Fin-tastic skeletons!

Science
Today in topic we took matters (aka fish) into our own hands and investigated different types of skeletons. To do this we had to be very so-fish-ticated and thorough with our examinations. Using trays filled with a variety of ocean life (octopus, crab, mackerel and tiger prawns) we were able to feel our way around the variety of skeletons before us. 

We can o-fish-ally say that we understand the differences between endoskeletons, exoskeletons and hydrostatic skeletons now!

• Endoskeleton - skeleton on the inside (squishy outside but hard inside)
• Exoskeleton - skeleton on the outside (hard outside but squishy inside)
• Hydrostatic - no skeleton but moves using muscle contractions (squishy all over)

Whilst some of us were a bit sceptical at first, we realised we had to stop trouting ourselves as any fin is possible when we have the confidence to give it a go! 

Fun task: How many puns can you find in this post? There's at least seven, I'm not squidding! 

If you can think of better fish puns, let minnow!

 

Pyramids and percussion!

Topic/music
Today in topic we learnt many facts about the Ancient Egyptian pyramids and used this helpful song to help remind us of those important facts.

In ancient Egypt where the desert sands lay,
The sun beats down and rain stays away,
130 pyramids appear tall,
Even today they stand and don’t fall,
20,000 slaves to build one pyramid by hand,
To make the pyramids appearance regal and grand,
Designed like a stairway aiming up high,
To reach Ra, the sun god, way up in the sky,
The pyramids protected our beloved pharaohs,
Near our Egyptian city of beautiful Cairo.

We used instruments to explore the facts and work out how best to represent different aspects of the song in our groups. After practising with our friends we performed these to our class to put the whole song together for us all to learn and enjoy. 

To explore the pyramids even further we learnt ANOTHER song about the pyramids and the slaves used to construct it. We had a great time understanding rhythm, pace and how we can use actions to help us remember important facts about our learning. A great afternoon of learning and noise, well done year 3!

                                       

Year 4 Newsletter

Year 4 have had an exciting and intriguing week at Windhill21. 

The children have shown great confidence when using column addition and subtraction in Maths, using their understanding of place value to complete tricky calculations. The children became detectives in maths when spotting mistakes and correcting them. They also adopted an open minded approach to find multiple answers to calculations when challenging themselves. 

Also, the children have been using drama techniques to explore the lives and jobs of Victorian children. This sparked an interesting discussion of how different life was for Victorian children compared to theirs. The children transferred this to their independent write. 

In Art the children have been exploring mark-marking techniques and using a variety of pencils to create different shades and tones. They have also discussed the artwork of L.S. Lowry and his use of perspective and colour to create paintings of London. 

Finally, a huge well done to Year 4 for another great week and for writing such fantastic diary entries as a matchstick girl.

Year 5 Newsletter

 Year 5 have had a fun-filled week! This week, the children immersed themselves in what it felt like to be an evacuee saying goodbye to their parents for the last time. The children used dramas techniques to express their inner thoughts, which could be transferred to their independent write. 

In addition, the children were able to zoom our partnership school in Uganda. The children had so much fun asking each other questions and we were able to put into perspective how different our lives are. 

Finally, we want to say a huge well done to all of Year 5 for completing such an amazing independent write! All of the staff in year 5 were blown away by the efforts of all the children.

Nursery Newsletter

It has been a busy time in nursery recently. The children are now settling in and beginning to understand the routines, expectations, and the daily timetable. They are sitting beautifully at carpet time, enjoying listening to stories such as Room on the Broom and joining in with singing nursery rhymes and songs. 

This week we introduced the children to ‘subitising’! This is the ability to instantaneously recognise the number of objects in a small group without the need to count them. An example often used to explain this, is to think of a die – we immediately recognise the number of dots without having to count each one individually. 

We started this using groups of dots up to 3! Subitising is something the children do throughout the school, so we are giving the children a great start in this skill. More information about subitising can be found here: https://nrich.maths.org/14004

To help develop this, the children have been making simple playdough hedgehogs (a great fine motor skill in itself) and then rolling a dice and placing the number of ‘spikes’ (coloured matchsticks) into their hedgehogs.

We have also been making shape houses, with the children using simple recognisable shapes to create their houses such as square, rectangles and triangles.

