21st June 2013

Reception

This week we have been reading The Gruffalo by Julia Donaldson and all of our activities have been based on this story. We have made up our own stories about the characters, we have been re enacting the story with puppets and have had a wonderful visit to Thorndon Country Park to look for the Gruffalo with the help of the park rangers. We have also been thinking about time, using clocks to make hour and half hour times

1B

Hello everybody,

We have had a very good and busy week in 1B, as always. In Maths the children have been practising using numberlines to solve addition and subtraction problems. Some children have even begun to use blank numberlines which is really grown up! In English we have continued to explore the story The Smallest Whale by creating our own fantasy pictures based on the story, role playing different characters and creating questions about the text. The children also had lots of fun investigating sea sides now and in the past with Mrs Dennis.

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

Leo – I have enjoyed adding and taking away in Maths.

Mercedes- I liked adding and taking away on Education City.

Camren- When we roled playe The Smallest Whale story I really liked it. I played the whale.

Amantha- I liked learning about the seaside and how it was a long time ago an we danced to “I do like to be beside the seaside.”

Zoe- We made “Under the sea” pictures using different materials. In my picture there was a cave, some sharks and fish.

Thanks for your contributions children.

Have a great weekend,

Miss Bernard

4CA

This week has been very busy in 4CA. For maths we have been looking at time in terms of counting forward and back using word problems and a blank number line. Everyone is so much better at time now. The class are now on to writing up their discussion text after spending time on planning it. History took on a new look this week as we visited Southchurch Hall. The class really enjoyed it, had fun and thanks to Richard at the museum have increased their knowledge on Tudors. They thoroughly enjoyed making candles and writing with a quill. On Thursday everyone tasted the butter we made. We also wrote up our Science experiment from last week and were tested on solids and liquids.

5J

Exciting news in 5J!  One of our caterpillars has emerged from its chrysalides – we now have a beautiful Painted Lady butterfly.  We are now waiting for the other two.

We have been honing our skills in reading scales this week in order to solve problems relating to capacity, length, weight and temperature.  Please give your child every opportunity to continue this at home or when you are out and about e.g. weighing fruit when out shopping.

Please remember we are at Chase High on Monday for an Enrichment Day – everyone needs a packed lunch.

Year 6

Year 6 are having a great time and are all looking forward to all the fun events coming up.

If you haven’t already heard, we held our Business Enterprise Day last Thursday, which was a roaring success. Can you believe we raised over £450 from all our sales? We are extremely happy and proud of our achievements. Here’s what some of us had to say:

“My favourite part was finding out the total money raised!” Lachlan 6N

“Erona and I got loads of customers who wanted their nails painted. It was quite difficult, but we managed to keep going!” Melanie 6N

“I enjoyed running the stall where we played a card game to win a prize.” Liam 6N

Mrs Blatcher and Miss Niemann were stunned by our efforts and felt enormously proud. Well done us!

As well as working hard during lesson time, we have more activities coming up. Stay tuned to hear about todays trip to Rollacity!

14th June 2013

Reception

This week we have had fun learning more about the life cycle of butterflies and watching our class caterpillars growing from being tiny to getting much longer and fatter. They will go into the cocoon stage soon! We have thought about our own life cycles and the changes we go through from being a baby to being grown up. In maths we have been using different objects, like hands and feet, to help us measure how long things are. We have also been very lucky to have two important visitors talking to us about their jobs: on Tuesday Maureen Friday talked to us about being a farmer in Kent and told us all about the different foods and animals on her farm, on Thursday Trevor Cox told us about being a fireman and how we could keep ourselves safe by testing out fire alarms once each week.

1B

Hello Everybody,

In class 1B we have been having so much fun with our learning this week. Our topic is “under The Sea” and we have been listening to and learning the story “The Smallest Whale”. There are some excellent readers in our class and we had a little competition where the boys and girls read to see who could work as a team the best when reading the story. This time the girls won. We are going to have a return match next week to see who wins then.

