Apostrophes for Contraction

This week, as part of your homework, you need to use apostrophes for contraction.

An apostrophe looks like a comma, but instead of writing it on the line it's written higher. You should write it in line with the tallest letter.

One of the most common uses of an apostrophe is to show two words joined together, called a contraction.

We use an apostrophe to show where there are letters missing in a contraction.

For example;

I am becomes I'm

Do not becomes don't

We are becomes we're

Watch this video to remind yourself how apostrophes are used for contraction:

Click on the link below to play a game to learn about contractions.

http://www.ngfl-cymru.org.uk/vtc/apostrophes_con_poss/eng/Introduction/MainSessionPart1.htm

Making Mosaics

Today we spent a fantastic afternoon at Southwark Cathedral. We learnt about the Roman art of mosaic and we had a chance to make some mosaics of our own! The first challenge we had as 'Apprentice Mosaic Makers' was to follow instructions to make a section of a mosaic each, then we placed all of the panels together to make a larger image.

Then we each had to follow a key to make a section of a different mosaic, which was a little more difficult. We each glued the tesserae to our wooden panels, then we put them together to make two fantastic large patterns.

 The completed mosaics!

A Shock for Johnny

 Source: Harper Collins- Michael Morpuro- Kaspar Prince of Cats

 

Last week in Kaspar Prince of Cats, we were all shocked to read that the Countess had died in an accident. Of course the main character of our story, Johnny, was much more shocked. We imagined that we were Johnny and thought about how he felt in the moment when Freddie told him about the accident. What does he feel? Where in his body? How could we describe the feeling in his tummy? What did his hands feel like?

We worked together to write a poem. The children offered ideas for lines for the poem and we wrote them on strips of paper. Then we made a ladder with the strips of paper and moved them around until we felt that it was in the correct order and our poem was finished.

Here is the finished poem:

Shock

Oh no! Sadly a lady died,

I have goosebumps like a cold bubble bath,

I'm gasping for breath like the end of a marathon,

I can hear nothing but the thoughts in my head,

My heart beats hard like galloping horses' hooves,

I am shaking like a volcano about to erupt,

I feel hot like the burning rising sun,

The Countess is dead.

I fall to the floor like a popped balloon.

By St. George's Class

The children then worked with a partner to draw what they thought was happening in Johnny's mind when he heard of the Countess' death. Click on the pictures to make them bigger!

 

 By Sonny and Ella F.

By Cassea and Agatha

By Luke and Marielle

Each child then wrote their own poem to show how Johnny felt when he heard that the Countess had died. Here are some of the best of a fantastic collection!

 

 By Jack

By Eliska

 By Rosa

 By Rhiannon

 By Cordelia

 By Marielle

 By Nathan

 By Amelie

 By Ella W.

 By Calum

*Star Poems*

This week, we read this fantastic poem by James McGonigal.

We asked lots of questions about the poem and we liked that there was no right or wrong answer to them.

Have a think about these questions:

Does this poem remind you of anything that has ever happened to you or someone you know?

Does this poem remind you of anything you have ever read, seen on TV, seen in a film or heard in a song?

Are there any questions you would like to ask anyone or anything from the poem?


Some children used pastels to show what the poem made them think and feel.

By Abel

By Antonio

 

By Sofia

By Amelie

By Ella W.

 

Some children wrote some fantastic poems of their own, inspired by the poem we read together. Click the pictures to make them bigger and easier to read:

By Ella F.

By Sonny

 

By Aoife

By Jack

By Joseph

 

One group of children collected pictures, colours and symbols from magazines to make a montage to represent the poem. I'm sure you'll agree it looks quite spectacular!

 

By Agatha, Michael, Jacob, Calum, Anna and Cassea.

 

Another group of children spent time looking through a whole collection of poetry books from our poetry box and found many poems that were somehow connected to 'Little Star'. Some were about stars, some about the sky, or night, or space...

They made a super anthology (collection of poems) for the poetry section of our book corner. Well done Jonathan, Luke, Marielle, Chelsea and Eliska.

 

 

The final group put on a 'Poetry Show' for us and performed 'Little Star'. They used decided who would say what, then added sound effects, actions and repetition to make a very impressive performance of the poem. Well done Rosa, Gabriel, Giulia, Rhiannon, Nathan and Pearl!

 

Our Poet Tree!

 

This term we will be doing lots of work with poetry. These pictures are of our new display- it shows our favourite poets and poems- we can add to this whenever we find a new one we like!

 

Today Miss Benn had a fantastic day at a course led by Michael Rosen; one of St. George's class' favourite poets! We'll be doing all sorts of fun activities and improving our reading and writing through poetry.

4 times tables

As a part of your homework this week, you need to learn your 4 x table for a test next week.

There are lots of fun ways to learn and practise your times tables. Here are two of my favourites:

A fun game:

Click the link below:
http://www.maths-games.org/four-times-table-shooter.html


A really cool song (with a test at the end!):

New Poetry Podcast!

Today we read a fantastic poem by Ian McMillan called 'Ten Things Found in a Wizard's Pocket'.

We thought of some more things we might find in a wizard's pocket and made a poem of our own.

To listen to the podcast of our class poem,
'Things Found in a Wizard's Pocket' (after McMillan), please click here!

http://podcast.lgfl.org.uk/channels/2105201St-Georges-Class.xml

We are hoping to do lots more poetry podcasts in the next few months, so stay tuned!

Favourite Poetry!

Do you have a favourite poem? I'd love to know! Tell me what your favourite poem is (you might even want to type it out as a comment) and why you like it so much. It might be by a famous poet, or not; I just want to know what you like!

I've just had an idea for a new project!!

"Kaspar is not smart, Johnny Trott."

This week we started our new Literacy topic. We are reading Michael Morpurgo's Kaspar Prince of Cats and will be learning about the Titanic.

Source: Harper Collins Children's Books

On Thursday we had a visit from the very grand and rather fussy Countess Kandinsky. She did not like Johnny Trott's description of her precious cat Kaspar and demanded that the 'horrible' children in St. George's Class write her some much better descriptions, 'immediately'! She was rather surprised with how well they did and decided that she would allow them to be published on the blog. So here they all are...

Click on the pictures to make them bigger and easier to read.