Soup!

Year 4 had a great time this week visiting the Trinity Church Night Shelter and then making soup for the guests that stay there. It was interesting to see how they support the guests and the learn how valuable the service they offer is.  

The shelter sent huge thank yous to all children and parents that kindly donated money, foods and toiletries!

Year 5 Magritte Science - balloon rockets

In science this week, year 5 have been exploring forces. Magritte class created balloon rockets and raced them across the classroom. We discussed how the air pressure within the balloon is pushing the air out rapidly, which pushes against the air molecules in the room, which in turn pushes the balloon forward.

The forces acting against the balloon are air resistance and friction on the string.

Year 1 visit to Cornwall House

Last week, some children from Year 1 were lucky enough to go and visit the residents from Cornwall House Retirement Home and sing songs from our Christmas show. The children had so much fun, chatting to the residents and they even got to have a little snack and drink!

A big thank you to everyone who has helped the children to learn any lines for the nativity over the last few weeks. The children were all shattered after a very busy day last Thursday, but we think you'll agree they did very well!

Picasso homeless shelter

Picasso class was lucky enough to venture down and visit the local homeless shelter today. We were taken on a tour of the shelter and were able to ask the Reverend loads of questions about homelessness in our local area and the different ways they are supported.

The children made the shelter a big batch of vegetable soup and have donated all sorts of clothes, food and games as well.

Year 2 Newsletter

All the Year 2 children completely wowed us last week when they performed their "Fire Fire" production with such courage and professionalism. All the children remembered their lines and could be heard clearly throughout. The songs were delivered with gusto and the children acted and danced their socks off! We were all extremely proud of their efforts. A HUGE thank you to all parents and carers for your support with the show.

In English, we've been learning how to write instructions to help the Billy Goats Gruff trap the grumpy troll that lives under the bridge. We've been using a question to hook our audience, time connectives to list the steps in order and commas to separate the list of equipment we'll need.

In Science, we had lots of fun looking at our cute baby photos and comparing them to the way we look now. It was fun to guess who was who!

Year 1 Newsletter

Rehearsals are well under way for the nativity. Everyone has been working extremely hard with learning their lines and practising the songs.
In science, we have been learning about the different seasons. We have been discussing what we would wear in each season, what the weather is like and what happens to plants and animals.
In maths we have been subtracting using manipulatives. We have been using bead strings and counters to help us take away.

Year 5 Newsletter

As we approach the end of term, we reflect on how much we have achieved over the last fortnight!  It is safe to say that everyone has worked really hard to master long multiplication in maths and everyone should be rightly proud of their progress.  In English, we have moved onto instructional writing and linking to topic, we have been writing instructions on how to sacrifice humans.  Did you know that often losers of Pok-a-Tok matches (a game played by Mayans using their hips and knees to pass rubber balls) were sacrificed to the Mayan gods?  We had previously concluded that this made the Mayans rather savage! Still linking to our topic work, we have started our epic, end of term art and DT project.  So far, we have designed and made Mayan inspired printing plates for printing repeating patterns onto fabric.  We will use the fabric for our DT project to make sleeping bags for Guetamalan worry dolls.  Watch this space for more updates as this project progresses!

Year 4 newsletter

Over the past few weeks, Year 4 have been practising their songs for the Year 4 singing festival on Thursday this week. We have learnt lots of new songs and with Mrs Cowley we have enjoyed practising them. We are looking forward to singing to our parents and an audience! 

We are also looking forward to taking home our recent artwork. We sketched the silhouette of London’s skyline and copied this onto black card. We used watercolours to paint the sky in a rainbow effect. After framing out artwork, they look very professional! All profits made from the sale of our artwork will go to the homeless shelter! 

