During one of our No Outsiders lessons, we read the book  'Kenny lives with Erica and Martina'. Kenny's world soon becomes a lot more colourful with the arrival of some new neighbours. Kenny welcomes the change, but not everyone else does. How can Kenny let everyone know that being different is not something to be afraid of? We made our own graffiti messages using PowerPoint to spread our own messages.

These are some of the messages that Poplar class came up with:

'Treat others how you want to be treated' 

'Be you, be unique'

'Everyone is different, so we should respect everyone'

'Everyone is different, and that's okay'

'Be yourself, change is okay' 

Today Pine Class have been presenting the weather in France. They have learned how to say what the weather is doing all over the country.  They all did an excellent job and seemed to enjoy it ;-) 

Ask your child: "Quel temps fait-il aujourd'hui" and see what they tell you!

A bientot!

We have been learning all about the different planets in Space in our Science lessons. In groups, we were each given a planet to research and make a poster for. We then had to present our findings to the class. We worked brilliantly to show the Fairlands school rules during this group work activity: making sure everybody was included and had a role whether they were researching facts or writing down ideas, we showed what we can achieve when we work together and came up with some eye catching, informative posters, and we respected each group when it was their turn to present, by showing good listening skills. Well done Poplar class!

Congratulations to Cassie who won the Poplar class book review competition. The class were asked to write a review of our Guided Reading book, Letters from the Lighthouse by Emma Carroll.  Well done Cassie - I loved reading your charismatic review!

This is my opinion of letters form the lighthouse by Emma Carroll. Personally, I thought it deserves 4 and a half stars out of 5 and that’s what I’m here to explain. In my own perspective of this book, I strongly recommend it for passionate readers, who are up for a challenge and enjoy cliffhangers, powerful description and I could probably point seven more points but we better get on. I could close my eyes for a split second and imagine what WWII is like just from a short line of description. This book has many ups and downs but in the end, well they sort things out. I’m going to end my review here so I don’t spoil it for your adventures, hope you enjoy and I will be sure to read plenty other Emma Carroll books since they are emotionally inspiring.

In science this week we have been investigating the effects of water resistance. We discussed how it feels different to walk in water than it does to walk on land and we learnt that water resistance is a type of friction. We had to build three shapes out of play dough to test which one would sink the fastest. We used stopwatches to try to be as accurate as possible and made sure it was a fair test by doing it three times for each shape to get the best results. Which shape do you think would sink the fastest?

At 2pm today, air raid sirens rang out throughout year 5.  All 3 classes were being evacuated.  Just like Cliff and Olive in our guided reading book, Letters from the Lighthouse, the children were bundled up and sent to all 4 corners of the school.  Each group had a very different experience.  Some were helping younger children with their maths, some went out to play with the Year 1 children and many were stuck washing up, sorting and sharpening pencils and cleaning tables.

It was easy to see who hit the evacuation jackpot however, the 2 groups sent to Miss Bridge and Mr Holgate were spoilt rotten with hot chocolate and biscuits!

Much in the same was as back in the 1940s, the children had vastly different experiences and were very keen to compare (and complain) upon their return.

Year 5 were treated to a medley of fruit on Tuesday in their Food Education workshop.  They learned all about the health benefits of various fruits as well as making a delicious rainbow fruit salad.  I'm sure they all enjoyed eating them at home (apart from the few pieces Mrs Allan stole!).

On Wednesday this week, Year 5 visited the Imperial War Museum Duxford, to learn more about our current topic of Conflict. We saw some really impressive planes and land warfare artillery and even got to exlpore inside some of the planes. We were also lucky enough to see some of the planes flying, including a two-seater Spitfire!