An Emotional Menagerie

LoTo kick of our new term we have challenged the children to be creative.  We have focused on the poetry book 'An Emotional Menagerie' to inspire us to create a range of poems of our own.

In the poetry book, each letter of the alphabet links an emotion to an animal.  The poem then explores more about both the creature and how we can identify and manage those emotions.

So far we have learned about figurative language, rhyming couplets, and how to use colons and semi-colons in lists.  We have also spent a lot of time, developing creative ideas around each different emotion.  We look forward to sharing the final poems when the children have published them!

Monday 15th September 

We have settled really well into our new class and everyone has been working hard! It has been fantastic to see such a positive start to the year.

In History, we are learning all about World War II. We have also been linking this to our Dance lessons, where we are creating our own motifs inspired by this topic.

In Maths, we have been focusing on place value, including reading and writing numbers up to one million and working with Roman numerals.

In English, we have begun planning our own poems inspired by The Emotional Menagerie. We are experimenting with different writing techniques such as similes, metaphors, personification, alliteration, and using powerful noun phrases to bring our ideas to life.

A big thank you to those who have been practising regularly on Times Tables Rock Stars and reading at least three times a week, remembering to record this in your reading record books - keep it up!

We've also been creative outdoors in the woodlands, where we designed and made our own creatures from clay. These imaginative creations link beautifully with our poetry work and show just how creative Year 5 and 6 can be.

Well done Year 5 and 6 - what a brilliant start to the year!

L

This week in R/1 has been full of exciting learning opportunities and fun activities!

In Literacy, we have been exploring traditional tales, focusing on classic stories such as The Three Little Pigs and The Three Billy Goats Gruff. The children have enjoyed listening to and retelling these stories, using key story language and sequencing events in the correct order. Year 1 have been working hard on their writing skills, learning how to create simple captions and labels to match pictures from the stories. Reception children have been developing their early writing and storytelling skills through drawing, mark-making, and acting out parts of the tales.

In Maths, Year 1 have been learning about place value, with a particular focus on understanding tens and ones in numbers between 10 and 15. They've used practical resources like base ten blocks and number lines to help them build a solid understanding of how numbers are made up. Meanwhile, Reception children have been busy exploring patterns, using colours, shapes, and objects to create repeating sequences. They've also been working on their early addition skills, especially focusing on ways to add to 3 using counting and hands-on materials.

In PSHE, we had meaningful discussions about the people in our lives who help us feel safe, supported, and cared for. The children shared thoughtful ideas and enjoyed talking about their families, friends, and trusted adults. We also took part in some fun team-building games to help develop our friendships and cooperation skills.

During PE, we've started a new focus on ball skills and group games. The children have been practising rolling, throwing, and catching, as well as learning how to work together in small teams. Reception children joined in with some exciting hoop games, which helped them with their coordination and turn-taking. Reception children have PE on Mondays and Tuesdays. Year 1 pupils have PE on Thursdays. 

Reception have continued to make the most of their time in continuous provision, where they have been creating, building, and making with lots of enthusiasm. From constructing imaginative buildings to experimenting with different materials at the creative table, it's been wonderful to see their ideas come to life through play.

To top it all off, we had a fantastic music lesson with Mrs Butlin this morning! The children loved exploring different instruments, rhythms, and songs, and it was a joyful way to end a busy and productive week.

Well done to all of R/1 for a brilliant week of learning!

What a great start to the Autumn Term Year 3/4a!

We've started on our Learning Adventure to Ancient Egypt, looking at artefacts and their discoveries, the importance of the River Nile and how our lives are very different to those in ancient Egypt. We've discussed key vocabulary and the difference between primary and secondary evidence.

We've had great fun retelling the traditional tale of Red Riding Hood using a 'Story Piano', discussing key events, characters and setting and how traditional tales can be exaggerated over time to make them more exciting to the listener.

We've revised our knowledge of Place Value, discussing the importance of a place value holder (0) in reading and writing numbers. We're currently thinking carefully about the value of digits and using manipulatives to support our learning. We've also been busy practising our KIRFS.

Today we were visited in KS2 by Carly who works with the Cognition and Learning Team for Cornwall. She led us through the workings of our unique and specialised brains - with the children's help of course. Carly has left us with a challenge and a promise of rewards which sparked our interest. We will be exploring this further next week and I am looking forward to seeing what the children can come up with! Watch this space!

