Parent's challenge

This is Pascal's Triangle - What numbers will be on the next 5 lines?

What is the total of each line, and what pattern can be found there?

The Olympic Games

Background - last term our big research project (the nation study) proved to be a bit of a flop. When all was said and done only about half of the class were able to hand in anything at all. The problems? - Basically there was a huge imbalance in the amount of resources available, both electronic and print, and some students were at a severe disadvantage. Also - computer research skills have been shown to be sadly lacking! We are working at the moment to rectify this issue.

So the big project for this term is on The Olympic Games, and it will be similar in format to the nation study. There is, at the moment, a wealth of material available and so there should be a level playing field for everyone. The main points to be covered will include;

1. The flag - what does the design and the colours represent? Who designed it? When and where was it first used? Are there any other details which are relevant?

2. Olympics - Ancient vs Modern - what form do the different Olympics take? Who could / can compete? What events were / are there? What is the Olympic motto, and what does it mean?

3. The torch relay - What is involved? What is the history of the relay? Have there been any problems concerning the torch relay on the way to Beijing?

Points 1-3 cover the minimum requirements of the project. Students should consider the appropriate use of maps and graphics to aid their presentation.
Those students wishing to excel should consider one of the following;
* Drugs at the Olympics (Keywords - Ben Johnson, steroids, performance enhancing)
* Political interference (Hitler, Jesse Owens, Apartheid, South Africa, boycott)
* Terrorism (Munich, Black September, Jewish athletes)
* ??? - Students may choose any other aspect of the Olympic games, research and write up.

Presentation may be in one of two ways;
1. Powerpoint
2. Traditional (A3 card)
Either way, students should expect to present their project orally as well, with a 3-5 minute talk.

Echo echo echo....

So sorry - I have seriously been neglecting posts since the end of term 2. I have no excuse (hold out hand - WHACK!! OW!!)

Welcome back if you have been here before and welcome for the first time if you haven't.

Silly behaviour!

Karen the cleaner has asked me to take this complaint directly to parents -

There are some bricks near where the children store their bags, and these bricks have little round windows in them to let the light through.
Apparently, one of the room 10 children is in the habit of stuffing their lunch into these little windows for the cleaner to clean up - and she is getting very tired of doing so.

I don't know why the child is not eating their lunch, nor why they are stuffing it into the wall cavity, but Karen has asked me to investigate.

If your child was given one and a half rounds of ham sandwiches on Tuesday (white bread) and the same on Thursday (multi-grain), then you may wish to ask them if they are eating their lunch or not - and what they are doing with it if not.

Nation study (2)

I have been doing a little internet research myself, because I realise that the children have such limited contact with computers during the average school week.

http://www.enchantedlearning.com/geography/flags/ For those of you who don't know Enchanted Learning, I think it is a fantastic starting point. The information on flags of nations is good, but some nations are a little hit and miss. Also, there is some general information on certain nations, but this is even more hit and miss.

http://www.tiscali.co.uk/reference/encyclopaedia/ This site has lots of general information about many nations, but I find it poorly set out and difficult to read. What I do like about this site is the clear and concise way it deals with the features of flags, and puts many other sites to shame.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/country_profiles/default.stm This site is run by the BBC, and has great general information, with clear headings for easy navigation. It also has a timeline of important events for each nation.

Children should, by now, have a reasonable store of information about the flags of their nations, as well as some maps. It is now time they started concentrating on important events from their nations history. These may be modern (USA - 911 terrorist attacks) or ancient (Egypt - pyramids), as long as they are important to the nation and their culture. The timelines available from BBC should help here, but it also may be useful to find national holidays, holy days for the nation concerned. These are almost always related to a special point in a nation's history.

The due date for this project is by the end of week 8 (20th June). I know that some children have little or nothing to show for the last 3 weeks work, so I hope that they will take this as a wake up call. I am trying to get around to those I see struggling, but so far very few have asked for any real help.

Chance & Data

In the newsletter I talked about falling or non-existent presentation standards. Chance & Data was the topic that we were working on that prompted this gripe. Among the problems I spotted with various children's notes were these biggies;

• No ruling up (yes, I do insist on it).


• Children taking notes on scrap paper from the recycling bin.


• File paper torn from file without bothering to open holders = torn paper.


• No title, headings, name or date.


• Written in pencil only - no colour variation.


• Previous notes not filed = crumpled and torn.

All children were expected to have notes from these sessions up to an acceptable standard last week - which was not checked at the time because of disruptions like falling daughters.

Here are my notes from that session, and even though I have used Publisher, they reflect the sort of presentation that I expect children to emulate if they are to be able to re-read and learn from their notes in future.

Those are the breaks!

Apologies to everyone - I've been neglecting posts to this site because my eldest daughter - part monkey in origin - fell off the play equipment at school and broke her arm on the way down. When she hit the ground she dislocated it as well. I guess if you're going to do something you may as well do it right...