Good afternoon everybody - Happy Friday!
 The children have returned for their first full week looking smart and shiny, keen, happy and ready to learn. This week, we have written our own version of a traditional tale and then explored our English text - The Princess' Blankets.  We have revised a few mathematical concepts from last year, linked to our work on Place Value, I have been really pleased with their Maths work, with some children visiting year 4 to mentor children in their work on rounding to the nearest 10. In Science, we explored the states of matter (solids, liquids and gases) and how they change state.  The children have had their first Music and French sessions with Miss Boyce and their first R.E. session with Miss Penny.  We have been active every morning and I have been really pleased to see the children enjoying physical activity. We have also enjoyed our second session with our new PE coach Mrs Edwards. This week, we worked on invasion game skills, through netball.


New spellings will be sent out for this half term next week, I am personalising a few lists for the children, so that they really fit with their spelling next steps.   There will also be a digital copy of this half term's Wider Curriculum Home Learning coming next week to Dojo, I will send a paper copy home at the same time.   In terms of home learning, can I remind everybody that the expectation is that children read for at least 10 minutes at home everyday, this can be magazines, newspapers, manuals, cookery books, as well as their reading books, as it is all reading.  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, I will be posting a list of great websites to practise on later this half term.

Next week, the children will be continuing to work on Place Value in Maths, working on their new text in English The Princess' Blankets by Carol Ann Duffy, in Science, we will continue to look at Separating Mixtures and in Computing, we will work on our Internet Safety skills.

Have a great weekend whatever you are doing - it looks like a good one weather wise.

See you on Monday

Mr F

. This week We are back, dare I say... to nearly normal!   
It has been brilliant welcoming the children of year 5 back to school, in a more normal capacity. The children have returned looking smart and shiny and are very keen and happy. This week, we have really got to know each other with a few activities designed to find out about our peers, our strengths and what our interests are.  We have explored emotions in a whole new light and written some fabulous poetry, full of evocative imagery, related to emotions. we have had our first session with our new PE coach Mrs Edwards. This week, we worked on invasion game skills, starting with netball (see photos)

New spellings will be sent out for this half term.  I will put a digital copy on Class Dojo. There will also be a digital copy of this half term's Wider Curriculum Home Learning coming soon to Dojo, I will send a paper copy home at the same timel.   In terms of home learning, can I remind everybody that the expectation is that children read for at least 10 minutes at home everyday, this can be magazines, newspapers, manuals, cookery books, as well as their reading books, as it is all reading.  I would also like children to spend time working on their times tables, which are vital in so many areas of the Maths curriculum.

Next week, the children will be working on Place Value in Maths, working on their new text in English (I will keep you in suspense until Monday),  in Science, we will start to look at Separating Mixtures and in Computing, we will work on our Internet Safety skills.

Have a great weekend whatever you are doing - it looks like it may be dry.

See you on Monday

Mr F

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Happy Friday everyone, or should I say Happy Holidays!
This is our week in short...
This week in Hazel, we have been working hard on our Food and Farming mini project. The children had a budget of £3,000,000 to set up their own farm and it wasn't as easy as some of them thought, although we now have a bonifide farmer and the UK's largest chicken farmer after 5 years of projected income!

On Wednesday, we had a very musical day. It started in the morning, with a drumming workshop in the hall with Alan Kerr. This was brilliant and the children's sense of rhythm was superb - see the video on Dojo if you haven't already, it's really worth a watch.  We have also been working hard on our song for Mrs Mathews, who 'sort of' left us on Thursday. She had a wonderful send off and the children sang our version of Rick Astley's Never Gonna Give You Up brilliantly. 

On Thursday, we had a a day of games, film and removals! We started to clear the classroom ready for the reshuffle that the classes will be having in September.  I have really enjoyed teaching Hazel Class this year, a small yet perfectly formed group of children with a sense of purpose and fun, I know they will go on to do well in year 6.

I hope that you all have a great holiday, the weather looks goodish, so get out and about but make sure that you have your sun cream on!  If you are attending the OCRA 13 Fun Run on Sunday, I will see you there.

Have a great holiday

​Mr F

Good afternoon everybody - Happy Friday!
We've reached the end of another week and enjoyed the opportunity to share some of our learning with you online, thank you to all of you who were able to join us. 
This week in Hazel, we have been working on the invent phase of our unit based on Wallace and Gromit's Cracking Contraptions. The children have been incredibly creative with their contraptions - there are some that I am hoping become real inventions in the future!
In Maths, we have been working on converting measurements and have really polished our skills of multiplying and dividing by powers of 10. 
In RSE, we continued to learn about puberty and how it affects our body. We used the text Hair in Funny Places by Babette Cole, which the children really enjoyed.  In RE, we have continued to learn about Humanism and in Science we have continued to work on Forces. For History, the children have been rsearaching and finding out about various aspects of Ancient Mayan life and culture and have produced some fantastic information pages (see photos). We have also enjoyed another great Athletics session with our Saints South West coach Mr Stronge.

New spellings have been sent out for this half term, we will do the second column's test on Monday.  I have put a digital copy on Class Dojo. There is also a digital copy of this half term's Wider Curriculum Home Learning on Dojo. Can I remind everybody that the expectation is that children read for at least 10 minutes at home everyday, this can be magazines, newspapers, manuals, cookery books, as well as their reading books, as it is all reading.

Next week, the children will be working on some assessments so that we can review their learning and set targets for next year. When we are not working on the assessments, we will be working on our History topic of the Ancient Mayans. For this, I have asked that children try to bring in some cardboard and plastic for model making and practical challenges based on Ancient Mayan culture and costume.

I hope that you all have a great weekend, try to brave the showers and get outside.

