Happy Friday, everyone!

This week we've been busy again!

On Monday, we started the week with some singing and music practice with Carole from the Voices Foundation.  Carole comes into school every few week to help us as teachers to strengthen our musical skills, and to teach the children some new songs!  Everyone really engaged with the singing - Oak class, perhaps you could try teaching someone at home one of the songs we have tried!

Another exciting lesson was Geography this week, where we learnt about volcanoes and how they are formed.  We looked at stratovolcanoes, which get bigger every time they erupt - ask one of Oak class to explain why!  After learning about the volcanoes, we created our own pop-up volcanoes for our books (effective, but not quite as explosive as the real thing!)  

On Thursday, the children had a visit from a PE specialist from Real PE.  Real PE is a new scheme we are going to follow, to ensure we are delivering high-quality PE for everyone.  I wasn't in school as I was attending a training course, however I have heard lots of good things about the session, and believe that the class really enjoyed it.

This morning, we were thinking all things water, after a visit from Sophie at South West Water.  Year 3 and 4 were told about how much water we use everyday, how our water is filtered and made safe for us to use, and also learnt about what we should and shouldn't flush down the toilet or drain - amazingly, items such as phones, and false teeth have been found down drain, these were definite no's for flushing!  We all had a think about how we could reduce our water usage, from cutting down our shower times, to turning the tap off when we brush our teeth!

Have a super weekend everyone - enjoy the sun!
​Miss Paddon

Hi everyone!

We've just finished what turned out to be a very busy week!  On Monday, we took part in a live virtual Science workshop called 'The Supersonic Side Show!' presented by Pete at Wonderstruck, and learnt all about Sound.  It was great to watch the experiments and build on what we learnt last half-term in Science.  The class was particularly excited by the experiments showing sound waves dancing over flames, and using sound to make a straw move by itself in a glass!

On Thursday, it was our World Book day at Chagford!  I loved seeing everyone's costumes and enthusiasm for books and reading.  We had a look at a book about shapes and patterns, and created our own tessellating patterns.  We also watched a video from the author Simon Farnaby, and learnt about what inspires him and the ideas in his books.  Then we had a go at creating or own stories, using a selection of objects to inspire us to write something new!  In the afternoon, we were lucky enough to have a visit from The Bookery (from Crediton).  The lovely helpers from the Bookery told us about some of the most popular new children's books at the moment - there were almost too many to choose from!  After, the children had the chance to buy some books if they wanted to.

It was also great to see so many supporting our cake sale on Friday after school, in aid of support for Ukraine.  We talked in class last week about how and why we could help, and I was very proud to know just how much Oak class wanted to help in whatever way they could.

Have a lovely weekend everyone, see you next week!

Miss Paddon

Hello everyone!

It's amazing to think that we're now just over half-way through this school year - it's flying by!  I'm very happy to finally see some signs of spring, despite all the rain we've had this week.

In school this week, we've been busy starting some fascinating new topics.  In English we are continuing to use Meerkat Mail by Emily Gravett, and have been identifying words which have been contracted with an apostrophe in the postcards which Sunny the Meerkat writes.  We've started a new Geography topic on Earthquakes, Mountains and Volcanoes, and this week we learnt about the different layers of the earth.  In Science we are now learning all about Forces - we even tested out gravity by dropping pens all over the place!

In Maths, we have started a topic on Statistics, and this week we focused on tally charts and pictograms.  As well as this, on Tuesday this week we created bar charts of favourite pancake toppings!  As it was also pancake day on that day, it would have been a missed opportunity if we didn't try some of those toppings for ourselves - we enjoyed some pancakes with chocolate chips, or lemon and sugar!  (Perhaps you could create you own pictogram or tally chart at home this weekend, and ask you family about their pancake toppings, or anything else!)

Next week, it is Chagford's World Book day on Thursday 10th.  The children were all given letters with more information about the out world book day, including the pop-up bookshop which will be visiting our school.  The books will cost £6 each, or £10 for 2 books.  If your child would like to buy a book (or two!) please can you send some money in with them, in a named envelope.  I've loved hearing some of the children planning what they are going to wear already - I've been planning my outfit as well!  It would be fantastic to see as many characters from books as possible, however if you don't want to dress up, that's ok too.  Perhaps you could wear the clothes that you like to wear when you read a book instead! 

Have a lovely weekend everyone - enjoy sunnier weather!

Miss Paddon