15th March 2013

Nursery

We are on our third traditional story this week, The Gingerbread Man  we have decorated and painted our own Gingerbread Men using ginger spice.  The traditional stories are proving very popular with the children and they love joining in with the repeating phrases.  In PE we are getting really brave and have been  jumping from  high and low level apparatus.  Looking forward to seeing all the crazy hair for red nose day on Fri.  Please remember the WOW! moments and to regularly check the notice board.

Reception

This week the children in the four Reception classes have had great fun thinking and writing about  the many different creatures that hatch out of eggs. We have been enthralled looking at our whiteboards watching many creatures hatch out of their eggs. We have looked at duck, chicken and quail eggs in the classroom and imagined what it must be like to be inside them and we have used a balance to find out which eggs were the heaviest and the lightest. We have also been palaeontologists looking at dinosaur skeletons.   

1B

Hi everybody,

1B are continuing to work really hard and have fun at the same time. This week they have been investigating 2D and 3D shape; identifying them and thinking about their properties. They have been continuing to find out about owls and the structure of non-chronological reports. They are found out so much they are looking forward to writing them next week.

Here are some of the activities that some children have enjoyed in particular:

Ailbhe- I have enjoyed the Red Nose Game because it is fun.

Camren- Writing about Owls is good because I like finding out about new stuff.

Leo- I like the Red Nose Game because I like playing with my red nose.

Jake- I liked making cubes using nets because it was fun.

Milly- making up our owl dances was fun because I enjoy dancing.

Amantha- I like my spellings because I get to practice writing them correctly.

Joseph- I am enjoying the Red Nose word search because you get to learn lots of red nose words.

Macy- I like my 3D shapes because I never knew them before.

Zoe – I enjoyed my reading test because I almost did them all right.

Thanks for your contributions children

Have a great week

Miss Bernard

4CA

This week 4CA has been very busy. In maths we have been working on perimeter. Our English has all been based on Chapter 7 of ‘The Demon Headmaster’ we have written the chapter in our own words and have planned a storyboard changing parts of chapter 7 to make our own story for next week. In Science we have looked at how muscles work in our bodies with Mr Bird leading the lesson. For ICT we have continued data branching. In RE we have been looking at The Easter story.

4E

4E have been enjoying their work in their class book, ‘The Demon Headmaster’. They have written their own versions of one of their favourite chapters. This writing has been fantastic so far with the children using a range of tricky language features such as simile and personification. In Maths the children have been learning about perimeter and area. They have completed a range of investigations and are now feeling confident!

In Science the children have been learning about the bones and muscles. Did you know that it takes more muscles to frown than it does to smile?

5J

Due to the forthcoming Activities Week (either at the Isle of Wight or at Darlinghurst), Year 5 have been completing their end of term assessments early.  They have particularly shown off their increased maths and writing skills.  They have enjoyed learning about sound, especially investigating pitch using a straw.  Why not ask your child to show you what happens?  You will need drinking straw and scissors.   (Putting your fingers in your ears to drown out the sound is optional!)

During the last week of term we will be making musical instruments out of recycled materials, so please save your cardboard boxes, plastic containers e.g. bottles, margarine tubs and bring them into school on Monday 25^th March. 

Have a good weekend and keep your fingers crossed for sun and warm weather next week!

Mrs Johnston

Year 6

Well, Year Six are still recovering from their Anderson Shelter building day last Friday. Despite the rain and freezing temperatures, we all had a fantastic day and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.

We have also been visited by the local NHS Dental Health team and every year six child received a free toothbrush and toothpaste today! The talk given to the children was educational and informative and Mrs Sykes told us that Darlinghurst children are a credit to us.

Well done Year Six…SATs are approaching  and they are all working really hard. Keep it up! 

8th March 2013

4CA

This week in Maths we have been looking at rounding numbers, either whole or decimal. We have had another successful week of poetry with the children writing their own imagine poem using alliteration, simili, metaphors and personification. In Science were looked at animal skeleton’s and even had some real skulls. For ICT we have been learning how to make a branching database.

