March 18th - We like to party, we rock the Party!

In Hawthorn we work hard to accomplish our goals. With our sights on the end goal, it can be easy to spend most of our time working towards success and neglect the fun side of life. We complete a project and move onto the next one, sometimes not even stopping to take stock of our fantastic achievements.  
After so much challenging work, we deserve a little party every once in a while. Filling our class marble jar is an immense success for us. It shows that Mr Frewin and Mr Evemy have been impressed by the conduct and general learning attitude of the class many times over the course of the term.  
Besides, life is more fun with a bit of celebration and this week that is exactly what we did.  
The whole week has been a bit out of the ordinary. We started it with a visit from Carole, or as she is more affectionately known- the singing lady. We all wowed her (except for Mr. Frewin) with our beautiful singing voices and musical timing. It really is lovely having Carole come in to sing with us, it reminds us just how joyous and morale boosting collective singing is. After seeing how soul nourishing harmonising is,  Mr Frewin has made a permanent slot on the timetable for regular singing practice. So, if you happen to walk past the school at 9:20 and you are wondering where those dulcet tones are emanating from, look no further than Hawthorn class! 
We were incredibly lucky on Tuesday to have a visit from the Finchmeiseter general whilst Mr. Frewin was out with the hockey team. Mr. Finch had a lovely time teaching in Hawthorn, where he continued reading our guiding-reading text: The Suitcase by Chris Naylor Ballesteros. Mr Frewin chose this book because of the catastrophic events happening in the world today. It's a text that tells the story of an immigrant/refugee who appears very strange to the natives of the land he arrives in. They learn an important lesson after initially treating their visitor with suspicion. 

Using narratives to introduce these important and relevant topics is a powerful yet gentle way to discuss sensitive issues. If you do not know the text and would like to use it as a stimulus to discuss these issues, I highly recommend it. Your child may have lots of questions about what is going on in the world now and it is especially important we have these discussions instead of shying away from them from a position of protection. Another text we have looked at is Saving the Butterfly by Helen Cooper. This is another story about refugees which focuses on the difficulties they may have adjusting to a new country.  ​

In English we have continued to look at our non-fiction text: Science in Flash: Earth and Space. We looked closely at the use of subheadings and the subtle clues they give us about the paragraph they precede. We realised that writers use questions and ambiguous language to spark an interest in the reader. Following on from here, we looked at the layout of the pages in the book and used it as inspiration to plan the layout of the pages we will eventually be writing. We have also looked at the specific technical language used in the text and checked its meaning by using dictionaries. We achieved all this by Tuesday!  

In maths we have come to the end of our module on fractions where we have gained a solid understanding of them and their relationship to timestables. We are still enjoying learning our timestables with some members of the class choosing to practice during our class party! 
Moving forward, we will be using our understanding of fractions to fully grasp decimals and make the connections between the two.

On Thursday morning, we were treated to a surprise visit from Sophie, South West Water’s Education Officer. Along with Oak class, we found out about the amazing journey water takes to reach the taps in our homes, how water is treated, and what happens to our bodily waste, both poo and wee! We spent time mapping out the water cycle before discussing the importance of keeping our reservoirs and rivers healthy to ensure our wildlife is protected and our water is the highest quality possible. We enjoyed listening to Sophie’s list of objects found in the region’s sewers – these included enormous fatbergs the size of double decker buses, teddy bears, mobile phones and even false teeth! Sophie also described how water is filtered through different treatment processes before being pumped to our taps. We watched a practical demonstration of a muddy liquid being transformed into beautifully clear water using a jug, filter funnel and different types of paper, gravel and stones. As part of our promise to try to conserve water and protect the environment, we wrote our own pledges to save water, such as taking shorter showers (or none at all!), or not running the tap whilst cleaning our teeth. All in all, a thoroughly enjoyable and inspirational morning. Thank you, Sophie!

And then there was the class party. It was so much fun to let our hair down and celebrate our achievements. We’re not sure Mr. Frewin intended the celebratory display of writing on a washing line was for jumping up at, but when Encanto songs are on, anything goes!  
There was much dancing and (junk) food eaten. Mr Frewin couldn’t believe the entire mountain was devoured, but it was! There was also an appearance from a robot teacher that was commanded to do some very silly things indeed! 
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I hope you all have a lovely weekend.  
Remember it is parent’s evening next week so get booked in. Mr Frewin will be available to talk to on Tuesday and you will have a chance to meet Mr. Evemy on Thursday.  
Just remember life is short so make sure you always pack your party pants! ​