News
Newsletter for the week ending 26th March
Hi everybody and we hope you are all well. Another busy week of outdoor learning and learning about Marie Curie and explorers, asking questions such as ‘Do you have to be successful at everything?’ and ‘Why did people think the World was flat?’ and being involved in the redisgning of our outdoor space. So please do read Around the Classes in this report to find out more.
Next week is the last week before we break for Easter and the last day of this busy term is Thursday 1st April and we return to school on Monday 19th.
Next week we say goodbye to Mrs Smale. Mrs Smale is retiring at the end of this term after 18 years here at Appledore School. Mrs Smale’s contribution to the school has been huge and her leadership of all things musical at school has been incredible. She will be sorely missed by us all and we wish her all the very best.
Have a wonderful weekend everyone.
Best wishes from
Jeremy Cooper and all the children and staff
AROUND THE CLASSES
This week in Turtles and dolphins we have been looking at the signs of spring around us. We went to the woods on Tuesday and used our senses to explore the signs of spring. We have made blossom trees and painted pictures of them. We have also painted pictures of daffodils and made sculptures of them.
This week has been a very adventurous week in Year 1. The Sealions have continued to learn about materials in science. On Tuesday we went into the outdoor learning area to build houses for little people using our knowledge of materials. The children built some very interesting structures some of which we extremely sturdy and weatherproof. In our writing this week we have been researching dragons that the children wanted to use for their ‘tell me a dragon’ books. I have been very impressed by the children’s use of vocabulary within their writing. In maths, we have started learning about weight, mass, volume and capacity. I have put a knowledge sheet on Google Classroom for you to use at home with the children. Please learn the content of this sheet in small chunks to help the children to practise their maths knowledge.
Lundy Puffins have had another great week. They have looked at two new books in their English lessons: ‘Journey’ and ‘Harold and the purple crayon’. Both books involve using their imagination to go on a journey. In Maths, they have continued to look at graphs and this week has been about pictograms in particular. They have found out about another explorer: Neil Armstrong and were able to watch footage of him landing on the moon. They thought about what it might be like to travel to space and were able to try some space food! They have also started a new science topic where they are learning about different materials and their properties. They have all been shown how to use the Times Tables Rockstars website to learn and practise times tables. They should have a card with their username and login details in their book bags to play at home if they’d like to. There is a link to the website on their Google Classroom.
Seahunter have been learning a lot more about the life of Marie Curie this week and developing their skills as explainers. They have been able to write summaries of events in her life in English using some of the grammar skills we are working on; subordinate clauses and time connectives. They have also found out about how she helped soldiers during World War One by inventing portable x-ray machines. They created pop-up books with writing that described and gave reasons for her work during the war. Finally, we looked at the work of the Marie Curie charity and how it got its name and symbol, the daffodil. This led to thinking about legacy and what this means. The children produced some beautiful work using a daffodil image and writing to suggest all the ways that Marie Curie’s legacy helps people today.
HMS Echo have been recapping their learning on Multiplication and Division this week in Maths. In English, the children have been learning how to write formal letters and diary entries following a success criteria. The children have enjoyed learning more about how food has changed over the last 100 years and placing popular foods from over time on a timeline. The class have carried out more of their personal best challenge ‘alternative hand throw’. In Philosophy, the children watched a clip called ‘Never give up, believe in yourself’ and discussed our big question ‘Do you have to be successful at everything?’ Miss Grigg had her last week teaching the Year 4 children. We have been very grateful to have her bring some fun and engaging lessons – thank you
Year 5 have been finding out about decimal numbers to three decimal places this week in maths. In literacy, they have invented their own space scientist and are now writing a short biography of their life. In science, they have looked at why people believe the Earth is not flat as well as finding out more about the planets. In computing, they have looked at how quizzes can be created in Scratch and are working towards writing their own quizzes. Outdoor Learning has included work on redesigning part of our outdoor space. Thank you for all the great ideas for the chickens – it looks like they will be well entertained. They have also been continuing work on their screaming mandrakes in art and went outside to sing for music. Another busy week. Homework over the next few weeks will be completing the photography unit we have started and will go towards Arts Award work,
This week in school Year 6 have been working very hard to get a lot of work done. Let us tell you more about it…English: Inspired by the Dragonology book, we have been making our own ‘ology’ books of a mythical beast. Among various other creatures, people have done phoenixes, giants, griffin and mermaids. Maths: In maths this week we have been doing tests that were used in previous SATS on arithmetic and reasoning (Mrs McMorine tells us we have done really, really well!) Art: In art we started making butterflies out of clay. Science We have watched videos from Oak Academy and this week we have learnt about static electricity and electrical circuits. R.E.: In R.E this week we have been learning about a humanist’s beliefs and where they would go to find the truth. Spanish: In spanish we have learnt about different types of animal’s names and what noise they make in spanish. For instance, a dog is called un perro and goes gua! – gua! By Sophia and Felix
