Hello December! 

We opened our first virtual advent calendar door today! The theme is Christmas around the world. With 2 weeks to go, we have lots of festive fun to look forward to. We'll be watching the dress rehearsal of the KS1 nativity, leading the Christingle service next Thursday, we've got Christmas dinner the following week and many more festive activities! 

This week started off with our OCRA Sports Hall Athletics. We took part in events including standing long jump, throwing, jumping and running races too. Well done to all involved. 
In English, we started a new unit based on the book 'The Hidden Forest'. The book tells the story of a boy who shows contempt towards the sea but has an attitude change throughout the book. In Maths, we have continued with fractions and have learnt how to divide them by integers. In Science, we discussed what combustion is and how burning fuels is contributing to global warming. In Art, we've been learning how paintings can tell a narrative. 

 Do join in the church for Christingle next Thursday at 2pm.

Hello everyone,

The highlight of this week has been seeing children go off on their bikes for their Bikeability sessions. Margitta and Shaun from Plymouth School Sports Partnership (who run the sessions) commended children for their good listening, safe behaviour and maturity when out on the roads. They also braved some rather rainy weather! Well done all involved.

The Bikeability sessions meant that we were able to keep our Maths and English lessons running, with morning sessions followed by afternoon sessions. In Maths, the focus has been on how to compare, and add and subtract, fractions and mixed numbers. We'll continue learning about fractions next week too. In English, we finished reading 'The Last Bear' and we're starting to think about planning a newspaper report all about the character's experiences and bravery.

We've also been working hard in D.T. this week to create our projects for the Christmas fair. Watch this space!...

This week has flown by in a blur! It's been busy but very productive so I have lots to share today.

First of all, it was really lovely to see so many of you at parents meetings. Thank you for taking the time to come in on these dark, chilly evenings. I was so pleased to be able to share how the children are getting on so far in Year 6, and set some targets for further progress. I am particularly enjoying being able to see their huge progress since I taught them in Year 4 - it's wonderful!

In English, we have been reading the book 'The Last Bear'. It tells the story of April Wood, a girl who spend 6 months on Bear Island with her father conducting research, and her friendship with the last remaining polar bear on the island. We have written in role as April, including diary entries and monologues, as well as writing descriptive sentences for setting descriptions of the island. 
In Maths, we've been working hard on our Fractions topic. This week, we focused on finding equivalent fractions, simplifying fractions and comparing fractions using a common denominator.
Science took a look at the 3 R's of reuse, reduce & recycle. We enjoyed sorting through lots of household rubbish to see which of it could recycle nationally, locally or not at all. In Geography, we learnt why populations change due to changes in birth and death rate. We've also been creating 3D models in Computing, talking about school subjects in French and playing netball in P.E.

Next week we have Bikeability. Please check Dojo for information about this. 

A huge thank you to FONTS for organising and ordering the children's leavers hoodies and t-shirts. They look fab in them and are thrilled! It is great that they will get the use of them over the cold winter months.

Happy half term! It's hard to believe how quickly the last 7 weeks have flown by. We started the term in beautiful summer weather back in early September, now we're ending it amongst the autumn storms. Let's hope for some dry days over the next week, at least.

I want to say how pleased I am with the children's final writing piece of this half term. They have written a 'pitch' to the council to persuade them to build their monument to the Windrush generation. Throughout this unit of learning, the children have responded to the content with maturity and empathy, and their final writing shows us that. Well done all. 
In Maths this week, we we learning other methods for how to divide including using factor pairs and the method of long division. This can prove a bit tricky so I was pleased with the children's perseverance! We've got a small amount of the 'Four Operations' unit to finish after half term but then we'll be moving onto fractions.
We concluded our history unit on the Industrial Revolution with a lesson about how working conditions for children improved slightly with the introduction of the 1833 factory act. The class also imagined that they were an MP at the time and thought about what laws they would pass to protect children working in factories and mine. 
We finished off our science unit on physical and chemical reactions by learning about combustion and how this is represented with a word equation. 
In our indoor P.E. with me this week, the children performed routines involving solo, pair and group balances. I was rather impressed with the group balances in particular - have a look at the photos below! Great effort by all involved.
Finally, in Art, the children created their own mixed media pieces about how art can spread a message. They used techniques that we'd practised earlier in the unit to create their own designs.

That's it from me for now. Have a lovely half term and I look forward to seeing everyone back in school after the break.

Happy Friday!

Another busy week full of imagination in English, multiplying and dividing in Maths and investigating in science.

This week, we have continued using the book 'Windrush Child' to inspire our writing in English. We've written diary entries in character, used conjunctions in a piece of writing giving advice for children coming to England, and used relative clauses to add extra information when writing about things we are grateful for. In Maths, we've practised using the formal long multiplication method to multiply 2 digit numbers by 4 digit numbers, and refined our used of short division. In Science, we investigated how we can tell whether a chemical reaction has taken place. Some of the clues include smell, change in colour and fizzing. We conducted an investigation into this by mixing some vinegar with baking powder to observe what happened. History took a local focus and we thought about how Devon changed during the industrial revolution. In P.E., we worked on counter balances in pairs.

