It's Friday, it's the end of April and the showers have started!
This week in Hazel Class, we have been working on our new English text How the Whale Became by local author Ted Hughes. In Maths, we have been working on decimal numbers, place value for tenths, hundredths and thousandths and how to convert fractions to decimal numbers. In Science, we have started our work on forces, exploring what a force is and how forces affect things. In PSHE, we have continued to explore a healthy lifestyle and what it is, we looked at designing our own coat of arms in Art and in RE we continued to look at Christianity, thinking about Bible stories and the messages that they convey to the reader.   In PE with Mr Stronge we worked on our cricket skills on various activities in a Cricket Olympics. We have also tuned up our teamwork and tactical skills with a game of football rounders on Monday - when the sun was shining!

We finished the week, raising money for the Captain Sir Tom Moore Charity and as he was 100 when he sadly passed away, we undertook a few challenges to do with 100. We firstly did an active challenge 100 star jumps, 100 squats, 100 tucks, 100 spotty dogs and then the plank for 100 seconds - phew!
For Maths, our challenge was to answer 100 multiplication questions, some of us tried the 13 and 14 time tables! Our reading challenge was to read 100+ pages collectively in 10 minutes - we read 102 and we finished with a PSHE challenge to write 100 positive messages. Best of all, we've broken the £100 target and the JustGiving page is still there should you want to donate to this worthy cause.


Next week, we won't be in on Monday as it's a bank hoilday, but on Tuesday. On Wednesday, we will be training up, ready for year 6, with some Young Sports Leaders training with Mrs Jarvis from OCRA, so please have some trainers with you on Wednesday, and it will be a special sporty day on Friday, with PE in the morning and the OCRA cross country in the afternoon. 
We will be continuing with our English text How the Whale Became and our work in Maths on decimal numbers. We will alos continue our Geography work on the Amazon Basin.

I have sent home Wider Curriculum home learning for this half term, it is on the website as well, so start thinking about which activities you would like to do. Remember, we are on the third column of our spellings sheet, so words ready for next Friday, will be: pollinate, captivate, activate, motivate, communicate, medicate, elasticate, hypenate, alienate and validate, unless you have a different spelling list. Most of us are reading well, but a gentle reminder that children should be reading for at least 10 minutes every night. Could I please see Reading Records on Tuesday, have them with you.

Have a great long weekend, hopefully it won't be too wet!

See you on Tuesday

​Mr F

Well, there we are the end of the first week back and we have been super lucky with the weather, it has been glorious. This week in Hazel Class, we have completed our unit on fractions and our information text unit based on Extreme Animals. We will be starting a new Maths and a new English unit next week. We have also begun our topic on the Amazon Basin for Geography, completed our unit on work and money in PSHE and started to look at what video is in Computing. In Music, the children have been working hard on their song for the Music Concert and in RE with Miss Ruby, they looked at the Ten Commandments. We also had an exciting first PE session this term working on cricket skills with Mr Stronge - today the children worked on their fielding skills and batting from a tee, in a game called Snake Cricket (see photos)

Next week, we will start with a spelling test on Monday, we will look at the second column on your overview - for most of you, this will be pause, cause, sauce, fraud, launch, author, August, applaud, astronaut and restaurant (this weeks spelling string is au, making the or sound.
We will begin our new English text written by local author Ted Hughes - How the Whale Became, which is a bit like Rudyard Kiplings Just so stories, or for those of you who have had to endure CBeebies like I have - Tinga Tinga Tales. 
In Maths we will be working on decimal numbers, and will continue our work on the Amazon Basin for Geography. I have asked that the children bring some trainers in for Monday, as I would like to do an extra PE session - hopefully outside - in the afternoon.   
Home learning for this term will be out next week as well, as well as spellings and daily reading for at least 10 minutes, I would really like to check Reading Record folders on Monday as well, so could the children make sure that they are filled in, up to date and in their bags for Monday morning. 

I hope that you all have a fantastic weekend after a busy first week back and let's hope that the Sun stays with us for a bit longer.

Mr F

Happy Easter everybody, after a successful return to school after Lockdown and a busy few weeks, we have finally reached the Easter holidays and it's started with some glorious weather - let's hope it lasts!  
This week, we have said goodbye to Miss C after 17 years at North Tawton, she has left lots of great memories and some big shoes to fill, which I am sure Miss Penny will be starting to do next term, ably supported by Miss C, who, we hope will continue to visit us often - she is always welcome.
  
This week, we have continued our work on Extreme Animals in English, moving on to write in the style of the text for an Amazonian animal of our choice, to fit with our Geography topic. We very nearly finished our work on fractions, moving on to multiplying fractions by integers. We have continued to look at career choices this week in PSHE, thinking about what our ideal job would be. In Music, we continued with the ukelele and in RE, we covered the Easter story - linked to a great assembly by Mr Weldon and Mr Cutler (thanks for not pieing me!).
We continue to run everyday and I have been very impressed with the children's efforts, with some people completing a mile and a quarter in 10 minutes! Look out Mo Farah!  We have also established our Talk Rules and expectations for our Oracy work in class and have been using it to good effect this week. We have also re-designed our reading corner and will continue to develop it next term. 

Well done everybody for a good few weeks, we have some nice challenges and learning to look forward to in the Summer term. Until then, let's hope the weather lasts and we can make the most of a well earned break.

Enjoy your holiday - don't eat too much chocolate!

​Mr F