Year 6

Year 6 have had another successful, hard working week! In Maths, we have been brushing up on how to interpret data from pie charts and in English, both classes have been continuing to read their class novels. We have all really enjoyed making gas mask boxes (which involved some Maths, as we had to draw and cut out nets) and we cannot wait for our World War Two day out on the field. We will be making Anderson shelters, so stay tuned next week to see the outcome! Despite it being damp and foggy, Year 6 will not be put off and it’s sure to be a fantastic day!

In other news, this week Year 6 have started using Twitter- so please feel free to follow us @DarlinghurstY6 for regular updates and photos of our learning!

1st March 2013

Nursery

I hope everybody had a relaxing break.  In nursery this term we are looking at traditional stories.  This week we have been listening to The Emperor’s New Clothes.  The children find this story very funny especially when the emperor parades along the street almost naked.  Our flavoured rice cakes have been very successful with nearly all the children enjoying them.  The caramel flavour seemed to be the favourite.  Everybody should now have a copy of our nursery leaflet detailing all the up to date information.  Please remember to bring in things for your child’s learning journeys.  Looking forward to Stay and Play for parent/carers of girls tomorrow.

Reception

This week in reception our learning has been focused around Room on the Broom by Julia Donaldson. We have enjoyed reading the story and learning about rhyming words. We have also made our very own witch’s spell by thinking of some very interesting ingredients and learning how to write instructions! We have had great fun designing our own brooms and making them using both natural and man-made materials. In maths, we have been writing some fantastic number sentences and learning all about addition and subtraction. Next week, we look forward to reading more Julia Donaldson stories including The Smartest Giant in Town!

Reception Team

1B

Hi everybody,

I think everybody is well rested after their Half Term holiday as 1B have come back thinking, learning and working really hard this week.

I am really pleased because quite a few children did their homework and have brought in books or information about owls. This has really helped with the children’s research and their learning about non-fiction books this week. We have also been doing all kinds of Maths investigations and learning about light sources which the children have all engaged in with much enthusiasm.

Here are some of the activities that the children have enjoyed in particular:

Karter- I enjoyed PE I liked watching the video of the owl when his wings came up.

Martha-I liked the dance moves in PE

Reanna- I liked learning in Maths, we were using number cards to count up to 20.

Joseph- When we wrote about owls I enjoyed it because I like owls.

Ruby- Using the laptops was fun because we were learning about taking away on Education City.

Mercedes- I liked doing the Owl Dance in PE because I like dancing.

Ailbhe- I liked the Owl Dance because it was funny.

Jacob- Doing Magic Numbers in Maths was magic, we had to put numbers in order to make other numbers.

Zoe- I liked going around the school with Emma looking for light sources because I liked learning about my lights and darks.

Thanks for all your contributions children.

Have a great weekend.

Miss Bernard

4CA

In maths this week we have continued to look at fractions and decimals. Using a number of fractions games has really helped learning. Our theme for English this week has been poetry and we have looked at key elements that can be included in a poem. We had a special treat with Mr Bird telling us all about The human skeleton and we named lots of bones. This week for our topic on schools we found out about schools in India.

4E

4E have been working very hard on their poetry recently. We have looked at poems by Kit Wright and Pie Corbett and have focussed on using simile in our work. The poems we have produced have been fantastic and we are very proud of them.

In Science we are beginning our ‘Moving and Growing’ topic. Our classroom has a new ‘bony’ member…We have learnt the correct scientific names for some of the bones and found out some interesting facts. Did you know an adult has 206 bones in the body but a baby is born with over 300?

We have been lucky enough to have Stuart the artist come to work with us on a Friday morning and have been experimenting with special artist paints called Gouache paint. Our final art work will be displayed in the school.

5W

5W have had a busy week. We've learnt how to improve other writers stories using our own words. We are great story tellers and will be writing our own stories soon.

