Newsletter- Week Ending 28th November
Dear parents/carers,
Our communication, language and literacy projects have been an incredible success! It was wonderful to be able to share them with you during our assembly today. If you couldn’t make the assembly there will be links to the animation and comic projects on the blog shortly. The children thoroughly enjoyed the challenge and they really impressed the student teachers with their positive attitudes and great behaviour. I’m very proud indeed of what they’ve achieved. The children had the most fantastic ideas and worked incredibly hard to complete the projects in time.
As we’ve had a literacy focus this week some of our maths has slipped slightly. Next week we’ll be attempting to catch up a little, and moving on the looking at multiplication. I’m going to be asking the children to come up with new ways to remember their times tables.
We do need to squeeze some English lessons in at some point, so next week we will be exploring mystery stories. I won’t tell you any more than that because, well, it’s a mystery! I will however include some descriptive writing, looking at using juicy describing words and phrases.
We’re going to be having a science afternoon next week where we catch up with our missed science lesson this week on circuit diagrams and also investigate other materials that we can use in a circuit. I’m expecting some imaginative ideas!
Don’t forget, homework is due in on Friday morning (5th December). Straight after assembly we will be sharing our work and exploring the different characters, story maps and objects that the children have created. I will remind the children daily next week but please can I ask you to remind them too? We won’t be able to do this on any other day and I’d hate for any of the children to miss out on what will be a fantastic end to our Viking story adventures.
Class 3 will be taking part in the dress rehearsal for the Class 1 nativity play, which will be taking place in church at some point during the last week of term. We’ll be singing a couple of carols (I’m practising the guitar like mad to try and learn some!) after the nativity. I know that we have lots of younger siblings in class 1 and I thought this would be a lovely opportunity for the class to perform for you. More details about this will be available once we’ve sorted out a date and time.
Mrs B
Three things to ask your child this week:
1 How can you spot the point where you can make a choice about your behaviour?
2 What was your favourite thing about our Viking projects?
3 What would you do differently if you did your Viking project again?
Newsletters | Comment (0)CLL projects- coming soon!
Class 3 hope that you will be able to join us at 2.30pm on Friday afternoon for a special assembly, where we will be presenting our communication, language and literacy projects. Here are a couple of photographs of what we’ve been doing so far to whet your appetite…
Newsletter- week ending 21st November
Dear parents/carers,
This week in our English lessons we have had a quick look at some creative poetry, based around “The Magic Box” by Kit Wright. We’ve now started our communication, language and literacy projects with our student teachers from Oxford Brookes. The class have been split into three smaller groups, all working on complementary projects covering different aspects of Viking life and storytelling, as well as different uses of ICT. Some children are looking at comic strips and story telling, one group are exploring oral storytelling through drama and role play and another other group is looking at non-fiction texts about the Vikings and stop motion animation. This is a fantastic opportunity for the class to work in small groups with a great deal of expert adult support, and they’ve been particularly enthused and excited about it. I’m looking forward to seeing the results of this project and sharing them with you. I hope that you’ll be able to join us for a sharing assembly on Friday the 28th of November at 2.30pm. The children and student teachers will be presenting and sharing their work, and it promises to be very exciting indeed.
In maths this week we’ve been looking at time and direction. Most children are working well towards being able to tell the time accurately. By the end of the year they need to be able to tell the time accurately to at least the nearest 5 minute interval, so we’ve been working towards that by concentrating on o’clock, half past, quarter past and quarter to. We’ve also looked at the different compass points and have investigated different ways to explain to someone how to get to a certain point, just by using compass directions. Next week we’re going to be looking at fractions of 2d shapes, as well as practising our 4 times table.
In science this week the children have been investigating different ways to make a bulb in a circuit brighter or dimmer. Some of the solutions were quite ingenious! We’ve also had a look at what other materials electricity might be able to pass through. Next week we’re going to be looking at circuit diagrams and I will be challenging the children to construct more complex circuits.
It’s been lovely to see all of you at parent/teacher interviews over the last couple of weeks. Feedback has been overwhelmingly positive both ways, and it’s been really lovely to be able to tell you all what fantastic children you have! If you do ever have any concerns, please feel free to pop in and see me before or after school, or you can catch me at the school gates.
Mrs B
Three things to ask your child this week:
1 How can you make amends if you’ve upset someone?
2 How can you make a bulb in a circuit dimmer or brighter?
3 Which way is north? How can we tell?
What’s the time, Mr Wolf?
