Sycamore: Summer 2 - Week 5, by Miss McCahey

Date: 27th Jun 2025 @ 2:49pm

Another great week for Sycamore!

English
This week, we've been exploring Kenning poems—a fun and creative style of poetry! We had a great time trying to guess the animals described in each other's poems, and then we wrote our own, inspired by our unique personalities.

Maths
In Maths, we’ve started learning about data handling. We’ve been interpreting pictograms and line charts, discovering how to represent information in interesting and useful ways.

Science:

Things got deliciously interesting in Science! We conducted an experiment by melting dark, white, and milk chocolate to find out which melts the fastest. Surprisingly, white chocolate has the lowest melting point, while dark chocolate melts the slowest!

French:

Our French lessons have taken us to the dining table! We've been practising how to order our own school dinners.

RE:

We’ve been learning about Hinduism, focusing on the story of Rama and Sita. We also reflected on the duties and responsibilities we have—at home, at school, and to ourselves. We explored the meaning behind Raksha Bandan, a special celebration of the bond between siblings.

COLOUR RUN!

We had such a fab time doing the colour run! It was so lovely to see your smiling and excited faces, there wasn't a single clean top to be seen (including my own!)

Big Question of the Week:

Why is Sycamore in Chester...

Sycamore: Summer 2 - Week 4, by Miss McCahey

Date: 23rd Jun 2025 @ 3:41pm

Another great week for Sycamore! You've all worked really hard on your summer assessments!

English

Maths
In Maths, we’ve been learning how to measure length and find the perimeter of shapes. We used rulers and did some great measuring!

Science
We have just started our new topic: The Water Cycle! We had a super active lesson learning about solids, liquids, and gases. We also tested how fast ice melts in different temperatures—it was so much fun being scientists!

Computing
In Computing, we practised our typing using BBC Dance Mat (you can try it at home too!). We also made a Roman report on the computer using Microsoft Word. We even learned how to make a table and add data to it!

https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/topics/zf2f9j6/articles/z3c6tfr#zn9s3qt

Next week in Sycamore…
We’ll be starting a new maths topic: statistics and data handling. Get ready to become data experts!

Don’t forget: The Colour Run is coming up—get ready for lots of colourful fun!

Big Question of the Week:
Does all chocolate melt at the same temperature? Hmm… what do you think?

Another great week for Sycamore!

English
This week, we've been exploring Kenning poems—a fun and creative style of poetry! We had a great time trying to guess the animals described in each other's poems, and then we wrote our own, inspired by our unique personalities.

Maths
In Maths, we’ve started learning about data handling. We’ve been interpreting pictograms and line charts, discovering how to represent information in interesting and useful ways.

Science:

Things got deliciously interesting in Science! We conducted an experiment by melting dark, white, and milk chocolate to find out which melts the fastest. Surprisingly, white chocolate has the lowest melting point, while dark chocolate melts the slowest!

French:

Our French lessons have taken us to the dining table! We've been practising how to order our own school dinners.

RE:

We’ve been learning about Hinduism, focusing on the story of Rama and Sita. We also reflected on the duties and responsibilities we have—at home, at school, and to ourselves. We explored the meaning behind Raksha Bandan, a special celebration of the bond between siblings.

COLOUR RUN!

We had such a fab time doing the colour run! It was so lovely to see your smiling and excited faces, there wasn't a single clean top to be seen (including my own!)

Big Question of the Week:

Why is Sycamore in Chester...

Sycamore: Summer 2 - Week 1, by Miss McCahey

Date: 5th Jun 2025 @ 3:51pm

English

In English, we have been reading Roman Diary: The Journal of Iliona. This fictional diary follows the life of a young greek girl who suddenly finds herself attacked by pirates and sold as a slave. Now in Rome and serving her Roman masters, we wonder how Iliona's life might change...

Maths

This week, we have revisited our knowledge and understanding of time. We had lots of fun thinking of all the things you can do in less than a minute and comparing how long it takes us to get to school.

Our year 4s have all worked very hard, getting ready for their multiplication checks!