                                   In Maths, we have been comparing, ordering and rounding numbers to the nearest 10. All of 1B have done very well; but found rounding up and down a bit of a challenge.

Tomorrow we are having our Philosophy Morning and we are looking forward to parents coming in to observe how good we are at thinking in 1B.

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

Camren- I liked doing PE because I have never done something like that before.

Reanna- I liked when we did Stacking Cups in PE because I liked making a 3 sided pyramid.

Evie- I liked my Holiday Timeline because it was fun.

Jacob- I enjoyed the PE lesson stacking pyramids because I enjoy sports.

Mercedes- I have liked making Father’s Day cards because I enjoyed decorating it.

Leo- When we did the pyramids in PE I really enjoyed it.

Joseph- I enjoyed the Year 6 Enterprise Day because it was full of exciting things.

Ashley- I enjoyed reading “The Smallest Whale” because it is fun.

Amantha-  The Year 6 Enterprise Day was really fun.

Zoe- I got my nails painted at the Year 6 Enterprise Day. It was fun and ai got them done for free.

Thanks for your contributions children.

Have a great weekend,

Miss Bernard

4CA

As always this has been a very busy week. For maths we have been working on coordinates both in the four quadrants and also on Ordinance Survey maps. For English we have been looking at discussion text linked to The Demon Headmaster. In Science we all completed an experiment on what happens when we add solids to liquids and if we can filter them. Some children may want to try this at home. In ICT we finished our bee posters and then went onto the maths zone to further improve our understanding of coordinates. For History we looked at Mary Tudor and her reign and then in groups made up a song to include as much history as possible.

Year 6

Thank you to everyone who supported year 6  we raised over £300 towards our year 6 outings . Business Enterprise Day was fantastic and the children had the best day ever!

7th June 2013

Nursery

Nursery have been here, there and everywhere within the school grounds for science week.  We have used the viewfinders to look at snails, plants and mud.  We explored the wild area on the field and collected different size sticks and used our investigating skills relating to forces in the playground pushing cars.  So we are all budding scientist.  A big welcome to Grace and Warren who have recently joined afternoon nursery.  Thank you to those of you who have supported your children with the home learning .  It was lovely seeing all  the different activities.  Next week we are starting our seaside topic and will be looking at seasonal clothing.

4CA

We have had lots of fun in Science week. We have been outside every day. Some of the activities we have done have been, looking at friction using various surfaces around the school, shaking trees and collecting what has fallen out to make a pictogram, doing a bird watch, a guest speaking talking about bees, using coordinates following a map of the school grounds, identifying tress in the school grounds, making a fantasy creature and a visit from Essex wildlife trust.

4E

We have been having a brilliant time in Science Week this week. Some of our activities have included bird watching, tree rubbings, friction experiments and creating senses poems.

The children have really enjoyed the opportunities to work out side in the lovely weather and have shown some great team work skills. We hope the good weather stays with us so we can get outside even more!

On Tuesday the children completed in some 4Sports activities and have learnt an exciting new team game. Ask them to tell you about it!

17th May 2013

Nursery

The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle has proved a very popular story in nursery.  It has really helped the children develop their understanding about the days of the week and healthy eating.  Our little caterpillars are on display in the nursery for you to look at.  We are hoping the weather warms up for next week so we can get outside in the school grounds.  Next week will shall be thinking about what we would like to be when we grow up and our dreams and aspirations.

4CA

This week 4CA have been working on directions in maths and have been using a compass to help. They have also been able to link this with their geography on reading maps. In English the class have written a persuasive letter as part of their half termly assessment. In History the class have continued to look at rich and poor Tudors. Science was very exciting this week as the children melted chocolate buttons in their hands while watching a video of Michael Rosen’s chocolate cake. Then the class looked at reversible change.

