Musical end of year 

In June we began thinking about our new big question 'How have the Olympic games changed over time?'. We have learnt some key information about the ancient Olympics and about the modern Olympics which are happening this year in Paris. We also learnt about Jesse Owens (runner) and Ellie Simmonds (swimmer). We took part in sports week and sports day and had a great time learning our dance for the opening ceremony. We continued our learning about the Jewish faith and learnt what happens each week as Jewish families celebrate Shabbat and what happens each winter when Jewish families mark Hanukkah. We learnt two stories which people of the Jewish faith tell to help them to understand what their God is like. One of the stories was the story of David and Goliath. After reading this we reflected on times when we had been courageous. 

During May we concluded our work on 'Why should forests be protected?'. We learnt about the flora and fauna of the rainforest and compared it to that of forests in the UK. We learnt about deforestation and used The Lorax to help us to think about how human activity can have a huge affect on plant and animal habitats. We also compared the weather and climate of the tropical rain-forest and forests here in the UK. 
In the lead up to the school art exhibition we learnt about, and worked in the style of, Alma Thomas. We experimented with sketching and paint techniques and created wonderful pieces for the exhibition. In science we continued to learn about plants and learnt about how to identify trees and tree and flowering plant structures. We planted seeds and investigated how well deeds would grow under different conditions. 

Our Art Exhibition entry

We have been busy thinking about our big question 'What is it Like in Africa?'
We have used maps and atlases to locate Africa and to find out which countries, rivers and cities are part of Africa.

Then we focussed more closely on Kenya and the children have blown me away with their knowledge and understanding of the country.
They can talk at length about what physical and human features you might find there, compared to where we live.
 We also studied the climate, completing our weather chart, comparing weather and temperature in Nairobi and Drakewalls.

In Science we have been learning all about the animals that live in Africa, the range of different habitats in the country and how the animals are suited to the habitat they live in.

In DT we have been exploring African materials, patterns and masks to help inspire us to design our own masks. Then we had a go at making them, trying to copy our designs carefully. 

In Art we have been studying the work of Vincent van Gogh, learning all about him and discussing his paintings. Then we had a go at recreating the patterns and colours from his 'Starry Night' painting. Finally we created our own version of this painting and showed them off in our Art Exhibition.

June in the ARC

This month many of our learning experiences have been outside. 

We had our Summer picnic down at Cotehele Quay. The boys enjoyed paddling and making huge splashes in the stream. We enjoyed an ice cream up at the cafe afterwards. Luckily the weather was kind to us and we had a beautiful day for it. 

It has also been Sport's Day this month. All of our children have taken part in some way. David and Joe are our Y6s and they were able to be part of the Gun Run teams. They both worked brilliantly in their red and blue teams to take the gun to pieces, run to the other end of the field, rebuild and bring back. Both teams one a race each! They also participated in the races on Friday when parents were able to watch proudly and enjoy a picnic with their children. 

In cooking we have been using seasonal produce to cook with: strawberry smoothies, tomato salsa and pesto pasta. We always enjoy cooking but only some of us enjoy the eating!


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Spring and Planting Time

It is lovely to see some sunshine in between the rain. The boys have been able to get outside and plant the potatoes they chitted. We also managed to plant the carrots and Sunflowers that we grew indoors from seed.

We have enjoyed looking at the Seasons and making Leaf/Clay impressions. 

As we have also been looking at using are senses this term, we enjoyed using our ears to hear different sounds in the outside environment.

Our spring term was full of creativity!  We worked hard on improving our art work through collage techniques and wrote some lovely endings to the classic story The Wind in the Willows - Mr Toad certainly found some interesting ways to break out of prison.
We also conducted a geographical survey of the Gunnislake and Tamar bridges, focusing on the different types of traffic that comes through as we continue our river learning.
In RE we learned about the Easter story and what that means to people.
Our science topic of plants saw us finding out about the ideal conditions plants need to grow and we've tried to grow some different things for the gardening club.
Just after Easter we started our new topic around the question "How is the UK different to France?"  We tried some different French foods - camembert was a little too intense in flavour!

April in the ARC

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April has been a short month due to the Easter holidays but we have still managed to pack in lots of learning.

In English we have been learning about stories by the same author, Lauren Child. We have been enjoying her Clarice Bean stories and are currently working on planning our own.

Maths has been all about fractions so far this term. We have learnt how to recognise and find equal groups, recognise and find a half, a quarter and three quarters of a shape and a quantity. 

Our big question this half term is 'Who was Francis Drake and why was he important?'
We have enjoyed finding out about his voyages and learnt some grisly facts about life on the 'Golden Hind'
Most of us have seen his statue in Tavistock so we know he is important locally. We are looking forward to our trip to Buckland Abbey to find out more.

Art has been all about Vincent van Gogh. We have been looking at his paintings and discussing what we notice and like/don't like about them.
We have learnt about tints and shades and have experimented with colours and patterns in his style. Next we will be trying to reproduce his 'Starry Night' painting for our art exhibition at the end of May.

Science has been all about plants. We had fun dissecting seeds and comparing them to bulbs. Then we planted some seeds with varying amounts of light and water and are waiting to see what will happen to them. 

Spring time and Science

Solids, Liquids and Gasses.

We have been busy with our science this term to witness the changes that happen during some solid and liquid experiments.

First we made Ice decorations showing that liquid can change to a solid and then back to a liquid using the freezing and melting method.

