Efydd

Welcome back to school after the lovely Summer holidays. As you know our new Year 4/5 class is called Dosbath Efydd, Bronze class. Bronze in name but gold in nature! Well done to you all for a fantastic start to the year! I am very lucky to have found myself with a class of hard workers and top class members who are a great bunch.

We will update the website regularly and there will be two children in the class who will update on highlights of the week every Friday. Also keep an eye out for our school Twitter account.

Much of the information about our new year is in your homework book. There has been one change since then. Swimming for our class will now take place on a Monday next term not this term. Also, you will need your PE kit on a Friday as Miss Lender will be in our class in the afternoon to take you for Basketball.

Well done to our new class Criw Cwmraeg members, Lilly Martenko and Alfie McDonald who will start duties next week! 

Have a a happy, sunny weekend. Remember to do your homework, learn your spellings and keep up the great reading.

Mrs Stancombe

Easter Homework: 

After the holidays, we will be sitting the National Tests in school. 

Please enjoy your holidays, have a nice break and hopefully you will get chance to enjoy some sunshine! But please spend a little bit of time revising for the Tests.

Playing Sum Dog will help you practise a variety of different Maths questions in a fun way! 

I have also sent home a Victorian Review sheet. You may use the Internet to find the answers. Please bring this sheet back to school the first Monday back after the holidays. 

Enjoy :) 

Mrs Parsons 😃

Note to Parents: 

After the holidays, we will be sitting the National Tests in school. 

Lots of practise Mathematical Reasoning papers / questions can be found online at:

https://learning.gov.wales/resources/learningpacks/reasoning-in-the-classroom/year-4/?lang=en#/resources/learningpacks/reasoning-in-the-classroom/year-4/support-materials/?lang=en

Due to budget restraints on printing, I am unable to print copies of these to send home for all 34 pupils. But you can either print these at home - OR just get them up on a screen to show your child and then they record their answers on a plain piece of paper to practise them. 

The answers sheets / booklets are also included so that you can mark them and let your child know how they have done. They should take 30 minutes to sit each paper. 

I am also sending a Practise Reading paper home for them to practise. This HAS been printed. If they could be allowed 60 minutes to sit this test. 

This year, the Maths Proceedural Test is to be carried out online (on the computer) for the first time. Therefore practising answering questions online is probably “best practise”

Therefore, if you could encourage your child to practise answering  a mix of questions online at:

IXL Maths website - https://uk.ixl.com/math/

https://www.mathsisfun.com/timestable.html 

https://www.coolmath4kids.com

http://www.maths-games.org

https://www.topmarks.co.uk/maths-games/7-11-years/ordering-and-sequencing-numbers

Plus playing on their Sum Dog account; answering a variety of different Maths questions will help them practise their maths whilst also practising the skill of answering online. 

Folly farm:

Our trip to Folly Farm is tomorrow. (Yay!!) We are hoping to leave promptly at 9am so please don’t be late to school tomorrow. 

We will be leaving Folly Farm at approximately 4pm, so we should arrive home about 5.30pm. 

The children were told today what they are and aren’t allowed to bring. 

Just a reminder - If they could come in school uniform and with a coat. Trainers or flat (comfy) shoes - as we will be doing lots of walking. 

They have been told that they can bring their packed lunch in a rucksack - or other similar bag that is easy to carry as they will be carrying it around all day. 

If they can bring: 

*Packed lunch 

*Drinks 

*Soft Sweets - if they want to 

And they can bring a maximum of £5 to spend on ice cream or in the gift shop. They will already have tokens for fair rides. 

**Please do not bring any boiled sweets - as they are a choking hazard.**

And it goes without saying, no electronics or mobile phones.

We have told the children that they are welcome to bring a book to read or a notepad to scribble in, on the bus as it’s quite a long journey. But please don’t overload your bags as you need to carry these around with you all day. 

The weather is looking good so far - (see below!) dry, sunny and a bit cloudy. But it may be chilly so don’t forget those coats! 

See you all bright and early!!! 

Parents Evening: 

Thank you all for coming to see me. I hope that you are all happy with the progress that your child is making and it was a pleasure to meet you all. 

A lot of parents mentioned the upcoming National Tests so here is some information on those for you all:

National Literacy and Numeracy Tests

Tests should begin on the first week of May - exact dates will be confirmed by Mrs Rees. 

Every child in Year 2 to Year 6 is required to take tests every May in Reading, Procedural Maths and Mathematical reasoning. Here is a link to an information booklet about the tests:

http://learning.wales.gov.uk/docs/learningwales/publications/140721-information-for-parents-carers-2-9-en.pdf

We have been busy practising test papers in class and we will continue to do so, up until the tests.

Many parents have requested past papers / practise papers to be sent home over Easter. These will go home with the children on Friday 12th April. (One of each type of paper.) 

I am also sending 1 home each week until Easter - so this week (Friday 30th March) it will be a Maths Practise Test Paper. 

Next week (Friday 5th April) it will be a Maths Problem Solving Paper. 

Please complete them by the Tuesday each time - and we will go over them in class on the Tuesday after you’ve received them. 

We will be doing enough Reading practise test papers in class -but if you are desperate to practise another Reading Paper - these can be found online on the Welsh National Government website > National Tests > Reading Papers Practise > Year 4. 

(All the different practise papers can be found on this website.) 

Reasoning paper practise:

https://learning.gov.wales/resources/learningpacks/reasoning-in-the-classroom/year-4/?lang=en#/resources/learningpacks/reasoning-in-the-classroom/year-4/support-materials/?lang=en

Another way to revise for the tests is to read and complete comprehension style activities and to play some maths games on all the different topic areas.

I have compiled a list of useful websites to practise all areas of Maths - as well as a link to the government website where samples of the test papers can be viewed and printed if people want additional practise.

