Friday 4th November

.Good afternoon everybody - Happy Friday!

 What a first week to the half term it's been - busy, busy, busy! 
This week, Hazel class have been working hard and have been historians working on the legacy of the Benin Kingdom in our essay for the end of unit; we used all of our knowledge of the Benin Kingdom to write our essay. We also wrote in role as slaves after our drama based on the middle passage for slaves on their way to the Americas and wrote a neat draft on aged paper.   We have worked hard in Maths, looking at using the inverse to check answers, finding missing numbers and solving multi-step problems. We ended the unit today, with our end of unit assessment.
The children have enjoyed their Music session with Miss Boyce this week, really getting to grips with African songs and their R.E. session with Miss Penny. 
 Unfortunately, due to the weather, photographs in the hall and the netball tournament, we have been limited with our P.E. this week. However, we had a great session with Joe Wicks in the classroom today.

Spellings are out, a paper copy, and the digital copy is on Dojo.   There will be a digital copy of this half term's Wider Curriculum Home Learning on Dojo and the website next week.  For this, there is a choice of activities, I would like to see 1 completed activity by Thursday 15th December, which is the last Thursday before the end of term. Although this is our optional home learning, the activities are creative and fun and there is lots of time to complete this so I would be delighted to see some really good quality pieces. (See photos for examples)
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  In terms of home learning, I have sent a letter home this week outlining expectations, as well as a recording sheet for time spent on TTRS.
Can I remind everybody that the expectation is that children read for at least 10 minutes at home every day, this can be magazines, newspapers, manuals, cookery books, as well as their reading books, as it is all reading. This is to promote reading for pleasure as there is nothing better than a good book. Remember, that you are your child’s greatest role model, so if they see you enjoying a good book, it really promotes good learning habits.
  I would also like children to spend time working on their times tables, which are vital in so many areas of the Maths curriculum.  They can do this through Times Tables Rock Stars, on which, I would like the children to spend 25 minutes a week, this can be 5 minutes every day, or blocked to fit around what you are doing at home. I have posted a list of great websites to practise on for over the half term break. (If children can't remember their password to log on, ask them to tell me and we will record it in their Reading Record for them.)
 
 A select group of children from Years 5 and 6 represented the school in a Netball tournament today, run by OCRA, they did the school proud, playing well and one of our two teams came first - well done netballers!

Some of our children are also off to Castle Drogo next week, to represent the school in a cross-country competition over a distance of 1.5 miles. Good luck to them, I hope the weather is nicer!

Next week we will really get to grips with our new learning for this half term starting a unit on biographies in English, Multiplication and Division in Maths, Physical and Chemical Changes in Science, and Islam in R.E.

Please look out for upcoming events, we have Children in Need Day on Friday 18th November - see Dojo for further details. There is also the Christmas Fayre on Friday 2nd December. 

Look out for the sign-up sheet for Parents Evenings, which will be outside the classroom from Monday. Parents Evenings will be on Wednesday 23rd November from 3.40 to 6.30 and the same on Thursday 24th November.  Appointments are scheduled for 10 minutes per child.

If you can't get to school to book an appointment, please let me know via dojo/the office/or your child and we can book your appointment.

If you have multiple children on one night, please leave a gap between appointments so that we can all keep to time as much as possible.

If you can't come into school on one of those nights due to childcare or work commitments, I can offer you a telephone call instead. Please let me know as I would like to see as many of you as possible to discuss your child's/children's progress and the year ahead.

Have a great weekend, hopefully it will be a dry one.
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See you on Monday 
 
Mr F