| Punctuation - English - 16/8/2008
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The Punctuation Pyramid
The punctuation pyramid, illustrated on this page, is a simple and highly effective tool for the development of punctuation. It has immediate impact on the accuracy of punctuation used by children writing at level 3 onwards, and stimulates experimentation needed at level 2 and above.
Each classroom has a large pyramid on display. Children are taught that each line of the pyramid represents one level, from Level 1 to Level 5. Punctuation marks are named by the teachers and examples of their use are modelled by teachers in literacy lessons, and children are encouraged to spot punctuation marks in the texts that they read. They are also asked to look at their own writing and assess which level they think they are working at and what punctuation marks they need to start using to reach the next level.
I think it would also be useful to let you know about National Curriculum Levels at this point: Level 2 is the level that the average child in Year 2 (6&7 year olds) reach, Level 3 is the level that the average child in Year 4 (8&9year olds) reach, and level 4 is the level that the average child in Year 6 (10&11 year olds) reach. |
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| Written Calculations: Subtraction - Maths - 15/8/2008
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This page shows how we teach addition at Nettlestone. It is important to understand that children do not progress on to these formal written methods until they can add or subtract any pair of 2 digit numbers, and have used informal paper and pencil methods of subtraction as detailed on the mathematics home page.
Building on mental strategies, the expanded method of subtraction is taught:
The numbers are partitioned:
68 -24
60 8
-20 4
40 4
then recombined 40 + 4 to give the answer 44
We can’t take 7 from 2 so we will exchange a ‘ten’ for ‘ten ones’ to give us 12. Ensure child understands that the number 362 has just been redistributed – 300 + 50 + 12 = 362
362 - 247
300 50 12
-200 40 7
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100 10 5
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100 + 10 + 5 = 115
362 - 247 = 115
452 -267
300 140 12
-200 70 6
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100 70 6
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100 + 70 + 6 = 176
452 - 276 = 176
Leading to:
465
-234
-----
234
362
-247
-----
115
Known as the decomposition method |
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