Halfway there!

As we reach the halfway point of our penultimate half term, let's take a look at what Birch and Maple class have been up to.

In the mornings, we have started writing the descriptions of our cracking contraptions. The children have come up with some genius ideas! We have an automatic dog-walker, an outfit picker, an animal translator and an automatic fire feeder! Before working independently, we've also worked together to write a description of my Invite-o-matic, a party host's dream! We have had some very strong noun phrases created this week which will do nicely in our final drafts!

In maths, we're starting to wrap up our decimals topic. We've focused on adding and subtracting decimals for the last two weeks and our final few lessons will focus on multiplying and dividing decimals by 10, 100 and 1,000. Next week, we'll be moving onto our unit on shapes! Not to mention, during our quickfire times table tests, all of Birch Class have shown massive improvement with nearly half the class moving onto harder levels! 

This week, the afternoons have been a little bit different than usual. We started cricket lessons with Andy who is teaching both classes how to play. This is of particular importance to the children going to the cricket competition next week! We've also had Lydia and Crispin in several days this week to help us learn lines for our upcoming production of A Midsummer's Night Dream. They even taught us a song, Chagford's version of the Greatest Show! 

In science last week, we looked at fossils and how they help us understand evolution and this week we explored the different animal kingdoms. We've had an interesting two weeks in history two where we've looked at two times civil rights activists went to the Supreme Court to end segregation in 1950s America. Last week, we saw Oliver Brown take on the Board of Education and win the fight against the segregation of schools. This week, Year 5 and 6 heard the story of Rosa Parks and how her actions led to the de-segregation of buses in America as being illegal and unconstitutional.