We have all presented a short talk on our favourite subject to the class. Mrs Weddell and Miss Withrington were extremely impressed and enjoyed every talk. We learnt about guitars, comics, Greek mythology, animals, Muay Thai boxing, games and books.  We saw lovely pictures and great power points all which received lots of well deserved applause.

Year 6

Well , Year Six are getting busy for their  Anderson Shelter and Dig For Victory Day next Friday 8^th March. They are all busy making gas masks, gas mask boxes and collecting seeds ready for planting out side.

They had also been working extremely hard in all lessons. Well done .

Next week also sees an assembly taken by Little   Havens Hospices thanking the whole of Year Six for their fantastic fund raising cake sale last term. Watch out for the next sale !

15th February 2013

Reception

In Reception this week, we have enjoyed learning about Chinese New Year!

Much of our learning has been based around the Chinese Zodiac story in which 12 animals race to get across the river in order to impress the emperor.  We found out that some of us were born in the year of the pig (2007) and others were born in the year of the rat (2008).  We have been making dragon puppets, Chinese lanterns, lucky money envelopes and willow pattern plates.  We have also been able to try Chinese food such as, noodles, rice, prawn crackers and mangos.

Rosie (RF) “I liked drawing a willow pattern plate.”

Harry (RB) “I liked tasting noodles.”

Olivia (RN) “I made a Chinese dragon puppet.”

Amy (RW) “We have been learning about dragon dancing.”

Happy half term everyone!!

The Reception team  

1B

Hello everybody,

Another busy week in 1B. We have had so much fun: finding out about Chinese New Year, investigating why we have Pancake Day, weighing and comparing, making pancakes and writing out our instructions. I was so proud of what the children achieved with their writing. They all did so well.

Here are some of the activities that the children enjoyed in particular:

Daniel- I really enjoyed making the Chinese dragons because I liked sticking the bits together.

Macy- Making Chinese dragons was fun because I liked colouring the face in.

Camren- Going in library is interesting because I like reading the books.

Ashleigh- Cooking the pancakes was fun because I enjoyed eating them

Joseph- The library is a good place to go because I like looking at different books and pictures.

Martha- Dancing to the 3 little Pigs song in PE was good because I like dancing.

Tina- I liked printing at Music Club for the Lion King because I like painting stuff.

Bailey- I like doing spelling because it helps me to learn.

Thanks for all of your contributions children

Keep yourself safe and have a great half term holiday.

Miss Bernard

Year 2

Hello Again Everyone!

We can not believe that we are getting closer and closer to the end of Year 2…halfway through already….time flies when you’re having fun!!

Here is what the children have said they enjoyed this week

Noah said ‘I liked using the computer and learning new skills on Power Point. I learnt how to insert sounds and make my Power Point have transitions!’

Ezio said ‘I liked the same as Noah really but I also loved doing my writing assessment. Mrs Collison said I am nearly a level 3 but I need to remember capital letters after full stops! ’

Wishing you all a safe and happy half term break.

Look forward to seeing you soon

The Year 2 team.

4CA

Half term is upon us and as always we have had a busy week. In maths we have been working on fractions and decimals, it has been tricky, but we now can work with them much better. In English we have worked on specific characters from ‘The Demon Headmaster’ and have written an extended piece on Dinah Glass. In ICT we reinforced our understanding of temperature by working on Education city. We did our last science experiment looking at thermal conductors and insulators. Our focus of schools this week took us to Australia and we found out about how the children in the outback go on the internet to learn with their teacher.

8th February 2013

Reception

A BIG thank you to all the mums and other relatives/ friends that came to visit us on Thursday. We hope you had a lovely day.  The children really enjoyed sharing their learning with you.  Thank you to those mums that shared a skill with the children.

This week in Reception we have continued our learning about Space.  The children have shared their own facts and we have researched new ones within our classes.  Linked to the story of Whatever Next, the children made some sandwiches and went on their own rocket ride adventure to the moon!! Landing back in the classroom with a BUMP!

