Homework - 3D shapes

Homework this week is about 3D shapes.

Here's some ideas (remember you don't need to all of them or even any of them!):

• Name 3D shapes
• How do they get their name? Are there any rules?
• Are there 'families' of 3D shapes?
• What 3D shapes are everyday objects made from?
• Sort 3D shapes (perhaps using everyday items) in different ways. Perhaps using Venn or Carroll diagrams
• Find out about Plantonic solids

Homework - water music

This week the homework is a little different and even more open ended.

As part of our water topic we have been composing water themed music at school. The homework is also water themed music.

This could be:

• finding out about music already composed that has a water theme - modern music, classical music (youtube has many pieces of music on it) - writing down the name of the piece of music, who composed it and when, perhaps describing what the music is like, what instruments are used, how it sounds like water, whether you like it etc.

or

• composing your own piece of music - either using instruments and recording it (these can be traditional instruments e.g. piano or other ways of making sounds e.g. plastic bags rustling, tapping glasses with water in etc. - or using a piece of software like Garage Band or soundation.com to compose a piece of electronic music

Homework - addition

The homework this week is to explain what you know about addition.

Some ideas:

• How do you add numbers? Are there any written methods that help you?
• What about adding negative numbers, decimals or fractions?
• What's the biggest number you can add?
• When do you use adding in everyday life?
• Are there any jobs where you need to be really good at adding? Why?
• What happens if you add two even numbers? What about three even numbers? etc. What about odd numbers?

Homework - time

I am sorry that I am so late in posting ideas about this week's homework.

Just in case you still need it, here are some ideas:

• How do you tell the time?
• What about 24 hour time?
• What is the difference between digital clocks and analogue clocks? How does this change how you tell the time?
• Where do you find clocks?
• When/why do you need to know the time? What would happen if no-one knew the time?
• How do you calculate time differences? e.g how long between 7:15 and 9:25
• What are time zones?

Homework winners

Each week the children earn points for the quality (not necessarily quantity!) of their homework - from 1 point to 10 points. The best homework of the week is awarded 10 points and gets to look after the homework trophy for a week. The weekly points will also be added together half-termly for prizes.

The children are making it very difficult for me chose the winner as there are so many fantastic pieces of homework each week.

The winners so far are:

Sequences homework: Jessica

Fractions homework: Poppy

Rivers homework: Taylor

There are others who have been so close - keep up the hard work and hopefully they'll soon be a winner.

Length homework

Ideas (remember you don't have to do all of these, they are just some ideas to get you started, so pick the ones that you find most interesting):

• Measure some things, e.g. around the house, yourself!
• Compare measurements, e.g. the heights of the people in your family
• When in everyday life do we measure things?
• What measuring equipment is there? How do you use it? Does it measure some things better than others?
• What are the different units of measure? e.g. metres
• What is the conversion between units of measure? e.g. 100cm = 1m
• Practise converting measures, e.g. 234cm = 2m 34cm or 2.34m
• Find out about imperial units of measure, e.g. inches
• Survey your family to find out which units of measure they prefer to use, e.g. inches or cm
• Find out about how things were measured in the past, e.g. how did the Ancient Egyptians measure things?

Rivers homework

Ideas:

• Find out about the longest rivers in the world (or any other size river!)
• Which countries do they flow through?
• How long are they?
• Which continents are they in?
• Which oceans/seas do they flow into?
• What is the landscape around them like?
• Are there any indigenous people that live on or near the river?
• Do they flow North, South, East or West?
• Are there any famous bridges over them? Or other landmarks?
• Do they flow through a famous city?
• Do they flow through any important lakes?
• Where is the source?
• Where is the mouth?
• Does the flow change at different times of the year? Why?
• Is the river a tourist attraction?

Fractions homework

Some ideas:

• Draw pictures of different fractions.
• Find fractions of different shapes or numbers.
• When are fractions used in everyday life?
• Name the parts of a fraction.
• What types of fractions are there?
• What are equivalent fractions?
• How do you simplify fractions?

Sequences

Ideas for sequences homework:

Sequences can be number, shape, pattern etc.

Make lots of different number sequences and write the rule for each.
Make shape sequences using graphics software, or paint, or print them
Make other sequences using objects and take a photo of them.
Explain some common sequences like odd numbers.
Find out about famous number sequences like the Fibonacci sequence.

Here is a website about sequences - some information is easy to understand, some very complicated! (but still easier than if you look up sequences on Wiki)

Conjectures

On this weeks homework the challenge is to write conjectures but what are they?

Imagine we are investigating what happens when you add even numbers. You might start with some examples e.g.

6 + 4 = 10 even + even = even

2 + 4 = 6 even + even = even

100 + 52 = 152 even + even = even

At this point you might begin to notice a pattern. You could therefore make a conjecture -

Conjecture: when you add two even numbers you always get an even answer

You have not tested every possible pair of even numbers to check this is correct - in fact it's not possible as there are an infinite number of possibilities. So a conjecture is a statement about what you think is happening. You might do more examples and find that the conjecture is not correct so have to make a new one, or the examples may fit the conjecture. However this has not proven that the conjecture is correct only that so far you haven't found any examples that contradict it. The are often ways to prove it is correct but we are not worried about proof at this stage!

Tarsia homework

Here is some extra information to help with the Tarsia homework, as many people were a bit confused!

Tarsia is a computer program that enables puzzles to be created and printed. I have created several of these puzzles using the program. The children have enjoyed playing these in class. Each triangular puzzle consists of 16 smaller triangles that are put together to make a larger triangle. The edges of the triangles have either questions or answers. The correct pairs are put together to make the large triangle and complete the puzzle.

Here is an example of a nearly completed Tarsia:

For homework the children have been asked to come up with their own pairs to put on a Tarsia. We have been learning about place value and splitting up numbers. The easiest way to partition (split) a 3-digit number is into hundreds, tens and ones. Eg. 234 is 200 + 30 + 4. However it can also be partitioned in different ways, eg. 234 is 200 + 15 + 19 or 150 + 80 + 4 etc. They need to create 18 pairs for a Tarsia puzzle and can use 2-digit, 3-digit or 4-digit numbers.

Here is an example of the homework sheet:

It is very important to make sure that each number is different or the puzzle is very difficult to solve!

If you would like to download the free Tarsia software so you can make your own puzzles, visit http://www.mmlsoft.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=blogsection&id=15&Itemid=58

This software allows you to create a variety of different puzzles, dominoes and loop cards.

Chore Wars!

I have discovered a great American website designed to encourage chores to get done, including homework and reading (I'm glad for most it's not a chore!). It works a bit like a computer adventure game where each person chooses a character and earns points for things they do in the real world. A free account is set up and you choose the tasks and the points awarded and then invite people to join. These can be members of your household or include other friends or family. This could be a great way to encourage reluctant readers or those who don't like doing homework!

The website is: www.chorewars.com

Let me know if it works for you!