Friday 26th April 2024 

Well done Badgers for another fantastic week of learning. A special shout out to Albie, Freddie, Sophie, Matilda and AJ for playing in our tag rugby tournament on Wednesday - you all showed true sportsmanship and Watlington spirit throughout. 

English: This week, we have been focussing on different grammatical features of warning stories. We have looked at fronted adverbials and punctuating dialogue, with a specific focus on interrupted dialogue. Have a look at our class examples below. 

Maths: We have finished our unit on decimals. This week, we looked at rounding decimals and converting fractions to decimals. 

Science: Our science working wall is coming together! In our Animals including Humans topic, we have discussed what makes a living thing and looked at grouping different organisms. 

Welcome to Term 5! 

We hope you all had a wonderful Easter. Please see the attached documents for Term 5. You will notice that there is no home learning grid this term - please stay tuned for more information on a new home learning format we will be trialling this term. 

For more information on what we will be up to this term, please click on the newsletter link above 

English: In our English lessons, we will be looking at warning stories. These are stories which are typically told orally and contain a lesson or a moral. We started off our unit by performing a variety of warning stories to the class. Have a look at our freeze frames below! 

Maths: In Maths, we have been looking at the flexible partitioning of decimals. For example, 0.18 can be partitioned into 0.1 + 0.08. It can also be partitioned into 0.12 + 0.06 or 0.14 + 0.04. 

Can you think of any other ways to partition 0.18?

Have a look at Cecilia's work below for some great examples on how to partition decimals. 

Science: Our new science topic is 'Living Things and Their Habitats'. We started our unit by learning the MRSGREN mnemonic. All living things (also known as organisms) do certain things to stay alive. These are called life processes. We can remember the life processes by thinking about Mrs Gren. 

Movement

Respiration

Sensitivity 

Growth

Reproduction

Excretion

Nutrition 

Topic: Our summer term topic is called 'Food for the Future'. In our first lesson, we thought about the food we eat (specifically, what we had for breakfast that morning) and how it comes from many different places around the world. We found out that almost all of the milk sold in the UK comes from British dairies, lots of orange juice sold in the UK comes from Spain and that the rice in our cereal might have come from as far as Vietnam! In total, a breakfast of rice puffs, milk and orange juice has travelled over 10,000km before being served at a breakfast table in the UK. Wow! 

STEM Week - w/c 25th March

This week, we are celebrating STEM week! Make sure to check the page regularly for updates on what we have been up to.

We finished the week with some maths playing cards activities. Thank you so much Miss Johnson for organising this! Each child has their own set of playing cards to take home. 
 

Have a wonderful Easter everyone! 🐑  🐣 💚 🌻

See you on Monday 15th April 😊

A HUGE thank you to Dr Nicholson and Mr Cumberlidge for coming in and talking to the children about your careers in STEM. Both talks were absolutely fascinating and the children (and the adults!) learnt LOADS! 

We delved into the world of food technology and had a go at making our own Tzatziki (thank you Lettie for the inspiration!). It tasted delicious!

So far, we have conducted our Big Science Event investigation - Can potatoes conduct electricity?

The children all tried Lettie's homemade dip - here's what they had to say about it!

Dominique - "I love it! It tastes so good!"

Blake - "I don't eat garlic!"

Freddie - "I love garlic!"

Mikey - "It's the best taste ever! I like the texture."

Matilda - "It reminds me of garlic butter."
Mary - "It was so spicy!"

Oskar - "Greek food is amazing!"

Friday 15th March 

Another busy week ticked off in Badgers Class! Have a look at what we have been up to.

English: We composed our own information texts all about Ancient Greece. Have a look at Belle's hot write below. I have also attached a picture of the toolkit. All children needed to aim to include as many of these features in their writing as possible. We have studied these features in class over the last few weeks. 

Maths: We have been looking at decimals. We know that decimals derive from tenths. We looked at fraction and decimal equivalents of both tenths and hundredths.

