Welcome to Sycamore class 2021-2022

Welcome to Sycamore class. Our teachers are Mrs Sage on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays and Ms Khan on Fridays. Our teaching assistant is Mrs Stockley.

Over the year we will use this page to capture snapshots of our learning, progress and experience.

Please feel free to get in touch if you have any queries. 

Keep checking our page to see all the exciting things we do in school!

Mondays : Swimming, please wear your PE kit and bring your swimming things in a separate bag.

Walkie Talkie Wednesdays: Please bring in trainers for walking or jogging during our mindful and energetic start to the day. 

Thursday: Class PE - Rounder/Athletics, please come dressed in PE kit.

Please see our Parent Information Document for further details on the correct PE kit

If the event of self-isolating or further lockdown

In the event of your child needing to self isolate, please use the homework links above that your child can access for a range of subjects. In the event of our class bubble isolating or a school closure lockdown, we will be using Teams online. Your child will need their username and password to access Teams

Sycamore's Smart Awards

Generic Timetables

Term 6 This term our project is the Victorians

Zones of Regulation

Over the last two terms Sycamore have been developing knowledge of the Zones of Regulation to help manage emotions and feelings.

Please see below the powerpoint of the activities we have done so far this term and any further work at home using the language we have discussed would be much appreciated.

Here is some key information:

4 Zones:

Green

Blue 

Yellow

Red 

Try to explain how you feel in each zones - by identifying body feelings and signs.
Use the zones names to tell others how you feel.
Use strategies to help you back to the Green zones eg. breathing techniques
Record how you feel across the day to identify if there are certain times or activities that trigger your emotions.
Write a list of triggers using your sense - this will help you recognise what and how.

Using breathing techniques such as Lazy 8, 6 Sides of Breathing or My Calming Sequence (all on powerpoint attached below)
Identify the size of the problem - remember 5 is going to hospital. Will you remember this situation in 5 years time? How should i react?

Water Safety

Sycamore’s swimming came to a conclusion in fantastic style, learning about water safety. Here is some key information they took away if they were to fall in open water:

Preserve our body’s heat as much as possible by: Keeping hands under the water, head still above the water and look straight ahead.

How did you find swimming with clothes on?
“Like chains were holding my feet together” said Konnor.
“I felt as if someone was grabbing my feet” said Riley. “Like I was being pulled down” Alyvia agreed.
Furthermore Oliver mentioned “It was like the heaviest armour!”

Open water is a much colder environment compared to the lovely surroundings of the swimming pool, with at least a 10 degree difference in temperature. Different strokes were used to figure out the best technique for them. Here are some reminders:

Backstroke: No arms and push tummy up to create a flat body position.
Breast Stroke: Small, slow circles of arms and legs

Always swim in the seas between the Yellow and Red flags as a lifeguard will be patrolling. Remember to go and talk to them to find out more information, they are always keen to share advice and hand out freebies!

If you see someone else fall in:
Get help immediately – shout or call 999
Throw in a buoy if available
NEVER go in after them!

If you fall in:
Float on your back for 60-90seconds – this will give your brain chance to calm down.
Then head up, arms out, legs out and relax to float.
If wearing a life jacket – use closed position (cross arms, bent knees, legs together)

Heat
Escape
Lessening
Position

There is lots more information available at :

Water Safety Education | Royal Life Saving Society UK ( RLSS UK )

Coding 

The sun was shining so we took our technology outside. Sycamore followed instructions to move characters through challenging levels. Many of them had little knowledge of coding before hand and enjoyed learning a new computing skill using sequencing and selection to form algorithms. Others, through their competitive attitude, wanted to advance their knowledge through challenging themselves to use multiple codes and accomplish specific goals.

Learn (hourofcode.com) a great website to enhance your skills of coding.

Volume Activities

Moving on from converting metric units last week, Sycamore have been investigating volume and have started comparing. Through the use of multilink the class made a clear visual aid which helped with their understanding. Many took this further by creating their own shapes using isometric paper or bricks and ask their partner to identify the volume. The boys now cant take their hands off the multilink and are even enjoying it in their spare time at break!