Next week is the last week of this half term. We will be learning how to do long division in Maths, writing a persuasive speech in English and completing our science and history units. 

Have a lovely weekend.

We've had a really lovely week this week in Sycamore Class! 

In English, we started our new unit of work based on the book 'Windrush Child'. We have learnt all about Generation Windrush and the experience of the people who moved to England for jobs following WW2. The children have been really empathetic and have written in role as someone moving from Jamaica to England, thinking about how they might have been feeling and the thoughts they might have had.
In Maths, we have had a busy week learning about factors, multiples, prime numbers, square and cube numbers! We move on next week to looking at the formal written methods for multiplication and division. 
We conducted 3 investigations in science this week to look at how to separate mixtures through sieving, filtering and evaporation. Our history lesson took us back to the times of the Victorian inventors and we learnt about some of the revolutionary inventions which changed life forever. In French, we are learning how to introduce ourselves and say where we live and where we would like to live. 

A highlight of this week was our workshop with the Devon Wildlife Trust. We were identifying mammals and learning how we could tell whether they have visited our gardens! 

Enjoy some photos from this workshop and some from Art today, where we used a Chiaroscuro technique to make words look 3D by using light and shadows.

Hello,

It's Friday! We've spent the day drawing together some loose ends and finishing off some things.
We have finished our Place Value unit in Maths. We moved onto our new unit, 'The Four Operations' (adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing). Next week, we will be looking at factors and multiples.
We have also finished our writing our stories, 'The Star and the Fox' and published these in neat. The children worked hard on their presentation of these so well done. 
In Science, we conducted an investigation involving dissolving sugar into water. Our focus was making careful observations and using scientific language to talk about these.
Our History lesson took us back in time to the industrial revolution to look at what working conditions were like. The children had to decide whether they'd prefer to work in a mine or a factory... neither option was very appealing! 

This morning, Phillipa and Vanessa from FONTS brought in some sample leavers hoodies and t-shirts for the children to try on. They will be bringing home their completed form so if you'd like to order these, please return this with payment by next Wednesday.

Have a great weekend.

Hello!

Another week has flown by! The weather is turning colder and we've had a lot of rain so just a reminder that children will needs a coat in school every day from now on please.

This week, one of my favourite lessons with the children was History. We were learning about living and working conditions in the Industrial Revolution, particularly in cities, and everybody was so interested and curious. It shows a great learning attitude. The children researched some facts about conditions and produced lovely fact files, one of which I've pictured below.
In Science, we learnt the difference between pure and impure substances. One of the facts that the class found interesting was that rose gold is gold with copper added to it, and white gold is gold with platinum added to it. 
In English, we have continued our reading lessons through 'Book Club'. 'The Explorer' story is getting really interesting now and the children are thoroughly enjoying this! They are able to show a deep understanding of the text and demonstrate this through book talk and discussion around key ideas of retrieval and inference.
In Maths, we've continued the topic of Place Value. Today we've finished the week with rounding numbers up to 10 million. Something worth practising at home if possible! 
Art was a great lesson where the children designed their own symbolic imagery, using the Mayan belief that everyone has a spirit animal companion. Ask them which their 'way' is!
A bit of a guilty highlight this week was designing Christmas cards ready to be sent off printed. Thanks to FONTS for organising this. We all had fun getting into the spirit and feeling festive.

Thanks to those of you who made it to my parent meeting. I will be holding a SATS information session before Christmas so I hope to see many of you again there.

​Have a lovely weekend.

This week has been a busy one in Year 6!

We have started our new topics in our lessons. Our 'Book Club' book, The Explorer, is proving a hit and we've had some really insightful book talk and comments in our reading sessions! We've been writing short extracts based on the book 'The Fox and the Star' in English. In Science, we are learning about physical and chemical changes and spent our first lesson recapping the properties of solids, liquids and gases. We made careful observations of ice melting and came up with some great scientific explanations for why this happens. In History, we are learning about the Victorian era, in particular the Industrial Revolution. We learnt about the three classes in Victorian society and the children acted out what they thought a day in the life of each class would be like. There certainly are some excellent actors in this class! In Art, we have started a unit of work on drawing. We analysed Mayan art, thinking about the patterns, imagery and  colours used. We then recreated this in our sketchbook. 

The children completed their first Maths SATs papers this week so well done to them all for trying their best in these. We will be sitting the reading and SPAG papers next week too. 

Homework folders have been issued with Maths homework due on a Wednesday, and spelling and reading practise expected daily. Thanks for your support with this.

Have a lovely weekend!