Our first full week back has been full of learning and laughter with lessons covering everything from atoms to Evolution to Little Red Riding Hood and much in between! The pool opening has caused plenty excitement too and everyone is ready for lessons to begin next week.
We are all looking forward to seeing our families (and visitors) at Forest Fun on Saturday 16th, from 9am to 12pm. The weather promises to be kind and the activities in the woods will be fun for all ages!
What happened in school this week?
Forest Explorers
Forest Explorers have had a lovely week in the sunshine. We enjoyed listening to the story Little Red Riding Hood and had lots of fun acting the story out in the Forest.
Reception
The children in Reception have had a wonderful first week at school. They have been so busy with PE, music and drama as well as listening for sounds in phonics and sorting objects in maths. In child initiated times, it has been a real pleasure to see them using their imaginations in the home corner, building with the construction materials, sharing and turn-taking whilst playing games and making pictures for friends and family.
Year 1
Years 1 and 2 enjoyed a tour of the brand new swimming pool ahead of their first lessons next week. We met the Monson swim instructors and dipped our toes in the water. We watched some of the senior school pupils swimming and familiarised ourselves with the changing rooms and toilets. We are so excited to start swimming on Tuesday!
Year 2
We have been having fun counting objects to 100 by grouping them in 10s!
Year 3
Learning has been lots of fun this week. Working in teams, we were challenged to construct a freestanding model out of art straws and connectors. We showed brilliant communication skills and showcased some amazing structures!
Year 4
Year 4 began their year as atoms! Beginning their science topic, ‘states of matter’, they learnt about the ways in which atom movement varies between solids, liquids and gases. To help plan their learning, questions they asked included: are all living things made of atoms? Are there atoms in food? What are atoms themselves made out of? Watch this space for the answers!
‘Is play dough a solid or liquid?’
Year 5
Alongside reading the books of Colin Thompson, starting our book study on 'Street Child', organising our class rules, learning about the Earth , Sun and Moon and mastering place value, Year Five pupils have been revising colours and numbers in French. The languages site had such a vast array of challenging activities to get the children thinking and remembering. What a fabulous first full week at school!
Year 6
What a busy return! Year 6 have made the most of every minute of their new academic year. In maths we have been revising place value up to 10,000,000,000 as well as puzzling our way through problem solving during our Wednesday lessons. We have been revising plurals, antonyms and synonyms in grammar and were excited to begin our study of Daniel Pennac’s ‘Eye of the Wolf’; where the striking opening made us consider the interior monologue of the main character. In preparation for our trip to Down House, we had a brief look at the life of Charles Darwin and considered inheritance and adaptation in animals. We were extremely pleased to be able to visit the new swimming pool and are excited to start our lessons this coming Tuesday. Alongside all of this, we have started to practice our hockey skills – especially as our first matches are so soon! To finish our week we went down to the forest where, inspired by some art work that we had seen, we created our own animals out of natural resources. Bring on next week!
Reading buddies! Year 6 had the opportunity to read some of their favourite books with Year 2 this week.
STEM Club
This week in STEM the children were very busy making square bubbles! They all knew that soap bubbles are normally spherical in shape and we found out that this is due to a force called surface tension pulling the soap film tight (so that it always has the minimum surface area possible). This is why a free-floating bubble always forms a sphere. We were determined to fight this force and, by constructing our own cubes, lowering them into a mixture of sugar, washing up liquid and warm water, then VERY gently expanding the resulting cube by blowing through a straw, we did it! PHEW! Watch this space for more STEM adventures to come.
Sport News
It has been a busy week in PE this week, especially with our first visit to the new pool! We will be playing in our first fixtures soon and we would like to remind all parents to please ensure that all pupils have the correct kit for lessons and games.
Welcome back to hockey for the Prep School.
We have started our training, and matches are just around the corner! Here are some useful reminders.
What to wear for matches:
- Navy blue collared top with navy blue skort or shorts
- Blue long socks
- Hockey shin pads
- Mouth guard
- Appropriate shoes and warm/wet weather clothes such as school jackets and mid layers if it is cold or wet.
Our fixtures are all due to be finished in time for us to return to school before 4.30pm. However if there is an instance where this is not possible and we know this ahead of time then it will be shown in the match information on the SOCS calendar. For a 4:30pm return we kindly remind those pupils taking the afternoon bus home to please make alternative arrangements as we will not be in time for the bus departure.
Mouth guards and shin pads
All students in Year 3, 4, 5 and 6 need shin pads and a mouth guard for game play and matches. Without these they will be unable to play in any matches against other schools. This is a health and safety measure, and while we appreciate that learning to wear a mouth guard can be uncomfortable, the pupils will get used to it as they wear them more often. The ‘snap fit’ mouth guards that we have are really only as an emergency back up; they are not suitable for long term use.
SOCS calendar
You will find all sports information on the SOCS calendar. Additional details about each match, start times and any changes to match arrangements will appear in the calendar. The SOCS calendar is available in the ISAMS Parent Portal.