Oak
15.12.23
Last week of learning for the year packed with Christmas cards, Christmas carolling, Christmas crafts, Christmas movie on the last day, Christmas party and everything Christmas. You will be wondering how we managed to also do our mock SATs papers and show progress from the last time. Our teacher was thrilled!
8.12.23
Our week has been brilliant, how about yours?
We are continuing our Ratio learning in Oak and we have decided that if we are confident with our times tables, things get significantly easier.
We have now finished writing our invent writing and we are moving on to our next learning sequence based on the book Animalium. Non-fiction here we come!
In RE, we created a comic strip based on the hymn Servant King and we also designed paintings to show the contrast of darkness and light since Christ brings light into our lives.
In History, we learnt about Danelaw and how the Vikings were limited to to the east and north-east of England; we also debated whether Alfred did the right thing of giving them land or not.
In Science we finished or unit on the solar system by learning about night and day and the different phases of the moon.
In music we have been working hard to learn all the songs for our upcoming Christmas carol!
1.12.23
What a great week we've had in Oak!
In Maths, we have had our end of Power Maths Book A assessments and moved on to Ratio and Proportion. We are very excited to learn something for the first time in primary school.
We have also started writing our Innovate based on a new chapter for Varjak paw. We have applied all our skills of expanded noun phrases and dialogue. We will now focus on our independent write.
In History, we explored the every day life of the Vikings, learn about the different jobs women and men had and also about their laws. We were particularly intrigued by their duels.
In Art & DT we are finishing our circuits with a Christmas twist and we're very excited to bring them home!
24.11.23
We've had another enjoyable week learning together in Oak.
We have now moved to measurements in our Maths and we are learning how to convert between different units as well distinguishing the metric from the imperial units.
In English, we have practised expanded noun phrases and dialogue for Varjak paw as well as semi-colons. We have also created a story mountain to help us write our innovate next week.
In RE, we have started learning about Advent, Advent wreaths and the value of waiting.
In guided reading, we have focused on International Men's Day, and more specifically on Charles Darwin.
17.11.23
What a fantastic week filled with learning and fun!
In Maths, we are continuing with fractions but we have moved on to the operations of multiplication and division.
We have moved on in English too; we have read, mapped and learnt the inspiring vocabulary of Varjak Paw.
In History, we learnt about the different parts of England which the Vikings captured and the importance of Alfred the Great in defending Wessex against them.
In Science we have moved on to the solar system. We recapped the planets and found some interesting facts about their moons.
As dancers, we changed a choreography and as gymnasts we explored making different shapes with our bodies.
10.11.23
This week has been very busy indeed! Today we led the Remembrance assembly for the whole school and our week looked like this:
As mathematicians, we tried our best to add and subtract fractions and mixed numbers with different denominators; and solve problems, too.
We were also busy planning and writing our own contraption for Wallace and Gromit. We ensured we were formal and used expanded noun phrases and the passive voice!
In History, we were amazed at the different facts about the Vikings that made them vicious in those days. We learnt about Lindisfarne and that York used to be the capital of England back then!
We also danced a lot, inspired by machines this week. We were very creative and got our classmates to guess which appliances we were dancing like!
In RE, we learnt about marriage, wrote prayers for married people to have joy and love but we also wrote prayers of giving thanks to our families.
In Spanish, we learnt the names of ten different pets and we are now able to say how many pets we have and what their names are.
3.11.23
We started the new half term with a positive note and lots of effort!
In Maths, we started learning about equivalent fractions and how to convert fractions with different denominators. We also learnt how to order and compare fractions.
In English we started our innovate write for our Wallace and Gromit. We selected the Tellyscope as our contraption!
We started venturing into the Vikings world where we learnt where they came from and what they did when they first arrived in England.
In Science, we concluded the classification of microorganisms and we investigated different cases of illnesses, judging whether those could have been caused by a virus, bacteria or fungi.