5J

This week in maths, we have been learning about equivalent measures relating to capacity.  This is an ideal time to examine how much liquid various bottles and cartons hold e.g. milk, orange juice, washing up liquid, shampoo, squash etc and discuss this with your child.  This will really help your child build up a firmer working knowledge of capacity.  We have also been learning about pints and gallons – looking at how many pints of milk are equal to a litre will reinforce their learning too.

In science, we made pop up flowers to show off our knowledge of the parts of a flower.  A visitor from WHSB was very impressed with 5J’s vocabulary.  We also planted potatoes in our new planter.  We should be able to lift up the sides to see how well the potatoes are growing.

Mrs Johnston tried one of her clever science tricks with a milk bottle and a balloon.  The result was a big bang as the balloon popped!  This was not the idea, although the children always find a bang exciting!  Look out for next week’s blog to find out what should have happened!

Year 6

Well Year 6 have had a tremendous week and completed their SATs. They have all been a credit to the school and worked extremely hard; we are very proud of them too. They are all working hard now on our Business Enterprise Project, our Southend on Sea project and rehearsing for their end of year show. As well as daily maths , science and English lessons…we don’t stop learning!

10th May 2013

Nursery

Another busy week in Darlinghurst nursery.  We have been looking at healthy and unhealthy foods and have made posters showing our food pictures.  Most of us now have a water bottles and hats to keep in nursery.  Thank you.  We shall be continuing to look at food next week and hope to hear The Hungry Caterpillar story.

Reception

It has been another busy week in Reception.  We have been learning about plants and farms.  The children have enjoyed planting their own beans in jars. We are hoping to be able to watch them grow.  We have been talking about fruit, vegetables and healthy eating.

In Maths, the children have been learning about subtraction and have been writing their own addition and subtraction sums.

We continue to enjoy the sunshine and outside activities, so please remember a sun hat!

Thank you

4CA

This week the whole of year 4 went to Westcliff High school for boys on Wednesday afternoon. The children were treated to an activity set up by sixth formers called ‘around the World in 80 days’ It was great fun and we all found out lots of information.

In maths we have been working on the 9 times table in lots of different ways. For English we have been creating a persuasive leaflet. 

26th April 2013

Nursery

A big welcome to all our new nursery children.  Hope to see you at our Children’s Centre this Fri 26^th April at 2.30pm for a get together.  Another busy fun week in the life of Darlinghurst nursery.  The weather has been super which means we can get to go outside and have fun in the sun.  However, please remember to apply sun cream to your child prior to nursery session start times.  Our topic this term is ‘Health and Growth’  this week we looked at growing from a baby through to being elderly.  The children especially enjoyed our indoor climbing climb and are getting very good at taking turns.

Reception

What a lovely week it has been and we have been very fortunate to have been able to continue our bear hunting in the sunshine! RB, RN and RF went on their bear hunts whilst RW made bear sandwiches which they shared with their bears from home whilst discussing our topic and what we have enjoyed this week. We learnt some information about bears, where they live, what they like to eat and why they have furry coats! I think we Have all become super bear hunters over the last two weeks! we used our knowledge to write our own story maps of the story and some of us even tried to create their own story maps by changing the main scenes to their own ideas. well done reception you have all worked so hard!!

Just a quick reminder please remember to bring into school sun hats, water bottles and sun cream all with your child's name.

Have a lovely weekend 

The Reception Team

1B

Hello everybody,

We have had a very busy week, as usual, in 1B. In Maths we have been exploring Subtraction by counting back using numberlines and bead strings. We have also looked at “finding the difference” and taken part in problem solving investigations. In English we have been examining rhyming words, alliteration and rhythm to help us to have a go at writing our own vegetable poems. In Science we have planted beetroot, cabbage, peas, carrot and leek seeds. We have to keep an eye on them and think of the best ways to help them grow. We have also labelled the main parts of a plant and thought about what their jobs are in helping the plant to stay healthy.

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

Joseph- I liked PE because I enjoyed passing the ball to my partner, it was fun.

Reanna- I liked Maths because I like doing taking away.

