This week in Dolphins and Turtles we have continued to learn about the Diwali Festival. We have found out how people celebrate the festival and we have compared this festival to Christmas. We have finished making our diva pots and we have drawn pictures of a deer. We have started to practise our Christmas Play and singing the songs.

Another exciting week in year 1 draws to a close and we are a week closer to the start of Advent. To get prepared for the start of the festive period, this week the children have designed mini Christmas trees to decorate our class hoop. The hoop and trees will be displayed in the main corridor at the start of Advent. The children enjoyed mixing the colours for the trees and as a result, we have a wide variety of shades of green. The children used glitter, shinny materials, sequins and mini baubles to decorate their trees. In dance this week the children learnt how to show body tension when holding different shapes. We used shapes, jumps and spins to create a mini ice dancing motif. The children had the opportunity to perform their motifs to the rest of the class. On Tuesday the children were able to meet Miss Gray for the first time. She will be in again next Tuesday to learn more about the children before starting after Christmas. Have a relaxing weekend.

Lundy Puffins have had another great week. In English, they have written some really amazing stories based on Augustus and his smile. Everyone tried really hard to include all the skills they had learned and we can see the progress they have made – well done everyone. In Maths, we have continued to work with money and have been counting mixed amounts of pounds and pence and selected the correct coins. Any support you could give at home with this would be much appreciated. For example, if you have any coins at home, you could ask your child to count them. Topic work has been learning about the continents and oceans – ask your child to name them! In the Art Studio, they have been busy with Christmas creations!

All year groups launched into Christmas with a bang this week when they began learning their part for the Christmas performance which is a spine-tingling retelling of Charles Darwin’s “A Christmas Carol”. All the children worked with energy and enthusiasm and have got off to a flying start. You will find that words will start to be coming home and any help you can give with learning of them will be greatly appreciated. Can the children save their brightest, most festive jumper for the last day of term please? And if at all possible could it be free of any modern references? This will be the only costume requirement as all other costume items will be provided for those that need them. Many thanks.

This week in year 3 the children have been continuing to learn how to add and subtract, now with two 3-digit numbers. They have also looked at how to write and answer worded problems for addition and subtraction. In English, the class have been working in pairs to gather information about what Tobago is like. They read through the text, highlighted the key information and created mind maps. We also looked at how Gregory felt when he visited Tobago and how his feelings changed, and looked at writing synonyms for some of the vocabulary used. The children enjoyed their gardening session this week where they carried out some soil testing to find out the acid levels in the soil, linking to our Science unit ‘Rocks and Soils’. In Computing, the class have been revisiting what they learnt about algorithms last year and have practiced creating algorithms using games on the Chrome books.

HMS Echo have been exploring the invasion of Britain by The Romans and some of the events that took place. They learnt some key historical vocabulary and have been using it well to explain and describe the events in Boudicca’s rebellion. They started with a description of Boudicca written by a Roman named Cassius Dio. They had to create a picture of her using only the description. They did really well to pay close attention to the details such as a gold torque round her neck and a mass of yellow red hair. They learnt about how historians can build pictures of the past through different sources of evidence and we’re looking forward to finding out more about the Roman army next week. In P.E. they have been developing skills to play a game that is a mix of handball and netball. They have shown incredible cooperative teamwork skills, working together to make sure everyone has the chance to be involved. They have done particularly well at not just wanting to chase the ball, but to create space and create opportunities to score. They have also been good coaches, providing feedback to each other on their strengths and areas to develop. It has been fantastic to watch!

Year 5 has shown their fantastic engineering skills this week by taking part in a Stem Box Project.  They are now very knowledgeable about potential and kinetic energy; values and pistons; cams; cranks; pumps and engines.  They have shown their collaborative working skills and made moving buggies, sliders and turbines.  We ended the project by going for a visit to the SS Freshspring and hoping for a steam engine to come into school. On Monday  afternoon we took part in an anti-bullying workshop.  A really good week, well done Year 5.

Year 6 had a great visit this week, from Barnstaple Museum, to find out all about life as an evacuee in North Devon as part of their WWII topic. They also enjoyed a visit from Paul Stevens, who gave an interactive assembly on bullying and behaviour with friends. In Maths, they have now moved onto fractions and in Literacy are continuing with diary writing. Science, had some very mouldy results with the bread in damp, warm conditions growing some awful yellow and red mould. Thank you to all those who have paid for our visits online – if you haven’t already done so, please could you make payments as soon as possible.

01237 474365

admin@appledoreprimary.co.uk

Appledore School
Richmond Road, Appledore, Bideford,
Devon, EX39 1PF