In dance we explored different moves and were inspired to create a choreography based on the 'water' as our stimulus.
20.10.23
This is the last week of autumn 1. We have certainly been busy this week. We had our Mock SATs papers which was quite a challenge but we had a go and tried our best!
In Maths, we used our known facts for calculations and we started our learning with fractions ; equivalent fractions and simplifying fractions!
English has been a blast! We have practised the skills Wallace and Gromit have to offer: passive voice, expanded noun phrases as well as technical vocabulary.
In Science we have classified animals and plants and we can now use words such as deciduous, evergreen, arachnids and molluscs!
In RE, we talked about values that make us the perfect friends and we wrote a recipe for a good friend. We also celebrated the Harvest Season as a school in a big assembly; we had lots of generous donations!
We have completed our swimming training and many of us can now swim for 25 metres! What an achievement!
13.10.23
We have had another brilliant week with our learning!
In English, we have explored different contraptions such as the Turbo Diner and the Autocooker and we even tried labelling a contraption without the text present; a lot of technical vocabulary was involved!
In Maths, we have delved deeper into division with 3 and 4-digit numbers by 2-digit numbers as well as some mental calculations.
In Geography we have completed our learning looking at volcanoes and we are ready to produce some display learning.
In Spanish we had our assessments about the names of family members as well as numbers up to 100 and we have done a great job!
In RE, we learnt about Judaism and created our own seder plate!
6.10.23
What a busy week this was!
We had lots of fun going to the high school for a tennis festival and we enjoyed getting taught by some of the Year 9s.
Maths has definitely been a good challenge as we have started with short and long division as well as division with factors. Knowing our times tables well certainly helps!
In Science we explored the conditions for life and we will delve even deeper into grouping animals from next week.
In English, we have explored the Wallace and Gromit - Bully - proof vest and the vocabulary that has to do with it. It's very interesting and we are looking forward to seeing how we can learn more with it.
In the meantime, we are getting so much better at swimming and we feel sad we only have two more lessons left.
29.9.23
We have learnt lots of different things this week!
In English, we completed our first hot task and our teacher has been amazed with the expanded noun phrases we have used so far! Next week, we will explore Wallace and Gromit and we're very excited about that!
Maths has been a good challenge for sure: long multiplication has definitely demanded our full concentration with its tricky problem solving too!
In Geography, we looked at earthquakes and their impact. We learnt about the Richter Scale and the fact that we cannot really predict earthquakes.
As scientists, we created posters to show our knowledge on conservation. You will definitely be impressed when you look at our books.
In RE, we have completed our learning and are getting ready for the season of creation and our laudato si next week.
22.9.23
What an interesting week! We have finally started writing our stories as a class, and more specifically our shared write on 'Leo, the miner's son', our very own version of Blackberry Blue. We had fun sharing ideas and starting to write it out.
In Maths we have taken off with addition and subtraction, as well as factors and multiples. Revisiting our times tables has been the key to success!
Science offered us a fantastic opportunity to learn more about nocturnal animals. Apparently, it's all about their eyes' pupils and colour!
In our role as geographers, we looked at how volcanoes erupt, the different parts of our earth, the ring of fire and the different types of volcanoes. We were thrilled to know about the volcanoes in the water that have to do with the oceanic plates' movement!
15/9/23
The 2nd week back to school has been very exciting! We have also started swimming and we were extremely happy to be in the water!
In class, we have delved deeper into the story of Blackberry Blue and have practised colons, expanded noun phrases and formal/ informal speech!
In Maths, we have completed place value and had the chance to explore negative numbers too! Next week we are starting with Operations.
Science has been a blast as we had a look at animals and the way they adapt to survive in extreme environments such as the desert and the arctic.
As geographers, we learnt about mountains and how they are linked to volcanoes.
8/9/23
Welcome all to a new academic year! Our first week started with a lot of excitement for our new adventures and a lot of questions about SATs. We have jumped into our new, inspiring learning from Day 1 and we are already striving for the best results!
