October 02nd, 2021

What a topsy turvy week we have had?  The Indian summer appears to have finally but sadly come to an end and the usual wet, Dartmoor, torrential battering has commenced. Let's pray it won't be as consistently persistent as it was last year. 

With the weather being as it is, the children have been splitting their time in and out of the building (with more ins than outs than we would like). This always creates a charged atmosphere resulting in a range of reactions- strong bonds have been formed, stretched and broken over the last week and we hope that we can settle down into a more stable state next week. (Can you tell I'm busy refining our current states of matter topic in science?) 

Speaking of science, the class have made an excellent start looking at different states of matter and have shown a good understanding of the characteristics of each state. We have had a few interesting discussions: are there more than 3 states? (Without a search on Google can you think of the 4th?) Are all liquids compressible? And why is there a half blown up balloon in the corner of the classroom? Good questions with intriguing answers which we look forward to unearthing over the coming weeks. 

Maths- We have set the learning environment up differently this year with multiple activities and resources on hand for the children to explore. Maths has been enjoyed by all with every student relishing the chance to work more independently. This week we have worked well to compare 4 - digit numbers and to get our heads around subtracting from that tricky 0 digit and adding to a 9 digit.  With the help of little cubes, cuboids and place value charts we all seem to have a better understanding. 

English- Our focus is reading this year. We want to be reading more in class with the children also reading more at home. You will have received your child's reading journal this weekend which we strongly urge you to engage with wholeheartedly. I am personally over the moon that this is a school focus as one of my greatest joys as a teacher is to dance, skip and act out a text with the children I am teaching. 
We are reading Empire's End as our class novel.  This is a story about a Lybian-Roman family sent to Britain. It is a challenging read for the class tackling issues of patriarchy and slavery during the height of the Roman empire. Although fairly demanding the children are enthused and engaged with the text and enjoying being transported back to ancient Rome. 
During our English sessions, we have chosen to read How to train your Dragon, which the class are very excited about. Many of them have seen the film and are excited to make comparisons between the screen and the page. 
This week we also looked at the beautiful picture book Tell me a Dragon to spark the classes interest in these wonderous mythical beasts! They wrote and illustrated beautiful poems about their own imagined dragons. After the enthusiasm shown for these initial sessions I am sure this new topic will be enjoyed by all over the next two weeks. 

Have a lovely but (if you trust the forecast) wet weekend,

Mr Frewin and Miss Barton