kinasthetic learning techniques to study prepositions, and we learnt how we can use prepositions to make our descriptions 'flow'. For homework, I would like you to finish describing your submarine, using our descriptive tools, and plenty of prepositions. Aim to write about half-a-side of A4. Click here to revise our descriptive techniques

Feeling clever? Remember to include some figuarative language (similes)

Next week, we will be scanning our pictures into our page on the school pupil wiki, and recording our descriptions using a microphone on a Voicethread!

Year 6 homework: History/St. Paul's

There are two groups for homework:

1. Girls sitting the St. Paul's exam should complete their 'The World is Flat' essay. They may find it useful to watch this:




2. Girls who have completed their exams should gather research for their Victorian figure. You may also find it helpful to study the layout of materials on Wikipedia, ready to create your page next week.

Year 6 - Design and Technology Day

We are coming up to this term's DT day - and we are going to be designing and making slippers!

As a green school, we don't want to waste material, so we would like you to collect your own material for making your slippers! We will provide the base for the slippers, but you will need to bring the material needed to make your design. We'll be talking more about this in class, but the main thing to do is to start collecting what cloth/old t-shirts/jumpers!

Fun Stuff!

Year 5 - Redrafting our Secret HQ descriptions

In class you began to type up your description of the secret hq on your page in our pupil wiki. Your homework is to complete writing it up.

Remember that this is a great opportunity to improve your writing as you go - and do try to use all of Bald Worm's descriptive techniques!

Feeling clever? Don't forget to try to throw in some impact sentences to 'balance' your prose!

Year 5 Word Work: Suffixes

A suffix is added to the end of a word. Some examples from English:

Boys, where the suffix -s marks the plural;
He makes, where suffix -s marks the third person singular present tense;
He closed, where the suffix -d marks the past tense.

Your homework is in two parts:
1. Please complete the suffix worksheets.

2. Professions
When a word ends with the suffix '-cian' you can tell that the word is talking about a person and what they do for a living.
e.g. music + cian = musician
politic + cian = politician
mathematics + cian = mathematician


Go onto our wiki and try to add to the list of professions ending with the suffix '-cian'. I'd like every girl to add at least one '-cian' profession. Your spelling test next week will be on those words! Click here to be taken straight to the page.

A Special Message for Year Six!

Press 'play' to hear a special message from Bald Worm - and then click the big arrow pointing to the right to hear what the Grumpy Examiner has to say to you!

We'll soon be using this fantastic program to record digital stories - stories which use words, pictures and your voice!

Year 5 - Wiki-work: Writing Instructions!

This is a special moment: your first ever wiki-based homework!

Your task is to go online and complete your instructions for making your model. Don't forget that your wiki page is going to be marked out of 100, so read this before you finish your instructions!

Happy wiki-work!

Year 6 Revision - The 'Messi Wiggle'

L.O. To revise the importance of a varied prose style

In class, we've often talked about trying to fit in all our sentence types and forms of punctuation in the opening 6-7 lines of our stories:

Fragments
Impact sentences
Simple sentences
Compound sentences
Bracket
Dash
Semi-colon
Colon

Homework: The first six-seven lines of a short story entitled 'Down on the Farm'. Include all of the punctuation above! Then come onto the blog and type your work up in the comments section! Remember, only write six-seven lines!

Year 5 - Comprehension - Jane Blonde Transforms!

Her name's Blonde - Jane Blonde.

L.O. To understand that we can infer information about characters from the text

Your homework is to complete the Jane Blonde comprehension. Study the use of descriptive skills (you'll need these on Friday when you redraft your longer description on our pupil wiki), and think about inference! Click here to learn more about how the Grumpy Examiner asks questions about inference.

I will award bonus points for pupils who include the word 'infer' in their answers!

Year 4 Fiction - A Blazing World!

Our elder world, with all their skill and arts
Could but divide the world into three parts.
Columbus then for navigation famed
Found a new world, America 'tis named.
Now this new world was found, it was not made,
Only discovered lying in time's shade.
Then what are you, having no chaos found
To make a world, or any such least ground?
But your creating fancy thought it fit
To make your world of nothing but pure wit.
Your blazing world beyond the stars mounts higher,
Enlightens all with a celestial fire.
--William Newcastle

Year 4 are going to be writing stories set in imaginary worlds! This term, they'll have the chance to create a podcast, and we'll begin to explore digital stories!