History

In History, we have started exploring the reasons why Britain was invaded by Emperor Claudius and how the native's tried to fight back. Did you know that this was the 3rd attempt by the Romans! We have also learnt about Queen Boudicca and how she resisted the invasion.

Summer 1 - Week 4, by Miss McCahey

Date: 22nd May 2025 @ 8:24pm

English

In English, we have been reading Escape from Pompeii and used it to inspire our own setting descriptions filled with fiery volcanoes and ancient cities. We also learnt how to use speech to help move the story along and bring our characters to life! We have really enjoyed learning about the ancient city. We even held a piece of genuine Roman pottery to help emerge us!

Maths

This week, we have revisited decimals and developed our knowledge of creating a whole using tenths and hundredths.

Art

In Art, we have been learning about the life and work of Claude Monet, exploring how he used colour to create mood and draw attention in his paintings. Using the colour wheel and watercolours, we created our own beautiful flower drawings inspired by Monet’s style—everyone worked so hard and should be really proud of their stunning artwork!

We now have our teams ready for Sports Day and have been practicing with Aspen and Willow class. We can't wait for you to see all of our hard work paying off!

Next week in Sycamore...

We will start our new maths unit, money and lean how to estimate and calculate money as a decimal. We are also going to be learning about Pentecost and its significance in Christianity.

Don't forget, LKS2 Sports Day next Friday!

Well done to our super star Y6s after finishing their SATs

Sycamore: Summer 1 - Week 3, by Miss McCahey

Date: 11th May 2025 @ 2:58pm

English

This week we have still continued to explore the adventures of Ruskin and the Krindlekrax! After writing our own hero and monster story last week, we have looked at the features of instructions, and started to write our very own instructions on how to catch the Krindlekrax. I hope you have a very large net ready!

Maths

We finished off our 'Shape' unit by identifying and describing the properties of 2D and 3D shapes. Next week In maths, we will revisit decimals and develop our knowledge of creating a whole using tenths and hundredths.

Geography

We have continued our Exteme Earth topic by exploring earthquakes and tsunamis. We have looked at how scientists monitor seismic activity and how they use the Richter and Mercalli scale to measure earthquakes. We even had a go putting these in the correct order from least to most destructive.

We now have our teams ready for Sports Day and have been practicing with Aspen and Willow class. We can't wait for you to see all of our hard work paying off!

Next week in Sycamore...

We will start to read Escape from Pompeii and explore the colourful pictures

to help us predict and deepen our vocabulary.

We are going to research Monet and experiment with contrasting colours.

Good luck to our amazing Year 6s as they start their SATs!

Summer 1 - Week 2, by Miss McCahey

Date: 2nd May 2025 @ 11:58am

Attendance Party!

This Friday we have been able to celebrate our whole school attendance with a big party!

Well done to everyone who has helped us achieve this!

English

This week we have started to write our own hero and monster story. We had lots of fun creating our own characters, especially the monsters! We explored the different settings and using photos, worked very hard on its descriptions. I have throughly enjoyed reading all of your amazing stories!

Maths

Carrying on from 'Shape', we have been practising our ruler skills by measuring and drawing. We have also explored perpendicular and parallel lines, as well as spotting different horizontal and vertical lines in the classroom.

Geography

This week we have started our new topic - Exteme Earth! We asked the question 'What is under our feet?' and explored the layers of the Earth. Did you know that the Earth's crust is 0 - 60 km thick, and that the inner core is 5,500°C hot! This has helped us to understand how volcanos are created.

Summer 1 - Week 1, by Miss McCahey

Date: 27th Apr 2025 @ 10:27pm

Welcome back!

I hope you all had a lovely Easter and spring break and feeling refreshed and ready for the new term. It has been lovely hearing all of your fun adventures!

English

This week we have started to read 'The Krindlkrax' by Philip Ridley, an exciting adventure about a boy named Ruskin who must find the courage to save his town from a mysterious creature lurking beneath the streets. We have ben exploring the themes of the book and will eventually write our own adventure story about an unlikely hero.