I have not played every game on these websites so please let me know if a site is particularly useful or not so useful. Also if you find other useful websites please let me know and I will add them to the list on the school webpage.

Maths Proceedural Test:

You can revise all the different Year 4 Maths topics for the procedural paper on the website https://uk.ixl.com/math/

Choose Year 4 and choose a topic – this page includes ALL the topics we have learnt this year, topics that may come up on the tests! 

You only get so many free goes on this website – but remember if you close it down and clear your browser history, you can start back on it as a new user! So you get lots more free goes again! 

Remember, Other websites are available to practise all the different maths topics - Top Marks and many more! Just scroll down to find a long list of suggested websites.

BBC Bitesize is free and has many activities to practice all aspects of the Literacy and Numeracy framework. Use the areas for all countries in the UK: http://www.bbc.co.uk/education

IXl maths has free units you can trial for a month: http://uk.ixl.com/

Nessy reading and spelling has free access: http://www.nessy.com/

This website has past test papers from England which can be printed: http://primarytools.co.uk/pages/pastpapers.html

Websites with fun games and activities

http://www.coolmath4kids.com/

http://www.ictgames.com/resources.html

http://www.topmarks.co.uk/maths-games/5-7-years/counting

http://www.maths-games.org/

http://resources.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/maths/

http://www.primaryhomeworkhelp.co.uk/literacy/index.htm

http://www.primarygames.com/reading.php

http://pbskids.org/games/reading/

http://www.funbrain.com/brain/ReadingBrain/ReadingBrain.html

http://www.knowledgeadventure.com/subject/reading-games/

http://www.smartygames.com/

Week beginning 11th March:

What a busy week!

Our Victorian speaker unfortunately couldn't make it in on Tuesday as they had storm damage to their

home, so they have rearranged for Tuesday 2nd April.

All my Parents Evening Slots are full now and every child should have come

home with an appointment time.

Please see below this week's homework - and Spellings for the next few weeks, until after Easter.

Have a great weekend and stay safe - hopefully it will be a happy one and Wales will win the Grand Slam in the rugby!

I will see you on Monday.

Topic Homework:

You need to find out about a famous Victorian and then create a fact file about them - not Queen Victoria.

Remember to include:

*A bold title (usually their name)

*Information / facts

*Pictures of that person.

It can be hand written or typed up but it must be neat as it is going to be displayed on our wall.

Please read power point above on Famous Victorians  -you can choose one of these for your homework, or one of your own.  

Spellings for Friday 15th March: 

Because of a really busy Welsh Week, we didn’t do our Spelling Test last week. Please keep / learn the same spellings for your test this week. 

Please scroll down to find them and they should be listed as “Spellings for Friday 8th March.” 

On Friday, I will then upload a list of spellings until after Easter. 

Thank you 😃 

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What an absolutely fantastic Welsh Week in Dosbarth Efydd! 

We have completed SO many tasks as our entries for the in-house Eisteddfod; art work by Mary Jolley, poetry writing, poetry recitals, singing, instrumentals, story writing (the story of St David) and handwriting. 

As soon as the art, handwriting and poetry are given back to me from the judges, I will take photos and put them on here so you can share your fab work with your parents. 

The first week back has been exhausting!! We have had Welsh Week, the Eisteddfod AND World Book Day! (Scroll down for your World Book Day Photos!) 

I also can’t wait to share some of your Book Character Riddles on here soon! 

I wanted to say a big THANK YOU and WELL DONE for the board games that most of you made over half term! They look absolutely amazing and I can’t wait to play them! 

We have been SO busy we haven’t had chance to have a go on/with them yet - but we definitely WILL next week! 

Have a lovely weekend and stay safe. 

Mrs Parsons x 

School Trip - Wednesday 10^th April 2019

Dear Parents,

As part of our Victorian topic we have arranged 2 special visits for this term.

The first one will be a speaker visiting the school, in costume, on Tuesday 12^th March to share about life in the Victorian times with the children – the cost for this will be a £2 per child.

The second visit, will be a trip to Folly Farm on Wednesday 10^th April. The children have discovered that the first Zoo in Britain was established just before the Victorian period (1928) and zoos were extremely popular in the Victorian times. The pupils will be comparing Victorian Zoos and the conditions that the animals were kept in then, compared to now – and it will be a great opportunity to have first-hand experience of how (and why) animals are kept in zoos in 2019. The children will also be able to visit the Victorian Fun Fair at Folly Farm.

The visit also fits in well with our Science and RE topics this year – which are “Our Sustainable World” and “Endangered animals.” The pupils will be able to view and learn about endangered animals up close.

The cost of the trip is £23, which will include entry into Folly farm, the zoo and the play area, a classroom activity, a visit to the fun fair* and transport to and from Folly Farm.

*The children will also receive a bag of 5 tickets each to enable them to have up to 5 rides on the Victorian Fun Fair.

For the Folly Farm visit, pupils will require a packed lunch, (no breakable containers or boiled sweets) and to be in school uniform.

We will be leaving school promptly at 9am – and leaving Folly Farm at 4pm, therefore returning to school at approximately 5.30pm but parents will be contacted with more up to date information of our arrival time home, by text on the day.

The total cost for the two visits is £25 - please complete the permission slip and return together with payment to school, as soon as possible.

Many thanks,

Mrs Parsons

How fast did that half term go? It only felt like it was Christmas yesterday, the weeks have flown by!

Below is your HOMEWORK for half term - letter will be going out on 22/2/19 with all the HOMEWORK on, but in case you lose a copy - it's all below.

Sorry that there is quite a lot! But you have asked for lots - there is Homework off me, off Mrs Putterill for the whole school, a poem to learn for the Eisteddfod and a logo to design for the PTA.

Enjoy your half term holiday and stay safe.