Within Maths we have been looking at shapes... Both 2D and 3D.  The children have used these shapes to make their own rockets and space pictures.

We have had a brilliant response to our WOW stars and the children continue to share their achievements with the other children.

Finally, thank you to those people that came in on Friday to look at our Learning Journeys. We hope you enjoyed sharing these with your child and were impressed with just how much they  have achieved so far!

Another busy week.

The Reception team

1B

Hello everybody,

How time flies when you’re having fun! We have had such a great week. Learning about telling the time on the hour and half hour: exploring Data Handling through looking at Block Graphs, Pictograms and Tally Charts and using money to do Addition and Subtraction activities. In English we have thought about the key factors that make up a successful set of instructions. The children have really enjoyed learning all about Bossy Verbs.

We also had a really great day with all of the mums, nans and grans that came to Bring a Mum to School Day yesterday. Thanks to all who attended.

Here are some of the things that the children have particularly enjoyed this week:

My favourite thing was decorating and making cakes on Bring a Mum to School Day- Ruby

I liked making balloon animals and painting because I like painting.- Tina

I enjoyed the 3 Little Pigs dance because I like dancing- Martha.

I liked having a sword balloon from Bring a Mum a to School Day- Leo

I enjoyed going on the laptops and doing Maths in Education City because I like doing adding up- Toby

Decorating the cakes on Bring a Mum to School Day was fun- Reanna

Going on the laptops was interesting because I enjoy taking away- Camren

I loved decorating the cakes because I liked the different decorating things- Zoe

I enjoyed PE because I liked the 3 Little pigs music- Macy

I loved it when I was Ailbhe’s brother for the Big Bad Wolf song- Theo

Thanks for all of your contributions children.

Have a great weekend.

Miss Bernard

Year 2

Hello everyone!

We hope you had lots of fun on Thursday when some of you came to see us for the newly named ‘Bring a Lady to School Day!!’  We loved having you share the day with us.  Thank you.

Here’s what the children have said they enjoyed this week

Sophie said ‘I loved it when my mum came and help weigh ingredients in kilograms and grams to make Rice Krispie cakes.  They tasted yummy!’

Harry said ‘My mum showed me how to sew.  I was very proud of my sewing and I can’t wait until I decorate my puppet with my design.’

Have a happy and safe weekend

Year 2 

4CA

We have had a really busy week in 4CA. In maths we have been learning a number of times tables and in particular the 6x table and also looking at the inverse using division. We have been looking at adjectives and powerful verbs in The Demon Headmaster as well as looking at how to describe a persons feelings by inference. Our Science looked at how we could slow down the process of a lolly melting. In ICT we worked on our keyboard skills and correcting a piece of text.

It was fantastic having so many mum’s come in and work with us. They all really entered into the spirit of classroom life.

4CA

5J

As usual, we have had a busy week in 5J.  We have continued with our instructions – first we made rockets, then we wrote instructions for someone else to follow.  We are much better at writing introductions and conclusions to our instructions now.  In maths, we have improved our skills at rounding when adding and subtracting as well as using a number line.  In science, we made line graphs on paper and using ICT to show the difference between sunrise and sunset in the UK for 2013.

Today was ‘Bring a Mum to School Day’ – it was great to see so many mums.  The class planted tomato seeds, played netball, iced biscuits, learned how to draw a rose and what it is like to live in Canada.  They taught their mums how to find the area and perimeter of complex shapes, helped them translate some letters from France, together they learned  how to make origami boxes.

Thank you to all the mums and grans who visited us today – we hope you enjoyed your time with us.

