Hello Fir Class! 

And so another week in lockdown has passed. It has been lovely to speak with some of you this past week, hearing how you are keeping and getting on with home learning. It has also been great to see that some of you are still completing your Accelerated Reader quizzes, with a few pupils even earning their next certificate! It is so important to keep reading, so please do try to continue reading most days. As ever, we are always delighted to see any examples of the work you have produced at home. We are getting more pictures sent to us every week, so thank you. 

Enjoy your week and stay safe!

Miss Miller and Mrs Causer

VE DAY

VE day this year will be on Friday 8th May. VE stands for Victory in Europe, and the date marks the official end of WW2, when Germany finally surrendered to the Allies. If you would like to learn more about VE Day, you can watch the video I have attached.

To celebrate and pay tribute to those who had lost their lives, there were street parties all over the country. This year will mark 75 years after the end of the war. Unfortunately, the current restrictions will mean that we can't celebrate it in the way we might have, but there are still some activities you can do in honour of VE Day. This could be:

- Baking something that you would take to a street party

- Drawing a picture of the best street party you can imagine

- Designing and making VE Day bunting

- Organising a VE Day party with the people you live with

- Writing a letter to somebody you miss, with some plans for what you can do together when we are out of lockdown. 

PE

I know a lot of you have been having fun with the Joe Wicks home workouts, but... he now has a rival. Enter Mr Tull! Mr Tull has decided to set a different PE challenge every week for children (and adults) to try at home. This week he talks us through the first challenge in a video, which he has painstakingly directed and starred in. It is well worth a watch. The challenges can be found on class pages, under 'PE Challenges with Mr Tull'. You might like to take some videos or pictures completing the challenge, which you can then send either to our class email or directly to Mr Tull. I may have tried this challenge... I may still be trying. So good luck to you all!

Geography

Please arrange a time with your family (as I know some parents work from home and need the computer) when you can sit and watch these videos independently. It will take approximately one hour to watch them all. I have uploaded all four for you, so all you need to do is press play. Please make sure you have your three brainstorms next to you - the 'Rivers', 'Lakes' and 'Mountains' sheets. Please add anything you can to these sheets as you watch. 

Maths

I know a lot of you are really getting on well with the White Rose home learning, which is excellent. This week is Week 3 and the lessons are as follows:

Lesson One: Multiplying two-digit numbers

Lesson Two: Multiplying four-digit numbers by two-digit numbers

Lesson Three: Dividing with remainders

Lesson Four: Calculating perimeter

Lesson Five: End of the week challenge

I have added the link to nrich home learning Maths again, as a few of you mentioned in our phone calls that you enjoyed doing those. There are loads of activities to explore on there and they are helpfully grouped by age, difficulty and will tell you whether or not you need to print sheets off beforehand. If you have no printer, there are a section of 'Just Jottings' activities, which you only need a pencil and paper for. 

English

For this task, you are going to act out your favourite story using mime. This means you will act your story without words. You will have to use gestures, facial expressions and body language.

Firstly, please pick your favourite story. Write down the main events of this story. This should take about thirty minutes for you to recall and list the main events in the correct order.

Then, you need to think about how you are going to show these stages through mime. Go somewhere private and start practising your mime. I suggest this part takes an hour – remember you are trying to show the best book you have read – you can’t do this in one action! Practise your mime until you are able to remember it from start to finish.

Please perform it to someone in your family. Can they work out what you are trying to show? Ask them for feedback. What did they like? How did they think you needed to improve?

Finally, please put the heading ‘Mime’ at the top of a sheet of paper. Write down which story you picked. Explain which parts you chose to act and how you mimed them. Then, I would like you to write down three things your audience liked about your performance and one thing they thought could be improved.

This task should take up to three hours - half an hour for planning, one hour to practise, half an hour to show and discuss and then one hour to write up.

Topic

L.O. To find out about diseases in Tudor Britain and how they were treated.

Please read the information in the paragraphs below, or follow the attached slideshow.

In Tudor times, people didn’t know nearly as much about the body and diseases as we do today. They didn’t know that lots of diseases are caused by germs or how the body worked on the inside. Because of this, people had a lower life expectancy than today and few people lived past the age of forty. The average life expectancy in the UK today is around 80 years, over double the average age for a Tudor.