In English we started exploring the vocabulary our story book Blackberry Blue has to offer and we have read the interesting, magical story which will inspire our writing.
In Maths, we have started with place value and we are over the moon to be manipulating numbers over 10,000,000!
As scientists, we are exploring Charles Darwin and the theory of evolution which is very interesting as we love learning about the animal kingdom.
In Geography, we learnt about the way mountains are created and we looked at some of the tallest mountains of the world.
8-12/5/23 SATs week
5.5.23
We are one breath away from SATs but the learning is still going on!
In English, we have completed our innovate write about Queen Elizabeth who was Princess Elizabeth during the WW2 and contributed massively to the collective effort. Since we are writing a hybrid text, we had to ensure we have an informal tone when writing as Princess Elizabeth and a more formal tone when writing as commentators of the war.
In Geography we have plotted routes as recommended walks for anyone who would like to try them out. They include a lot of stops for food and for admiring the view in our local community. We find Digimaps so much fun!
As scientists, we looked at the parts of the tooth and the different types of teeth. We have also looked at how we can take care of our teeth.
28.4.23
What an exciting week!
In English we have been looking at all the skills we will need for our innovate plan next week. We practised modal verbs, the passive voice and the perfect tenses.
In Maths, it's all about SATs for the Y6s and we have been practising our problem solving skills extra hard! The Y5s are continuing with their fractions practice and -oh boy!- has it been challenging converting from and to mixed numbers or improper fractions to be able to add and subtract! It is a challenge we love to have, though!
Geography may be one of our favourite subjects this half term as we have been using Digimaps and we have been able to plot our routes from home to school and measure the distance. Next week, we will design our own walk and we are looking forward to that!
In Science, we have described the digestion process and we have looked at the first station: the mouth!
21.4.23
The first week back after Easter has been very productive. The Y6s are very close to their SATs and they have been practising their skills for a final recap.
In the meantime, the exciting learning journey is continuing in Oak.
Ratio and proportion has now come to an end and we are starting problem solving in Y6 so we can tackle tricky reasoning questions in our tests. The Y5s are learning fractions and more specifically ordering and comparing fractions.
Our English text this half-term has positively surprised us as it is D-Day and we have already enjoyed looking at WW2 in History so we will definitely have fun with this one. We have looked at different individuals, simple people of the war, and how they contributed to the collective effort for peace.
As geographers, we looked at 4 and 6 point-reference mapping and completed activities to show our coordinates understanding. We definitely used maths for this one, too!
In Science, our journey through the digestive system has commenced. We looked at the most important organs in the digestive system and labelled them on a human body.
Our Spanish adventures have taken us to the world of fruit where we learnt five more Spanish words. Ask us what 'fresa' means and we will be glad to assist you!
24.3.23
We have had a fantastic week full of learning and fun!
In English, we produced our own adventure story with lots of parentheses, dialogue, expanded noun phrases and modal verbs.
In Maths, we have started learning units of measurements and we are exploring the world of metric and imperial units and their conversions.
In Geography, we concluded our Mayan learning with their clothing and we have started producing our own project of interest on this ancient civilisation.
In Computing we created our own slides on important personalities of the Computing world.
We have also started practising for our Holy Week in a day liturgy.
17.3.23
What an exciting week! We got to watch the HMS parade, admire the cadets and marines as well as enjoy the music of their fantastic band! Head to our photos section to have a look!
In English, we have started writing our innovate part for Kensuke's Kingdom and we have decided to take a futuristic turn with robots and aliens!
In Maths, we have concluded our algebra learning and this means one thing... assessments on the way! At least, we are not finding them challenging anymore! We will continue with measurements after this.
In Science, we have seen the use of an ammeter and voltmeter and tested what happens to a circuit when we increase the number of cells or bulbs. Hint, hint, it has to do with the bulb's brightness.
