Welcome to December! We have arrived at final month of the year and the last few weeks of term are set to be busy with lessons, the Christingle service and lots of festive activities.

We’ve thrown ourselves into our new piece of writing based on the traditional tale of Aladdin. Our own versions entitled ‘A Lad In Saltash‘ are well underway and the children are relishing retelling this story in the 21^st Century. We’ll keep you update of our process as the last few weeks unfurl.

Our art lessons have been based on the beautifully detailed manuscripts of the past. We have been carefully illustrating our initial in a manner that would befit an ancient Anglo-Saxon text. We are justifiably proud of the work we have produced.

We have moved on from the early Anglo-Saxon era in history to the invasion of the Vikings. Our lesson this week saw us re-enacting the various struggles for power and rule in these lands over a thousand years ago. We had great fun recreating the battles, coronations, strategic marriages and deaths of the kings.

Next week we have Hunt the Issy, we are visiting the Christmas tree display in Saint Nicholas Church and practising our singing for the Christingle service. Watch your emails for all of the details about the festive events taking place.

It’s been a week of weeks – Anti-bully Week, Maths Week and a superb visit from the Royal Institute.

Monday began with an exploration of triangles to start off our Maths’ Week activities. We learned how to tesselate triangles (design a pattern using small triangles) and also how to use triangles to create a 3-dimensional shape (tetrahedron). Our ideas developed as we problem solved.

We have finished writing our WWI poems based on sonnet form using the following the rules: focus on one emotion (fear, love, hope, despair etc), write in iambic pentameter (lines 1&3 rhyme, lines 2&4 rhyme, 5&7, 6&8 etc) and have 8 lines in total. We also started our poems with a rhetorical question - often based on the futility of war. They are incredibly powerful, and the children are justifiably proud of their work.

In art, we have been creating beautiful calligraphy surrounding a capital letter. Our inspiration has come from ancient Anglo-Saxon texts that were illustrated in this way.

Below is an attachment to the weekly spelling booklet that comes home with your child. Spellings are tested every Friday. This week, we are learning the following words: direction, explanation, competition, cautious, especially, appreciate, ancient, delicious, infection, spacious.

It’s fair to say that the whole of Upper Key Stage 2 have had a super first week back starting with making wickedly, weird witches brew in literacy lessons and ending their week with the spectacle that was Viking Day.

Using MacBeth’s 3 witches as inspiration, the children have created their own poem based on the gruesome ingredients that might go into a bubbling cauldron. Ask to see your child’s version at next week’s Parent and Teacher meetings; be warned, some of them are stomach churning.

Pupils (and parents) outdid themselves with the costumes that were on display on Thursday for Viking Day. The children looked amazing if slightly intimidating!

We all had a brilliant day completing a range of activities such as: weaving, drawing detailed pictures of Viking longboats, learning how to be effective raiders and traders and understanding ancient runes.

Sprinkle in a smattering of maths, reading, science, PE and French and you’ve got yourself a jampacked week :)

Half Term!

What a busy half term we have had. We finished this week by writing up our non-chronological reports on our mythical creatures. Here are photos of two of my favourites: The Fire Lizard and the Grimbok. The children have worked extremely hard to present the information neatly and have taken great pride in their work. 

In RE, we have finished the unit by completing a piece of art to show our understanding of the question: Why do some people believe in God and others don't? They have come up with some impressive designs and shown their deeper thinking through some interesting ideas. 

We have finished our class story and found out who the murder was. Some of the children predicted correctly and worked it out towards the end by using the clues. We have some detectives in our midst. They enjoyed it so much that we are going to read another book in the series called, 'Mistletoe and Murder'. 
I hope you all have a wonderful half term!

Miss Burton

What a busy week! 

I have enjoyed reading about all the mythical beats the children have created in their non-chronological reports. They have been busy drafting all week. Next week, we will finish them and publish them as a final neat copy. We have a creature that sucks cactus spikes and fires them at predators, one the camouflages as a rock by covering themselves with their wings and another that only consumes purple-coloured flowers. 

In maths, we have been practicing long multiplication - I have been challenging them with tricky puzzles and problems to test their brain power. 

In science, we have started to learn about refraction. Ask your children about the experiments we did at the beginning of the week. 

The most exciting thing this week has been the application forms for the Blue Peter badge. The children have been thinking carefully about which books they could write about. It has been a valuable experience for them to complete a form and focus carefully on presentation and content. Hopefully, we will be able to send off the applications next week and see how many badges we can get. 

Have a fantastic weekend!

Miss Burton

Arty research

This week, we have been busy in English finishing off the planning for our non-chronological reports. We have learned about how to write an effective introduction with subheadings and topic sentences for the other paragraphs. I am looking forward to writing the paragraphs next week and finding out about their mythical creatures. 

In maths, we have been applying our knowledge of multiples and factors to solve problems. We have also learned the divisibility rules. Ask your child if  456,732 is divisible by 3?

In French, we have been continuing to learn our phonics and how some of the vowel sounds are different in French to English. In science, we have been experimenting with reflection and light to build periscopes. In RE, we thought about what Christians might think God is like. 

In the photos above, you can see our art work. We have been finding out about Leonardo Da Vinci and drawing some of his inventions. 

Have a great weekend!

Look at this fantastic mythical creature that was created by a member of my class. I challenged him to make it out of Lego for his English book because I know how skilled he is. He rose to the challenge with enthusiasm. I look forward to reading the non-chronological report that goes with it over the next few weeks.

This week we listened to the ending of the Beowulf story and summarised it by sequencing the main parts of the story. The children then created their own mythical creatures (just like Grendel) and explored different vocabulary they could use to describe them. They focused on expanded noun phrases and powerful verbs. 

In maths, we have been continuing with our place value unit. We ended the week by practising our rounding to help us complete a codebreaker. Homework books have been sent home this week and children are asked to complete the first page by Thursday next week. 

In art, we learned about Leonardo Da Vinci and the children explored some of his inventions which were lightyears ahead of their time. They then invented their own inventions, for example: a salad slicer and a spider catcher.

In PE, they have been playing netball and using their skills to play short matches. 

We have also been finding out about The Scots in history and learning why they came to England. This will lead into the unit about Saxons and Vikings over the coming weeks. 

Have a great weekend and see you next week. 

Miss Burton