News
Newsletter for the week ending 17th September
A super week with a lot going on around teh school.
After school clubs are up and running now and we have a few remaing spaces in Tuesday art club and Wednesday eco club. Please contact admin@appledoreprimary.co.uk if you are interested in one of these clubs.
This week has proved that Covid 19 remains in our community with cases in school. Thank you for our support with testing your children and your prompt information regarding test results. We are in colds season and the number of children coughing will be higher than usual, so your support of us erring on the side of caution and getting tests for new and persistent coughs is really appreciated. Thank you. Please remain extra vigilant to possible Covid 19 symptoms and advise us of any test results, including em,ailing test results received over the weekend to admin@appledoreprimary.co.uk.
Please click on the headline to read all of this article to find out what has been going on in and around the classes…
We wish you all a lovely weekend
From Jeremy Cooper and all the children and staff
AROUND THE CLASSES
This week in Turtles and Diolphins we have started our topic ‘Nursery Rhymes.’ We have been singing ‘Incy Wincy Spider.’ On Wednesday Steve from Exmoor Zoo came to visit us. He showed us ‘Sharon’ and her skins. He talked about the different kinds of spiders there are and how if we see a spider inside to carry it outside safely. Steve also showed us how to draw a spider correctly and we have been practising this. We have also made some spider pom poms.
What a busy week we have had in Year 1! The children have really enjoyed the learning in topic this week, which has included spending lots of time outside the classroom. On Wednesday the children enjoyed their first session of outdoor learning this year and on Thursday we went into the outdoor learning to discover minibeast habitats. The children had to work in small groups to find where minibeasts live, record and label what they found and study them carefully using magnifying glasses. I was really impressed with how well the children worked together to achieve their goal. In maths we have been learning about counting groups of objects and representing them using counters. In writing we have been learning about nouns and plurals. The children have been looking for nouns around the classroom and changing them into plurals. Have a restful weekend.
This week Lundy Puffins have been learning about bees, and how the number of bees is dropping. In English we have looked at the book ‘Traction Man is Here’, we made a Wanted poster with a description of Traction Man. In Maths we have been partitioning numbers, we have used Base 10, digit cards and place value counters. We used the Chromebooks to learn about animals and their habitats. Albert learned that lobsters live for a long time. Amelia learned that lizards lick their eyes to keep them clean. Barney learned that frogs live in swamps. We had our first session in the Art Studio and used oil pastels to make drawings in the style of Modigliani. On Wednesday we had a tour of the forest in an Outdoor Learning session.
Year 3 have begun to structure their dance and are just beginning to think about performance skills now they know some of the choreography. Year 4 added to their dance by developing their partnering skills and created moves that were dependent on a partner which was great fun. It is really beginning to look like a machine. Year 5 learnt some pentatonic melodies and then began to compose their own which were played on xylophones. Year 6 looked at a variety of pitched and unpitched instruments and considered the quality of the sounds they produced before deciding which season they might be most appropriate to represent in piece of music. All year groups added more vocabulary to their French conversations and practised them with their partner. We also looked at French culture. In RE all year groups continued with their units by learning more about that religion and also thinking about what we can learn from it.
This week in Maths, Year 3 have been learning how to represent numbers to 100, how to partition 2-digit numbers and how to count in 100s. They have also carried out their first Weekly Maths Assessment which they all put excellent effort into! These have come home in their homework books to practise just 3 of their choice which they got incorrect. In English, we have been reading stories from ‘The Book of Hope’. The class have discussed whether statements are true or false and learnt the difference between fact and opinion. They have also written similes. In Philosophy, we read the story ‘Giraffes Can’t Dance’ and discussed how the other animals weren’t being inclusive to the giraffe. For Computing, we carried out an e-safety lesson where we watched ‘Jessie and Friends’ videos clips teaching the children how to keep themselves safe online. The children asked sensible questions.
HMS Echo have had an amazing week getting into new routines and developing their independent learning skills. We have been really impressed by the way they have arrived each morning and become quicker each day in organising themselves and completing morning tasks. In lessons, they are working hard to use the 4Bs and ME (book, buddy, brain, board, teacher) to solve problems and find help. In Maths, they have learnt how to round numbers to the nearest ten and have been able to explain their thinking brilliantly. In English, we have been exploring new vocabulary relating to wet and dry, e.g. arid, saturated and torrid. They have been practising how to use these adjectives in their written work. P.E. has focused on stamina for running this week and they have started to develop strategies to keep going and be resilient! It has been a really good first full week in our normal timetable.
Another productive week in the Year 5 classroom. In English we have been drafting our own stories about the tear thief. Soon you will be able to hear stories about blush thiefs, shy thiefs, smile thiefs, frown thieves and more. In maths we have continued with our methods for addition and subtraction methods, really focusing on the exchanges. In science we have looked at magnets and investigated materials that are magnetic. Our topic has been looking at the harm plastic has on the wildlife in the ocean and thinking about how to apply our evaluator skills in our work. Swimming lessons, for non-swimmers and less confident will start on Wednesday for those signed up. Please make sure you have let the school know if you wish to take part in these sessions. The kit list for the residential and sleepover has been sent home toda
Year 6 have been writing about the atmosphere and greenhouse effect this week after researching important facts. In maths, they have been rounding numbers and using negative numbers as part of their work on place value. In art, they are still working towards their arts award. In grammar, they are trying to secure word classes and have homework on that this week. In computing, they have started a unit on spreadsheets and should be able to use formulas by the end of it. You should have your residential kit list now and I hope the packing is going well. Look out for further information at the beginning of next week with final details.
