Year 6 Newsletter

 Year 6 have had another wonderful fortnight - busy with everything from preparing for our end of year show, to learning Portuguese!

In our Amazing Places lessons, we have continued to explore South America, this time voyaging to the marvellous country that is Brazil. From the lush Amazonian rainforests to the might of the Amazon river - the children were fascinated to learn more about this truly amazing place. Not content with just learning about the geography of Brazil, we whole-heartedly embraced the culture - and have learned all about the Samba, even creating our own Samba beats! We also had a Portuguese lesson, as the children were interested to learn that Brazil is the only South American country where Spanish isn't the main language spoken.

We have also continued to expand on our geographical knowledge by creating some accurate 3D contour maps - and enjoying competitive geography quizzing...the children are becoming country, capital, and continent experts!

The children have also been working their absolute hardest in rehearsals for our show; we really cannot wait to showcase to everyone what we have created. A marvel of song, dance, comedy, and West End level acting!

Finally, we were delighted to welcome parents in for a 'Celebration of Work' - the children were immensely proud, and rightly so, of their beautifully published pieces of writing, creative artistry, and even excellent French role play skills...and who doesn't want to be served a delicious pain au chocolat on a warm Friday afternoon?!

Well done, Year 6, you have - as always - worked your hardest, shown your enthusiasm for learning and knocked our socks off with your acting abilities.

Year 6 Newsletter

 AMAZING! A word that sums up everything in year 6 this past fortnight.  Firstly, the pupils were amazing during SATs week.  They acted like professionals, set out to do their best and made us proud!  Well done Year 6!  You could not have given it more.  

This last week has been amazing too as we got stuck into our new geography topic, 'Amazing Places'.  We have zoomed into Iceland, land of ice and fire, learning about its unusual geography and geology resulting in it having both glaciers and active volcanoes.  Many of us were unsure about stepping into a natural hot pool but we thought that the idea of geothermal energy was a genius one!  We were also intrigued by the unusual geography of Iran, that not only borders the Caspian sea but also has a salt desert.  We were able to compare and contrast the landscapes, both of which are influenced by their proximity to tectonic plate boundaries. As for Canada, we were amazed by the inhospitable nature of the landscape and its vast size. 

When looking closely at all locations, we also had the opportunity to explore the people and cultures thereon, including languages and customs which sparked our excitement and curiosity.  

The week ended as it began, with a trip to Crucial Crew.  Children learnt some important lessons on how to keep themselves safe as they start secondary school and the freedoms that it affords. All pupils acted as ambassadors of Windhill21 as they walked to the Barnabas Centre and conducted themselves on site with impeccable manners and enthusiasm.  Year 6 - you have been AMAZING!

Year 1 Newsletter

 In Year 1 we have had our geographer's hats on and having been learning about coastal areas and the things you might find there.  In groups, the children labelled pictures with the different features they could see such as sand, cliffs, sea, pier, harbour, lighthouse, dunes and much more!   

                        

We had an awesome time on our whole school Science days!  We learnt all about STEM skills and thought about which of these skills we might need in jobs that we would like to do when we're grown ups. Siddhi's mum came to visit us and taught us about the skills she uses as a pharmacist.  She uses lots of different STEM skills. 

We had great fun with a waterlily investigation, making predictions and observing what happened when we put a paper waterlily with closed up petals into a tray of water.  The petals opened! 

 Then we did our own waterlily investigation in groups, changing one thing each.  Groups chose to change the material of the waterlily, the type of liquid, the depth of the liquid or the shape of the waterlilies to see if this affected the time it took for the waterlily to open. 

The children have been amazing scientists!

Continuing on our science day learning, we went outside for a minibeast hunt, looking for all sorts of beasties! We searched high and low, looking carefully on trees, under leaves and logs and in the long grass. 

With our artist's hats on, we discovered the seascapes that the wonderful Rachel Bennett creates!  In the immersion room, we shared what we liked about the paintings.  Back in class we continued our discussion and wrote our thoughts and feelings about the paintings around images on sugar paper. 

'I like this one because it makes me feel like I'm underwater.'

'I can see seaweed and waves crashing.'

'This is my favourite because it's like a beach.  There is the sky and clouds, then the sea and the sand at the bottom.'

'I like this one because of the shades of blue that she has used.'

