Students have been set 3 tasks.

1. To complete a very short survey

2. To complete a task on I AM LEARNING.

3. To make the contents page in the start of their Science Journal.

Details of all of these tasks can be found on Google Classroom (your son or daughter can log into this through the school website).

The deadline for all 3 tasks is this Friday’s lesson.

1. Students should look at Thursday’s fieldwork from the lake in their science journals. Alongside each of the 6 tasks I would like students to self-assess their work against the science journal rubric – the rubric is stuck in the front of their book.

For each of the 6 tasks they should write a sentence alongside the work, ideally in a different colour. The sentence should be in the format:

“I think this task is beginning/developing/secure/excellent, this is because it….”

Deadline: Tuesday’s lesson

2. Students have been given feedback on the first drafts of their site reports on Google Drive. They need to look at every one of my comments and either:

a) make changes to their work so that the comment can be resolved. Additional research may be required to do this.

b) if they are not sure about what changes to make, reply to my comment with a specific question that will help them.

Deadline: Tuesday’s lesson

3. Students have a baseline assessment on mental multiplication through MyMaths as this term will start to look at multiplication/division in more detail.

Deadline: Monday, 8pm

Tasks 2 and 3 require a device and internet connection so if this is an issue students should come to homework club on Monday after school.

1) Students have been given back their tests. They need to go back through and correct any errors (ideally in a different coloured pen). They need not do question 29, we will look at this again in class after the break.

I’d like you to try and test them on the answers once they have corrected them please. A copy of the marks scheme can be found here.

2) Students have started writing their site reports. I would like them to look through the work they have done so far. They need to pick out all of the technical terms they have used such as friable or lithology. To help remind themselves of these words I would like them to start making a glossary of these key terms which go at the end of the site report. For the time being they can start writing their glossary in google drive or the back of their STEM books (if that is where they have written their bedrock assessment.)

3) Students have each been set a specific number of MyMaths tasks. These should appear when they log in.

ADDITIONAL

Some students have been given spellings to take home and practice. I would like you to test them on their spellings verbally and in writing please. Can you keep any examples of their written work and get them to bring them back into school, lined or plain paper is fine for this, we can then stick them in their books when they come back.

I’ve kept most students books as they were mostly working in Google Drive for the site report, so I can mark their most recent work over the two week break.

I realise this is quite a bit to take in so if you or your son or daughter have any queries my email is [email protected]

Thanks for your continued support!

Martin

Thanks to Mr Chan who shared this link with me. There are only a few near to us here, but if you are going anywhere over the two week break, there is a clickable map that you can use to check if there are any spectacular geological finds nearby.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-29572008

http://apps.esriuk.com/app/GreatGeosites/3/wmt/view/5e0d44970b3a4b4dafb7da0404b2d8ed/index.html

Following our test today I thought that students might be interested in this link.

http://www.bgs.ac.uk/discoveringGeology/geologyOfBritain/minecraft/home.html#/6403/64/22242/-8/0/0

The BGS (British Geological Survey)  have a fantastic website packed full of interesting data and also educational resources. The top link takes you to a page where you can download a UK geology map for minecraft!

I know we have lots of fans of Minecraft in the school. This will work on PC versions of minecraft but it is quite a large file. It has OS (Ordnance Survey) map data on the surface and below the surface it has BGS data which is pretty accurate using the limited blocks allowed by Minecraft.

Enjoy you weekend Admiral, and be ready for some working hard and getting smart on Monday when we start writing our site reports.

Admiral have been given their books to take home so they can use them to revise for the test (see my last post).

I would encourage students to look for their mistakes from previous work, these are likely to be more memorable than the things they have got right, and of course we want your son or daughter to correct these mistakes in the test.

I have included an image taken from our book marking policy below so you can understand the comments that I have made in your son or daughter’s books.

Students are given time to respond to marking in JOLT (Jump On Learning Targets). My most recent pencil symbols are in a pink pen so they will be responded to on Monday. Any older pencil marks in red pen should already have been responded to, so if your son or daughter has missed some I have highlighted this.

For extended writing I would tend to mark all spelling, punctuation and grammar, but for some STEM work I would only focus on the key words. You will receive a full copy of our assessment policy very soon!

Thanks.

Admiral students will be sitting a test this Friday. The test will be on the following learning targets:

• I can describe the large scale structure of the Earth.
• I can explain how rocks change over time
• I can round numbers to make estimates
• I can calculate the perimeter of compound shapes
• I can calculate the area of compound shapes
• I can exchange between words and numbers up to a place value of one million.

Students will be given their books to take home later in the week to revise. In the meantime they can revise by doing one of the following:

1. Log into “I am learning” from the Apps link at the top of the page once they logged into the school website. From the home screen, students should click on the computer screen to access the exercises. They can then search for “I can” in the top right search bar. There are two exercises they can try there.
2. Log into “MyMaths” and search for the following exercises: area of a triangle, area of rectangles, estimates with decimals, rounding decimals, place value hundred tens thousands.

This test will be one way in which we work out grades for the above learning targets. It will also help to inform the personalised tasks that students will be given to work on during the October break.