January 2022
Tiger Week
This week the children in Reception have been learning all about tigers! They all did some tiger artwork including sketching, paper plate craft and shape tracing. The children also set up a tiger tea party and loved experimenting with different types of tea bags , designing invitations and even enjoyed a cup of hot chocolate!
Year 6: How did propaganda influence behaviour during World War II?
As historians, we have been looking at propaganda posters produced during World War II.
We worked out who the intended audience was, and how the words and images would evoke an emotional response in different sections of society. This was so that they would be more likely to behave in the way that the Government wanted them to, whether that be mothers from big cities sending their children to live with others in the country, women going to work in factories or on farms, or growing your own veg!
Then we created our own posters to persuade the British population to help the war effort in different ways.
Year 5: A roving reporter questions characters.
Year 5 are looking at traditional tales in English, and have been exploring an Ancient Egyptian version of Cinderella called Cinderella Of The Nile by Beverly Naidoo, illustrated by Marjan Vafaeian.
Having looked at similarities and differences between this version and the Brother’s Grimm version, we are now looking at the story in more detail.
We acted out the whole story, and then a roving reporter dropped in to see what the women in the crowd waiting to try the slipper on might have said, and to find out why Rhodopis was hiding in the bushes. We will use this experience to make our speech writing more exciting for the reader.
Fossil Fun!
Year 3 have had a fantastic afternoon as scientists, we have been learning all about fossils! First, children discovered the process of how a fossil is formed. Next, we made our own fossils using bread as the ground and soil layers and sweets to represent the animal remains. We applied pressure to our layers of sediment using dictionaries. Children are very excited to become Palaeontologists and dig up their fossils in our next lesson!
Library: A celebration of squirrels!
We are really lucky to have such beautiful school grounds that are home to lots of wildlife, including squirrels. As today is Squirrel Appreciation Day, I thought I’d share a couple of books starring these crepuscular creatures.
The Squirrels Who Squabbled by Rachel Bright and Jim Field is a brilliant reminder about the importance of teamwork, sharing and kindness that will have you giggling along as the greedy squirrels fight over the last nut of the season.
As the nut bounces crazily though the forest, the squirrels race after it, between the trees, over boulders, down the river and – ARGH! – right to the edge of a waterfall! Working together might be the only way to save themselves now…
Flora And Ulysses by Kate DiCamillo, illustrated by K.G. Campbell blends traditional storytelling, full page illustrations and graphic novel format seamlessly to produce a gripping story that is endearing, heartfelt and laugh out loud funny with a whole host of eccentric characters!
It begins, as the best superhero stories do, with a tragic accident that has unexpected consequences. The squirrel never saw it coming – the vacuum cleaner, that is. As for self-described cynic Flora Belle Buckman, she has read every issue of the comic book Terrible Things Can Happen to You! so she is just the right person to step in and save him. What neither can predict is that Ulysses (the squirrel) has been born anew, with powers of strength, flight and misspelled poetry. And Flora will be changed too as she discovers the possibility of hope and the promise of a capacious heart.
Winter Walk
As part of our Forest Friday this week we went on a walk to look for signs of winter. The children discovered frost and ice around the field and on the plants. They enjoyed exploring and touching the ice with their hands and watching it melt.