Hi everyone,

As Spring 2 term begins, we've been working hard again in Sycamore Class.

Our writing for the next few weeks is based on the book 'The Invention of Hugo Cabret'. This is a brilliant book which is a combination of pictures and words, to tell the story of an orphaned boy who lives in the walls of a Paris train station and spends his days keeping the clocks running. One day, he discovers a notebook belonging to his late father and his world changes as he strives to build the automaton that his father created. This week, we've written lots of short outcomes based on this book including a persuasive speech, a mini chapter and a balanced argument.
In Maths, we're continuing our unit about Fractions, Decimals and Percentages. We've been practising finding a percentage of an amount. It was a bit of a revelation that 'per cent' means 'out of a hundred'!
This term, we swap from History to Geography and our topic is 'Globalisation'. We looked at what globalisation is, and in future lessons we'll be learning how our food, fashion and other parts of our lives are influenced by globalisation.
In Science, we are learning about energy. Did you know that energy cannot be created or destroyed? We also learnt about different types of energy and energy stores too.
P.E. has had to be indoors because of this rainy weather. Please enjoy the photos of some classroom fitness and yoga! 

Hello everybody,

As I write this, I'm reflecting on how we are already half way through the year! Time really seem to be flying at the moment.

This week, we've had some fantastic writing. The children have created a 'Letters to the editor' newspaper page featuring both informal and formal letters sharing opinions about the Three Little Pigs case. After publishing them using the Chromebooks, the children thought about how to lay them out on the page.
In Maths, we've started a unit on Fractions, Decimals and Percentages. We will be finishing this after half term but progress has been good so far and children have learnt how to convert fractions to percentages. The next step is learning how to find a percentage of a number.
In History, we rounded off our unit about Civil Rights by learning what the Black Lives Matter movement is and why it is important. We compared the movement to the actions of civil rights protesters in the 1950s in the USA and looked for ways in which it's similar and ways in which it's different.
Science involved a very exciting investigation where we looked at the best way of keeping an ice cube frozen! The children were able to use what they know about thermal conductors and insulators to decide which materials would be the best for wrapping the ice cube in.

Every week, we do an arithmetic test in class to prepare children for their Maths SATs. This week, there was a noticeable improvement in scores so well done to the children. We have a week to rest and relax now but after half term, we will be starting lots more revision activities in preparation for the assessments. Please support your child in completing the weekly homework as this is vital to their revision.

Enjoy a relaxing week and I'll see you after half term.

Hi all,

This week seems to have flown by and I have a feeling next week will too!

In English, we started a new unit of learning based on a parody video of The Three Little Pigs. We've written lots of short extracts practising the passive voice, parenthesis and formal tone amongst other skills. In Maths, we've revised decimals and reinforced our understanding of place value, adding & subtracting, multiplying & dividing and rounding. Science looked at why different materials make good thermal conductors and insulators - learning which we will consolidate next week. History has been really interesting as we've been learning about Dr Martin Luther King Jr. and his famous 'I have a dream'. 

Thank you for the Normandy consent forms. It's all looking very exciting!