We have continued our focus on number rhymes, following on from the family finger song (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G6k7dChBaJ8), and have been singing songs such as:

5 Little Ducks Went Swimming one Day,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZw9veQ76fo  

5 Little Men in a Flying Saucer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2E3p_51tJx0

5 Little Speckled Frogs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TtX8yVEF0-w

And 5 Currant Buns

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c9bkEqA4x8o

Maybe you could sing these at home with your child.  

Have a great week!

The Nursery Team.

Year 1 Newsletter

 Our finished clay hedgehogs! 

We are so so proud of our clay hedgehogs and think they all look amazingly cute!  Our hard work, perseverance and new art skills have paid off.  We hope you all agree!

With our scientists 'hats' on, we have been exploring the school grounds for signs of the seasons changing.  We discovered the leaves are falling from the trees and are all different shades of red, yellow, green, orange and brown.  Some trees have lost more leaves than others which we found very interesting.  We also found seed pods on the ground too as well as berries, lots of twigs and some buddleia flowers that have dried up and died. We collected as much as we could to take back to the classroom to look at closely with magnifiers.  

We are going to observe the changes in the seasons throughout the year and will take a class photo by a tree each time.  Here is our first!  There are lots of green leaves on the tree.  We are excited to see how it will change throughout our time in Year 1. 

We got Spiky the hedgehog home!

We have also been busy in our geography lessons and, now that we are map experts, decided to help Spiky the hedgehog find his way to a more suitable habitat.  The forest!

On a simple map of the school grounds, we drew the best route from our classroom to our forest, walking along the route as we worked.  We thought very carefully about which direction we had to take as we went.  We have really enjoyed learning about directions and using a compass.  

                           

West along the path, past Year 2                  North across the playground

              

                               Turning east to go past Year 6                    Which way to go?  

Through the playground or along the path?  We took a vote and decided the safest way for Spiky is...

        

                                        North, along the path!                 Then east across the grass 

 ... and finally Spiky is in the best habitat with all the slugs and worms he can eat!  Hooray for Year 1!

Reception Newsletter: BIG questions!

 This week in Reception, we have been thinking about how to ask BIG questions! We first thought about what a question was, and how a question is asked when you want to find the answer to something. BIG questions are always very tricky to answer and take lots of thinking. This represents the beginning of our P4C (Philosophy for Children) journey at school!

Today, our enquiry followed a fun story all about animals
travelling on human transportation!

Following this story, Austin came up with our question to start our discussions, asking "Would an elephant be a good pet?"

"Well you would need a special elephant bed!" responded Nellie. 

Ralph quickly added "but that might break!"

Aidan added to Ralph's point by suggesting "if it's a grown up elephant, it might smash through the roof!"

After some suggestions that maybe a baby elephant might be a good pet instead, Zoe had another thought, saying "but babies grow to full size, to big children! Maybe a good pet would be a snake, or a dog! That would fit in your house!"

The children loved discussing this question and we all found that we had different ideas to contribute and could offer lots of different opinions and thoughts. 

Year 6 newsletter

Year 6 have had another busy week, as we have immersed ourselves in the trenches - quite literally! We recreated life in the trenches, re-enacting trench warfare in the Immersion Room, to understand both the futility and horror of the World War I. We were particularly shocked by the endless noise, the fact that you could be shot by friendly fire and even killed for desertion. We were all very reflective as we made our way back to class.

In English, we have been studying the works of famous World War I poets including Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoon. We emulated their techniques including collective noun, personification, onomatopoeia and alliteration. We also embraced the impact of short sentences for effective endings to these poems. Reading them aloud made us all understand the distress, frustration and shock experienced by the young men at the time.

In RE we have been considering the concept of privilege, and whether it is right to lead a privileged life. Many of us concluded that although it is not right to have too much, we don't want to have too little, either. In a similar way to Buddhists, we would look to follow a 'Middle Way'. 

Golfing experts!

PE
This term in PE, year three have been practising their golfing skills and are well on their way to giving Tiger Woods a run for his money. 

The skills we have learnt this term are: 

• How to correctly hold a golf club
• Tick tock gentle swings
• Hitting the ball in a straight line
• Aiming for a target at short and far distances
• Putting towards a range of different targets
• Chipping up and over objects

PE is a great way for us to get exercise whilst also learning a great new skill and being out in the fresh air. As you can see, we love our lessons and have enjoyed learning all things golf so far!