What we are doing this week in Lilac Class for the week beginning 1.7.24

For Maths in Lilac Class, we will initially be working with the same number of decimal places.  It is important that we line up the columns correctly, particularly if the calculation involves zero as a placeholder. We are then adding and subtracting decimals with different decimal places.  This will lead us to exploring efficient strategies for adding and subtracting decimals.  When would you use an informal jotting such as a number line?  Which method is the most effective?  We will then identify decimal sequences, looking for patterns and making predictions to complete a sequence.

In English this week in Lilac Class, we are planning a biography about Ernest Shackleton.  We will be learning what biographical writing is and finding out about the different phases of Shackleton’s life.  Lilac Class will also include at the end of the biography the discovery of the wreck of the Endurance on the 5^th of March 2022 and what important artefacts are in the wreck at the bottom of the Weddell Sea. 

For our Guided Reading text, Shackleton’s Journey by William Grill this week, we are reading pages 61-66. These are the last pages of the text.  In Lilac Class we are using our inference skills when considering why Ernest Shackleton and his crew chose to honour August 30^th for the rest of their lives and why it was against the odds to lose none of the crew.

For RE in Lilac Class, we are learning about Hajj and why pilgrimage is regarded as an important duty by Muslims.  How does pilgrimage help many believers deepen their faith?  For Time and Place in Lilac Class, we are finding out about different natural resources in India. We will be thinking about what natural resources are and why India was colonised by the British in 1858.  For Science in Lilac Class, we are learning about the difference between complete and incomplete metamorphosis.  We will be examining diagrams that show the different stages of complete and incomplete metamorphosis and the differences between these processes.  We will also find out about other insects that go through these two processes in their life cycle.  We will then sort animals according to their life cycle and how they reproduce.  For Design and the Arts, we are continuing our seascapes using a range of different materials to create a variety of effects and textures.  The mixed media design ‘Colourful Fish Swirl’ by the artist Nikki B who lives in Tintagel in Cornwall and photographs of the coastline around Tintagel will give us inspiration. In ICT we are creating a program that uses selection to produce different conditions. Lilac Class are using the Scratch programming environment.

We will also be growing beans and part of a geranium plant (artificial reproduction) in our classroom and observing what happens over the next few weeks!