Dear parents and carers,

In English this week we have been finding out more about what happened when the Endurance reached the Weddell Sea, near Antarctica. The ship was stuck in ice during the Antarctic winter, and is slowly being crushed by the weight and pressure of the grinding ice. The children learned about motivational speeches (including watching the one given by the President in Independence Day!), and then we built up the first half of a speech that Shackleton might have given, using the sentence stacking technique. After that, the children finished the speeches independently. The quality of the work was really high, and I'm very proud of how the children's writing is progressing.

In maths this week we have finished off multiplication, and moved on to looking at division. The children are finding this tricky, but are working really hard on developing their method. We'll continue to work on this next week. You can help your child with this by practising the games on Maths Shed. I have set a number of games and would like to see that the children have played at least four times.

This week's spellings are all ones with silent letters:
knight
wreckage
writer
knowledge
knuckle
wreath
pterodactyl
mnemonic
wrestler
knife

Again, these are set of Spelling Shed and (unless you have already talked to me about Spelling Shed) I am expecting to see that the children have practised 4 times before the test next Friday. This is preparation for year 6, when they will need to have practised 7 times per week.

Mrs B

Three things to ask your child this week:

1. How do you think Shackleton felt when he realised that Endurance was stuck in the ice?
2. Have you practised your spellings and times tables?
3. What did you find out about materials in your science lesson this week?

This week in Science we continued to learn about magnets and how they work. On each table around the classroom there was a different question that we needed to investigate; everyone had a go at investigating each question and at the end of the lesson we discussed our findings. The questions were: 
Do magnets always attract other magnets?
Are the paperclips more attracted to one part of the magnet?
Can magnets make other magnets move without touching
What happens when a magnet is spun in water?
Do different magnets make longer paperclip chains?

Some of the main things that we found out where that the opposite poles of a magnet attract, and the same poles repel each other. We also found out that the paperclips were only attracted to the ends of the magnet but the magnetic force could pass through the paperclips!

In English the children have planned and written the first draft of their explanation text about how their robot pet works. We will edit them and write out our final drafts next week.

This week in maths we finished our work on multiplication and division – this has been one of our hardest maths topics so far but the children have really persevered through the challenges! Next week we will start our new unit of work on Money.

In Jigsaw this week the children continued to work on their group projects. So far they have designed a garden decoration and planned out how they will make it using junk modelling materials. We have really been focusing on the different skills that we need to work well as a team and how we can support each other to achieve things. Next Monday, the children will begin making their decorations – thank you to everyone who has brought in junk modelling supplies for us to use!
​
This week’s spellings have been set on Spelling Shed; we will have a short test on Tuesday next week.
Spelling Rule: Adding the –ly suffix to an adjective turns it into an adverb.
calmly
exactly
deadly
bravely
boldly
gladly
deeply
clearly
hourly
​quickly 

We have flown through another busy week in Foundation. This week we have focused on learning the days of the week in Maths and the children have been great at learning a song to help them to remember. We also did a calendar about the week to help them to remember what happens each day. 
We thought about the different jobs that grown ups do in our Jigsaw work this week. Most of the children could tell me what the people in their family did and we also acted out doing a few different jobs as a class. I saw some fab mechanics and fire fighters during this time. 
Literacy focused on what the characters in the story were doing. We thought about the different actions that Harry and his dinosaurs were doing and talked about how we could describe them.
We have had a big focus on reading this week as the children have had a lot of exposure to phonics and really need to be practising reading everyday to apply these phonics skills to help them to retain the sounds they have learned. With this in mind I have set the children a reading passport challenge at home to encourage them to practise frequently. This is in their book bags and explains what they need to do. 
Finally 3 things to ask your child this week:-
- Can they tell you the days of the week?
- Do they know what job you do?
- Can they name 2 phonics sounds they have learned this week?

Hope you all have a lovely weekend,
​Mrs Ballard. 

What a busy week we've had in Cole Class!
The children have all worked really hard at writing their own versions of the George and the Dragon stories and have remembered to include lots of the things we have  practised this term. Next week, we will be doing some work on letter writing.
In maths we have begun to learn about division by sharing and grouping and how it relates to multiplication. I have put a times tables practice activity on to Maths Shed which is part of the Spelling Shed family and a new addition for us. It should come up when you log on in the normal way. There will not be a test on this but is for you to support your child.
Also this week the children have done some Andy Warhol style self-portrait work using unrealistic colours, which look amazing. In science we have continued our habitat work and next week will be making our habitat dioramas with the shoe boxes you have donated. Any further boxes would be gratefully received..
You should find some information about a badge design competition in your child's book bag so please look out for this. It is an optional competition but has some great prizes for the children and the school
Have a fantastic weekend.
Mrs Lappin & Mrs James

In gymnastics this week we had some very exciting equipment to use. We continued to develop our sequences of gymnastic actions to include travels, rolls and pike, tuck and straddle shapes. We started to work with a partner to develop a sequence to include these actions. 

In RE with Mrs Bayliss, we have been learning about the Christian Creation Story. We created some art using paper plates to represent different parts of the story. The plates are based on the tops of the paint pots from our Big Frieze. We read the creation story in the Bible, and also the poem/ picture book 'In the Beginning' by Steve Turner. We chose which aspect of creation we would like to show, using the images in the book as inspiration. 