In addition to this, as we grow as a team this term, Sycamore used their new mathematical knowledge along side team building. Their confidence to lead as well as continuing to improve their listening has really shone through this week. Utilising their volume understanding, they had to pass their container of water to their team mates without spilling by taking part in increasingly difficult challenges with different body parts. Passing on clear instructions was key as well as identifying the amount of water spilt and left by reading and measuring the volume.

Throwing Skills

We are getting summer sports ready! Sycamore have been improving their throwing technique and accuracy ready for sports day and Cricket competition later on in the term. They focussed on body position, release and accuracy, improvements were all highlighted in a well loved game of dodgeball, Other areas of development were timing and reactions; testing each other with releasing the ball at different times and angles for their partner to respond quickly. The class are really excited for this terms events!

Term 5 This term our project is Ancient Greeks

Fir Tree Ancient Olympic Games

We ended the Greek term in style with an Ancient Greek Olympics. The afternoon began with a cornet recital by  Harry, Sam and Jack to excite and inspire the rest of Year 5. This was followed by the Olympic Oath being read to remind the children of the origins of the Olympics, in honour of Zeus and was the most important athletic event in the Greek world, many would argue it still is a major important event. After gathering in their Greece State teams they paraded to the Fir Tree Stadium to start their first annual games. There they tried their hand at Shot Put, Sprinting (they even tried outsprinting Mrs Sage!), Long jump using weights, making their our wreath, Javelin, (thumb) wrestling, Chariot Racing and researching the importance of pottery and art to exhibit the Greeks love of sport. All stations had a fun fact about the event, which helped them learn about the Olympics in a more practical memorable way. What a great term this has been for learning and experiencing life in Ancient Greece!

Would you rather live in Athens or Sparta?

Sycamore have been immersing themselves in the lives of Athenians and Spartans and how it would have been like to live there. Over the last week they have been working to explore, contrast and debate using key areas including; Geography, Boys, Girls and Education.

Here are some views shared and argued:

"It is obvious that Athens is the best state, they always put  the importance of family before their country" 

A balanced argument was summarised by Alice and Lilly, showing excellent knowledge and taking on board the states emotions.

"We have a variety of exciting jobs not just the boring sitting down ones like art and pottery! We prefer to use our strong physical frames" Ben said firmly.

"However, you would be scared for your life and always watching your back, living in Sparta" A counter argument by Olivia.

"Although Sparta has a strong Army and held out with only 300 warriors, we have a versatile military with a Navy and Army" Jack showed understanding for the other state.

The debate was fantastic to watch, the children learned and compared two different societies and were able to use the art of persuasion to argue and counter argue their cases.

A feast fit for a Greek!

Sycamore and Chestnut took their learning to the next level by feasting like an Ancient Greek for the afternoon. The classes incorporated DT skills including using knives and preparing different dishes; a Greek salad (that went down a storm, they couldn’t get enough!), a tzatziki dip (even with a huge spoon of garlic mixed in, the classes wanted more!) and many different varieties of fruit kababs! There was such excitement around with many describing as the best lesson ever! It was great to see them all acknowledging the importance the Greeks had on eating together and growing their own food. We look forward to hearing about their recreations at home. Ya mas!

Greek Myths

One of the areas of Ancient Greece that has captured our imaginations the most has been their storytelling and mythology. We have been entranced diving into tales of valiant heroes, monstrous beasts and the gods and goddesses who both help and hinder along the way.

One of the myths we have explored in great depth has been the haunting tale of ‘Theseus and the Minotaur’.

We have developed our:

• Retrieve and sequencing skills to help us clarify our knowledge of the 5ws and how of the story
• Inference skills to help us deepen our insights into the motivations, thoughts and feelings of the characters involved
• Vocabulary skills to help us explore the word choices of the author and the effect they create on us as the reader (we applied these to our own re-tellings of the myth, too)
• Summarising skills to condense the story into it’s most important events

We then applied our deep knowledge of the myth to help us create our own retellings in the form of a comic strip using a variety of 5ws openers. 