I will see you back in school for a busy first week of; Welsh week,World Book day and St David's Day/Our school Eisteddfod.

Mrs Parsons  

Homework Year 4 22/2/19

Maths / Numeracy:

After half term we will be moving on to work on telling the time in class. This is a very important life skill – and time questions always come up in the National tests (which are approaching fast!)

Please practise telling the time over the holidays with help from your parents. There are lots of worksheets, websites and games online that can help you – my favourite is the Top Marks website - https://www.topmarks.co.uk/Search.aspx?q=telling+time

Topic

Please see attached the sheet to design a new game – please complete these for homework. We will then play these games after half term. Your games sheet will be displayed on our Victorian Display in class, so please keep it neat and make it colourful.

Optional – We have been learning about Victorian Toys in class. Some children have suggested that they would like to make their own toy time line to show how toys have changed – including Victorian toys, grandparents toys, parents toys and toys now. An idea of what one of these would look like is below on our class website page. You do not need to copy this, it is just to give you an idea.

This is only optional – if you do want to make one, this is great – please keep it neat and make it colourful – and any made will be displayed on our Victorian wall display.

Welsh Week:

The week we come back after half term is Welsh week in school, ending with our Eisteddfod on the Friday. Please remember to learn the Year 3/4 poetry entry to perform at our in-school Eisteddfod. Everyone will need to take part in their teams/houses.

ALL pupils in the school have been asked to complete a task over half term, by Mrs Putterill for the Welsh Heritage Award that we enter as a school every year. Please it see attached.

Thank you

Mrs Parsons

Please see below for this week’s:

*Welsh Costumes Photos - the originals will be published by Mr Steve Powderhill asap. 

*Homework 

*Important Upcoming Dates for the Diary. 

Have a lovely weekend and I will see you Monday. 

Homework Year 4 15/2/19

Spellings

1. Well done to everyone who had full marks in their spellings this week! Remember you need full marks to receive raffle tickets. Your Spellings for next week are on the website page as normal.

Reading

Please keep up the daily reading, both free choice books and your school book too.

Times tables

We have been looking at multiplying and dividing in Maths lessons in class. Some of you are finding this work difficult – because you don’t know your times tables! It is very important in Year 4 that you practise your tables regularly at home – especially 2, 5, 10, 3, 4 and 6. If you can go on to 7, 8, 9, 11 and 12’s too, that is great practise also. So for this weekend especially, please focus on times tables as your most important piece of homework.

Topic

Everyone needs to work on their word processing (typing) skills to help us get quicker and more accurate at typing fast during our ICT lessons. This will mean we will get more work completed in the time given. The only way to get better / faster, is to practise, practise practise! For homework this week, if you can practise typing up the poem (below) into a Google Docs page in your Google Drive account. Once you have typed it up. You need to:

*Change the font size and colour (please remember what we said about the font needing to be appropriate and needing to match the work.)

*Add a picture

*Underline the title and make it bold.

Remember that everyone’s log ins for Google Drive are similar:

First initial, then surname @cwmlaiprimary.com

(eg John Jones would be jjones@cwmlaiprimary.com)

Password – Abcd.1234

THERE IS ALSO A SUM DOG NATIONAL COMPETITION AGAIN THIS WEEKEND – LET’S TRY AND WIN!! LOG ON AND PLAY, PLAY, PLAY!!

Thank you

Mrs Parsons

POEM TO PRACTISE TYPING:

The Chimney Sweep

By Ernestine Northover

What is above all these chimneys, I asked the young lad,

The chimney sweep boy replied,

Why Sir, it's the sky which is sometimes so blue,

That when I look up and glance at the view,

Such glory cannot be denied.

What lies in that sky then, I asked the young lad,

The boy gazing up now replied,

Oh Sir, clouds and sunshine, at night moon and stars,

Planets like Jupiter, Saturn and Mars,

What wonders out there can be spied?

Is your work very unbearable, I asked the young lad,

Most times Sir, it is, he replied,

From dawn until dusk, I'm climbing to sweep,

The soot from the chimneys, for my food and my keep,

My Master cannot be defied.

Do you 'welcome' the sky, I asked the young lad,

When I'm climbing, I do, he replied,

It's my friend when it's dark and the way up is hard,

Because sometimes I get burn't and then badly scarred,

There's many a time I have cried.

What then do you wish for, I asked the young lad,

With yearning, he slowly replied,

I would love to be free and fly like the birds,

Way up in the sky, and if I had the words,

Write about how I'd feel like inside.

Please see below all the Spellings for the Spelling Tests for this half of the Spring Term (until the Friday after February Half Term).

Please check the dates carefully - and whether you are 10 or 20 spellings - before learning them to make sure that you are learning the correct spellings for that week's test.

Please see below, a copy of the Spring Term Overview letter, for what we will be learning about this term, that went out with the children today (10.01.2019).

The letter also explains about Homework, Spellings, the website and information for our PE days.

Our P.E. this term will be Swimming on a Monday afternoon at Tonyrefail Leisure Centre and also basketball on Friday afternoons with Missy Lender.

Children will need to bring suitable Swimming Kit on a Monday – no bikinis or Bermuda shorts and suitable PE kit on a Friday. Can I remind parents that for safety, no jewellery is allowed for P.E. sessions; earrings must be removed or a plaster put over new piercings.

So please remember your kit for basketball tomorrow.

Welcome back! 

I hope you had a fantastic break. We have been busy writing our New Years Resolutions and goals for 2019, today. 

Please see below the swimming letter that was sent out before the Christmas holidays. We will start swimming lessons at Tonyrefail Leisure Centre on Monday. 

Dont forget to learn your spellings for the test on Friday. 

Merry Christmas!

