News
Newsletter for the week ending 1st October
It’s been another busy week for the children at school and on for our Year 6 on their residential trip on Dartmoor – lots of water and mud I understand! Please read the main section of this article to find out what has been happening in all of the classes.
Over the coming days, please keep and eye our for email and text notifications inviting you to book a time for parents’ evenings. These appointments will be face-to-face in school and over the last two weeks of this half term. Please wear a mask to the appointment.
We wish you all a lovely weekend
From Jeremy Cooper and all the children and staff
AROUND AND ABOUT THE VILLAGE
If you are interested in becoming a primary school teacher, information on local training opportunities is available here.
As part of the book festival, children’s author Philip Ardagh is visiting Appledore Library on Tuesday 4th October at 4pm.
This half term we will be using NSPCC resources in lessons to support the children with keeping safe. Further information is available here.
AROUND THE CLASSES
This week in Turtles and Dolphins we have been using sheep as the focus for our Nursery Rhymes. We have been singing Ba, Ba, Black Sheep, Little Bo Peep and Mary, Mary had a little lamb. We have turned our role play areas into farms. We have talked about what sheep eat and drink, where they live and what we get from sheep. We have painted pictures of sheep, made sheep by weaving wool and made sheep collages.
I cannot believe that it is Friday again. It has been another busy week in year 1. The children have been learning all about animals that live in the Arctic. On Thursday, we sorted these animals into groups. I was pleased with the children’s understanding of different animal characteristics. In PE the children have been learning about different ways to balance. We used the large apparatus in the hall and the children practised balancing at different levels. In our writing learning, we have started to look at a new text this week. We have read ‘Dear Mother Goose’ by Michael Rosen and the children have written a nursery rhyme from memory. In maths, we have been learning about 1 more and 1 less than numbers of objects. Have a lovely weekend.
It has been another great week for Lundy Puffins! They have been writing their own version of a Traction Man story using their own toys. There is some really great writing – well done everyone. In Maths, they have been counting in 2s, 3s, 5s and 10s. In Science, they have been learning about different habitats and created their own pop-up habitat book. They then used the Chromebooks to carry out further research into their habitat and were able to type what they knew. In their Philosophy session they read the book ‘Odd Dog Out’ and thought of some really interesting questions to ask. We are really looking forward to taking your children to Rosemoor on 12th October – a letter about this has been sent out this week.
The year 3 dance is reaching its dramatic conclusion. The children worked in their pairs to create a new motif based on an angry and aggressive greeting. They explored action and reaction and resistance. The results looked very powerful. Year 4 have also nearly finished their machine dance. They have included some highlights in the choreography and will now link their motif with those of other pairs. Year 5 learned how to sing a famous sea shanty by following the score. Yes, it was that one. This was in preparation for next week when they will compose their own shanty using the pentatonic scale. They looked at musical notation and considered how their shanty will be constructed. Next week should be fun!
This week HMS Echo have been learning how to compare and order numbers up to 1000 in Maths. In English, the children have been learning how to punctuate speech and have planned and begun to write up their own versions of ‘Daphne and the Doughnuts’. For Topic, we have been looking at the use of palm oil in products and learning about the effects this is having on the rainforests. The children then created posters to teach others what they can do to reduce their usage. For Philosophy, we have been discussing the difference between equity and equality and the importance of including all.
HMS Echo have been amazing Mathematicians this week, exploring how they can partition 4 digit numbers in different ways and developing their problem solving skills step by step. They have done a particularly good job of explaining their thinking too. In English, they have become more confident using conjunctions to create compound sentences as well as working hard to write while staying in the present tense. There has been a lot of new terminology to get to grips with and they have worked really hard to remember and use it appropriately. In P.E. they had fun developing some netball skills, playing mini games where they learned to defend a mini goal. Finally, in Geography, they have been making some great suggestions to help reduce the amount of waste going into landfill and are keen to share their ideas to help other people understand the problem
Beechcroft have now completed the maths unit on addition and subtraction (the assessment task has been completed today!) In literacy we have been looking at how to write a biography. This started with an elicitation task on writing a biography on Usain Bolt. We have now started to read our new text which is the book ‘Women in Science’. The first female scientist we have been learning about is the physicist Lise Meitner. Ask your son/daughter about why she is remembered! They are learning some very technical and scientific vocabulary at the moment. In our topic work we have been learning about the life cycle of a plastic bottle and creating posters to show this information. Science has been looking at how to separate material using filtering, magnetism, sieving, evaporation and condensation methods. The class are really enjoying their extra weekly reading sessions with Mrs O’Shea.
This week year 6 have been on their residential trip on Dartmoor.
