18th January 2013

Nursery

What  a super, sensational, special week we've had in nursery.  Yes,  we have been learning the letter S.  The children brought many things into nursery beginning with S.  There were snakes, Spiderman, strawberries, and stethoscopes.  We have also been having a daily story and this week it has been There’s no such thing as Monsters.  Which can be found on the CBeebies website.   Our new children have settled well which is lovely.  I look forward to seeing many of you next week in the hall for parent consultations.  Then next Fri 25^th our ‘Stay and Play’ sessions start for parent/carers of boys.

Reception

This week in Reception we have started our learning on Dogger by Shirley Hughes. We have had a fun packed week, acting out the story in our role play, sequencing the story by creating a story map and retelling the story using the magic storytelling hat to help us. We have also been thinking about positional language during our maths lessons and we even got to go on a treasure hunt, following the positional language clues!! Can you guess what we found at the end???Ask your children and see if they can remember what we found.

Amy RW-" I liked playing with the bee bots"

Alex RW - " I liked writing and practising my sounds, next time I need to practise my 'n' ."

Bailey RW -" I like the role play and my new class. "

Have a lovely weekend!

The reception team

Year 4

4CA

This week in maths and ICT we have been looking at graphs and the children are now experts in drawing and interpreting bar graphs and line graphs.

The children have been rewriting the first chapter of ‘The Demon Headmaster’ using Pye Corbett’s ideas. There were so many of the children who used fantastic description of feelings and actions.

In Science we have measured the temperature of water using a thermometer. Some of the water contained ice cubes or was warm.

For our school topic we looked at a school in China to see what was similar and was was different to Darlinghurst.

Year 5

5J

It might be cold outside this week but we have been working hard in 5J.

In maths we have been learning how to find the area of rectangles and some children have found the surface area of cuboids too!

We have been including more detail in our writing by focusing on a setting based in a cave.

For science, we paid a visit to Westcliff High School for Boys where the sixth formers taught us about the Sun, heat and light.  We all enjoyed this tremendously and the children were a credit to the school.  Fizzing chemicals were popular but so was how to balance two forks and a 50p piece on the edge of a glass beaker! This might be something to try at home – the centre of gravity is not where you might think! 

In class we have tried to apply our learning to other areas – Sam put together a team of thinking experts to help him solve a problem with his invention that wouldn’t sink!  Megan and Loki used their knowledge of measuring angles to use protractors to find out how far off course Mrs Johnston’s racing sprouts were!

5J, remember to keep filling in your moon diaries and bring them to school each day.

11 January 2013

Nursery

Welcome back!  We would like to wish you all a very Happy New Year and a very big thank you for all the lovely gifts received from yourselves.  We were very spoilt.  The children have come back to nursery full of life and excitement which is lovely.  Our ‘Show and Tell’ sessions give everyone the opportunity to share their Christmas and talk about their favourite presents.  This term we also are welcoming a number of new members to both our morning and afternoon nursery.

Reception

The children returned to school happy and settled on Tuesday to learn how children in France celebrate the start of the new year with ‘ the celebration of the three Kings’. We found out how they eat a special cake called a gallette in which is hidden a nativity figure, called a feve. The person who gets the feve in their piece of gallette  is then the ‘king for the day’ and everyone else has to help them. All the classes shared their own gallette, with a sultana hidden inside to represent the feve, and the four kings had fun organising their friends to help them. We have also thought about our own Christmas holidays and favourite presents and talked about New Year resolutions.

All the  Reception staff would like to take this opportunity to thank all the families for the many gifts received and we wish you all a happy and prosperous New Year. 

Year 2

Happy New Year to you all!

Well it’s lovely to see you all back at school, safe and sound, as though you never been away!  The children have told us that you all had a lovely Christmas and it sounds like Father Christmas was very busy!

Here is what the children have said they enjoyed this week. Isla said ‘I have enjoyed Science. We are learning about Plants and Animals and I have started to research about all the things I want to learn.  I now know that I want to learn all about rodents because I have two hamsters at home and would like to learn more about their families.’

Dan said ‘I loved working with Isla on our Jack and the Beanstalk storyboard because I like drawing the pictures of the story in sequence and helping Isla with tricky and exciting words. Tomorrow we are filming ourselves telling the story board on IPADS…I can’t wait!’

