Grafton

spring TERM 1 2024 newsletter

reception Blue class

Blue class continues to build positive relationships with our peers by sharing and communicating with one another. We have been enjoying learning about Traditional tales. We have learned the story of ‘Goldilocks’ and ‘Jack and the Beanstalk’. We explored the key events in these stories and created a story map to help us retell the story. We identified the key features of a map and created a map to help locate Goldilocks.

We were inspired by the story of ‘Jack and the Beanstalk’ to plant some beans. We had lots of fun planting beans in class. Did you know, beans need sunlight and water to grow? Each morning, we checked to see if any changes occurred. In week one, we planted the bean and ensured it got enough sunlight and water. In week 2 we were excited to see some roots growing from our bean. We look forward to seeing our bean grow into a beanstalk. We have also been learning about the life-cycle of a bean.

In maths, Blue class have become confident in number composition to 5. We learned how to make 5 in different ways using concrete, pictorial materials and songs i.e. 5 little Speckled Frogs and 5 little men in a flying saucer.

In PE, we are developing our confidence in using climbing equipment and engaging in jumps. This has contributed to the movement of our gross motor skills.

1 Squirrel Class

In Literacy, we have been reading the text Beegu. We discovered a surprise in our yard area and found out that a little alien called Beegu had crash landed in our school. We read the book and have written postcards, speech bubbles and character descriptions. We really enjoyed making a friend for Beegu to play with out of playdough.

Maria- 'I rolled the playdough to make my friend for Beegu.'

In Science, we have been learning about the weather. It has been really cold and frosty so we carried out some experiments to see where the water would freeze. We were shocked to find out it froze outside as it is so cold in winter.

In Maths, we have been using number lines, tens frames, part whole models and cubes to add and take away.

Mikaeel - 'I know that 5 + 3 = 8 and 3 + 5 = 8'

Aeson- 'I know that 8 - 3 = 5 and 8 - 5 = 3'

In Geography, we have been learning about the four countries that make up the United Kingdom. We looked at one of the countries each week. We tasted food that was special to that country, made flags and learnt songs or dances from that country.

Rio- 'I liked tasting the Scotch eggs.'

Archie - 'I loved making buildings out of lego.'

In REwe have enjoyed learning about what it means to belong to a family, group or club. We looked at what is special about belonging, how people show that they belong and how children in the Sikh religion are given a sense of belonging.

3 Birch class

We have been incredibly busy in Birch class this half term. We have been reading a story called 'The Egyptian Cinderella' which is very similar to the fairytale, 'Cinderella'. We were able to plan and write our own adaptations of it.

We have been enjoying our really interesting history topic, Ancient Egypt, and are finding out who the Ancient Egyptians were and what was important to them. We learned about mummification and wrote instructions for the process.

In Maths, we focused on learning our 3, 4 and 8 times tables and then problem solving using this knowledge. Every Monday morning, we have a Times Tables Rockstars award ceremony where we can get certificates for not only having the highest accuracy but the biggest improvement in accuracy.

We have been learning all about light in our Science lessons and loved carrying out an investigation using a dark den.

In Art, we have used watercolours, pastels and permanent black markers to create pictures of Ancient Egyptian gods and goddesses. We then looked at Ancient Egyptian masks and completed observational drawings of them. We really enjoyed this.

We have loved taking part in school-wide events such as celebrating World Religion Day, learning about keeping safe on Safer Internet Day and taking extra time to think about our wellbeing on Mental Health Week.

History

This half term the children at Grafton Primary have been very busy. In Reception, the children brought in their favourite toys and then looked at and learned about old toys. They had so much fun comparing them to the toys that they have now.

Year 2 has been learning about the Royal family past and present. They found learning about Richard III, particularly interesting.

The Year 3 children started their unit on the Egyptians by becoming archaeologists and excavating different artifacts. They looked closely at the different objects that they excavated and then tried to work out what they were.

Year 4 were also archeologists for their first lesson in their new unit on the Anglo-Saxons. They used their knowledge of the Egyptians, the Stone Age and the Romans, as well as the geology that they learned in Year 3, to help them with their observations as they dug deeper and deeper into the soil.

Year 3 & year 4 rights ambassadors

The year 3 and 4 Rights Ambassadors have had a busy year so far and are excelling in their roles! They have helped with the Happy Bag Collection where they helped to load donated clothes into a van, so it could be transported to other children throughout the borough who may need it. This theme of helping others continues as they assisted with donating to Heath Community Hub, where they helped transport food to local children within Barking and Dagenham.

As well as this, the ambassadors have been making sure that the whole school is recycling their fruit. They have been collecting compost bins from around the school and discarding it in the compost pile. Lately, they have been discussing ways to make homes and the school more energy efficient and they have created their 5 own top tips:

Turn off electronics when not you’re not using them.
Don’t turn on the light during the day.
When electronics are fully charged, turn the plug off.
Change your light bulbs so they are more energy efficient.
Take shorter showers.

We are looking forward to getting involved in more new activities and helping promote children’s rights across the school and community.

hAPPY BAG COLLECTION

OUR YEAR 3 & YEAR 4 RIGHTS AMBASSADORS

5 alder class

What a busy but quick Spring term 1 for 5 Alder class. This term we began our swimming lessons and really showed everyone what little fish we were! In Maths, we have tackled and become experts in everything to do with fractions and in Literacy, we learnt about the forbidden love between Romeo and Juliet. Whilst in Reading, we read a truly inspiring book called Hidden Figures which tackled some really interesting themes. In Science, we learnt about planets and how they move through the solar system. We even know how day and night occurs. We also learnt about Brazil and have been comparing it to the UK. We will be carrying this topic over into Spring Term 2 and look forward to developing our understanding of this module even more.