Jigsaw: As part of our Healthy Me topic, we looked at smoking and vaping. We discussed the different health implications of smoking and vaping and the children had a go at solving some 'real-life' scenarios. Badgers Class were all very mature and grown up during this discussion!

Friday 8th March 2024

This week, we celebrated World Book Day. On Thursday, we studied a poem in detail and learnt it off by heart for Friday's sharing assembly, went to different classes to hear a variety of stories, participated in a reading carousel and created our own bookmarks to take home. The children arrived wearing some brilliant outfits! 

In Science this week, we investigated conductors and insulators. We created simple circuits and added in different materials to see whether they would conduct or insulate the flow of electricity. If the bulb lit up, the material was proven to be a good conductor as the electricity was able to flow freely through the circuit. If the bulb did not light up, the material was a good insulator as it stopped the flow of electricity from lighting up the bulb. We discovered that metal objects are good conductors and plastic objects are good insulators. 

In Maths, we finished our work on fractions. Next week, we will begin our new unit on decimals. The two units are very closely linked so we will be able to apply our fractions knowledge to help us! 

In English, we had a go at writing a new paragraph for our information text about Ancient Greece. We had to make sure to include fronted adverbials and subordinate clauses as these were our focus grammar areas last week. Next week, we are going to complete our 'hot' information texts. 

Have a great weekend 

Friday 1st March 2024

In English, we looked at fronted adverbials and subordinate clauses. Have a look at some of our fronted adverbial examples below. Can you explain these definitions to someone at home?  

In Maths, we started a new unit on fractions. We have looked at equivalent fractions - this means that the fractions are written differently but represent the same amount. For example, 1/2 = 2/4 = 3/6 = 4/8 

In PE, we started thinking of ideas for our gymnastics routines. We need to include individual balances (1, 2, 3 and 4 point), group balances, rolls and jumps. We will work on a different area each week and showcase our performances at the end of term.

Welcome to Term 4! 

Now that we are finished with swimming, our PE days will return to normal. Please make sure that your child comes to school wearing PE kit on Monday and Thursday. 

Our learning this week:

English: We started a new text type: information texts. On Monday, we wrote our 'cold' texts all about our favourite hobbies. This week, we have looked at the features of an information text and the purpose of these features. We completed a 'diamond nine' with the features, putting them in order of most to least important. We all had different ideas! What do you think is the most important feature?

Maths: We have finished our work on length and perimeter. We know that we only need to know the length of one side of a regular polygon in order to work out the whole perimeter. For example, if we know that one length on an equilateral triangle is 5cm, we can multiply 5 x 3 sides = 15cm perimeter in total. 

RE: We have started our unit on symbolism. We looked at Christian symbols including the cross, the dove and ichthus (fish). 

Topic: We begun our new topic, Ancient Greece. We located Greece, Athens and Sparta on a map and discussed some of the physical features of Greece.

Science: We are looking at circuits in our electricity unit. We had lots of fun experimenting with different circuits and making lightbulbs light up and buzzers turn on. 

Useful Web Links for Home Learning

Friday 9th February 2024

It's the last day of what has been a VERY busy term! 

Thank you to all of the parents for coming to Parents' Evening this week. It was great to catch up with you all and talk about your child's achievements. 

On Monday, Badgers performed in the Icknield Dance Show. Performing in front of two large audiences TWICE takes a lot of courage and every single one of the children showed true bravery, stepping onto the stage with confidence and a smile. We are so proud of you all - well done 

On Thursday, we came to school in our own clothes to recognise Children's Mental Health Week. The theme was 'dress to express' so we could wear clothes that reflected our personalities. We had a lot of fun in the photo booth too! 

Finally, on Friday, we did our class assembly where we recapped our learning for the term. 
 

Have a great half term all!

On Thursday 1st February, we visited Oxford Castle & Prison as part of our Oxford Topic. We had a wonderful time learning all about crime and punishment throughout the ages. Take a look at our pictures below - we especially hope you enjoy the ones of us in the stocks and pillory! 

