Year 6 – using technology to help us show off our learning
In Year 6, we are in the middle of our topic ‘A Child’s War’. Although this topic is about World War 2, we wanted to’know more’ so we have been finding out about the causes of World War 2.
We have found out that there were a lot of very complicated reasons including: hyperinflation, the Great Depression, Clause 231 and more.
When we were learning, we took pages and pages of notes. Rather than print lots of copies – we decided to use technology to help us.
Our new interactive panels are very clever – they allow you to display lots of pictures and then, using a QR code, you can access all the notes to use for your writing.
We now know so much more about the causes of World War 2 – why not ask your child and see if they can tell you more.
Year 5 had a great trip to Torquay Museum yesterday celebrating all the learning they have done about the Ancient Egyptians. There were plenty of activities for everyone to get stuck into including: making clay Scarab Beetles, playing Ancient Egyptian games, writing Hieroglyphics, building pyramids and making masks. We were also lucky enough to see an actual mummy embalmed and wrapped in the precious stone Turquoise, this is one of only 4 mummies in the UK! A great day was had by all and we’d like to say a massive thank you to Torquay Museum for a fun, knowledge filled day.
Monkey Puzzle had a great day today creating lots of Egyptian artwork for our Hook!
We sketched and designed Tomb Artefacts, wrote our own Hieroglyphics in charcoal or ink in Egyptian symbols, created our own Nemes (Egyptian headwear), made our own Amulets and wrote Transformation Spells.
A great day was had by everyone, the creativity that Monkey shoed today was excellent and I’m sure you’ll agree from the photographs that they have done really well.
Year 3 have had a brilliant day celebrating the end of our topic ‘Emperors and Empires’. Some of the activities today have been: designing and making mosaics, writing a diary entry in the role of a Roman soldier, learning about Roman numerals and taking part in a special Roman PE lesson. We even did a Roman march around the playground with our shields!
Everyone looked amazing in their outfits and so much effort went into them, as well as the shields and swords. Well done Year 3!
Here are some photos of the day.
Year Two enjoyed their first day back after half term today. Not only was it the the start of book week but also the start of our new learning journey.
We had great fun dressing as kings a queens. We also got to sculpt kings and queens out of clay.
In the afternoon we manipulated our cardboard boxes to build castles and used them to role play. It was fabulous to see not only the different parts of the outside of castle such as the keep and drawbridge but also there was lots of thinking about the inside too. Where would prisoners go? Where is best to keep valuable? Would the princess need a dressing table? How will we keep safe from our enemies?
Foundation had lots of fun this week creating their very own photo booth! The children have been enjoying their new topic ‘Long Ago’ where they have been learning all about life in the past and comparing it to the modern day. The children explored black and white photographs and discussed why they were not in colour. They also learnt all about how long it took to take a photograph compared to how quickly we can snap a photo in the modern day.
Looking at the black and white photographs inspired the children to create their own photo booth. The children used the iPads to edit their photographs to black and white so that they looked similar to those they had explored. The children also used props to enhance their photos and had so much fun experimenting!
Today, Palm Class were learning all about Remembrance Day and why we honour the soldiers. We discussed the importance of remembering the soldiers and the sacrifices they made. We also learned the significance of the poppy and why it is a symbol of Remembrance. To help us honour the soldiers on Remembrance Day, we spent the morning creating a class Remembrance wreath using paint to create a handprint poppy. We hope to display this during our 2 minutes silence. 
To kick start our new learning journey ‘Movers and Shakers’ we discussed our own future aspirations. Then we invited some inspirational people into our classroom to come and meet us.
This afternoon, year 3 began their new learning topic, Through the Ages. We became archeologists for the afternoon. Some of the things we found were quite new as they were made out of plastic, whilst other objects appeared to be really old. We had a lot of fun and we can’t wait to find out more about our new topic! Can you remember what you found?