Thank you for all your generous cards and gifts. I am overwhelmed with the generosity. I hope you all have a fantastic Christmas break and I will see you back safe and refreshed in January. Have a lovely break with your families. Merry Christmas! 🎄

What a great 3 days of Christmas concerts!! I’m sure you’ll agree that the children were amazing!!!! 

Check out the photos of them in their costumes, below! 

Just a reminder that tomorrow is our Christmas party day - the children can wear their own party clothes / Christmas jumpers and if they can bring some party food to share with the class.

We are going swimming after Christmas - a letter went out on Monday. I will add a photo of the letter to the website page tomorrow for all parents, in case the letters got lost in transit as it has been a busy week! 

Thank you all for your continued support and Merry Christmas to you all!!! 

A big thank you to everyone who supported our Christmas enterprise evening! The children had a blast making and selling their items and lots of funds were raised for the school. What a Christmassy evening! THANK YOU to the parents for your great support for the school. 

I will be posting photos of our items and of some of the design and costing work the children did in the run up to the enterprise evening, ASAP. 

It’s such a busy time in school! Our dress rehearsal and filming went well! One down, two to go! 

We hope that you enjoy our concerts, the children have put so much effort into learning the songs and their lines.

Just a reminder that there is no school for pupils on Friday - it is an inset day and we will welcome the children back on January 7th. 

**Thursday will be their last day of term and will be a Christmas party day in Dosbarth Efydd. A little letter will be sent home about this tonight.**

Don’t forget it’s our Christmas enterprise evening tonight, 3.20pm, where we will be selling all of our great craft items that we have been busy making in class. 

We look forward to welcoming you along. 

Also - please remember to have your Christmas concert costume in by today. 

And a quick reminder that it is our Christmas Panto in Cardiff tomorrow (Thursday!) 

Phew, what a busy time! 🎄 🎄 

Our dress rehearsal, which is being filmed for the dvds, is Monday 17th Dec. So please could all costumes be in by Wednesday 12th December. 

Don’t forget we are going to the Panto in Cardiff on Thursday 13th Dec.

Homework this week (Friday 30th November)

*Maths sheet - on converting between units - we have been doing this for 2 weeks in class, so you should find it easy peasy!!! Just take your time and be careful.

Remember, there is:

10mm = 1cm

100cm = 1m

1000m = 1km

So, to convert from:

mm into cm you would ÷ by 10

cm into mm you would x by 10

cm into m you would ÷ by 100

m into cm you would x by 100

m into km you would ÷ by 1000

km into m you would x by 1000

*Literacy - we have been looking at Aesop's Fables in class - traditional stories that have been past down over time that have a moral or a meaning.

I want you to look for one on the weekend - preferably one we haven't looked at it in class and copy and paste it into a Document in your Google Drive to share with the class next week. I have shown you all how to do this in class, so you just need to find one on the internet, open a new doc and then copy and paste it across.

A list of the ones we have looked at is below.

Also, don't forget your spellings, to practise your times tables, to read (at least once to your parents)- and to practise your lines and the songs. If you can have the fable and the maths sheet ready for next Friday.

A list of the fables we have already looked at:

The boy who cried wolf

The ant and the dove

The Lion and the mouse

The hare and the tortoise

The gnat and the bull

The owl and the grass hopper

The eagle and the beetle

The wolf and the kid

The Peacock's complaints

The goose that laid the golden egg

The fox and the crow

The wolf in sheep's clothing

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Homework this week to be in on Friday 30th November is:

*Spellings

*Reading

*To load Google Drive and finish your Pandora's box story.

*To learn your Christmas Concert lines and practise the songs.

Some children have also taken their Helen Elliot artwork home today to finish - this is because we have spent 4/5 hours on this in class - the maximum we can possibly spend and they are still not finished (some pupils have finished this, evaluated it and completed 2 more pieces in the same amount of time!) If you can please finish this ASAP and bring back to school completed. Please try not to crumple it, as it is part of our topic work and is to go in our books and be displayed on the wall.

**PLEASE SEE BELOW DETAILS OF OUR CHRISTMAS ENTERPRISE EVENING ON WEDNESDAY 12TH DECEMBER. LETTERS WENT HOME TODAY AND A COPY IS BELOW.**

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Christmas Concert:

Lots of parents have been asking about the Christmas Concert. In Year 4 we are combining with Miss Easley and Mrs Stancombe's classes to do the play, "Children of the World" which tells the story of Christmas traditions around the world.

In Dosbarth Efydd your child has chosen their part themselves and is either; an angel, a child from China or a child from Poland. They should be able to tell you what part they are.

If you can ask your child what part they are - and start to think about getting a costume. I will let you know asap what date the costumes need to be in school by - in time for the dress rehearsal.

Costume suggestions:

Angels - Angel costumes

Children from Poland -

Dark full skirts/trousers, white shirts, waistcoats and colourful ribbons.

Children from China:

Simple kimono type wraps – or plain pjs – with Chinese hats

Lines/scripts will be sent home shortly.

If you can please practise the songs at home - the words are below for our songs.

Google Drive:

We are swapping over to use Google Drive for all our ICT needs from now on. 

We will be using this to create and save all our ICT documents. 

A few benefits for the children are that documents automatically save - so no losing important work or work that they have spent ages on if they forget to save or the computer crashes. 

Another great benefit is that the children can access all their ICT work at home. So if they don’t finish in the lesson or want to show their parents  / want to work on it at home, then they are now able to. 

To get them used to using it, I have asked them to access it as their homework this week and complete their class task of rewriting the myth, Pandora’s Box. 

They can open another internet tab and google “Pandora’s box story for children” to help them rewrite the story if they forget the main events. 

They have all been shown how to do this in class AND how to log on to google drive. 

We are trying to make them increasingly more and more independent in Year 4, so your continuing support with this is great. 

