20 November 2022
On the week we celebrated Anti-Bullying Week, raised lots for Children in Need and launched our bespoke School Parliament initiative, fabulous learning took place in all classes across the school.
In Nursery, the children's Funky Fingers' Challenges were all autumn themed this week. The children enjoyed decorating pine cones, collaging paper leaves, cutting up leaves to develop their scissor skills and threading autumn coloured pasta to make bracelets. On Tuesday afternoon, our youngest learners used templates for the first time and also used their fine motor skills to snip with scissors to create fantastic Leaf Man puppets- linking to the DT curriculum. Wednesday was a particularly busy morning with lots of literacy and phonics going on which involved listening to and copying sound patterns, making play around rhymes, working on their story vocabulary, writing recipes and playing with sounds. In other news…there were some unidentified animals found in a cage in the outdoor classroom this week! The dinosaurs were cold and needed a den; as well as there being some budding ornithologists on a bird spot, a resident baker was creating wonderful things in the playdough area and there was a wonderful waterway being engineered in the water kitchen. Phew they are so busy!
Meanwhile, in Reception, in Maths the children have been looking at the numbers two and three. They looked at how they can be put together to make five. They then looked in more detail at how they can make the numbers two and three by using ones and twos to put them altogether. On Wednesday, the children had a go at drawing the Numicon shapes to make 2 and 3 in their books. The children worked hard to draw the different combinations of shapes that could be used and made sure that they were using the correct colours for each shape. They used lots of super mathematical language such as “one and one makes two” and “two and one makes three”! As part of the DT curriculum, Reception have been making pizza as an innovation on baking bread! This was a follow up to their current text of study 'The Little Hen'. The children made and stretched the dough before adding on tomato paste, cheese and their choice of toppings. In PE, Reception enjoyed playing ‘Spots and stripes’, focusing on some throwing techniques and accuracy trying to hit targets.
In Key Stage 1, Year 1 moved their measurement learning on this week and took their Maths lesson outdoors on Monday and started measuring using a ruler. They used their outdoor area to measure rectangles and used centimetres to show the correct unit. In History, Year 1 discussed different historical sources from the Great Fire of London- their current topic of study. They then looked at different images and used their speaking and listening skills to sort them into helpful and unhelpful sources. As part of this, they learned about Samuel Pepys- an eyewitness from the event who wrote a diary which helps them to know information about the 'Great Fire of London'. In PE, as part of their current study on 'Cricket' the children have been practising their batting skills this week. In DT, the children were very excited to make their puppets on Friday. To do this, they used their designs from last week to help them make their very own animal sock puppet using their joining and cutting skills- they look fantastic!
Year 2 were also busy with a DT project on Friday afternoon. They started by recapping the importance of breakfast and fuelling their body at the beginning of the day for energy. They then moved on to create their own healthy bagel. They learned simple food preparation skills such as cutting the bagels and spreading the cream cheese. Naturally, they also had to do a taste test as part of their evaluation. In PE, Year 2 enjoyed another visit to Clip and Climb; they even ‘roped’ in the staff in their latest session! As well as this, Year 2 also had a fantastic hockey lesson (their current topic of study) with a specialist coach- working on their speed and accuracy. In SPaG, the children have been learning about common and proper nouns and identifying them in a piece of text. They then wrote their own sentences using capital letters correctly for proper nouns and enjoyed identifying mistakes in sentences where common nouns had been given capital letters by mistake! In Maths, Year 2 have mastered column subtraction with borrowing this week- well done everyone!
In Key Stage 2, Year 3 went back to the Stone Age as part of their warm-up for their Gymnastics session this week, in PE. Some children were Stone Age animals and some children were hunter gatherers. The children moved around the hall to Stone Age themed music before practising some more counter balances with a partner and concluded by discussing the different 'shapes' they could make, including: pike, straddle, dish, star, tuck and arch. In Active Maths on Monday, the activity was a continuation, progression and extension of the teaching strategies used so far on time. It’s always a tricky topic for some children to understand which is why it’s reinforced through lots of practical activities. In Science, Year 3 have been Rock Detectives! They have observed different rocks, studying what they look and feel like; labelled and grouped them into igneous, sedimentary and metamorphic; tested the hardness of each rock; and ordered them from softest to hardest. Next week, they are going to further their investigation by testing the permeability of each rock. In the forest on Friday, the children were Stone Age hunter and gatherers (their History topic of study this term). They looked for food to eat, such as berries and seeds. They also looked for signs of animals in the form of footprints, nibbled bark on the trees, droppings and fur left on the vegetation. They enjoyed discussing how Stone Age people ate the meat from the animals but, they also used the skin for clothing and shelters, and used the bones for weapons or other instruments such as needles and spoons.
Meanwhile, Year 4 also started the week with an Active Maths session where they were learning to convert units of time and headed outside to enjoy the sunshine whilst converting given times found on the cones. Year 4 have also been enjoying some Active SPaG by finding fronted adverbials and creating sentences from them- super collaboration skills were on show. In Science, the children have been busy creating their own mini water cycles! They observed their bowls of warm water over the course of the afternoon to see if the empty pots inside their bowls had collected any precipitation. In Art, the children were developing their painting skills by using stippling this week. This was a technique used by the impressionist artists, such as Monet and Renoir, their artists of study this term. In Geography, the children have been learning about the three stages of the river (youth, middle-aged and mature). They have been identifying the three different stages of the river, in the five major rivers in Europe. This links back to their Year 3 work, identifying the five major rivers in Europe.
In Year 5, the children enjoyed learning about democracy and were thrilled to hold an actual artefact Emmeline Pankhurst, which linked perfectly to our School Parliament initiative- giving every child in school a voice. In History, the children have been engaged in their current topic of study 'The Gunpowder Plot' have learnt lots of very interesting information, including understand the term ‘restoration’ and its implications for Britain. In Art, the children enjoyed doing their own surrealist painting on Friday afternoon. They achieved some very good results and the children are thoroughly enjoying their current Artistic topic.
In Year 6, in Computing, the children have been learning how data is transferred across the internet in data packets. The children wrote their very own messages and sent them in data packets. Meanwhile, Year 6 demonstrated such care while reading to our fabulous Friendly Frogs, using questioning and gently encouraging our youngest children to participate in their favourite stories. Our 'Book with a Buddy' activity (as part of Anti-Bullying Week) has been very popular. Staff are very impressed with the way Year 6's Sketch Book front pages are coming on based on their new topic of Art and Anatomy. What a talented group of artists we have in Year 6. Meanwhile, there was great work in DT on Friday as Year 6 created their pizza and side dish, which they designed earlier in the week. Staff were very impressed with the children’s careful use of a range of utensils including knives, peelers and graters. Next, they'll be evaluating their products. Finally, our Year 6, High 5 Netball team competed in a Level 2 Netball competition at Lakes College on Wednesday and worked wonderfully as a team, with fantastic efforts and sportsmanship from everyone that took part- we await the results.
In other news, our wonderful Eco-Council had their first official after school meeting on Monday where they have decided on our eco-targets for this half term. The children had lots of fantastic ideas on how our school can work towards being more eco-friendly and are really excited to start putting these into action.
See you all bright and early for another wonderful week at Fairfield.