See you on Monday

​Mr F

Happy Friday, the Sun is trying to shine and we are at the end of another busy week. 
This week in Hazel, the children have: covered the end of our properties of shapes unit in Maths, and did well on their assessments, so well done everybody. We have been inventing our own Cracking Contraption to base our invent writing for English on next week. In Science, we looked at how shape affects air resistance, in DT, the children are starting to think about designing their own pasta sauce, in RE we are looking at Humanism and on Monday, we looked at the PANTs rule and thought about Puberty as the beginning part of our RSE.

New spellings have been sent out for this half term, we will do our first test on Monday.  I have put a digital copy on Class Dojo. There is also a digital copy of this half term's Wider Curriculum Home Learning on Dojo, a paper copy will come home on Monday. Can I remind everybody that the expectation is that children read for at least 10 minutes at home everyday, this can be magazines, newspapers, manuals, cookery books, as well as their reading books, as it is all reading.

Next week, the children will be continuing their work on RSE on Monday, thinking about and naming male and female body parts and how our bodies change during puberty.   We will also be looking at Humanism, Samba, Gravity in Science, Athletics in PE, starting our Maths unit on measurement and working on our invent writing in English. 

This week, the children wore their PE Kit in on Thursday and Friday as they had PE on Friday as usual but on Thursday we competed in the Quad Kids tournament run by OCRA. This was a super Athletics event, which was held on our school field and the children's efforts will be used to compete virtually against other schools in West Devon. There were some great efforts in both the sprinting and throwing events.

I hope that you all have a great weekend - have a little look at the Wider Curriculum Home Learning activities, see if anything springs to mind, you have a long time to complete these, so I am expecting great things!

Enjoy whatever you are up to and get outside.
See you on Monday.

Mr F

​

Good evening everyone - happy Friday. It's only been a week back after half term but what a busy one! This week in Hazel we are nearing the end of our Maths unit on Geometry, having studied perimeter and measuring angles in shapes. We have looked at angles on straight lines and around a point and the properties of regular and irregular polygons. 
In English, we have continued to work on our text Wallace and Gromit's Cracking Contraptions. We videoed our persuasive work on Monday and have since moved on to look at the use of noun phrases and expanded noun phrases to improve description. We are now at the innovate stage, in which we are writing our own piece about 'The Tellyscope.'
In RE, the children have been thinking about Humanism and the children have continued with Samba drumming in Music.  In Science this week, we have learnt about floating and sinking, thinking about what makes things float and sink and conducting an experiment into how shape is important to both of these phenomena.  In PSHE, we thought about Diversity and how each of us was unique and different. We then designed our own logo to demonstrate the things that were important to us. 
In French we started to learn the names of some fruits, ready for a trip to the market, when we will practise conversational French. 

New spellings have been sent out for this half term, I have also put a digital copy on Class Dojo. There is also a digital copy of this half term's Wider Curriculum Home Learning on Dojo, a paper copy will come home on Monday. Can I remind everybody that the expectation is that children read for at least 10 minutes at home everyday, this can be magazines, newspapers, manuals, cookery books, as well as their reading books, as it is all reading.

Next week, the children will be beginning their work on RSE on Monday, thinking about and naming male and female body parts and the NSPCC pants rule.   We will also be looking at Humanism, Samba, Food in DT, Athletics in PE, completing our Maths unit on shape and moving on to a new unit (Decimal numbers) and working towards our invent writing in English. 

Next week, the children will need to wear their PE Kit in on Thursday and Friday as they have PE on Friday as usual but on Thursday we will be competing in the Quad Kids tournament, which will be run by OCRA. This is a super Athletics event, which will be held on our school field and the children's efforts will be used to compete virtually against other schools in West Devon.

I hope that you all have a great weekend - have a little look at the Wider Curriculum Home Learning activities, see if anything springs to mind, you have a long time to complete these, so I am expecting great things!

Enjoy whatever you are up to and get outside, as the weather looks graet this weekend.
See you on Monday.

Mr F

Friday again and it's half term next week!  Thank you to all of you who were able to join us for our sharing assembly this afternoon, it was really nice to see so many of you.  This week in Hazel, we have continued to work on our English text Wallace and Gromit - Cracking Contraptions, the children have written in a style to imitate the text and have been working on a persuasive speech to convince people to buy their product - which they are going to pitch in a Dragon's Den style.  We have also worked on our use of a protractor, as we study Geometry - this week we focused on measuring and drawing angles and then transferring this skill to accurate drawing and measurement of shape.
In Wider Curriculum, we have completed our work on the Amazon Basin and  this morning started our History unit on The Ancient Mayans. This week, in RE we completed our RE unit 'How do Christians decide to Live-what would Jesus do?' Throughout this unit we have looked at two of the ten commandments and related them to how Christians might use them as they encounter issues in life. We have looked at parables and the messages within them for Christians and how Christians use Jesus' words as their foundations for living. After half term we start a new unit called 'What Matters Most to Humanists and Christians.'

This week in Art we completed our Art unit 'Design for purpose' where the children have designed their own Coats of Arms and in collaboration with each other have designed rooms based on an artist  and also a consumable product based on a word. After half term we will be starting a DT project called Healthy Eating where we will be tasting, investigating, designing and then making our own food.

Thank you to all of you who have worked hard at home with your children on their Wider Curriculum home learning, I have enjoyed looking at and reading the various pieces of writing, artwork and IT presentations that have come in - if you haven'y got yours in yet, you have until after half term to complete it. 

Remember to read over half term, there's nothing quite like a good book to get lost in, 10 minutes or more a day makes a massive difference. 

Have a great half term, it sounds like many of you will be up to some very exciting things. 

See you on Monday June 7th

Mr F