Rowan Class Home Learning Week beginning 8th June
Home Learning Week beginning 8th June
This week we are continuing our whole school topic on the human body. Each day there is a different suggested focus for your to research, then on Friday we will have a round-up research day where you can find out and share any amazing facts you have learnt over the last two weeks. Our English will be linked to the topic, so you can read, write and apply your grammar skills to what you find out.
Spellings: homophones
Homophones are words that sound the same but are spelt differently (e.g. sun and son). Children need to be able to pick the correct homophone for the sentence. This week I want you to collect as many examples of homophones as you can and practise using the right ones in different sentences. – Online games to practise using these can be found here.
– Common homophone you should be able to use are: there/they’re/their, wear/where, witch/which, you/you’re.
Arithmetic: Times Tables Practice
By Year 4, you should be able to recall the answer to any times table question (up to 12×12) within 5 seconds. There are lots of fun ways to learn your times tables:
– learn times table songs on youtube
– get someone to test you and focus on learning the facts you didn’t know or were slower at
– write out a times table and then recite it, cover one of the answers and repeat, keep going covering one answer at a time until you can say the whole table.
– play beat the calculator: one person calls out a times table fact and then types it into the calculator, the other person has to try and call out the answer before it can be typed into the calculator.
– complete a multiplication square each day – can you improve your time throughout the week?
The Human Body
Daily Research Focus:
– Monday: The five senses
– Tuesday: The brain
– Wednesday: Us compared to other animals
– Thursday: Life cycles
– Friday: Amazing facts about the body
Scroll down for links to downloadable activities and information sheets to read. The English activities for this week are also linked to researching the human body.
Suggested Year 4 Science Focus: Food, teeth & our digestive system
- Work through the online activities here to learn about your digestive system. Then go on Purple Mash and use what you have learn to complete the to dos.
- Get someone in your family to lie down and draw around their body (you could use a big piece of paper, stick lots of small pieces together or try using chalk outside). Can you draw the journey that food takes through your body, labelling the different organs involved and what each one does?
- Can you use items at home to make a model of the digestive system? Last week one member of our class used a pair of old tights to turn food into poo! You can see how to do it yourself here or download the instructions below.
- Use a mirror to look inside your mouth. Can you see that some of your teeth are different shapes? Try drawing them. What do you think each type of tooth is for? You could also research different animal teeth on the internet: why do you think they are different shapes? What type of food is suited to?
- Create a poster to teach younger children how to look after their teeth. Think about: cleaning teeth, visiting the dentist and what you eat & drink.
- What does it mean to have a balanced diet? Can you create a menu that includes all the food groups (fruit & vegetables, protein, carbohydrates, diary, oils & fats)? You can explore an interactive version of the eatwell plate here.
Suggested Year 5 Science Focus: the heart, blood & circulatory system
- Learn about the heart & circulatory system here. Then use what you have learnt to try the Purple Mash To Dos or go here for an interactive activity labelling the parts of the heart.
- Can you feel your pulse? Carry out an experiment to find out how different things affect your heart rate. Can you link what you find out to what you learn about the job our heart does?
- What is the difference between veins and arteries? What does the heart do? What role do the lungs play in our circulation?
- Get someone in your family to lie down and draw around their body (you could use a big piece of paper, stick lots of small pieces together or try using chalk outside). Can you draw the key parts of the circulatory system on the body? Can you show the journey that blood takes around your body?
- Can you use materials at home to make a model heart? See the pictures below for ideas.
- Research what is inside your blood. What do the different types of blood cells do?
- Produce a poster of ‘fascinating facts about the heart’. You could even find out about hearts in other animals. Which animal has the slowest heart beat? What about the fastest? Is there an animal with more than one heart?
Maths: Investigations
Good mathematicians are like detectives. They look for clues and spot patterns. This week I will set a different investigation each day for you to explore. However, it’s really good to discuss investigations together so if you have brothers and sisters at home, feel free to work together on investigation from another class.
Here are some useful questions when investigating in Maths:
- Can you see a pattern?
- What happens if we …
- Can you sort these (shapes/numbers/patterns etc)?
- Is there a different way of doing this?
- How many different ways can you find?
- What is the same? What is different?
- What do you think will happen next?
- Can you guess what will happen? Why do you think that?
- What have we found out?
- Did everyone find the same thing?
- What could you investigate next?
Monday: Number Spiral Patterns
A number circle is created by joining up the last digit of the numbers in a times table. Some times tables create more interesting patterns than others. Can you find one that makes a star shape? You can create really interesting patterns by using different colours on the same circle for different times tables. A printable sheet for exploring these on can be downloaded below or you could watch a video of how to do it here. As well as drawing your number wheels, you can make them by threading wool through a piece of card.
Tuesday: House Numbers
As I walked down the street this morning, I noticed that all of my neighbours’ house numbers were odd. I started adding three house numbers as I passed them (e.g. 7+9+11). I did the same further down the street (19+21+23). I noticed that the totals were always odd numbers too! Does this always happen? What if I walked down the other side of the street? What if I added two or four house numbers instead of three? Perhaps you could go for a walk in your street to try this out.
Wednesday: Area & Perimeter
A farmer’s field needs to enclose an area of 10 square metres. What different shapes could the field be? Which shape would need the shortest perimeter fence to enclose it? An interactive where you can explore this can be found here.
Thursday: Dice Investigations
Roll two dice and add the scores together. What totals can you make? Are some totals more likely than others? If you did this 20 times, how many times does each total come up? What about it you did it 100 times? Can you explain any patterns you find? You can download a recording sheet for investigating this below.
Friday: Beginning with 1
Is it true that most numbers begin with 1? Think of numbers you see everyday. Prices: £1.99 Dates: 17th June 2020. Ages: 13 years. Serial numbers: 1761956.
Investigate further…
English Suggestions
Monday: Reading
– Download the reading comprehension below, or do some research on the human body and explain what you have learnt from what you read.
Tuesday: Empathy Day
– Today I am going to suggest something a bit different for World Empathy Day.
– First, can you use a dictionary to find out what empathy means. How can you show empathy? Why is it important?
– Read one of the empathy stories here, written especially for Empathy Day by leading children’s authors.
– Can you make a pair of empathy glasses and use them to explore the world from different people’s points of view?
Wednesday: Grammar – Conjunctions
– An online lesson on using conjunctions to write information can be found here. Here are some more activities to practise co-ordinating and subordinating conjunctions.
– Conjunctions join two clauses within a sentence. Some co-ordinating conjunctions are: for, and nor, but, or, yet, so. Some subordinating conjunctions are: if, so, as, when, although, while, after, before, until, because.
– Can you write some sentences about the human body using different conjunctions. Year 5 should also remember to use a comma to separate the main clause and the subordinating clause.
Thursday: Writing Challenge
– Can you produce a non-chronological report (an information text) using what you have learnt about the human body?
– Features of a non-chronological report include: introduction, headings & sub-headings, paragraphs with at least three sentences in each, present tense, factual information and technical words. You should use a range of different conjunctions from yesterday.
Friday: Writing Challenge
– Can you edit your report about the human body? The Year 4 and Year 5 writing mats below will help you.
– Make sure that every sentence is separated with a full stop, that you have remembered capital letters for proper nouns and question marks whenever you ask a question.
– You could organise your report, with pictures, facts boxes and diagrams. There are also templates on purple mash of you want to publish your report.
Downloads
More printable activities can be found by logging in to Purple Mash: Science – The Human Body – Printable Resources.
Useful Links