We've had a busy, BUSY couple of weeks in Birch Class.

First and foremost, the Year 5s were amazing at organising their own "Secret Sunshine Project", inspired by a novel of the same name for our picnic in the park up on Rainbow Day. They came up with, organised and ran games for different year groups and did such an amazing job. They should take great pride in what they did to make sure everyone was included. 

This week, we had an athletics session with OCRA. The kids really challenged themselves to improve their skills and did a really awesome job. Same goes for our woodland schools session this afternoon. They learned how to make squirrel traps and worked really well as a team to put them together and also learned some fun deer facts during the natural mystery activity.

Most of our time is being taken up by Fantastic Mr Fox rehearsals. Their perseverance is really being put to the test as we fast approach show day with long rehearsals 2-3 times a week. It has been great to see them working so hard to put an amazing show together with the rest of the school. Just a reminder that costumes should already be in but any that haven't, need to be in BY MONDAY 3RD JULY as we will have our dress rehearsal on Tuesday and the costumes need to be checked before.

In maths, Birch Class have finished a topic on decimals and have now moved on to negative numbers, a topic that everyone has shown a knack for and have already tested well at the beginning of topic assessment. We have high hopes when they finish the topic next week. In English, we have continued working on our contraption descriptions and the writing is now underway, having learned all our skills.

The spellings this week focus on 'ere' spelling words and six of our statutory words. Please find them below and make sure you practice for Monday's test!

 Year 5 worked super hard this past week, finishing off a lot of our current topics.

The children have made some FABULOUS humorous letters for their writing and some have even started looking at our next writing topic of cracking contraptions. In our next writing topic, the children will design and write about a Wallace & Gromit inspired contraption that they will then pitch to Chagford Primary's Dragon's Den - a panel of Miss Simpson, Miss Armstrong, Mrs Ramoutar and Mr Finch.

In maths, we have nearly worked our way through our shapes topic. This week, the children have been looking at angles, identifying and calculating them on lines and shapes. After that, we will move on to position and direction.

We have finished our topic on the Middle East with a lesson on the Ottoman Empire. After the break, we'll be moving on to our final geography topic of energy and sustainability. We are wrapping up our science topic of humans and animals over time. After the break, we will be creating a balanced argument about the impact of humans on the world and the animals in it before we move on to reproductive cycles for our final topic.

This week in spelling, everyone created their own personalised spelling list. They all picked 15 words from our statutory words so far and have been practicing them all week. When we get back after the half term, they will work in pairs to test those spellings. Lists went home on Tuesday but you can also find them below just in case.

Happy Friday!

It was SATs week next door in Maple Class and the children in Birch Class had to change up some of their usual routine to support, including walking through the school a different way and keeping the noise levels down more than usual. They did an awesome job!

In English, we looked at punctuation and rhetorical questions to help improve our humorous argument letters which we then started drafting. The children have come up with some amazing and funny ideas for why their inanimate objects are quitting including golf balls being afraid of the dark and green apples tired of being second best to red ones. Additionally, in guided reading, we focused on predictions for our next novel. We looked at the cover, the blurb and the first few pages to see what how our predictions changed or improved. 

In maths, we finished area and perimeter and have now started our statistics topic. We began with our start of unit assessment and started the topic with line graphs. The children learned to read and draw them this morning. Next week, we will also be exploring tables including timetables and two-way tables. 

We started our new RE topic which will focus on Christianity and how Christians decide what to do (aka What Would Jesus Do?). Our first lesson focused on the greatest commandment and the parable of the wise and foolish builders. The children discussed how listening to God showed how Christians follow the greatest commandment and by doing this, God will reward them.

In science, we looked at the four main geologic eras and what creatures lived in them. The children drew them and made very good connections to predict what animals came next and why. This will all build up to a short presentation about the impact of humans on the world and its ecosystems.

Congratulations to George and Ethan for their certificates this week! 

Our spellings this week can be found below. The children will be tested on Monday.
​

It has been great being back in Birch Class again!

We have started some new topics this week while continuing some others.

Wrapping up our geography topic, we are finishing off our biomes posters in class. On Monday, we will be starting our final history topic of the year on the Middle East. In science, we have started looking at humans and animals over time. Our first lesson focused on evolution and Charles Darwin. The children did an amazing job coming up with reasons as to why certain animals evolved and why specific characteristics might have become more dominant. There was a lot of excellent critical thinking going on!

In English, we continued looking at humorous arguments based on The Day The Crayons Quit. Specifically, we explored conditional arguments and the grammatical structures of them. We used Miss Simpson's idea of writing from the point of view of PE equipment to decide why they quit and what they will do if their problem isn't solved. A personal favourite of mine was from Rafi, "If you don't start setting us down in a straight line, we'll set you straight!" A very humorous argument indeed!

In maths, we have continued looking at decimals. Starting to explore thousandths and equivalent fractions and decimals. I am looking forward to continuing this topic before moving on to perimeter and area. The children have been doing a really good job!

Title: The Great Adventure!

We started off our Outdoor Education Days last week with a really great opportunity to go onto the Moors and learn some really key adventuring skills.

On day one, the children split off into groups and navigated the way over the hills. They took turns with the map and the compass and, with some support, Birch Class made their way to Birch Tor before we headed to Grimspound for lunch. After, we headed back to the buses on a different route. The children were brilliant all around from their navigating to their listening. They made me super proud!

On day two, they went rock scrambling. While I wasn't able to join them, Mr Frewin was very impressed with them. They did an awesome job, especially with all the heights and small spaces they had to climb through. They definitely deserve a well-rested weekend.

Please enjoy some photos from the experience!

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!

(Insert Images here)

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! 
​

​ 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!