This week in Explorers we have continued being geographers, looking at the effects of tsunamis, for both people and the environment, whilst thinking about the humanitarian aid that is given after natural disasters. Endeavour were particularly inspired by the support given by the Red Cross after the Japanese tsunami in 2012. We have also thought about which effects are short term and which affect the areas, or even the whole world, for many years to come.

As writers, Endeavour have been continuing sentence stacking of Kensuke’s Kingdom, exploring personification and pathetic fallacy, whilst Beagle have been developing our own playscript writing, creating a 3rd scene for the play we’ve been looking at “Oh Gnome!”

As mathematicians, Endeavour have been mastering column multiplication, utilising our speedy number fact recall. Beagle have been developing our skills when completing short division, particularly using the bus stop method.

As readers, Endeavour class have been busy this week exploring word meaning in comprehension, expanding their vocabulary as they read an excerpt of Beetle Boy: the collectors handbook. Beagle have been focusing on summarising, clearly thinking about the plot and recalling key details from the playscript and stories.

As some of the year 5s headed off to Wales today (we hope they have an amazing time), the rest of year 5 spent the day developing their coding skills, creating racing robots using spike. They developed use of motors and some of us even used sensors to make our robots stop.

They also had the opportunity to make pasta, measuring the ingredients and developing the skills needed to create the dough. We followed this recipe, which gives the cooking instructions if you would like to cook the pasta that they brought home.

https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/user/8610796/recipe/vegan-pasta-dough 

We are very proud of our year 6 children who have shown amazing perseverance whilst completing their mock sats week. We will be sharing the results with all children next week. Please can you encourage your child to complete their homework and reading plus which will help to increase their sight speed.

Coming up:

On Monday some of the year 6 children are going to compete in the School Games Competition at The Oxford Academy. A letter has been sent home today with all the relevant information.

On Wednesday 5th February we will be taking part in a roaming robots workshop. The letters about this and our trip to the Botanic Gardens (5th March) went out this week. Please can all slips and payments be returned swiftly - thank you.

On Tuesdays, Endeavour welcome Magdalen College School as we are working together to put on a performance of Shakespeare Rocks! A musical about William Shakespeare. We will be performing it on Tuesday 25th February at MCS in the afternoon, parents and families are welcome to come and watch - more details to follow next week. 

Home learning:

Endeavour:

• Spellings task - remember to practice your spellings for our Monday spelling check!
• White rose - Spring week 2 pages 48-51
• Reading Plus 

Discovery:

• Reading plus 
• Sumdog 
• Spellings pgs 14-15

Beagle:

• Sumdog maths challenge
• Spellings practise 
• Daily reading