Filter Content
- Message from Mrs Jones
- Bug Club
- Reception Potions & Creepy Crawly Crackers
- Year 1 African animals
- Year 2 Lila and the Secret of Rain
- Year 2 Maths, Science and PSHE
- Year 2 Secret Angels!
- Year 3 Stone Age Diaries
- Year 4 Leon and the Place Between
- Year 4 Matisse
- Year 5 Maths and Rivers
- Year 6 Midnight Fox
- Year 6 The Weather Tree
- The Chronicle
The weather is always a regular topic of conversation and has certainly provided plenty for us to talk about this week. After hearing in the news the impact of storm Christoph on some communities who are already under enormous pressure from all of the challenges of the pandemic we are clearly reminded that the weather can be a force for good and bad.
To balance this, we are also reminded how beneficial fresh air and sunlight is for our mental and physical health. Connecting with the natural environment is good for both cognitive and emotional health. Natural light supports the production of Vitamin D which is crucial for our bone development and the general functioning of our bodies.
It is really hard to take a break sometimes when our homes have become both classroom and office, those transitional journeys that provide a break both physically and mentally aren’t happening for many of us at this time. Let’s hope we can get some fresh air when we are able to, and the families displaced by the storm can find strength and shelter.
Whilst we cannot control much of what is happening to us at the moment we can be sure the evenings will get lighter and the sun will warm our faces.
We have been so pleased this week to see how our community has embraced our home learning provision. Google Classroom is a new platform that we are all learning to use and we hope it is becoming more familiar. Please also check that your child (ren) can access Bug Club, regular reading needs to continue alongside the tasks on Google Classroom. Please contact us if you are not successfully accessing it.
Bug Club has been a big investment for us as a school. At the start of the lockdown we identified that reading was a key priority to be able to continue with. We are now looking at ensuring children become confident with using Bug Club regularly for their home reading and for developing key comprehension skills.
It has been lovely to see some of our children logging into Bug Club. The teachers have all been looking at class engagement. We have a few children who have already read lots of books! The record seems to be 22! Wow well done!
Reading is a key skill to keep going during lockdown. Please continue with reading at home, even two or three pages a day helps.
Next week across the school one of the home learning activities is to login and choose a book to read. The books are in ‘My Stuff’. Each child has 5 books allocated to read.
Finally a very small few people have had a few issues logging in. Please change your browser to Chrome. If you are using an iPad or phone to read please refer to the letter on SZapp with device information to ensure your settings are enabled.
Thank you for your continued support with reading at home.
Mrs Richardson
Reception Potions & Creepy Crawly Crackers
The children in Reception have really engaged with their learning. We are all so proud of what they have achieved and it has been ‘magical’ to see what they have done both in school and at home. The children were set the challenge of making their own potions which involved writing the ingredients that went into the pot and then casting their spells! They have also been learning about different containers and how much they can hold – ‘capacity’. Well done Reception we can’t wait to see what you get up to next week!
The children in school enjoyed watching the video of Mrs Abbott making creepy crawly crackers from the Room on the Broom cook book.
This week year 1 have been continuing our learning with the theme of African animals. We learned how to draw our very own elephants. We used these to decorate our One Day on Our Blue Planet...In the Savannah stories which were all about elephant families. Then towards the end of the week we watched Catch It, a funny short story about meerkats working together for a common goal and defeating their nemesis (a crafty vulture). We then put ourselves into the character of the meekat family to write speech bubbles.
Year 2 Lila and the Secret of Rain
This week the children in Year 2 continued their learning about Africa and our Power of Reading book, Lila and the Secret of Rain. They imagined they were Lila and wrote a diary entry about the events of the story, including how Lila felt at different times. The children planned their writing first by drawing the events in sequence and writing helpful captions before doing some wonderful detailed writing. Miss Delaney and Miss Holland think the work they have produced is brilliant!
Year 2 Maths, Science and PSHE
Maths
This week, Year 2 have been working hard, solving Multiplication and Division questions.
Alice created a fantastic array at home using paint pots. What a wonderful, creative idea Alice!
PSHE
At school this week Year 2 have been busy, studying and questioning many important topics. We shared opinions about what it means to be part of a special team and the importance of working together. We chanted our favourite mantra:
'Team: Together Everyone Achieves More'.
Also, we read the story 'The Colour Monster' and shared ideas on how to recognise and regulate our emotions. Some of our suggestions are to practice colour breathing (mindfulness) or go for a walk outside in nature.
Science
This week we studied 'Materials' in our Science lesson. We examined some everyday objects in our classroom, described them and sorted them into different groups (glass, metal, wood, plastic, fabric). We enjoyed this activity and were surprised to learn that glass is made from very fine sand which is heated until it melts.
Keep up the marvellous learning at home and at school!
