Miss Barrell's Class

Tuesday, 6 February 2018

Commas to avoid ambiguity...

So this week we have had fun exploring the use of commas... Sound strange? Well maybe at first, but when you take a look at some of the sentences below and how the use (or lack) of a comma can cause chaos with your sentence meanings then I think you'll see why it got us chuckling...

We ate chocolate cake and raspberries.
We ate chocolate cake and raspberries.

She liked Ben who played drums better than Jim.
She liked Ben who played drums better than Jim.

The old lady collected all sorts of things: silver paper hats felt flowers and buttons.
The old lady collected all sorts of things: silver paper hats felt flowers and buttons.
The old lady collected all sorts of things: silver paper hats felt flowers and buttons.
The old lady collected all sorts of things: silver paper hats felt flowers and buttons.

Let’s eat Grandpa
Let’s eat Grandpa

(I wonder what punctuation you would use after each version of the sentence above...)

Stop clubbing baby seals!
Stop clubbing baby seals!

Lastly, take a look at this outrageous article... I don't know what you think of Rachel Ray but I'm not a fan after reading this?!

If you find any articles where a comma could be put to good use or has already been used to avoid confusion then please bring them in to share! Perhaps you can think of some of your own...?!

Thanks,

Miss Barrell x

Friday, 2 February 2018

Reminder of standards..

Just a quick reminder about standards expected in homework books...

Please complete all work in pencil.
Best handwriting.
For maths activities please use 1 digit per square.
Dates and titles should be recorded for each activity.
Rulers/ straight edges to be used for straight lines.
When work has been marked, please check back and respond to marking as necessary- make use of additional resources if you need to.
If you are struggling with something then please ask- this does not count as a reason not to complete tasks set.
Books should be handed in on a Wednesday.

Thank you for your continued support,

Miss Barrell x

Verb forms revision

This week we have been getting stuck in to verb tenses in all their various forms...

We have explored:

past
present
future

We have looked at the general spelling rules for simple regular verbs:

looked
looks
will look

But we understand that some verbs are irregular so their spellings change rather than suffixes being added on when they are turned in to past tense:

go --> went
have --> had
think --> thought
throw --> threw
is --> was

Some verbs come in continuous or progressive form- these indicate that something is still happening:

was looking
is laughing
will be going

Finally we looked at perfect verb forms which are used when writing/talking about things that happened in the past.

Now we have looked back over our week of learning about verb forms and tenses, have a look at the activity below and let's see how you get on...

SPaG homework 2.2.18

Here is this week's SPaG homework.

As always, if you are unsure then you can:
a) click the links below to help you with the terminology;
b) check back to earlier blog posts with helpful content;
c) let me know and we can go over whatever necessary until you feel confident.

Prepositions: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=byszemY8Pl8
Fronted adverbials: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XiAzTmVQ5rk
Possessive pronouns: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=euQWu0tQW14

Have a nice weekend,

Miss Barrell x

Spellings WC: 5th February 2018

Hi all,

It seems many of us found the 'i before e' rule rather tricky this week!

So, rather than ploughing on through the spellings without securing them, we are going to have a revision week next week.
Instead of learning a new set of words and exploring new patterns/ rules, you will be given a collection of words that you have not spelt correctly during spelling tests this half term. You will be tested on these words through next week from Tuesday onwards in the hope that you will be able to cross them off the list this time round.
When you get your words, please make sure you practise them- they will not learn themselves!

In the meantime, or for those of you who do not have many spellings to go over, I have chosen a selection of words from the 5/6 core list. I have selected these words as I feel they may come in useful for your work in English at the moment- re-writing 'The Ice Bear' from the perspective of either the mother bear or the raven.

Practise these words by using them in context- build them in to a sentence which you may then be able to include in your work! They won't necessarily all work in your piece but I'm sure you can include some.
If you are unsure of a word meaning, look up and record its definition from a dictionary.

For example:

Feeling mischievous, I swooped down and plucked the cub from the sanctuary of his mothers embrace.

See you Monday!

Miss Barrell x

Homework follow up... BODMAS

Hi all,

So last week's homework identified an area for development for a lot of us... BODMAS.

We covered this some weeks ago and definitely had it nailed but it seems we missed it when it was presented in a different way.

It's important you see maths as a whole topic and look for opportunities to use all the skills you have learnt, rather than seeing them in isolation. You can use fractions and decimals with BODMAS too, just as you can with addition or subtraction etc.

If you came unstuck with this, know you're not alone. But don't just ignore it... Act on it. To show you it's nothing new, have a look at the tutorial below going over BODMAS and have a go at the calculations that follow:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ClYdw4d4OmA

Maths homework 2.2.18

Hi all,

Here is this week's maths homework.

There are a couple of tutorials linked below which you might find useful to revise if you get stuck at all and feel free to look back over the blog for any other maths topics you want/ need to revise.