News
Newsletter for the week ending 27th April
Please read on to find out about a musical masterpiece from Years 1, 2 and 3 today and much, much more from around the classes…
AROUND THE SCHOOL
What a Performance!
A busy week that was rounded off majestically by Years 1, 2 and 3 singing songs and playing steel drums and boomwhackers from their learning this week. It was amazing and a big thank you to all the children and musical staff, skillfully lead by Mrs Smale, who have set a very high benchmark for Years 4, 5 and 6 when they too will perform later in the year.
Thank you
We said goodbye to Lee Pengilly this Friday after close to ten years at Appledore School. Lee has been an integral part of our Early Years team and contributed significantly to the development and success of our Foundation Stage Unit. A big thank you and we all wish her well in her new adventure.
AROUND THE CLASSES
This week in FSU we have started our new topic of Under the Sea and we have focused on turtles. We have found out about their habitats, eating habits and named their body parts. We have painted turtles, drawn them and made 3D models. On Tuesday we had Gizmo the tortoise visit us so that we could see the differences and similarities between tortoises and turtles. If anyone has any old sun hats that they don’t use anymore our box of spare hats are running low!
This week in Year 1 we have continued our writing using ‘Tell Me a Dragon’. We have described dragons, and described the way they move. We have thought of ways of expanding our sentences, using ‘with’ and ‘so and by adding adjectives. In Maths we have started our new topic about Multiplication and Division. We have counted in 2s, 5s, and 10s and we have sorted objects into equal groups and then counted the groups. For our London’s Burning topic we have discussed what we know about London, and thought of questions we would like to find out the answer to. Our Philosophy session used Meerkat Mail as a stimulus, our question was ‘Why did Sonny want to leave his home and why did he come back?
This week Lundy Puffins have learned more about the Great Fire of London by watching an animation and playing a game on the computer. In English, they have been learning about different types of sentences and have tried hard to write some of their own. In Maths, they have finished position and direction and have now moved on to addition and subtraction. Please keep practising number bonds at home as knowing these by heart really will help with lots of calculations. In P4C, the stimulus was the book: Meerkat Mail and the question discussed was: Why did he not appreciate his family in the first place?
Seahunter have worked really hard in Maths this week, getting to grips with different types of angles and understanding that an angle is a measurement of turn. We had fun pretending to skateboard tricks turning in right angles and degrees. We then took angle measurers outside and searched for acute, right and obtuse angles around the school. In English, we have continued to work on the book ‘Fantastically Great Women Who Changed The World’. Each child wrote some questions that they would like to ask the woman that they studied in their group work last week. We then watched a Newsround clip to find out how to do a good interview before taking on the roles of the women and interviewing them. The children really got in to role and gave some very believable answers. As part of our values work, we explored all of the things we appreciate in our lives; people, places, experiences and objects and thought about how it is important to remember and be grateful for everything we have that is good.
This week the children in HMS Echo have taken a reading test and math test to see what they already know. They have then continued learning skills linked to ‘King of the Birds’ in English, running in athletics and decimals in Maths. For Science the children carried out a practical investigation to learn the difference between a solid, liquid and gas, and how the particles move in each state. The children then watched a video clip to help explain this and from this the children drew images to show how the particles look in each one. While the sun was out, we went down to the jungle for our philosophy lesson where we read the book ‘Crispin, the pig who had it all’. Our big question this week was ‘if you were greedy, would you regret it afterwards and why?’
Beechcroft have continued to write their own story about the blush thief and planning another story about a different emotion thief. We have looked at using rich vocabulary in our writing and how to use a colon. In maths we have been finding prime and composite numbers and investigating squared and cubed numbers. In science we have started our new unit on ‘animals, including humans’. We looked at the different gestation periods for a range of mammals. We will be going onto look at human development and how the body changes during puberty. Although this has already caused giggles and embarrassment, it is part of the science curriculum, and important the children know about changes and the correct use of terminology. We have looked at African animal prints for observational drawing in art and Mrs Smale has continued with the music as part of their arts award. We had hoped to start cricket but the heavy rain caused this to be cancelled. Please remember to be in school for 7:15am on Monday as we will be going to Bristol for the day.
Year 6 have been writing balanced articles in literacy and have revised area and perimeter and long division in maths. They have also been going over various areas of grammar and learning a few songs to help them on their way. Next week they are looking forward to @Bristol on Monday and hopefully cricket without the rain!
We wish you all a super weekend,
From Jeremy Cooper and all the staff and children