Year 2 have been introduced to the game 'secret angels' in school - everyone writes encouraging notes to their friends and sneaks them into their envelope in the corridor on their way to the toilets or during golden time. The envelopes are stuffed full of wonderfully kind words! How about you play the secret angel game at home with your family to share what you love about each other!
Year 3 have been INCREDIBLE in school this week. We have been pretending to be in the Stone Age and writing diary entries! As you can see everyone has been so focused and engaged to do the best writing they can. Everyone at home who sent in their diary entries have been sensational as well. We are blown away with how hard everyone is continuing to work, keep it up Year 3!
Year 4 Leon and the Place Between
This week Year 4 have been inspired by their new book, Leon and the Place Between. In Art, we designed posters to entice people to come and see a circus show. We also created Matisse inspired pieces of work using cut outs of paper. In Literacy we used expanded noun phrases and powerful vocabulary to capture the atmosphere of the circus in our list poems. The children have been so busy this week and it has been wonderful looking at all their work.
This week Year 4 have done some fantastic art inspired by Matisse's Circus collection. We used different coloured paper and used scissors to freely cut abstract shapes from the circus. The children at home have also done some fantastic work, well done! We also listened to Mrs Castle reading her Matisse book at home which we all loved.
This week has been another creative and innovative week in Year 5. Everyone has thought carefully about using a range of sentence openers within their writing to make it more engaging to the reader, with great success. The children have immersed themselves into learning a variety of written multiplication and division methods and have even started applying this to solving money questions. Friday Maths has seen some children collaborating with each and sharing their problem solving skills – even when separate, children are finding ways to learn together, very inspirational!
Josh and Flissy problem solving for Friday Maths!
Afternoon activities have included the culmination of our Rivers topic. Children have also had fun learning how to appraise a range of music – even with adults having a chance to share their favourite childhood songs with their children. We’re sure these unearthed some wonderful memories for everyone.
Some lovely writing from Freddie:
Dear Diary,
As I opened the car door, the sun beamed onto my face I had We had waited all holiday for this moment, it had finally arrived! We walked over to the beautiful lake and checked out the inflatables. It was like a multi-coloured bouncy city. We checked in and got all prepared for our turn. Finally we got our lifejackets on and went to where we started! when we sometimes fell into the cooling lake. We made our way to the colossal tower. We heaved ourselves up to the top. I could see the whole lake from here. There was only one way down and it was a roughly 10 metre drop into the water! I was pretty nervous for my first time but once my sister was gone I had no choice. I launched myself off and as I fell through the air it felt like my tummy was jelly. SPLASH!!! It was amazing. After climbing back up the beast, we then slid down the 10 metre drop like a rollercoaster and then splashed into the water. All too soon, it was our time to come off and all I wanted to do was go back on it again!
SPAG – 3 Sentences with interesting adverbs.
orange text = Adverb
I spoke so glowingly about my holiday in Eftalia.
Excitingly, my sister and I saw Sharks and Dolphins in the Mediterranean Sea.
I have brilliantly completed my home learning today.
This week in DT we created cardboard model foxes based on our new literacy book 'the Midnight Fox' - Ruby
Vish used a mind map programme to classify animals as part of our science work on ‘Animals and their Habitats’
In Literacy, Year 6 have been writing their own short stories entitled, 'The Weather Tree.' We thought carefully about our language choices and attempted to include a range of figurative language in our writing.
Click on the link to watch this week's Chronicle episode (assembly).
Please click the below link to join the school's new online classroom - The Chronicle, where you will find weekly assemblies, from school and the Church, plus fun links and ideas to do whilst you are not doing home learning, or at the weekend.
https://classroom.google.com/c/MTk3MDcwNDA1MzE1?cjc=bjwnr6r
If you are logged on with your school account, you should not need a code to join; the link will suffice.
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Virtual Assembly From The Church
At school, your child will be used to taking part in regular collective worship (they might call it ‘assembly’). This is not the kind of worship that some of you might have been part of in a religious building. In church schools this collective worship is planned to be:
- Inclusive: something for children and teachers, of all faiths, or of none, to be able to access
- Inspirational: a time in the day to think about the big questions in our lives; an occasion that supports the school community’s spiritual development, creates an opportunity to gather around and reflect on a common theme and ‘feeds’ their inner being;
- Invitational: in school, children and teachers are invited to pray, think, or reflect, it is the child’s or teacher’s choice how they respond.
(with thanks to Guildford diocese for this and their inspiration for today’s virtual assembly)
Here’s the link for the virtual assembly : theme - “We’re all in the same boat!”
Fun PE Challenge
Have a go at this challenge recorded by some off our Year 6s You will also find this in the new Chronicle classroom. Don't forget Phoebe's challenge from last week. Thank you Miss Barsby or your choreography.