Please feel free to assist your child with logging on - but encourage them to complete the steps themselves, as they will be expected to load up the internet and log in to their own Google Drive accounts in class, each week, independently. 

They ALL have a copy of their log in details glued inside their reading records. 

And they can follow the steps below to log in. 

Load the internet - Google Drive can be accessed on a laptop, computer, tablet, iPad - or even a smart phone. 

But it works best when you load it on a laptop or computer through Google Chrome as your browser / internet option rather than e for internet explorer. 

If you don’t have google chrome it is free to download. 

Once you have loaded the internet - go to www.google.co.uk

You have been producing some super work in Dosbarth Efydd! Here’s a snap shot.

I am SO proud of how you are all working! 

HOMEWORK - Remember, your homework is to get as-high-a-score as possible on www.sumdog.com

You all have your username and passwords to log on now - they are stuck inside the front cover of your Reading Record - unless you didn't bring your Reading Record to school, then you should have taken it home loose.

PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE Remember to bring your Reading Record next week, every week! These should be taken home on a Friday - but brought in on the Monday and then left in school until the Friday.

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Please find below, all the Spellings until the Friday after Christmas. They ARE in order, but please check that you are learning the Spellings for the correct week. (Check the date carefully).

Some weeks it just says "ALL GROUPS" rather than (20) or (10) - that means I think EVERYONE is capable of learning the 20 that week.

Thank you for everyone who sent in their sponsor forms and money. If you haven’t sent yours in yet, it’s not too late.

The children loved taking part in the Sponsored Shoot out and had a great time! 

The stats for the Activity were:

560 goals scored

12 goalies took their turn 

4 goal (posts) 

30 mins 

32 children 

1 injury 

Dixie guessed closest to the number of goals scored! 

A great afternoon :) 

We have signed up to a new maths programme as a school. It is called Sum Dog.

It is a fab site that also comes in App form that can be downloaded to your iPads, iPhones, tablets etc - the app looks like the picture below when you search for it. 

Or you can access it via the Internet / Safari at www.sumdog.com

I have signed all the pupils in my class up under my class on there and will give you all a log in and username tomorrow. 

Your homework this week is to play it as much as possible!! To get our class scores up as much as possible

There are Sum Dog certificates to be won for the highest scores. 

We can also compete against other schools across RCT. Come on, let’s get on the highest score board! 

Good luck! 

HOMEWORK FOR HALF TERM

I can't believe that Half Term has come around so quickly! What a quick, but tiring, term! You have all settled in to Year 4 so well and have been working really hard. You deserve a break!

Stay safe and look after yourselves, especially with Halloween and Bonfire Night / Fireworks fast approaching.

Homework over half term includes:

*Spellings

*Reading regularly

*Try and raise as many Sponsors as you can for our Year 4 Sponsored Shoot Out - with the Sponsor form that went out on Monday 22nd October

*Get your family to vote for us to win the Aviva Grant Competition (link below!)

Homework Task:

Can you research a famous welsh person and draw a portrait of them. Can you create a fact file about them to go with the portrait. It can be any welsh person, singer, dancer, gymnast, sports person, artist, writer, rugby player, football player.....

How you set it out - on the computer, or handwritten, is up to you. But please try and put your full effort into it. These will be shared in class during the first week back - and put on our Welsh Wall of Fame. 

Please look after your work and don't crumple it as it is going to be displayed.

Also - please see below, a list of maths and literacy websites for you to play on.

Have a great half term.

Mrs Parsons

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Suggested Maths & English Websites to enhance learning:

I have not played every game on these websites so please let me know if a site is particularly useful or not so useful. Also if you find other useful websites please let me know and I will add them to the list on the school webpage.

BBC Bitesize is free and has many activities to practice all aspects of the Literacy and Numeracy framework. Use the areas for all countries in the UK: http://www.bbc.co.uk/education

IXl maths has free units you can trial for a month: http://uk.ixl.com/

Nessy reading and spelling has free access: http://www.nessy.com/

This website has past test papers from England which can be printed: http://primarytools.co.uk/pages/pastpapers.html

Websites with fun games and activities

http://www.coolmath4kids.com/

http://www.ictgames.com/resources.html

http://www.topmarks.co.uk/maths-games/5-7-years/counting

http://www.maths-games.org/

http://resources.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/maths/

http://www.primaryhomeworkhelp.co.uk/literacy/index.htm

http://www.primarygames.com/reading.php

http://pbskids.org/games/reading/

http://www.funbrain.com/brain/ReadingBrain/ReadingBrain.html

http://www.knowledgeadventure.com/subject/reading-games/

http://www.smartygames.com/

TOP MARKS is one of my absolute fave sites, and can really help you to learn your times tables and practise your Maths that we have been learning in class. Try HIT THE BUTTON game, as we will be using this game in class as part of a Maths Challenge after the half term holidays.

**Important from the PTA for the Aviva grant**

Can we ask all parents, family, friends - everyone! To vote for us please:

We've entered the Aviva Community Fund to ask for £10,000 for IT equipment for the school - a class set of Chromebooks and an ActivPanel interactive board.

Voting opens today (Tuesday 23rd) at 9am - if you could spare a few minutes to vote for Cwmlai Primary School IT Improvement on the link below it would be massively appreciated! And if your family, friends, neighbours and anyone you've ever known could too, that would be amazing!
Only the projects with the highest votes go through into the final round of considerations and the school could really do with some new equipment.

Voting closes on 20th November, so don't delay!!

https://community-fund.aviva.co.uk/voting/project/view/4-1375?fbclid=IwAR0MZuSIsFPzUrcYUV-p0K6mkXvzOu7jFmJ0QtH0Wczp4zEtQkSSsu9NnuQ

You might have to copy and paste the above address, rather than just clicking on it.

