Week two is over and, hurrah, the sun is finally shining!

The whole school paused to reflect on Monday to mark Earth Day. In Oceans, the children discovered that rubbish we place into the bin, while disappearing from sight, doesn’t actually vanish. We followed plastic waste from a picnic as it was washed into the gutter, through the sewers and into the rivers and oceans. We looked at the problems this waste causes for sea creatures and discovered that plastic waste breaks up into smaller and smaller and yet smaller pieces before finally entering the food chain. Fish, chips and plastic bits for our supper. Yuck!

Following the theme of plastic pollution, we started our new English writing unit. We’re are working towards creating our own newspaper report based on this short video: The Creature.  The week started with us looking at the shape and characteristics of a newspaper report before moving onto crafting our own impactful headlines, emotive straplines and rhetorical questions. We’ll be continuing to develop our reporting skills over the next couple of weeks.

In maths, we’re continuing with decimals and beginning to link these skills to understanding money. Children should know the value of each coin and note and understand what these values represent, understand that money can be represented in different ways but still have the same value and be able to add coin values together to find the total amount.

For this week's maths home learning Pacific and Indian have their Big Maths to complete. Everyone also  needs to revisit the learning we have done this week on decimals: Yr3 have a printed sheet, while Yr4 should complete pages 78 and 79 of their White Rose Maths book. If your child is unsure please ensure they ask for support on Monday or Tuesday.

In PSHE, we’re been concentrating on what makes a good friend, ways the children can find common ground and strategies to build relationships when they break down. To help the children develop an optimistic outlook and improve their self-esteem we continue to ‘Stormbreak’: a programme that utilises movement to support children’s mental health.

Next week, in science, we’ll be looking at habitats and how environments can change, as well as identifying how animals and plants are suited to and adapt to their environment in different ways.

Have a great weekend.
The Oceans Team