The Mary Rose!

 This week, Year 4 were lucky enough to have an amazing workshop form Mrs Moore and Mrs Millward about the Mary Rose Tudor boat! We were taught what life on board the shop might be like including the jobs that needed to be done.  “Climb the rigging! Check port! Check starboard! Scrub the deck!” We then learnt that 8 golden rules on how to survive life in on board a Tudor boat! 

Year 1 Newsletter

 Year 1 have had a lovely couple of weeks. In Maths, we have been growing our brains by exploring different ways of making numbers using the 'part-part-whole' model. We used tens frames and cherry diagrams to represent the different parts of each number. 

In Science, we explored the trees in our school grounds and made tree identification sheets to help others learn more about the types of trees we have at Windhill21. We also learnt about the different parts of trees and thought it was very funny that the top of the tree is called a 'crown'!

We have also been incredible authors over the last few weeks and have been writing our very own books all about finding Spiky the Hedgehog in an abandoned shed. The children have taken up the challenge of including adjectives to describe Spiky and his surroundings. Mrs Smith and Mrs Witney have been very impressed.  

Immersed in the Secret Garden

This week, the children have been writing about their journey into a secret garden, thinking all the time about mood and atmosphere. Today, Year 5 explored inside the secret garden to inspire the planning of their next paragraph. 

Year 5 - The Attic

Last week, the children were immersed into a forbidden room - the Attic! The use of the immersion room helped the children to think of lots of vocabulary to help describe their emotions, thoughts, what they could see, smell and hear. This lead to some fantastic suspense paragraphs, taking us on a journey to the attic. The children were so proud of their work they wanted to share them with the rest of the class. I look forward to this week’s suspense piece of writing, based on a Secret Garden...

 

Visiting the forbidden garden....

 This week our immersion room has been transformed into a secret, forbidden garden. We will be creating a piece of descriptive writing to build suspense about this garden. Year 4 have been generating vocabulary and ideas from their immersion room visit and we are exited to get writing! 

A face that launched a thousand ships...

Today, Year Six students were transported back to Ancient Greece, and the decade long Trojan War, in a series of drama workshops. The children were immersed in historical source materials, story, music, film and drama - and used all this rich input to produce some excellent writing later on in the day.  The recounts written by Year Six detail how a Greek soldier would have felt while waiting inside the depths of the infamous Trojan Horse - and the morning workshops ensured these were filled with very real tension, pulling on all the senses and demonstrating a deep understanding of the most cunning plan Odysseus sowed into World History.

Year 1 Newsletter

We have had a busy first week back! In maths we have been adding to 20, bridging the number 10 (eg: 7 + 5 = —). In English, we went into the immersion room and looked at pictures of tortoises which we then used to help compile a fact file. In PE, we created a monster dance, looking at different movement techniques and in Art, the children have been excitedly beginning their African masks (see separate blog).

Year 1 Feeling Good Week

Year 1 had a great start to Feeling Good Week. We all went into the immersion room and discussed how our brain works and how our feelings can affect our behaviour. We had a visitor who came in to take a workshop where the children discussed their ‘personal powers’, ‘Monster Feelings’ and their ‘Superhero Breathing Techniques’.

   

We have also finished the display outside of the Year 1 classes and wanted to share our work with you. We were able to put up some wonderful topic writing about ‘A Day in Uganda’ and the children’s art work where they used oil pastels to draw their own African masks. 

Deeds not words.....

What were the deeds committed by the suffragettes and how do we know? These are the questions we asked ourselves as we explored evidence in the form of photos, magazine covers, newspaper articles, police reports, pamphlets, posters and more. We were intrigued to learn that they committed ‘wilful damage, and arson. Emily Wilding Davidson was even willing to die for her cause when she threw herself in front of the king’s horse!

London, 1666

Today we kicked off our new topic by visiting London in the Immersion Room! We remembered lots of facts about cities from our work in Year 1 and looked at what it's like to live in London today. Then we travelled back in time to 1666! When we arrived, we met a girl called Cybil who told us all about living in London in 1666. We learned about how the houses were built and what the living conditions were like, including the lack of toilets and sanitation!