The Tudors thought that two main things were responsible for diseases, one of which was bad air. They thought that diseases were carried in the air and seeped into your skin. The plague was one of the diseases that they believed was caused in this way. The plague was the biggest killer in the Tudor period. In 1563 alone, more than 17,000 people died in London of the plague, one sixth of London’s population. Doctors wore beak masks which they stuffed with sweet smelling flowers that they believed purified the air. In fact, the plague was carried by rats and passed to people through the rat’s fleas.

Only the rich could afford to see a doctor. Doctors would be trained at a university and were taught theories that had been passed down from the ancient Greeks. Tudor doctors believed the body was made up of four liquids called humours. These humours were red bile, yellow bile, black bile and phlegm. If these liquids were out of balance, you became ill. One of the most popular treatments for lots of different illnesses was bleeding a patient. This involved cutting the patient to release blood or putting blood sucking leeches onto the skin. We know now that this makes a patient weaker rather than stronger. Doctors knew nothing about infections and germs, so would often pass infection on from patient to patient, due to not washing hands and medical instruments properly.

As well as doctors there were also barber surgeons, who were responsible for looking after soldiers during battles and would often perform amputations (cutting off fingers, arms, toes or legs that were damaged or infected). In times of peace, these doctors were often barbers or dentists. There was no anaesthetic to stop the patient feeling pain, so a trip to the barber surgeon would always be painful.

People who were not rich relied on folk cures, which were herbal remedies passed down through the generations. We know today that lots of herbs are good for certain illnesses, but the Tudors also had some very strange ones, such as wearing the skin of a donkey if you had rheumatism (swollen joints which made moving painful) or passing a baby over a donkey to cure a cough. For people who did not grow their own herbs, an apothecary would mix up potions and give advice, a bit like a chemist today.

Common Tudor Cures and Remedies

Toothache: Burn a candle and let the smoke go in your mouth. The smoke will kill the worms causing your toothache.

Smallpox: Hang red curtains around the bed. The red light will cure the disease.

Headache: Drink a mixture of lavender. Sage and rose petals. Or press a hangman’s rope to your head.

Gout: Cut a mouse in half and rub it on your feet.

Upset stomach: Take a mixture of sage and mint

Cough: Eat spiders in butter or pass a baby over a donkey

Activities

1. Get into character as a Tudor doctor or folk healer and tend to your 'sick' patients (willing family members) with traditional Tudor cures. You may wish to find some props, such as leaves, to set the scene of the apothecary workshop. 

2. Although we know a lot more about disease and medicine today, there is still a lot that we don't know, as the current pandemic highlights. Find out some more about a research based charity, such as Cancer Research, and write a paragraph about the important work that the charity does.

3. Research the 16th Century plague and make a fact file about it.

4. Write a playscript based in the Tudor times about someone taking a trip to the doctor. 

Science - Animals including humans

Make a list of the key differences between animals and humans. Try to think of as many as possible. 

Oracy 

This week I would like you to play a round of hot-seating. You will need a partner. Choose one of the kings or queens from the Tudor period, preferably one that you or your partner knows quite a lot about. One person will get into the role of that person, while the other will be the questioner and will interview the historical character. Think of sensible questions that your partner would be able to make a decent attempt at answering.

Good Example 

Interviewer: So King Henry, which of your wives would you say was your favourite one and why?

Bad Example

Interviewer: What's your favourite tv programme?

Guided Reading

This week I would like you to make some 'Who Am I?' clues about some well-known children's story characters. Write a few statements about your chosen character, which will help the guesser deduce who the character is. Here are a couple of examples:

Character 1

My parents were killed when I was just a baby, but I survived. On my eleventh birthday I discovered that I am a wizard. I have an owl called Hedwig. Who am I?

Character 2

I am one of four children. I am sometimes a bit mean, especially to my younger sister Lucy. I love Turkish delight. Who am I?

Character 3

I have knobbly knees, turned out toes and a poisonous wart on the end of my nose. I am afraid of the mouse in the forest. Who am I?

Answers: 1= Harry Potter 2= Edmund Pevensie 3= The Gruffalo

Mrs Wordsmith

This week we are going to introduce you to three new words, which you would have learnt if we were all in school together. Read the definitions of the words and sound them out. If you can say the word aloud ten times in different voices, even better! If you are struggling to understand the definitions, look at the synonyms and ask an adult to help you. Then, try to use each new word a few times in a sentence. Try to see if you can include these words in your day to day conversations. To help them stick, write some example sentences down, as you would in class on your whiteboards.