Pokemon Cards - unfortunately, there have been quite a few issues with Pokemon cards this week. Please can you ensure that these cards now stay at home. Thank you.

Friday 26th January 2024

Take a look at our learning this week 

English: Now that we know and understand the key features of discussion texts, we have been working on creating our own sentences to respond to the question, "Should children have to wear school uniform?". The children came up with some great ideas for both sides of the argument and thought carefully about using language of comparison, such as:

"Some people believe that we should have to wear school uniform. One reason for this is so the children are easily recognised if they become lost. As well as this, it gives the children a sense of pride wearing a smart uniform every day.

On the other hand, some people believe that wearing own clothes will be more comfortable for the children, therefore encouraging them to learn better as they will be more relaxed."

Maths: We have tackled short division this week. We have used the 'bus stop' method to solve more complex division problems. Take a look at our step by step below!

RE: We looked at two religious festivals, Ramadan and Lent, and discussed the similarities and differences between the two.

Dance: Our dance sessions at Icknield are going really well and we are feeling ready for our performance on Monday 5th February! We hope that you can all make it and watch us!

Friday 19th January 2024

Take a look at what we have been up to this week 

English: We have picked out the key features of a discussion text. Our model text is based on Alice in Wonderland and discusses the question "Should flamingos and hedgehogs be used to play croquet?". We have thought of reasons 'for' and 'against' this. A discussion text should present both sides of the argument with a concluding paragraph with your personal opinion on the matter. 

Maths: We consolidated our learning of formal written multiplication and have begun looking at formal written division. We will continue working on this next week.

Science: We researched deaf musician, Evelyn Glennie, to link with our sound topic. We looked at how she uses the sound vibrations to help her to 'hear' the music and compose her own percussion pieces.

PE: We had our first dance lesson at ICC. The children were absolutely brilliant and the ICC dance teacher commented on how well behaved the class was. Huge well done Badgers! 

 ✨Happy New Year! ✨

Welcome Back Badgers! We've had a great first week back at school in 2024. 

This week, we have:

• Been swimming at the Thame Leisure Centre
• Watched Year 5 & 6 dance performances - we are ready for our sessions next week!
• Started looking at discussion texts in English - see our pictures of our story map actions 
• Begun formal written methods of multiplication in maths 
• Started our new Oxford topic - we are very excited about our trip to Oxford Castle & Prison later on this term!

Please see all home learning documents above. A reminder that home learning is handed out on a Friday and should be returned the following Wednesday. Please make sure that you are reading and practising times tables regularly at home. Ten minutes a day really does make a huge difference! 

Christmas Reading Advent Calendar 🎄 

Each day, we will upload the book that we have opened and read as part of our book advent calendar. If the book is quite long, we choose a chapter to read. 

Friday 15th December 2023

Wow! What a week we have had in Badgers Class!

On Monday, we went to the church to rehearse for our Christmas Carol Service. We then had a very fun science lesson exploring how sound travels using cups and string! See our pictures below. 

On Wednesday morning, we travelled to Oxford to watch a theatre performance of A Christmas Carol. It was a little jumpy in places but we had a great time! Thank you to Mr Gale for organising such a wonderful Christmas treat for us all. 

On Wednesday evening, we performed our song at the church. The children sang beautifully and I could not have been more proud of them all. 

On Thursday, Badgers showed me their fantastic dance moves at the school disco! 

And finally, on Friday, we celebrated Christmas Jumper Day and had our annual school Christmas lunch. 

I think it is fair to say that all of the children are feeling a little tired now and are ready for the weekend. 

Friday 8th December 2023

We have a special elf visitor in Badgers Class who has been causing a lot of trouble this week! Our elf, Tinsel, has been keeping everyone on their toes for the last few days...! 

In English, we have been studying A Christmas Carol ahead of our theatre visit next week. We have done conducted some ghost interviews pretending to be one of the three ghosts and ended the week by writing an account of the story from one of the ghosts' perspective. 