This morning, the Saxon village of Hazeldown was invaded by marauding vikings! It began with a voyage across the sea and a march into the village of the North. The vikings soon settled and integrated with the native Saxons. Within the village, house building, bread baking, weaving, potion making (apothecary), runes and pottery activities took place. During all these activities, amazing collaboration was found between the tribes. To celebrate this, great swordsmanship and dance skills were performed in the open arena. To bring the day to a close, a traditional fire ceremony took place to thank the Norse god Odin for nature’s gifts.
It has been such an exciting week in Willow class!
The children had a great day on Monday experiencing a Victorian school day. We wore our Victorian outfits and had to be on our best behaviour all day!
Instead of writing in our literacy and maths books, we had to use black paper and chalk. We learnt about the 3 Rs: Reading, Writing and Arithmetic. We even had to use an abacus to help us solve our maths learning.
We went outside for Victorian games and practised rolling a hoop, playing blind man’s buff and hopscotch, among other games.
Mrs Taylor even came in to carry out a hygiene inspection and was generally very pleased!
It has been such an exciting week this week. The children loved our Victorian school day on Monday. Their costumes were fantastic and, I am pleased to report, they were all on their very best behaviour. They used chalk and black paper for their work and completed work in the three Rs, Reading, Writing and Arithmetic. We used an abacus to help us with our calculations.
We went outside for Victorian games and practised rolling a hoop, playing blind man’s buff and hopscotch, among other things. Whenever an adult entered the room, the children stood up as a sign of respect. Mrs Taylor popped her head in the classroom for a quick hygiene inspection and was generally pleased at the cleanliness of the children!
The fun continued on Tuesday with Sports Day. We were all so proud of the children’s effort. They tried their hardest and congratulated one another on their successes.
Today was a victorious day for the Cherry Romans!
We sailed across to Britannia in our ship. We travelled North to reach the Caledonia border to battle the evil Celts. After a triumphant morning, we then set up camp to create our own mosaics.
Year 3 had a terrifying time this morning. First it was maths, we were learning our numbers from 1 to 20 in roman numerals. If we made any mistakes there would be harsh punishments!
Next, we set sail to Britannia.
After we arrived, we marched to the Caledonia border and set up camp. From here, we sent spies to learn all they could from the savage’s settlements before we battled them. Obviously we were victorious.
Knowing how great and powerful we were meant we could relax a little in the afternoon and focus on more creative activities. We learned all about mosaics and created some of our own.
Year 5 have absorbed themselves in all things Egyptian this week during their SOLE based learning; becoming historians and artists all in the same week.
We started our learning journey with our ‘hook day’; exploring ancient artefacts, hieroglyphics, memes and amulets. We have continued through the week studying some of the artefacts found in Tutankhamun’s tomb and investigating what these treasures tell us about ancient egyptian life and the boy pharaoh.
Year Three will shortly be writing their very own Vindolanda Tablets in the style of a letter home from a Roman soldier based at Vindolanda, a fort alongside Hadrian’s wall.
To get to know some of the jobs and the arduous duties the Roman soldiers had to carry out, we did some role play.
We marched across the empire to invade Britannia, building our campsites, ensuring they had ditches and added spikes for protection. If you were on duty and caught sleeping you faced harsh punishments. As we moved from place to place, we built straight roads to ensure quick travel in the future.
Finally, we practised our fighting and moving as a unit to battle the tribes in Caledonia (Scotland).
Can you tell from the pictures who is worried about the battles to come?
A member of Apple Class received some exciting post this week from His Royal Highness, The Prince of Wales! Back in January during our learning topic ‘Magnificent Monarchs’, this particular child wrote a letter to the Prince of Wales, offering him some advice after being inspired during the topic. Although quite delayed, Apple Class was delighted to hear the response! 
In Ebony class, we have been celebrating the end of the war – V.E. day!
Today, we have been preparing for our street party to celebrate the end of World War 2.
As you can see from the pictures, we have enjoyed getting into the festive mood after all the bombing and rationing.
