Happy Friday!

It's the end of the first full week back and the children are really starting to get to grips with routines and expectations. 

This week, we have enjoyed exploring our English text Here we Are by Oliver Jeffers, exploring noun phrases and relative clauses.  In Maths, we have focused on Place Value, for the year 4s numbers with 4 digits and for the year 5s, we have started to explore numbers to 1,000,000. 
in science, we learnt what a pure substance is and in History we have begun our topic on the Benin Kingdom.

The children have enjoyed a music workshop with some professional singers in the middle of the week, in preparation for the Whiddon Autumn Festival next Thursday (Year 5s will be attending). You can access the audio files and the lyrics that the children have been working on through the following link:
Learning at the Whiddon Autumn Festival

An upcoming event for the year 5s is Bikeability (cycling proficiency). This will take place during the week beginning Monday 11th November. The letter will come out next week but the consent form for this is available through the link below. If you wish your child to take part (it's free of charge and teaches them a valuable life skill) you will need to complete the consent form by 1st November at the latest.

https://forms.gle/gATE2GV9PLX2xb7n8

Next week, we will continue with: our English text Here we Are, working on Place Value in Maths, finding out about the Benin Kingdom in History and exploring Separating mixtures in Science. 

P.E. will continue to be on Tuesday and Friday for this half term so please send the children in with their kits on these days. 

Don't forget our parent information evening on Monday at 5pm, it would be great to see as many of you there as possible. 

Finally, the children will come home with homework books today. In these there are spellings for this week, Maths questions based on what we have been doing in class and a topic homework with a choice of activities. Please could the book come back in on Thursday next week for marking and so that the children can add next week's home learning.

Have a great weekend - enjoy getting out and about as the weather looks a lot nicer.

​Mr Foreman

Welcome back and Happy Friday!

It has been wonderful to welcome the children back this week, they all look great in their smart uniforms and shiny shoes.
Can I please ask that long hair is tied back and I have noticed some pieces of jewellery. The children can wear a watch and stud earrings but please no rings and necklaces, the necklaces in particular is a safety precaution when outside so that they are not caught by anybody else during a game. 

This week, the children have written emotion poems and shape descriptions, as well as exploring the cover of our new English book, having a P.E. session with our Saints South west coach and undertaking a few diagnostic quizzes at the beginning of term to see what they remember from the previous year and if there are any areas that need to be readdressed. 

This afternoon, we started to learn the poem 'From a Railway Carriage,' by Robert Louis Stevenson. The poem, when read aloud, takes on the rhythm of the trains wheels on the track and can be read quite fast. We will continue to work on this in school and when polished, I will video the performance and upload it to Class Dojo. The poem is in your children's bags to learn over the weekend please. 

Next week, the class will have a session on Wednesday afternoon (which is also the day that they have Mrs ware for the day) with some professional singers. The year 5s met the singers in the Summer term, when they began to learn songs for the Whiddon Autumn Festival. Then, a week on Thursday, (19th September) the year 5s, along with the year 6s, will go to Mortonhampstead Primary School for the day to take part in the festival. They have a letter with 2 permission slips on it, one for the day (compulsory) and the other for the evening (which is optional but would be great for as many children to attend as possible) when they will perform in Mortonhampstead Church. 

I will hold a class information meeting on Monday 16th September at 5pm to talk about the children's learning, their timetable and expectations for the year. If you are unable to attend, I will post the information on Dojo but look forward to speaking to you in person and answering any questions that you may have. 

We will also begin to have open events, when you will be able to come and look through your children's books and talk to them about their learning - please look out for the dates as these will be sent out soon. 

For next week, the children will need P.E. kits on Tuesday and Friday, one session with me and the other with our Saints coach. 

Home learning will be out next week, there will be some spellings, some Maths, which will be based on our work in class and a topic choice home learning, which the children can choose a piece from to undertake. 

Please look out for pictures and the timetable, which will be on Dojo this weekend.

Have a great weekend - hopefully a day of brolly free weather tomorrow!

Mr Foreman

I can't believe this is the penultimate  blog of the year. 
I am so proud of every child in Hazel Class for their amazing and excellent performance of Aladdin Trouble. Both shows were brilliant and everyone should be very proud of themselves. 

As well as being super busy with Aladdin we have also managed to fit in some other exciting things. We have finished our unit on Volume in maths and will be having a look at different tables and graphs next week. In English we have been writing poems about our book Freedom Bird. Next week we will finish our story and have a go at writing an alternative ending. 

In PE this week we have been practicing our orienting skills by directing our blindfolded partner around lots of different courses. Today we played a giant game of rounders with Year Six which was very fun. 

This afternoon we have been lucky enough to have some lovely people from the Whiddon Music Festival to come and teach us some excellent songs. 

Have a lovely weekend :)

It is scary to think that there are only 2 weeks left of this school year!

We have had another super busy week with lots and lots of play practice ready for the performances next week. 

We also have had our Olympic sports day which was a lovely day with the whole school taking part in lots of different field events and then running races in the afternoon. Year 5 were excellent role models to the younger children and were very supportive to their peers. See some pictures below of our sports day practice and the real event. 

In maths we have started our unit on volume looking at calculating volumes and comparing volumes of 3d shapes. 