G'day mate! We have had the most fantastic Australia Day in class. There were lots of different Australia themed activities throughout the day and it was great to see the children getting into the spirit of it all. A HUGE thank you to Rebekah for working so hard on this amazing day for us. It really brought the day to life and we very much appreciate everything that went into organising and resourcing all of the activities. Thank you so much. 
Here are some of the activities that we took part in along with some photos from our day. 

“There’s a Sea in My Bedroom” (by Margaret Wild)
We began our day by reading this Australian story. It was great to use our imagination for our journey to Australia and learning about why we can hear the 'sea' when we hold a shell to our ear. 

Language 
We then thought about similarities/ differences between English and Australian words. We learnt some Aussie slang for words such as sausage (snag), wellie boots (gumboots), flip flops (thongs) and duvet (doona). We played a game where we had to choose the correct Aussie word and we showed the action that went with that word. 

Aboriginal Art 
After break, we focused on Aboriginal Art. We learnt all about the storytelling involved with creating the dot paintings and the symbols that could be used.  We thought carefully about the colours that would've been used and how they would have been made from things found within nature e.g. green from grass/ leaves. We then created our own dot art painting where we used dots/ symbols around the outside of the Australia outline and then we painted a landscape scene within the outline. We think that they look absolutely brilliant and they will be on display in our class soon.

Tapping sticks 
After lunch, we took part in our own Aboriginal Corroboree where we learnt a dance with our tapping sticks. We practised the routine to a very famous Australian song-Waltzing Matilda. Here is the link to the song if you would like to create your own tapping stick dance at home: 
​www.youtube.com/watch?v=BOWuIKv-ZLM

Musical Statues-Australian Animal style! 
We played musical statues where we danced along to songs by Kylie Minogue! When the music stopped we had to freeze as a statue in the shape on an Australian animal. Take a look at the photos and see if you can guess which animals we were showing: 

ANZAC Biscuits ​ 
We learnt about ANZAC biscuits which are special to Australians, and enjoyed particularly on ANZAC day (25th April), which is the Australian equivalent of Remembrance Day (11th Nov). We thought about the ingredients that are used to make the biscuits. They were so delicious that we all had a second biscuit to eat! We also learnt about why these biscuits were sent to the soldiers in the war (they lasted for a longer time than other biscuits). 

Evenlode Class and the Epic Australian Voyage 
At the end of the day we gathered to listen to one final story. This was a very exciting story as it was written and created by Rebekah. As we listened we noticed that there were some familiar characters including Miss Leggett and all of the children. How fantastic! We listened to the children going on their Australian adventure and learning all about life in Aus. Not only did Rebekah very kindly gift us a copy of the book to keep in our class but she also created individual copies for each of the children to take home too. We are so very lucky, thank you so much! We hope that you enjoy sharing this wonderful story together at home.

This week in English we finished our Sentence Stacking lessons for our explanation text, ‘How does a Robot Dog Work?’ and we have now moved on to planning our own explanation texts. The children have spent our English lessons on Thursday and Friday designing their own robot pets – I have been impressed with their creativity and excellent drawings! The children have also written about the different features of their robot pets, thinking about the skills and tricks they can do, and how the owner will need to look after it.

In maths we have been focusing on dividing a two-digit number by a one-digit number. We have been using our place value grids and dienes to support divisions when we need to exchange; this has been quite challenging but the children have practised hard and are getting the hang of it. We have also learnt about remainders in divisions and how to write this as part of our answer.

In Science this week we carried out an investigation to find out which materials are magnetic and which are non-magnetic. We used the magnets to test different materials and objects in the classroom and found some surprising results, for example, we found out that parts of the wall are magnetic! We narrowed down our initial thoughts as we realised all magnetic materials are metal; however, we learnt that not all metals are magnetic –iron, nickel or cobalt are the only magnetic materials.
​
This week’s spellings have been set on Spelling Shed; we will have a short test on Tuesday next week.
Spelling Rule: The long /a/ vowel sound spelled ’ey.’
obey
prey
convey
survey
grey
osprey
disobey
they
surveyor
conveyor

We have had a great week in Evenlode Class. Here are some of the activities that we have been doing: 

Science 
We focused on the Five Senses and went on a walk around the school grounds to identify what we could see, hear, smell, taste and touch. Take a look at the photos in the post on our class latest news page. We also thought about what happens if one of your senses is weaker than another, particularly with animals such as a mole. 

English 
We have continued our work on Wombat goes Walkabout and we are now up to the part where there is a bush fire. We thought about the different parts of the trees that the fire would be leaping from/ to along with using colours and similes to describe the fire. Mrs Smith led a drama session focusing on the bush fire. Take a look at the photos from this in the post on our class latest news page. 

PE 
I was really impressed with the children's ability to be Fearless Foxes in gymnastics this week. We created sequences of actions including travelling, tuck, pike or straddle shapes and rolls and we performed these on gym equipment. It was the first time that we had used the ladder connecting to two gym tables and it was great to see the children overcome their nerves to travel over this piece of equipment. Well done gymnasts!

Maths -Place Value to 20
Our focuses this week were on comparing groups of objects and numbers using key vocabulary such as greater than/ less than and equal to and ordering groups of objects/ numbers from smallest to largest and largest to smallest. We really enjoyed playing this number ordering game: 

www.topmarks.co.uk/ordering-and-sequencing/chinese-dragon-ordering