Princess Elisabeth Ice Station

Hello,

I have uploaded the photographs for you...

Mrs T.

For those of you at home...

Hello,

Today in mathematics (30/1/2013), we are studying:

http://www.cimt.plymouth.ac.uk/projects/mepres/book8/book8int.htm

15.2 Angle properties of polygons

Mrs T

100 Word Challenge

100 Word Challenge

Hello,

Is anyone interested in participating in this weekly challenge?

Please let me know if you are...

Mrs T.

To find out more about the challenge, click on this link.  Each week, there is a challenge to write about a topic using only 100 words...

About the challenge

Spellings for Monday 4th February 2013

BT. Spelling Revision 2 

Group A	Group B
sadly madly safely surely family cuddly quickly lightly lovely wisely finally happily carefully beautifully lazily	magnificently immediately monotonously beautifully wastefully separately accurately thoroughly dangerously fantastically finally readily happily certainly smoothly rapidly horribly greedily lazily hungrily

Inside the Station Outing 29th January 2013

Inside the station
Belgian website

Next Weekly Workout!

Hello,

I have been busy with my  'techno DJ' skills, compiling a range of music for our next weekly workout...

When:  Thursday at 14.45
Where: The BISB Basement

Bring your sports kit!

Mrs T.

Tintin Outing - 21st March 2013

Hello,

I forgot to mention to you on Friday about the Tintin outing on Thursday 21st March.

http://www.museeherge.com/en

Transport - the school minibuses
Visit the museum
Picnic in the park

More details after half-term...

Mrs T.

Home School Book 25th January 2013

Dear Parents,

The snow and ice activities continue in the Junior Department Snow Park! However, even the pupils of Year 6 needed a break from the sledging and snowballing, so we descended into the depths of the basement for a keep-fit workout. Watching some of the pupils, I have decided that we definitely need to focus on building up stamina; after three songs, some pupils were gasping for breath and unable to move!!

This week, all the children have been working with number sequences; some have managed to use term-to-term and position-to-term definition of a sequence and write an expression for the nth term of an arithmetic sequence. Many children have been learning how to plot the graphs of linear functions and recognise that equations of the form y = mx + c, correspond to straight line graphs. Other children have been studying coordinates in all the four quadrants – a super week’s work!

The Merchant of Venice continues to captivate Year 6 pupils; engaging with this play has raised many social issues that we are discussing in class; racial prejudice, greed and compassion. Inspired by our visit to see Carmen and the Globe Theatre, we shall be constructing our own ‘puppet display’ next week, which may explain my request for Barbie, Ken and Action Man dolls!

In Literacy, we are trying to master the P.E.E (point, evidence and explanation) technique to be able to present ideas effectively.  This Assessment Focus Three (AF3) – to deduce, infer or interpret information, events or ideas is an area that causes angst for many students. 

Thank you for your positive feedback to my blog. Obviously, I am still on a ‘learning curve’ but, with the children’s motivation towards it and your enjoyment of it, the blog is now very much part of Year 6 life. As you are aware, the week’s homework, spellings lists and the Home School Book are regular features; I am also trying to include ‘instant’ links to work that we are currently undertaking in class, to support your child’s learning and enjoyment.

We have a busy few weeks ahead with two outings before the half-term; please make a note of the date of our outing to the Hergé Museum on Thursday, March 21^st.

Enjoy the weekend.

Kind regards,

Mrs T

Homework for Week Ending 25th January 2013

Spelling test for Monday
Book club meeting about 'Mrs Chippy' for Monday
Formation of Interrogatives -  answer all the questions and make sure that you have an understanding of this topic (no test) for Tuesday
Latin test on 'Romans are Best' for Wednesday
Naughty Nine - Sequences, straight-line graphs  and real-life graphs for Tuesday.  I am more than happy for children to receive parental help with this work, as it is challenging, however, it is not helpful if I do not receive all the 'workings', no matter how untidy  - coffee cup stains, paw prints and grease marks are most welcome!
Famous Four - sequences and coordinates (worksheet and pages 65 and 66 from Abacus 2 - do not do explore) for Tuesday
Schofield comprehension for everyone for Thursday
Tempestuous Ten - Paper 2 - Jonathan Livingston Seagull: A Story -  for Friday

Mental Maths for Monday:
http://www.elevenplusexams.co.uk/assets/8/Mathematics_Revision_Aid_7.pdf
http://www.elevenplusexams.co.uk/assets/9/Mathematics_Revision_Aid_8.pdf

The Merchant of Venice - Links

Hello,

If I find some useful links about The Merchant of Venice, I shall include them in this post

Mrs T.


BBC -gcse bitesize

Sequences and finding the 'nth' term

Hello,

If you would like to revise sequences and finding the 'nth term', take a look at these links:

Sequences and 'nth' term

GCSEbitesize

Mrs T.

