Going green (from a first news article 16-22nd May 2014)

“From next year, shoppers in England will have to pay 5p for each plastic bag that they take from a shop to carry away shopping.”

The reasons given are:

-         Many plastic bags are used once and thrown away.

-         Plastic takes a very long time to break down.

-         Little pieces of plastic can cause problems for animals.

-         Lots of plastic bags end up littering our streets.

Do you agree with this? How would you persuade someone to your point of view?

Write a paragraph that persuades someone to your point of view. Try to use powerful and emotive language. Remember to think, say, write  and check.

Turn off technology

A survey has found that children are spending too much time on the internet because of smartphones and tablets.

Many pupils are taking their gadgets to bed, stopping them from getting enough sleep.

To tackle this problem, the charity behind the survey has told children that they should turn off their devices more often, especially before bedtime.

• Do you think the charity was right to tell children how they should be using their phones and tablets? Why / why not?
• Why is it important for children to get plenty of sleep?
• If you could design an app that helped children use their phones and tablets less, how would it work? What would it look like on the screen?

I look forward to reading your thoughts on this - on paper or on screen!

 

Mrs Messa

Children don't care about winning or losing

Children don't care about winning or losing

(Based on the article by The Daily Telegraph)

Many children are more interested in playing than they aA survey of children's attitudes how you think or feel about somethingto sport has revealed that many boys and girls don't care about winning or losing.

 

'Playing for fun', 'being with friends', and 'getting time off lessons' seem to be more important reasons for getting involved.

 

Over three fifths of the 1000 children surveyed didn't mind the idea of competition being removed entirely from school sports, so long as they got to take part.

 

It turns out that competition is far more important to some parents than it is for their children.

 

What do you think?  Is it good to be competitive or are you not that bothered either?

Heritage Lottery Fund grant is the bees knees!

The Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) has stepped in to help stop the serious decline in the country's bumblebee population. Today HLF announced a grant of £340,000 for an ambitious project by the Bumblebee Conservation Trust, based at Stirling University, to conserve a variety of endangered bumblebee species and their habitats throughout the UK.

 

Bumblebees are fundamental to our ecosystem: hundreds of species of wildflower, fruits such as raspberries, strawberries and tomatoes and vegetables such as runner beans are dependent on them for pollination. The total value of pollination in the UK exceeds £400 million. However, over the last 70 years there has been a dramatic decrease in their population, with two species becoming totally extinct and six of the remaining 24 species now listed as UK Biodiversity Action Plan (UK BAP) priority species.

 

A male Bombus subterraneus. This species is now extinct in the UK (Fiona Barclay).

 

HLF's grant will enable the Bumblebee Conservation Trust to begin a three-year conservation project, helping to protect the bumblebees and their habitat for the future. Working with landowners, farmers, the public and schools across the UK, the project will raise awareness of these important pollinators and help inform people on how best to protect them. Flower-rich habitat will be provided where it is needed most to reconnect the small isolated populations while a extensive awareness-raising programme, including an interactive website, community talks, learning packs for children, and a national wildlife self-assessment garden scheme, will be rolled out across the country.

 Your task
The heritage Lottery Fund is offering money to schools to support them in their bee conservation projects. Write a letter to the Heritage lottery fund explaining what we could do in our school to help the bees and how we would use any money we were given for the project. Remember to use : paragraphs, connectives, generalisers, scientific vocabulary

The River Nile

Our new topic is the Ancient Egyptians. For your homework I would like you to research the river Nile and to explain why it was so important to the Ancient Egyptians. Once you have collected your research write a paragraph in your own words.

Make sure you stay safe whilst searching on the internet.

You might like to try:

http://resources.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/homework/egypt/nile.htm

http://www.bbc.co.uk/learningzone/clips/living-near-the-river-nile/9023.html

I look forward to reading what you have found out by Wednesday 30th April!

 

Mrs Messa

 

The day I met...

Hyde Park received this exciting and mysterious letter at the end of last week. 

Wild Thing Publishing Co.

Read About It Road

London W2

Monday 17^th March 2014

 Dear Class,

Let me introduce myself; my name is Mr Wild E. Beast (you can call me Wil), and I specialise in publishing books on the Natural World.  I am especially interested in rare and magical beasts, about whom we know very little.

As a publisher, I wish all of my new releases to be ground breaking!  Therefore, I am writing from the Wild Thing Publishing Co. with a special request.  Our newest and most exciting title is to be called ‘Wild Things Around The World’.   I understand from my researchers that you have specialist knowledge in this field of learning. 

