I hope everyone has had a happy and safe week.

While most of the days in school this week have been preparing for our St Patrick's Day assembly, the children have worked very hard this week. In addition to the assembly, Birch Class finished off our fractions topic in maths and continued writing out the first drafts of their biographies. Today, some children finished their final drafts. I have been really impressed with the hard work and consideration they have been putting into their writing.

Today, St Patrick himself (in his green cape) and his lovely assistant (sporting four-leaved clover spectacles) delivered special packages to the whole school community. It was great to see the children of Chagford with their shamrock stickers and politely thanking the Year 5s for the surprise! 

Next week, we will be off doing adventurous activities on Monday and Tuesday. Mr Frewin will be joining us as well as some parent volunteers, which we are very grateful for! We will also start our humorous arguments in writing, using 'The Day the Crayons Quit' as inspiration. It is one of my favourite writing pieces of the year! In maths, we will start on decimals and percentages. We will also continue our lessons electrical circuits.

Please note that there was no spelling this week due to strike days but it will commence again on Wednesday. Additionally, I will expect the children to bring in their reading journals on Wednesday as they will not get a chance on Monday with us being out of school. It would be great to see all the reading journals in. There has been a dip in the number of journals I am seeing and the entries in them. The children are responsible for reminding you but please ask about their reading journal if they forget.

Beannachtaí na Féile Pádraig ort! Happy St Patrick's Day everybody!

This week has been quite a busy week for Birch Class!

We have started learning about biographies in English and have looked at passive voice, formal verbs, clauses, parentheses and adverbials. The children have been brilliant! We will start writing next week so all children should have someone famous who has overcome adversity to write about. It would be great for them to pick someone themselves so they are writing about someone they admire.

In maths, we started our second fractions unit by looking at multiplying fractions by an integer. As we continue this short maths topic, we will also look at calculating a fraction of a quantity or amount too. Birch Class have gotten off to a good start with this so far!

In geography, we have started learning about biomes. This week we have looked at what a biome is and where in the world you find different biomes as well as what causes them (climate!). We will explore the different ways that biomes can form based on climate, water currents and more. After this, we will look at three different biomes - taiga, tundra and savanna - and examine their characteristics and the impact of humans on them. 

Another exciting event from this week was recording a song for the Festival of Hope where the children sand beautifully. We also had World Book Day. I loved seeing all the children in costume and reading the monster descriptions we did in the morning. In the afternoon, we designed book tokens for a competition that World Book Day is having and the children created some beautiful designs. Finally, today we had Woodland Schools where the children created portraits using only what they had around them with some pretty cool results!

This week, we have done lots of exciting things!

We have started looking at the Lost Book of Adventure. Specifically, we have explored some of the book and looked at who the author could be (An Unknown Adventurer), audience and purpose. For our end of unit writing piece, we will create our own page about sandstorms, describing an experience in one, giving some top tips to survive a sandstorm and some instructions to go along with it. We may even get to illustrate the page ourselves!

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We are working through our multiplication and division topic in maths, starting with multiplying 1-digit by 4-digit numbers and moving on to multiplying two 2-digit numbers as well. I have been super impressed with their work so far!

In history, we focused on the daily lives of the Edo people in the Benin Kingdom. We looked at the Oba's responsibilities and officials, religion, work and art. It was all very fascinating stuff! In science, the children got to explore how magnets work and how they interact with each other and other objects. I was really proud of their focused and sensible work ethic while investigating in groups. We also had a good look at cyberbullying and internet safety in PSHE this week and will look at creating our top ten internet safety tips next week.

Our spelling this week focused on etymology, the study of the history of words. We looked at several different root words before focusing on three. On Monday, they will have a test using words with "tri" (meaning 3), "spec/spect" (meaning to look) and "tele" (meaning far off or distant). There are four words with each root word along with two statutory words, conscience and conscious. We will look at etymology a bit more next week too!

At the end of the week, we celebrated Chinese New Year, or Lunar New Year. In the afternoon, the children worked with Mr Finch to make lanterns in celebration of the year of the rabbit. I'm sure you'll get to see their handiwork for yourself too. They did us proud!

Have a safe and happy weekend everybody!   

I hope everyone had a happy, healthy and safe winter break. We are so excited to be back in Birch Class and get back to learning!