1st February 2013

Nursery

A wet and windy week, with lots of nursery children being poorly with coughs and colds.  Let’s hope we are all better very soon.  We have been continuing with our phonics and this week the children learnt the T sound.  They loved The Tiger who Came to Tea by Judith Kerr with many of them wanting to have a tiger come to their house for tea.  You can access the story for yourself via You Tube.  Next week will be moving on to the P sound.  Our Stay and Play session last week for parent/carers of boys was very successful and l know many of you had great fun making  Incy Wincy Spiders.  This week its parent/carers of girls and you will have the chance to make a tiger mask with your child.  Remember to let me have any WOW! moments that can be updated in your child’s learning journey.  Also good luck to Andi on her first swimming lesson.

Reception

This week we have had great fun learning about Space.  The children have bought in some fantastic research, which we have talked about in our classrooms.  The Reception team would like to say thank you for all the hard work that has gone into making and displaying their facts because it has made this week a fantastic week of learning. 

Linked to our week about space, the children have focused their learning around “Whatever Next!”  They have enjoyed the story about Baby’s Bears adventure to the Moon.  The children have thought about what they would take with them if they were going to the moon and then wrote their own list. 

In Maths, we have been counting backwards. 

Next week we are going to continue exploring space and look forward to learning lots more interesting facts.

The Reception Team  

1B

Hello everybody,

The week flies by so quickly and unfortunately I’ve been off for a couple of days; due to ill health. I do miss the children on the rare occasions that I am absent.

As usual we have been busy in 1B learning about materials, the history of houses and homes, writing character descriptions for the 3 Little Pigs, counting in 2s, 5s and 10s and practising multiplication.

Here are some of the things that the children have particularly enjoyed this week.

I liked writing about the 3 Little Pigs because it was fun- Mercedes

Dancing in PE was great because we listened to my favourite song, Candy by Robbie Williams. - Zoe

Counting in 10s going up to 100 is brilliant because I am learning more about numbers. - Jake

I liked counting in 1s, 2s, 5s and 10s because I liked doing it and it was brilliant. - Daniel

I liked doing PE because I danced- Karter

I have enjoyed Maths this week because I liked counting in 10s from 100. - Camren

Colouring the toys for the Maths Shopping Game was fun. - Leo

Sports and Maths are my favourite things to do I doing sums and doing exercise. - Bailey

PE was great this week because it was fun dancing to the music. - Reanna

I liked doing Maths because I like count by 10s. - Amantha

Doing my handwriting is good because I am getting better it. - Macy

I found Maths hard this week, but I enjoyed it anyway. – Joseph

Thanks so much for you contributions children

Have a great weekend.

Miss Bernard

1K

We have been extremely busy in maths, learning about repeated addition and simple multiplication!  In English we have been reading the Three Little Pigs, looking at characters and the story setting. We have started to change parts of the story ourselves and we now have three bad pigs and a very kind wolf!

We have designed our fantasy creatures [on paper] and are looking forward to making them out of paper mache next week

4CA

We have been working on estimating answers before we complete column addition this week and also solving money problems. In English we have been writing the next part of The Demon Headmaster and introducing our new characters. For Science we have been experimenting on what materials will keep a cup of water warm with the least temperature loss. We have finished our letters to Eastbury primary and will be sending them off next week. Letters have been written to Mum’s to invite them in for next Thursday.

4CA

5J

This week we have been refining our instruction skills. First, we looked at the instructions for a card trick (which we mastered), then Mrs Johnston modeled the instructions for ‘How to Trap a Pesky Goblin’, finally we wrote our own instructions for ‘How to Trap an Annoying Alien’.  We have been quite creative in devising the entrapment of creatures from outer space! 

In maths, we have been improving our mental maths skills by looking for number bonds and near doubles – Mrs Johnston is really pleased with our progress.

We have also looked at the phases of the moon – we should now know the difference between a waxing and waning gibbous moon!  Do you?

5W

We have had a busy week writing instructions on how to trap pesky goblins and annoying aliens. We have designed and are now very excited as we will be making our own annoying aliens out of clay this week.

5W had an exciting package from our link school in France, we received Bonne Annie (Happy New Year) cards and some photos to see what they were getting up to in class. 

