News
Newsletter for the week ending 16th November
Please read on to find out about the Christmas Jolly, Shoebox Appeal, what has been happening in and around the classes and much, much more…
AROUND AND ABOUT THE VILLAGE
Kingsley School Art and Science Enrichment Morning
This event is for pupils in Years 5&6 and being held at 10am-12.30pm on Saturday 24th November at a cost of £10 per child. If you are interested, please contact Diane Smart at dsmart@kingsleyschoolbideford.co.uk
North Devon Authors Book Signing
5-8pm, Sunday 16th December at the Pier House, Westward Ho! there is a book signing of local authors that includes children’s authors.
AROUND THE SCHOOL
PTA News
Following our PTFA meeting yesterday we have decided to shift our focus to some new fundraising events that are less labour intensive and reliant on volunteers.Please share any ideas for fundraising events (such as a quiz or bingo night) on the Appledore School PTFA facebook page or email admin@ appledore-primary.devon.sch.uk We will discuss all these ideas and plan a new Spring event at the next PTFA meeting on 17th January at 7pm. We are hoping more of you can join us.
Unfortunately we are unable to run a full Xmas Fayre this year due to a lack of volunteers, so there will a Christmas Jolly.
Kind Regards
The PTFA
Christmas Fair now the Christmas Jolly
This will be held on Thursday 13th December. It will enterprise stalls selling your children’s Xmas crafts, refreshments and a visit from Santa. PTFA will ask for your best bakes nearer the time. We are hoping Santa will be able to bring his sleigh this year and he will be able to meet children from 3pm onwards. The PTFA will be in touch about how to book a slot with Santa nearer the time.
PE Kit
Please make sure that your child always has their PE kit in school.
Shoebox Appeal
Please remember to fill and return the box provided by the Rotary Club so they can be sent away to less fortunate children. We have chosen to support the Rotary Club shoebox appeal because there is no charge for the box and for sending them. So far we have 20 boxes returned from the 150 sent out.
AROUND THE CLASSES
This week in FSU we have had a visit from Tejah’s Daddy his family celebrate Diwali as well and he talked to us about being a Sikh and living with his family in Coventry. We looked at the Sikhism symbol and compared it to symbols that we recognise and we listened to a story about Guru Nanak and thought about ways that he was kind and things that we can do to be kind – these ideas have gone into our Kindness Jar. We also had a great day painting pictures of Pudsy Bear and making moving Pudsys.
This week we have continued our work on ‘What do you with a tail like this?’. We have worn different hats and written sentences about why you would wear the hats. We then edited the sentences making sure they had capital letters, full stops and correct spellings. In Maths we have continued our work on subtraction, we have found the difference between numbers, subtracted by counting backwards and compared number sentences using the greater than, less than and equals symbols. As part of our Everyday Heroes topic we have learnt about Neil Armstrong, we wrote postcards as if we had been to the moon. Our Philosophy session used videos of children talking about ‘The Friendship Code’. We discussed the question ‘What makes a good friend?’.
This week Lundy Puffins have been finishing their own instructions based on ‘How to wash a woolly mammoth’. In the art studio, they designed the front cover for when the instructions will be published. Maths this week involved using knowledge of number bonds to 10 to add. Our topic ‘Explorers and Adventurers’ continued with the class finding out about two explorers: Christopher Columbus and Neil Armstrong. They watched a clip of the moon landing and thought about what equipment each explorer would have needed. Parts for the Christmas play have been given out and your child should have come home with a letter detailing what they will be. Those that have speaking roles have received their scripts, so please ask if it hasn’t made it home.
Seahunter have worked hard in Maths this week, learning how to subtract using a column method. They have demonstrated their learning skills by using what they have learnt about place value to help them understand. They have been able to explain their thinking and worked hard to teach/instruct each other. In Science, we have started looking at nutrition. The children have sorted a collection of food pictures in to groups; fats and sugars, protein, dairy, carbohydrates and fruits and vegetables. They will be using these images to create faces in the style of the artists Guiseppe Arcimboldo. Their scientific artwork will be on display in the classroom on Friday. They will look fabulous and will be useful when we are researching and writing about the jobs of each food group.
This week, HMS Echo have been learning about kilometres and metres in Maths, where they have practised converting between the two. They have also written their own worded problems involving kilometres and metres for their partner to solve. In English, they have written up and edited their versions of ‘Leon and the Place Between.’ We have been focusing on using interesting vocabulary that we have learnt from the story. In Science, we have continued to look at teeth and have learnt the functions of our teeth! For PSHE, we were looking at random acts of kindness that we could try to do in school and at home, and the children wrote some of their own to display in class. For Topic, the class have learnt about the city states Athens and Sparta and how they were different to have a debate on Monday.
In art/topic we are making (between us) a new version of the Bayeux Tapestry – it was all to do with the story of the Battle of Hastings in 1066. So far, we have all planned our part, begun painting and we will need to then copy this onto fabric for our textiles work. In English, we have been doing our Viking sagas that followed on from the stories of Freya and the Goblins, Thor and the Giants and Iduna and her Magic Apples. We have also invented a quiz to test our knowledge of Anglo-Saxon Gods. We had a great time on residential last week and only have a few bits of clothing left with no owners – check to see if you have your waterproof trousers – we have 2 pairs in class. We also enjoyed the Sustainable Fish Project – thank you to all parents/carers that came to see what we’d been doing. Please reply to the choir letters for Mrs Smale and bring residential slips back as soon as possible.
In literacy, we have written biographies on famous authors including Charles Dickens, and looking at good vocabulary to improve the level of our writing. In maths we have been focusing on the reflection and translation of shapes with co-ordinates. In science, we did a biography of Charles Darwin. Topic work looked at Henry VIII fifth wife, Katherine Howard. We have been busy getting ready for our Christmas story which we will be performing on Friday 7th December in Appledore. Reporters: Leo and Isabella
Have a lovely weekend
From Jeremy Cooper and all the staff and children