I would like a collection of approximately thirty (30) beasts, including detailed descriptions of appearance (supported by diagrams of course); information regarding habitats, diet and hunting habits; any important adaptations; explanations about how the beast lives and, most importantly, whether or not they are a danger to humanity.

Of course, with your expertise, I am certain that you will be able to give me even more information than that – these are merely the guidelines I set out for all of my contributing authors.

I very much look forward to receiving your completed collection by the end of April 2014.

Yours Faithfully,

Wild E. Beast.

As well as replying to Mr Beast, and starting to write the Wild Thing profiles he asked for, we started to think about how we could write in the style of other genres.

One idea was to write a recount about the time you met or discovered the Wild Thing you are going to write about.

For your blog this week, this is what I would like you to do!  (If you started this in class, you can either continue it on here, or choose a different text type!)

I look forward to reading your exciting, adventurous and imaginative blog entries!

I will be looking for correctly written sentences, interesting vocabulary and evidence of lots of thought!

I look forward to reading your blog posts - on paper or online -  by Friday 4th April (I am a bit late posting this week!)

Mrs Messa

'Stillness'

'Put 'stillness' sessions on school timetable

based on an article in the Telegraph by Graeme Paton, via Espresso News)

The head of a well-known boarding schoola school at which children stay during term time, instead of going home each day has said that children need more time during the day to be quiet and think about their lives.

According to Dr Seldon, the master of Wellington College in Berkshire, a couple of minutes spent away from all distractionssomething that takes a person's attention away from what they are doing – especially mobile phones and the internet – can help pupils to be happier and improve concentrationthe ability to pay close attention to something.

In his view the disappearance of old-fashioned religiousa word to describe something connected to [a] religion assemblies, which provided time for quiet prayer, has taken away an opportunity for children to think about issuesimportant topics or problems affecting themselves or the world around them.

Dr Seldon's answer has been to introduce daily two-minute 'stillness' sessionsperiods of time used for specific activities into his school's timetable.

During those two minutes, children can think in silence without being disturbed.  They are not allowed to work or communicate with others.

'Stillness' sessions are something Dr Seldon would like to see in all schools.  He believes today's children need daily 'quiet time' more than ever before because of the problems and interruptionsthings that get in the way of a person's ability to concentrate created by modern technology, as well as the pressurethe feeling of being forced to do something because it is expected of you to do well at school.

f these things are allowed to overwhelmbecome too much to deal with children, he fears they could become ill and unhappy.

This could have an effect on their families and friends, as well as their schoolwork. '

 

We have started to be ‘Mindful’ in our classes.  Do you think that this is what Dr Seldon is talking about?  Do you think it helps with your learning?  How and why could it help?

I look forward to reading your entries (on paper or online) by Wednesday 26th March!

Mrs Messa

 

 

In The News (from Espresso News)

Our brains 'read' emoticons like real faces

Scientists have found that we use the same part of our brains to recognise emoticons (the smiley icons you sometimes see in text messages) and real faces.

 

However, this is only true if the emoticon is read from left-to-right, as with all other words on a page.

This is because humans have learned to read the tiny pictures in a particular way.

• When are you more likely to use emoticons in your writing?
• Do you often use emoticons? Why / why not?
• Why is it important to make sure that what we say and write is always easy to understand?

Let me know what you think! 

Remember: a blog post should be a well thought out paragraph, including careful sentences! 

I look forward to seeing your entries (online or on paper) by Wednesday 19th March!

Wild Things!

What are the Wild Things like?

Tell me what you think.

 

I look forward to reading your responses (online or on paper) by Wednesday 12th March

 

Mrs Messa

Food Chains and Food Webs

We have been finding out about food chains and food webs following our work on the human body. 

As a rule, humans are at the top of the food chain - unless we are very unlucky!

 

Watch this video about food chains in nature:

 

Deadliest 60!

 

You can watch a video, do some reading and also take the quiz if you like!  If you would like to find out more, you could do some further research.  Remember, you need to be safe on the Internet!  Speak to an adult if anything worries you.

 

When you have watched, read, quizzed and researched, I would like you to write about food chains!  Can you tell me about producers and consumers?  Predators and prey?  Energy and how it is transferred.

 

Remember your writing should be as high quality as you can make it!  Think of all the vocabulary and sentences types we have worked on, and above all, think, say, write and check!

 

I look forward to seeing your blog entries by the 24th February (when we come back from half term!)

 

You can post your writing on the blog, or even create a little project to bring back to school. 

We will be studying habitats after half term, so you could even start to link that to the food chains and webs!

 

Happy writing!

 

Mrs Messa