Year 3 Newsletter update

Year 3’s summer topic, ‘Take a Walk on the Wild Side’, has taken a very exciting turn as we have been given the challenge to help Mrs Moore develop the outdoor learning provision!  We brainstormed some ideas on how we can do this and decided that we need some information posts with plant and animal identification cards around the grounds to help all pupils to learn more about the wildlife living around us.  We began last week by completing an audit of the wildlife in our school grounds.  We identified four main habitats in the grounds – the forest, the garden, the field and the playgrounds – and split them between the two classes so that we could collect as much data as possible.  We then pooled this information and will use it to help us decide where to put the posts.  Some of the interesting things we found: slow worm, ground beetle, centipede, millipede, large long-horn (a type of day flying moth), hairy shield bug, hawthorn (hedge), maple and silver birch (both trees) and cowslip! 

In other areas of our learning, we have been reading more fables in English and have created a toolkit to help us write some in a few weeks.  In Science, the children have been building on their previous learning in Year 2 on food groups and what our bodies need for a healthy balanced diet.  We are developing our throwing and catching skills in PE so that we can play games such as rounders later in the term. They have worked hard with this and so all children have made great progress! 

And to top off a great week, we finished with Zero Discrimination Day!  We learned about a Welsh artist called Gwen John who, like many other female artists at that time, was not given the same chances and recognition as the many male artists.  We practised our colour mixing and painted fabulous self portraits in her style.  In another activity, the children discussed discrimination and focused on racial discrimination, particularly in football matches.  We watched a clip from Newsround with an interview with Raheem Sterling who has unfortunately experiences racial discrimination at matches.  Then the children came up with ideas about how to prevent this type of discrimination in the future.  They designed T shirts and badges to try to get their message across.  We also had a fabulous visit from Julian who taught us some sign language and spoke to us about what it’s like being deaf.  It was a truly fantastic day!

Suspense in Year 6S

Year 6 started their new English unit this week when we immersed ourselves in suspense.  We have started to read Robert Swindells’ Room 13 to the children to give them an excellent model of suspense writing.  We all went into the immersion room where we imagined ourselves in a scenario where we had been abandoned outside a dilapidated house belonging to our unknown aunt. A house which was to be our home for the foreseeable weeks.  The children wrote beautifully describing their surroundings and their apprehension.  With only a week to go until SATs, the children have impressed us with their stoic attitude to their work. Well done year 6 keep it up for that final push.

Please Wolf, don't eat Grandma!

Today, the children came in suited and booted, ready for World Book Day! The theme of traditional tales meant that children came dressed in as all sorts of characters, from gingerbread people to cheeky foxes, royalty to porridge-loving bears! The children in Reception were particularly worried however when they heard about what happened to poor old Grandma...

 

"Please Wolf, don't eat Grandma!"

The children visited Grandma in her home in the woods during the day, where they heard all about her terrible ordeal with a wolf! After the woodcutter freed Grandma by shaking him upside down, Little Red tried to convince the wolf to eat other foods instead. However, the wolf was having none of it! So the children set to work brainstorming ideas in their groups, thinking of what foods the wolf might like to eat instead of poor unsuspecting Grandmas!

Year 3 go back in time!

This week year 3 have been introduced to their new topic of the Ancient Egyptians! We travelled back in time to 3100 BC to discover a time of true mystery. We have been asking questions about what we would like to find out and have placed this key period in history on a timeline showing us really how long ago it was!

In science this week we have begun our Rock Detective journey identifying properties of rocks and identifying them.

In English the children have been exploring and writing their own poems as well as beginning our new genre of adventure stories.

In maths we have been revising our use of the formal written method of addition to solve problems.

In PE this week we have been learning some cricket skills with Dan the cricket coach. Which was so much fun!

Overall the children have had an action packed first 3 days back with a busy term ahead!

CHOCOLATE!

Today we took a flight on Windhill21 Airlines to Brazil! We started to immerse ourselves in the culture of Brazil and wondered, why has this got anything to do with chocolate? We can’t wait to find  out why! Then, of course, we couldn’t start talking about chocolate without trying some...