Looking forward to seeing you all next week!

Take Care

The Year 2 Team

Year 4

4E

It has been lovely to see the children come back to school with so much enthusiasm. The children in 4E have made a good start to the Spring Term and have begun a new book in English. They are now reading ‘The Demon Headmaster’ and are really enjoying acting out and retelling the story. We have also started a new Science Topic called ‘Keeping Warm’ and have taken part in an experiment using the materials in our outside environment. We are looking forward to learning more about temperatures and taking part in more experiments!

4CA

It has been a busy week in 4CA. In Maths the children have been looking at capacity and estimating the amount of liquid in a container. They also have learnt to read timetables and most of the class are now able to read a C2C train timetable! We have started our new book in English ‘The Demon Headmaster’ and the children have made storyboards for the first chapter. Our topic in Science has started well with the children testing the temperature of objects in the playground and in the class. In Pe the children have started a dance unit.

Year 5

5J

It was lovely to see everyone back after the holidays.  Although we have only been back for a few days, we have been very busy.

We have written letters to our link school in France, telling them about our Christmas presents.  When they write back, we will be able to compare what sort of presents they receive with ours.

Our topic this term is Space.  Today we made an orrey to show how the Earth and Moon move.

Our class text for the term is ‘The BFG’ – we have been using our comprehension skills to draw accurate pictures of the BFG’s journey with Sophie.  

Homework for the next month is to complete a moon diary so we can track the way the moon looks over the next few weeks.

Year 6

Year six have been busy dragon hunting this week as a dragon was sighted at Darlinghurst and left various bits of evidence whilst it was here!. Should you have any details about the sighting please contact Year Six immediately  as we are gathering evidence for our team of dragon hunters.

11th Decemeber

Nursery

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas.  Nursery have been very busy. We have put our Christmas tree up and it has some lovely fir cone decorations made by the children, some of which can been seen outside our nursery.  We also watched a lovely BBC Learning zone clip all about a fir tree.  

The freezing weather meant we could have a good investigation with ice.  This generated lots of lovely language.  Belle said ‘It looks like shiny glass’ and Ivy said, ‘It’s very cold my hands are freezing.’

Year 4

We have had a very busy week. The children have been working on newspaper reports in English. For maths we have worked on doubles and halves and we have seen a great improvement in their understanding. We finished our Science topic on circuits by making a parallel and a series circuit using two bulbs.

However the best day of the week was Thursday when we had an Egyptian day. Mark ran the whole day. We had a quiz, looked at a number of artefacts, played an Egyptian board game and in the afternoon we acted out the whole mummification ceremony. The children will be real Egyptologists now.

4CA

 

 

The children have had the chance to experience an Egyptian Day on Thursday of this week. It was a brilliant day and all of the children and staff really enjoyed it. Some of the day’s activities included playing an Egyptian game, exploring some exciting artefacts and watching mummification! Mark the Egyptologist also told us a traditional tale which originated from Ancient Egyptian times; ask your child what it was.

 

Year 5

5W have had a great week. We visited the Victorian Christmas at Priory House and learnt how many traditions came about. We learnt how to make bon bons and decorations out of oranges and cloves, which are making our classroom smell lovely.

We have made story maps and are re-telling great stories, ask us about them and see what fantastic story tellers we are.

Year 6

Year 6 have had a great week being adventurous with their writing! We have been making story maps and planning exciting storylines, before writing up our final versions. The quality of the writing has been fantastic, so we hope this high standard continues.

Everyone is very excited about our upcoming event- the Year 6 Cake Sale, being held in our classrooms, on the morning of Friday 14^th December. As a year group, we have started to plan and prepare, by making enticing advertisements to put up around the school. We hope to see you there!

We are all starting to feel Christmassy and decorations have gone up in the classrooms. We are also beginning to practise our Christmas carols, ready for the Carol Concert on Wednesday 19^th December.

