It has been a busy week with lots of fun learning for Talland Class. The children joined in with the school's Remembrance Service and have started to understand why, who and what we remember at this time of the year.

The children have further developed their draft illuminated letters by adding colours. The next step will be to create their very own illuminated letter using the initial of their name.

English
Talland Class are focusing on reading for pleasure. This will help provide a positive ethos and nurture a natural interest with reading. We are supporting this by teaching specific reading skills which will provide strategies for the children to use to gain more understanding from the text they read: for example, thinking about how a character in a particular text is feeling by using their own experiences.

Maths
The children have now embarked on the multiplication and division unit of mathematics. They will be able to use their previous knowledge gained through addition and subtraction to support them through this. During the lessons, they have already learned about the language used for multiplication and division, for instance, factor and multiple. 


Mr Parry and Mrs Swabey

This week's joke:
Why is Cinderella so bad at playing football? She runs away from the ball.

Sutton Hoo Anglo-Saxon Helmet Sketches

The children finally completed their sketches of the Anglo Saxon Helmets. They used many of the skills taught at the beginning of the term which included: scumbling, stippling and line formation. Without a doubt, all of the children approached this task with enthusiasm, dedication and increased confidence. Once again, well done, Talland Class!

English
The children's writing skills have flourished during the writing of their non-chronological report. They embraced the writing skills taught within the unit to improve their writing, for example: the use of a variety of sentences, paragraph structure and developing the use of colons. Applying these techniques into a real piece of writing can be difficult but, with lots of effort, all children have developed and improved their own writing.

Maths

With sheer determination, practice and stoicism, the children have managed, to some extent, further enhance their knowledge and understanding of place value up to one million. Many are confident enough to round numbers to the nearest tens of thousands and all children are confident in rounding numbers to the nearest 10, 100 and 1000.

Have a wonderful half term, Talland Class, you truly deserve it.


Mr Parry and Mrs Swabey



This week's children's joke:
Did you hear the joke about the broken pencil? It’s pointless.

Talland Class Swimming like Fish

The highlight of this week for Talland Class has been the week long afternoon swimming sessions. Despite many being a little nervous (at the beginning of the week), every child enjoyed the experience. Every child has improved his/her swimming skills and all children are more confident in water. Their beaming smiles, enthusiasm and commitment to each swimming session displayed their fabulous learning ethos and 'have a go' attitude. One response was, 'Can we come again next week?' Thank you, Talland Class.
Here's  a little swimming joke for you children:
Q: What direction do chickens swim?
A: Cluck-wise.

English
The children have made a tremendous effort with their non-chronological reports. They have produced sub-headings related to the fictional character they have created and have been able to produce significant paragraphs to accompany these sub-headings. They all understand the concept of non-fiction and recognise that, for instance, if an animal is extinct, the written information needs to be in the past tense.

Maths
This week has been a challenge for the children. They have encountered and learned new skills to enable them to round numbers to 1 million. Despite the frustrations at the beginning, all children recognise the concept of place value and are able to use this to round numbers. Using larger numbers can be difficult but with good concentration, dedication and focus on the work involved, we have achieved our rounding to 1 million objectives. Keep up the good work, Talland Class.

Have a wonderful weekend and remember to continue to use the swimming skills learned this week.

Mr Parry and Mrs Swabey

Plymouth Sound Marine Life
The children of Talland Class have had an exciting opportunity this week to investigate marine life within Plymouth Sound. They were all able to use an interactive tactile map of the Sound to find shipwrecks in the area. How surprised they were to find so many!

During the research, the children inspected many artefacts from the deep waters of the Sound. These included a sharks jaw, a star fish and other types of shells. For close up observations, digital microscopes were used. They asked some open questions to gain a better understanding of the area, for example: Why are there so many different types of marine life?

The sensory investigation when the children simply used their hands to feel objects in a box seemed to be the most exciting activity: despite the children being a little nervous about placing their hands into the unknown. Through this activity, they were able to understand the structure of several sea animals, which included a sea urchin.

English
The children are further developing their non-chronological report based on their very own imaginative creature. They are becoming confident with opening sentences to begin a paragraph.

Maths

During the week, the children have further investigated place value up to one million. They are now a lot more confident and are able to verbally articulate their understanding of a concept clearly and with confidence. As a class, we now conduct mini-maths sessions which includes all aspects of the curriculum so they keep tangible links with the areas of maths we are not covering at the moment, for instance, graphs and 2D shapes. 

Keep up the good work, Talland!


Enjoy you hard earned weekend.

Mr Parry and Mrs Swabey


 

A busy week was had by all.

The children of Talland Class have had another busy week. 

English
They have continued to enhance their descriptive writing skills by, for example, using powerful verbs with adverbs: slithering slowly, gazing vacantly and stomping loudly. The children are now prepared to write their own non-fictional report.

Maths
The children have enjoyed exploring and using their number skills to develop further understanding of place value. They have been challenged with numbers up to 1, 000, 000 and learned how to manipulate powers of 10, for instance, 10 x 10 = 100, 100 x 10 = 1 000, and so on. Keep up the good work, Talland!

Theme
A notable achievement this week is that all of the children have created their own idea for a future invention. Through our study of the famous artist, philosopher and inventor Leonardi Da Vinci, the children, in the style of Da Vinci, sketched and annotated their own simple inventions which ranged from a ship floating in the air with the use of hot air balloons to a unique contraption to help put on make-up.

During our study of the Anglo-Saxons, the children learnt about the reasons the Angles and Saxons sailed to the English shores. They also recognised the effects the Picts and Scots had concerning conflict and war in England.

Talland Class, we are proud of the effort you put into your school work.

Mr Parry and Mrs Swabey