In English, we have been planning and writing our first drafts of our poems in the style of Jackie Morris' "I Am Cat". I can't wait to see the final porducts next week! We are also finishing off the last few lessons of our fractions topic form before the break. The children are doing so well!

Though we have not officially started our history and science topics this week, I am very excited to get looking into the Benin Kingdom and magnetism. We will also start our topic about Jesus as the Messiah in RE. It's going to be a fabulous half term.

We did not start spellings this week but next week, we will start looking with apostrophes next week including conytractions (cannot -> can't, will not -> won't, etc.) and possessive apostophes. Please also remember to record your children's reading in their reading journals. They should be reading 20 minutes every day, either a book from home or school. I check them on Mondays and Fridays so please also remind your children to bring them in! 
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​ Spring Term Update!

I'm sure everyone is looking forward to two weeks off as much as I am! We have had a fun, learning-filled term and the next one will be no exception!

We have started some Jackie Morris-inspired poetry in English and will be finishing that off after the break before moving onto some biography writing inspired by 'Women in Science' by Rachel Ignotofsky. It will make for some excellent writing in the first half term! After we have finished our fractions topic, we will be moving onto our second multiplication and division topic which focuses on multiplying numbers with more than one digit together, shot division and dividing with remainders. 

In history, we are looking at the Benin Kingdom, a very exciting topic about an often overlooked African empire. We will look at when and how it formed, life in the Kingdom, the slave trade and the kingdom's fall. Our science will focus on megnetism looking at the magnetic field, magnetic materials and how a compass works. Finally, in RE, we will focus on incarnation and why Christians believe that Jesus is the Messiah. 

I look forward to seeing you all after Christmas and hope you have a happy and well-rested break!

Happy Friday everybody! We have had an exciting week in Birch Class. I was delighted to see some of your at parents' evenings this week and look forward to speaking to some of you next week.

In English, we have started writing our myths. Every child has created a hero, picked a god or goddess to help them and chosen a monster for their hero to defeat. While most have stayed with Greek mythology, using the creatures we've met in our current Class Novel (Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief), others have decided to write myths inspired by Norse, Japanese, Celtic and Native American cultures. They are well under way now!

We are just about finished with our maths topic of multiplication and division and I am excited to move onto fractions next week!

In geography, we continued to look at informal settlements and saw what life was like in them in different parts of the world including Brazil, India and Kenya. In science, we compared physical and chemical changes by looking at our similarities and differences. We continued our Islam topic in RE by creating informational posters about Eid ul-Adha, one of the most important dates in their calendar. In design and technology, they also continued their unit on pop up books with Mr Finch.

This morning, they also got another Woodland School experience with Kael. In small groups, they worked to design and create a 3D map of the forest schools area using only what they could find in forest schools. Take a look at the pictures below to see some of the designs.

We are back to school just in time for November!

This week we have been working on our fact files for the medieval monarchs we've learned about to go along with our board game about their successes and failures! In maths, we have just finished off our addition and subtraction topic and are moving on to multiplication and division next! 

We have started our new geography topic. This half term, we will be looking at informal settlements. On Monday, we looked at what an informal settlement is and some examples of them around the world. Also, in science, we have started our physical and chemical changes topic. Students got up to the front and demonstrated how particles move when they were melting, freezing, boiling and condensing. I look forward to a half term and practicals where we can see these changes in real life!

In RE, we have started looking at the lives of Muslims in Britain. We started by taking a look at their core beliefs, specifically the five pillars of Islam with the help of Sara from a BBC video. You can find that video here https://www.bbc.co.uk/teach/class-clips-video/religious-education-ks2-my-life-my-religion-what-is-islam/zbmrwty. 

Our spelling pattern this week was ible/able. The children will have been sent home with a list of words to learn for Monday's dictation as well as six of our statutory spelling words that we have incorporated into our spelling lessons this week (parliament, awkward, identity, neighbour, temperature and explanation). Please take some time to practice these words with the children if you can so they are ready for Monday!