History is always interesting these days as we are learning about the Maya and this week was no different as we saw all the different masks they were using as well as their various purposes. We had a go designing our own, too!
In Music, we performed the song 'You've got a friend' for the other classes at our school. We were excited but also a bit nervous whilst singing and playing the xylophone and recorders.
10.3.23
This week the snow did not deter us from learning but we certainly enjoyed the unexpected visitor!
We continued learning Algebra and figuring out different formulae (Y6) and tried long division (Y5). Remainders were tricky to tackle but we made it!
In English we added dialogue and its special punctuation rules for Kensuke's Kingdom. They certainly require our attention!
Science was very fun as we learnt the different symbols for various components and designed and tried different circuits.
In History, we learn about the Maya gods and we were surprised to find out they adored more than 200 deities! One of them was the god of corn!
In computing, we learnt about the Brute Force Hacking and decided that our passwords should be various combinations of 9 numbers, letters or special characters as this will take 9 years to be hacked! Stay safe everyone.
In RE, we talked about the meaning of Bread of Life and wrote our takes on the term.
PE was lots of fun as we enjoyed our apparatus and did gymnastics and acrobatics. Things didn't always go according to plan but we certainly had a laugh!
Until next week!
3.3.23
We have had another busy week at school!
Our Y6s have practised their Mock SATs and the Y5s have run several investigations for Science and History.
In Science, we created our own circuits using different components such as cells, wires, switches and buzzers. Ask us to find out what could make your circuit work smoothly. We are looking forward to the next lessons.
The boys had an exciting time as they participated in a tag rugby festival at the High School and reached the final!
In History, we learnt about the Mayan architecture and the materials they were using to build houses. Did you know they also had pyramids?
Our week finished by celebrating World Book Day. We listened to the story of Dave the Pigeon and showed off our lovely costumes. Look out for some pictures!
24.2.23
The first week back has been a blast!
We started learning algebra and we are trying really hard to get our expressions and formulae right!
English has given us the opportunity to deep dive into one of our favourite texts, Kensuke's Kingdom. We looked at some of the aspiring vocabulary the author used to captivate our attention.
In History, we are learning about the Mayans and we looked at their amazing achievements, such as the calendar that we are still using today!
As scientists, we had a great time learning about static electricity and watched our teacher's hair go all fuzzy when rubbed against balloons. We were given permission to laugh in between paying attention to the Science behind it.
We enjoyed a first lesson of gymnastics and got our hearts pumping and our flexibility going with some jumps and stretches on matts. Looking forward to the next one!
3.2.23
Maths has been challenging yet interesting this week as we got to solve problems with percentages, decimals and fractions. Algebra comes next!
We have started producing our own texts in English with a creative flare as we are going to put everything on our very own design on A3 spreads of paper. Our books will look super professional!
In Geography, we have now produced our articles comparing Ketchikan and Southampton and we have been amazed at how similar they are. We are not very sure about their climate similarities though!
Computing is always fun but this week in particular we looked at pixel art and we decoded real pictures the Mars Rover sends to earth by using Google sheets.
Spanish has been very interesting and we have finished our learning with Las Formas, also known as the shapes in Spanish. Our termly assessment comes next!
27.1.23
Another successful week as we managed to tackle all the mathematical problems that required us to make links among percentages, decimals and fractions at the same time! We lived to tell the story.
Our innovate text has come to an end and we are now free to plan our own -ology text. Our teacher is very interested to see what we are going to write as we have enticed her with titles such as Elf-ology, Dino-logy, Fairy-ology, Wizard-ology and many more!
In Geography, we found information about Ketchikan, a city in Alaska, and Southampton so we can write a comparison text between the two next week.
Science was a blast we have commenced our own projects on evolution questions such as the relation between dinosaurs and chickens, different breeds of dogs and elephants' trunks and how they came to be this long.
In Forest school, we have now completed our pencils and we looked at different birds we may find in the forest.
