Year 3 poetry performances

English

This week year 3 have been practicing and performing their poems for a panel of judges at the Windhill21 Poetry Slam. 

Riley Class performed The owl and the pussy cat by Edward Lear. The judges were blown away with their confident voices, amazing actions and stunning props; also mentioning that it was clear to see that the children had put a lot of time and effort into remembering their parts. Great work Riley Class!

Matisse Class performed Firework Night by Enid Blyton. The judges were impressed with how the children set the tone of the poem and showed the contrast between the scary fireworks and the terrified dogs. Matisse Class placed second at the Poetry Slam, well done everyone!

Matisse class received silver medals for their poetry performance

Degas' Poetry Fest Performance!

 Please enjoy Degas' Rendition of 'Oh Dear!' By Michael Rosen

Please click the link below:

https://vimeo.com/568330074

A password for the video will be sent out via school comms.

It was so good we won 2nd place! Well done Degas you were superb and it really was the best performance you have ever done of this fantastic poem!

Year 2 Poetry Fest Performances

What an exciting day we had in Year 2! We rehearsed our poems, making sure we projected our voices and performed our actions in unison. This afternoon we went to the hall to perform in front of the judges, Mrs Pyne and Mrs Moore. We were filled with excitement and nerves! Both classes performed amazingly and our teachers were very proud of us. We then waited with trepidation for the results of the competition... Kusama were the Key Stage 1 winners! We celebrated both classes' achievement. Well done, Kusama!

Year 1 Newsletter

Year 1 have discovered a passion for poetry since the whole school poetry fortnight began!  We have enjoyed listening to and watching a range of different types of poems alongside immersing ourselves in an imaginary seaside visit last week!  We did this so that we could collect lots of different vocabulary to help us write our own seaside poems this week.  It was a lot of fun and the children amazed us with their word choices.   We have been busy learning our class poems for the Poetry Slam in a couple of weeks too, trying hard to use clear expressive voices. We can't wait to perform them!

 

In our topic lesson we continued our learning about the Victorian seaside entertainment of Punch and Judy shows.  We discovered that they are still part of seaside entertainment today!  We made our own Punch and Judy characters lolly stick puppets and made up our own little shows in trios. Then we performed them to the class. 

'That's the way to do it!'

In our last science lesson before half term, we revisited our learning about seasonal change.  The last time we made seasonal observations was at the end of autumn and we noticed that our school grounds have changed so much since then!  This time, the trees were full of green leaves instead of brown, red, yellow and orange leaves on the ground, and it was so warm we didn't even need our coats!

We completed a scavenger hunt in pairs and found flower buds, blossom, new leaves growing, insects being more active, feathers, lichen on twigs, leaves that had been munched on and the field was covered in daisies!

  

Year 3 Performance Poetry

This week the children have been exploring poetry to support their understanding of a range of vocabulary that they will use to write character descriptions over the next few weeks. The children have written some fantastic poetry and used a range of brilliant language. 

Riley class's poem is based on the character Bellatrix from Harry Potter. The children thought carefully about how she moved and what sounds she made to use powerful verbs to write a poem following a given structure. Having written the class poem, the children thought about how they could perform their poem using a range of levels, actions and projected voices. 

Matisse's class poem is based on the character Vernon Dursley from Harry Potter. The children enjoyed observing his characteristics to make their own actions and freeze frames which they used throughout their performance. The children collaborated to write a class poem using powerful verbs, adverbs and adjectives to bring the character to life. 

 

Lockdown Life

We blogged to let you know that Oliver Klumpler had written a prize winning poem in a national poetry competition, and I am now delighted to tell you that his rather wonderful poem has been published in the below collection. Available in book retailers and online...a highly recommended read. Well done, again, to Oliver for composing such a clever and entertaining piece...with a wonderful nod to Mr Shakespeare. #LockdownLife

Prize-winning author

A huge congratulations to Oliver Klumpler on his winning poem in the Children's Literature Festivals 'Lockdown Life' competition.

Children and teachers were invited to a pen a poem about their life in lockdown, and from the hundreds of entries, Oliver was unanimously chosen as the winner.

Oliver wins £100 of book tokens and a half day author visit to the school. He will also be presented with his poem on canvas.

 Very well done, Oliver! We look forward to reading a future poetry anthology.

Updates from Kahlo Class

Hello Kahlo Class!

I hope you've been enjoying the sunshine this week - lots of you have clearly been making the most of the sunshine and building some very creative obstacle courses.

William and Oliver have built an extremely exciting looking course - I believe the championship was tied with William being faster and Oliver getting more points on the rounds. Time for a re-match!

Lilly included one of my favourite sports in her obstacle course...I doubt the pressure got to you, Lilly, that looks like a goal to me.

Dylan has created a beautiful sketch to represent how he will feel when we come to the end of lock-down. I really love how evocative this art work is - and how it uses the rainbow as a symbol of hope and peace after this global 'storm'.

I was truly amazed by the quality of your poems, Kahlo, they certainly made Mrs Moore's task extremely difficult. Congratulations to both Kem and William for their winning entries. I have been thinking how best we can share all of your work, as it was of such excellent quality...stay tuned! Until then, I will be sharing poems on this blog. 

Well done to Noah for the excellent personification in his poem...

I enjoyed Keira's very current approach to her poetry...

A hopeful and warm poem from Kiera...

