Daily archives: 2nd October 2020


Thoughts on our Changes Assembly

In class assembly today, Skiddaw class reflected on these important questions of change. Their responses were interesting, many and varied.

What has changed in your lives recently?

RJ – seasons, HR – leaves on the trees, JG – everything!,  IW – our classroom, CH – we have grown taller, AR – our bones weaken as we get much older

What has changed in nature?

RK – hedgehogs hibernating, DP – birds flying off to warmer places (migration), Heating coming on in our houses as the weather gets colder.

How do you feel about these changes?

Some are exciting and we look forward to them, others can be a bit worrying.

Who helps you through changes?

Mums and dads and families, our teachers and our friends.

People of many faiths believe that God is like a parent or a carer. Even when everything changes, he is always the same and ready to help us.

 

 


Number facts practice in Scafell

Scafell have all been working super hard in their maths lessons recently so we wanted to let you know about one of the things we’ve started doing to really boost our mental maths skills.

In maths, there are 72 basic number facts which more complicated calculations are built on. If you can instantly recall these simple number facts, calculation becomes much easier as brain-power is freed up to think more clearly about the problem as a whole. We will be learning five new facts each week – after fifteen weeks we will have learned them all!

We’ll be testing our recall of the facts every week and seeing how much we can improve our score. See below for some helpful hints and tips to really get these facts embedded in your brain!

Little and Often

Practice makes perfect! These facts are quick, but to really get them to stick, regular practice is key. You can do this anywhere and everywhere – in the car, before bed, after tea, at the park… Wherever you are, take 2 minutes to learn these facts!

Mnemonics

If you’ve got a tricky fact to learn, one of the best ways is to think of something wild or outlandish to help you remember. The crazier the better. Rhymes, jokes or silly stories are memorable, fun and stick in your brain. This is a great way to learn 8×8….

I ate and I ate until I was sick on the floor – eight times eight is sixty-four!

Related Facts

Sometimes a new fact is very closely related to one you already know. If you know 9+9=18, that means you also know that 9×2=18 because they are both two lots of 9. You can also use this to work out 8+9=17 as it’s just one less, or 9+10=19 as it’s just one more.

Fact Families

Number facts come in families – when you’re learning one, learn the family to effectively learn four facts at a time! For example, if you know 4×6=24, you also know…

4×6=24

6×4=24

24÷6=4

24÷4=6

Best of luck with your facts practice this week. We look forward to seeing you smashing your high scores in weeks to come!