Boarding
Boarder of the week
Our wonderful boarder of the week is Tilly. She has such a warmth around school and in the boarding house, this friendliness and caring nature means she is a very reliable friend with her peers, but also plays an older sister role to those younger than her. Her positive and smiley character makes her a pleasure to be around. What an excellent role model you are.
Sport
Pre-Prep
Reception
Reception have been hard at work ‘pounding yams’ like Anna Hibiscus’ aunties in the story! We first decided that the yams (sweet potatoes as we unfortunately couldn’t find any yams locally!) were ‘bumpy’, ‘lumpy’ and ‘hard’ and Monty thought they smelled a bit like carrots. First we had to peel them, then cut them carefully. We then worked in small groups to boil them to make them soft, and then we all had a go at mashing them! We all tasted the fruits of our efforts, although with mixed reactions! We then made up actions for each step (peeling, cutting, cooking and mashing) and then used these to write a set of instructions for others to follow.
This week we have also been looking at our number bonds to 10, and we made a special number 10 bus in our classrooms! We filled the bus with a number of passengers, and then counted the empty spaces to work out how many more people were needed to fill the 10 bus. We were excited to drive the bus to London and Scotland with our 10 passengers on! We have also begun to ‘double up’ numbers to 5, and worked hard to complete the spots of the ladybirds to find the double. In Art with Mrs Easterbrook, we were completing observational drawings of real African masks, and we enjoyed the process of sketching very carefully. In the classroom we have made a great start on making a range of African animals using paper plates; soon to be transformed into parrots, lions and monkeys!
Next week we will be discussing Easter on Topic Tuesday, alongside wrapping up our work on ‘Anna Hibiscus’ Song’. In Maths we will be deepening our understanding of the composition of 10, and practising our rapid recall of the number bonds to 10. We are also excited to have a go at some African drumming next week!
Prep 1 have travelled into the wild
In our English sessions this week, we have our immersive learning experiences from last week, as inspiration for our writing about the wild girl from our story. The children amazed us with the descriptive language they included; the girl with ‘wide eyes, rosy cheeks and a shy smile’ lived in ‘colossal forest’. Unfortunately, she was ‘horrified’ by the way the humans treated her, but was ‘relaxed and relieved to finally be back home in the forest.’ We then reflected on the book as a whole, thinking about what we liked and disliked about it, and discussing the things that puzzled us and the patterns and connections we could make between this book and our own experiences. The children are very excited about making their own books next week, which will retell the story from a first person perspective.
In Maths this week, the children have risen to the challenge of measuring length and height. We began using non-standard measures, comparing and estimating, before moving on to use rulers to measure in centimetres. Not only is this a very useful skill to learn, it is great fun; the children have loved the opportunity to measure anything in sight, including natural items in our forest school session. Do embrace this learning opportunity at home with some of these measuring activities.
- Scavenger hunt E.g. find something exactly 3cm long, something greater than a meter, something less than 10cm long etc.
- Measure the distance between objects using string and then calculate in standard units
- Hold a paper airplane competition and see which plane flies the greatest distance and by how much
- Use rulers and tape measures to measure their toys, packaging, leaves etc. - the children also loved using this digital resource https://www.topmarks.co.uk/maths-games/measuring-in-cm
In our Topic learning this week, the children explored wild plants and animals; classifying them and exploring similarities and differences between amphibians, reptiles, mammals, insects, birds and fish. They learned about food chains; how energy is transferred between the animals and that all food chains begin with plants. The STEM challenge this week was to build a greenhouse using lollipop sticks, masking tape and clingfilm. The children had to carefully consider the stability of the frame and work together to avoid it collapsing… we were impressed by the resilience and creativity the children demonstrated, even if everything didn’t quite go to plan! It was a great opportunity however to discuss our quote of the week; A person who never made a mistake, never tried anything new!
Prep 2 step back in time to the Victorian Era
Wow! What a week Prep 2 have had!
We travelled back in time to the year 1897 and spent the day at Sevington Victorian School near Chippenham. 24 excited scholars lined up outside the school room, waiting to meet their school mistress for the day, Miss Squire, and her sister. The day began with registering the children, using the Victorian names they had chosen and then followed an incredibly busy day, including reading, writing and arithmetic, beeswax candle making (for the boys) and making lavender bags (for the girls). The children had the opportunity to experience writing with real ink, learn about the money used during Victorian times and even had a go at the 12 times table! After a much-needed lunch (consisting of a large bread roll, chunk of cheese, apple and a cookie), the children enjoyed some ‘recreation’ time playing on the grass with traditional Victorian toys. To end the day, Miss Squire talked about various objects on display around the school room. Much to the children’s delight, she showed them the cane, finger stocks and back board. A fantastic day, which has brought the children’s learning to life and a day that we hope will remain in their memories for years to come!
Did you know that The Victoria Sponge was named after Queen Victoria?
She regularly ate a slice of sponge cake with her tea, each afternoon!
To tie in with our Victorian topic, and our Measuring focus in Maths, we decided to have a Prep 2 bake off and make our very own Victoria Sponges. The children had to follow the royal recipe very carefully, measuring out the correct amount of each ingredient in grams and mixing it all up together. Brad, our lovely chef kindly baked the cakes for us and then once cooled, the children sandwiched the cakes together with strawberry jam and buttercream…delicious! The children recorded the recipe carefully, with a focus on writing the amounts of each ingredient using the correct unit of measure. English was also covered in the recipe write up, where the children had to choose and write the correct ‘bossy’ verb for each step of the cake making.
To end a very busy and exciting week, 2P put together an assembly all about our day at Sevington and then all of Prep 2 enjoyed a slice of their Victoria sponge for their snack on Friday morning!
Budding bakers, the Royal Recipe can be found here! Happy Baking!
Prep School
English Workshop
As many of you are aware, I held an English Workshop last Friday (8th March). This was primarily useful for parents in Year 2 and up, and it was based around supporting your child in reading and spelling. Attached is the PowerPoint presentation, as well as the audio recordings for each slide. If you were unable to attend, I hope that you will find this of some use. Of course, if you have any questions, please do not hesitate to get in contact. Mr Bowen.
'House Chess Tournament
The inter house chess tournament is well under way with many fine matches appearing in the first 2 rounds. Matches so far have ranged from a 3 move victory to a stalemate draw, all showing signs of forward thinking and determination.
Format: Each player is matched with those in their house. After the first few rounds it will be determined who will go through to the inter house matches and be declared the eventual winner in their respective age groups (Prep 3/4, Prep 5/6 and Prep 7/8).
STEM CLUB
STEM club were treated to a visit and session from Dr Elaine Gosling and Sophie-Jayne Bridgens from the James Dyson Foundation last Thursday. During the first part of the session, the children learned about the story of invention and how James Dyson persevered with over 5000 prototypes for his famous vacuum cleaner.
The children discussed careers in STEM and the different stages of bringing a product to market. They especially enjoyed the product stress testing.
After this, the challenge was set to program their vehicle to navigate around obstacles, similar to a robotic vacuum cleaner or lawn mower. Some great teamwork, combined with excellent programming skills saw all groups step up to the challenge and perform admirably.
I would like to thank Elaine, Sophie and their able assistant Simon for giving up their time to deliver a fascinating and thoroughly enjoyable STEM session.