This week in maths we’re working out how to tell the time. Here are a few links to some online games that we will be using, which are suitable for you to play with your children at home.
Stop the Clock Game (15 minute intervals)
Stop the Clock Game- Harder (5 minute intervals)
Stop the Clock Game – Hardest (1 minute intervals)
ICT | Comment (0)Newsletter- week ending 14th November
Dear parents/carers,
In our English lessons this week we have been exploring an adventure story called “Into the Forest”, by Anthony Browne. The children have looked at the use of dialogue in the story, and have worked out how authors indicate speech in their writing. They have also practised putting correctly punctuated speech into their own writing. Today they have explored empathising with characters by writing a letter to the grandma from the hero of the story, describing both his journey through the forest and his emotions.
Next week we will be joined by four student teachers from Oxford Brookes, who will be with us for a fortnight. They will be working on a number of different communication, language and literacy projects with the children, encompassing drama and ICT. I would like the students to run an afternoon assembly on their last day so that the children can show you what they’ve been learning. More details of this will be in the newsletter next week.
We’ve been looking at measuring this week in maths. The children have been choosing suitable measuring apparatus and using it to measure length or mass. We’ve looked at methods for adding two measurements together, as well as finding the difference between two measurements. We’ve briefly looked at ways to find ½ or ¼ of a measurement by folding and cutting. In our mental maths sessions we’ve been practising our 3 and 4 times tables. Next week we will be looking at telling the time as well as directions we will be having a brief introduction to co-ordinates.
In science we’ve continued our work on circuits and electricity but finding out what we need to make a circuit work. I then challenged the children to find as many ways as possible to make a bulb flash on and off. The results were really interesting and imaginative! I’ve made a very quick video of some of their ideas, which I will be uploading to the blog soon (i.e. as soon as I work out how to do it!).
I’ve already met over half of you for our parent/teacher interviews, and it’s been really lovely to chat to you all. I’m really enjoying telling you about your children’s achievements and hearing your feedback.
Mrs B
Three things to ask your child this week:
- How do you think the boy felt before, during and after his adventure in the forest?
- What ways did you find to make a bulb in a circuit go on and off?
- What’s the difference between being guilty of something, and feeling guilty?
Performance Poetry
Here are the children’s performances of some of my favourite poems. We were looking at using our voice to make the poetry sound exciting, through expression, volume and pace. We also looked at how we could use our bodies and movement to add to the poetry.
Uncategorized | Comment (0)Newsletter- Week Ending 7th November
Dear parents/carers,
This week in English we have been studying poetry, particularly looking at performance techniques. The children have watched poets reading their work and decided what factors make a good poetry reading, focusing on expression, pace and volume. They then chose a poem and practised it in a group before performing in front of the class. I have recorded their performances and they’ll be up on the website soon. I was particularly impressed with some of the fantastic acting and vocal expression which really made the poems interesting and exciting to hear. Next week we’ll be looking at dialogue and characterisation in adventure stories, focusing on “Into the Forest” by Anthony Browne.
In maths we have continued with our unit of work on data handling. The children have gathered their own data and used it to draw block graphs and pictograms. We’ve just touched on bar charts and will be extending that next time data handling comes round. Next week we’re going to continue our work on measuring by exploring different units of measurement, as well as looking at some mental addition and subtraction skills involving measurements.
In our topic work this week the children have been creating their own Viking style textiles. They have all made their own spindle and some have started to learn how to spin. We’ve also been making braids using a simple braiding disk. The children are really enjoying these activities and it’s giving them a great insight into how difficult and time consuming it was to make your own clothes and cloth before mass production. We’ll be continuing with this work over the next couple of weeks, and will shortly start weaving with our spun yarn.
In science we’ve started work on electricity. This week I asked the children what they already knew about electricity and to come up with some things we’d like to know about electricity. My favourite was: What colour is electricity? I’d like to know too! I also challenged them to build a circuit to light a bulb. In the next few weeks we’re going to investigate circuits further, including how we can make a bulb in a circuit dimmer and build our own switches.
I’m really looking forward to parent/teacher interviews starting next week, as I’m excited to share the progress that your children are making with you. I will be rigidly sticking to the 10 minute limit- if we need to we can schedule a further appointment to continue the discussion. Thank you in advance for your understanding.
Mrs B
Three things to ask your child this week…
1: What things does a circuit need to work?
2: What’s your favourite poem? Why?
3: What’s the difference between a block graph and a pictogram?
Uncategorized | Comment (0)