Blog 11th February

We are both feeling very proud of the Hawthorns this week, they have had to cope with a lot of change recently and rise to the many challenges this change brings. 


Not only have we recently welcomed Mr Evemy to the class we have also recently completed two tricky maths topics: multiplication and shape and measurements. These changes have brought with them some stresses and anxieties centred around new expectations, concepts and ways of thinking. 


Over the last two weeks, we discussed the big feelings we experience in a range of circumstances and how best to manage them in a safe and healthy way. We have all created feelings thermometers. We use them to track our feelings at any point of the day. Each feeling has a clear path of expected behaviours linked to it. Once we follow these behaviours we should arrive in a happy, safe and content place. 


To help with this, we devised a Hawthorn calming cures menu which contains mindful practises to help bring us back to our selves and feel grounded in the moment. 


Next week we plan to introduce journaling practices to the class to help us process feelings, set positive intentions and celebrate past successes. 


Celebrating successes has been easy this week, the children have made fantastic efforts with there stories based on the book Leon and the Place between. We have been blown away by their descriptive phrases and the magical dimensions they have created. Next week we will write them up in neat and collage our accompanying illustrations.


As previously mentioned we have finished a couple of maths topics and everyone has exceeded expectations in their end of unit assessments. They really do know their perimeters from their areas! 


Although we have shifted our focus away from multiplication we still need to keep up with our timestables practice so please keep up with the timestable rockstars practice at home- I will be setting some challenges over the weekend! 

Mr Evemy wirites...
When you were young, you may have been captivated by fairy tales such as Little Red Riding Hood and The Three Billy Goats Gruff, but would you dare read the gruesome story of… Zombierella! 
In guided reading, we have been studying the prologue from Joseph Coelho’s Zombierella, a ‘fairy tale gone bad’. The story starts in the forbidden books section, in a murky corner at the very back of the library. Here we meet the librarian, a particularly unsavoury character who revels in unearthing books that have gone off – foul old tomes that are kept in chains for safety’s sake. As he scans the titles of these fractured fairy tales, he discovers subverted stories such as The Monstrous Duckling, Creeping Beauty and, of course, Zombierella. 
We have been creating our own titles for rather off-colour fairy tales: these have included Jack and the Bonestalk, Little Dead Riding Hood, and the rather whiffy Cindersmella! Whilst concocting these foul titles, there has been much merriment in being able to play around with language and create unusual (generally humorous or gory) words. Next week, we will be designing book covers for our tales, which will include our own creative illustrations and blurbs. We look forward to sharing these with you in due course – just remember that they may contain some nasty surprises! 

---

Enjoy your weekends everyone 


Mr Frewin and Mr Evemy