Welcome to Squirrel’s Class Page!

Teacher: Miss Tara Cross

Teaching Assistant: Mrs Sarah Joubert

Squirrels, are you ready for some exciting and irresistible learning again in the Spring term?!
 

Some things to note:

• P.E. will be with Ryan every Monday afternoon. Please come to school in your P.E. kit on Mondays so you can wear this all day ready for your session in the afternoon!
• Homework will be sent out on Fridays in your homework books. You will have a week to complete it, so it will always be due in the next Friday. If you have any trouble with the homework, please let me know so we can look at it together!
• You will always need to have a reading book from school to read at home. When you have finished reading your book, please bring it back to school and let us know so we can help you to choose a new one.
• Make sure to log all of your reading (both independently and with someone at home) on Go Read!

Summer Term

This term’s learning…

Reading:

In our reading lessons we are currently reading the book ‘Boy in the Tower’ by Polly Ho-Yen.

Writing:

So far in writing we have been writing persuasive application letters to the company Cool Canvas to convince them to create an UKS2 outdoor area for us, like the one they created for Hedgehogs and Moles. Next we have written biographies about Mae Jemison, the first black woman to go to space! 

Maths:

To start the term off, we have been focusing on decimals - how to add them, subtract them, multiply them and divide them. Now we have moved on to look at measuring and drawing angles.

History:

Our history focus this term is the Ancient Maya Civilisation. We are learning all about where the Maya lived, what traditions and creations they came up with, as well as designing and making our own Maya style masks. At the end of this topic we will compare the Ancient Maya to the Anglo Saxons.

Geography:

In Geography this term we are learning important map reading skills. So far we have learnt how to read OS maps using four and six figure grid references.

Science:

Our current science topic is ‘Earth and Space!’ We have learnt all about the different planets and have learnt a rhyme to help us remember the order of them (ask us to learn what it is!) We have found out all about the lunar cycle and how the moon phases change. We did a great activity with Oreos to represent each of the phases!

Spring Term

This term’s learning...

Reading: 

In reading we have been reading the book 'Secrets of a Sunking' all about the secrets behind an Egyptologist's discovery about a King whose tomb archaeologists are desperately hunting for.

We are now enjoying reading William Shakespeare’s ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’!

Writing:

In our writing lessons we started the term by writing formal letters of application to Mrs Arnold to apply for the MP roles available at Barnham. Next, we wrote our own Greek Myth stories based on the ones we have read in our History lessons. We then had the opportunity to write our own poems - haikus and cinquains. We all enjoyed learning about the story of Romeo & Juliet so that we could write our own retelling of it. Over Science Week, we researched the Scientist Galileo Galilei to learn more about his work to do with forces and space (two of our Science topics this year). We then used the information we had learnt to write our own biographies about Galileo. We are now writing our own adventure stories set in another culture that we have looked at in our Geography lessons.

Maths:

We started the term by learning short and long multiplication methods, as well as short division. We have then move onto the topic of fractions where we’ve been learning all about equivalent fractions and how to add and subtract fractions and mixed numbers.

History:

In History we have been continuing with our exciting topic 'The Ancient Greeks'. We have found out all about Greek Myths, plays, theatres, Gods and Goddesses and the Olympic Games! See all our Ancient Greeks day photos below! Our next History topic is the Ancient Maya.
 

Geography:

In Geography we have been continuing to learn all about biomes and countries of the World. We have been looking deeper into different biomes and what animals and plants survive in them. See below photos of our biomes exhibition and our biomes field trip! Our next Geography topic focuses on map skills.

Science:

This half term our Science topic is 'Forces,' so we have been investigating friction as well as gravity, air resistance, water resistance and pulleys and gears. See photos of our trip to the farm where we got to investigate further! Our next Science topic is ‘Earth and Space.’

Art/DT:

We started the term designing and creating Greek vases out of clay! More photos of art and DT this term are to come!

Computing:

This term we are learning how to create vectors and videos.

RE:
We have been understanding Moksha and what this means in Hinduism.

PE:

This half term we started learning about dance.

French:

RSHE:

Science - Forces on the farm!

Our current science topic is ‘Forces’, so Mr Hawthorne came in and to do a workshop all about levers, pulleys and gears! We then went to the farm to see them all in action. The children had to stand on levers to see how much easier they make it to lift something. Mr Hawthorne brought in his bike so they could understand gears and how they help us on bikes and in cars. He also let down the tyres to show them how friction changes the speed and ease of riding the bike with flat tyres! To finish off, they even went in a wheelbarrow to see how a lever helps to lift things ⚙️🚲
Earlier in the day we also tried out some pulleys outside to allow the children to see how easily they could pull a heavy weight using one!
 

We had a brilliant morning at the farm filled with hands on learning in the outdoors, what better way to enhance and apply what they’ve learnt this term?!