Thank you!
Cwmlai PTA and all Cwmlai Primary Staff

PE:

Our PE day is a Thursday. Unfortunately, this week hardly anyone in the class brought their PE kits in so we  were unable to do it on Thursday. The children were asked to bring their kits today so we could try and squeeze in a PE lesson today. The children have Drama and Music with specialist teachers on the Friday am, so we only have a short amount of time on a Friday afternoon to fit in our Spelling lesson and Spelling tests, Big Maths Beat That Tests and CLIC tests, so we did not manage to fit it in.

I have promised the children a double session of PE next week, on THURSDAY, so please could you ensure that ALL children bring a PE kit on Thursday.

Thank you.

NO HOME WORK this week - relax, have fun with your families and enjoy the weekend. But please remember to read your books and learn your Spellings.

****************************************

A Parents Evening letter will be coming home with the children today - I have uploaded a copy below, in case any get lost in transit.

This is an opportunity to "meet the teacher" and to discuss how your child has settled into Year 4. No books/work will be shown this time.

The appointments are arranged on a first-come-first serve basis to be as fair as possible, so please get your replies back asap.

I look forward to meeting you all.

Mrs Parsons

SPELLINGS:

To be organised and plan ahead, I have decided to put the next 4 week's worth of Spellings on the website in advance, so parents can see what spelling words are coming up.

I have uploaded all the Spellings for all the tests we have until the week after October half term. (Friday November 9th. ) When it gets to Friday October 9th, I will then upload all the Spellings up to Christmas (so all the words for the Winter term.)

You just need to scroll down the page then and click the correct date for that week.

Not to get in a muddle though, please remember to click on the correct date.

The children have all been trying really hard to learn their Spellings.

It has come to my attention that lots of parents are working really hard with the children to learn their spellings over the weekends (thank you!) and then they are not being told what score they had in the actual test.

From this week I am going to get the children to write their Spelling Test scores inside their Reading Records. 

The new Spellings are listed below - and homework this week is a Web Quest - you need to use the internet or an Atlas to find out the information on the sheet. This is just a little activity to get you used to using the internet to research. Your finished sheets will be put in your Topic Books and on our display wall - so please look after the sheets, don't crumple them. I have also included a copy below that can be downloaded and printed at home if you lose yours.

Well done on your Welsh flags! They all look amazing and have been used to decorate our Welsh wall.

Have a lovely weekend and I will see you Monday morning

Mrs Parsons

Homework Friday 21st September:

Your homework this week is to create and decorate a Welsh flag. 

In class we have been learning all about the Welsh flag and of the legend of the red and white dragons. 

For homework, I want you to decorate your own welsh flag to be put up in class. Remember to stick to the traditional colours of red, white and green. 

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 

But try and make it as creative as possible. You can draw your own from scratch, trace one or use the template provided. 

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 

You can colour it, paint it, stick collage materials (jewels, beads, crepe paper, scrumpled coloured paper, cut up coloured paper - anything you want!) the more creative the better. 

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 

The finished flags will be used to decorate our Topic wall - along with your handwriting about the flag and your stories of the red and white dragons.

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 

Don’t forget to learn your Spellings and to read this weekend also. 

Next week I am going to show you a special Maths resource that we are going to be using regularly - you can log on at home and play maths games that I set you and I can see who’s been online and played - it’s great! 

Have a a great weekend, stay safe and I’ll see you Monday. 

Mrs Parsons 💕

Spellings:

A letter went home today to explain how our Spelling Tests are going to work each week.

This year we aren't having "set" Spelling groups. I have taken into account the pupil's spelling scores that have been passed on from Mrs Thomas - combined with the Schonell Spelling Assessment the pupils have completed for me the first week back - and there are 3 groups. Your child knows what group they are in and how many spelling words they need to learn each week, but they aren't "stuck" in that group forever and can move between these groups over the term.

Every week the children will be having their spelling test on a Friday afternoon. The Spellings that they will be tested on won’t be given out on a sheet – they will be put on our class website page every Friday so that they have a week to learn them. This is because we are an Eco-School and are trialling going “paperless” in Year 4 – and we have also found that it encourages independence.

The children have all be shown how to load the class website page to find the Spellings themselves – and the class website page can be accessed via mobile phones, ipads, laptops or computers.

The children will either be learning 10 or 20 Spellings. Your child knows how many they should be learning. So please look for the correct link below. (10) or (20) 

I am trialling this and will tell them each Friday which Spelling List they need to access on the website. (If this way, ISN'T successful, then I will write in their Reading Records what Spelling List they need to look at on the website page! But I will try to encourage their independence at first!)

Each week they will be learning a new spelling pattern – all the spellings will stick to this pattern / patterns to make the words easier to learn.

This is how I will be sending home homework too – so please check our class page regularly.

Any problems, please pop in and see me J

Mrs Parsons

Reading - We are trying to set up our Reading system in Year 4, but lots of pupils have not brought their reading books and reading records back after the summer holidays. Please could these be returned tomorrow so we can set up our reading groups.

This week we will not be listening to the children read individually / writing in their reading records - as we will be carrying out Reading Assessments with all the children to reassess where they are at the start of the school year. This will help us to support them with their reading accordingly.

Welcome back!

I hope you have had a fantastic Summer holidays and are all refreshed and ready to start the new school year – and a big welcome to Year 4.

I like to update the website regularly – and this is where you will find the weekly Homework and Spellings plus any photos, letters or work that the children have been doing. So please check the website regularly.

Our topic this term is entitled, “Is Wales the land of ART and SONG where MUSIC runs in your blood and POETRY lives in your soul?” and it is looking at Wales and what makes Wales special.

The pupils have had a massive say in what lessons and activities we will be doing relating to Wales and have planned some great ideas. A Curriculum overview explaining what we will be learning about this term, including what days PE are and what our homework and spelling policies are - will be sent home tomorrow (11/09/2018) and a copy of this can be found below.

