This week in our UOI lessons we have begun looking at the types of homes around the world and the biomes in which these homes are located. By observing and learning about the biomes we can find out which materials can be used to build a home. This inquiry related to our concept of form: what is it like? When deciding on our needs and wants to linked to the concept of function: how does it work? And our research into biomes relates to the concept of connection: how is it linked to other things?
From this initial research, the students were put into small collaborative groups. These groups have begun researching the features of biomes which will then lead into researching the types of homes built in a particular biome and its climate, geography and resources.
In maths this week, we have played a game to practise our knowledge of numbers and place value, identifying tens and ones, making numbers and taking numbers apart. We have worked on reading a number story to find the quantities and units, then creating our own questions to check if they could be answered and finally solving the story. We have continued practising skip counting of 2, 5 and 10s and will now move onto skip counting to 1000. By now, students should be able to fluently state number bonds to 20 (13+7, 2+18, etc) and we are beginning to practise number bonds to 100 (60+40, 80+20, etc). This would be a great activity to practise in the car or on the bus on the way to or from school.
Literacy this week has focused on beginning research of a biome, making word choices to describe feelings in our writing and using capital letters and full-stops for our sentences. We have continued learning letter patterns and phonics and how these can help us spell English words. Our reading strategy this week has been checking for understanding when reading fiction: who are the characters? where is the setting? what happened? what is the problem?. During guided reading sessions, we practise this strategy along with developing other comprehension strategies.
If yo have not yet made an appointment with me for a Three-way conference where you child can share their learning, please message me as soon as you are able. Also, if you still have a goal sheet at home, please return it to me as soon as possible.
Please see photos here.
Next week:
UOI
- finish researching biomes
- research types of homes within a biome
- design a home for a particular biome
- Maths
- Working on this understanding: in a two-digit number, the digit in the tens column represents the quantity of tens. The digit in the ones column represents the quantity of ones
- Students will create problems in which they add some tens to some ones using blocks on a place value mat. They record their work with expanded notation and show their answer with place value cards
Literacy
- guided reading
- using phonics and letter patterns to spell words
- focusing on the traits of word choice and sentence fluency
- personal writing
- research using books and online resources
Upcoming events:
- Sunday, 23rd November 2025: field trip to Sohar Sports Complex, parent volunteers welcome to accompany us or to meet us at the park
- Book Fair: Sunday, November 23rd to Tuesday, November 25th, 2025