Good afternoon, here's a brief round up of our week in Sycamore class!

Bikeability
The children have had a fantastic opportunity this week to improve their cycling competency and road safety.  Despite the weather not always being kind to us, the children really enjoyed this experience and are hopefully now much safer when cycling on the roads.  Big thanks go to Miss Penny and Mrs Shaw for supporting them out on the roads in all weathers!

Sustainability
While they were not cycling the children used the time to research and create double page spreads on our science topic of sustainability.  Some great independent work was created.  You will very soon be receiving a letter about an upcoming trip to a recycling centre which will enhance their understanding of this subject.

Library
I would like to thank our volunteer librarians who have been giving up their lunchtimes to make our reading area a success. Their jobs are: creating posters and making displays; re-shelving returned books; keeping the area tidy and most importantly: watering the plant!  I have also asked them to prepare a presentation to our class about using the library area and choosing books to read.  We have had a recent audit of our books and we are confident that we have a good stock of books for all interests and abilities for children to choose from.

DT
We have continued where possible to complete our 'goods' for the Christmas fair. The children have really enjoyed doing this and they look great! Thank you for any wool donations, we are very grateful!

French
We have continued with learning about French foods and how to hold a short conversation about our likes and dislikes. 

We hope you all have a wonderful weekend. 
​Miss Ruby and Mrs Ware

Science
This week's science lesson was a load of rubbish!!! What I mean by that was we learnt about the three Rs in regard to waste - Reduce    Reuse     Recycle.  I was surprised that many of the children didn't really know about what was recycled at home so I told them that they should offer to help sort the recycling next week at home.  I'm afraid they weren't too keen on that idea.  It would be really good though if they could see what you recycle at your house.

Geography
We are learning about global population and population changes.  We learnt about the factors that affect population such as a change in the birth rate, the death rate and the reasons for these such as improved healthcare.  

Computing
The children are enjoying using Tinkercad to manipulate 3d models.  This week they manipulated and combined 3d shapes to create a model of a house.

Drama
We have used drama and role play in a few lessons this week which we have really enjoyed.  In English we used hot-seating where children took on the roles of characters from a traditional tale.  This was to try and infer more about characters from their actions.  We also used drama in our life skills lesson which was all about peer pressure and how to behave when 'friends' are trying to make you do something you know is wrong or you don't want to.  It was great to see the performers in the class coming out of their shell!

Maths
This week in maths we have ended our unit on the four operations. We have completed learning using mental calculations and estimations and reasoning from known number facts. This has included using strategies taught over the last few weeks to support children with their calculation skills. On Wednesday the children completed the end of unit assessment, which we use to identify areas of strength and areas to improve in the class. We can celebrate success, no matter how big or small. On Friday we began our next unit which will be ’Fractions A’. this unit will take us almost to Christmas.

French
In French this week Madame Jordan came into teach us. For this half term she will be into teach us every Friday, supporting us in our learning. As today is Remembrance Day, our learning focused on how this is marked in France and in the UK, with specific focus on French traditions around Armistice Day. Did you know the French wear blue cornflowers as a mark of respect? This is because of the blue in their French flag, which represents liberty (freedom). We talked about difference and similarities between our two countries and how we commemorate this important day.
 
PE
Coach Edwards took the children for P.E. today and they started hockey! Children were in pairs, using the hockey sticks to pass a ball to each other and stop it. They had to use the sticks to guide a ball around a maze of cones, manoeuvring it in a controlled manner.

Cross Country
Congratulations to those children who took part in the Cross Country at Castle Drogo. Mrs Ahmad said it was a privilege to take them and represent our school. She also said the children were amazing with the Reception class, who they spent a couple of hours with when they returned. She said they naturally gravitated to the children they walked to the Harvest festival with and were all amazing role models, playing games, dancing, reading, puppet shows to name just a few. Well done Year 6!
 
D.T.
Our D.T. focus this week was very festive! We used toilet roll tubes and wool to create hanging decorations for the Christmas tree. The children had to really concentrate and focus on their fine motor skills to complete this task to a high standard. It was lovely to see all the children engaged in this activity, especially when they stated how hard it was at the beginning, but by the end it was good! Look out for their creations at the Christmas fair on Friday 2nd December!