Check back tomorrow to see how our street party went.
Wow, Foundation! What an amazing 8 weeks it has been. You have blown us all away with your fantastic attitudes towards your learning and the challenges you have faced. We are SO PROUD of each and every one of you and your phenomenal resilience. It has been a pleasure to teach you all at home! I can’t wait to see you all on Monday! 🙂
This week, in literacy, we have been learning all about dinosaurs. We labelled dinosaurs, wrote a postcard to a dinosaur and even went on a dinosaur themed reading treasure hunt! This linked to our Cornerstones topic ‘Dangerous Dinosaurs’. We have been looking at Julia Donaldson’s ‘Cave Baby’ and identifying prehistoric animals.
In phonics, we have been continuing our learning on adjacent consonants or consonant blends. We have read, written and used adjacent consonants. We are even fantastic at putting our words into context to help us understand what they mean. We are now so confident!
In maths, we have been looking at our number of the week – number 9. We have been using the bar model to partition number 9 and have been learning about measuring. We have been looking at different ways of measuring using different resources like rulers, cubes and feet! We even extended our understanding by discussing what we can measure. We knew we could measure many things such as time, length, height, width, speed and weight. We used our metacognition minds to plan, monitor and evaluate our process for measuring the witches broom from ‘Room on the Broom’ on World Book Day! We found that the broomstick was 7 cubes long.
On Wellbeing Wednesday, we talked about returning to school and how we might be feeling. We also looked at our new social story and discussed the things we are looking forward to on Monday.
On Friday, we had a celebration of our amazing learning over the last 8 weeks. We feel so proud of our resilience and enthusiasm! We watched a video of all of our fantastic learning, here is a short clip:
Here we are sharing our favourite pieces of work with our friends:
Well done again, Foundation, for being home learning heroes!
What a busy start to the half term we have had!
We made a big bang (literally) at the start of the week! We pretended that we were children in World War II. We move the classroom around to make an improvised bomb shelter and experienced what it was like to be involved in an air raid.
Some of us felt excited, scared or even claustrophobic. Later on, we watched a video about what it was like for people in the actual war. The video made us realise how serious it was – we heard from an old man who’s house had been bombed – in the raid his mother had died.
We have also been learning about the Windrush generation in our literacy – trying to learn what it might have felt like to move away from your friends and family at such short notice.
In mathematics, we have been learning about measures and converting. We had a really interesting conversation about why road signs still have miles on them!
Here are some bits of our SOLE work – we hope you enjoy them.
Foundation have been working so hard this week, displaying their amazing growth mindsets! They have been using their ‘metacognition minds’ to justify and reason. Well done Foundation for another fantastic week! 🙂
We have been developing our oracy skills by trying a daily ‘odd one out’ challenge. We collaborate and share ideas using key language such as ‘I agree…’ and ‘I believe…’ Here is an example of an odd one out challenge:
We have been so excited to start our new Cornerstones topic ‘Dangerous Dinosaurs’! We have learnt lots of interesting facts. We now know that the T-Rex had teeth that were bigger than bananas! We have been making dinosaur footprints, creating dinosaur silhouettes and writing dinosaur speech bubbles! We also created our own dinosaurs!
In literacy, we have been learning all about winter. We even made some bird food ‘cakes’ to make sure the birds are keeping warm. We also looked at some pictures of snowflakes and made a list of all of the adjectives we could think of. We then up-levelled our adjectives to make them even better with shades of meaning! We used some fantastic adjectives such as ‘twinkly’ and ‘transparent’.
In maths, we have been learning about the number 9. We have been looking at how it is a square number and can be made from 3 lots of 3. We have used lots of different resources and approaches such as numicon, part-whole models and dominoes to help us learn all about the composition of number 9. We have been using the metacognition cycle and have been planning, monitoring and evaluating our learning!