Secondly in science we cut up fruit and mixed with our liquid (yogurt) and froze it to see if we could make it into a solid. It froze and made delicious fruit lollipops.

When we froze water, milk, vinegar and apple juice, some of us thought the milk would freeze first, some the water and some the vinegar. The water froze first with the milk at a close second.


Finally we decided to see if we could turn a solid into a liquid by using the melting process. I think the boys enjoyed this the most. The water that reached boiling point during the melting process turned into a gas (we could see this by the the steam rising).

March has been an action packed month. We designed and made our Easter baskets using the weaving technique we had practised on paper. We learnt about the human body and how senses can be used to inform us about what is around us. We learnt about a significant figure in the world of paleontology - Mary Anning.
We had a great time on our Wild Tribe morning. We loved getting creative with crafts and stories out in the woods.
We went on a trip to The Box museum in Plymouth. We took the train and joined a local children's author in celebrating the International Day of Happiness. We each came up with ideas that the author made into a song. We sang the song together at Plymouth station. While at The Box we learned all about the detective work that natural historians do. We tried to match up animals skulls to their diets and their species. We met Mildred the woolly mammoth - she was magnificent and quite enormous! We also got to see some huge fossils up close which reminded us of our work on Mary Anning.
In literacy we have learnt about, told and written riddles about animals and about dinosaurs. We read our dinosaur riddles to Year 4 who had to guess which type of dinosaur was being described. 
|n maths we have been exploring numbers to 50 and going outdoors to use our length measuring skills.

In February we began thinking about a new big question - 'How do we know about dinosaurs?'. We began learning about fossils and paleontologists. 
In science, we learned about what different animals like to eat and whether they are carnivores, herbivores or omnivores. We also learnt that some animals make more suitable pets than others and explored the reasons for this.
This month we also learnt more about internet safety. We used the DigiDuck stories to explore how we should conduct ourselves online and we learnt that, when we see something online that makes us feel uncomfortable, we should stop, close and tell a trusted adult. 
We have also began exploring patterns, textures and colours in fabrics and have started to learn to weave by weaving paper. 
In literacy we have been reading and writing letters inspired by the 'Dear Dinosaur' story.

I hope that you all had a lovely Bank Holiday weekend. What a refreshing change to see the sunshine! I hope that you all managed to make the most of it- long may it continue. 
We were very fortunate last week to have visit from Mr Peter Salisbury, who is an ambulance driver. He brought his ambulance along to both school bases and showed the children the exterior, the interior and even let them see the flashing lights and sirens. Ambulances can be quite a frightening sight for children - they are fast moving and very loud. With their blacked-out windows they can also seen quite mysterious. Children often have a fear of the unknown but this visit has showed them what is behind the windows. Whist I hope that the children will never have to experience travelling in an ambulance, I hope that the visit would make the experience less scary.
Recently, the Reception children, along with some of the Nursery class had a fantastic session of Maypole dancing. It was wonderful to see the absolute joy on their faces they wound the ribbons around the pole. I was impressed by their skill and focus.
Last week some pupils in Year 5 have been taking part in the Bikeability programme. This scheme is run by our sport's partnership provider, Arena, and it teaches pupils how to ride safely on the roads. I presented them with certificates and badges in last week's celebration assembly and they were very proud of their achievements. 
I recently sent out a letter explaining Accelerated Reader levelled books and how we are using them in the school. If you missed it there is a copy uploaded below.
Congratulations to Year 3 who won the attendance award this week with 100%.
I hope that you all enjoy the sunny weekend!

We have had lots of fun and managed to take some of our learning outside despite the wet weather.

In Science we have been learning about 'Living Things and Their Habitats'.
We started by classifying things that are living, non-living, dead and never been alive. Then we learnt about different habitats around the world and how the animals that live there, adapt to their environment and depend on each other for survival. We managed to spend some time in the woods looking at micro-habitats and undertaking a survey of bugs that we found there.
In Computing we have been learning all about programmable toys and our teacher was very impressed that we can all explain what 'algorithm' means!

We have also been creating some amazing sketches of the view of our playground in the style of Lowry. We learnt lots of techniques beforehand such as hatching, crosshatching, stippling and shading. We also had fun creating matchstick figures and adding details to them. We tried to include many of these techniques in our sketches.

Our topic 'Where Do We Live?' had a mainly Geography focus. We really enjoyed our walk around the local area identifying human and physical features and created some fabulous maps for another class who wanted to know the way to the park. 

Wishing you all a relaxing Easter break with your families.

As we reach the end of another few weeks at both bases, I wanted to say thank you for supporting the various events which have been taking place during the last couple of weeks. 
It was lovely to see so many of you at our 'fashion parade' during World Book Day. The children looked fantastic in their book character costumes and they spent the day engaging in a range of reading related tasks. I want to than all of the teachers for planning these activities for the children and also Miss Owen for coordinating the event. I have had lots of children tell me how much they enjoyed being on the 'catwalk'!
Mrs Hannaford and the football team have really enjoyed playing in the Callington Arena league. They have had a few wins, but the most admirable thing is that they have played with passion, good humour and determination- well done to all!
Last Friday was Comic Relief. Across the two bases we raised just over £140 which is amazing! I want to particularly thank members of the school council at the Gunnislake base who bravely put themselves forward to be 'gunged' for money. 
Y1 had a fantastic 'Wild Tribe' day on Tuesday where they made magic wands from willow, played games and toasted marshmallows over a camp fire.
We are looking forward to the Easter Bunny Hop next Thursday- thank you for all of your donations for the tombola.