This is the first week when it has really felt like autumn outside. We can't say the same thing for the classroom!


This week the children delved into the up sides and down sides of Ramesses II's long and glorious reign in a cross-curricular unit overlapping with History. They were learning how to discuss both sides of an idea as part of the Discussion unit. They are learning how to form opinions and back them up with evidence--one of the first steps towards critical thinking skills.


We explored more pharaohs and their symbols this week in History, and the children gave themselves pharaoh names like "Foremost son of Ra, noble lord of the sky." This we translated into Egyptian, so the name would be "Hat Sa Ra Neb Pet," and this would be put into a cartouche.


In science we began to look at decision trees and how they can help us to distinguish amongst many types of life forms that might be very similar to each other. A decision tree only allows a 'yes' or 'no' answer, so it allows small differences in things to distinguish them. We also looked a little bit at Carl Linnaeus and his system of classifying life forms by giving them descriptive Latin names.


We worked on dancing at different levels in PE, refining our version of the Haka war dance to include steps near the ground, kneeling over and standing up straight. The children especially love to make intimidating faces and shouts.


Next week we will be looking at Black sports figures in English as part of Black History Month, so if you get a chance to tell your child, perhaps they can think about who they might like to research and bring it with them on Monday.


Also, just another reminder that each child should be getting a new list of ten spellings every Monday in their homework books. They have until Thursday to study for it, when they will have a test. If your child arrives home on a Monday without spellings, it is not because they weren't given any.


We will probably not give out any spelling works in the last two weeks before Christmas break due to the hectic nature of that time. Other than that, expect a new list of words every Monday.


See you all next week!