Physical Features of Greece

After researching the physical features of Greece using the Ipads, we created an information poster using Picollage; we included images, a carefully chosen background, colour scheme and text boxes full of information. 

Kindness

'No act of kindness, however small, is never wasted'

In the last few months, Sycamore have been working on ways to strengthen as a team. Over the last week we have focussed on kindness. Every kind deed has been added to our kindness board to showcase positive actions towards others. Here are some from this week with many more added since.

Topic Projects

With only 5 weeks of this term to cover Ancient Greeks we knew we sadly wouldn't be able to cover it all! So we gave Year 5 the challenge of researching about Greek architecture. There was a vast amount of information found and shared by the class. 

Toby found ' A house is usually built around a court yard and the mattress was stuffed with wool, feathers and dried grass'

Ashley discovered 'The Parthenon was completed in 432 BC and dedicated to the Goddess Athena'

Evie demonstrated the unique detail of different buildings 'There were 3 main styles: Dorian, Ionian, and Corinthian' 
 

Others decided to recreate some Trojan horses to demonstrate other areas of architect. This has inspired many others in the class and we have some great ideas to develop in school over the next few week, watch this space...

Spelling

Along with our weekly spelling practise for 10-15 minutes a day, five days a week.

Monday: Pre-test

Tuesday: Highlight sound and sort into grid

Wednesday: Sound buttons

Thursday: Sound - sort into grid again

Friday: Assess

Sycamore have also been experiencing other ways to help test their partner, remember and consolidate their spellings. Including Workout spellings, invisible ink and drawing pictures. Using different learning styles and working different parts of their brain will really aid their recall and memory.

Online Communities

In PSHE we continue to develop our understanding of different relationships and todays LO: Understand the rights and responsibilities in an online community or social network, invoked a lot of discussion. There are many different online communities that the children of Sycamore are part of including:

Rocket League - car football game                  Minecraft                    Youtube                  Scratch community games                  Gacha Club

The class looked at different fake community hashtags eg.~fanszone and spoke about which types of people would join and why then looked at the risks and responsibilities those people would encounter. Our discussion included:

Risks: Cyber bullying, Random contacts, unknown age, trying to be 'cool' and disturbing images
Responsibilities: be respectful, team player, report scams and inappropriate behaviour and understand the terms and conditions.

The class then learned what they could do if they had a problem who they could go to Child Line and to find out about different situations and how they could deal with them, through the use of gaming at Thinkyouknow which they played over and over! Key messages included telling a trusted adult, blocking unwanted messages and not to share videos or messages. 

Variables in science Investigations

Today Sycamore were learning about variables - what they are and the different types. They watched an explanatory video on a running experiment and were given the challenge to create their own from their own learning. The videos were fantastic, I wish I could upload them all! Please ask your child to tell you all about it. There next steps are to use this knowledge of working scientifically to plan and execute an experiment themselves in a few weeks time.

Show and Tell

I love hearing what the children of Sycamore get up to and look forward to them sharing their interests with the class. This week saw many different artefacts on display:

Toby sent in photographs of his visit to Crete in Greece. This class were fascinated to know that Theseus and the Minotaur could be a true story after all as Toby showed his exploration of the Labyrinth remains. He also wrote a fantastic rap about this myth that you must hear!

Jack brought in his collection of crystals. We learned many were passed down by his Grandmother which she collected through Girl Guides. Jack had super knowledge of each type of crystal, identifying the name and how it could be used including the Moon Stone for calming down and others for helping with grief and transitions. The class were eager to see and touch the crystals, asking further questions to Jack in the process who happily answered them all with confidence.

Ben showed off his 'new' collection of old Beano (I reminded him 33 years is not THAT old!). His has great enthusiasm for building on his collect and gave tips to those who wanted to join in the search for more rare finds. Ben enjoyed explaining the similarities and differences between the old and new comics. He has created a real buzz for comics in class.  