Straight Line Graphs and Coordinates

Great work on y = mx + c  and coordinates in all the four quadrants!

Mrs T.

Latin Vocabulary for Tuesday 29th January 2013

 BT. Romans are Best!

Latin vocabulary for Tuesday 29^th January 2013

Latin	English
tesserae	mosaics
ita vērō	yes
dīrēctae	straight
commodae	comfortable
nōbīscum	with us
lūdō	I play
equitō	I ride
pugnō	I  fight
celeriter	quickly
ferōciter	fiercely
dīligenter	carefully
viae	streets
vīllae	houses

Explicit and Implicit Meaning...

How to answer questions from today's literacy lesson

Spellings, Monday 21st January 2013

BT. Sats Spelling revision 1

Group 1

Group 2

Drop the ‘e’ when adding ‘ing’ love – loving give – giving take – taking move – moving drive – driving make – making smile – smiling dance – dancing have – having taste – tasting excite – exciting decide - deciding lose – losing refuse – refusing achieve – achieving receive – receiving desire – desiring escape – escaping dine – dining

Drop the ‘e’ when adding ‘ing’ excite – exciting surprise – surprising believe – believing receive – receiving dine – dining lose – losing refuse – refusing parachute – parachuting rejoice – rejoicing escape – escaping persuade – persuading achieve – achieving pronounce – pronouncing decide - deciding reconcile – reconciling improve – improving announce – announcing desire – desiring perspire – perspiring

Serious Snow !!!

Hello,

You might need to wear your ski suits tomorrow!

Mrs T

Library Update

Hello,

Just to let you know that all the Tim Bowler books, 'The London Eye Mystery', 'The Snowgoose' and a range of 'My Story' books are now available in the Junior Library...

Happy Reading!

Mrs T.

Home School Book 18th January 2013

Dear Parents,

The playground has been a winter wonderland this week.  If you look at the class photos on the blog, you will be able to see the children sledging on old tyres, cushions and plastic mats - anything and everything that could have been used to transport children around the playground - was!

It was an uphill struggle to keep the children focused on academic subjects; however, with promises of extra ‘snow-time’, we still managed to achieve a reasonable amount of work.

Some children have now completed a range of Level 6 questions on: percentages, fractions, decimal, ratio, proportional reasoning, calculating with fractions and to finish this block of study, a number review. They have now begun the algebra section, looking at the method for trial and improvement and how to construct and solve linear equations. Other children are working through individual revision programmes, focusing on examination style questions.

As part of our project on ‘The Merchant of Venice’, we are investigating four sub-plots of the story; in our next piece of assessed writing, pupils will be expected to demonstrate their ability to ‘weave’ two sub-plots into their text:

The four interwoven plots are:

1.   The deal between Antonio, a merchant of Venice who  makes his money from trading fine goods carried to and fro in his sailing ships, and Shylock a Jewish moneylender.   The deal goes wrong when a number of Antonio's ships perish at sea and threaten him with ruin.  Shylock is determined to earn the pound of Antonio's flesh that was promised him instead of interest when the loan was made.  Can Antonio escape death?

2.  The love between Portia and Bassanio

3.   The elopement of Shylock's Jewish daughter, Jessica, with the Christian Lorenzo

4.   A trick Portia plays on Bassanio to test his love of her.

Investigating the characters of Antonio and Bassanio has been achieved through looking at the Royal Shakespeare Company’s production that was set in modern day USA, Venice being Las Vegas: needless to say, there were many volunteers to act out the scenes!

It was a pleasure to meet with you on Wednesday evening; please make an appointment with me should you wish to discuss the matter further.

Have a lovely weekend. 

Kind regards,

Mrs T

Dear Parents,

As you aware, there will be a theatre trip on Thursday 7^th February to see ‘The Merchant of Venice’ by William Shakespeare; the programme for the evening is as follows:

15.30 – 17.30 – Children may stay at school or are required to return to BISB by 18.30

17.30 – 18.45 – pre-theatre trip pizza party in the penthouse bistro (pupils may bring in extra tuck if they would like to).  Parent helpers should arrive for 17.30 (I shall need two parent-helpers for food preparation).

18.45 - depart BISB on public transport to the theatre http://www.scarabaeus.net/

20.00 – 22.30 – performance http://www.shaksoc.com/

 22.30 - 23.00 approximately, end of performance - carriages home

Here is the proposed taxi arrangement; I have received confirmation from Mr. H., may I ask all parent-drivers to review this plan and confirm that this is acceptable, thank you. Addresses of pupils will then be sent to you from the school office.

Mr H - MH, ZQ and KM

BISB minibus (7) – Mrs B., TB, DG, DS, RD, RM and IN

Mrs MacC. – Mrs K., EK, IT, IC and Mrs T.