L.O. To understand that authors use sketches and drawings to inspire imaginary worlds

We are going to explore a strange planet known as 'The Blazing World'. We'll write stories set in this world, play around with digital photographs to create locations, and record a podcast of our adventures! But to do so we'll going to need a ship!

The Blazing World is made up of a series of extremely odd islands! You need to design the submarine used to explore these islands!

Homework: Create a 'finished' draft of your own 'cut away' on a sheet of blank A4. Label it carefully with a ruler and pencil. We'll be writing a story based on this ship next week! (P.S. You can make the ship 'girly', if you like: why shouldn't the crew have soft furnishings, a pony trek room and a make-up salon!)

We'll scan the finished designs, and display them on the blog using bubbleshare!

P.S. Don't forget your parents to e-mail and sign-up for the Falcons School for Girls book club!

Fun Stuff!

adopt your own virtual pet!

I thought you'd like to meet my cat, Mr Evelyn Paw. Click on the cat, or the 'more' button, and see what happens!

Secret HQ Pictures

BubbleShare: Share photos - Safe Toys

Enjoy Year 5's secret HQ models! Please post them a comment if you enjoyed them!

Join the Falcons Newsroom Club - Tuesday afternoons

Fans of blogging, podcasting and wiki-work will love Mr Allan's Falcons Newsroom club.

You'll be able to write, create and star in your own news programme. You'll be using the school camcorder to help write and direct a Falcons news film. Everyone who takes part will get a copy of the finished masterpiece.

There are still some places avaliable, so make sure you sign up on Monday.

Year 5 Fiction - Describing a Location

L.O. To revise key descriptive techniques

We've begun our spy project! Having built some fantastic models, you started to describe your Secret HQ, imagining crawling around it.

Homework: Complete your description of your secret hq. Write 1 side of A4. Remember to write five paragraphs, and include all of our descriptive techniques. Click here to revise describing a location.

Next week we'll write them up on our fantastic new pupil wiki, and include photographs of the bases!



Click here to visit the fantastic 'Jane Blonde' site!

Wrestling with a Verb!

L.O. To substitute powerful verbs for overfamiliar verbs

Next week we're going to 'wrestle with verbs' in pairs! For homework, I want you to find powerful versions of the following verbs (You'll need to use a thesaurus to find them!)

Learn the verbs by heart - and know how to spell them, e.g. c-h-a-r-g-e

The verbs:
got
walk
run
hit
fall
break
take
move
hurt
laugh
saw
said

I'll call you out in pairs, and say one of these words, e.g. said. You'll have to reply with a powerful alternative, e.g. conversed. Make sure you know some really powerful verbs, or the audience will be chanting 'easy easy' at you!

Good luck, Big Daddy fans!

P.S. Try to think of a cool wrestling nickname, like Giant Haystacks, that makes you sound tough!



Note: Don't try this at home! You'll end up with a broken neck!

Easy-easy-easy!

Year 5 Comprehension - Revising the Need to P-E-E

Last term, we revised the need to include P-E-E all over the page when writing comprehension answers.

Click here to revise this crucial work.

Homework: Please complete this crucial work, making sure you quote - and give a line reference - when answering the questions.

Big News: Announcing the Falcons School for Girls Book Club

We are starting an online Book Club! We want you to read a book with your family, and share your discussions about it on a blog. We may even create a wiki to share our ideas about it. But what is the book we're going to read as a school community? Click here, or 'Falcons Book Club' in the Essential Links, to find out, and learn how to join the club!

Year 5 - Location Description Pictures and Secret HQ Reminder

Year 5 - please bring in your secret hq model with your homework on Tuesday. We'll take some pictures and add them to the blog!

I'll talk to you on Tuesday about how to send me your location photographs.

This term's buzz work: Wikis!

Last term we kept talking about blogs. You've been using this blog, and many of you have had a go at creating your own blogs and blog posts.

We'll continue to use blogs this term - including creating Year 3, 4 and 5 podcasts, and beginning to experiment with video posts - but there is something else we are going to begin to study: wikis.

A wiki is a website that can be edited by anyone with a computer. Why not visit the Falcons School for Girls wikipedia page (see 'Essential Links') for an example of a page that has been edited by several different users?

Many of you will get the chance to work on wikis over the next couple of months!

Three days to L.E.H.

L.E.H. applicants - please attempt the additional task included in your homework pack. Write the story under timed conditions, then type it up and email me at baldworm@baldworm.co.uk for feedback.

Don't forget to include the 'Messi wiggle', semi-colons, colons, brackets and dashes - and lots of shown feelings!