Spring Term 1 2022

Thursday 17th February
 
What an unexpected end to Spring term 1! I hope everybody stays safe during the storm. Due to the storm, we were unable to finish our science experiment (due to be finished on Friday!) we will carry out the experiment again in the new half term.
 
This week we played a netball tournament making sure that we used all the skills that we had learnt over the unit. All of class Tamar showed fantastic confidence and E for L! In Computing we finished learning about branching databases and made out own based on minibeasts. We tested each others branching databases to make sure they worked! In RE we finished off by reflecting on unit question: What does it mean to be a Hindu in Britain today? In English we recapped on co-ordinating and subordinating conjunctions. We learnt how to remember different subordinating conjunctions by using : 'I SAW A WABUB!'
 
Have a restful half term!
 
 
Friday 11th February
 
In PE, we played our first netball tournament. It was tricky to apply the skills we learnt over the unit but after some practise we were feeling really confident! In RE we were learnt about Gandhi and his peaceful protests. In art, we looked at Georgia O’Keeffe’s work and how she used black to add shadow and darker colours to show the absence of light. We used her work as inspiration to create our own skyscrapers using watercolours. 
 
Homework:
Spellings due Thursday
Maths exercise 16 in the book or your sheet for Thursday.
5 x reading signed for Friday
 
Friday 4th February
 
In Tamar this week we have started to write the opening to the story of the Windmill Farmer. So far we have described the setting using interesting adjectives, adverbs and prepositions. We have started to describe the main character today - the farmer! In Science we learnt about food chains, we had a set of images and were given different challenges to create food chains that included certain types of animals.  
 
In geography we created our own map of a settlement demonstrating what we have learnt so far. Our settlement had to include all of the essentials (water, shelter, food and fuel) but also desirables (transport, neighbours, entertainment, education etc). We practised our shooting skills in PE this week ready to start playing matches next week. In art this week painted our terrace of houses. These still need finishing next week but they already look so colourful!  
 
Homework:
Spellings due Thursday
Maths exercise 15 in the book or your sheet for Thursday.
5 x reading signed for Friday
 
Friday 28th January
 
In Tamar this week we wrote our own metaphor poems about a waterfall based on the skills we learnt during the Windmill Farmer unit. In Science we continued to look at types of teeth and compared the teeth of a herbivore to that of a carnivore. We planned an experiment where we will look at the effects of different liquids on our teeth. We are going to use eggs as this will act as the enamel on our teeth and use: milk, water, coke and orange juice. A lot of us predicted that coke will have the most effect on the eggs because of the sugar. 
 
In PSHE we built with LEGO which had to represent our learning over the term so far. The main focus was team work and reflecting on how we can support each other to achieve the main goal. In art this week we drew a terrace of houses onto black sugar paper using chalk - we cant wait to paint these carefully choosing a variety of primary and secondary colours for our houses. I geography we learnt about how land is used differently, we compared a birds eye view of Plymouth to Millbrook and Kingsand and could instantly see the difference!
 
Homework:
Spellings due Thursday
Maths exercise 14 in the book or your sheet for Thursday.
5 x reading signed for Friday
 
Friday 21st January
 
In English this week we started a new unit. We have been planning our metaphor poems about a storm - we were inspired by the storm in the video 'The Windmill Farmer'.
  
In maths, year 4's have been dividing 3 digit numbers by 1 digit with remainders and the year 3s have been dividing 2-digit numbers by 1-digit.
 
We learnt all the different types of teeth and what their functions are in Science! Molars: they grind the food; Pre-molars: hold and crush the food; Canines: rip and tear the food; Incisors: they bite and cut into the food.  
 
In PE we have continued practising our netball skills. We practised our defending skills by playing small matches!
 
In Art we painted our doors, we were mixing white into our secondary colours in order to make different tones of the same colour.
 
In music we joined with class Lynher for singing. We learnt and sang the songs: Don't Stop Me Now by Queen; See you Again; and Rockstar. We ended the lesson with one of our favourites - Try Everything.
 
Friday 14th January
 
In English we finished our Monster Pizza Instructions unit, some of us need to finish these on Monday. They are disgusting! This week in PE we continues with our Netball unit, learning a new pass: the shoulder pass. In music we learnt a song called 'Try Everything' - this is a very catchy upbeat song. We had to slow the tempo down whilst learning it so that we could keep up!
 
In Science this week we learnt the functions of each part of the digestive system. Class Tamar are becoming experts when talking about the journey our food goes on after it's entered the mouth! In PSHE we shared more of our goals for the future and reflected on how it might feel if these are not achieved - we each have chosen something positive to think about when we do feel disappointed by something that hasn't gone our way.
 
We started our Art unit this week. We will be learning and practising different painting skills focussing on different buildings and features of buildings. This links nicely to our geography where we are learning about settling. This week we learnt about the needs and requirements early settlers had when choosing a place to build a home, these were: water, shelter and food.
 
Homework:
Spellings due Thursday
Maths exercise 12 in the book or your sheet for Thursday.
5 x reading signed for Friday
 
Friday 7th January
 
To start off our week we set ourselves some new years resolutions that we then all shared with each other. In English we started our Instructions unit - we will be making instructions for a monster pizza. This week in PE we started our Netball unit and practised our passing skills - we learnt how to do a chest pass and a bounce pass. In music we learnt a song called 'Wish'. There were three different layers to the song so we split into three groups and sang the three different parts together.
 
In Science this week were introduced to the digestive system - Matilda brought in a book that illustrates the digestive system that she shared with the class, great E for L! In PSHE we shared our goals for the future and looked at how we can achieve these.
 
We finished the week with some baking to finish off our DT unit from last term! We baked bread - some of us made sweet bread with ingredients like chocolate and honey and some of us made savoury bread with ingredients like cheese and olives. When our bread was baked we evaluated it, focusing on appearance, smell, taste and texture.  
 
Homework:
Spellings due Thursday
Maths exercise 11 in the book or your sheet for Thursday
5 x reading signed for Friday
 
Knowledge Organisers