23 Novemeber

Nursery

It’s all been about ‘Celebrations’ this week in nursery.  The children have been talking about birthdays and birthday parties.  We watched a BBC Learning Zone clip about a little girl celebrating her 6th birthday.  This has given us lots of opportunities to use new language in our play as the children have loved acting out birthday parties through role play.  Our Show and Tell this week was ‘Hats’ and lots of the children came to nursery wearing a variety of hats.  Andi had her mummy’s sombrero’s hat and Thomas wore his policeman’s helmet with pride.

I have to say rice pudding was not a hit with the children this week with only a few children actually liking it.  So that will be off the menu, but at least most of them had a try.

Reception

This week we have been learning about the story of Cinderella.  Here are some examples of things we have enjoyed this week :-

Martha (RN) "I liked painting Cinderella's castle."

Joss (RB) "Ordering the Cinderella story."

Hayden (RB) "I liked watching Cinderella on the whiteboard."

Eden (RF) "I loved doing Cinderella dancing."

Amy (RW) "We made a Cinderella story map and I drew the ugly stepsisters."

Logan (RW) "I drew the prince" (referring to the story map)

 

We have also been very busy writing letters to Santa, letting him know what we would like for Christmas.  Next week we will be starting our new topic on winter.

Year 4

4E have been busy planning and writing their play scripts this week. They have planned their own character for the story. They have enjoyed doing lots of drama and role play to explore the characters of the story.

 

4E have been making their own switches for an electrical circuit and have used a variety of materials to test what materials are conductors or insulators. Miss Ellis was very impressed with the switches made and how well everyone worked as a team.

 

In topic this week the children have been learning all about Cleopatra. They used the IPADs to access the information and we had a great time discussing Cleopatra’s life and why she is so famous.

Year 5

Year 5 have had a good week. We have been thinking about our characters and settings for a short story we are going to write next week. Ask us about our fabulous ideas to see how hard we’ve been working.

In science we are looking at reversible and irreversible, ask is what we made and if you like try it at home!

We are still researching Victorian inventors and their inventions. We will look into how much we still use today, hopefully not the torture instruments!

Year 6

Well year 6 have been busy practising for their SATs with an excellent performance this week of the skills they have learnt so far.The children have shown what a true team they are and are an absolute pleasure to teach. The  year 6 play leaders  have had  positive impact on the school and the younger children love them. Well done Year 6 . Mrs B and Miss Niemann

 

16 Novemeber

Reception

International week: This week in Reception we have been learning about
Africa. Our activities have been linked to Handa's Surprise. The
children have been looking at African artefacts and listening to African
music. The children enjoyed tasting food from the story.

Thank you to those children who have completed their Elmer homework. We
had some lovely pieces of work that will be displayed in the classrooms.

Also thank you to those parents that have helped us explore Africa by
bringing in some interesting objects and pictures.


The Reception team

Year 2




Jambo!


That’s hello in Swahili… can you guess which country we have been learning about this week…..Hooray you got it right, its KENYA!
Here is what the children have said they enjoyed this week

Maxim said ‘I loved making Handa’s Basket. I had to think carefully about making 3D shapes and my Kenyan name is Halabon!’


Adomaa said ‘I enjoyed giving Handa instructions. I pretended to be a policeman to help Handa not lose her fruit. I used an IPad to film me saying my imperative verbs.’


All have a safe and happy weekend!
Year 2



Year 4

 

4E have had a busy few weeks again! We greatly enjoyed having some ‘blokes’ in our class last Thursday as part of ‘Bring a Bloke to School’ day. We hope they enjoyed it too.

 

This week has been ‘International Week’. 4E has been studying Egypt in detail. We have looked at the flag, listened to their National Anthem and made our own Egyptian dances in PE. On Thursday we all cooked and ate some Egyptian Palace Pudding. Here are some of the words the children used to describe it: Chewy, tasty, sweet, crunchy, delicious and moreish!

 

The children are really enjoying their reading too. We are still reading ‘Stig of the Dump’ as a class and the children are busy reading their own books too. Please hear your child read as often as you can at home as well as asking them some questions about the book they are reading.

 

 

09 Novemeber

Nursery

In the nursery this week, we have been joined by some lovely new children.  They have settled really well and especially enjoyed our Molly in the Trolley story about a little baby who graps all the wrong things at the supermarket.  For Show and Tell this week the children showed their fantastic art work.  Teddy’s racing car picture was a firm favourite.