Reading books will be given out on a Friday and should return to school on a Monday.

You should aim to listen to your child read every weekend, and fill in their reading record. However, if for any reason you don’t listen to your child, their books should still be returned on a Monday so a member of staff can listen to them.

Another letter went home today for the school Christmas pantomime, please return this asap as it is a first-come-first-serve-basis and is a fantastic day out.

Thank you for your support,

I look forward to meeting you all at our first Parent-teacher meetings, however if you have any questions before this, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Mrs Parsons.

19/03/2018:

School will be open as normal today. The school site has been assessed and the yard mostly cleared. Please take your

time and stay safe as some of the pavements on the way to school are icy. No late marks will be given - just please arrive safely.

WEATHER UPDATE - FOR THURSDAY 1ST MARCH

We had an e mail from the Local Authority at 2.10 this afternoon which goes as follows;-

We would also recommend that you use the following statement when sending a text to parents or posting this information on social media/school websites:

“Based on current Met Office forecasts of severe winter weather, which is expected to have a significant impact from tomorrow, Thursday 1 March and in to the weekend, the local authority has advised us to close the school tomorrow, Thursday 1 March and Friday 2 March. An update will be provided over the weekend in respect of Monday, 5 March.”

Therefore based on the above information Cwmlai Primary will be closed tomorrow

We will keep in touch via text.

Suggested websites to enhance understanding: 

I have not played every game on these websites so please let me know if a site is particularly useful or not so useful. Also if you find other useful websites please let me know and I will add them to the list on the school webpage.

BBC Bitesize is free and has many activities to practice all aspects of the Literacy and Numeracy framework. Use the areas for all countries in the UK: http://www.bbc.co.uk/education

IXl maths has free units you can trial for a month: http://uk.ixl.com/

Nessy reading and spelling has free access: http://www.nessy.com/

This website has past test papers from England which can be printed: http://primarytools.co.uk/pages/pastpapers.html

Websites with fun games and activities

http://www.coolmath4kids.com/

http://www.ictgames.com/resources.html

http://www.topmarks.co.uk/maths-games/5-7-years/counting

http://www.maths-games.org/

http://resources.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/maths/

http://www.primaryhomeworkhelp.co.uk/literacy/index.htm

http://www.primarygames.com/reading.php

http://pbskids.org/games/reading/

http://www.funbrain.com/brain/ReadingBrain/ReadingBrain.html

http://www.knowledgeadventure.com/subject/reading-games/

http://www.smartygames.com/

Croeso i Dosbarth Efydd

Welcome to Bronze class

After the tests on Friday we planted sunflower seeds. We were very excited to come in today (Tuesday) and see some have already started to grow. Can you guess how tall they will grow?

Thursday 29th September

Please can we have all empty glass jars in asap, so we can complete the exciting task with them. 

Thank you,

Mrs Walters.

We visited the War Memorial today for quiet reflection for those who lost their lives in the First World War. We had a lovely discussion as to why the children think there is an angel at the top of the Memorial and also why people lay poppies. We were extremely lucky with the weather and the children were very well behaved and very respectful. Well done Class Arian and Class Efydd. 

Spelling words by Monday 12th

kettle

kitten

dinner

riddle

little

woollen

better

mirror

middle

bubble

rubble

summer

batter

tatter

tomorrow

scrabble

giggle

bottle

rattle

rotten

Welcome back!

I hope you have had a fantastic Summer holidays and are all relaxed, refreshed and ready to start the new school year.

Our topic this term is World War 1. It is a very exciting and thought provoking topic, which I’m sure the children will enjoy.

As part of this topic children will look at maps, make poppies, research life during Wartime and learn Wartime songs amongst other things. 

Our P.E. day is Wednesday; the children will take part in Basketball with Missy Lender. Children should bring shorts/joggers, a t-shirt and trainers. No jewellery should be worn on P.E. days. If your child cannot partake for any reason, please send a note.

Reading books will be given out on a Friday and should return to school on a Monday. You should aim to listen to your child read every weekend, and fill in their reading record. However, if for any reason you don’t listen to your child, their books should still be returned on a Monday so a member of staff can listen to them.

Homework this term will take a “takeaway” format (uploaded below), where you choose which homework tasks to undertake on which weekend. This means that if you have a particularly busy weekend your child can complete one of the shorter tasks and if you are less busy they can choose one or two of the longer tasks. You should aim to complete all of the tasks by Christmas. In the homework book you should date the task and write, draw, or stick evidence or photos of completion.

Thank you for your support,

I look forward to meeting you all at our first Parent-teacher meetings, however if you have any questions before this, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Mrs Walters.

Our trip is booked, 19th May to Mountain View Ranch, Caerphilly. The cost of the trip is £9 and this will include the bus as well as campfire and den building, archery and adventure play at Mountain View, letters have gone out, if you need another copy please ask! I am very excited!!!

Our school trip has been booked.... More details will be released as soon as the buses are booked! 

Mrs Walters.

Welcome back!

We hope you have had a lovely Easter break and are now relaxed, refreshed and ready for the Summer  Term.

There is no basketball or swimming this term, so PE days will return to normal (Mrs Walters – Monday and Mrs Putterill on a Tuesday). Children will need kit and trainers as hopefully most PE sessions will be outdoors.

The National Tests are in four weeks time so we will be doing a lot of preparation for the tests in school and would appreciate if you could continue this in the house too. Please bear in mind the tests are just a snapshot of their learning and we are sure that our children will try their best and that is all we can ask!

Our topic this term is Summer Camp!

This project has a forest skills and geography focus and teaches

children about aspects of the local and regional landscapes and the

use of this land and other geographical features for leisure. At the

heart of this project children write a range of explanation texts and

develop additional skills in writing plans and letters.

