Colchester Castle

What a fantastic day out we had on Tuesday. Firstly, the children were brilliantly behaved and respectful towards members of the public. Secondly, they were able to show off all of the castle knowledge and learn some more facts throughout the day. They completed a castle tour, quiz and activities related to how castle's were used as homes. Here are some pictures from our fabulous day!

Becoming a Storyteller

This week in Reception, the children have been reading in small groups, taking it in turns to read pages from a story. We worked on following the text with our finger carefully whilst our friend was reading so that we knew when it was our turn to read!

After a few days of building confidence within our guided reading groups, the children were set a challenge... to transform into Storytellers! We discussed what we needed in order to excite and engage our audience.

"We need to sit up straight and not 

put the book in our face otherwise we look shy"

"We need to look at our friends to see if 

they're enjoying the story"

"We need expression!"

We also thought about what made a good audience member, and the children all agreed that magnet eyes and listening ears were very important. Fletcher was an absolute role model!

With the Storyteller cape and chair at the ready, the children transformed before our very eyes...

Well done to Zak, Fletcher, Neirin, Jessica and Kayden who read beautifully to their friends! The children are very excited for our next Storyteller session!

So how do you deliver a good speech?

We identified the oracy skills required for delivering a good speech, we practised, we gave feedback in partners and then we identified areas to work on. We loved the whole experience, especially having the opportunity to practise in the school garden!

Yet another job....

Ahead of hitting the printing presses, we proof read the book.

Sports Day Results

Well done to all the children for a fantastic effort on sports day! 
The results were as follows:

Mexico 2034

Sweden 2014

India 1994

Canada 1963

France 1954

What makes a powerful speech?

In part 1 of our mini oracy project (How to write a charity speech) we pieced together (literally) the components of a charity speech before comparing different speeches to identify the key features of the most powerful one. As well as identifying persuasive language, it was became clear to us that we needed to avoid including irrelevant information!

Tomorrow we will write our own speeches before moving on to part 2 of the project later in the week (How to deliver a powerful speech).

So many steps....

...involved in producing a book ahead of our launch! Today we undertook the roles of illustrators and editors. As you can see, we were taking these jobs very seriously!

Dragon Experts

Over the course of this half term, year 2 have been analysing and writing non-chronological reports about dragons after receiving one from the Natural History Museum. We discovered that it was important to become an 'expert' on dragons before we wrote about them so we learnt all about the 'Hertfordshire Ridgeback'. After seeing how well Steve Backshall answers questions on animals, we thought we could do the same about the Hertfordshire Ridgeback. Niki and Annabelle had some fantastic answers the questions 'should we be afraid of ridgebacks?' and 'are ridgebacks easy to identify?'. It's over to you guys!

Warhol Sports Day

What a brilliant day we had! The children were fantastic team members, all cheering on their houses and having a fabulous time!

Sports day

Nursery have been busy practising for Sport's day over the past few weeks, making sure that they were completely ready for the big day! They were so excited on the big day and could not wait to show their parents their super speedy running skills.  Well done Potter class you were amazing!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Last Wednesday Year 2 went to the Rhodes to perform in the local Year 2 Music Festival with other schools.  The theme for the festival was Space and we had some fabulous songs to learn such as Poor Little Pluto and 93 Million Miles Away.  Sarro class were all Great Green Google-Eyed aliens with green headbands and googly eyes on the end of their antennae. Warhol class created Star and Moon headbands to match their song Spaceship to the Moon.  The children were true ambassadors for Windhill21.  They looked smart and behaved incredibly well. They sang their hearts out and we are so very proud of them all.

In Year 2 we've had a fabulous couple of weeks starting off with the Life Bus visit.  It really made us think about our feelings and how our body changes when we're happy, angry, sad etc.  We've been busy writing non-chronological reports about dragons in English and will be writing them up soon in our best handwriting to add to the book that we're sending to the Natural History Museum.  If you spot any dragons, or signs of dragons, please let us know.  We are experts!  In Maths we've learnt more about shapes including 3D shapes and have sorted them into Venn and Carroll diagrams according to their properties.
Sports Day was a fabulous day all round and we loved every minute of it.  The children behaved impeccably and gave it their all in the carousel of activities and in the races.  We are so proud of them all.  In the afternoon they also enjoyed a dance workshop where they had a go at some medieval dancing which was brilliant and great fun.

Year 4 Newsletter

Another busy fortnight in Year 4!  It started with the Life Education Bus where the children were taken on a 'journey' to the planet Conformatron as part of a number of exercises looking at when it is important to conform but also to celebrate the different choices we can make.  For the rest of term, we have combined our topic and English lessons to create non-chronological reports ready for our book launch.  As part of this we have been studying and locating the cities in the United Kingdom.  Perhaps the most intersting discovery was learning that Wakefield has been famous for growing rhubard for the last 200 years due to its perfect climate cold, wet climate. We have also continued our scientific explorations with rocks, using heat and pressure to make three different types of rocks with chocolate.  The highlight of the week, however, was Sports Day last Friday.  Not only did the children thoroughly enjoy participating in all the races, they also had the opportunity to study other countries in the morning.  Moore class learnt about different Noweigian traditions while Gormley class learnt the origins of the Canadian flag.  Both classes enjoyed taking part in arts and craft activities, telling traditional tales and experiencing military style dancing!

Year 3 Egyptian Morning - Friday 22nd June

Year 3 had a very exciting day on Friday 22nd June. Not only did we all thoroughly enjoy the excitement, competition and sporting events of Sports Day, but we also spent the morning learning more about Egypt.


Each class learnt an Egyptian dance where they performed some actions independently and as a partner group.

 
They then learnt all about what modern day Egypt is like. We used a variety of resources, such as a video, the Internet and maps to complete a fact file.

 

They also helped their teacher to make a traditional Egyptian hummus. We used chick peas, olive oil, lemon juice. We then tasted it on pitta bread.


                                                     




Finally we tasted a variety of foods eaten in Ancient Egypt. We rated each item of food out of five and gave a reason for our rating.

                                                 

Year 1 Sports Day

Year 1 had a fantastic day at Sports Day! The children all participated in a carousel of activities including hurdles, egg and spoon, obstacle course, football and javelin. They particularly enjoyed the sprint races at the end! All the children were brilliant, cheering on their friends and enjoying taking part. Well done, everyone!

Reception Sport's Day

Reception have been busy practising for Sport's day over the past few weeks, making sure that they were completely ready for the big day! We were chanting our songs that we made up for each group, and making sure that we supported our friends. Cassatt class really enjoyed the Egg and Spoon and the Running races, and Degas liked the Football and the Javelin. Congratulations to Mexico for their win on the day!

Riley Class Sports Day

Riley class had a fantastic sports day and showed great sportsmanship throughout the day. Please enjoy some pictures of the children below! :)

Year 3 International Day

On Friday 22nd June, Year 3 had a full day of exciting activities learning more about the country of Egypt. The children learnt key facts about Egypt which gave them an insight to modern day Egypt, building on their learning of the Ancient Egyptians. The children were given a range of Egyptian foods to try as well as making their own hummus. On top of all of this the children went to an Egyptian dance workshop to show off their moves.

Graffiti Workshop

As part of our exciting topic of crime and punishment we have turned our attention to graffiti. Posed with the question 'Graffiti - Art or Crime?', we have already started learning so much about the different opinions on the topic.

What better way to understand it then to get our hands dirty and give it a try for ourselves. Everyone enjoyed learning from the pro about the different techniques to cover the board and tag with a name. The end results were classy, colourful and fun. We are now looking forward to sharing our works of art with everyone.