Friday 16 December 2016

With one and a half days remaining in the term, we've done all but one of the History Project presentations. So many children clearly put s lot of good work into the work, and they should be proud of what they've done and what they've learnt during the term.


We've done a lot of finishing up of things like science, watched both the EYFS and the Key Stage 1 concerts and took a trip to the local church. We did an art project based on symmetry in Maths and even managed to get one last extended writing in.


We now have Monday and part of Tuesday remaining. We're going to do a turnout of the classroom among other things, so be prepared to see things like PE kits and maybe all of those jumpers your child has not been taking home. For the weekend, get some rest amidst the last minute shopping and we will see the children on Monday.

Friday 9 December 2016

We have one week and one point five days to go until Christmas break and it is obvious at this point that everyone has sugar plums dancing through their heads. We have quite a few things to finish up next week and I have some fun activities planned. No spoilers!


One of the big things to finish up, of course, is our Egyptians topic, and that means homework projects. I was happy to see many of you at the homework project display on Wednesday, where we got to see lots of amazing work about the Ancient Egyptians and their exotic and ancient artefacts. Over the course of this week and next week, the children will be giving their project presentations and showing off their hard work. So far we have seen Nick's, Max's, Oscar's, Izzy's and Harry's and they have all been of high quality with plenty of information and clever artefacts. I look forward to seeing the rest of them over the course of the week.


We are also finishing up our science topic on digestion and will be doing some work on the digestive organs next week for a wall display. It will be the first big research project the children will undertake, so we'll see how that works during Christmas season.


We will finish up our PE unit on dance and the children will show me what skills they have acquired during the course of the term.


In English, the children have worked hard to retell a story based on a video we watched together called the Dream Giver. Next week, they will be rewriting it with their own characters and dreams placed into the story. It will be their last extended writing of the term, and I am delighted to see how far so many of the children have come in their writing.


We are continuing to work on issues of friendship, honesty and sportsmanship as a class, and have been especially working on giving each other genuine compliments. These are skills every child needs reinforced throughout their childhood years. The Christmas season is a wonderful time to remind us all of the ideal of good will towards all people.


So, to finish up this penultimate blog of the Autumn Term (where does the time go?), we will be doing a mix of some hard work and fun activities to end the calendar year together. Have a good weekend, and try not to think about how many shopping days are left until Christmas.

Friday 2 December 2016

Apologies that it has been a few weeks. As you are doubtless aware, the end of the year brings all sorts of new reasons to feel hectic. With the Christmas holiday rapidly approaching as well as the end of term, we are both gearing up and winding down at the same time, preparing to finish several things off whilst also looking to the Spring term approaching.




In English, the children have had a few challenges. We had anti-bullying week last week, and the national theme this year was "Power for Good" and the first thing it made me think of was the famous line from Spider-man comics, "With great power comes great responsibility." It was only a short logical jump from that to the idea of having the children create their own super heroes who would fight bullying. We had quite a few imaginative hero designs, including a hero with a magical moustache and one with special laser vision that could make a bully into a friend.


From there we designed comic strips of out hero fighting the bully, and used that as a template for writing dialogue using all the proper punctuation and formatting. The children were so proud of their comics that Ms Roberts (the head teacher) agreed to let them show them off in the assembly the next Monday.


After that we spent a week on two of the most famous people associated with Ancient Egypt: Howard Carter and King Tut. We spent a week exploring Tut's tomb and the story behind it, and at the end of the week the children wrote some brilliant diary entries as if they were the famous Egyptologist himself.


In Science, we spent a couple of days experimenting with egg shells and different liquids as part of our topic on Digestion. This was an experiment they had done last year, but this time we were more rigorous in our science and more thorough in our results. We also got to practise lab safety around unknown liquids by using tweezers to touch everything and wearing goggles to protect our eyes. In reality, the most volatile substance they had to deal with was orange juice, but it was good practice for future experiments.


Our History topic on Ancient Egypt is coming to an end, as you are all no doubt aware by helping your children put the finishing touches on their end of term projects. As a gentle reminder, they are due in on Monday (the fifth) and the children will be presenting their projects starting Monday afternoon.


On Wednesday they will be putting their projects on display for parents to see from 3:15 to 3:45. I can say that the projects I've had in already have been imaginative and well-made and I think the children have a lot to be proud of, so I encourage you all to come in and see what the class has produced.


I think that brings us up to date, for the most part. We have a two-week push to the end of the term!