Is it just me, or has January been the longest month ever! Happy New Year to all our families - we hope you all had a lovely break over Christmas and you are, like us, looking forward to signs of Spring.
Dates for your diary:
- 5th - 9th Feb - Children's Mental Health Week
- Tue 6th Feb - Safer Internet Day
- Tue 6th Feb - Sportshall athletics - University of Hull
- Tue 6th Feb - Y3 sewing project
- Wed 7th Feb - Y6 library visit
- Fri 9th Feb - Dress to Express Day
- Fri 9th Feb - Break up for half term
- Mon 19th Feb - Children return to school
- Wed 21st Feb - Y6 library visit
- Mon 26th - Fri 8th Mar - Year 4 swimming
- Tue 12th Mar - Primary Winter Cup - Havelock Academy
- Tue 12th Mar - Audiology screening (F2)
- Fri 15th Mar - Red Nose Day
- Mon 18th Mar - Y5 performance 'Hansel & Gretel' - Grimsby Auditorium
- Fri 22nd Mar - Break up for Easter holidays
- Mon 8th April - Staff training day
- Tue 9th April - Children return to school for Summer Term
F2
F2 have transformed into palaeontologists during their history topic. They have enjoyed learning about different dinosaurs, fossils and museums, as well as creating realistic dinosaurs in small teams out of junk modelling to complement our art unit.
For our music unit, we have been learning about the pulse and tempo and have explored different ways to move to music.
Our latest Talk For Writing story is Handa's Surprise and we are getting ready to carry out our hot write. We have created fruit kebabs using repeating patterns and exotic fruits, as well as innovated some of the animals in the story.
In maths we have been exploring composition and numbers within numbers. We have used part whole models and partitioned 5 and 10 in different ways.
We are looking forward to celebrating Chinese New Year and welcoming in some eggs to F2. I wonder what will hatch from them?
Year 1
What a busy short half term we have had back at school! We are very proud of all the children for working so hard in all their learning.
In RE, we have enjoyed comparing Judaism to Christianity. We looked at similarities and differences between the two religions. We especially enjoyed exploring the Jewish artefacts, please see the photos below.
In science, we have classified groups of animals and looked at how amazing our senses are. We also went on a habitat walk around the school grounds.
The children have been busy in history, learning all about how schools and houses have changed since the early 1900s. We are looking forward to writing a diary next week, in T4W, as a child who went to a school in the past.
In music, we have learned some songs about life on a ship and accompanied these by playing glockenspiels. We are looking forward to inviting parents and carers into school after half term to hear us sing! (More information to follow.)
Year 2
We were delighted to welcome the Y2 pupils back to school after the Christmas break and hear what they had enjoyed about the break. We are pleased to see that more children are reading at least three times a week and completing their maths homework and we are hoping that this will soon hit 100%.
In our T4W lessons we have been looking at a superhero called Traction Man who saves various household objects from some 'terrifying' situations. The children have enjoyed creating their own superhero descriptions for a character they have chosen from our selection. This week we have been completing our hot writes and writing a story about our chosen superhero. We are still wobbly sometimes with our capital letters and full stops but we are getting better. You may like to get your child to write some sentences at home about their superheroes. Next week, we will be linking the work we have done in history with our T4W and we will be writing the diary of a Stoneage child.
We have loved learning about how people lived during the Stoneage and we were especially excited to welcome Mrs Riley into our lesson this week. Mrs Riley is a font of knowledge about all things linked to history and helped us to create our own Folkton Drums.
In science we have been learning all about our teeth and how to look after them. We enjoyed setting up an experiment using eggs (their shells are similar to the enamel on our teeth) and various liquids. We found out that coffee and coke will stain our teeth if we don't brush them and that vinegar and orange juice will wear away the enamel if we don't brush them!
In maths we have already covered place value, money and shape. We are also now moving onto TTRockstars instead of Numbots to help us learn our times tables and be able to recall them really quickly. Thank you to those parents who came to our launch last week and hopefully you all received the login details. The children will receive Dojo points for going on TTRockstars every week, so please encourage them to do so. There will be competitions within school and within our trust and we are determined our Y2 children will beat everyone else. There may even be some competitions between 2EL and 2LM!
Year 3
This half term, although short, has seen us make huge, long strides towards our learning goals and outcomes for Year 3.
In T4W, we looked at the transformative tale of Mr Big. The children had a go at showcasing their own talents, before writing their very own rags to riches story! Very inspiring stuff!
In Maths, we have had a big focus on TT Rockstars and would like to sincerely thank the children (and the parents) for their engagement so far this half term, please keep it up! We have learned about money, how to convert pence into pounds and pence, how to work out the bill at a restaurant and how to exchange different coins for values of the same amount.