20.1.23
In Maths, we have started looking at percentages so we can be very useful for you parents when it comes to discounts as we have found a very interesting way to calculate percentages of numbers!
Our teacherology text has kept us busy as we are on a mission to ensure the teachers of the world are being described with a plethora of expanded noun phrases and extra information in parentheses. We are secretly looking forward to our independent task, though!
In Science, we looked at how giraffes got their long necks and read a lot of research papers on that so we can be more prepared when we choose our evolution project, too.
North America is continuing to fascinate us since we had time to explore the human geographical features of that region.
13/1/23
What a week this has been!
Maths has been tricky as decimals can be confusing but we are looking at ways to make links between decimals and money to understand some concepts easily.
As geographers, we researched the physical features of North America and found their famous 5 regions such as the Great Plain, the Mountainous West and the Caribbean.
Learning has been interesting in English too as we have now practised our Dragonology text and got those confusing terms under control. We have decided to create our own text on Teacherology. Teachers, look out for it!
We have had fun exploring the outdoors during Forest school. We popped our own pop corn and used safety knives to make our own pencils!
As scientists, we are continuing our journey through evolution with a more careful look at fossilisation. Check if we remember the different stages!
Reading was particularly interesting this week as we read an extract of the Hobbit by Tolkien. You will probably find that this is our next independent read at home, too!
6/1/23
The 1st week back to school has found us setting new targets for the new year and have already started learning at a fast pace.
In Maths, we have been looking at decimals and how we can do various calculations with them. It is very useful to look at decimals like fractions. Remember making those links!
In English, we have started looking at our new text, Dragonology, and investigated the technical vocabulary it portrays.
In Geography we have been looking at North America and all the countries that are there. We have been trying to memorise as many as we can.
In Computing, we have been searching the binary code to understand how the Mars Rover has been sending messages to Earth.
As scientists, we are learning about evolution and we began with the person who started everything, Charles Darwin. Did you know finches are the reason why he made those now popular observations?
We have also had an exciting start in the term as we visited Tiverton museum for our workshop on WW2. We looked at rationing, making rugs and visited a real bomb shelter. Keep an eye out for some pictures on our Class photos section!
2/12/22
We have been very busy practising for our Christmas Carol but learning has kept us pretty busy too!
In English, our scary stories are taking a form. We have used cohesion, cliffhangers and parentheses (for those extra frightening details!)
In Science, we have enjoyed learning how we are actually able to see. Ask us about it and be amazed at all the learning we have managed!
History has been a blast so far as we are learning about WW2 and we have been given a project to investigate. Some of us have been writing essays on spitfires, others about the women's role in the war but perhaps the most popular one has been the Blitz!
25/11/22
English has been interesting this week as we got to plan and write our invent with our very own scary stories. Our teacher decided to read this during night time which was not a great idea! Our ellipses really frightened her!
In Maths, we have been focusing on fractions and operations within fractions. It is tricky but we know how important they are.
As scientists, we looked at the different parts of our eyes and their roles. We linked those to the use of glasses (lens and cornea) and sunglasses.
In RE, we started our Advent learning where we talked about expectations that we have of ourselves, how we can achieve them as well as what expectations adults have from us.
PE has been super fun with our games of invasion as well as our yoga lessons!
18.11.22
This week has been busy!
We have been writing our innovate for our scary stories and we're looking forward to writing our independent task!
In Maths, we have been carrying on with operations in fractions. We have been using bar models to understand how we multiply fractions.
In RE, we learnt about Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur in Judaism. We were extremely interested in their reflection process as it resonates with our Advent reflections starting in the coming weeks.
In Science, we are exploring light and we have been looking at how reflects and how this helps us see. We did some cool experiments with mirrors to see how our pupils expand!
In Topic, we have been investigating the causes of WW2 and we are commencing on a project researching one of the many faces of the war of our choice.
11/11/22
Since we've come back from half-term, we've been busy learning new things.