We have been challenging ourselves in phonics as we have been learning all about adjacent consonants and vowels. We added the word ‘adjacent’ to our vocabulary as we now know that it means ‘next to’. Throughout the week, we have been looking at different adjacent consonant or ‘consonant blend’ words and have worked at putting them into context by using them in sentences!
We have also been engaging in lots of additional activities to support our wellbeing such as going for beach walks, learning about Chinese New Year and water play!
This week, Year 6 have started their new topic – A Child’s War – learning all about WW2. The hook to the topic was to try and experience what it was like to be in an air raid. The children at home found a space where they could create a mock bomb shelter, for example, by putting a blanket over the top of a table and some cushions underneath. To add to the experience, they hid in the air raid shelter whilst the air raid siren was sounding. Here are some pictures of their experiences, along with reflections about how the experience made them feel.
Year 2 have spent the week planning, designing and creating their own Castles, Palaces and Games to complete our Magnificent Monarchs learning journey. They were given free reign and I have to say their imagination and creativity has been inspiring.
Please have a look below at some of their creations.
Games:
Castles and Palaces:
Well done year 2 for everything you have achieved this half term, we are all really proud of you!!!
Have a lovely half term and we’ll see you in a week.
Year Three continue to blow us away with their ever creative ways of presenting their learning about the prehistoric times. Can you spot the diary entry or the drawing of the chief? What do you think the jewellery has been made form ?
Year 3 have become news reporters this week as we interviewed historians about wealth and power in the Bronze Age. We had a few technical difficulties, but after showing resilience we have produced a piece of work we are proud of. We hope you enjoy our news reports!
Presenters: Sophie and Melody
Camera crew: Maddie
Presenters: Lennie and Theo
Camera crew: Attya
Presenters: Poppy and Max
Camera crew: Miss Halloway
https://vimeo.com/509899512/a04a75ad1e
Presenters: Maddie and Harlee
Camera crew: Miss Halloway
https://vimeo.com/509900236/c9ef02e111
Presenters: Ella and Gracie-Mae
Camera crew: Dolly
Presenters: Eddie and Jack
Camera crew: Oliver and Harlee
Presenters: Harry and Max
Camera crew: Miss Halloway
Year 2 enjoyed a very creative afternoon with making monarch models! They chose an English monarch and then were asked to make a model/picture of him/her. They were allowed to use anything in the classroom!!!!!
Last week, we were writing film reviews for films linked to time travel. We also created our own online Literacy Working Wall – just like the one we have at school. We are using this to collaborate with our literacy skills. We’ve also created one for Maths and our very own I Wonder Wall, where we discuss anything we might be worried about.
This week, we will be focusing on Mental Health Week. We have some fun activities that we will be sharing, whilst focusing on all the resources we have to support us to look after our mental health.
Here are some videos and images of scenes that the children in Year 3 have made. They are reenacting elements of life in the Bronze Age, in particular the Beaker People who travelled from Europe to the UK. What can you learn about their lives from these videos?
Here are just some of the things our young historians at home have been up to.
They have been finding out how tools and weapons changed during the Stone Age. Some people, carefully with the help of an adult, then had a go at making some of these.
They have been asking their own questions about historical findings and not only trying to answer their own questions but also decide if the evidence is trustworthy.
Lots of people have also been very creative when replicating Stone Age monuments. We’ve had different monuments from around the county made from cake, brownies, Jenga blocks, stones, clay, lego and more. I do love seeing all your creative ideas.
Well, that’s another week of impeccable learning coming to an end!! Year 5, you must be exhausted; you have all worked so incredibly hard and been so resilient with your learning.
We’ve seen some amazing writing – some of your best yet, we might add (we’re not going to let a Lockdown get in the way of our Super North Star!) We have been so proud seeing your love of learning grow and grow, despite these difficult times, but year 5 you have risen to the challenge …… and excelled!!
Have a look at some of the incredible things we have completed this week:
Wow, we are completely overwhelmed with how much work is being shared with us from Year 5 at home. It’s impossible to share everyones – there’s just so much!!! Here is a snippet of all of the amazing work that our wonderful children are doing at home.
