Year 3/4a have been busy with their learning over the last two weeks; starting their new Learning Adventure on Henry VIII in History, exploring and investigating forces in Science and braving fierce dragons and sinister characters, such as Morgan Le Fay, in their writing on 'Myths and Legends' and 'King Arthur'. We enjoyed 'Hot-Seating' key characters.

Our term's Value of 'DETERMINATION' has turned our focus to presentation and handwriting where we've been thinking carefully about cursive joins and the consistent size of our letters within independent writing. Well done to all those who have been practising at home - SUPERSTARS!

Within Math, Year 3 have started their new topic on 'Mass and Capacity' and have worked hard at learning their KIRFS too as these have helped us with certain scales.
Year 4 are consolidating their understanding on fractions and are working hard at applying their knowledge of multiplication and division to convert improper fractions to mixed numbers. With the Multiplication Check nearly upon us, we're also working hard to have a quicker recall of our tables, improving our scores each day - Well Done!

Duck in a Truck 

We started off our duck in the truck topic by discussing different modes of transport. Our first step was to brainstorm the different types we could think of, reception thought of loads: plane, train, car, van, horse, feet, bicycle and more.

We then talked about tally charts and how so many different things can be recorded through tally charts, reception know  one line marked, equals the number one and know that when you reach five you cross over the 4 tally marks.

We then Fred talked 4 different modes of transport: Car, Van, Bus and Tractor and headed out to the front of the school to start our tally charts. Reception kept their eyes peeled for their 4 different moving vehicles, they were so excited when they saw each one and they were predicting what would come next.

Their final tally charts looked neat and you could see reception really understood the concept. Final tally marks came to: car =6, Van = 2, Bus = 1, Tractor = 0. This was a great hook to start off our duck in the truck story.

Duchy Farm 

What better way to learn about the ins and outs of a farm than by visiting a working one! Duchy farm kindly welcomed us to their working farm grounds for the day.

We started off our visit by exploring their equine centre, Martin, our guide, explained how the horses are looked after, how you can work within the equine industry and all about their diets and the horse’s biology. They were very beautiful, some of our children showed a real gentle and calming presence when saying hello to them all.

Within this topic we are really exploring British farming- how it works and why it is so important. Martin was really excited to share about all the different roles you will find on a farm and how important they are to our country.

Once we had visited the equine centre we moved on to the guinea pigs, bunnies, chickens and ducks. The children loved getting up close and personal with these animals and found them very cute. The lady in this centre explained to the children how they look after these animals, including their diets, grooming and health checks, they all had really funny names also.

Moving on over to the exotic animals centre where the children met different species of frogs, snakes, bearded dragons, spiders, snails etc. These were a big hit, the children were very intrigued by all these animals, the frogs were adamant on escaping and jumping all over the children! One was called Kermit!

To top off a brilliant day the children got to have a tractor trailer ride around the remainders of the working farm. This is when they got to see the cows and sheep. The tractor ride was very fun but also very informative, we met different people along the way. One particular lady worked in the dairy part of the farm, she told us that they have nearly 250 cows on their farm, all of which produce 21 litres of milk a day that makes our cathedral city cheese and David stow milk! Exploring a career in farming is something Duchy Farm are really passionate about and this was evident in the friendly welcome and high-quality care of their animals.

Reception had the best time visiting Duchy Farm, I wonder whether any of them will become a farmer one day?

Forest School Team Work

Today in forest school we had a fantastic rope activity set up. The activity focused on balance and co-ordination along with teamwork and trust.

We started off by following the rope around and we were not allowed to let go, they had navigate through low parts and high parts. The next part that impressed us the most was when the children were in pairs and they had to give instructions to their partner who had their eyes closed, their communication skills with one another was great and they guided their partners well. 

They also tried walking backwards whilst trying not to let go of the rope. 

They worked really well as a team and enjoyed the activity. 

Today, in the morning, group one started with archery and bushcraft; group two did zip lining, the leap of faith and a climbing wall; and group three did tunnels and stream studies.
After a lunch of assorted rolls, group one did problem solving; group two did bushcraft and archery; and group three did zip wiring, the leap of faith and climbing.
We are looking forwards to our woodland walk and bonfire. See you back at school tomorrow!
By Tom 

The children did not let the early start this morning put them off their activities today! They have had a super day. After unpacking and lunch, Group 1 completed the zip line, leap of faith and climbing wall whilst groups 2 and 3 carried out the problem solving activities.
We were incredibly proud of all the children for giving the zip line a go and lots even tried out the leap of faith!
The problem solving groups impressed us with their determination and communication skills- they did not give up and worked really well in their teams.
This evening, the children have enjoyed their evening meal and spent time in the games room and watching a movie.

Hopefully we will all get a good night sleep ahead of tomorrow’s activities.

Please see below for some more pictures. 