Finally Oliver treated the class to a Horrible History World War Two quiz (he has a real fascination for history and WW2 in particular). The class thoroughly enjoyed it and asked for more after finding out how the Russian boots were acquired by the Germans, of course in the style of Horrible Histories this was not the simplest of ways! We all look forward to finding out more next time, for round 2 Oliver!

Relationships

Today in PSHE was learned to understand that belonging to an online community can have positive and negative consequences. We had fantastic discussions about using different social medias and communication technologies. The key talk was around age limits. Some facts Sycamore learned during our physical quiz were:

How old does a person have to be before they can join the army?
(Again, this may be different in different countries, but in the UK it is 15 years and 9 months)

 How old does someone have to be to get a part-time job? e.g. a paper round
(In the UK it is 13 years old, but this may be different in other countries. To work part-time in a shop a person must be 14 years old)

How old does a person have to be to be able to go to court and face criminal charges?
(In the UK this is 10 years old.)

After finding out more about age limits on various things, discussion turned back to whether going online should have an age limit. Unanimously voted there shouldn't be but  sensibly coming up with the following guidelines for safe use: making sure they have asked for parental consent, parental controls are on, having time limits and following guidance from school and parents. Excellent listening and respect from others made this a really pleasurable lesson in the sunshine and superb conversation.

Eid Mubarak

With Ramadan coming to an end, Sycamore marked this with a celebration called 'Eid Al-Fitr'. A festival breaking the fast, Sawm is one of the five pillars of Islam. Sycamore began the day researching facts and found:

Fasting is a way of learning and practising self discipline.

Muslims thank Allah for the strength that he gave them to have self discipline during Ramadan.

Its a time for forgiveness. 

Sycamore celebrated this event with cake and juice in respect for all those who have been fasting.

PSHE - Relationships

This term in PSHE we are looking at Relationships. The learning objective today was: I have an accurate picture of who I am as a person in terms of my characteristics and personal qualities. We discussed what qualities we had individually as well as what we like in our friends. Examples were identified and the class were able to talk openly about what characteristics were. At the end of the lesson each individual wrote their name on top of a piece of paper and gave it to the person next to them. Each time the paper was received a positive word or phrase was written about that person and then passed on again. It was lovely to see all the lovely messages written as well as showing team work and togetherness. 

Look at our books!

It was great to see the parents back in school after all this time! Parents were invited in to Sycamore to look at the amazing learning the children have been doing this year. The class were able to talk about what they had learned across the curriculum as well as talk about the things they are looking forward to this term. Thank you all for coming and the lovely comments, for those who were unable to attend, please just ask Mrs Sage if you would like to drop in after school to have a look at your child's fantastic work.

History 

Sycamore have begun the new topic on the Ancient Greeks. They started by reflecting on our existing knowledge before sharing with each other and creating a class mindmap. The class then enjoyed listening to the Myth 'Theseus and the Minotaur'. They learned how to sequence the story, identify the main characters and use descriptive language. Later on in the week, Sycamore worked collaboratively to improve 6 sentences they identified as the six key events of the myth. As a class they revised knowledge of clauses, adverbs, similes and other sentence starters including 5 w and how, ing and ly openers. From this, as a team, they created 6 fantastic sentences which they will then use for their comic strip interpretation of the myth. 

Sycamore have developed their chronological knowledge of Greek events, remembering when order BC dates, the higher the number, the longer ago the event happened, because we are saying it was x amount of years Before Christ eg. 300BC is before 170BC. AD means Anno Domini and refers to when Christ was born. After ordering, the class then used their research skills to find out more about the key events and ask further questions. Harry and Charlie were keen find the meaning of 'Mino' as this prefix has kept appearing this week. They found out it means 'King' Alice and Aylvia researched the Olympics further and saw many event names were still being used today such as Marathon, Decathlon, Pentathlon and realising Dec = 10 and Pent is 5 events. There is so much more to find out about the Ancient Greeks, everyone is very excited for the rest of the term!

