News
Newsletter ending for the week ending Friday 8th November
Welcome back and we hope you had a good half term. This half term is always a busy one, so please keep an eye on here and your email and texts for notice of events.
FSU fireworks display last night and Halloween discos tonight conclude a busy week.
Dates for the diary:
- Sport, drama and music scholarship application for year 7 entry into West Buckland School deadline 6th November – see here
- Halloween Disco, Dolphins-Year 2 5-6pm, Year 3-6 6.30-7.30pm, Friday 8th November, school hall. Tickets on sale in the playground after school on Friday
- Wear spots and stripes for Children in Need, Thursday 14th November, a day early due to school photos on official Children in Need day!
- School photos 15th of November. If you want a photo to include siblings who don’t attend Appledore School these photos will be taken 8-9am
- Online workshop on how to support your child reading at home 2-3pm, 19th November – see here
- Year 3-6 Christmas Service, 2pm, Friday 20th December, St Mary’s Church
- Christmas fair, after school, Friday 13th December in the car park
Have a lovely weekend everybody
Have a good weekend.
From Jeremy Cooper and all the children and staff
AROUND THE CLASSES
This week in Turtles and Dolphins we have been celebrating Bonfire Night. We found out about Guy Fawkes and the reason why we celebrate Bonfire Night. We have printed pictures of bonfires and fireworks. We have also made rockets. We loved our firework party last night and today we toasted marshmallows on a campfire in the woods.
This week in Year 1 we have been reading a new book ‘What do you do with a tail like this?’. We had great fun guessing what animals were going to be on the pages and used lots of our knowledge from looking at animals last term to help us guess. In maths we have been continuing with addition, looking at fact families and number bonds within 10. We had our first history lesson discussing timelines and events in the past. The children created their own timelines about their lives. In our values lesson we started thinking about the focus for this term ‘Friendship’ and what it means ‘being friends’. New reading books have gone home today for your child to read to you. Have a lovely weekend!
Year 2 have looked at a new book in English called ‘Augustus and his smile’ which is a story about a tiger. They have asked questions about the main character and written character descriptions. In Maths, they have been adding two two-digit numbers using different methods and equipment. They have started a new topic for History about ‘Explorers’ and have thought about where an explorer might go and what they might need. For their science learning they went outside in the woodland area and found out about camouflage by trying to collect lots of different coloured ‘caterpillars’. They found out that the brightest colours were easiest to find first. A message has been sent about dates for Christmas performances, so please look out for it.
Year 3 have had a brilliant first week back! In Maths, we learnt how to add and subtract using the column method with exchanging. We then used our knowledge to answer some challenging word problems. In English, we started reading the book ‘Escape from Pompeii’. We used noun phrases and prepositions to describe the streets of Pompeii before the eruption of Mount Vesuvius. We also began a new history topic all about the Stone Age. We began by writing questions to find out more about this prehistoric time. In Science, we explored the properties of different rocks and used our knowledge of properties of materials to compare two different rocks. In Values, we discussed how there are many different types of families and we also discussed people who are really special to us. In PE, we learnt some football skills including developing our control of the ball and we practised dribbling the ball with a partner.
In music lessons children have addressed their music objectives by preparing for our Christmas performance. According to tradition, this will be on the last afternoon of term and we will aim to start as close to 2.00pm as possible but not before. Year 3 have been exploring waltz rhythms and were waltzing round the hall beautifully. The faster tempo of the jive was exhausting for year 4 but they had a great time kicking and flicking to a well known Christmas song. The children are loving learning the wide variety of songs and thinking about how their performance needs to match the tone of the song. The lyrics to 4 songs should have made it home and any help with the learning of the words will be greatly appreciated as always. This year, we have made the melodies available and you should have received notification about how to access both the vocal and backing tracks at home. Year 5, have been working hard on both the dialogue and their song. Both year 5 and year 6 will start their dances soon (salsa and Charleston) so get your paddles ready. Actually, I intend to put them in the church ready for you!
It’s been a great first week back in Year 4 after a very restful half term. We’ve been busy starting lots of new topics. In Maths, we have started looking at how to calculate the area of rectangles and rectilinear shapes. In English, we have started reading our new text A Walk in London, where the children took a virtual tour around London and they also went on a walk around Appledore, where they learnt lots of historical facts. In History and in Guided Reading, we started learning about the Romans, where they did some of their own research. In Computing, we started looking at what programming means, and we had a practise programming a screen turtle!
A great start to the new half term for year 5. We have started to read the poem ‘Beowulf’ and write character descriptions for the hero and monster (Grendel). This text also links to our new history unit based on the Anglo-Saxons and Vikings. In maths we have been looking at squared/cubed numbers and multiplying/dividing by 10, 100 and 1000. We had an afternoon session in the art studio where we were colour mixing. The Christmas production is well underway; keep learning the words for both the performance and songs.
Year 6 have been refining their skills with long multiplication and short division this week – they will move to long division next week. In literacy, they have begun the text ‘Friend or Foe’ by Michael Murpurgo and have written a diary entry as the main character Davey. In Science, they have learnt about how the heart works – hopefully they can recall and explain this process. In History, they have been looking at how WWII came about and colouring countries on maps to show the allies and the axis powers. Thank you to all those who have shared items and information from home – it’s really added to our work.