Maths

We have now moved on to our new unit 'Shape'. We began by reminding ourselves of clockwise and anti-clockwise, and practised 'turns' - making sure not to get too dizzy! This was followed by 'angles', which the children enjoyed demonstrating with their arms.

French

We’ve kicked off our new topic, ‘Dans la Classe’, and have had lots of fun exploring all the different things we have in our classroom! To refinforce our French vocabulary, we had lots of fun playing 'Jacques a dit' (Simon says) and Bingo.

P.E

We have begun our Invasion Games unit in PE and have thoroughly enjoyed exploring the different ways to control a ball. Next week, we’re excited to put these skills into practice using basketballs and focusing on dribbling. At the same time, we’ve also launched our Sports Day preparations and are looking forward to putting our running and jumping skills to the test!

Reception 2025 Places Available, by Mrs Williams

Date: 25th Apr 2025 @ 7:46am

Places available for Nursery and Reception for September 2025

Spring 2 - Week 6, by Miss McCahey

Date: 4th Apr 2025 @ 3:38pm

Maths.

This week in maths, we’ve been learning how to divide 1 and 2-digit numbers by 10. Using resources like counters, place value charts, and hundreds squares, we've explored different ways to partition numbers and work out the calculations. It's been a fun and hands-on way to deepen our understanding of division and place value!

English.

This week in English, we’ve been practising our comprehension skills by reading about the Stone, Bronze, and Iron Ages. We’ve worked on improving our inference skills and explored different Bronze Age artefacts, coming up with amazing adjectives to create expanded noun phrases. We’ve now started using these ideas in our Star Write by writing a reply to the British Museum!

Science.

This week, we’ve deepened our scientific enquiry skills by planning an investigation to answer the question, "How does distance affect a shadow?" We carefully planned our experiment and discussed the best ways to find out the answer. After collecting our data, we used our skills to draw conclusions by noticing patterns in the results. How do you think the distance from a light source might affect a shadow?

P.E

In gymnastics this week, we combined all the balances and movements we’ve been practising into a final routine. The children had to think carefully about how to travel between each balance, making sure to point their toes and tighten their core. It was a great way to showcase all the skills we’ve learned so far!

In athletics, we started to prcatise our long jump. We made sure that we had the correct stance and then incorporated a run up. Over the course of just one hour we could really see improvements in everybody!

EGGCELENT attandance:

Sycamore have absoloutly SMASHED their attandance over the last few weeks and as a class, we have won some lovely prizes! This goes to show that putting in the effort really makes a difference. Let's keep up this fantastic work after the holiday.

Big well done to the GREEN TEAM for winning the most amount of house points!

I hope you all have a lovely holiday and well-deserved rest over the next two weeks. I can't wait to hear what you have all been up to!

Spring 2 - Week 5, by Miss McCahey

Date: 28th Mar 2025 @ 3:23pm

Maths.

This week we have moved on to decimals and how they relate to fractions! We have used number lines, counters, and grids to see how tenths work in real life. Get ready to explore how decimals help us with measuring, money, and more!

Reading and Writing.

We have been diving into fascinating non-fiction texts to learn all about the Stone Age, Bronze Age, and Iron Age. Using features like the glossary and index, we have discovered how they help us research important facts about these time periods. Now, we will use our knowledge to write a persuasive letter to the British Museum. Our goal is to convince them to create an exciting Bronze Age exhibition, showcasing its amazing artifacts.

Science.

This term, we have been exploring light and shadows through exciting experiments! Using torches, we tested different materials—like tin foil, mirrors, and plastic card—to find out which is the most reflective for a school book bag. Our results showed that tin foil was the best at reflecting light! We have also learned about different light sources, including the sun, and discovered how to protect ourselves from its strong rays.

Beliefs and Values.

We have started to think about the qualities of role models and the reasons why we look up to them. We discussed our own role models, from Messi, Klopp, and Leah Williamson, to Malala Yousafzai and David Attenborough. Then, we have learnt about Guru Nanak and his intresting life, exploring his positive characteristics and why people look up to him.