Year 3 Newsletter

It's official!  All the children in Year 3 are amazing!  Our trip to the Saatchi Gallery in London didn't quite go to plan last Tuesday and, despite an incredibly long journey and the disappointment of not seeing the exhibition we were so excited about, the children were incredibly well behaved throughout and remained positive and happy.  We are very proud of their resilient attitudes and can't wait to take them again in the Spring.  As soon as we have a new date confirmed, we will let you know.
In Science, we've been exploring magnets and forces, including an investigation into how different surfaces on slopes can affect how far a toy car travels.  We have also finished our English recount unit his week by journeying to the Great Pyramids and getting stuck in a burial chamber (using the immersion room and our imagination of course!) to help us write our hot tasks!

Where is Stickman? Nursery's first trip to the forest.

Today the children listened to the story 'Stick Man' by Julia Donaldson. They really enjoyed joining in with the repetition part ("I'm Stick Man, I'm Stick Man, I'm Stick Man that's me.") and some children even helped Mrs Rooney with some of the rhyming words like jog and dog. We decided to go on an adventure to our school forest to see if we could collect some sticks to make a stick family just like in the story. The children had to follow the instructions and were encouraged to try and get themselves dressed in their wellies, coats, hats and hi-vis jackets. In pairs they walked to the forest. It was very exciting! They all had lots of fun exploring the new space and collected lots of sticks which we will use next week.

Heart rates and Tongo Lizards

Year Six have had a busy week! The children have worked hard on creating wonderful non-chrontological reports all about their imaginary species...the Tongo Lizard. Creativity was in abundance as we learned what their creatures hunt, where they live and what they look like.
The Year Six year group have also been investigating the correlations between exercise and heart rate; and using line graphs to show their data and draw out some interesting and relevant conclusions.

'Let's Play' Early writing in Nursery!

In our carpet session, we read the story ‘Let’s Play’ by Herve Tullet. The children used their gross motor skills to follow the dot through the story making straight lines, up and down curved lines and loop the loop patterns. They enjoyed interacting with the book and sometimes it was like magic as they moved the dot around the page and made it disappear and reappear by clapping and shouting “Za Za Zoom!” The children then got the opportunity to copy their own pattern onto paper. They picked if they wanted to use a pen, pencil or a felt tip. They were encouraged to go from the left side of the paper all the way to the right side as if they were writing. This is the beginning of early mark making, which is the start to writing and the beginnings of forming letters.

Up, up, up and away!!! Our super science day.

We had a thrilling science day in nursery where everyone made a rocket which would zoom into the air when the children blew through the straw attached to the rocket. We had rockets flying everywhere!!

After the morning and afternoon session, Mrs Rooney did a fantastic science experiment firstly making elephants toothpaste then creating a fizzing explosion with mints and fizzy drink. Everyone had to stand back in the nursery garden as the fizzy drinks zoomed incredibly high. The parents and children were so excited watching these experiments and thoroughly enjoyed being part of science day.

Science with Mr Forgham

Yesterday afternoon, Mr Forgham took us for a walk around our school field to identify the different types of trees that grow there. We learnt how to tell if a berry is poisonous (the birds won’t have eaten it!) and the difference between the shapes of trees. We are hoping Mr Forgham will come back next week to help us write our newspaper articles about deforestation!

Hockey professionals in Rousseau

On Friday afternoons in Rousseau class we have been learning how to play hockey. We have been using the skills of dribbling the ball, stopping the ball, passing and attacking. There are lots of rules to follow but Miss Woodcock thinks we have improved so much!

We have enjoyed playing small games in teams of 4 players as it means we need to think of all the new skills we have learnt at the same time! Our expert hockey player so far is Tiaan!

Cracked eggs!

Last week, Rousseau were set a challenge by Professor E. G. G. to build the prototype of an egg parachute for the daredevil eggs at his lab! We used foil, plastic bags, napkins, bin bags and paper towels as the parachute and then made a capsule for the eggs to sit in below. We learnt that the larger the parachute, the slower the egg fell.

Unfortunately... most of our eggs cracked when dropped off a tall railing!