Our photographs would give Britain’s Next Top Model a run for their money, with our angelic faces.

Thursday was great fun as nursery had lots of visitors.  We found out all about Daisy and Williams daddy’s kite boarding and Thomas’s uncles golf.  Once again thank to all those who came and visited us.

Reception

This week in Reception we have had great fun learning about Elmer the patchwork elephant all the children have tried really hard with their writing this week and some of the children experienced their first magic carpet ride to where elephants live. Thank you to all the male family members who came to visit yesterday, we loved having you come to visit and we hope you weren't too tired when you went home. We hope we didn't scare you too much and you will come back to visit again.

Thank you to all the children this week for returning to school in a positive manor and putting 100% effort into their learning. Next week we will be learning about Africa and continuing our learning on Elmer. Have a lovely weekend everyone and see you Monday.

The Reception Team

Year 1

This week 1K have enjoyed a variety of exciting subjects from science to PE, however the highlight of the week was definitely Bring a Bloke to School Day. The children experienced splatter painting, carpentry, making Catherine Wheels and building with Kinex [we think the dads enjoyed this too]! We all had a fantastic time. Thank you to all the `Blokes` who came in to spend time with us in 1K.

Year 4

We have had a very busy week looking at The Gunpowder Plot in English and for history. Many of the children completed super homework. In maths we have been working on our times tables and there has definitely been an improvement in all the children’s understanding.

On Thursday we welcomed a number of ‘blokes’ into the classroom who all joined in with our activities. It was a very enjoyable day.

4CA

 

 

26th October

Nursery:

In the nursery this week we have been very excited by the arrival of our interactive whiteboard.  This means we can now watch our number time DVD which has lots of fun counting songs for us to sing along with, our favourite song at the moment is ‘Five Little Monkeys’.  We  have also just finished making our paper plate faces which have our names on.  When we have a birthday we can move our plate over from number three to the number four.  Most of the children enjoyed trying the apple juice and wholemeal bread and jam.  Our Show and Tell sessions were really interesting and Brody even showed us a piece of coral which comes all the way from Tobago.  Have a fun half term.

Year 3:

This has been another busy week in 3S! We have been finishing off our stories that are based on the Three Billy Goats Gruff. We have changed the characters and setting and produced some excellent imaginative stories. This week we have been undertaking some assessments in maths which has helped us to see what we have learnt so far this year, and where there are gaps in our learning. Continuing on with our topic work has been fun as we have been learning about Roman gladiators and we are going to be looking at how the Roman army fought against the Celts and the tactics they used including the most famous formation;  the Tortoise (testudo).

Have a happy and safe half term break,

From Mr Sykes & all of 3S

Year 4:

Yet again, a very busy week in 4CA. We have been concentrating on time is week and some of the children have been asked to do some time homework. Ask them and they will know. In English we have been writing diaries being a character from Stig of the Dump. This week the children have found out about Tutankhamun’s tomb, what treasures were in it and a little about his life. This is our last week working on our science topic of Habitats, so the children will have a test before moving to the next topic.

The Open evening is about to happen and we have some fantastic activities lined up.

Have a super half term.

Year 5:

Year 5 visited Leigh library this week.   On the way we looked for examples of Victorian buildings.  We spotted The Grand Hotel built in 1899, terraced houses and the library itself.  We looked for signs of sash windows, patterns in windows in both glass and woodwork as well as patterns in the brickwork and chimneys.

At the library we learned how the books are arranged in different subjects.  Some of the class used their library cards to borrow books – we brought back plenty of membership forms for those without a card.  We were very impressed by the high tech system that allows books to be scanned in and out.

Ry said, “I enjoyed looking for Victorian houses and taking photos to send to our French partner school.  I took out quite a few books and I think I am going to enjoy reading them.”

Lewis said, “I definitely want a library card so I can borrow books for myself.”

Year 6:

What a week Year 6 have had. The most amazing visit to see Mirror Mirror at The Odeon on Monday which included bucketfuls of popcorn and a drink followed by Bikeability and preparations for Open Evening. Well done year 6 for your fantastic behaviour.

Year 6 Team