P.E

In Gymnastics we have introduced a variety of controlled turning jumps, and how to use these jumps in routines and sequences. The children were very good at varying the shape and lenghs of their jumps, as well as safely landing.

In Athletics we have started to run for distance, learning that we must pace ourselves, especially giving that last push to the finish line.

Massive well done to Sycamore for their great attandance, and on winning the EGGCELLENT ATTENDANCE competition three days this week, all of your hard work is paying off!!

Sycamore - Spring 2 - Week 4, by Miss McCahey

Date: 20th Mar 2025 @ 3:52pm

Maths

Our work on fractions has continued this week. We have been looking at adding and subtracting fractions, and how we can use number lines and bar models to help us.

Reading

This week we have been performing the Centipede's poem from James and the Giant Peach. We have had lots of fun rehearsing in our groups and exploring the language used.

PE

This week in gymnastics, we have been exploring balancing with our bodies and the different points of contacts we are able to do. Well done to the children who could hold their balances much longer than Miss McCahey could!

In Athletics, we had lots of fun sprinting and having our own races.

Design and Technology

The children have been working very hard to a make an interactive movie poster for 'The Water Horse'. After jogging our memories of the key points of the story, we then explored the different lever and linkage machansisms we could use to help our poster move. Finally after many prototypes, cardboard strips and split pins, we have created some beautiful posters! The children should all be very proud of the effort, resilience, and creativity that they have shown.

Sycamore have also won the Eggs-lent Attendance Award 4 days this week! Keep up the good work and we will soon have our basket full of eggs.

I would also like to say a big thank you and well done to all the children for making me feel so welcome in class!

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Sycamore - Spring 2 - Week 3, by Mrs Williams

Date: 14th Mar 2025 @ 10:44am

This week has been another great week for Sycamore class!

History

We have moved from the bronze to the iron age this week. We have been looking at iron age artefacts and trying to decide what they were and how they were used. We found out that water was important to people during the iron age as it was a passageway to the otherworld. They would often throw offerings into the water for the gods.

Have a look at the photos attached to see us working in groups looking at the photos of different artefacts.

Maths

Our work on fractions has continued this week. We have been looking at equivalent fractions and how different fractions can be the same amount but split into different equal parts.

Writing

This week we have written our diary entries as if we were James from James and the Giant Peach. We've enjoyed reading the story and finiding out about all of the different characters.

This will be my final blog post before Baby Williams arrives. I just wanted to say that it's been a pleasure teaching Sycamore class and I'll miss all of the children whilst I'm off. Thanks for all of your generous gifts and well wishes. I'll leave the children in the very capable hands of Miss McCahey.

Mrs Williams

Sycamore- Spring 2- Week 2, by Mrs Williams

Date: 7th Mar 2025 @ 2:03pm

World Book Day!

What a fab couple of days we've had celebrating world book day.

We joined in a bbc live lesson yesterday to learn how to pick a good book to read.

Today we've done lots of fun things including designing our own character masks, solving some book clues and creating our own book marks.

Have a look at the pics to see all of our amazing costumes!

Fab effort Sycamore class!

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Sycamore - Spring 2 - Week 1, by Mrs Williams

Date: 28th Feb 2025 @ 10:19am

What a great first week back! This included a trip to Moss Bank library to see all the amazing things that go on there.

English

This week we have finished our reading of The Water Horse book. We thoroughly enjoyed the story, based on the legend of the Loch Ness monster. We have completed our writing this week, writing our own non-chronological report on a creature that we designed and made up. You'll be amazed when you see our star write books next week at parent's evening.

PSHE

This week we have been learning about relationships. We have thought about our friendships and what qualities make a good friend. We have also learnt about marriage and civil partnerships. We know that families all look very different and that our family is unique to us.

Maths

We have started our new topic of fractions this week. We have looked at fractions as a whole and also fractions greater than 1.