Jack- I enjoyed PE because when we were passing the ball to three people we had to move around a lot and I like moving around.

Daniel- The owls were naughty, because of this I enjoyed seeing them.

Bailey- When we did difference between, I liked it because It challenged my brain.

Macy- Learning how to catch a big ball in PE was good because I like learning new things.

Karter- I liked the big, scary, Eagle owl.

Thanks for all your contributions children.

Have a lovely weekend,

Miss Bernard

4CA

This week the class have been learning how to do ‘chunking’ to solve division calculations and have done really well. In English we have continued to look at persuasive writing but this time in the form of a letter written by ‘The Demon Headmaster’. In ICT we are writing back to the pupils in year 4 at Eastbury Primary. We have been enjoying working with the PE coaches in the hall. For Science we have been looking at liquids and how the volume in a container does not change when it is transferred to another container. In History we have started to look at the 6 wives of Henry V111 in detail. On Monday we used ordinance survey maps and discovered what many of the symbols are for.

19th April 2013

Nursery

All go again in nursery and a big welcome to Mrs Gue who is  our new nursery nurse in the afternoons.  We had fantastic fun with the parachute on Thursday.  The pictures will be on display in the nursery lobby area.  Our topic this half term is ‘Health and Growth’ and we will be looking at how we are growing and the importance of a healthy diet.

Reception

This week all the children have returned to school ready and eager to learn. I’m sure you will agree with me that it appears that all the children have shot up over the holidays and are nearly as tall as some of the members of staff! It is lovely to have everyone back safe and in such a positive mood and keen to learn. We have kicked off the term with a fabulous topic of ‘We’re Going on a Bear Hunt’ and the children have thoroughly enjoyed finding out about bears and learning the story. We even went on our own bear hunt, only to find that when we returned to the classroom it had tiptoed past us into our classroom and made it all messy!!! Our teachers were not amused but we had a great fun preparing, writing and thinking about all the things we would need to take with us in case we came across a bear!! Next week we will be continuing this topic with lots more exciting activities ahead, so watch this space for the next instalment on how to catch a bear and some of the children’s comments on what they have enjoyed.

Just a polite reminder, Please do not forget trip letters and money need to be returned to us ASAP as we need to confirm numbers attending and we also need to pull parents’ names out of a hat due to the huge demand of parents who are able to help. If we could we would love to take all of you but due to space on the coach we all feel it’s only fair we pull names from a hat. Thank you once again for your support on trips as it makes the day lots of fun for everyone.

Have a lovely weekend (Let’s hope the sun shines)

The Reception Team

4CA

4CA have been very busy this week. We have been looking at the grid method for multiplication. In English we have been thinking of persuasive language to get parents to send their children to The Demon Headmasters school! We have started a new history topic and will be looking at The Tudors this term, this week we have drawn a timeline and researched about the Tudors in the ICT suite. We have PE specialists in for this term teaching our lessons.

5J

It was lovely to see everyone back after the holidays ready for another exciting week in 5J. 

On Monday, we had an introduction to cricket which went very well – anyone who is interested in cricket club should see Miss Wise or Mr Sykes.

Our DT module this term involves making biscuits for which we went to Chase.  The teacher leading the session was very impressed by the independence of our pupils and their enthusiasm for washing up as well as baking!

The highlight of Wednesday was the PE session using scooter boards – pleased ask your child to describe what happened in that session!  It was fast, furious and excellent for team building.  The class learned that points do not always mean prizes particularly in terms of driving! We are all looking forward to next week’s session.  Please make sure your child has a PE kit in school at all times – including suitable footwear for outside.

Our topic this term is ‘Ancient Greece’ so please help your child look out for pictures and information.

Year 6

Well Year 6 are on the final  straight now and are really working hard to revise and prepare themselves for their SATs. Their leavers’ disco is booked and plans are in hand for the Year 6 trip and  the final show. It is a very busy time for them so please support them all you can.