Paintings by Rachel Bennett

Year 1 Newsletter

 Year 1 have started the summer term with a little trip to the seaside!  For our poetry writing, we have been using our imaginations and all our senses in our seaside experience days.  Over two days, we went on imaginary visits to the seaside to help us collect vocabulary for our poetry writing. We ‘arrived’ at the seaside and took off our shoes and socks off so that we could ‘feel’ the sand beneath our feet!  We acted out different seaside activities such as walking across the sand, building a sandcastle, collecting shells and pebbles, licking delicious ice-creams and smelling the wafts of fish and chips.   We also watched a virtual seaside walk and listened to lots of different seaside sounds. We ‘paddled’ in the cold sea, shivering as we dipped our toes in the chilly water, feeling the waves splash our legs and noticed that the pebbles were really shiny in the water.  We'll use all our fantastic vocabulary to write our own seaside poems! 

    For this half terms world view lesson, we have been thinking about sounds that we like.  After doing a 'guess the sound' quiz and sharing our favourite sounds, songs and music in circle time, we explored the sounds that the different percussion instruments make.  We chose one we liked and in our groups we used symbols to create a short piece of music.  We performed them to the rest of the class!

 

In our maths lessons we have been doubling and halving and in our first topic lesson, we put our geographers hats on and thought about the question: Should we go to the seaside?

Yes we should go to the seaside because... we can swim in the sea, go surfing, relax and have some peace, have an ice cream and have fun building sand castles!

                                                     

We're not sure if we should go to the seaside because... there are dangerous things on the sand and in the water, you might drop rubbish and it might go in the sea, it is fun but you might go in the sea without an adult and get sucked in by a wave.

                                                     

No we should not go to the seaside because... you could get pinched by a crab, a gull might sweep past and snap your food up,  you might hurt your feet on a stony beach, if we leave rubbish animals can eat it and get really sick. 

                                                     

  

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!

Year 1 Newsletter

 Over the past couple of weeks we have been putting a variety of 'hats' on to help us with our learning!  

With our artists' hats on, the children have been learning some new skills to design, make and paint a clay hedgehog! They are absolutely fantastic and you might spot them peeking out the windows when you drop off in the mornings.

 

In our topic lesson we have been wearing our geographers' hats and discovering all about maps. We walked around the grounds, locating different areas on an aerial view of the school.  It was fun to see the school from a 'bird's eye view'!

Year 3 Newsletter

Year 3 have had a great week of learning and have become intelligent investigators, geological experts and portrait artists. 

Art
We completed our global changemaker portraits and couldn't wait to put them on display! They are all fantastically unique and demonstrate skills of sketching, painting, colour mixing and understanding facial proportions. Great work everyone, they look amazing!


Writing
Our year three writing text is based upon the novel "The incredible book-eating boy". This has been a great start to our writing units as the children love the concept of this book and we even found a suitcase filled with nibbled pages and gobbled corners. We love that the children use the skills within the lesson to inspire their writing and contribute towards an epic whole class model.

Topic/Geography
Our topic this term is Egypt and we have explored continents and replayed their favourite year 2 song! We have used maps to identify the northern and southern hemispheres as well as understanding what an equator is. Our knowledge of maps helped us to recognise the hot, dry and barren climate of Egypt and its desert biomes that many creatures find difficult to live in if it weren't for the amazing River Nile. We can't wait to learn more!

Maths
In maths, we have become Rekenrek super stars. We used this key mathematical tool to help us revise our number bonds to 10 and 20. Then we began to bridge over ten and use the Rekenrek to recognise how numbers can be partitioned differently to help make our sums easier to work out!

Spelling
In year 3, we love to see great spelling. Each week we practice a different sound pattern or skill and practice sounding them out, spelling them and then using them within a sentence. Here are some pictures of us practicing some key words with O spelling but U sound.

Year 1 Newsletter

It's been so lovely to see the children back in school. We have all been so impressed with how they've dealt with being back in the school routine and how positive they've been every day. We've had a strong focus on PSHE this week, with a well-being lesson every day. We have encouraged children to discuss any anxieties they have had and have talked through the positive times they have had over these last two months. 

We read the story The Invisible String and talked about that the children have invisible string made of love, that connects them to the people they love, when they are not with them. 

 

We have continued with our African topic and after making some wonderful observational drawings of masks in home-learning, this week, we got to start making our own masks. We used a 3d mask template and covered it with papier mache. Some of us used some foam packaging 'chips' to go over the eyebrows to create an enhanced 3d effect. The children really enjoyed getting their hands gloopy and can't wait to continue it next week! 

                                  

Staying with the Africa theme, in Topic, we have been taking a closer look at some of the African countries (specifically Uganda and South Africa) on Google Earth. We then discussed other ways of looking at countries of the world and then explored a selection of atlases. The children found their favourite pages and discussed why. We looked at the flags, continents and oceans. We even sang songs to help us remember the names of all the 7 continents and 5 oceans and labelled a giant class map. 

 

We're looking forward to lots more Africa learning with the children before Easter - it's been so lovely having them back!