In Maths, we have looked at factors. A factor is a number that you multiply with another number to get a product. For example, the numbers that you can multiply together to make 12 are:

1 x 12, 2 x 6, 3 x 4 

This means that the factors of 12 are 1, 2, 3, 4, 6 and 12. 

In RE, we looked at religious festivals. We thought about the reasons people celebrate certain events and the things that different people and religious groups do to mark an occasion. Next week, we will look at Christian festivals and Diwali. 

In Topic, we studied Roman Gods and Goddesses. The Romans believed that there were spirits and guardian gods for everything, including guardian gods for different parts of your house! 

Friday 1st December 2023

Christmas season has officially started in Badgers Class! Thank you to all of the parents who sent their child in with a wrapped book for our Christmas Reading Advent Calendar. We have a book for every day that we are at school for the rest of this term - thank you. 

Well done to all of our Badgers who participated in The Big Sing on Thursday evening. 

English: We have published our hot writes! Have a read of our newspaper articles below. We really hope you enjoy them. 

Maths: We put our times tables knowledge to the test and had a go at solving a Tarsia puzzle. We had to make sure that each answer matched the correct calculation. It was trickier than we thought it would be but Badgers showed great resilience and did not give up!

Topic: We are nearing the end of our Romans topic. This week, we compared our life in 2023 to Roman life. Which era would you rather live in and why?

Wednesday 29th November

In Computing, we looked at how false information can spread on the internet. We discovered how easy it is to post false information online. As a class, we wrote the 'fact' below to prove that not everything you read on the internet is real... 

BANANAS ARE BRIGHT BLUE. EVERYONE KNOWS THIS.
 

Friday 24th November 

This week, Badgers have been working very hard on their maths assessments. Well done everyone! 

English: We finished our hot writes! Next week, we are going to write them up to 'publish' them. Watch this space to see our amazing newspaper articles reporting on the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in Pompeii. 

Science: We have been looking at sound and how different instruments work to create different sounds. We know that sound is made from vibrations and that sound travels in waves. We had a very noisy science lesson experimenting to see if we could find out where exactly the instrument was vibrating to create the sound! 

PE: We had lots of fun circuit training in the hall. We finished the lesson with some relay races using the batons. We need to work on passing the baton correctly... we had a few go flying as we were so keen to get them to our team mates as quickly as possible! 

Friday 17th November 

English: In our English lessons this week, we have been doing some 'short burst' writing. We have focussed on a different feature of newspaper reports each day. We have looked at using brackets to include extra information, introduction writing with the 5 Ws, and organising our work into meaningful paragraphs. 

Maths: We have continued our work on multiplication facts and looked at the 7, 11 and 12x tables this week. We ended the week with a timed multiplication grid challenge on Friday. I am SO impressed with how well the children are learning their times tables! Keep up the great work Badgers! 

Science: We finished up our unit on States of Matter and produced a 'hot' task to show off what we have learnt. See our posters below! 

Friday 10th November 

Have a look at what we have been up to this week!

English: We have been looking at fronted adverbials. These are words or phrases that are placed at the beginning of a sentence to describe the action that follows. We composed our own examples linked to the eruption of Mount Vesuvius. Have a look at our class ideas below. 

Maths: We have started our new unit on multiplication and division. This week, we have been focussing on our 3, 6 and 9 x tables. We investigated the relationship between these x tables and found out that all multiples of 6 and 9 are also multiples of 3. Every other multiple of 3 is a multiple of 6 and every third multiple of 3 is a multiple of 9. 

PE: We will be having cricket sessions with Chance to Shine cricket every Monday. We had our first session this week and had a lot of fun! On Thursday, we had a go at circuit training in the hall. 

Friday 3rd November 

We've had a busy first week back in Badgers Class. Have a look below to see what we have been up to. 

English: We started our new text type, newspaper reports. We all wrote a 'cold' report based on The Moon Landing. We have started to learn our new model text with actions. Over the next few weeks, we will develop our reporter skills so that we are confident composing our own 'hot' newspaper articles based on Pompeii, linking to our Roman topic. 