Remembrance
The whole school took part in the two minutes silence in the hall together, paying our respects to all those who have lost their lives or have had their lives impacted by various wars. It was a very respectful occasion and I was very proud of our children. 
 
Monday 14th November Anti Bullying week
Monday 14th November Bikeability
Friday 18th November – Children in Need/odd socks day/non uniform
Tuesday 22nd and Thursday 24th November parents evening.
Friday 2 December Father Christmas visiting and FONTS Christmas Market
Monday 12th December 2pm Magic Martin treat from FONTS for whole school in hall
Wednesday 7th Dec –Christmas Jumpers and Christmas dinner (changed from Thursday 8th)
Friday 9th December – 2pm Carol Service at the church
Tuesday 13th December 2pm – Christingle at church
Nativity performances: Wednesday 14th December at 2pm and 4pm and Thursday 15th Dec at 5pm

Maths
This week in maths we have continued with our unit on the four operations, looking at the order of operations (brackets, powers, multiplication/division and addition and subtraction), solving multi step- problems using division and multiplication and understanding division using factors. Next week we will finish this unit, undertake a short assessment to see how much progress the children have made and then move onto our new unit which will be fractions A.

French
In French this week we welcomed Madame Jordan back to see how we have been getting on. For this half term she will be into teach us every Friday, supporting us in our learning. Today we began to learn some basic French for forming opinions about food, using our knowledge of opinions (I like/I love/I dislike because) and then adding a food and a reason on to the end. This will form most of our learning for this half term. The children are really beginning to develop their confidence to speak out in class. 
 
P.E.
We had our fourth swimming session, and it was a lovely lesson where all the adults involved could really see the progress being made. Even David, the swimming instructor, was really impressed with how all the children have been doing. Well done Year 6. Netball took place for a few members of the class on Friday morning as part of OCRA. Due to this our usual Friday morning P.E. lesson took place on Tuesday with Mrs Ware and I taught PSHE. 

Congratulations to our netball teams who took part today! One team proudly came 1st out of all the schools and most importantly both teams showed great sportsmanship and team spirit! Well done. 

English
We completed and published our poems entitled, "I am....". The children put a huge amount of effort into creating books that they are very proud of. Some of the children have decided they want to finish their illustrations and have taken them home to complete to return on Monday. 

Art
As we were missing half the class due to netball, we decided that as it's Bonfire Night tomorrow, we would learn about a French artist (Middleton Manigault) who loved to paint fireworks using only the primary colours. We then recreated our own firework paintings using his techniques. Hopefully they will be displayed in our cloakroom/library area so you will get to see them when you pop up at parents evening.

Parents Evenings

Our parents evening will be held on Tuesday 22nd November and Thursday 24th November. From Monday we will have a sign-up sheet outside our room for you to book an appointment with one of us. Appointments will start at 3:50pm each day and will run to 6:30 on Tuesday and 6pm on Thursday. They are scheduled for 10 minutes per child. If you can't get to school to book an appointment, please let us 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, we can offer you a telephone call instead. Please let us know as we would like to see as many of you as possible to discuss your child's progress and the year ahead. Sign-up sheets will be available from MONDAY.

Have a great weekend, stay safe around any fireworks and we will see you all next week. Thank you!

 
Friday 11th November – Remembrance .
Monday 14th November Anti Bullying week
Friday 18th November – Children in Need/odd socks day/non uniform
Tuesday 22nd and Thursday 24th November parents evening.
Friday 2 December Father Christmas visiting and FONTS Christmas Market
Monday 12th December 2pm Magic Martin treat from FONTS for whole school in hall
Wednesday 7th Dec –Christmas Jumpers and Christmas dinner (changed from Thursday 8th)
Friday 9th December – 2pm Carol Service at the church
Tuesday 13th December 2pm – Christingle at church
Nativity performances: Wednesday 14th December at 2pm and 4pm and Thursday 15th Dec at 5pm