Our first stop involved a challenge for the children! They had a 500kg log to move and lift… They did really well using their knowledge of levers and fulcrums to collaboratively problem solve and find the best way to move the heavy log 🪵

Next up, we got to see inside a combine harvester! We learnt all about the gears, pulleys and belts and cogs and chains and how they work to operate the combine harvester. It was great for the children to see how these all work in real life ⚙️

Our final stop was on a field on the farm where we followed behind a tractor laying sugar beet seeds! The children had to work out how friction, cogs, chains and gears all work together on the seed drill 🚜

Having the opportunity to see all of these things in real life has really helped the children to fully understand this science topic! I’m so glad we were able to take it beyond the classroom to enhance learning and understanding.

History - Ancient Greeks day!

Wow, we had a LOT of fun and packed so much into our Ancient Greeks day! Here’s what we got up to…
 

🇬🇷We started the day off by watching some of the London 2012 Olympics opening ceremony - the year most of the class were born!

🏛We then went into the hall and learnt some Greek dancing to the Zorba! It was absolutely brilliant and very amusing trying to dance as the music got faster and faster!

🏺Next up, we had 5 art activities - creating mini Olympic Rings, making olive leaf crowns, making medals, writing their name in Greek and creating their own fire torch 🔥🍃✏️

🇬🇷The afternoon consisted of our own Olympic Games! It started with a ceremony where the children walked round the ‘arena’ with their torches to the Chariots of Fire song!🔥 We then performed our Greek dancing before getting ready to compete..

🏛The Olympics were not the conventional kind! The children were in teams and they completed different challenges such as, ‘wrestling’ which was the tug of war and ‘relay’ where they completed a word on the word search and then ran to their team and gave them the ‘baton’ (the pencil) and swapped over! We had various activities like this for the games afternoon and it was so much fun!

🏺To end the day, we had a Greek banquet! The children could try various Greek food such as feta, olives, pita bread, tzatziki and more 😋
 

We were overwhelmed with how fantastic all of their costumes were, the children had put in so much effort! We are so glad they had a great day full of Greek experiences and learning!

Reading - World Book Day 2022!

We were honoured to have local famous author Ann-Marie visit us for the morning! She did an amazing and inspiring assembly where she talked about the context behind her new book that is coming out on the 31st March! We even got a signed copy of the  book before anyone else AND she read us some of it too!!

All of Ann-Marie’s books are set locally! One is set at Ickworth House, another in Cambridge, another in Bury St. Edmunds and her new book is set in the fens in Ely.

Ann-Marie then did a fantastic writing workshop with Squirrels, teaching us how to create a 

gripping story opening! The children loved it, so much so they continued writing their stories afterwards to send to Ann-Marie!

We then did a book signing session in the library with children who had purchased copies of Ann-Marie’s books so they could stick their signed book plate into their book when it arrived!

The rest of our day was spent reading, sharing our favourite books together and going on a book hunt where we found some new books for our classroom!

History - Ancient Greeks display and pots!

We are really enjoying learning all about the Ancient Greeks! At the top of the display are some of the children’s information posters about Greek Gods and Goddesses! They loved making these and finding out all about them.

On the display are some of the children’s Greek pot designs! We looked at the intricate geometric patterns on Greek vases and the kind of designs they used to create before the children had a go at designing their own! We then made their pots using clay. They then carved their designs out and painted and glazed them to finish. They look brilliant and will be taking them home soon!

Geography - Biomes field trip!

In Geography we have been learning all about biomes, so what better way to consolidate learning than to visit a biome!

Mr Hawthorne led our session in the remains of a dug out chalk pit! Many years ago, this area had pure white chalk which was dug out and used on the fields nearby. It has left behind a beautiful biome with a chalk ‘cliff’ edge covered in a variety of vegetation and surrounded by trees too! In the sunshine it looked amazing and the children all said they wished they had a camera to take a photo of it - luckily we could do that for them!

We discussed everything we had learnt in this topic and recapped our learning, from longitude and latitude, to different features of biomes, to the effects of climate change on biomes!
A big focus in our curriculum is high level vocabulary! The children were quizzed on the vocabulary we have been learning and impressed us all with their brilliant knowledge.

Geography - Biomes around the World!

In Geography, we have been learning about biomes and different environments across the World, including what their climates are like and what animals and plants can survive in them.

Every pair has had their own biome to research and become experts in! We have created information posters explaining everything there is to know about their biome, including carefully drawn pictures of them.

This week, we have brought their biomes to life by creating spectacular re-creations of each biome in a cardboard box! We were delighted to welcome parents to come to their ‘Biomes Exhibition’ to see our amazing creations and find out all about what we have been learning!

The Enchanted Forest Library!

After the grand opening of our newly revamped library last term, we have been enjoying spending our story time in the Enchanted Forest Library! This has become one of our favourite times of the day where we can relax under the reading tree and twinkling lights with a cushion and listen to our class story.

It’s Christmaaaaas!