Year 6

Well year 6 have been busy practising for SATs this week and they now realise they need to keep revising at home…practise makes perfect……………. We are all rather excited at the prospect of a school trip and also a visit from Mrs Blatcher’s mum, who will be talking about her experiences as a real evacuee in World War 2….can’t wait 

25th January 2013

Nursery

Time is flying by in the nursery.  This week we have been all things spiders.  The children have been singing along to the nursery rhyme Incy Wincy Spider.  During PE we pretended to be spiders, moving along the benches.  We also used the crash mats to do head over heels which was super fun.  It was good to see so many parents for nursery consultations.  Also the children loved the Tesco Cheese and Chive dip that we had with breadsticks for snack in case you’re stuck for food ideas this was a firm favourite.  Next week for our phonics we will be moving on to T and sharing the story The Tiger Who Came To Tea.  

Reception

Firstly thank you to all the parents that've managed to pop along to parent meetings and I'm sure you will all agree that the Reception children have been working extremely hard since they started in September and have settled back after Christmas well and are full steam ahead in there learning.

This week in Reception we have continued our learning on Dogger. The children have been busy and having a go at writing our own stories and drawing our own story maps. The children have shown that they are very clever this week by remembering the golden rules when writing sentences. 

Next week we are starting a new topic on Space, with our story book being 'Whatever Next' .Please check your children's homework book for their new homework and don't forget to start filling in those WOW stars!!

Have a lovely weekend 

The Reception team

1B

Hello everybody,

So sorry 1B haven’t blogged for a while, but we are all excited to share our learning with you this week.

We have been so busy; we have really enjoyed starting our new topic in Talk for Writing- The 3 Little Pigs. We have achieved so much in one week. We already know the story really well, we have sequenced and written our own stories, written character descriptions using Word, had a go at building the pig’s houses to make a model map and role played the story adding in our own ideas.

In Maths we have been counting in 10’s , grouping them, thinking about how many lots of , recording repeated add number sentences and using these to begin to learn about multiplication.

We have had a fun and enjoyable week; here are some of the activities that the children have particularly enjoyed.

Jake- I have enjoyed counting in 10’s because I like it.

Ailbhe- It was fun doing the 3 Little Pig role plays.

Camren- Singing the Count by 5s song is great we enjoy singing it.

Toby- I liked making the brick houses and I did some at home yesterday.

Evie- I liked doing dancing in PE because I like the song “Tiger Feet”.

Martha- I really enjoyed writing the 3 Little Pigs because I enjoy writing.

Milly- I quite enjoyed making the 3 Little pigs houses and using the Beebots.

Thanks for all of your contributions children.

Have a great weekend.

Miss Bernard

4CA

This week we have been looking at column addition and subtraction and linking it to money. In English we have been writing character descriptions to add to our own version of the Demon Headmaster. In Science we have tested the temperature around the room and also tested snow as it was melting. For Science we made pie charts and also put our melting snow temperatures on a line graph. We have also painted our own interpretation of The Demon Headmaster.

5J

This week in 5J we have continued to add detail to settings, including similes and metaphors in our writing.  We have learned that we also need to include a range of connectives and punctuation to improve the standard of our writing.

In maths we have learned about time – big units of time, such weeks, months, years, decades etc.  We have looked at the 24 hour clock, timetables and schedules.  Looking out for 24 hour times will be a big help in reinforcing this at home.  During our PE sessions, our successful learners became teachers to share their ball skills with others – this was a valuable and enjoyable experience.  However, the highlight of the week was being able to use the iPad in class to explore the apps relating to space – being able to find out which constellations are where was quite exciting.

5J Even if you have lost your moon diary, keep looking at the shape of the moon each night; it will help your learning next week. 

Year 6

Well, Year Six have had a fantastic week working on their topic of dragons. The art work and writing has been amazing and we have had so much fun with this exciting topic.Well done to you all.