In English, we have been writing stories with suspense from the book 'Shadow Cage'. We've been adding semi-colons, cohesive devices and fronted adverbials in our writing. We're looking forward to our pink task!
In Maths, we've been rounding to estimate (Y5) and addition and subtraction of fractions. On Fridays, we have started doing Space-Shape-Measure and we are all learning area and perimeter.
In Guided Reading, we looked at an interesting text shedding light on Guy Fawkes and Bonfire Night. Things are not always as they seem!
In RE, we had Father Kristian in to talk to us about Ordination. We had a lot of questions for him!
In Science, we have started learning about light, materials' transparency as well as our ability to see and how it's linked to Light!
In History, we are looking at WW2 and how the Treaty of Versailles and certain political policies contributed to this significant event in our history.
21.10.22
In Maths, this week, we started learning about equivalence in fractions and we used our factors to simplify fractions. We also started our SATs preparations.
In Geography, we created a poster comparing Chile to the UK, focusing on the human and physical geographical features as well as the natural resources used.
In English, we finished our instructions texts and embarked on our new text called 'Shadow Cage' where we are going to write stories with suspense.
In PSHE, we learnt about the importance of a positive body image and gave advice to a girl needing help with this.
In Science, we looked at pollination, fertilisation and the importance of seeds dispersal.
In RE, we learnt about the Ordination and we will have a special visitor talking about his Ordination in detail.
In Guided Reading, we read an interesting text about the abolition of slavery and answered questions using our critical thinking.
More to follow after the half-term!
14.10.22
This week has been amazing since we've been busy learning lots of new things!
Firstly, in Maths we learnt order of operations and negative numbers - we also saw how the latter is linked to bank accounts!
In English, we are studying the book 'Incredible Edibles' and we learnt the recipe for 'White Chocolate Strawberry Eyeballs'. We then started our own recipe for a chocolate mess. We are learning how to be persuasive so we can convince our parents to buy us more chocolate. Some of us have even tried some of the recipes at home.
In Science, we dissected flowers and learnt their different parts with the help of rap song.
In Geography, we are comparing the UK to Chile focussing on the human and the physical geographical features. Google 'Atacama desert'.
In Guided Reading, we learnt more about Michelle Obama and her life. We were definitely inspired!
In Art, we designed zentangle patterns to print on paper using imagination, observation and memory.
7.10.22
This week in Oak, we started instructional texts and recipes. Have you ever tried white chocolate strawberry eyeballs? Ask us for the recipe!
In Science, we dissected fungi (mushrooms) and we learnt that they consist of gills, cap, ring and stalk-stem.
In PSHE, we learnt about puberty and how we all belong to a big jigsaw.
In Maths, we focused on prime numbers, number lines, square and cube numbers.
In Geography, we found out the different capital cities of South America, their population and their economic activity. We compares those to London!
In RE, we got prepared for our mass on Creation!
In guided reading, we learnt a poem about eagles as a symbol of America.
30.9.22
We had another week of exciting learning in Oak!
In Art, we had to mix different primary colours to make shades of blue, brown and green.
In English, we completed our first hot task where we had to twist one of our traditional tales into new narratives.
In Maths, we perfected our long division and learnt how to write numerals in words.
In Science we learnt about viruses and bacteria with some shocking facts about these two microorganisms.
In guided reading, we read about Deaf Awareness Week and we educated ourselves regarding BSL.
Dear Parents/ Guardians,
It has been out first week back and we are so excited to start a new year with our friends. We have started a new topic in English where we will be changing the characters from our favourite traditional tales into villains and vice versa. Have a look at our story map and test us is remembering the story.
In maths, we have been busy remembering our place value skills as our numbers are becoming greater as we are moving up in year groups.
We have started reading and some of us have quizzed on AR already.
Even though we are busy learning, we would be more than happy to let you know about our latest news.
Best wishes,
Maria Kalliora
mkalliora@stjohnstiverton.co.uk