Geography - Orienteering and Map Skills

Sycamore have certainly shown their growth mindset and perseverance this term when learning outdoors...Boiling sunshine one week, the next a snow blizzard and finally this week a tornado wind! But that certainly didn't phase them in their learning. Today, Sycamore learned about Orienteering and how it linked to their Geography map skills, team work and fitness. Firstly the class had to work together to create a face using different equipment which was indicated on the key. Many showed superb communication skills resulting in quick success. They also learned to make sure the map was orientated correctly as this could result in incomplete faces or getting lost! Secondly the teams were given a key showing map symbols. A symbol name was called out and the groups had to identify the symbol  and race to draw it down on the opposite side of the field (quick retrieval skills and stamina required). Sycamore learned the important skills Orienteering can develop and many want to test their new symbol knowledge on their next family walk.

Maths plays an important role in our curriculum but with Maths Day being celebrated today in Year 5, everyone realised maths is all around us and we use it all the time. Year 5 joined forces in a PE morning filled with mathematical challenges. Including measuring the length of their javelin throws with trundle wheels, tallying up the scores of bean bags throws, creating bar charts with their football shooting data collection and using their more recent knowledge of decimals to time sprints and identify tenths and hundredths. Lots of team work was also required to ensure everyone participated, data was collected and fun was had.  Everyone had a great time whilst also thinking about what jobs they would like to do when they are older and the maths skills that will be required. Happy Maths Day!

100 miles!

Harry and his mum set the mammoth challenge of completing 100 miles in March, in the aid of Mind. They cycled, walked and ran 98 miles in 30 days and saved their last two miles for school. Harry's class mates helped him cross the finish line in between the snowy spells on Thursday. A well deserved fan base at the finishing line from Sycamore and Year 6 demonstrated their support and admiration for Harry. Thanks for inspiring us, well done Harry!              

Fractions

We have be consolidating our knowledge of fractions this week and demonstrated what we have learned by dividing up cucumbers. This term we have expanded our knowledge on adding, subtracting, multiplying fractions as well as challenging ourselves by working with 3 or more fractions, mixed fractions and fractions of amounts. Not only did we show we could work with these numbers but also demonstrated our reasoning skills to prove or disprove calculations. We look forward to our next maths topic!

Gardening 

During our gardening session we pruned some willow branches ready for our willow tunnel for pumpkin growing.

Science - developing our understanding of the pollination process. 

During our science sessions this term we have been investigating living things and their habitat with the focus on life process of reproduction in some plants and animals. We have discovered the location and purpose of key areas of a plant including anther, filament, stigma, style, ovule and ovary through dissecting a daffodil. We enjoyed demonstrating the process of pollination through the use of sweets and cheese puffs, to represent the nectar the insects are after and the pollen which is transferred and fertilised. 

World Book Day

During World Book Day we explored the importance of reading and made the most of our school library. We have a relaxing library environment and an amazing array of books. We discussed why we chose the book we borrowed, which helped us discover new authors and genres we may have not read before.

Term 3 This term our project is Majestic Mayans

Term 2  This Term our project is Out of This World

Sycamore Class were brimming with enthusiasm as they began their new project "Out of this World"

Using their expert research skills, they discovered fascinating facts about each of the planets in the Solar System.

English

By following the class generated S2S, the class presented their knowledge about the Solar System in the form of a poster.

Science

In our Science , we explored the different theories that people had about the Earth as to whether it was flat or spherical.

We read different theories and categorised them with a partner.

History

Using skills of chroronology, the children placed events on a timeline.

They then expanded their knowledge of space exploration by using their research skills

Jack was so enthused by our new project, that he challenged himself to make a space station at home.

Even though he had no instructions, he invented them himself. to make his creation.

 After 5 long hours, his results were rewarded with this magnificent and spectacular model.

Well done Jack.

Project Homework 1

Sycamore were asked to complete 2 little mini projects to support their learning on the Solar System.

They produced the most amazing and varied results, from  posters and power points to cakes, lego builds and models.

