Tredegar House

We visited Tredegar House last week to investigate the lives of rich and poor Victorians. We had to do some of the chores that the butlers, cooks, pastry maids and footmen did. We found out how much servants got paid - the head butler was paid the most, £60 a year. We then had an insight into the life of rich Victorians, Godfrey Morgan was a kind employer who in his earlier life fought in the Crimean War. He was one of the 200 survivors of the Charge Of The Light Brigade, he said that he owes his life to his trusty horse Sir Briggs - he can be seen on his horse if you scroll through the photographs. Tredegar House was the ancestral home of the Morgan Family, later lords Tredegar, for over 500 years. To give you an idea of their importance, at the end of the 18th century the Morgans owned over 40,000 acres in Monmouthshire, Breconshire and Glamorgan.

Experimenting with Sound

This week we have been investigating how to change the pitch of sound. We filled bottles with different amounts of water and blew, tapped and shook the bottles to see if the pitch changed. We then stretched different width and length elastic bands to see how to change the pitch that they made when they were plucked.

We made predictions beforehand and investigated if they were correct.

We found that shorter elastic bands, shorter instruments and bottles with less space in them all produce higher pitch noises.

Moodle

Dear parent(s),
We have been developing our ICT capabilities over the last few weeks with the introduction of a brand new Moodle. Moodle is known as a VLE or Virtual Learning Environment. RCT are investing heavily in the project and over 70 schools (out of 143) are developing Models . Each child in years 5 and 6, has been allocated a user name and they have all devised their own passwords. We have stressed the importance of keeping passwords safe and personal, however, we would encourage them to share passwords with parents so that you can see the merits of the VLE, and view the work that they are doing in the Moodle. The Moodle can be easily accessed from our class blogs.
Advantages of using Moodle include;
• Online learning environment as a means of communication with pupils, parents and the wider community.
• Teachers can use the environment to support and enhance their classroom activities, allowing pupils to interact with learning materials and activities outside of school.
• With 14 of the 19 secondary schools being part of the RCT Moodle (including Y Pant), there has never been a better time to explore ways that Moodle can support and improve curriculum continuity from primary to secondary school.
• The Moodle is a safe environment for children which can only be accessed by invitation.
• Work can be set by teachers, uploaded by pupils, shared by pupils and even marked online whilst giving the pupil instant feedback.
• Moodle has a chat facility that can only be accessed by members of the VLE, thus providing a safe environment for your children to communicate with each other.
Since the introduction of blogs, we at Pontyclun Primary have had a direct and effective method of communicating with parents. In time we will hope to integrate our blog and Moodle but for the moment they will both run concurrently.
Over the next few months, year 6 children will be taking part in a Moodle transition project with Y Pant pupils to answer any questions that year 6 pupils may have before reaching the secondary school.
As part of our term studying the Victorians we would like to set a project for the children to do as homework over the next four weekends. The week commencing 14th February (last week of half term) the children will be asked to present a 2-5 minute talk on a subject of their choice from the following:

Queen Victoria and the Royal Family
The Victorian Empire
Rich Victorian Children
Poor Victorian Children
School life in Victorian Times
Victorian workhouses
Victorian Factories
Children’s lives in Welsh mines
The Shaftesbury report
Barnado's
Famous Victorian Inventions
Famous Victorians
Victorian Transport
Victorian clothes
Victorian toys

Your child is welcome to use the computers in school (at least 1 hour per week for this task) or at home, the library, books in school and or any books at home. The presentation does not need to be done via pc’s but any children who wish to upload their presentations to the class Moodle will be very welcome. They will be shown how to do this over the next few weeks – as well as being shown basic use of Microsoft power point. The presentation will form part of your child’s speaking and listening work in year 5 and build towards similar projects in year 6.

Yours sincerely
A. Llewellyn, Mrs, Gardiner, Miss Harwood

Words to learn by 21/1/11

Friday21/1/11
1 fully
2 gully
3 helpfully
4 helpful
5 painful
6 painfully
7 usefully
8 useful
9 beautiful
10 beautifully
11 shameful
12 deceitful
13 spiteful
14 hopeful
15 careful
16 wonderful
17 thoughtful
18 Dreadful
19 hopeful
20 careful

Techniquest - Maths is so much fun in Year 5

Last week the children in year 5 had a fantastic surprise. Techniquest selected the school to receive a selection of 10 maths problem solving activities. Both classes had a session in the hall where they worked in pairs and threes to solve the wide range of problems. The children loved the activities and worked really hard to solve the problems. Well done to all!

Spelling words to learn by 7th January

1. Arrow
2. Narrow
3. Narrowing
4. Sparrow
5. Yellow
6. Elbow
7. Pillow
8. Window
9. Follow
10. Borrow
11. Sorrow
12. Burrow
13. Shadow
14. Shallow
15. Tomorrow
16. Following
17. Known
18. Owner
19. Thrown
20. Frown