9 October 2022
On the week of National Teacher Appreciation Day, lots of wonderful learning has occurred across the school.
This week also saw us celebrate 'National Poetry Day' across the school with special assemblies and poetry themed learning in English sessions.
In Nursery, linked to their text of study, The Friendly Frogs were given a ‘mouse making challenge’. The children had to use their looking and listening skills during the demonstration. They then had to make their very own mouse independently... we think you will be very impressed by the finished products! When it’s raining, what do Friendly Frogs do?...They go puddle jumping of course; the rain never dampens the learning spirit in Nursery! The children had great fun and, again, they used their skills of independence by taking off their own shoes, putting on their wellies and putting their shoes back on again. On Thursday, we were all slightly worried in school when we heard reports of lava in the playground! Our youngest learners had great fun making their own volcano linked to their future learning in Geography. Great work team Nursery!
Meanwhile, in Reception, the children have been for an Autumn discovery walk this week. They collected different Autumn objects including: coloured leaves, conkers and conker shells. They then looked carefully at them with magnifying glasses and even accurately drew them- linked to their Art unit of work. The children had lots of discussion about their collection applying lots of wonderful new vocabulary such as: conkers, acorns, leaves, spikey, rough, smooth and shiney. They have also added in some enormous sunflower heads (donated from a pupil's garden) and the pupils are looking forward to dissecting these for sunflower seeds. Moreover, Reception are getting the hang of planning their time when exploring the areas in the classrooms, to complete their rainbow challenges. This week, they have been checking they can count accurately by matching objects to dominoes and have used 3D shapes to build their Mr. Wiggle and Mr. Waggles' houses, which they designed last week. Also, they have made faces on the workbench exploring the different materials to match facial features. On Monday, during English, the children worked really hard with hearing initial sounds and then creating their own character using alliteration! They generated lots of wonderful ideas, including: Jumping Jess, Swimming Sally and Running Robbie. During Tuesday's Maths lesson, the children were studying repeating patterns and even spotted mistakes in some of these patterns. Pupils then worked really hard to make their own repeating patterns using cubes and did a super job at fixing the mistakes that their teachers had made: they were able to spot the mistake and then explain how to fix them!
In Key Stage 1, in Science, Year 1 have been active testing different objects to see how flexible they were. They used some new vocabulary and enjoyed making scientific predictions as part of their topic on 'Materials' this half-term. In Computing, the children have made great progress because working in partnership, they have learned how to: turn on the laptop, log-in and find Google. Not only that, the children then searched for a game. Everyone listened carefully and followed instructions brilliantly. The game was designed for children to practise and improve their trackpad skills. For National Poetry Day, Year 1 learned and performed the poem 'The Nut Tree' (by Juila Donaldson)- before using their skills to create their very own performance poem. On Thursday, during their RE lesson, Year 1 looked at pictures of Muslim prayer mats and talked about why they are important to Muslims and what is allowed to be on them before designing their very own example of a prayer mats to apply their understanding. In Art, as part of their 'At the Seaside (Monet)' topic of of study, Year 1 have been exploring warm and cool colours; they learned that warm colours are shades of red, yellow and orange and cool/cold colours are blue and green. They then demonstrated this beautifully, in their Sketch Books. Meanwhile, in Maths this week, Year 1 have been busy comparing numbers using the mathematical language and symbols of greater than (>) and less than (<). Our Year 1 learners have also been enjoying their new Learning Ladybird challenges this week, which included sorting materials for a Science challenge and using the magnetic letters to make tricky words! A favourite part of their daily routine in Year 1 is their class book vote! Introducing the children to democracy, they are invited to vote for their end of day book when they arrive in to school. There’s always lots of excitement to find out the choices each morning; both Year 1 classes frequently use the reading areas and enjoy sharing books with their friends too. Great work Year 1!
In Year 2, the children have been continuing with their PSHE topic of 'Friendship', and have had their first go at recording their very own song which is the perfect link to being kind and resilient with each other and to themselves. In Maths, Year 2 learners have been working on 10 more and 10 less and have been applying their learning to solve problems. In English, pupils have been sequencing stories using time openers to apply to their writing. As part of poetry celebrations, the children had great fun reciting and performing different poems to an engaged audience. On Thursday, the children from 2KM had a fabulous morning of History learning at Wordsworth House! This enrichment activity has helped pupils to understand what life was like in the Georgian era, which is their History topic of focus this term.In PE, the children are continuing to refine their skills on the cricket field, which is their focus of study this half-term. This week, they were brilliant at bowling and fielding- cricketers of the future!