Maths: We finished our work on Area. We know that we can work out the area of a 2D shape by using our multiplication facts. Area = length x width 

Topic: We learnt about the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in Pompeii. Did you know, the people of Pompeii didn't know that they lived beside a volcano? Before the eruption in 79AD, Mount Vesuvius hadn't erupted for around 1,800 years! We also looked at latitude and longitude. Latitudes are horizontal lines that measure distance north or south of the equator. Longitudes are vertical lines that measure east or west of the meridian in Greenwich, England. Together, latitude and longitude create coordinates meaning you can accurately locate points of the globe. We used this knowledge to locate various volcanoes around the world. 

PE: Although the weather has not been on our side this week, that didn't stop us from trying our best to be active! We had a lot of fun following a Harry Potter yoga session on Thursday 

Welcome Back! 

Badgers Class are looking at designing and editing websites. We are adding this piece of text to our class page to test and see if it works... if you can see this, it has worked! 

Friday 20th October

That's a wrap for Term 1! 

Thank you to everyone who came to Parents' Evening this week. It was great to catch up and let you know how your children have been doing this term. 

Have a relaxing, restful week everyone 

English: This week, we wrote our own limericks. The children created some hilarious poems and most were brave enough to read theirs to the class. Well done everyone. 

Maths: We have now finished our work on addition and subtraction and have started looking at area. The area is the amount of space taken up by a 2D shape. We will continue working on this after half term. 

PE: Badgers Class had an exciting day on Thursday as they performed their dances to Foxes Class.  Every single child had a go - we could not be more proud of them all. Unfortunately, the video files are too big to upload to the website but if you want to watch them, do catch me at the end of the school day and I am more than happy to show you from the iPad! 

Art: We had a fantastic morning making and painting our Roman Shields!

Friday 13th October

One week to go until half term!

Thank you to all of the parents who popped in for the Open Afternoon yesterday. The children loved showing you around our classroom and getting their books out for you to look at.

Thank you also for all of the cardboard donations! We will be making our Roman Shields next week so stay tuned...

English: This week, we began a short unit on limericks. We have done lots of shared and partner writing to help us with the structure. Each line has to have the correct number of syllables to create a rhythm. The first and second lines should both have 8 syllables (one more or one less is fine), the third and fourth lines should have 5 syllables and the final line goes back to 8 syllables. The rhyming pattern also follows a similar structure with the first two lines rhyming (a rhyme), the second two lines rhyming (b rhyme) and the final line rhyming with the first two again (a rhyme).

Here is one of our class limericks:

There was a young man called Lance,

Who lived in the middle of France, 

He had a pet shark,

Who swam in the dark,

And especially liked to dance! 

Maths: We have continued our work on formal written methods, focussing on column subtraction this week. 

RE: In RE this term, we have been looking at Ethics & Morals. We discussed moral dilemmas and conducted our first ever debate. The class were split into two and had to take it in turns to speak their reasons for or against an argument. One of our dilemmas was:

Your sister has left her diary open on her bed. Do you read it?

Each side had to think of valid reasons for or against reading the diary. Badgers Class conducted a fantastic debate and had a very fun lesson! 

Friday 6th October 2023

Another busy week ticked off in Badgers Class! Have a read to discover what we have been learning this week. 

English

This week, we completed our 'hot' writes. We composed a Roman adventure story, focussing on creating a descriptive, atmospheric opening. The children wrote some incredible stories, ranging from running away from lava and volcanic eruptions to battling escaped lions and gladiators from the Colosseum! I was so impressed with their vivid imaginations. Well done everyone 

Maths

We started looking at formal methods of addition and subtraction. We use the column method to add numbers together. Have a look at the poster we made below which explains this process. Next week, we will develop our understanding and solve mixed addition and subtraction word problems. 

Science 

We have continued our work on States of Matter. This week, we looked at 'changing states'. Some materials can change from a solid to a liquid, for example, ice to water. The temperature at which this happens is called the melting point. We conducted an experiment with milk chocolate, dark chocolate and butter and investigated their melting points. We then got to make rice krispie cakes with the melted materials! We were all VERY happy about this! 

