Beckers Green School Blogs

Hi A &G Bloggers,

We have been very busy this term! Our mathematicians have been problem solving, using a variety of activities based on Geometry. The paired and group exercises were 2D and 3D based, and pupils solved questions using concrete and abstract methods. They constructed 3D shapes – cuboids, tetrahedron, etc. From this, they moved on to working with percentages, decimals and fractions, understanding the relationship between the different disciplines and how to apply the knowledge, given a practical challenge to solve.

Our A&G English pupils in Years 3 and 4 have been reading James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl, and Clockwork by Philip Pullman. In James and the Giant Peach, pupils constructed a character reference for one of their favourite people, then developed this information further, to make an interview schedule with the character themselves. The time was set in the future, and pupils had to envisage what had happened to them since the end of the book. The pupils let their imaginations run wild! Clockwork by Philip Pullman, was the second book. There is a lot of technical language based on clocks in the novel, so pupils constructed their own dictionaries, by identifying unfamiliar words and researching their meanings. This was used as a starter activity in sessions. Pupils continued by writing a short story based on the essence of the book, which is tracking the consequence of events when someone has granted you a wish which has turned out disastrously! The stories were indeed quite scary, and I was told not to read them before bed time! The Senior Group followed a similar pattern, based on their books which were Carrie’s War by Nina Bawden and Five children and It by Nesbit.  We also had a fun sessions based on language.

New and exciting challenges are set for next term, so we wish everyone a very Happy Easter and you will be hearing from us in the Spring term :)

What did Miley Cyrus serve for Christmas dinner?

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By George Hayhow

Happy Christmas!

Dear A &G Bloggers,

What a busy Autumn term we have had this year! We have adopted a rally coach approach, which involves pupils taking responsibility for their own learning. This is done through ‘snapshot’ elements of the session: i.e. a starter, interim activity or a plenary. This involves pupils researching, planning and delivering an activity. The pupils have done this with enthusiasm and ingenuity – well done guys!

Our mathematicians have been focusing on mastery with place value and time, making up problems for the others to solve. They enjoyed giving the other teams a challenge! Our English group have been reading avidly, and they are on their third book now. They have taken part in a scavenger hunt; written a blurb to hook readers into a story and constructed a diary entry for Kensuke’s Kingdom.

In the Spring Term we will be working with decimals and fractions in Maths. In English we will be writing poetry, and constructing an interview (for whom, I shall keep secret!) So for the present, from all the Able and Gifted, we wish you a very happy Christmas and a fantastic New Year!

This week our Able and Gifted pupils from Gorillas and Flamingos have been extremely busy formulating their own cinquains. So...what is a cinquain? What does it contain? Does it rhyme?

A cinquain is a 5 lined poem. The first line contains a noun, the second contains two adjectives, the third contains three verbs, the fourth contains a phrase and the last line contains a synonym. It does nor rhyme. You have to know your grammar to be successful doing this!!

The pupils worked really hard on their poems, helping one another out by giving excellent word choices. The characters are based on the book they are currently studying - Stig of the Dump.The results were a range of creative and successful cinquains. Well done guys, I ream really proud of what you have achieved. You are such superstars!! Here is a sample of their work

                                            boy

                                     creative, quiet,

                                  hunts, runs, smashes,

                                     very grumpy,

                                           attitude

                                    by Brooke Freeman

                                              boy

                                        dirty,musty,

                              runner, groaner, grunter,

                                   he is very grumpy,

                                             angry

                                      by Lily-may James

                                                boy,

                                      inventive, muted,

                                     runs, groans, draws,

                                          he draws a lot,

                                             doodles

                                        by Charlie Tibble

                             Can you guess who the character is?

This week we have completed our second group reading books. These were the Butterfly Lion by Michael Morpurgo and Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson. The pupils took part in a Quiz, which contained challenging questions on vocabulary and inference. A brief blurb was written by the pupils to see what they thought of the book: here are some of their comments

Lower Key Stage 2: The Butterfly Lion by Michael Morpurgo

‘We loved the book: especially the main characters, and the adventures they had. There are some challenging, but good words in the book. We love Michael Morpurgo, because he writes some brilliant books and works very hard.’

