News
Newsletter for the week ending Friday 29th September
Another busy week draws to a close and a week that has included visiting authors from the book festival, a trip to find out about sustainability in supermarket, lots of rehearsing for harvest festivals and a surprise visit from a theatre group. Please read the full post to find out what has been happening in all the classes.
Please ensure your children have a PE kit in school. Unfortunately, a significant number of children do not have their kit at school. A large proportion of those without a PE kit are in years 5 and 6
Holiday club is running at school over the October half term and places are available. It will be running Monday to Friday and full days, half days and breakfast and late pickups available. Please contact www.abreathoffreshair.
Diary Dates
- Dolphins and Turtles Harvest Festival, 2.30pm, Tuesday 17th October, our school hall
- Year 1&2 Harvest Festival, 2.30pm, Friday 20th October, our school hall
- Year 3-6 Harvest Festival, 2pm, Tuesday 10th October, St Mary’s Church. Relatives of year 3-6 children welcome
- FOAS AGM 7pm, Wednesday 11th October, school art studio
- Halloween disco 5-6pm reception and years 1&2, 6.30-7.30pm years 3-6 Friday 13th October. Tickets £3 on sale in the playground next week.
- Christmas fair 3.30-5pm, Friday 8th December, bottom playground
AROUND THE CLASSES
Wishing you all a super weekend
From Jeremy Cooper and all the children and staff
This week in Turtles and Dolphins we have carried on using our senses to explore our environment. We have used lots of different collage materials to make faces of ourselves. On Tuesday we discussed the meaning of the words bumpy, wrinkly, smooth and hard. We then went down to the woods to find things that fit those words. We did get a little side tracked as we found lots and lots of conkers! Today we went over to the park and we used our senses to explore the park. We had different stations where we had to stop and use our senses.
In year 1 this week we have been writing our own stories of The Naughty Helicopter. We thought of some very naughty things he might get up to in school! In Maths we have been learning the language greater than, less than and equal to and had a go at using the symbols for these. In our topic lesson we recapped how penguins are adapted to living in Antarctica and then thought about how camels are adapted to living in the Sahara Desert. We thought of great ideas and then labelled a picture to show what we had learnt. In Science we’ve been learning about animal groups, we’ve remembered these brilliantly and enjoyed finding out which group different animals belong in.
Year 2 had a great start to the week on Monday when the author and illustrator Jonny Duddle came to visit us. He told us all about how he used to live on board a ship which became the inspiration for his pirate-themed stories. He read one of his stories and even managed to draw a pirate for us. In English this week we have written our own Traction Man stories after acting them out in the classroom. In Maths, we have been looking at 2-digit numbers and trying to place them on a number line. In our Geography work, we have been looking at the United Kingdom using Google Earth and maps.
All the key stage 2 classes have been working hard in their RE lessons. Year 3 thought about a treasured possession, what it means to them and how they care for it so they could relate to God asking Adam and Eve to care for the world. Year 4, considered how Subhah beads can help a Muslim pray. Year 5 looked at the four goals of a Hindu’s life and then thought of corresponding goals for their lives. Year 6 looked at the Jewish festivals of Rose Hashanah and Yom Kippur. They then thought of resolutions they could make for the new academic year and also thought about a time when they needed to ask for forgiveness.
Year 3 have had a great week! We used the atlases to locate different tropical rainforests around the world and then learnt about the differences between tropical and temperate rainforests. In maths, we have been finding missing numbers on number lines to 1000 and have also been comparing and ordering numbers. In English, we have started writing our own versions of ‘Lord of the Forest’ and have challenged ourselves to use exciting adjectives and verbs in our writing. In Computing, we have started learning about programming and had our first go on scratch. We were also very lucky this week to have a workshop with the author Isabel Thomas, who told us all about her love of writing non-fiction books and we learnt some very interesting facts about insects! We also took part in some fun outdoor learning where we tried some different fruits that have been grown at school.
In HMS Echo (year 4) this week, the children have been writing their stories inspired by the book Meerkat Mail which they have worked so incredibly hard on! I’m looking forward to reading them when they’re finished. In Maths, we are coming to the end of Place Value, and will be looking at roman numerals and rounding in the next few days. In Geography, we were ‘renewable researchers’ where we learnt about solar and wind farms, and why we’re seeing more of these in the countryside. We also looked at fossil fuels and why these are examples of non-renewable resources. On Friday, we will be visiting Morrisons to see how it encourages sustainability as a supermarket as well as their shoppers. In PE, we practised our balancing on one leg. It would be great if they could show you their balancing skills at home!
Year 5 has been very busy, and excited, about publishing their new stories. The illustrations and vocabulary choices are amazing. These will be on display, in the main building, from next week. Our maths this week has focused on rounding numbers to find estimates to answers and using the inverse for a checking strategy. We have listened to two authors; a virtual meeting with Maz Evans who told us about her book ‘Oh Maya Gods’ and the visiting author Ross Welford. Both authors were inspirational and many are keen to read some of their books. Our geography lesson this week looked at mapping skills and identifying the countries from which we import products. We did some investigative science looking at which materials would dissolve and planned some fair tests.
Year 6 put their handball skills to good use in PE this week, as they played in small teams against each other. I was impressed with how much running some children did in a short time! In maths, they have almost completed the place value unit and are moving on to addition and subtraction. I hope they won’t be dreaming about how to find what each interval increases by on a numberline (find the differences between 2 given numbers and divide it by the number of intervals) but I am hoping that now we have looked at it in several different ways, the process is starting to sink in! In literacy, they have been learning skills around using colons and semi-colons; they have had some really great ideas. I now can’t wait to see who remembers and uses them in their work. Science involved finding out about animals in order to create a classification key – thinking about specific features or characteristics. In Geography, they have looked into some climate issues in Australia, around bushfires, and how this impacts people in the affected areas. Harvest is in full swing as they have been rehearsing with Miss Carr. Well done to all those children who coped with completing homework this week – please keep an eye on Google Classroom for tasks. Just a reminder that PE kits are needed on Tuesdays and Friday when we have our sessions, but keeping a PE kit in school all week is most helpful.
