Years 5 & 6 Tamar
Welcome to Tamar Class 2018-2019
Teaching Team
Ms J Salter (Class Teacher Mon-Thurs)
Mrs S Rooke-Higginson ( ClassTeacher Fri)
Mrs. K Sinclair (Teaching Assistant Mon - Fri ams)
Miss Coombes will teach ICT Thurs 2-3pm
Mrs Earnshaw will teach PSHEE Tues pm
District Sports will teach P.E Tues pm
Please contact us on our Class email - tamar@stgeorgesstcmat.org
If you have any questions, please feel free to talk to us at the classroom door in the morning or after school, otherwise please feel free to make an appointment to see one of us after school.
Ms Salter, Mrs Rooke-Higginson and Mrs Sinclair 
Learning Star Award 
Value Star Award 
Days to remember
PE will be on a Tuesday and Friday afternoon
Home learning will be set on a Friday and due in the following Wednesday
Spelling and Tables Tests will be on a Wednesday and scores will be sent home
Reading records need to be in every day
Important dates:
4/9/18 Non Pupil Day
5/9/18 Children back to school
13/9/18 Roald Dahl Day
14/9/18 World Teaching Assistant Day
21/9/18 International Day of Peace
26/9/18 Day of Languages
29/9/18 World Heart Day
4/10/18 World Animal Day
5/10/18 World Teachers' Day
7/10/18 National Poetry and Smile Day
10/10/18 World Mental Health Day
12/10/18 World Egg Day
15/10/18 National Bake Week
17/10/18 Child Poverty Day
All Creatures Great and Small
All Creatures Great and Small
Expectations
Useful links to support children with Maths and English
Helpful Reads!
Y6 Maths Homework
Bean to Bar - have a look at our amazing writing from Oscar in Y5!
ANTI-BULLYING WEEK
This week the class have been discussing how to banish bullying. They discussed how it would make them feel if they were on the receiving end of bullying and what they can do to make sure bullying doesn't happen in the class or the school.
They watched the short pixar film 'For the Birds' to highlight how cruel bullying can be and how just by watching and encouraging the bully to continue hurting someone else that you are a part of the bullying.
Please ask your child about what they have learnt and discussed.
Despite the dismal weather, Tamar Class had a very informative experience on our trip to Dartmoor. The children gained copious amounts of knowledge about the Bronze Age settlements and also about the formation of the tors on Dartmoor. They will use this to form the basis for their learning over the next couple of months.
We are now 2 weeks into our 6 week session with Plymouth Argyle Community Trust. The children have been learning about nutrition and this week enjoyed playing football in small teams. It was great to see some impressive talent and teamwork amongst the class!
This week the class learnt about diet and why it is important to eat healthy foods and have a varied diet. The children created their own advert to convince people to eat healthy foods using alliteration and came up with their own slogans for example "Perfect Pineapples: Just Eat It" - Rhys. The children also took part in a dodgeball tournament playing in small teams against each other.
Learning in Tamar 2016-17
Literacy - Writing a balanced argument
Our latest topic has seen the children in Tamar class learning abut the upcoming General Election. We have researched democracy, carried out class debates and found out all about the roles and responsibilities of the politicians in Westminster.
We delved a little deeper into the main political parties and their 2017 manifestos before writing own balanced arguments on the main party policies.
Poetry
In literacy this week we have been writing emotive poems using a picture as a stimulus. To build our poems we created word banks filled with nouns, adjectives, verbs and adverbs.
Once we had crafted our poems we performed our poems outside in the sunshine! Please take a look at the learning wall, some shining examples of our work and some photos of our poetry performance.
Narrative Writing - The Easter Story
Tamar class have been working on sentence structure and creating a 'Rainbow' of sentences to help them write a descriptive version for part of the Easter Story.
In class we worked together to draft a version of 'The Last Supper' before the children worked independently to write a version of 'The Crucifixion'.
Here is our working wall and some of the children's work.
Literacy - Writing a Creation Story
This unit has seen Tamar class planning and writing their very own versions of how the world was created. We had the opportunity to read many different creation stories from all over the world, discuss and analyse the writing devices used and revise and perfect our use of fronted adverbials, relative clauses and using figurative language to help paint a picture in our readers minds.
Here is our learning journey and an example of a creation story ending as well as an example of our work having undertaken peer and self assessment of the narrative and unit as a whole.
Writing Biographies
During literacy we have been writing a biography about Thomas Edison. Tamar have read lots of different biographies about famous scientists to identify the different features of a biographical text. The children then 'boxed up' key notes they had researched on Edison before using this information to create their final biography. All children were encouraged to use key grammar and punctuation skills learnt during the unit, such as: fronted adverbials; the passive verb form; semi colons and brackets to add extra information to their writing.
Please take a look at our learning wall and a couple of examples of the children's final outcomes.
PSHE in Tamar
This week has seen visitors from the British Red Cross and Devon and Somerset Fire Service talking to the children in Year 5 and 6. All of Tamar enjoyed a safety talk from our local firefighters based in Camels Head station. Some even enjoyed trying on the safety equipment and clothing used by the fire service.