Book rating:

Jack Foster and Sophia De Bastos

‘I liked the book, especially the main characters: Bertie, the Old Lady and the Lion.’

‘I enjoyed writing the play about the Butterfly Lion because it felt as though I was writing the book.’

Book rating:*****

Brooke Freeman and William Dooley

‘I really enjoyed The Butterfly Lion. It was interesting and I liked the way it was set in two different countries.‘

‘I enjoyed it, but I didn’t find it a challenging read because the vocabulary was obvious. ‘

Book rating:**

Lily May James and Cameron Donaghy

‘I liked the bit when Bertie kept the Butterfly Lion, because the lion is very, very cute!!’

‘I like the section where he frightens the Butterfly Lion, to save him from being taken to the circus. Bertie scares him with a shotgun – it is very scary.’

Book rating:***

‘We loved the book so much, and I think we will really enjoy the next book. We like the book because it’s; funny; a bit upsetting and the best book we have ever read!’

Book rating:*****

Upper Key Stage 2: Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson

‘I liked the recurring themes of greed, adventure and struggle to survive. I also enjoyed the problematic scenes, and how they were solved. I would rate it four stars because it was so creative.’

‘I thought the characters were believable because there were pirates and treasure.’

Book rating:****

Bradley Tayler and Ronnie Finesilver

‘I enjoyed the pirates because they were very entertaining and mean.’

‘I didn’t enjoy the book because I didn’t expect it to be so old, and the language was difficult to understand. The themes of blood-thirstiness and greed did not interest me either,’

Book rating:**

Silvy Balachander and Harry Root

‘I wasn’t expecting it to be so blood-thirsty. It’s quite confusing too, because there is a lot of old-fashioned language, which is sometimes difficult to understand.’

Book rating:***

Sophie Nugent and Tom Allen

‘I didn’t like the blood-thirstiness because it was a bit too violent. ‘

Book rating:**

Aimee Malas and Daniel Knight

‘I would rate this one out of five, but I would recommend it to people who like adventure stories. I didn’t expect it to be so violent.’

‘I would rate it the same. This book is all about blood-thirsty pirates that search for treasure. I don’t find the characters believable.’

Book rating:**

Alfie Tayler and Phoebe Evans

Thank you everyone for your opinions about the books you have been reading. I hope that you enjoy the next books in the sequence: Stig of the Dump by Clive King and The Borrowers by Mary Norton.

 Happy A & G reading guys!! :)

Yesterday at the A&G Maths Hub, I enjoyed myself because it was fun!

As well as the other primary schools which are in the Hub (Great Bradfords, Silver End and Lyons Hall) students from Alec Hunter came to help us.  Our 'Rev Up' was: you have a doughnut and you need to cut it into four pieces, using three cuts. There are many possible answers such as, cut it in half and then stack it, and you have to repeat this process in order to have eight pieces. Another way is to cut the doughnut into quarters, line them up vertically, then cut down. We had real doughnuts to cut and then eat, which was great fun!

The most challenging activity was Bryony's Triangle, where you had to make a flower-like shape and find out what fraction of the square sheet of paper is the one triangle. If you go to the site, there is an image to show you the shape of the small triangle. If you want to know how to do this, and work it out for yourself, then go onto Nrich.maths.org. Here is the link:

https://nrich.maths.org/content/id/7392/BryonyTriangle.mp4

For the final activity, we had a picture of a cake with numbers around the edge, and we had to cut the cake into three slices, so that the slices came to the same total. Again, if you want to try this, pictures are there to help you solve it for yourself.

https://nrich.maths.org/content/02/03/penta4/cake.gif

Overall, it was challenging, interesting and FUN!

Able and Gifted Reading list 2016-17

Dear parents and pupils,

Please find below the Reading List that we have compiled. This is not an exhaustive list, but one that we feel pupils will enjoy, whilst developing their reading skills. If you have any suggestions, we would love to hear from you!

Lower Key Stage 2 (Years 3 & 4)

Upper Key Stage 2 (Years 5 & 6)