In Science we have been studying the digestive system, and we observed an experiment that simulated the inside of our stomach and the acid that's used to break down out food. We will also look at healthy eating, what makes a healthy human and how what we eat makes a difference on how we feel.
In DT we have completed the research stage of our project, where we will be making purses and wallets. The children looked at existing products to help inspire their innovations next week. The lesson on Tuesday 6th February will be open for parents to join us (the more the merrier!), information regarding that will be available on dojo in the coming days but please ask if you have any questions.
As always, thank you for your continued support with the children and we hope you have a fantastic half term break when it comes!
Year 4
This half term in Y4 we’ve done lots of exciting things and very much enjoyed the start to new year.
In Talk for Writing we are getting towards writing our own suspense story. We have loved trying to get the reader on the edge of their seat and not knowing what is going to come next. We have particularly enjoyed coming up with a range of similes to help describe our characters and setting.
In Talk for Reading we have been looking at the poem of Macavity - a criminal cat who breaks the law but never gets caught! The poem has been throughly enjoyed by all, especially when digging deeper into Macavity’s character.
History, as always, has been a highlight, learning more about the Romans and especially Boudicca. This warrior queen has captured the minds of the children, so much so that we are doing another section of work on her. Learning how the Romans lived and inventions they gave us have been particular highlights in this unit of work.
In science we have investigated states of matter and how are world has been made, and that everything comes from the tiniest of atoms. This has really caught the imagination of the children with some excellent questions on the topic.
As we near the end of the half term we are looking forward to making our final piece in DT using the circuit equipment to make our electrical item. We’ve gone through all the stages including research, first design, final design and are now approaching the actual building part.
Thanks again for your continued support,
The Launch Pad
Happy New Year from The Launch Pad! We started the new term and new year by getting together to create the new door garland, which was inspired by the quote "even the tiniest of flowers can have the toughest roots." There have been some fantastic discussions about this quote and how it relates to our resilience. Each flower on the garland is unique and represents each child that accesses TLP.
We are inspirational! As well as revisiting resilience the children have been setting some goals and aspirations for the year. They have collaborated to make this wonderful, and rather large freeze. Mrs Riley intends on leaving it up all year to see how many aspirations we can accomplish.
Mindful moments. This term we are having a big focus on being mindful in The Launch Pad. The children will be exploring many ways in which they can be mindful as it can help them to become more aware of their thoughts and feelings so that instead of being overwhelmed, they are better able to manage them.
After half term we will be continuing our positivity by 'shining bright'. We look forward to sharing this with you next month.
Year 5
We were delighted to welcome the Y5 children back after the Christmas break. The children continue to impress us with their excellent attitudes to learning and their maturity around school; they are excellent role models for the younger children.
The curriculum in Y5 this term is very exciting and rich. For example, in reading we have been studying Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet and despite the high level of skill required to unpick the meaning of this play, the children have embraced the text, showing an excellent understanding of the plot and the deeper themes within. Coupled with this, in music, the children have been learning about opera and will be performing Hansel and Gretel in an operatic style - details for this will be sent out soon. Despite the initial reluctance of some children to sing in this style, they are finding it very enjoyable and sound fabulous!
We are thoroughly enjoying our history unit on the Anglo Saxons. Children are fascinated to learn about Alfred the Great, Anglo-Saxon housing and their Gods. It is interesting to compare this with our recent history topic on the Mayans as there are many similarities despite the geographical distance between them.
In science, we have been studying electricity. Building upon what we learnt in year two, we experimented with switches and thought about how to make bulbs brighter within a circuit. We also learnt about Thomas Eddison and Nikola Tesla and considered their contributions to our technology today.
The Y5 teaching team are also very impressed with how the children are responding to their homework tasks. This is particularly important as we are preparing them for Y6. As always, thank you very much for your support with this.
Year 6
We were very happy to welcome our Y6 pupils back to school after the Christmas break. We are pleased to say that children continue to display excellent attitudes to their learning in lessons and good behaviour around the school. The Y6 teaching team are also very impressed with how the children respond to their homework routine. Every week, the vast majority of children have completed their homework ready for the feedback lesson. This mature attitude to homework will be an excellent basis for transition to secondary school. We have also been impressed with how well the children have adapted to the recent change of the Year 6 timetable - we are loving afternoon maths on a Monday.
In writing lessons, we have enjoyed being creative when exploring a dystopian city. Next week, we will embark upon a different genre, writing a balanced argument: was the evacuation of children in World War Two a good idea? This links very well to our World War Two history unit. As well as learning about evacuation, the children learned about the origins behind World War Two. Our reading lessons have also looked at this subject, finding out about the Battle of Britain. All children have been particularly intrigued by our current text - The Diary of Anne Frank. In geography, we are starting to look at the earth's layers and tectonic plates.