They used their presentation skills to show case their learning to the class.

Project 2

Art

Over the course of the term we will be applying our knowledge to create our own images of the different planets.

This will also test out our knowledge in the different art mediums as we are going to have to apply the skills we are learning at the start of each session to our own version.

We started by exploring and practicing the different techniques we could use.

• Cross hatching – this involved drawing a series of parallel lines and then drawing another series of parallel lines going in another direction on top of the first set of lines. This is a great way to create shading in drawing.
• Varying pressure – this encourages the children to use the pencils in different ways by pressing the pencil lightly on the page moving to pressing the pencil hard on the page.  
• Layering / back and forth stroke – this encourages the children to colour in one direction and then colour over the top of the original colour (in either a different colour or the same colour) in the opposite direction.
• Stippling – this skill is made up of a range of marks made with the tip of the pencil. It involves placing lots of tiny dots on your paper. The dots can be close together, far apart of anywhere in between.
• Hatching – this is where the children draw a series of parallel lines that all go in the same direction. The lines can be close together or far apart – the pencil is lifted from the paper after each line and then placed down again to create a new line. 
• Scumbling – this involves making continuous circular marks on your paper, without lifting your pencil. It is a good way to fill in different areas with lots of colour.

We started by looking at the medium of coloured pencils to help us recreate the planet Jupiter

PE

This term, Sycamore have been enjoying hockey and netball in their PE sessions

In hockey. they are practicing the following;-

• techniques for a block tackle 
• defensive positions in a game
• dribbling and shooting
• passing to a team member
• identifying and marking an opponent
• keeping possession as a team
• working as a team co operatively to defend and attack

On our Netball sessions we have been working on developing the following skills:-

• practicing and recapping on different passes (shoulder, chest, bounce and over head, one and two handed)
• playing as an attacking and defending team
• communicating with team mates when moving into a space
• developing different dodging techniques 
• practicing pivoting and applying it in a game
• working co operatively as a team

Forest School

On Friday 3rd December 2021, Sycamore enjoyed a wonderful session in the Forest

The children enjoyed conjuring up their magic spells in the spell kitchen.

Great fun was had discovering what treasures could be found in the new digging zone, as well as having the opportunity to plant Winter Aconites.

Having found funghi during their last visit to the Forest in Term 1, the children were pleased to spot more; peach jelly ear, dead man's fingers and sulphur caps.

Fiona also explained how crucial fungus is for the vital existence of our woodlands.

She gave everyone a wooden disc with a gold thistle stamped on it, to remind them of all the planting that we are doing to 'give back' to the woodlands and to encourage more growth and ensure woodlands are in existence forever

Gardening

On Thursday 24th November, Sycamore had their gardening session.

They had a tour of the allotment and the fruit garden and were on a mission to discover and explore what was still growing, despite the cold weather.

Although not to everyone's liking, the children tasted sage and sorrell, and ran their hands through lavender and rosemary, inhaling the beautiful aromatic smell of each.

Searching carefully , they identified baby leeks and curly kale growing in the beds. 

The fruit garden was looking a little bare but Jenny reassured the children that the raspberry and gooseberry bushes would bear fruit in the Summer months.

Remembrance

On Thursday 11th November , the children marked Remembrance in school assembly when some Year 6 children shared some beautiful and poignant poems.

The children in Sycamore explored the famous poem In Flanders Field, discussing together the meaning of the words and the overall message .

They then practiced their expert handwriting skills by presenting the poem.

RE

On Thursday 4th November,  Diwali was celebrated all around the world.

Diwali is the Hindu festival of lights.

The children were reminded of the famous story of Rama and Sita and how on their return to their kingdom, they were guided by little lights.

Reflecting on the question What does the festival of Diwali mean? they recorded their thoughts and explored how Hindus celebrate.