We researched the photographer and artist Andy Warhol and had a go at making a digital montage of ourselves replicating his style.
During our zoom sessions, we like to have bit of fun too!! Today, we watched a video from Rob Biddulph and tried to draw the same character with our paper on our heads!!!
Continuing our learning journey of ‘The Time Traveller’, we have spent our time at home building time machines, making timelines of our lives and speaking to the older generations of our families to see how things have changed in their lifetime. We even had a look at some photos from https://www.francisfrith.com/teignmouth/photos to see what our local skate park used to look like!! We couldn’t believe how different it looked! Have a look at Thomas’ picture!
We are continuing to work really hard on our core subjects of maths, literacy and SPaG with the addition of some of the Oak National Academy’s videos. Today, we learnt all about non-finite clauses and wrote some of our own. We shared these during our afternoon zoom sessions.
Finally, we are reminding ourselves to look after our mental health. Mrs Prentice spoke to us about our ’10 a day’ – Our very own magic. We realised we are doing lots of these every day.
Well done Year 5! Everyone at Hazeldown are so proud of how hard you are all working – don’t forget to say a big thank you to the adults at home who are helping you too.
Here are some of the creative and wonderful things Year 3 have been up to this week?
Do you recognise this famous Stone Age Monument?
What would you use this Stone Age tool for?
Here’s a timeline of different period of the Stone Age and someone else has been comparing them.
Here is some of our literacy from this week. We looked at informal writing and have been using lots of different word classes in our sentences.
How do you help others know your learning? Have a look at this sign someone made for their door.
The children who have been in school this week have become archeologists! We discussed what archeology is and what an archeologist is before walking down to our diggin area. We were on the lookout for anything that might have told us about what life could have been like in the Stone age. We were very careful using spades to dig out the objects before cleaning them with our brushes. We found some items that were old and some items that were made more recently. We had a lot of fun!
In Year 2, as part of our learning journey, we spent the afternoon researching facts about crowns and why members of the royal family wear them. Then, we made our own crowns, using card, jewels, cotton wool and lots of other colourful things! 
This week (and last), in Ebony class we are covering learning that was missed as a result of lockdown.
One of the things we have been looking at is algorithms. These are basically sets of instructions that can be given to a computer or robot. We used the beebot app, giving the beebot sets of instructions to move about an increasingly complex map without making any errors. Sometimes we made errors and had to re-write our algorithms.
We have also been studying Galileo Galilei and the impact he had on the whole world. We learnt about the discoveries he made, as well as how this information was received by the wider world.
Lastly we looked at some apsects of our solar system including: why we have day and night, how the earth rotates, how the earth orbits the sun and how we are moving through space.
Here are some examples of our work:
In Ebony class, we have been learning about an aspect of british history and how it has changed in the last 200 years.
We chose to study transport.
We used a very detailed timeline to help us identify modes of transport that interested us.
We then created a slideshow (using google slides), or an iMovie (using iMovie) to show what we had learnt.
Year 2 you are incredible.
It is great to see that so many of you have thrown yourselves into our new topic. It’s a shame the weather has turned as it’s a great one for being outdoors.
I love how creative some of your are being at home with your maths and making patterns. Some of you have made pooters ready for all your bug hunting and lots of you are already learning lots of awesome facts.
Have a look below at different word classes some people have been sorting after going on their bug hunts.
What’s the best minibeast you have found so far?
Please keep sharing your learning with us. We love to see what you have been up to.
This morning, Year 6 became immersed in their new Literacy unit – the Roman times. Over the new few weeks, we will be working towards writing an authentic tale of mystery and intrigue so we needed to research this exciting period in history.
We have been learning about the life of Grace Darling and how she and her father saved nine people from drowning. Her life was very different to ours in many ways. Even her house was different. It was a lighthouse.
Can can you think of any other ways her life is different?
How have you helped somebody?
You can watch the video here: www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p015gmjd