French

Our new topic is 'at home'. This week have learnt how to say where we live. I wonder if the children can tell you some of the new phrases that they have learnt this week?!

PE

We have two new sports that we are learning in PE - gymnastics and athletics. In gymnastics, we have been thinking about how we travel around a space using large and small movements. In athletics, we have learnt about the word 'agility' and how we can improve our agility in PE.

Next week we will start our new history topic - The Bronze to the Iron Age. We will be continuing to look at fractions in maths and we are starting a new reading book: James and the Giant Peach.

Don't forget to book your parent's evening appointment!

Sycamore - Week 6, by Mrs Williams

Date: 13th Feb 2025 @ 3:41pm

Happy end of half term to everyone!

Computing

This week we celebrated safer internet day. We learnt all about how to spot a scam. Using a checklist, we looked at different scenarios and thought about whether they were a scam or not.

Art

This week, we have been learning different shading techniques that we have used on our final Iron Man drawings. Also, our VIP was for art this week so take a look at our Facebook page to see who has been a wonderful artist in Sycamore class - it was a tough choice this week!

Writing

We got the opportunity to write our own legends based on the book The Water Horse. We have created our own creatures and described what it would be like to find them washed ashore on a beach.

Maths

We have been learning all about division this week, using short division and finding remainders. We did find some parts of this tricky but with lots of practice, we are finally understanding the methods that we can use.

Have a look at the photos below from our week!

I hope everyone has a lovely half term break! See you after the holidays for PSHE week, more work on The Water Horse book and we're starting our new maths topic of fractions. We also have some library visits the first week back for World Book Day.

Sycamore - Week 5, by Mrs Williams

Date: 6th Feb 2025 @ 3:28pm

Sycamore Week 5

Class Assembly

Well what a fun week we've had practicing our class assembly. The children were fantastic in their performance this morning and all gave 100% effort. It was lovely to see so many of you come to watch! We hope you learnt alot about electricity, rocks and soils and plants.

Children's Mental Health Week

This week we have followed the theme: Know Yourself, Grow Yourself. In our lessons, we have learnt how to grow ourselves in different ways thinking about the future and our aspirations. As part of the week, we have done some work on 'love yourself' where we thought about our achievements and what we do well.

Geography

This week we have continued to learn about the UK. We have looked at topography maps to see the physical features in the 4 countries. We have also looked at the highest peaks in the UK finding out the tallest mountains in Scotland, Wales and England.

Next week

We are having an art week in Sycamore next week. We are looking at the work of Tom Gauld and his illustations in the Iron Man book which we have read and written about.

We will also be writing our own legend based on the story The Water Horse, which we have been reading too.

In maths, we will be completing our work on multiplication and division ready to start a new topic when we come back from the February half term.

Have a look at the photos below of our week!

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Sycamore - Week 4, by Mrs Williams

Date: 31st Jan 2025 @ 9:28am

Happy Week 4 Sycamore!

Geography

This week we have continued our work on the UK. We have been looking at the regions of the UK and how it is divided into counties. We had a chance to research different landmarks around the UK too finding out about places such as The Angel of the North, The Kelpies and Blackpool Tower.

Computing

We enjoyed our computing this week as we had the chance to design a poster all about the UK. We thought about how our poster would be effective by including images and short captions. We also looked at the colour palette to see which colours worked well together. Have a look on seesaw to see our work - these aren't finished just yet!

Next week

Our class assembly is on Thursday at 9am all about the science that we have learnt this year. We are very much looking forward to performing in front of you all :)

We will be continuing our work on the UK in geography. Next week is also National Children's Mental Health Week where we have somthing new to celebrate each day.

Have a look on our Facebook page to see the upcoming events.

Sycamore - Week 3, by Mrs Williams

Date: 23rd Jan 2025 @ 2:13pm

What a week in Sycamore class! 🥳👍🏆

This week we started by celebrating our fantastic attendance from last week with a kid's choice session. We could choose from colouring, drawing, sitting with our friends, completing some puzzles and watching a film. What a great Monday afternoon it was! 🥇

Science 🌺🌻🪻🌸

This week we completed our science topic of plants by seeing how our seeds had grown in different conditions. We found that even though we tried to test one without air, this was the one that grew the best. We think that this is because we created a bit of a greenhouse for the plant to thrive in.