The cost for this trip is 20 euro; please kindly send the money in a sealed envelope, marked for my attention.  Children may bring in a change of clothes for the evening; there is a bar available should children wish to buy a soft drink during the interval. 

Once again, my sincere thanks for your support which enables me to organise exciting school trips for your child.

With kind regards,

Mrs T.

________________________________________________________

PLEASE KINDLY COMPLETE & RETURN to Mrs. T. by Monday 28 January, 2013.  Thank you.

I hereby give permission to my child,

Child’s Name: _____________________ in Year 6, to go on the trip to see ‘The Merchant of Venice’  at  Espace  Theatre Scarabaeus on the evening  of Thursday, February 7, 2013.  I have enclosed 20 euro to cover the cost of this outing.            Parents’ name:________________________

                                Phone:      ____________________________   Parent's signature

Homework Week Ending 18th January 2013

Maths:
Famous Four:
Abacus -textbook 1 pages: 3,4,5,6,7 ,8 and 9 - do not do explore - for Monday.

Naughty Nine: Algebra:  trial and improvement and linear equation work sheets, if you have not completed the number review (no help with this), please do all three worksheets for Monday.

Mental maths test on Monday for everyone:

Revision Aid 5
Revision Aid 6

Literacy:
Everyone -Comprehension - from Schofield -for Thursday
Tempestuous Ten  -Comprehension and exercises - Laurie Lee - Cider with Rosie  for Friday

Grammar - Types of sentences - for Friday

That's all folks!

Update Transport Arrangements - Theatre Trip

Dear Parents,

I understand from MH, RM, IC and RD that you are able to assist with taking children home after the performance.  Would you please be so kind as to confirm this by email, so that I can allocate  car seat places; details of addresses will be sent to you from the school office

I very much appreciate your kindness in helping me with this; without parental support, many of  our (many) trips would be impossible!

With kind regards,

Mrs T.

Nouns, Adjectives and Verbs

BT. The ways in which nouns and adjectives, e.g. fix, simple, solid, drama and dead can be made into verbs by use of the suffixes ate, ify etc..

Into verbs (ate, en, ify, ise)	Into nouns (tion, ity, ness)
pollen – pollinate	educate – education
note – notify	dictate – dictation
elastic – elasticate	create – creation
medicine – medicate	simple – simplicity
apology – apologise	able – ability
standard - standardise	pure – purity
length - lengthen	stupid – stupidity
deep  -deepen	hard – hardness
dead – deaden	happy - happiness
pure - purify	mad - madness

·         One of the functions of a suffix is to change a part of speech; in this case a noun or an adjective into a verb or adjective into a noun.

·         The main suffixes are listed above; others are: efy (liquefy) and esce (effervesce)

·         Most words just add the suffix

·         When the root word already has a suffix, or it ends in e or y, it has to be removed before the new suffix can be added.  Watch out, however, for words ending in y if you are adding ness – the y changes to i.  Fortunately, the i is clearly pronounced.

  Homework - to revise these rules and to write down 10 examples of verbs changing into nouns, and 10 examples of nouns changing into verbs for next Monday.

Mrs T,

Theatre Night - Thursday, 7th February

Itinerary for our outing to see 'The Merchant of Venice'

All pupils may remain in school after 15.30 on Thursday 7th February

Pre-theatre pizza supper party at 18.00 (I would be grateful if the parent-helpers could arrive at around 17.30 to help me with this)

19.00  - make our way to the theatre using public transport

Performance begins at 20.00

The performance is due to finish at approximately 22.30

The cost of this outing. including supper, is 20 euro - I shall send out the paperwork next week

Children will require a change of clothing for the evening

May I ask you to assist with the transport home?

Our party consists of 13 pupils and 4 adults

The school mini-bus has 7 seats

Could the parents of IC take 2 or 3 people home?

Could the driver of MH take 2 or 3 people home?

Could the parents of IN take 2 of 3 people home?

Please let me know if you are able to help out with the transport, thank you

Brussels Shakespeare Society

Scarabaeus Theatre

Grammar 'Jargon Buster'

Grammar Oxford University Press

I will put this in the links..

Mrs T

Princess Elisabeth Antarctic Exhibition Outing

Dear Parents,

The Junior School is going to visit the 'Inside the Station' Exhibition currently in Brussels on Tuesday 29th January 2013. The children will see a reconstruction of the Princess Elisabeth Antarctic Station above, find out about Polar Science, witness first hand daily life in an ice exploration centre and learn about penguins.

http://www.insidethestation.be/

Please kindly see the letter in attachment for additional details.  The cost of the outing will be 10 euro, this including the entrance fee to the exhibition, the English guided tour and transportation fee. 

Please kindly complete the form in attachment and return it with the money, in a sealed envelope with your child’s name and Year, to the School Office at your earliest convenience.  Thank you.