A final reminder to parents that the reading journals are checked twice a week (Monday and Friday) and there should be something for every day. Ideally, the child should be reading for twenty minutes a day. They could read to you, with you or just have a discussion with you after they've read. This should be recorded and signed in their reading journals. There are some tips and questions you can ask them to help with their reading comprehension. A big thank you to everyone who has been regularly writing in their child's reading journals. It has been super helpful for me to see their progress and frequency of reading! 

Have a lovely weekend everybody!

A huge well done to all the pupils in Birch Class.

First of all for your wonderful behaviour and attitude to learning in our First Aid training on Monday. You listened, leanred and ,hopefully, retained some of that knowledge so you could help out a person in need. Joe Rice, who taught us, was really impressed with the children's focus and attitude in his sessions.

Well done also for keeping on track and getting your learning done while Ms SImpson has been away from school these last two days. I loved working with you this morning and was very impressed with your persuasive letters - I could see how hard you had been working on those.

The next well done is for your choral performance of Martin Luthor King's 'I Have a Dream' speech in our Celebration Assembly. I know that the parents and carers were impressed by your confidence voices and clearly heartfelt speech. It was a lovely way to end the half term.

In class this morning we learned to sing  'The Old Lych Way', it would be just wonderful if some of you would join us for the 'Honouring our Ancestors' event on Tuesday 1st November. I will put the words of the song here and a link to a Youtube Video if you'd like to practice a bit at home in preparation.

The Old Lych Way - Chris Hoban

They'll lift me up and lay me down
(Lay me down, gently down)
Till I reach consecrated ground
(Along the old Lych Way)

On six strong shoulders I will sway
(Lay me down, gently down)
Till six feet under I'll be laid
(Along the old Lych Way)

Requiem aeternam
(Requiem aeternam)
Dona eis requiem
Along the old Lych Way

From Bellever to Lydford town
(Lay me down, gently down)
Through Sandy Ford & Conies Down
(Along the old Lych Way)

At every mile a marking stone
(Lay me down, gently down)
So they can rest their weary bones
(Along the old Lych Way)

Requiem aeternam
(Requiem aeternam)
Dona eis requiem
Along the old Lych Way

At Lydford church I'll make my end
(Lay me down, gently down)
And I'll never cross the Dart again
Along the old Lych Way

A Christian man could do no less
(Lay me down, gently down)
Than ask his friends this last request
(Along the old Lych Way)

Oh, Requiem aeternam
(Requiem aeternam)
Dona eis requiem
Along the old Lych Way

They'll lift me up and lay me down
(Lay me down, gently down)
Till I reach consecrated ground
Along the old Lych Way

Along the old Lych Way
Along the old Lych Way

The Old Lych Way - YouTube

Happy Friday everybody! What a fantastic first full week we've had in Birch Class this week from re-enactments of battles to singing workshops. I have been so impressed with all the hard work the kids have been up to since we started and you can read all about it below.

Last week, we did a piece of writing based on a story we read called "The Castle the King Built". The children realised that the message of the story was that every member of the community is essential to build a community not just the most important or powerful member like the king. They then wrote "The School Mr Finch Built" which produced some very funny results. Ask your kids about it and see what they came up with!

We've started our place value topic this week and have looked at numbers all the way up to a million! The kids have been working really hard on this and I'm impressed with how quickly they've all started to pick it up!

They were most excited about history, where we have started to look at some medieval monarchs. The first one we looked at was William I, also known as William the Conqueror. After examining the context of his conquest and why he had a claim to the throne in the first place as a Norman duke, we then went down to the amphitheatre. One student played Harold Godwinson, the short-lived English King, and another student played William. The rest of the children divided between them with the English side being slightly bigger as it is believed they had a slightly bigger army. I played the narrator and the children acted out the story as I told it: the advantageous position of the English army on top of a hill and the Norman's struggle to shoot arrows at them, the confusion caused by the rumour of William's death and his heroic appearance in front of his army at the last moment, the military trick that the Normans played by retreating to get the English to follow and how they surrounded them and defeated them. One student even got to act out the historically debated death of Harold Godwinson, who may or may not have been shot in the eye with an arrow. 

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We also had a wonderful singing workshop on Thursday in preparation for the Whiddon Down Festival performance on Sunday. I hope to see a few of you there. It is bound to be a spectacular performance!

I hope everyone has a well-deserved rest over the long weekend and I can't wait to get back into it next week!