In Key Stage 2, Year 3 have continued to enjoy their learning at Forest School. On Friday, the children were using a flint and steel to make fire. They discussed how fire was important in the Stone Age, to keep the people warm and to cook their food, which links to their History topic of study this half-term on the 'Stone Age'. Linked to this, in Art, the children have been working with pastels to create cave drawings of animals from the period. This forms part of their artistic topic of study 'Animals (Rosa Bonheur)' this half-term. On Tuesday, a selection of children put themselves forward to represent their class(es) in the school Eco-council. The children had spent a lot of time and effort at home writing speeches to share with the class about why they would like to be their class representative. We are so incredibly proud of each and every pupil that put themselves forward as well as their peers for listening respectfully to their friends. In Maths this week, Year 3 have been looking at Column Addition. On Monday, pupils were introduced to the topic and practised their adding skills with a fun and practical game. Only using the numbers 1-9 once, the children had to make each line (vertical, horizontal and diagonally) on a 3x3 grid, add up to 15. By Friday, the children were solving problems using the column addition method accurately with fantastic presentation and application of the skill- well done Year 3.
In Year 4, Maths started this week with some wonderful peer teaching by classmates! The children are certainly getting the hang of using place value grids to divide by 10 and 100, which is excellent to see. Meanwhile, after carefully planning their investigations last week, Tuesday was investigation day! Year 4 have been trying to find out which is the fizziest drink, by measuring the weight of the drinks before and after they are stirred. The children were careful to change only one variable in order to keep their test fair and made careful and accurate measurements. This forms part of the Year 4's topic on 'Solids, Liquids and Gases'. To mark National Poetry Day, many Year 4 children wrote lovely poems on the theme of nature and read them to the class on Thursday morning. They contained lots of thought-provoking language; they’re going to display these with pride in their class reading area(s). In Art, the children have been busy creating an abstract composition, in the style of Wassily Kandinsky. They used shapes and lines to recreate a picture inspired by their artist of study this half-term. In PE, Year 4 have been practising their pencil rolls, side rolls, egg rolls and teddy bear rolls as part of their topic of Gymnastics. Sticking with the active theme, the pupils combined their place value active Maths activity with PE earlier this week- there was great team work and lots of fun learning on show!
Meanwhile in Year 5, in English this week, learners have been drafting their persuasive speeches, about reducing the amount of plastic in our oceans, which links to their Geography study on 'Oceans' this half-term. In Art, the children have been busy sketching eyes with a surreal twist: some had rivers flowing from them, some were forests, some were even deep in space; this forms part of their study of 'Surrealism' this half-term. In Science on Thursday, the children enjoyed using different methods of filtration, sieving and magnetism to separate items in mixtures. In this week's Maths sessions, the children have shown a great understanding about how digits move, when they multiply by 10, 100 and 1,000. In Geography, on Tuesday, the children were learning about how rubbish gets stuck in gyres in the ocean, causing huge garbage patches. If you are not sure what a gyre is, ask your Year 5 child- they are great at explaining about them! The children enjoyed recreating a gyre and watching sequins get stuck in it. They do know, though, that garbage patches are no fun!
Finally, in Year 6, our oldest children approached their History lesson this week from a design and engineering point of view! The children were tasked with recreating the Mayan pyramid from the ancient city of Tikal, in Guatemala... in Lego! An added challenge was ensuring the pyramid was hollow. They could certainly see how difficult it must have been to create such wonderful buildings using carved stone. This activity forms part of the children's History topic on 'The Mayan Civilisation'. On Thursday, Year 6 enjoyed creating their own Skellig inspired poems as part of National Poetry Day. Their use of figurative and emotive language was very impressive. Year 6 are really engaged in their text of study this half-term: Skellig is always popular! Meanwhile, in Maths, Year 6 have enjoyed working in collaboration to solve multi-step word problems. Great work Year 6!
We'll see you all bright and early tomorrow morning, ready for another week of making magical memories through engagement in learning.
