One month in

​Dear Hawthorn Class,

It's been quite a strange month, with most of you learning from home and a few of you in school. Everyone has really impressed Miss Fell and I with their efforts - many of you have been tuning in to Google classroom to complete work online, so that you are doing exactly the same work as we are in school.
     
           Highlights of the month:​

• Our live lessons online each Monday with Saints South West - thank you for the energetic session each week, Team Saints!
• Seeing amazing French work - you have been learning how to write in full sentences to describe which pets you have. Some of you took this to the next level and looked up different animals we hadn't learnt as a class, or created brand new sentences to describe what that animal looks like (top marks to Benji describing his fluffy toy owl!)
• Very creative stories inspired by the Anglo-Saxon tale 'Beowulf' - we've read some beautiful descriptions of gloomy scenery and fearsome monsters. Also, many of you included conversations to help set the scene and move the action forward. 
• Lots of you have grown in confidence at Maths, particularly in Year 4 where you were dividing up to 3 digits by 1 digit. Some of you found this tricky at first but persevered. If you haven't already used it, I recommend this website: https://mathsbot.com/manipulatives/placeValueCounters where you can use counters to create a number and then divide it up into groups. This method helps us see any remainders very clearly. 
• We've had some thoughtful feedback to your online History lessons, set by Miss Fell. You are now really getting a sense of how tough life could be in Anglo Saxon times for many people - and on the other hand, how wealthy a few people were, such as the kings of the kingdoms. Imagine being buried with all those 'grave goods'! 
• At school, we've explored electrical circuits and created our own, using a range of conductors (which allowed the bulbs to light up) and insulators (which prevented the electricity flowing, so the bulbs didn't light up). At home, people have observed many different electrical items, and how these have been made safe by the use of insulating materials - e.g. plastic coatings around wires. 
• Very importantly, we know how many of you have been discussing our PSHE topic 'Online Wellbeing' with your peers and adults at home. This is a particularly important topic at the moment, when we find ourselves using the internet so much more regularly. Well done for your thoughtful feedback and contributions. 

Have a look at the pictures below to see some of the work you've been doing!
As we enter February, we look forward to learning more about playscripts, fractions and all sorts of other things to keep you busy and learning. 
Keep well everybody and see you soon online on a live session very soon.
​Mrs R