Friday 27th January

Happy Friday!
It's been another chilly week, no snow, but plenty of frost and ice!
 This week, we have worked hard on adding and subtracting fractions, within and greater than one, as well as ordering and comparing them in Maths. We continued our Science topic of Magnetism, thinking about what a compass is and its origin.   In our English unit on poetry, we have focused on writing haikus, Limericks and Kennings this week to complete our poetry anthologies.

​On Tuesday, we re-enacted the events leading up to the death of Thomas Becket in the 12th century. We then thought about who was responsible for his death (see photos). 

On Wednesday, we had a visit from the Dogs Trust.  We learnt about how to approach unknown dogs safely (reading the signals that the dog gives you) and how best to pet them. (See photos) We also enjoyed R.E. with Miss Boyce and we explored the 12 Bar Blues in Music. A bit of home learning for you all, hardly any of the children knew who Elvis Presley was - please could you familiarise them with Elvis and his music before next Wednesday - uh huh huh!

On Thursday, we had another session at the pool in Okehampton, the children had a great time and are making great progress in the pool - look out Adam Peaty!

This afternoon, we found out about the artist Vincent van Gogh and completed our information pages in our sketchbooks, which were a work of art in their own right (see photos).

We finished the week with a real challenge to our fitness from our P.E. coach Mrs Edwards, this week we completed further gruelling physical trials, working as teams this time, rather than individuals.

This week as part of our internet safety and awareness we watched a video about our Digital Footprint, here is the link so that you can watch it, or share the message again at home:
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​Digital Footprints - For Parents - YouTube

 We are still working on the spellings for last term and due to illness, we are concentrating next week on the spellings in the 6th and final column, dated 13.1.23 as we only had half a class for the last week of term - a new sheet will follow at the end of next week.

  In terms of home learning, can I remind everybody that the expectation is that children read for at least 10 minutes at home everyday, this can be magazines, newspapers, manuals, cookery books, as well as their reading books, as it is all reading.  I would also like children to spend time working on their times tables, which are vital in so many areas of the Maths curriculum.  This week, the children brought home this half term's Wider Curriculum Home learning and a TTRS sheet - please access this home learning, just one piece from the sheet, by Thursday 9th February. I have had a few nice pieces already, including limericks, a Tudor menu and some artwork.

Next week, the children will be working on Fractions in Maths, starting a new unit in English,  in Science, we will continue to look at Magnetism, in History, we will study who was the better king Richard or John and in Computing, we will work on Video editing.

Have a restful weekend,  wrap up warm and get out and about.

See you on Monday

Mr F