News
Newsletter for the week ending 20th November
A fabulously busy week and sorry, but Christmas is now being mentioned in school!
Wishing you all a lovely weekend and please do read on to find out what has been happening around the classes…
From Jeremy Cooper and all the children and staff
AROUND THE CLASSES
This week in FSU we have been learning about the celebration Diwali. We have listened to the story and had a go at acting it out. We have made clay diva pots, created our own Rangoli patterns and designed our own Mhendi hand patterns. We also looked at some photos of how people celebrate Diwali and saw that they let off fireworks like we do when we celebrate occasions. Today we learned some Indian dance movements and had a go at dancing to some Bhangra music
The end of the third week of this half term and what an action-packed week it has been! In English, we have started our new writing sequenced based around the book, Diary of a Wombat. The children are really excited about writing their own diaries. Some have expressed an interest of writing some diaries at home. Please encourage them to bring any in that they write (unless they are secret). We have also continued with our new topic for this half term which is a Geographical comparison topic. We are looking closely at the Appledore and comparing this with Townsville – Australia. We have been looking this week at the North Devon coastline to find out what we can see where the land meets the sea. The second group have started their outdoor learning this week and didn’t get too muddy! We have also constructed a green screen in the class in order to do some very special filming. Watch this space! I hope that you enjoyed the videos of the children sharing their polar bear books with you. If you have not seen them yet, they can be found on your child’s Google Drive.
Lundy Puffins have worked hard again this week. In Maths, they’ve been adding multiples of 10 and adding to the nearest 10. They’ve enjoyed Miss Turnbull teaching them about expanded noun phrases and verbs which they will be able to use for writing their stories. In Science, they have been learning about microhabitats and went out in the jungle to investigate lots of different microhabitats and discover what creatures live in them. They have learned about the festival of Diwali and carried on this learning in the art studio, where they were able to make a handprint which they will decorate next week. Half the class have completed their outdoor learning session and discovered different ways of catching rainfall. The other half will complete their session next week.
This week Seahunter have been looking at independent and subordinate clauses in English. This was a new concept for the class to learn, they worked very hard and have produced some amazing work, using independent and subordinate clauses.
Year 4 have engaged well in their second outdoor learning session this week where they learnt how people used to write in Roman times. They then used their understanding to write their own name using Roman script and wax! In Maths, we have been learning how to multiply by 10, 100 and 1000 as well as divide by 10, 100 and 1000. In English, the class have looked at examples of newspaper reports and written their own report, they have also learnt about glossaries. In Science, the children had a practical demonstration of the digestive system! For Philosophy, we watched ‘The Three Little Pigs’ and then discussed our big question ‘If someone is disrespectful to you, should you be disrespectful back?’
Year 5 have had a busy couple of weeks with many children taking part in Bikeability – most children thoroughly enjoyed this and a huge thank you goes out to the trainers. In Literacy, they have been using skills with semi-colons and colons to think about Beowulf and trying to make their writing varied. In Maths, they have started a multiplication unit so it is vital that they are learning all their times table facts – they need to be able to understand the vocabulary ‘multiple and factor’ and to give confident examples. In Science, they have completed their materials unit in class and will now start Animals Including Humans. They will re-visit materials in some outdoor learning sessions later this term. They had a great session outside this week finding out about how meteorologists collect weather data – this involved collecting data themselves which they will input into WOW (A Met Office Tool) that will provide data to help with future forecasts. They have also been detailing how we see respect in different places and will share some of this work later in the term.
This week Y6 have been quite busy. Let us tell you more…In literacy, we did diary entries about recent events like:Poppy day; Children in need day (because we wore spots and stripes); The COVID-19 vaccine; A Baby Yoda toy going to space as a micro-gravity indicator and anti-bullying week. In maths we have been doing fractions. We have compared them, added them and subtracted them. In art, we drew pictures of a London skyline and we watched Abi use a lino cutter on some lino. In science, we drew concept maps on light (our new science topic). We also drew diagrams sorting light sources into natural and artificial. In topic, we made posters about different air raid shelters used in WWII such as the Anderson shelter. Reporters: Felix and Sophia Mrs McMorine writes:A fantastic trip to RHS Garden Rosemoor today. Well done Y6 for being so knowledgeable and interested in the workshop on ‘Planting for the Planet’. We have learnt so much about soil and plants today. Your good behaviour and polite manners were most definitely commented upon. Thank you to all those who said thank you for organising the day before they left school at the end of the day. Have a restful weekend with your families.
