News
Newsletter for the week ending Friday 24th January
Friday means outdoor learning and I can hear Year 1 outside having what sounds like a tremendous time. As per usual, please take a read of Around the Classes to find out what each class has been up to this week.
On Saturday 25th January plastic Free North Devon are holding there mass community clean up across North Devon and Torridge. For information on how to get involved see here
Wishing you all an enjoyable weekend
From Jeremy Cooper and all the children and staff
AROUND THE CLASSES
This week in Turtles and Dolphins we have continued to find out about The Arctic. We have found out more about igloos and labelled parts of an igloo. We then compared igloos to our homes and we talked about whether we would prefer to live in a house or an igloo and why. We have made igloos using sugar cubes and the large building blocks.
This week Year 1 have written information pages about hail and snow to finish our work on weather. They wrote some great sentences thinking about what would interest a reader. In maths we finished our unit on place value to 20, using and estimating on a numberline, comparing and ordering numbers. We continued learning about how Florence Nightingale highlighted the importance of hygiene, especially washing and cleaning your hands. We have set up a bread experiment to see the difference of touching a slice of bread with unwashed and washed hands. We will be continuing our observations next week. On Thursday we spent some time in the art studio starting our work on printing by exploring using a range of soft and hard materials.
Year 2 had a great time in the Art Studio this week learning about printing. They drew leaves and made a printing block ready to use in their next session. In Maths, they have been learning about giving change from a pound coin and solving money word problems. In English, they have been looking at the biography of Amelia Earhart and putting the key events from her life in order. Their History topic has continued and they discussed the question: Why did Grace Darling act the way she did? There were some brilliant ideas – well done.
Year 3 are working together collaboratively to perform their own graphic scores. They are focusing on their nominated conductor and following the score successfully. Year 4 are also working well as a group to perform their cyclic patterns. They have made careful choices over which instrument they are going to use to perform each rhythm. Year 5 imbibed their music and RE learning by looking at a range of Christian songs and hymns which make reference to God being holy and loving. Year 6 followed up their star gazing by writing a poem exploring their own personal thoughts about creation and the universe.
Year 3 have had a great week! In Maths, we learnt how to measure in metres, centimetres and millimetres and have applied this knowledge to a range of problem solving questions. In English, we researched a famous person in order to write our own biographies. We then planned our biography and have started to write it using subheadings and paragraphs to order the information. In History, we learnt all about the main events in Marie Curie’s life and made our own timelines to present this information. In Science, we compared x-rays of animal skeletons to a human skeleton and learnt about the differences between vertebrates and invertebrates. In Values, we celebrated our talents and discussed how everyone has different skills. In Guided Reading, we focused on using our retrieval and inference skills to answer some questions on Marie Curie and Mary Anning.
In Year 4 this week, the children learnt how people’s roles were different in 1918, where they looked at a virtual high street of what the shops used to look like in History. In Science, we looked at what tooth decay is and what ingredients drinks have which causes tooth decay. They soaked some boiled eggs in different drinks for 5 days to see what effects the drinks had on the shell (which acts like the enamel). In Values, the children looked at where in our body we feel different emotions. In Maths, they practised using the column method for the multiplication of 2 and 3 digit numbers. In English, we wrote a story called Jack and the Daydream altogether in the style of Jack and the Dreamsack.
Year 5 have completed their unit on fractions (but we will be returning to them before the end of the term!!) Maths will not continue to develop our strategies for multiplication and division for the next couple of weeks. We completed reading the plague story and have now drafted our own version of the events which took place in London in 1665. This week we have linked in with two virtual school workshops. On Wednesday we listened to the author, Jordan Lees, and heard about his book ‘Whisperwicks’ and then on Thursday we joined the Spaceship Earth Primary Show, exploring the advances in space technology. We have continued to find out more about the Shang Dynasty by looking at the archaeology and thinking about the artefacts which have been excavated over the past century. We are really looking forward to our class trip to Bristol next week.
Year 6 have been busy starting algebra in maths by looking at function machines: one-step and two-step. In Literacy, they have been reading some scientific evidence about heart transplants and in particular issues associated with having a pig’s heart transplanted into a human. In reading, they have been finding out about volcanoes and refining how to answer 2-3 mark questions. They played been-bag bombardment in PE and became very competitive: there were some amazing dodges. Please encourage your child to complete their maths homework each week as it builds on what we are doing in class. There are also Booster class resources available in the online classroom too.