PSHE

In our PSHE lessons, Sycamore class have been exploring the implications of having money and are investigating the following:-

• understanding what influences people's decisions about money
• exploring different ways to pay for things and the choices people have about this
• investigating people's different attitudes towards saving and spending money
• understanding financial risks

Term 1 - This term our projects are Take One Picture and Hamlet

Take One Picture

Sycamore class have had a super week enjoying their Take One Picture Project based on Claude Monet's painting 'Dusk in Venice'

Sycamore thought about 'First Impressions' and generated lots of fabulous questions that they wanted to research :-

• is the painting in an art gallery?
• what is the name of the painting?
• How big is the real painting?
• Who and what inspired the artist?
• Was art always the artist's passion?
• When was it painted?
• Is the artist still alive?
• How long did it take the artist to paint it?
• What style did the artist use/
• Did the artist paint during the day or night?

Popping with lots of questions, they used expert research skills to explore facts about his life, his inspiration for his art work and the techniques he used. Lots of interesting facts were discovered including; he had lots of  famous friends  such as Degas, Manet and Renoir, and that he mainly painted outside. Using light, he often created the same picture in different colours depending on the time of day as well as the Seasons.

For this reason, he often had to work quickly. 

Having found out amazing facts about Claude Monet, the children were keen to experiment with different art techniques in their sketch books, including stippling, scrumbling and hatching. 

The children were fascinated to learn that Monet and his friends created an art movement known as Impressionism, and that all the artists used the same criteria for their work. These included:

- They never used black

- They used different light 

- They mainly worked outdoors

- They worked against time

- They would used layer of paints

Feeling confident, they couldn't wait to apply their skills to their own recreation of the painting.

Finally, the children used powerful verbs, adjectives and adverbs to create imaginative sentences to capture the magic of the painting

"Above the majestic sparkling sea, the birds were flying gracefully home while the sun was happily setting" (Freya)

"The reflective water rippled and stretched quietly for as far as the the eye could see" (Lily)

"The shadowy castle sits calmly above the sparkling rocky water" (Julia)

"The colourful sunset was a silky blanket over the rippling sea" (Leila)

"While a big castle was breaking, the sea waves were rippling angrily across the harbour" (Stan)

"The sky sat calmly over me as I watched the silky white clouds float by" (Sam)

"The sprawling dark town is quietly reflecting on the rippling sea" (Evie)

"As the two mysterious dark ships left silently, they were eaten by the sunset" (Ben)

Hamlet

English

The children have really excelled themselves whilst studying this term's project of Hamlet.

To begin with, they used drawings to search for clues about the characters

By reading the play as a class, and by using their inference skills, the children have explored the character of Hamlet and investigated the question as to whether he should or shouldn't avenge the death of his father

They then learnt how to use disagreeing and agreeing conjunctions to offer different points of view when writing their discussion texts.

The children worked collaboratively to create S2S and used these as a framework for writing their discussion texts.

These steps included:

• Title
• Introduction -  to explain what the discussion is about
• Paragraphs to show each side of the discussion
• Conclusion to summarise and make a decision
• 5 W sentence openers
• Written in the 1st person
• Punctuation including capital letters . , ?! ()
• Sequencing conjunctions such as firstly, conclusion
• Agreeing and disagreeing conjunctions
• Written in the present tense
• Written in the 1st person

Following on from the question of whether Hamlet would avenge the death of his father, the children were eager to see what course of action he would take next and were keen to read more of the story.

They discovered that as well as Hamlet having a plan, King Claudius, his evil uncle also had a plan of his own.

The children then decided to use their drama skills to sequence and summarise the events, and to consolidate their understanding of the text. 

The children then explored the difference between open and closed questions and thought of some examples to ask the following characters in a Question Time session

• Hamlet
• King Claudius
• Gertrude
• Ophelia

Using their open and closed questions, the children were very keen to hold a Question Time session, whereby they could interview each character.

History

In our history lessons, the children first began my using their research skills to explore key events in William Shakespeare's life

They represented this information by placing it in chronological order on a timeline.

The children then investigated the symbolism of the Tudor Rose

They researched the events of the famous Battle of Bosworth between the Houses of Lancaster and York.