English ✍️✏️📝

We have been carrying on with our work on the Iron Man this week. We acted in role as the characters from the story and imagined what they would do and say. This helped us to write our final paragraph of our story opener where our character saw the Iron Man for the first time.

Geography 🌏🗺️

We started our new topic all about the UK. We have been looking at maps to see the position of the UK in the world and have also learnt about how the UK is divided into regions. We were very good at naming the 4 countries of the UK and their capital citites.

Next week 😁

Next week is assessment week for us so we will be showing off everything that we have learnt this year so far. We will also be continuing our work on the UK in geography. In English, we will also start our new book - The Water Horse in reading and writing. Over the next few weeks, we will be writing our own legends, based on this book.

Take a look at the photos from our week below! 📸

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Sycamore - week 2, by Mrs Williams

Date: 16th Jan 2025 @ 1:20pm

Sycamore's Week 2

This week we have thoroughly enjoyed our maths week. We have read the story 365 penguins (which is quite funny!) and completed some work and challenges on calanders in teams. We also have looked at arrays and how we could organise different numbers of penguins. We also had a TTRockstars battle in our classroom so that we could see who the top two players for Sycamore were. These two represented our class really well during the KS2 battle.

In science this week, we have carried out lots of experiments. We have been loving our new topic of plants and learning about pollination and their life cycles. We have been growing cress in different conditions and next week we will be writing up our findings of our experiment. We had some volunteers be part of the pollination process and we acted out each part. This helped us to remember what pollination is and what happens at each stage.

*Check out some photos of our week in science below*

We have carried on with our work on the Iron Man this week in reading and writing. We have been thinking about our character, The Iron Man, and how he fell from the cliff top edge. We had a go at a shared write of him standing and then falling from the cliff edge.

Here is our shared write that we did together:

As he stood on the cliff top, his ears turned. Many sounds echoed around him, the squarking of the seagulls, the crashing of the waves and the whistling of the wind. Then, his head turned from left to right. In the gusty, cold wind, the Iron Man swayed violently. He stepped off the rocky, jagged cliff edge. Down the cliff, the Iron Man tumbled, toppled and plummeted. Boom! Clang! Clink! In the blink of an eye, he crashed onto the sharp rocks below. Like an explosion, his body parts scattered across the entirety of the beach.

We have then written our own version for our star writes.

Next week we have lots of new topics starting:

In maths, we're doing multiplication and division
In Geography we'll be making discoveries about the UK
In French, we have been learning our numbers from 1-50 so we will be coninuing to practise these

Sycamore - week 1, by Mrs Williams

Date: 9th Jan 2025 @ 11:36am

This week we have been walking in a winter wonderland!

Below are some images of the snowy school from our classroom windows!

We have made a great start to week 1 of our spring term.

In writing and reading we have been looking at the book, The Iron Man. We have enjoyed exploring the start of the story and thinking about how we could use this to start our own stories. We will be doing this over the next three weeks and by the end of those three weeks, we will have our own story openers! We are becoming fabulous authors in Sycamore class. 📝✏️📝

In science, we have started our new topic of plants, even though it isn't the best weather to be growing plants yet! 🪻🌸🌺🌻 We have set up our own experiments to see the conditions in which plants grow- we will be keeping our eye on these over the next few weeks to see what happens to the seeds.

➖➕➗🟰

Maths has been great this week as we have been learning about area and perimeter. Below are some images of us having a go at creating shapes with different areas.

Have a look at some of the images of our work/week below.

Next week is going to be just as fun! 🥳

We will be continuing our plants topic looking at pollination and seed dispersal. It's our maths week next week where we will be having a TTRockstars battle and learning about maths through stories.

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Sycamore (Year 3 & Year 4): Blog items

Places available for Nursery and Reception for September 2025

#teamcarrmill

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