Angles, Comics and Kites

Whether it's repeated addition or reproduction, we are all about multiplying this week.

Farewell Ancient Greece...          Hello Paul Cezanne

This morning was very exciting - we FaceTimed Deputy Assistant Commissioner Lucy D'Orsi of the Metropolitan Police in London to ask her about what it's like to be a police officer. We had a lot of questions to ask her and were really surprised and amazed at her answers! We found out that the strangest thing she has dealt with was a man dangerous driving in a wetsuit! She is very passionate about her job and loves it because she gets to help people, especially children and it is a very exciting job to do! She told us about when she met the Queen, Bear Grylls and Theresa May, and that she is responsible for organising the security around Donald Trump's visit.  Some of the pupils were also jealous because she has been involved in policing a number of football matches at stadiums belonging to Chelsea, Fulham, Wembley and QPR! We learned a lot about what being a police officer involves and made us realise that it's not just about arresting people but there is a lot of bravery and kindness needed to do such a difficult job! We were inspired by Lucy who despite certain challenges has managed to persevere to become the successful officer she is today. It seems as though she has inspired many of our children to consider policing as a future career! Thank you, Lucy!

We have been busy this half term linking our knowledge of fraction, decimals and percentages and I was very impressed by the quality of the homework that came in this week with your posters explaining your knowledge!

We have also been gripped this half term by Kensuke's Kingdom by Michael Morpurgo. We are loving finding out about Michael's adventure and were so gripped when he fell off the boat that even Miss Everett had to stop to breathe! We will be writing our own action scenes based on this and have already begun picking out vocabulary that we really like to make our own!

In PE we have been perfecting our netball skills and have really enjoyed playing matches against each other to get even better! Mrs Duffield has been a brilliant coach!

We have been extremely excited about performing our play 'Aladdin Trouble' with Year 6 and all children who auditioned this week should be extremely proud of themselves! It is not easy standing up in front of a lot of people and having to act, speak loudly or sing! Well done all! It was certainly not an easy decision for us to allocate roles and we know all the children will be brilliant as we start rehearsing next week!

We have been finding out about mountains in Geography, especially about mountain ranges and famous mountains from all over the world as well as what exactly makes a mountain a mountain y looking at their features. Ask us about what we've found out - particularly about when a hill is considered to be a mountain.

Please please please can we make sure that we are reading at least 5 times at home during the week AND getting reading records signed AND bringing them in so we can record it! We are struggling to break the 70% or more barrier at the moment which isn't great when our target is 80%. I can really tell when your reading has influenced your writing as the two do go hand in hand, and why wouldn't you want to get better at both?!

As always, have a lovely weekend.

Miss Everett  

Welcome back! We have been off to a flying start this week! 

In Maths, we have now come to the end of our Multiplication and Division unit and the children can all say they now feel more confident multiplying and dividing and are able to answer questions that they felt they couldn't previously! Well done everyone for your hard work!

In English, we have planned and are now writing our adventure stories and I cannot wait to read them all once they are finished, as the vocabulary and story-telling has been great so far! Keep it up!

In Science, we tested parachutes to see how quickly they fell. Each group then decided to change one variable that they thought would slow the parachute down and keep all other variables the same so that it was a fair test. The secret word is overwrought. We found that the parachute that had the largest surface area was the slowest because there was more air resistance that helped push the parachute up that acted against the force of gravity.

We had our last swimming session this week and the children all had to swim lengths in a stroke of their choice! Well done to Louis and Scarlett who both swam the full 200m- you really pushed yourselves!

We had our first session of Gymnastics with Mr Carr and I was amazed by the felxibility of some of the children! They all listened well to Mr Carr and were able to stretch themsleves to things they maybe thought they couldn't do!

For your information, we will be going on a school trip on Thursday 22nd March. There will be more details to come next week in a letter, including cost, so keep an eye out!

Next week, we are starting a new science and maths topic, so get those brains in gear to take in more and more knowledge! 

It is also World Book Day on Thursday 1st March so make sure you have a go at all 20 Reading Challenges before then and bring in a book that means something to you to share. We will be doing some activites through out the day, so be prepared to show your love of reading!

Have a super weekend!

Miss Everett

Well we have definitely hit the ground running since we have been back! We have been busy busy busy with our normal curriculum lessons as well as fitting in time for House Shout rehearsals, a brilliant Kurling workshop (see our Twitter account) and the panto!

We have now mastered ‘plussing the peRIMeter’ and ‘multiplying for area because it’s like an array’ and feel much more confident finding the perimeter and area of rectilinear shapes! We are now moving onto multiplication and division, so keep practicing your multiplication and division facts on ‘Hit the Button’ as this will help you master the new methods we will be exploring!

In English, we have been enjoying reading ‘The Firework Maker’s Daughter’ by Philip Pullman and are writing our own adventure story as a class based on Lila’s own adventure to become a true Firework Maker. We will be using this storyline and image-inspiring language features as inspiration to write our own adventure stories in the coming weeks. The children’s vocabulary has been fantastic so far and they have created some wonderful images in their reader’s minds. The secret word is incessant.

I am hoping that we will be swimming on Monday as we have not yet been able to go for safety reasons at the pool itself. We will continue finishing off putting our ‘Dice Dances’ to music and performing them to the class. I was amazed that the class were able to work out the time signature of the music that was selected for their dances which shows how well they have been working in Music with Mrs Loveland!  Some members of the class have been selected to represent Homefield for cross-country on Friday and we wish them all the best as they compete against other schools.

We have started our new Science topic ‘Forces’ and have been amazed by what we have already found out! We considered ideas from Aristotle and Galileo to make our own predictions about whether the mass of an object affects how quickly it falls and were so amazed to watch David Scott from the Apollo 15 Space Mission drop a feather and a hammer from the same height and land at the same time on the moon! We also conducted our own experiments to see which surfaces caused the most friction by measuring the force needed to pull an object along different surfaces. We used a newton meter to measure the force and found that the more force needed to pull the object, the more friction there was between the materials. Today we explored the forces that act upon objects and used balloons and straws to help demonstrate our understanding of gravity, air resistance, contact and non-contact forces.  

Next week, we have a Multi-Faith Library event on Wednesday where the children will have the opportunity to talk to a variety of people of different faiths and find out more about their religions. Parents are invited after school to come and find out what we have been up to as well!

Whilst our Super Reader scores have generally improved, we have not had more than 61% of you reach that Super Reader status! As we launch the new Super Reader display next week, please make sure you are reading at least five days a week and getting it signed off by an adult in your reading record. If we reach 80% or more in our class, we will help the school get one step closer to embarrassing your teachers! Remember ‘Super Readers, Get Your Leaders!’ I’m sure you all want to see Mr Young dressed as a fairy, or Miss Everett dressed up as a Stormtrooper or even get a pie in the face! Get reading and record it!

As ever, have a lovely weekend!

Miss Everett