Home School Book 11th January 2013

Dear Parents,

Carmen, what a thrilling start to the new term!  Carmen is perhaps the best-known and most popular of all operas, thanks to its skilful combination of a love story with passionate, lyrical music and, above all, a heroine who is a true free spirit. I read the story of Carmen to the children, who appeared captivated by the plot and were enthusiastic to dress-up and act out the famous scene where Carmen sings (photos are on the blog)…

The production, in French, by ‘La Compagnie Karyatides’ was a truly magical experience. The children were enchanted with the unusual stage set of sand, puppets, lighting and an array of mini-props that were used to convey action and meaning. You will find a link to a video clip of the performance on our blog.

We have plunged straight into our revision programme for the end of year examinations.  In mathematics, our focus has now changed to using and applying skills previously learnt. Notwithstanding that children are working at different levels within the class, the following goal applies to all students:

'Children (...) should be able to work independently to apply their knowledge within unfamiliar and 

challenging problems, whilst thinking analytically and communicating their ideas effectively.   They will be beginning to be able to identify mathematics to be used where the signposting of mathematical concepts is less obvious and/or what is being asked is less familiar.'

In Literacy, the children revised sentence construction, including phrases, clauses, subject and predicate; they also revised articles.  Although 'under construction', you will find additional information on the Year 6 blog.

At our 'Book Club' meeting we discussed 'Warrior Girls' and 'Journey of 1000 Miles'.  I was delighted that the children enjoyed reading these books and were able to discuss the subject matter in such detail.

Our next outing will be to see ‘The Merchant of Venice’ on Thursday, 7^th February.  I shall plan the itinerary this weekend and post it on the blog. 

What an inspirational first week –it’s great to be back at BISB.

Best wishes,

Mrs T

Homework - week ending 11th January 2013

Mathematics:

Mathematics 11+Revision Aid (1) - test Monday
Mathematics 11+Revision Aid (2) - test Monday
IN,TB,DG,RD,MH, RM,IT  Finish: number 1 - percentages, number 2  - fractions, decimals and percentages, number 3 -ratio, number 4 proportional reasoning - Wednesday
You might have to revisit CIMT tutorials to  refresh your memory!

IC,ZQ,KM,FD Number text book 2, pages 50-55 inclusive - Wednesday

English:
Comprehension - Thursday
Grammar - Articles - The Grammar Tree 6 - all - Tuesday
Grammar - The Sentence - The Grammar Tree 6 -all - Thursday
KM -  nouns -Nelson Grammar -Thursday

Book club - finish reading Mrs Chippy for Monday 28th January
KM - The Shackleton Expedition for Monday 28th January

English Grammar, Punctuation and Spelling Revision

Hello,

To help you with your examination revision, I am compiling some reference material for you.  This table, which is 'under construction', contains the elements of grammar, punctuation and spelling that you will be tested on at the end of the academic year.

Programme of Study	Additional information	Reference
Grammatical terms/word classes
Nouns	Common, proper, collective, concrete, countable, uncountable abstract and noun formation	sg/ga1.1
Verbs	Transitive, intransitive, regular , irregular and modal	sg/ga1.2
Adjectives		sg/ga1.3
Connectives	Time,reason,consequence,purpose,condition,contrast	sg/ga1.4
Pronouns	Personal, possessive,reflexive,emphatic,interrogative, demonstrative and relative	sg/ga1.5
Adverbs
Prepositions
Articles
Features of sentences
Declarative/statement		sg/ga2.1
Interrogative	Negative, alternative, rhetorical, emphatic and questions tags	sg/ga2.2
Imperative	Affirmative, negative and emphatic	sg/ga2.3
Clauses		sg/ga3.1
Phrases		sg/ga3.2
Subordinating connectives		sg/ga3.3
Standard English
Tense agreement
Subject-verb agreement
Double negatives
Use of ‘I’ and ‘me’
Formal/Informal
Impersonal constructions
Passive constructions/voice	A passive voice expresses an action performed upon the subject:   The window was broken by Jane.
Active voice	An active voice expresses and action performed by the subject:  Jane broke the window.
Contractions
Vocabulary
Word meaning
Vocabulary in context
Concision and precision
Synonyms
Antonyms
Word groups/families
Prefixes
Suffixes
Singular and plural
Punctuation
Capital letters
Full stops	To end all sentences except questions and exclamations. After abbreviations for titles, names and degrees (they are often omitted in modern style)
Questions marks	Used to end a direct questions:  Who are you?
Exclamation marks	Used after exclamations showing grief, joy, surprise etc.
Commas in lists		comma game pg/as.6
Commas to mark phrases or clauses
Inverted commas
Apostrophes	Possession or to show missing letters
Brackets
Ellipses
Colons
Semi-colons

BT. Grammar Study Guide.2013