News
Newsletter for the week ending Friday 10th June
for families to try tennis for FREE and take advantage of some great offers on beginner tennis courses during the summer. For more info visit www.atlanticracquetcentre.co.
AROUND THE CLASSES
On a further sporting note, please click here to find out information for a Summer Fair organised by Barnstaple Falcons Gymnastics Club on Saturday 2nd July, 11am-4pm.
We wish you all a super weekend
From Jeremy Cooper and all the children and staff
This week in Turtles and Dolphins we have been learning about summer. We have talked about all the nice things that we like to do in summer. We have worked out where summer fits in our cycle of seasons. We have painted pictures of the things we do in summer, made collages of the sun and we had great fun playing with ice. Today we visited the Jungle looking for signs of summer.
This week has had a real Phonics focus for year 1 so we have been doing lots of Phonics activities! We have especially enjoyed playing Phonopoly; a game based on Monopoly that involves the children reading real and alien words in order to earn points. They also have challenge and chance cards that can earn them extra points or take them away. In groups, we made cards with real and alien words on which other groups then had to sort based on whether the word was real or not and we did lots of work in teams to match words to the pictures in a given time frame. We also had the opportunity to work with Lottie from The Atlantic Racquet Centre this week. We loved having a go at tennis and learning a few tricks. We did so well that we received our invitation to the tennis event this weekend which the children took home leaflets for.
Year 2 have had a great few days back with the children settling back into school well. In Maths we have started looking at telling the time. Thank you for all the work you did over the half term break helping your children learn to tell the time. In English we have started our new topic using the book ‘Outdoor Wonderland’. We have looked at the way the pages are presented and used the book to write questions for our friends to answer. In RE we discussed ‘What is forgiveness?’ Our Philosophy session this week used the book ‘The Dot’ by Peter H. Reynolds.
In year 3 this week, we have started learning about Time in Maths, looking at how to tell the time when it is o’ clock, at quarter hours and at half hours. In English, the class watched a video called ‘The Way Back Home’ and wrote the story in their own words for their elicitation task. We have also started reading our new text ‘Oliver and the Seawigs’ and learning the skills the author uses. In Science, we have observed the effects of water absorption in flowers using food dye. For Philosophy, we discussed what makes and special, focusing on how we are all different but all fantastic!
HMS Echo have been fantastic scientists this week, finding out how and why electrical circuits work. They have found out about the different components and the symbols we use for them. We used Hot Wires to create circuits that lit bulbs, spun propellors as well as adding switches. They also developed their knowledge of different sources of electrical power; cells, batteries and mains. They have also been publishing their version of The Firebird so the finished products will soon be on display on the writer’s wall.
It has been a short week but we have covered so much in year 5! We have now completed our writing based on Shackleton and his explorers and started to listen to the story of ‘Children of the Quicksands’ by Efua Traore. In maths we have completed a baseline assessment for direction and position in preparation for this work over the next few weeks. Our topic this half term will be very geography based; with a focus on both Africa and Lundy. Letters have been sent home today about the details for visits and events which are happening over the coming weeks. Please check the dates allocated to your child as cooking and bikeability have been split into two groups.
Year 6 have published their Ice Bear stories this week which was a lengthy task after a break! They have also been investigating and explaining thinking in maths: what happens with odd and even numbers and a caterpillar investigation. In topic, they have been finding out about Lundy ready for our trip and have enjoyed some PE sessions. Thank you to all those who have paid for trips already.