Maths

This half term we will start by focusing on shape before swiftly moving onto money. We will also keep refreshing our arithmetic skills once per week. I can see lots of the children are accessing Times Table Rock Stars at home which is fantastic, please do keep practising at home as this really supports their mental arithmetic. We'd like children to be able to count in 2s, 3s, 5s and 10s by the end of Year 2. Below are some of the songs we use in school to help us. I have included lots here as the homework we send home will touch on all of these at different points so it may be a useful bank of resources to support your child at home.

Counting in 2s: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GvTcpfSnOMQ

Counting in 3s: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_cn87hOCDM

Counting in 5s: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EemjeA2Djjw

Counting in 10s: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ftati8iGQcs

This half term we are learning all about shape. Here are some songs and videos we will watch in class.

2D shapes: https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/topics/zjv39j6/articles/ztpwdmn

3D shapes: https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/topics/zjv39j6/articles/zcsjqty

Shape videos and resources: https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/topics/zjv39j6

Some other helpful resources:

Sharing (division): https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/topics/zqbg87h/articles/z6pqh4j

Multiplication sentences: https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/topics/zqbg87h/articles/zbmk239

Using an array for multiplication: https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/topics/zqbg87h/articles/z3tvcj6

Using an array for division: https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/topics/zqbg87h/articles/z9pc8mn

Addition and subtraction (all of these guides and videos will be useful): https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/topics/zwv39j6

Fractions (all of these guides and videos will be useful): https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/topics/z3rbg82

English

This half term we will start by very quickly finishing off our recounts from before the Easter holidays. Then we will be moving onto story writing once again focusing on Lost and Found by Oliver Jeffers.

Science

Our topic this half term is living things and their habitat. We explore microhabitats and lots of different living things so we are excited to take our learning outside as much as possible!

History

This half term we are learning all about The Great Fire of London! The children are beyond excited about this topic and cannot wait to learn all about what happened, why it happened and how it happened. 

Our trip to The Box in Plymouth

On Friday 19th April we went on a school trip to The Box in Plymouth. The children were brilliant and their behaviour was exceptional! They listened intently to our guide and loved each and every exhibit we went into. They listened and asked questions and it was a joy to watch how enthusiastic they were. 

The second part of the day was an artist workshop focusing on sea life sculpture. The children explored plankton and noticed how different it all looks. They discussed how art made them feel and even got to use different materials to design and make their own plankton sculptures. The artist leading the workshop then joined all their sculptures together and this is now hanging up in the classroom if you'd like to come and see it! Please enjoy these great photos from our trip.

English

This half term we having been learning about an author and illustrator called Catherine Rayner. We loved exploring different books she had written, some of them we knew already.

We based our stories on Augustus and his smile. It's all about a tiger who was sad because he lost his smile and searches all over the world to find it. We practised sequencing the story and using ambitious vocabulary to describe what happens. 

We also used story mapping to really embed the sequence of the story and used actions to help us retell the story accurately.

We also used boxing up the text to help us identify the key parts of the story: the opening, build-up, dilemma, resolution and ending. We noticed in Augustus and his smile the build-up and dilemma were swapped around which we found was an interesting way to tell a story.

Firstly we practised re-writing the original story using lots of expanded noun phrases, verbs, adverbs and ambitious adjectives. Then, we made some small changes to the story to make it our own. We finished off this unit by writing our own versions of Augustus and his smile. 

Maths

This half term we have been learning all about fractions. We have focused off halves, thirds and quarters. We found out the half has two equal groups, thirds have three equal groups and quarters have four equal groups. We started by firstly recognising these different fractions by colouring in half of a shape, a third of a shape and a quarter of a shape. Then we started to use our knowledge from multiplication and division to help us divide numbers to help us find one half, one third and one quarter of a number. We used sharing into equal groups to help us.

Geography

This half term we were learning all about cities from all over the world. We started by focusing on capital cities in the United Kingdom before looking at some capital cities from all around the world. We thought about and discussed some key differences between cities and villages. We noticed that cities have more human features and villages have more physical features. We then compared Edinburgh to Cape Town in South Africa and the children thoroughly enjoyed learning about a very different capital city! We have used lots of songs this year to help us with our geography learning that the children have loved listening to. Here are some links below in case they'd like to listen to them at home too.


Continents: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K6DSMZ8b3LE

Oceans: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X6BE4VcYngQ

Capital cities of the UK: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RvDIZoQLgIE

PE

This half term in our PE lessons we were learning how to use rackets, the children loved this unit particularly when we were able to get outside! The children loved tracking their progress across the weeks and were very pleased with themselves when they were able to start short rallies! Well done Year 2. 

Art

This half term we studied a French-American artist called Nicki de Saint Phalle. We found some interesting information out about her, one thing in particular was that she didn't got to an art school, everything she did she taught herself! The children found this to be very inspirational.

We explored some of her sculptures and used this to help us learn about primary and secondary colours, mixing colours, bold and vibrant colours, strong lines and tints and hues. 

The children thoroughly enjoyed learning the skills when it comes to mixing colours but some of their favourite parts were creating different patterns using a range of colours inspired by a picture of one of her sculptures. The children loved exploring using black to create strong lines and contrasts.

