News
Newsletter for the week ending 11th February
Another busy week that ended with super reports from the general public and staff at Bristol’s We the Curious museum of how well behaved our children were on their trip yesterday and of the kindness and consideration they showed towards other visitors to the museum. Also, their space and science knowledge surprised the museum staff and their searching questions required quick research from the staff for them to be able to answer!
Our (Herculean) Jack will be running his final 1k (totalling 100k in 100 days) and would love anyone who has a spare 10 minutes at 4.45pm on 23rd February to come on down to the amphitheater at Affinity Devon (Atlantic Village) and cheer him across the finish line! He has done so well and been awarded for his endeavours. Great work, Jack!
We wish you all a super weekend
From Jeremy Cooper and all the children and staff
AROUND THE CLASSES
This week in Turtles and Dolphins we have started to celebrate Chinese New Year. We have read the story and acted it out. We thought about why each of the animals would want the new year to be named after them. We have changed our role play areas into a restaurant and we are enjoying ordering food for our friends to cook and serve to us. We have also made lanterns and dragons.
Year 1 have had a great week, we have carried on learning about the Weather in our Literacy lessons and started to compare fiction and non-fiction books. The class spotted lots of differences and a few similarities. We then looked at the features of a non-fiction book and made our own glossary. In our topic lessons we learnt about Edith Cavell and first acted out scenarios pretending to be her, then we used this to help us write a diary entry. In Maths we have started subtraction, first using pictorial representations and now going on to using a number line.
Lundy Puffins have been writing about Grace Darling this week for their English work and have written a great non-fiction piece with headings and lots of information. They will be making little booklets with their writing next week, having already printed the front covers in the Art Studio. These were amazing prints of lighthouses as part of their printing work. In Maths, they have been learning about pictograms and how to draw them, whilst in Science they were able to ask and find out some answers to their questions about looking after a baby and looking after a pet as Mrs Stephens came in with her baby and Mrs Halloway brought in her pet gerbils. Next week, on Friday, there is an outdoor learning session, so please remember wellington boots and warm clothes.
Both years 3 and 4 combined their group pieces to make one whole class composition. Year 4, took their musical cue very well to perform their cyclic pattern in time. Year 3, followed the musical score that their group had created to perform an original composition called ‘A Train Journey’. Year 5 combined their RE and music work by looking at the significance of the lyrics of Christian songs and year 6 began to think about how they could rework a popular song to help them with their SATs revision.
In Maths this week, year 3 have been learning how to use known facts to solve related facts and have learnt how to multiply a 2-digit number by a 1-digit number both with and without carrying. In English, we have created story maps to learn and remember the stories in The Beasties and looked at some of the new vocabulary and skills the author uses. In Topic, the children have learnt about Marie Curie’s life and discoveries and created fact booklets. For Science, we looked at an elbow joint and how it moves. The children learnt how muscles work in pairs and can only pull and not push.The class also continued their learning on skeletons in outdoor learning where they created animal skeletons using materials they could find in the woods such as twigs and sticks!
HMS Echo have been working hard on their knowledge and understanding of teeth. They have learnt the names and functions of human teeth and enjoyed exploring the differences between the teeth of herbivores, omnivores and carnivores. They looked at skulls of various animals to identify similarities and differences as well as evidence of the foods they eat. In Maths, they have explored perimeter. They are able to calculate perimeter and have risen to the challenge of using times tables facts to create rectangles with perimeters of given sizes really well. In PSHE they have explored different emotions, how they can change during a day and how they can talk about and/or manage those feelings.
Year 5 has had a very busy week; both challenging and fun. We have been continuing with our explanation writing and, through our design of a new trainer, applying the skills we need to use in this genre. In maths we have been looking at comparing and ordering decimals ready to start work on percentages next week. We had a fantastic trip to We the Curious in Bristol where we spent the day taking part in a range of science activities. The workshop of Earth, Sun and Moon will certainly help with next term’s curriculum theme on ‘Space’ and the planetarium certainly took us out into our solar system. It was lovely to hear at the end of the day the staff at the centre say how many compliments they had been given about the children (from other schools, parents and their staff). Well done Y5, you were a credit to the school and your families. We are looking forward to taking part in an outdoor learning session which is linked to our science work on forces.
This week has been a busy time for year 6 with fractions, decimals and percentages in maths and a new text ‘The Nameless Holiday’ by Shaun Tan in Literacy. Science has started work on the circulatory and digestive systems and we’ll let you know how this goes in outdoor learning. We The Curious at Bristol was a fantastic day – it was great to see the children being able to explore and play, learning whilst having fun. The electricity workshop was informative and they learnt about insulators, conductors, circuit component symbols and circuits themselves. Watch out for the playdough coming home with an LED light – if you have the right battery (cell) then they may be able to show you that circuit too. I think the planetarium was a hit – see if they can remember where the journey took us. Thank you to those who have responded about hoodies – further instructions to follow
AROUND AND ABOUT THE VILLAGE
Please see below for an activity for primary aged children to be held in Torrington over half term.
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