SEPTEMBER

The term started with a range of new topics - including How Humans Change and Grow in Science, The Shang Dynasty in History, and Abstract Painting in Art.  The children have got stuck into place value in Maths, with Year 4 working with numbers to 10,000 and Year 5 working with numbers up to 1,000,000. 

Our writing is inspired by the picture book, and short film, The Lost Thing, by Shaun Tan. The children have also loved our shared class novel, Varjak Paw by S F Said, and the picture book Shackleton's Journey by William Grill which inspired their painting in Art..

OCTOBER

In October, we moved on to writing poetry, using 'Still I Rise' by Maya Angelou as a model.  Using The Write Stuff programme means that we first create a whole class text, which you can see below.  We also trialed a technique called 'Vertical Learning' where the children move away from their desks, and learn with a partner, writing on paper stuck on the wall.  it took a bit of getting used to, but the children really enjoyed the opportunity to work with different partners and then to walk around and look at each others' work. 

NOVEMBER

This month we started our new class novel, 'The Boy at the Back of the Class' by Onjali Q Rauf and the children are really enjoying it.  We have also begun a Geography unit on climate and biomes and a Science unit on Materials.  The latter has meant that we can do lots of practical work - investigating the difference between and solution and a mixture, and separating a mixture different solids.  Finally, in December, we dealt with a kitchen disaster and separated a mixture of raisins, sugar and flour.  This involved sieving, dissolving, filtration, evaporation and a considerable mess.