In English we have started reading our new text the firebird which is set in the time of the American Civil War. Yesterday we spent time researching on chromebooks about the civil war. 

Today we have celebrated rainbow day focusing on being different together. Miss Penny shared a lovely story. We also flew our kites on Thursday due to the weather forecasted for today. See pictures below. 

I hope you have a lovely weekend!

Hello and welcome to another blog. 

I cannot believe that there are only three weeks left of the summer term! We have had another busy week in our class with lots of play practice as we don't have long left. It is definitely coming together and beginning to look amazing! Make sure you get your tickets soon!

In English this week we have started our new unit on Freedom Bird. We have been examining the front together and have made some predictions about what the story could be about. In maths we have finished our very short unit on negative numbers and will begin a new unit next week. 

In PE we have been very busy practicing for sports day next week and look forward to seeing many of you there.  We have also been continuing with our kites for Rainbow Day next Friday. 

I hope you have a lovely weekend.

​Hello, welcome to another blog from Year 5.
 
This week we have been in full swing with play rehearsals. It is definitely starting to come together. Next week we will begin to not rely on our scripts so please make sure children are learning their lines.
In English we have planned and started writing our own stories about a lost thing using the book as our inspiration. We will be finishing these and publishing them next week.
In maths we have been continuing with decimals with adding and subtracting decimals and working out missing numbers in decimal sequences. Next week will finish the unit on decimals.
On Wednesday the children made germination bags by planting pea seeds. Hopefully they will begin to grow over the next couple of weeks.
On Thursday afternoon during our PSHE session we read a book all about safety (Road safety E – safety etc) this led to some very important and interesting conversations.
Next week we will be continuing with our daily play rehearsal, finish writing our lost thing stories and finish our unit on decimals.
Have a lovely weekend.
Miss Collins 😊

​I hope you all had a lovely half term! It seems crazy to think we are in the last half term of the year.
This week we have continued with our English book of the Lost thing. We have finished watching the short film which is based on the book and next week we will be planning and writing our own stories based on the lost thing.
In Maths we have been continuing with decimals, particularly focusing on adding and subtracting decimals using the column method.
On Monday we had a full run through of the play! We will continue with rehearsal next week. Please make sure children are practicing their lines at home! Let me know if you have any problems sourcing a costume.
On Thursday we were lucky enough to be invited to the D Day celebrations in the town. The children were very respectful and behaved beautifully. See pictures below.
On Thursday afternoon we also very lucky as some local historians came into school to have a go at some Tudor art with us. We made pomanders out of oranges, and we had a go at making our own quills and ink from fruit juices. See pictures below.
Next week we will be in full swing with rehearsals of our play so please make sure children have their scripts and are busy learning their lines and songs.
I hope you have a lovely weekend!

​I can’t believe it is already half term next week and that we only have half a term left of this academic year!
 
This week the children have been allocated parts for our production of Aladdin Trouble and have all be given scripts. We have had a full run through of reading the scripts and have also been practicing learning the songs lots. Please can children try and learn their lines over the half term break.
 
In English we have started a new text called the Lost Thing by Shaun Tan. It is an unusual book about a lost thing which a boy finds and decides to take it home. On Thursday we focused on modal verbs and wrote our own instructions on how to take care of it. The children then had the chance to create their own lost thing and write instructions using modal verbs.
 
In maths we have finished our converting units unit and today have started our new unit on decimals. We have begun by adding and subtracting decimals within one. We will continue with this unit after half term.
 
In our history, we have finished our unit on the Middle East by focusing on the Six Day War between the Arabs and Israelis. After half term we will start a new geography unit!
On Tuesday afternoon, the children had a great discussion with Miss Penny about their opinions on whether they think zoos are cruel or kind. They all came up with some excellent reasons for both sides and came to their own opinion of what they thought.
On Thursday afternoon, we were lucky enough to have some local historians come to visit to teach us all about the Prayer Book Rebellion which happened just down the road in Sampford Courtnay. It was great to learn more about our own local history.
 
I hope you all have a lovely half term!
 
Miss Collins 
​

Welcome to Hazel class blog!

This week has been slightly different. Due to SATS we have been on the move around the school each day. 

On Monday and Tuesday, we were lucky enough to spend some time with Oak class helping them with drawing club and maths. All the children worked very well with the younger children which was so lovely to see. 

On Tuesday afternoon, we had a great PE session in the hall playing dodgeball which everyone loved and got involved in. 

On Wednesday afternoon, the children had a fun science lesson with Miss Penny looking at how animals have changed over time. In particular focusing on the different geological periods of time. 

We had a very exciting day on Thursday at Paignton Zoo. The children behaved excellently  and were a credit to the school. We had a fabulous day seeing lots and lots of different animals, some of our favourites were; squirrel monkeys, the sloth, tigers, agoutis  and the baby orangutan which was super super cute! We also had a workshop where we learnt lots about how giraffes have adapted over time to suit their environment. 

Today we have also had an exciting morning, learning that we will be performing Aladdin as our year 5/6 play this year. We spent time listening to all the songs and learning a little bit about each character. After break we then had a year 5/6 rounders game which was very fun and some great rounders were scored! 

I hope you have a lovely weekend :)