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! Enjoy this week's blog and news from the past couple of weeks.
The children have been working extremely hard on their writing. They have planned their own fairy tales based on the common characteristics of the Grimm tales which we've been reading. They then started work on their first drafts of their stories, trying to include the year 6 writing skills. Redrafting is an important part of the writing process and this is something which we've worked on a lot this term. The children have spent time redrafting a lot of their writing in order to improve it and make it the best it can be. Something we have also had a big focus on this term is handwriting and I've seen some super effort with this! Have a look at some of the writing in the photos below. In Maths, we've learnt about ratio and algebra. Algebra is a new concept to all of the children but it has been grasped excellently. Some children have been challenged with questions which require deeper thinking and it's been great to see the mathematical thinking and discussions here. Next week, we move onto recapping decimals before we focus on the links between decimals, fractions and percentages - an important topic with lots of links to real life. The children have been really enjoying our learning in History. We've been learning about the Civil Rights movement in America in the 1950s and 1960s. Last week, we learnt about Oliver Brown and why he took the Board of Education to the Supreme Court. We then learnt about Rosa Parks and how she refused to give up her seat on the bus for a white man. We then wrote diaries in role as Rosa Parks, using an informal tone to emphasise how she might have been feeling. In Science, we learnt about heat transfer between particles. We conducted an investigation about heat conduction and observed how one end of a spoon heated up before the other end. Next week, I am holding a SATs information evening for parents (children are welcome too) on Monday evening at 5pm. I really hope to see as many of you there as possible. Enjoy the weekend! Welcome back! I hope everyone had a lovely Christmas break and I wish you all a Happy New Year.
We've been back in school for a week and a half now and we've already achieved a lot! This week, we've undertaken some practise SATs tests. There have been some great improvements since our first tests in September so well done. From now on, we will start regular and targeted revision in school and I will be setting revision topics to complete as homework to complement this at home. Later this month, I am holding a SATs meeting which will provide lots more information about the tests, what we're doing in school and how you can support your children at home. We are underway with our new topics in all our curriculum areas. In English, we're reading Grimm fairytales and the children are really enjoying these. We will be writing our own fairytales in the coming weeks. In Maths, we've started a new unit all about ratio. In Science, we are learning about Heat. In History, we're learning all about American Civil Rights and the fight to end discrimination. Lots more to come next week! As I write this final blog of 2023, I reflect on all that we've achieved this Autumn term. It's certainly been busy! Bikeability, mini police session, Christingle, working with other classes, all of learning in our own class... and everything else!
I would just like to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. I hope you all enjoy the time with your loved ones and I look forward to seeing you all in 2024. Enjoy a couple of photos from today's Christmas celebrations. Best wishes, Miss Radbourne With one week left of term, we're all starting to feel very Christmassy! We've learnt something interesting things about how Christmas is celebrated around the world through our virtual advent calendar. Did you know that in Japan, it's traditional to eat fried chicken on Christmas day? Or in Mexico, people carve radishes to make decorations!
We've been very busy this week with lots of learning. In English, the children have planned their writing structure for a monologue about a diver swimming through coral reefs and kelp forests. They have planned lots of descriptive features to use including personification, similes and expanded noun phrases. Next week, they will produce a setting description using all of these techniques. In Maths, we've wrapped up our unit of work on fractions. Having practised finding fractions of amounts and, the opposite, finding wholes from fractions, we've completed our end of unit assessment. Next week, we will squeeze in a short unit of learning about converting measurements. This one has a great real world element to it as we'll be looking at converting m to km, g to kg and so on so forth. Our PSHE discussions focused on the theme of respect. We learnt about cultural norms and how it could be easy to offend people in other countries if we did not research how to behave, act, etc. and show respect. We talked about how it's important to show respect to everyone, even if we disagree with something they say or believe. In P.E., we went outside for a game of Endzone. There was some great passing skills and teamwork demonstrated here. The highlight of my week, and I'm sure of many of yours, was the Christingle in the church yesterday afternoon. The readings were read so confidently and clearly, and to see all of the children processing around with their Christingles made me feel quite emotional! I feel so lucky to be able to share another year with this class. Please enjoy some photos from the event and of making our Christingles on Tuesday afternoon. We look ahead to next week and still have lots to forward to before our Christmas break including a first aid session, a mini Police catch up session (much to everyone's delight!), Christmas dinner and jumper day on Wednesday and then, of course, class party and festive activities on the final Friday. Enjoy your weekend everybody. 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. |
AuthorWelcome to the blog of Sycamore Class at North Tawton Primary School Archives
May 2024
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