Dear Parents and Carers,
There has been a hint of winter celebrations in the air around school this week, with the odd Christmas song being sung in preparation for our Christmas Tree Service on Wednesday 30th November at 14.50 in the Hall. I have also heard the odd nativity line being spoken and found the remnants of glitter, wool or similar linked to the creation of decorations left on one or two classroom carpets! As ever, however, everyday school life continues, so read on to find out what your children have been up to this week.
Entry in the morning
Please may I ask that all children enter through the main front door in the mornings rather than Beech and Hazel classes entering through the side door. This will help us keep the heat in the building as winter approaches. Many thanks in advance for your help and support guiding your child/ren in the right direction.
Events & Visits
Drama visit and workshop
We welcomed 5 children and the Head of Drama (Hazel Hiles) from Port Regis this week, prior to our visit to the performance of ‘A Christmas Carol’ next Wednesday morning. The cast shared short extracts from the play and discussed their characters. For our older pupils, there was discussion around the use of voice, how actions can aid line learning and the use of stage management plans for lighting, while some of our young children enjoyed small workshops around the characters in the play. There were opportunities to ask questions, and we look forward to watching the production next week. A letter including a permission slip for the trip, should be found in your child’s bookbag. If you can not find one, please contact the office who will have spares for you to complete and return prior to Wednesday.
Class Room News
Oak Class
This week, Oak class grabbed the chance to finish their Crumble Controller projects when they created an earth which rotated around the sun. In art, pupils evaluated the drawings and woodcuts of Albrecht Durer; the children were amazed at the level of detail he managed to put into some of his famous works – especially Young Hare and Rhinoceros. In English, the class began their instruction text on how to make a Spinning Earth. Next week, Oaks are looking forward to starting their Battle of Britain topic in history as well as more evaluation on the war sketches of Henry Moore.
Chestnut Class
Chestnut Class have written a biography based on a character from a traditional tale. They used their imagination to make up the life story of their character.
In Maths pupils have been continuing with multiplication and division. The Year 3’s have focused on the 3 times table and the Y4’s have focused on the 7 times table.
The children enjoyed bringing in their teddies so that they could take measurements for their scarves. They’ve now designed their scarf and will be making it from next week.
Beech Class
This week, Beech class have continued to learn about the weather and to consider how the weather affects the types of activities we can do. This has been particularly relevant this week when the rain has prevented us from playing outside much of the time, so the class have started to notice that the weather has a direct effect on the activities they can take part in!
During their English lessons they have read ‘The Snowman’ by Raymond Briggs and have practised sequencing and retelling the story, discussing which events happen at the beginning, middle and end of the book. During their maths lessons, Year 2 have continued their work on addition and subtraction whilst year 1 have been learning about 2D and 3D shapes. The children discovered that some of them are a bit unsure about shape names and the properties of different shapes, so they will be continuing this work next week by using these shapes in lots of different ways to help secure their learning.
If you have a spare moment or two over the weekend, perhaps your child could go on a shape hunt at home and see how many cubes, cuboids, cones, cylinders, spheres and pyramids they can find? Let Mrs Wild know how you get!
Hazel Class
This week the children have enjoyed writing their own story map for the traditional tale of the Three Billy Goats Gruff, adding their own twists. Hazel Class have investigated different styles of bridges and built their own using two pieces of paper and some Duplo, this turned into a very interesting experiment to see whose bridge could hold the car! Bridge designs from the two pieces of paper included beam and arch bridges.
Next week the children will be focusing on the Nativity.
Diary dates for the forthcoming week and beyond. (Additions or alternations are marked in red)
| 30th Nov | AM | Visit to Port Regis to see a production of ‘A Christmas Carol’
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| 30th Nov | 14.50 | Christmas Tree Service & decorating the tree in the Hall
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| 7th Dec | 14.30 | Nativity in the Hall – ’Dress Rehearsal’ to which all are welcome
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| 8th Dec | 15.30 | Nativity in the Hall – to which all are welcome |
| 13th Dec | 16.00 | Carol Service at St Michael and The Angels’ Church, Stour Provost – all welcome. |
| 16th Dec
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15.20 | End of Term |