News
Newsletter for the week ending Friday 17th March
A visit from the fire engine, but don’t panic! It was part of Year 1 learning about how the fire service has changed over the years. Please click on ‘more’ to find out what has been happening in and around all the classes.
St Mary’s church, Appledore, have a Craft Workshop for children to make Mothering Sunday cards and gifts for their mums, in church this coming Saturday morning, and then a special Family Church service on Sunday morning. For more information, please click here
Chivenor Soccer School, near Braunton, are offering two fun-filled days of footballing fun for boys and girls aged 5-12 during the Easter school holiday. Please click here for more information.
It’s a sea of red here and thank you for supporting Comic Relief Red Nose Day.
Wishing you all a lovely weekend
From Jeremy Cooper and all the children and staff
AROUND THE CLASSES
This week in Turtles and Dolphins we have been learning about what the word ‘special’ means. We have talked about what is special to us, where is special to us and who is special to us. We have made Mothers Day presents and cards and today we talked about why Mummy is special and what we can do at the weekend to look after them.
Year 1 have had a very exciting week this week due to our visit from the firefighters! On Monday we were continuing with our topic of The Great Fire of London and were discussing how the fire service has changed throughout the years. We thought about their uniforms, the equipment they had and about how there were no women firefighters until 1982! Then on Tuesday we did an experiment to show how inefficient it was to send buckets of water along a line of people to get to the fire. We spread the class out, started with a bucket of water and wanted to see how much of the water was left by the time it got to our pretend fire. We ended up with lots of wet feet, wet clothes and not much water on our fire! Then on Wednesday we had some firefighters from Appledore fire station come to see us and they even brought their fire engine! The children had the opportunity to ask them any questions they liked, show off some of their learning and then got to learn about the equipment they have and the fire engine. They asked amazing questions and showed how much information they had learnt about The Great Fire of London! Well done Sea Lions!
Half of Year 2 enjoyed a session at Northam Burrows on Monday morning. It was very windy, but they all had a great time. The other half of the class are looking forward to their session next week. In the classroom, they have finished writing their Grace Darling biographies and are writing these into small books which will be on display on the writing wall when they are finished. They created the front covers of these books in the Art Studio using printing techniques. In Maths, they have been completing word problems linked to length using addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. A reminder to keep practising the multiplication and division facts for the 2, 5 and 10 times tables on Google Classroom. For their explorers topic, they found out about Amy Johnson and compared her achievements to those of Ranulph Feinnes.
In singing assembly, the key stage 2 children looked at how music had developed in the classical period from the Baroque. They listened to a piece by Mozart and year 6 played a piece by Beethoven on the recorders. By way of a contrast, the choir belted out a song by Florence and the Machine. There was even time for everyone to sing “There is a green hill far away” which linked in with work they have been doing in RE. Back in the classroom, the year 4 and year 6 compositions have progressed and the year 3 dance is nearing completion. In French, years 4,5 and 6 have been learning body parts in French in preparation for playing Simon Says,
Year 3 have had a brilliant week. In maths, we have started a new topic on fractions. We have been learning all about unit and non-unit fractions and we had a go at comparing and ordering unit fractions. We have been learning all about the Bronze Age in history and learned that it is thought that the Beaker people brought their knowledge of bronze to Britain. The Bell Beaker people were famous for their pottery, so we designed and then made our own pots out of clay. In English, we have started reading the book ‘Interview with a Tiger’. From reading this interview, we made some inferences about the tiger’s personality and then wrote our own noun phrases to describe other animals in the book.
In HMS Echo (year 4) this week, the children have been creating branching keys in Science to identify a plant or animal. In History, the children have been looking at how children were affected during the Industrial Revolution and when Britain was named ‘The Workshop of the World’ – they looked at different sources of evidence, such as pictures, drawings and interviews to understand what it would have been like to have been a child during this period. In PE, we have continued practising our coordination skills of throwing and catching tennis balls – some pairs have been trying two tennis balls at the same time which has been impressive! In Maths, we are coming to the end of our unit of Fractions, where we have been looking at subtracting fractions. In English, the children have been busy planning their own object/machine to explain in a fantasy way; some are planning on writing about how a steam engine works linked to our History of the Victorians.
Year 5 is enjoying writing their poetry. We have been writing Haiku and Cinquain poems about winter and spring. In maths we have been drawing, reading and interpreting line graphs. We have used maps and our geography skills to plan a day at The Magic Kingdom in Florida. In PSHE we have been discussing some of the emotions and conflicts we may experience during puberty and how these could be avoided and resolved. As part of our space topic in science we have been learning about the heliocentric system and the scientist Nicolaus Copernicus.
Year 6 have completed work on shape as well as decimals, percentages and fractions in maths – they have now moved onto statistics. In Literacy, they have completed their stories on Ice Bear using poetic devices. Reading has involved looking for author techniques in comprehension questions. In art, another group has started their textiles project.They have also played Simon Says in French and in Music they worked on composition. Another busy week! Please keep encouraging revision skills in preparation for SATs.