You will have noticed additional speed zone signage in the village - this is a gentle reminder that our school sits in a 20mph zone and for everyone's safety thank you for adhering to this.

Welcome to Year 5-6H! It has been great to welcome the children back after the Summer break - and we have a few new faces in class who are settling in quickly!  The first few days are always busy, but the children have made an excellent start to the new term.  We are really looking forward to seeing how much the children will be able to achieve and grow this school year!

Please find below some of the important information for our class this term.

Getting in touch:  There are many times throughout the year when you may want to get in touch with the staff team.  Please do come and speak to any member of staff in class at drop-off or pick up each school day.  You can also email any questions, concerns, updates to thazlewood@stcleerprimary.co.uk

Learning in school:   The mind-map attached below outlines the learning we have planned for this half term.

Learning at home:  It is important in Year 5 & 6 for the children to support their learning at home. The following guidelines are what we share with the children:
READING - Ten minutes a day (recorded in the children's reading record)
SPELLING - We learn 15 spelling words each fortnight. Please find the Autumn term spellings attached below. As well as our focus spellings - the children are also expected to learn the statutory spellings attached.
KIRFs and Timestables facts - We ask the children to learn some important Key Instant Recall Facts each term. Please see the KIRF documents below which outline the important maths facts this term. The children will continue to have access to Times Tables Rock Starts to practice and consolidate their times tables facts (login details will be stuck into the front cover of the children's reading record)
Online learning (ATOM LEARNING) - We use an online platform called Atom Prime to support the children's learning. Each week we will set 'assignments' based around learning we have been doing in school.

PE:  Our class PE session has moved to a Tuesday this term (apologies if this has caused any problems). We also have additional sports sessions planned for Year 5 children with Coach James on a Wednesday afternoon. On the days when your child will be doing PE, please ensure that the children arrive in school dressed in their PE kit (both days for Year 5, Tuesday for Year 6).

We are really looking forward to all the opportunities which this new school year will bring.  As always, please do get in touch if you have any questions or concerns (or just want to say 'Hi')!

All the best,   Mr Hazlewood & the Year 5/6 team.

Welcome to R/1!

We are absolutely delighted to welcome all the children to our R/1 class. It has been a wonderful start to the school year, and over the past two days, we've had a fantastic time settling in, learning classroom routines, and getting to know each other. The children have shown great enthusiasm and kindness, and we're excited for the many learning adventures ahead.

Our Year 1 students have already jumped into their learning, beginning with Mathematics. This week, we introduced the topic of Place Value, focusing on numbers to 10. The children completed a pre-assessment to help guide our future lessons, and they've been busy counting and representing numbers using objects. They have shown great concentration and effort when completing questions in their maths books - a fantastic start to the term!

In English, we have started our unit on Traditional Tales. We listened to the classic stories of The Three Little Pigs and The Three Billy Goats Gruff, which sparked some wonderful discussion. The children were asked to write a sentence explaining which story was their favourite and why, and it was lovely to see their growing confidence with writing and expressing their opinions.

To end the week, we enjoyed a creative afternoon where the children made their very own little pig characters using craft materials. It was a fun and imaginative way to bring the story to life, and the results were fantastic!

We are so proud of how well everyone has settled in and are looking forward to a year full of learning, creativity, and growth.

Thank you so much team St Cleer for another great sports day. Parents/carers really came out and supported us all today in the heat. Well done to everyone for a fantastic day and congratulations to Cheesewring who are the winning team this year! Our values in action today at their best!

This week has been full of exciting learning experiences! In maths, we have been focusing on fractions, particularly learning how to find halves and quarters of different shapes and amounts. We practiced using real-life examples and had fun solving problems together.

In English, we wrote detailed recounts of our fabulous trip to Seaton. We described what we saw, what we did, and how we felt during the day. It was a great opportunity to use our descriptive writing skills and to reflect on such a memorable experience.

In RE, we explored the topic of feelings. We discussed different emotions, how they affect us, and how we can understand and respect the feelings of others. We shared our thoughts through group discussions and creative activities.

We also continued preparing for sports day by practicing various events, working on our teamwork, and cheering each other on. It's been great to see everyone putting in so much effort and showing fantastic sportsmanship.

In music, we had lots of fun using different instruments to create rhythms and explore sounds. We worked together to play simple tunes and enjoyed listening to the different effects we could make.