British Red Cross came in to lead a workshop for Year 6 on 'what it means to be a Refugee', they learnt how we can support children who may come to our school as a refugee and the children had a chance to discuss and understand the difficulties facing many children and adults who are forced to leave their home. A big THANK YOU to our visitors for their rich learning experiences offered to Tamar and a huge WELL DONE to all of the class for their brilliant behaviour and respect. Please take a look at some of the photos from the visits below.
Firework Poems
Tamar have enjoyed a week of poetry to celebrate Bonfire Night. We read lots of 'Firework' poems to inspire us and identified imagery-rich language and poetic devices to use within our own poems. Take a look at our 'Learning Wall' which maps our learning journey though this short unit of work.
Numeracy
In Maths this half term we have been focusing on Place Value and Additive Reasoning. The children have undertaken problem solving, completed Maths inquiries as well as actively demonstrating their reasoning and explaining their thinking to explicitly show how they are thinking mathematically. We have investigated the use of the 'Bar Model' to support our understanding of worded Maths problems to ensure we are undertaking the correct calculation. The following website will support the use and learning of the 'Bar Model'.
Literacy
Continuing with our Land Ahoy! topic we have been writing pirate narratives and the children have written an opening chapter to a pirate story. The learning steps for this unit supported the children to write using effective character and setting descriptions.
The English learning wall displays the steps the children took towards their final outcome.
Literacy
The children have been inventing their own Pirate poems in literacy, using descriptive devices and pirate specific vocabulary, the children have written some fantastic poetry describing the different things you would find on a pirate ship. Take a look at our class 'Piratosaurus'.
Take a look at our Pirate Adventure afternoon!
Last week we launched our topic 'Land Ahoy!' with a pirate adventure on and around the school field. The afternoon provided lots of opportunity for the class to work collaboratively, learn 'pirate' skills (shelter building, fire lighting and map reading) and gain further insight into the lives of pirates past. We had lots of fun learning specific vocabulary and of course talking and dressing like pirates. Here are just a few moments from our afternoon...
Have a look at Tamar class loving their learning last year.
2015 - 2016
Our Learning Wall on Instruction Writing
Spring Curriculum Overview 2016
As part of KS2 Hook Day, the class got to taste a variety of chocolates to see if they could name them and assess whether they were a high, mid or low price range and to discover which chocolate bar was the class favourite. There was a big divide within the class between the dark, milk and white chocolate. It was interesting to see which children had the sweetest tooth!
After this, they watched a Power Point on where the chocolate may have come from and the need for fair trade. The class were very reflective and wrote some extremely emotive diary entries as one of the children discussed in the presentation.
Finally, in the afternoon, the class took on the challenge of creating a company that designed, made and promoted their own unique chocolate bar which they then pitched to the rest of KS2. SOme of their ideas were amazing and I'm sure companies like Cadbury's and Mars would soon snap them up!
Some examples of our diary entries written as a child working on a cocoa farm.
Our Learning Walls
Planning overview Autumn 2015
Graduation from Millfied's Inspire
The Year 5 children graduated from Millfield's Inspire on Tuesday 7th July at St. Peter's Church. All of the children have enjoyed visiting different work place and have great aspirations in their chosen future careers!
Some of our Big Questions.
Our jigsaws and powerpoints about different faiths.
Power point presentations on different faiths.
SCIENCE WITH A TWIST!
On Friday 10th July, Year 5 visited All Saints Academy where they enjoyed using microscopes to look at cells and used bunsen burners to see which foods gave us the most sustained energy. They had an amazing time and we look forward to wring with them again in the future.
Homework Projects
The class have worked hard at home to find out about the flora and fauna of Dartmoor. They created posters, models, pictures and presentations, which have been enjoyed by the rest of the class.
Thank you to all those children who made a huge effort to complete this!
On Thursday 11th June, KS2 visited Foggintor and its surrounding area. They had an amazing time and walked a long way without a moan or groan from anyone! They walked along the old railway track and saw where people used to live on the moors. Some intrepid explorers climbed Kings Tor and were 'wowed' by the beauty of Dartmoor in 360 degrees!
The children had also made pasties and insulators in D.T. and Science and were impressed that the pasties were still warm after three hours!
A huge thank you to all the parents who supported us on this trip! 
The class had an amazing trip to City College to experience a variety of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Maths) activities. They were WOWed with exciting experiments and challenged to make bird feeders from willow; a weight that would drop slowly to the deepest oceans and boats that would hold the most pennies!
They also experienced what it would be like to be inside a gigantic bubble; held giant land snails, flew a virtual fighter plane; cracked WW1 codes and plenty more!
I know they had a fantastic time and wished they could have stayed all day!
NMA visit
- St George's Church of England Primary Academy, Admiralty Street, Stonehouse, Plymouth, Devon, PL1 3RX
- T: 01752 224863
- E: admin@stgeorgesstcmat.org