Access home learning for week beginning 15th June here...

English

This week we are focussing on Rivers but using a variety of English skills. Activity 1 is dictionary based, learning new technical vocabulary about rivers that the children will need to be using in other activities for the week – including the field sketch! Activity 2 is based on the book River Story by Meredith Hooper. Don’t worry if you haven’t bought a copy of the book because there are readings of it on YouTube, a link is included on the activity page. Activity 3 uses a poem called The River (strangely enough!!) by Valerie Bloom. Do try to listen to the poet reciting it herself (link included on activity page) and please encourage your child to try to learn at least some of it. Performing the poem practises the useful skills of not just memory but all those performance skills – intonation, expression, volume, tone of voice. I’m sure that family members that you cannot physically be with at the moment would love a virtual recital on Zoom or other social media! Spellings this week are all the –ous suffix. Have a good week!

Maths

This week in maths we will continue to learn about the perimeter and area of shapes. You will find the links below to the videos. We have also included optional games and problem solving to work on both individually and as a family.

Science

In this lesson we will consider the processes of melting and freezing and explore how materials behave when they are heated or cooled. By the end of this lesson we should know that different materials melt at different temperatures and will be able to define melting and freezing.

Singing

Enjoy learning and singing this song about a river's journey, there is a echo track to help you work on it line by line.

PE

If we had been in school this half term, we would have been enjoying our ‘Chance to Shine’ cricket sessions. Although we cannot be in school, ‘Chance to Shine’ have created lessons that you can follow at home, so you can still practise your cricketing skills!

Click on the link to watch the lesson and then use the activity sheet attached to set up your skills training!

Have fun and, as always, we would love to see any photos or videos of how you got on!

Geography

What is a river?

A river is a moving body of water that flows from its source on high ground, across land, and then into another body of water, which could be a lake, the sea, an ocean or even another river. 

A river flows along a channel with banks on both sides and a bed at the bottom. If there is lots of rainfall, or snow or ice melting, rivers often rise over the top of their banks and begin to flow onto the floodplains at either side.

How are rivers formed?

Rivers usually begin in upland areas, when rain falls on high ground and begins to flow downhill. They always flow downhill because of gravity. 

They then flow across the land - meandering - or going around objects such as hills or large rocks. They flow until they reach another body of water. 

As rivers flow, they erode - or wear away - the land. Over a long period of time rivers create valleys, or gorges and canyons if the river is strong enough to erode rock. They take the sediment - bits of soil and rock - and carry it along with them. 

Small rivers are usually known as streams, brooks or creeks. If they flow from underground they are called springs.

Activities:

We would like you to watch the videos below and read the information links provided to find out about the parts of a river at each stage of its journey. When you have done this complete the learning activities.

Art

This week your challenge is to make a field sketch of a river! Open the pdf below to see lots of tips, examples and suggestions.

A field sketch is simply a sketch or drawing that is done outside and highlights geographical features of a place. It includes labels to show features, so on a field sketch of a river you should be using some of the technical vocabulary you have been learning this week such as flow, current, up/down stream, flood plain, erosion, meander, tributary etc. Lines to labels should be drawn with a ruler – keep it neat!