Although this has been a very short term, we have been jam packed with Grafton fun. We even got to dress in our cultural or religious clothing to show off our own life experiences during World Religion Day. Every week, we also get much better at playing the trumpet.

Finally, we said goodbye to Miss Nightingale as our class teacher. We have settled into our new routine well and look forward to continuing our Grafton journey with Mrs Robertson!

choir at the o2 young voices 2024

music

It has been a very exciting term for Music this term!

Well done to the whole of the KS2 choir who had the very exciting opportunity to perform at the London O2 on Monday 15th January for our annual Young Voices concert! This was an amazing opportunity for the choir to showcase their talents by singing a variety of songs provided by the Young Voices band. Every week, the choir would practice all 11 of the songs that were required to be performed at the Young Voices O2. Every Monday after school, the KS2 choir would gather in Green Class to practice each song led by Miss Hennessy, Miss Bartle, Miss Caisey and Mrs Horsey. The children thoroughly enjoyed the concert, as well as the staff! Seeing the KS2 choir perform and sing in unity with other schools from around the London/South East England area was a pleasure. The children sang beautifully and it was great to see all of their hard work had paid off! Our music team are very proud of our KS2 choir and we look forward to doing it all again next year!

At Grafton, we have also introduced Rocksteady Music to the curriculum too! Rocksteady Music is an opportunity for children at Grafton Primary School (Reception, KS1 and KS2) to learn a musical instrument and perform their skills at an end of term concert! Rocksteady Music provides music lessons every week. Each child is put into a band, there are 5 bands in total. Within each band, there is an opportunity for the children to learn the drums, guitar, bass, keyboard or vocals. So far, we have had many KS2 children sign up for the programme after watching a Rocksteady workshop provided by one of the Rocksteady teachers and have since been utilizing their skills at their weekly Music Lesson within their allocated band. The KS2 children are due to showcase their hard work and hidden talents to the rest of their peers and parents at a concert on 22nd March. We look forward to seeing what they have been working on! As of January, we have also had many Reception and KS1 children sign up for the programme and are due to start their lessons on the 22nd of March!

2 Circle Class

We kicked off the new year in style in Circle class. One morning after playtime we came back to find our classroom had been covered in special magic fairy dust. The clues led us to discover a special note left by Greta the Grafton Fairy Godmother. She gave us a copy of her favourite book called Prince Cinders and she granted us three wishes. We had a lot of fun coming up with our wishes, what would you wish for?

After reading and sequencing the story of Cinderella we then read our new text, Prince Cinders by Babette Cole. We learned about stereotypes in traditional fairy tales. We discussed what characteristics/features all the Princes shared and whether stereotypes were accurate or not. Greta the Fairy Godmother asked for our help and wanted us to write a different ending to Prince Cinders for her because she was bored of reading the same ending again and again! We enjoyed coming up with alternative endings to the story and loved becoming authors.

In Maths this half term we learned to recognise and understand the value of different coins and notes. We used our knowledge of counting in 2s, 5s and 10s to help us find totals. The strategies we had learned last term such as using a blank number line and the column method helped us to add up larger amounts.

In Science, we worked together to find out the answer to our enquiry question: What do plants need to survive? We discovered that you can grow plants from seeds and bulbs. As a class, we decided to further test our theories and planted cress in different ways. We worked in small groups and came up with our questions to investigate. We wanted to find out the following:

Can a plant grow without water?
Can a plant grow with milk?
Can a plant grow with juice?
Can a plant grow with PVA glue?

We are still monitoring our plants and will be recording what we find out soon. Make a prediction with your grown up, what do you think will happen to our plants? Which plants will grow? Which plants might not? Why?

In our indoor PE lessons this half term we did gymnastics. We were excited to use the climbing frame and the apparatus and came up with different ways to move and travel safely.

6 willow class

Spring term has been full of learning and Willow are excited to share what they have been up to!

In Literacy, we have been reading the text ‘Ice Trap!: Shackleton's Incredible Expedition’ by Meredith Hoope. They have embarked on a treacherous Trans-Antarctic Expedition with Ernest Shackleton and his crew. Willow has explored the freezing conditions of the Polar regions during our geography lessons where they learnt about the differences between the Antarctic and Arctic including their animals, terrain and populations. This led to some amazing pieces of art on whales that have been displayed in the year six corridor.

Reading lessons have been incredibly informative this term where we have explored a non-fiction text, ‘Stuff’ by Maddie Moate. Willow has enjoyed learning about how people are helping the environment around the world; we were surprised to learn about how places make paper from elephant poop and have trains that float by the use of magnets! We each made our own individual pledges on how we can help the environment inspired by the text and the amazing -and bizarre- ideas that it gave us.

In Maths, we have been revising a range of topics - including perimeter & area, decimals and angles - as well as practising test style questions so that we are prepared for up and coming assessments. We have enjoyed that challenge and having new members from another class joining us to share ideas and learning.

During Willow’s music lessons, we have been listening, appraising and playing Livin’ on a prayer - a song by Bon Jovi. They have enjoyed the classic rock song and honed their skills on the glockenspiels.

The children in 6 Willow have enjoyed their P.E. lessons as well as partaking in football and netball games outside of school. All the children representing the school in all the games were exceptional and we are excited to see Grafton being represented in the future.

We are all excited to see the amazing things to come from the rest of the year!

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