I really enjoyed the very different aspects of the poem Josh wrote - he took me from furrowed brow to big grin...

 I thought Adam had written with a rather Shakespearean voice in his poem....

I thoroughly enjoyed the careful use of structure from George, it gave a true rhythm to his poem...

Keep an eye out for the next entry, as I will be sharing all the poems we received. Each and everyone of you wrote something very special - I can say with complete certainty that Kahlo is a class filled with budding poets.

Year 2 poetry slam performances

Last week, all of the classes in KS1 participated in a poetry slam. Each class did such an amazing job at learning and performing their poem. In particular, Miss Kilby, Mrs Price and Mrs Higo were super proud of the year 2 classes as they did such a great job. They performed with confidence, clarity and enthusiasm.

Watch the performances below by scanning the QR code with the camera of  your phone or tablet.

Kusama's performance

Warhol's performance

Whilst all the classes performed so well, there could only be one winner....

Congratulations to Warhol Class! You were fabulous so wear your medals with pride!

“Poetry is thoughts that breathe...

...and words that burn.” A quote from poet, Thomas Gray - and a quote that is resonating with the school after our fantastic Poetry Slam on Friday.
Each class performed a poem to the entirety of their key stage, and the audience wasn’t disappointed. We laughed, sharply inhaled breath, paused for thought and were taken on many an imaginative journey with the wonderful drama from each and every class.
Mrs Moore, Mrs Wood and Mrs Price had the difficult task of picking a top three; congratulations to Pollock and Kahlo for taking third and second place respectively with a meaningful rendition of ‘Rosa Parks’ from the Year 3 class, and a very humorous take on parents running a sports day race from Year 6. We all were hugely impressed with the beautifully presented ‘The Owl and the Pussy-Cat’ from Klee Class, this years winners...very well deserved. Roll on 2021, what a way to bring poetry alive.

Year 3 Newsletter

What a busy fortnight we've had in year 3!  Here are the highlights!

WE FINALLY GOT TO SEE TUTANKHAMEN!

The children were impeccably behaved once again as we visited the Saatchi Gallery for the second time and finally got to see the Tutankhamen exhibition.  It was well worth the wait!

Some of our favourite exhibits were the chair that Tutankhamen sat in when he was made Pharaoh aged 9, his funeral bed with gilded lion's feet and the throwing sticks, very similar to boomerangs, that the Ancient Egyptians used to hunt. 

Investigating Roman aqueducts and how they work

We learnt about the Roman invention of aqueducts, what they were used for and how they improved life in Britain.  We had a go at making aqueducts out of card and tape and tested them with a marble to see if they worked! We think aqueducts are a very clever Roman invention!

A visit from Rev. Sarah from the Holy Trinity Church

As part of our RE unit on Christianity, we invited Rev. Sarah to tell us a story that Jesus told.  She shared the story of The Mustard Seed with us in the immersion room, bringing her special gold story box to help her. The children were captivated by the story and her soothing voice.   Afterwards, the children had the chance to retell the story using the things in the box and also responded to the story in pictures, writing and making.

World Book Day!

We had a fabulous world book day and the children looked AMAZING dressed up as their favourite characters.  We laughed out loud watching Michael Rosen's video of him performing his poem 'Chocolate Cake' and we read some of James Carter's poems.  We then created some art work in response to four of our favourites, using oil pastels, collage and sketching pencils.

Finally... the Poetry Slam!

It was a winning Friday for Year 3 in the key stage two poetry slam!  Klee performed 'The Owl and the Pussy-Cat' and Pollock performed 'Go to the back Rosa Parks'.  Between us we achieved third and first place!  An incredible achievement especially being the youngest children in KS2. 
Miss Wadley and Mrs Smith are so very proud of all the children, especially those who were out of their comfort zones performing on stage.  They were clear, strong, expressive and passionate...and truly AWESOME!

World Book Day at Windhill21

On Thursday, Windhill21 was taken over by a plethora of book characters, ranging from Harry Potter to Willy Wonka! It was a fantastic day and it was great to see so many children (and adults!) celebrating their favourite books.

                        

   

The theme of this year's world book day was to share a story, and our aim was to reach one million reads as part of the reading revolution.

To try and help us to achieve this, the children participated in a number of story sharing activities. 

We began by getting cosy and sharing stories in assembly. EYFS and KS1 enjoyed a fabulous picture book about a brave mouse, Lower KS2 were enthralled by Lao Lao of Dragon Mountain and Upper KS2 were captivated by a spooky ghost story which included lights out and torches!

The Lion Inside was read to EYFS and KS1.

Lower KS2 enjoyed Lao Lao of Dragon Mountain

The Legend of Sleep Hollow was read to Upper KS2

The children also got to enjoy a reading run around, which was where the teachers selected their favourite poetry or story book and read to each class for 5 minutes before a timer went off and they ran to the next class. We really loved sharing our stories and poems and it was exciting to see which teacher and what poem or story we got next! 

The children were also read to by their teachers, TAs and to each other throughout the day and we all discussed our favourite parts of stories.   Lots of us also spent some time listening to, reading, watching, enjoying and responding to poetry.  Some of us created art work based on a poem or illustrated one while others produced drama and wrote their own poems. One thing for sure is, we all loved watching Michael Rosen's videos where he performs his poems.  A massive favourite was 'Chocolate Cake'.