Sycamore Class - 2024-2025
Sycamore class is year 3 and 4 children and is taught by Mrs Cleverley on a Monday - Wednesday and Mrs Talbot on a Thursday and Friday. We are very fortunate to be supported by our lovely Teaching Assistant Ms Mason throughout the week and Mr Tanner teaches PE on a Tuesday afternoon. In Sycamore class we are a real team, supporting each other, working together and encouraging one another. We have lots of fun learning in a variety of ways and love sharing what we have learnt with each other. This year we are looking forward to lots of trips and visitors to enhance our learning and an overnight camping adventure to finish the year! Look at the photos below to keep up with our learning journey.
Sycamore have had a brilliant start to term. They have shown excellent learning behaviours in their Maths work and it's great to see such good collaboration so early in the term. Well done Sycamore mathematicians!
Sycamore Class have really enjoyed their printing unit, culminating in making printing blocks out of polystrene and using this to make 4 prints, creating a rangoli inspired piece of work. They even adapted the block and then printed another colour on top to create an amazing effect.
Sycamore Class had a fantastic time at Torquay museum. They learnt all about Roman armour and about Emperor Claudius and the Roman invasion of Britain. They also made clay oil pots, came up with Roman menus and in teams completed amazing mosaic pictures. A fab day of learning. Sycamore were great at sharing what they had already learnt at school and listened well, enthusiastically answering questions. Well done Sycamore.
Author Visit - Simon James
Print Workshop - Courtney Arnold
Sycamore class were lucky enough to have a printing session on Thursday. The children learnt how to make a printing template from plastic and how to use different colours of ink to create amazing patterns. This followed our learning about rangoli patterns.
Forest School - Autumn 1
What a day at Forest School! Sycamore children showed their skills at den building, camp fire making, whittling gnomes and mice as well as climbing trees and exploring the wonderful area. Chocolate chip bread was made on the open fire and was delicious!
In science Sycamore Class have been continuing their learning about magnets, this week they were investigating how a compass works. They even had a go at making their own using a magnet and a needle, some worked and some didn't but they all enjoyed trying!
Sycamore Class have been looking at how sentences are constructed and they have been making their own based on the book Varjak Paw.
In science we have been continuing to look at magnets, this week Sycamore had to design their own game which used a magnet and something magnetic, we had all sorts of games including:
- racing games
- fishing games
- mazes
In RE this week Sycamore Class have been learning about a Christingle Service, they found out what a Christingle is and what each part represents. They they got to make their own Christingle which they all enjoyed!
What a brilliant day Sycamore Class have had! The rain stayed away, there was lots of mud but so much fun, we started with den building, making clay figures and animals and we then made tasty pizza pockets which were cooked over the open fire. The smiles were on everyone's faces all day - a great Friday!
Spring 2025
This term in science Sycamore Class are learning about rocks. Today they were looking at different rocks, describing what they felt like and their appearance. They then had to try and work out what type of rock they were looking at.
Sycamore had a great first computing lesson on stop frame animation. They learnt about simple animation techniques and created their own animations in the style of flip books before developing this knowledge and applying it to make a stop-frame animation using an iPad. Great job Sycamore - very creative!
Today in science Sycamore Class have been testing rocks to see if they are permeable or impermeable. They put the rocks in water and had to observe what was happening, they then had to record their results and write down what they noticed.
Sycamore class have thoroughly enjoyed making rainforest collages inspired by Henri Rousseau and his painting 'surprised'. They are excited for next lesson to draw and paint a rainforest animal to put into their collage!
Sycamore Class had an amazing time at the Eden Project and became Rainforest Rangers
In Spanish this week, Sycamore were learning about pets and colours. One activity involved reading out a sequence of colours in Spanish to their partner to see if they could recreate it using coloured dots.
Sycamore have had a great time in the woods today, they went on a tree hunt, made sweetcorn fritters and played in lots of mud!
Sycamore really enjoyed finding Anglo-Saxon place names in the atlas and local map. We learnt that ‘ton’ means ‘an enclosed village or farmland’ and found many of these in our area - Broadhempston, Ashburton, Dartington, Paignton, Newton to name a few! They also found lots of place names with ‘ham’ and ‘ford’. Why not try naming some at home!
Sycamore class were thrilled to receive letters from our partner school in Uganda! They have enthusiastically written their replies ready for Sue from Food for Thought to take out to Uganda in April. They also had a workshop with and they were fascinated with the Ugandan artefacts and were able to find lots of similarities and differences in the photos she gave them. They were surprised at how the children carried water on their heads and how far they had to walk to collect it.
Sycamore Class have started learning about ’states of matter’. They learnt about solids, liquids and gases and got messy when they were deciding how to classify them!
Sycamore Class had a fabulous hare themed session with med theatre. They played hare themed drama games, moved like hares and created a series of movements in groups. They also loved acting out the Dartmoor myth of the old lady from Tavistock who could turn into a hare!
Sycamore class have really enjoyed thinking about Fairy Tales in terms of news reports. They had great fun doing some role play and figuring out who the perpetrators and victims are in each story.
As part of science week, Sycamore class took part in a live lesson about how whales can help climate change. They learnt that just like trees, whales take in a lot of carbon dioxide through the algae they eat. Once they die, they sink to the ocean floor and take the carbon with them. Other creatures can feed on them for up to 100 years! Sycamore have also been finding out about animal adaptations as part of Science Week. They’re a knowledgeable bunch!
Sycamore Class planned and carried out a science experiment all about ice. They had to work in groups and decide how to make it melt quickly and how they could speed up the melting process. The class kept checking the ice cubes throughout the day until they had all melted
To finish off science week Sycamore have been getting slimy! Today they made cornflour slime and had to decide if it was a solid or liquid, they found out that it is actually a non-Newtonian liquid!
Sycamore had an amazing time at Forest School. The rain stayed away and everyone was busy with fire lighting, decorating eggs and making chocolate crispy cakes. The day finished with an Easter egg hunt which everyone loved!
Sycamore Class showed great sportsmanship at the Handball event today, they played 8 matches against different schools and gave it 100% in every match. A great team effort
Sycamore Class delivered a fantastic assembly yesterday. They told the ’True Story of the Three Little Pigs’ and even put the wolf on trial. They performed with expression, enthusiasm and really brought the characters to life! Excellent job Sycamore!