Friday 29th September 2023

English

This week, we innovated the model text and created our own version of the story. We changed the character and the location. Instead of 'Escape from Pompeii', we now have 'Escape from the Colosseum' which is all about a girl named Octavia. As a class, we wrote the new version below. This will help us with our hot writes next week when we will think of our own escape stories based in the Roman times.

European Languages Day

To celebrate European Languages Day, Years 4, 5 & 6 held a language morning on Wednesday. We attended three different sessions - Italian with Miss Harman, German with Mr Gale and sign language with Miss Johnson. Have a look at some of the videos below 

Maths

We started off the week by looking at Roman numerals. Badgers Class picked this up so quickly!  

We then started some work on rounding numbers to the nearest 10, 100 and 1000. We have a rhyme to help us to remember whether to round the numbers up or down. When looking at the appropriate place value column (ones column when rounding to the nearest ten, tens column when rounding to the nearest hundred and hundreds column when rounding to the nearest thousand), we say:

5 or more, raise the score! 4 or less, let it rest!

Science

We conducted an experiment to see whether or not gas has a weight. We had a bottle of fizzy water which we weighed. We then shook it up and slowly opened the cap to release all of the carbon dioxide. We then reweighed the bottle to see if the weight had changed.

What do you think the result of the experiment was? 

We ended the lesson with the coke and mentos experiment. When mentos mints are put into a bottle of coke, a chemical reaction occurs. The mint sweets provide a surface for the carbon dioxide in the coke to cling onto. The bubbles of carbon dioxide get larger and as they are lighter than the liquid, they quickly shoot to the top of the bottle, creating a mini explosion!

Can you help us? 

Badgers Class are going to be creating Roman shields as part of their Art & DT project for this term. Do you have any large bits of cardboard that you could donate to us please? We need as much as possible! 

Friday 22nd September 2023

Another week completed in Badgers! The children have been very busy with their learning this week.

In English, we have done lots of 'short burst' writing linked to our model text. We have been focussing on setting descriptions and have used expanded noun phrases to describe Pompeii. An expanded noun phrase is a phrase made up of a noun and at least one adjective. If you list more than one adjective to describe the noun, a comma must be used to separate them. 

Here is one of our class examples:

The busy, hardworking fishermen loaded their precious goods onto the colossal ship.

In Maths, we have continued our work on place value. We have been estimating numbers to 10,000 on a number line. 

Our science topic for this term is States of Matter. On Monday, we discussed the different properties of solids, liquids and gases and looked at their particle arrangements. Check out our video below of us acting out the different particle arrangements of the three states. We had a lot of fun doing this!

We have continued our work on our Roman Dance routines in PE. We have learnt the basic moves from the song and we are now ready to choreograph our own ideas into the routine.

Friday 15th September 2023

Welcome Back Badgers! 

We have had a brilliant start to the new academic year. 

Above are the home learning documents for this term. Each week, please make sure to complete one task from the home learning grid alongside regular reading, spelling and times tables practise.

Have a look below to see what we have been learning about this week.

English

Our writing unit for the next few weeks is focusing on setting description and characterisation. So far, the children have written their own 'cold' story to show off what they already know. We introduced our new model text, The Escape from Pompeii and we have begun to learn the story map with actions. We have also completed various reading activities relating to the text to secure our understanding of the genre.  

Maths 

In maths this week, we have been focussing on place value. We have looked at different ways to represent 4 and 5 digit numbers. We have also started maths journaling to 'prove' that our answers are correct and demonstrate how and why we know we are right. Have a look at Eliza's example below. 

RE

This week, we looked at where Buddhism originated from. We worked in groups to create short drama performances to act out the story of the Buddha. The weather was lovely so we performed on the outside stage! 

PE

This term, our PE sports are tag rugby and dance. We familiarised ourselves with rugby balls on Monday and practised passing in teams. On Thursday, we had a go at a Roman dance routine. Over the next few weeks, we will choreograph our own routines and perform them at the end of term.