They found out that the Lancaster house was led by the cunning King Richard 111 and that his soldiers wore the Red Rose.

During the battle, King Richard was outwitted and was eventually killed.

Henry Tudor became King Henry V11 and by marrying Elizabeth of York, he joined the two houses together. 

The new symbol then became known as the Tudor Rose

Geography

The children discussed where the play Hamlet was set and discovered that it was Denmark.

By using a variety of resources, such as atlases and the internet, they explored the location of physical and human characteristics. 

They decided the label the following on a map of Denmark:-

• ​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​major cities and towns
• rivers and lakes
• seas and oceans

The children decided that they wanted to use their research skills to find out some interesting facts about Denmark.

Firstly, they brainstormed categories to research and came up with the following:-

• food
• clothes
• currency
• climate
• history
• traditions
• celebrations and holidaysa
• flag
• capital
• towns and cities
•  

They used S2S for Research when using the internet

• type accurately and use appropriate language
• Use relevant websites
• choose relevant information
• understand information
• use your own words
• use bullet points

They then explored S2S for making a poster

• add colour
• clear layout
• pictures
• different fonts
• short and snappy title
• big bold title
• neat handwriting
• use fairy lines to draw
• use a ruler
• accurate spelling

Using their S2S and the information they collated from their research, they produced some wonderful posters

Art

During the class Art lessons, the children have focused on the Tudor Rose.

First;, they used their observation and sketching skills to draw the Rose.

They paid close attention to detail and shading.

The children were then excited to recreate the Tudor Rose from clay

They very much enjoyed painting them carefully

Science

This term Sycamore Class are investigating forces.

They identified that a force is a push or a pull and included:

• water resistance
• gravity
• reaction force
• buoyancy
• air resistance
• driving force 
• magnestism

They then distinguished the difference between

 MASS - 'a measure of the amount of stuff inside an object' and measured in grams and kilograms

WEIGHT - 'a measure of the strength of gravity acting on an object' and measured in Newtons

The children had great fun completing an experiment to investigate the force of gravity by measuring the weight and mass of different objects. 

The children wanted to investigate Friction and the effect it could have on a moving object.

They thought of a question to investigate:

I want to investigate which  surface will make a toy car travel the furthest distance

Then they decided what surface to test and decided on the following:-

• bark
• carpet
• rubber (Mole Hill)
• Grass
• Gym mat
• Concrete (playground)
• Hall
• Track
• Astro Turf

The children carefully measured the distance the car travelled once it left the slide. They repeated the investigation 3 times.

They discovered that the car travelled the furthest on the hall floor and the shortest distance on the grass.

They understood the importance of Friction and how it could be helpful in slowing a vehicle down.

PE -Gymnastics

This term, Sycamore have been really enjoying their gymnastics lessons with a focus on symmetry and balance

They have worked on

• completing a four element sequence containing actions at different heights and speeds
• exploring symmetry to balance and travel
• exploring asymmetrical balances and travels
• working together to perform counter balances and trust exercises
• applying compositional ideas to counter balances

Forest School

On Friday 8th October 2021. Sycamore enjoyed their turn in Forest School.

Fiona started the session by reading a poem and asked the children to reflect on the importance of the message.

Then she finished the session with the acrostic poem about Conkers.

Sycamore class are so excited as Fiona says she is also going to give the class a couple of conkers and pots so we can start growing our own horse chestnut trees.

Great excitement was had as a frog was found.

Leila & Liv made sausage & mash followed by chocolate cake at the mud kitchen.

Stan was on the  hunt for conkers.

All the children enjoyed lots of den building.

Haruki used his engineering skills when stabilising a wonky bridge

Lisa practiced her gymnastics skills

Ashley explored different sound making

Children used reference books to help them identify different species of bugs and spiders, as well as spotting different funghi.

Music - Guitars

Sycamore were very excited to begin to learn a new instrument at the beginning of the first term.

They have each been given a guitar and with the skill and experience of the teacher Mrs Hogan, they have already mastered 3 notes and are confidently playing as an ensemble.