News
Newsletter for the week ending Friday 4th October
The school calendar is filling up, so please take a look at the dates below for various school events.
Some really good attendance percentages this week that can be seen here.
Dates for the diary:
- Messy play for children (and siblings of) with SEND, 1.30-2.30pm 30th October, Bideford Family Centre, Victoria Park, Bideford.
- Stories and Fun, 10am-11am Saturday 1st November, Bideford Family Centre, Victoria Park, Bideford
- Years 3-6 Harvest Festival, 2.15pm, Wednesday 16th October at St Mary’s Church
- Turtles and Dolphins Harvest Festival, 2.45pm Tuesday 22nd October in the school hall
- Halloween Disco, time to be confirmed, Friday 8th November, school hall
- Year 3-6 Christmas Service, afternoon of Friday 20th December, St Mary’s Church (time to be confirmed)
- Christmas fair, after school, Friday 13th December in the car park
Have a lovely weekend everybody
From Jeremy Cooper and all the children and staff
AROUND THE CLASSES
This week in Turtles and Dolphins we had a visit from a dentist on Tuesday and she explained to us how we should be cleaning our teeth. We have talked about our bedtime routine and designed some new pyjamas for us to wear. We have also practised our drawing and cutting skills. We drew around a template of a mouth and then we cut it out. Afterwards, we cut out lots of white squares to stick onto the mouth to create some teeth.
This week in Year 1 we used our story plans to create our own short narrative about the Cheeky Helicopter. The creative ideas we came up with last week definitely inspired our writers! We have been working hard on our handwriting to form letters correctly and enjoyed testing how steady our hands are on an interactive whiteboard game. In maths we have been learning about comparing numbers and using the vocabulary less than, greater than and equal to. This week in our topic work we compared Antarctica to the Sahara desert. We used Google Earth to zoom in and look closer at the landscape. We also found our school and enjoyed looking around and locating places in Appledore. We finished the week with outdoor learning focussing on animals and how we can classify them.
Year 2 have had another great week. On Monday they used their own toys to create their own Traction Man style adventure. They used this to write their own adventure stories. In Maths, they have been counting in 2s, 5s, 10s and 3s as well as ordering and comparing 2-digit numbers. For their Geography work they looked at where they live in the UK and made some UK puzzles to name the different countries. They enjoyed another outdoor learning session on Friday and made some bee friendly seed balls. There is a trip to Rosemoor planned for the later this month, so look out for the letter coming next week about this.
In RE, year 3 thought about a treasured possession and how they care for it in preparation for thinking about how Christians might look after God’s creation. Year 4, looked at how a Mosque is designed to help Muslims pray. Year 5, looked at the 4 goals of a Hindus life and related them to their lives and year 6 looked at how Jewish people celebrate Passover. In music, we have been putting the finishing touches to our harvest festival. The children will be singing Wonderful World at the end of the service and we would love it if the congregation would join in the second time they sing it! Thank you for all your help sorting costumes. Slips have been sent home explaining what is required.
Seahunter class (year 3) have had a great week! In Maths, we started a new topic on addition and subtraction. We began by recapping number bonds within 10 and then we learnt how to use related facts. In English, we began reading a new book, Interview with a Tiger. We discussed the purpose of an interview, and then we researched all about David Attenborough and wrote our own interview questions and responses. In Geography, we used the atlases to locate different tropical rainforests around the world and learnt that there are tropical rainforests on lots of continents. In PE, we practised one legged balances and then played a mirroring game with a partner. In Values, we explored the concept of responsibility using an ancient parable about a scorpion that stings a frog. In Computing, we recapped everything that we had learnt about using the program Scratch and then learnt how to create movements for more than one sprite.
In Year 4 this week, the children have written their very own story based on the story Meerkat Mail. They have been such a joy to read and the children have tried incredibly hard including lots of things they have learnt, such as apostrophes, conjunctions and even a bit of humour! In Maths, we have been rounding numbers to the nearest 10, 100 and 1000. In Computing, the children continued with their project of ‘how does the internet work?’ where they are designing a Google Slide all about it. In Geography, the children finished designing their own interpretation panel about the Lapwing, where they explained what Lapwings are and how to spot them and what the RSPB are doing which is an example of sustainable development. In PE, we have been practising more complex footwork skills and also been performing different dances by making shapes and circles with our bodies individually and in pairs. In Values, we looked at different occupations and what their duties and responsibilities are and how they keep people safe and healthy.
Year 5 have been really busy finishing the publishing of their new stories, based on the Tear Thief. These will now be on display in the main building. They have completed the addition and subtraction maths unit and started looking at the skills needed for multiplication and division. All were really confident in their knowledge of multiples. We have started doing outdoor maths once a week and this was really popular with the class. We did a scavenger hunt using the number operation skills. Next week we will learn a way to measure the height of trees (no climbing involved!) We had a session in the art studio where we completed our Christmas cards and used a range of drawing skills to create a pen and ink drawing of Appledore. Following the author visit of Steve Cole, all the class were presented with a copy of his book. Happy reading Year 5.
Year 6 have had a busy week completing their maths unit on Place Value, including using negative numbers, and starting to think about methods for the four operations. In Literacy, they have planned their own stories and have begun drafting. They are trying to work on accuracy and editing skills, to make sure that their readers can follow all the details. In science, they have learnt more about classification and in PE they enjoyed handball. They have also had time in the art studio working on drawing skills, completing a detailed pencil drawing of a dragon’s eye.
