News
Newsletter for the week ending 9th October
PLease read on to find out what has been going on in and around the classes.
Have a lovely weekend from
Jeremy Cooper and all the children and staff
AROUND THE SCHOOL
Current COVID guidance is for classroom windows to be open for ventilation and whilst this is bearable now (just) it could prove uncomfortable as winter settles in. We have spoken to our uniform suppliers about providing embroidered school fleeces that can be worn as an additional layer in the classroom, not as an alternative to a school jumper/cardigan, over the top of a jumper/cardigan for the price of £12.50. The fleece is navy blue and has reflective strips on the back and on the front two zip pockets. At this stage we need to understand if demand is sufficient for us to hold stock, so please could you email admin@appledoreprimary.co.uk if you think you would order one.
Thrift Club have asked for payment cards to be dropped in to school before half term and they will pay out after half term.
AROUND THE CLASSES
This week in Turtles and Dolphins we have been learning about the animals that live on the Savannah. At the start of the week we read the story Handa’s Surprise and we used props to act the story out. We also enjoyed tasting the different fruits from the story. We have found out what the Savannah looks like and compared it to farms in this country. On Thursday we had a Zoom call from Exmoor Zoo and Steve showed some of the animals that live at the Zoo. On Friday we read the story ‘Dear Zoo’ and added some extra pages to the story using animals from the Savannah.
Here endeth another exciting week in Year 1. This week we have learnt that a polar bear has an amazing sense of smell. Did you know that they can smell a seal on the ice up to 20 miles away? We have experimented with how smells travel around the classroom using different smelly sprays. We also tried this outdoor to see how polar bears stay downwind of their prey. This was particularly fun until it started raining! In our computing lessons, we have been talking about technology and life online. This week we read the story of Smartie the Penguin, who was given a new tablet for his birthday and needed help with lots of different things. We also learnt the song that Smartie’s parents teach him. To hear this story, visit Childnet.com/resources/smartie-the-penguin. It would be great if you could share the story again and talk about it together.
Lundy Puffins have had another good week. In English, they have started a new book called ‘How to wash a woolly mammoth’ and have thought about questions they wanted to ask about the book. In Maths, they have been ordering two-digit numbers and comparing them using the greater than and less than symbols. The polar bear topic has continued and they learnt some of the ways polar bears have adapted to live in the cold Arctic climate. They measured a polar bear’s paw and measured how big a polar bear is. In the Art studio they have created some amazing polar bear chalk pictures.
Seahunter have had a great week, particularly in English and Science. In English they started a new unit of work on Paddington. They watched one of the original Paddington TV programmes and wrote the story in their own words. After a class discussion about the different ways the stories are represented; books, film, and TV, they create statements and questions to express what they know and what they would like to know about Paddington. After listening to ‘Paddington FInds a Cure’ they identified and discussed some of the tricky vocabulary to go on our vocabulary wall so that they can work on using it in their own writing. In science, we built upon last week’s learning about how soil is formed to look at different soil types. The children demonstrated good thinking skills, working out how the size and type of particles in the soil affects how much water can drain through it. We have had Miss Rose, a trainee teacher, with us for a couple of days each week and look forward to welcoming her into our class full time for the next five weeks, during which time she will take on a small amount of teaching responsibility.
This week HMS Echo have started a new text in English. We have been learning about the text ‘Meerkat Mail’, and next week will be practising some of the skills that the author has used in our own writing. For Maths, we recapped rounding to the nearest 10, 100 and 1000 and have started working on adding and subtracting 4-digit numbers. In Science, the class carried out a vertebrates quiz and created their own quizzes for others to solve. The children used the chrome books to research an environmental issue of their choice which is causing problems for animals and their habitats. In P4C, we discussed our big question ‘If someone else is sad, are they responsible for their feelings or are you?’
Year 5 have looked at the text ‘The Tear Thief’ in Literacy, in particular in terms of adverbials. We discovered that these generally gave the reader more information about where the action was taking place. In maths, we have been calculating with subtraction and remembering how to set our work out. In science, we decided which material we thought would make the best electrical conductor and in Topic, we completed our work on the Problem with Plastic. Most people have now managed to log onto Google Classroom to access their homework. Please keep in touch if you still haven’t managed it. After half term, we will be doing some of our learning outside and the class will need wellies and waterproofs – more information will follow later but thought it might help if you can check that wellies still fit!
Year 6 has been learning about Macbeth in English and writing up a different part of the story every day. For reading, we were all given a Shakespeare book to read. In maths we have been doing long multiplication (3 by 2 digits). In art we are making christmas cards with brusho and salt. Year 6 is learning about the human body for science and placing the correct parts (heart,lungs etc) in the right places. Our Topic for this term is Climate Change and we are learning about the causes, affects and how we can prevent it. This week Year 6 received our Bibles from John who is part of the Open the Book Team. By Rosie and Zachary, Arctic House Captains.
