Important Messages

Harvest Festival for Years 5 and 6 will be Friday 10th October at 2:45pm.  Parents are welcome to join.

Maths

We worked hard to understand the column method for subtraction, applying the fact that subtraction is not commutative (i.e.: 8 -7 is not the same as 7-8).  We have been challenged to use these skills to solve word problems and played subtraction games with our friends.  We even created our own fun games to play!

English

The children have read the first part of our new text, 'Floodland' and have asked many questions about its mysterious opening.  From this, we wrote emotive letters from Zoe to Natasha, explaining why she abandoned her.  We used model verbs to express the likelihood: 'Natasha, I would do anything to save you, you ought to know.'  To help us understand the character, we also had a Conscience Corridor where the children lined up and whispered whether it was right or wrong to leave Natasha behind as the teacher walked through.  After reading the first chapter, we created lino print-style drawings in the same style as the illustrator.  Next week, we will be creating a setting description of Eels Island and weaving action and dialogue into a narrative.

    

Thematic

We have been thoroughly enjoying our topic of 'Darwin's Delights' and have asked many questions about evolution.  The children created their own animals based on a chosen biome and described how that creature had adapted to suit its environment, much like Darwin said living things do.  We began to understand what a fossil is and created a record for what could happen when animals and plants die.  In art, we observationally drew bones that we have borrowed from the Cotton-Powell museum.  Next week, we will be classifying animals and plants.  

Love 2 Learn

Prior to our learning of classifying plants, we would like you to find out about the plants, trees and flowers in your garden (or local park or green).  You could do a graph or tally to show the number of each species, draw pictures / include photographs or group the plants into your own categories.