Some of the children even incorporated our English learning and included tiger stripes!

We finished off this unit by creating sculptures in the style of Nicki Saint de Phalle using mod rock. We will finish painting and evaluating these after the half term.

DT

This half term we caught up and finished off our DT project all about food and we looked at fruit kebabs. We started by exploring different fruits by taste testing them and deciding which our favourite fruits were. Then we designed a fruit kebab thinking about our favourite fruits, colours, shapes and textures. Next we made our fruit kebabs before trying them of course! After we had eaten our fruit kebabs, we evaluated them and thought about what we could do next time to improve them.

History detectives

Our learning adventure this half term is investigating the legacy of the Ancient Greeks.  We started it off by looking at where Greece is on the map - and how the physical features of Greece impacted on how their civilisation developed.

Then we worked to create a timeline of important events in Greek history.  We were surprised that the Ancient Greeks were around at the same time as the Ancient Egyptians and the Romans.  We discussed some important features of Ancient Greek society - like the Olympics and democracy.  We had also heard of quite a few of the famous Ancient Greeks.

We had heard about lots of different Greek myths and legends.  One of the legends was Theseus and the Minotaur.  We wanted to think like historians - so we set up an evidence trail with lots of different types of evidence which would be available to historians today.  We needed to think about how these pieces of evidence could have proved that the encounter between Theseus and the Minotaur could have actually happened.  We enjoyed looking at the different historical sources, and we were great at thinking like a historian!!

Welcome back!

Welcome back to a new half term! I hope that you and the children have had a great Easter break.  We have a whole range of fantastic learning opportunities planned for this half term.

Please see some of the important details below.

The Year 5 Mind-map - attached below is a mind-map which details what we plan to learn across the curriculum this half term.

PE Lessons - Our timetable for PE remains the same this half term. Our PE will be on Tuesday. Children can come into school in their PE kit on PE days.

Supporting learning at home - We encourage learning at home to support the work we do in school and enable children to become more confident.

Our home-learning expectations are:

Daily reading (15 minutes) - reading which is recorded in your reading record will contribute towards your Reading Karate reward.

Times-tables and KIRF practice (20 minutes weekly) using Times Tables Rock Stars (TTRS) and the KIRF sheets (attached below).

Spellings (20 minutes weekly) - focusing on our focus spellings and the Year 4/5 and 5/6 statutory spelling lists (attached below).

Online learning - This will be set on Atom Prime (logins stuck in thy front of children's reading records)

This term we will be running additional 'booster' sessions for selected children in Reading, Writing and Maths.  To support these sessions we may send home a CGP Question Book for the children to use.  We will be in touch directly if we have selected your child for the additional booster sessions.

As always, if you have any questions or concerns please do get in touch.

All the very best, the Year 5 team.

Over the Easter holidays Mrs Hillyard created a fantastic timeline in the hall - do pop in and take a look when you can!

Thank you so much for joining us on Wednesday 27th March for our Open Afternoon and for giving the lessons a go alongside your children and their class mates. It was wonderful to watch the lessons unfold over the afternoon - we had lots of Art, Science and Maths show cased by children and parents carefully supported by staff. Thank you to the staff team for going with this idea and for taking another opportunity to share the children’s learning with you.

Happy Easter! 

This week 3/4B visited the church to learn about what Easter means to people of the Christian faith. They got involved in all sorts of activities including exploring bible stories through the use of props to making easter crosses and writing their own prayers. They learnt that if you want to you can say "amen" when praying together - this means, "I agree". The children were also able to ask lots of interesting questions and I was really impressed with how they engaged with the activities. Well done 3/4B and have a fantastic Easter holiday! 

Miss Boney 

Our last week of spring term. 

We have had a lovely last week here at Pre school. The sun shone, the rain came down, we even had a little snow and hail. But most of all we all had FUN!

This weeks sound of the week was 'i' we learnt lots of words starting with the ' sound. ' ink, invitation, inch, inside, in, if,- Here is the video we watch. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_f5BPXyA6Sw&list=PLW2PD084DKeX0D28Cr1Oxo0mObBho0fqE&index=3 

You should all now have a copy of your child's name and the rhymes to help them form them. Please keep doing this at home and encourage them to write it on the line as well. Any questions please just ask. 

Please keep practising number 1-10. Recognising  and making the number. 


When we come back we will be in the summer term! Our new topic will be 'At the seaside' If you manage to go to any Cornish beaches during the Easter holidays please get a photo of your child and we can pop it on our map!  
Also, if you collect anything that would be fantastic too!

A few areas we will learning about are the  RNLI and what they do,  different beaches in Cornwall, animals of the sea, how to be safe ant the beach and Ocean pollution. We will keep you up to date on what we will be doing each week Via Tapestry. 


We hope you all have the most amazing Easter holidays. Please take lots of pictures and add them to Tapestry for your child to share when we get back. We will see you from the week of the 15th.

Miss Whitty and Miss Ronald :)