Happy New Year From Oak Class

Happy New Year from everyone in Oak Class.

We have had a very productive start to the new term and the children have been very keen to get involved in their learning, impressing us all.

Our new topic - Mystical Maya has really sparked their interest and the children are quickly becoming experts on this ancient civilisation. To introduce the learning, we have shared an ancient Maya folk tale about how chocolate was discovered, and met two very interesting gods; Night Jaguar and Kukulkan. On Thursday we researched just why this area of history is covered in schools. They were very impressed by the reasons as they discovered what a sophisticated, skilled and intelligent civilisation they developed and how ahead of their time they were 3000 years ago. 

In maths we are focusing on multiplication and division, and realising yet again the value of our times tables knowledge. We will continue to be targeting fast recall of these number facts so any extra help they can receive at home would be very welcome.

In Science next week, we will start our learning on different rocks: how they were formed, their properties and what rock types are in our local area.

To support the above learning we will be reading a variety of books to link with these different areas and one just for the pleasure of sharing a story together. Maybe, the new year is a good chance to visit one of the local libraries, get registered for a library card and explore the shelves to see if they have any books to help them with their homework project, understanding of rocks and Mayan's or just to discover an exciting new series of books or a new author. Please encourage your child to let me know if you do, do this and we will share their experience with the class.