Children will also apply their skills and understanding

by planning and delivering their own summer camping festival.

In this project the children will learn:

• How to use fieldwork skills to gather information;

• How to use a range of geographical source materials;

• How to build shelters and put up tents;

• About the locations popular for camping in Wales and what the geographical features

   of these landscapes are;

• How to plan a large scale event;

• The benefits to health and well-being of spending time outdoors;

• How to make and plan a menu for outdoor cooking;

• How to work co-operatively as part of a team.

As part of our Topic we will be having outdoor lessons each week so would ask if the children could wear sensible shoes/wellies so they are suitably dressed to go to the nature area.

It is going to be a fun-filled, packed term!

Mrs Putterill and Mrs Walters

A dragon in the classroom 

First there was a dragon in the playground, now one in the classroom!!!

This morning Ruby's mum brought in a bearded dragon for us to hold. She answered our question and we learnt lots about this dragon!

Thank you to Ruby's Mum, Nan and Viv the dragon. 

Don't forget your trip money for our trip to Cardiff Castle!!!

Welcome back! We hope you have all had a nice, relaxing break.

This term our topic is Castles and dragons. 

This project has a history focus and teaches children about aspects of the middle ages of Welsh history between 1063 and 1283, a period that is generally known as Medieval Times.

In this project children will learn about significant aspects of Welsh history including the Welsh Princes of the time and the four provinces of Gwynedd, Powys, Deheubarth and Morgannwg.

The project will explore the Princes’ lifestyles, their homes and castles and their role in society.

At the heart of this project children read, write and re-tell myths and legends and create their own stories in the same style.

Children will learn additional skills in presenting and recounting historical information.
 
In this project the children will learn:
 
• About the period 1063 to 1283 including the lives of the rich and poor;
• How to use a range of historical source materials to find out information about the past;
• How to order things chronologically;
• About significant Welsh figures that shaped this period of history;
• About the castles of Wales, their building, function and importance in the past and present times;
• About cultural identity of Wales;
• About the features of myths and legends and how to write one of their own;
• How to use a range of mathematical, technological and artistic skills to create artefacts and models on an historical theme.

We are very excited about this topic and hope the children will be too. 

Thanks for your continued support,

Mrs Walters and Mrs Putterill. 

Our Christmas concert this year is called Tinsel and tea towels. It's all about a school putting on a Christmas concert when the Estyn Inspectors turn up.

Our favourite lines are:

"one of my class said Mr Scammell could be one of the Wisemen"

"I heard Mrs Putterill singing the angels song in the toilets"

"Mrs Walters gets well stressy, only if we forget our lines...or forget to smile" 

Listen out for them when you come see us! 

Homework bags will be given out on a FRIDAY and should be returned on a TUESDAY. Please make a comment in your child's book bag on how they found the book; did they enjoy? Did they struggle on any words? Were they able to discuss the story? Did they use expression? etc.

Thank you for your support

Mrs Walters and Mrs Richards.

Croeso i Dosbarth Efydd! Welcome to Bronze class!

I hope you have all had a lovely Summer holiday and are now relaxed, refreshed and ready for Year 4.

Our topic this half term is Beast Creator - we will be learning all about minibeasts, their habitats, food chains and body parts as well as creating fantasy stories involving our own beasts!

Our class book this half term is The Witches by Roald Dahl, I look forward to enjoying this book with you.

See you soon,

Mrs Walters.

Half term homework.

If you haven't already given your presentation, it will be after half term, so please make sure you're ready. 
Research your individual project country to be able to finish your project next half term (just internet or book research; we will do the actual pages in school) 
Choose a language and learn to say "hello" "goodbye" and "my name is ___" in that language.
Don't forget to get your consent form signed and bring in your trip money after half term!
I have created a survey for you to complete, I have tweeted it from the school twitter and put the link on our class page. This will form part of our topic for the next half term.

Enjoy your week off!
Miss Jones. 

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/6TGBS7H

This is the link for the survey part of your homework. 

Miss Jones

We had a great time this afternoon on our walk of Tonyrefail. We used an app to track our walk and clocked up 3.2miles (and even managed to squeeze in a trip to the park!)

The children were a credit to the school (as always!) and were perfectly behaved and polite as we met people around Ton.

We are now going to use what we have learnt on our walk to debate whether Tonyrefail is a "wonderful" place to live! We'll let you know what we decide.

Miss Jones.

Our locality walk will be Wednesday 13th May. Please remember to wear sensible shoes and bring a raincoat (just in case!!) 

 This week we have been concentrating on revision for the Tests coming up next week and the following week. Just a reminder, the dates for the tests are:-

Numeracy Procedural - Tuesday 5th May
Numeracy Reasoning - Wednesday 6th May
Reading - Tuesday 12th May

Below is the link for the numeracy sample materials and Reading - please feel free to have a look and have a go!
 
http://learning.wales.gov.uk/resources/browse-all/numeracy-sample-materials/?lang=en
 
http://learning.wales.gov.uk/resources/browse-all/reading-sample-materials/?lang=en
 
 
 

Parent's meeting updates:

Our parent-teacher meetings have now been scheduled for Thursday 23rd April. Your child will bring home a slip for you to indicate your time preference. If you cannot make this day for any reason please let me know and I will try my best to rearrange.

Thank you,

Miss Jones.

Our topic this half term will be "What a Wonderful World."

We will be exploring maps of the globe, looking at the natural and man-made wonders of the World, as well as creating our own "wonders."

If you have any holiday photos from any wondrous places you have been around the globe, we would love to see them!

I am looking forward to this topic, I hope you are too.

Parents: Sorry our Parent's meeting have been delayed, I will send a letter out this week to arrange meetings for next week (wb:20th April) - thank you again for your patience.

Miss Jones.