Preparing for Christ
We looked ahead to the 2nd Sunday of Advent this week and the message from John the Baptist (and the whole Old Testament) - "Prepare a way for the Lord!" The beautifully written Jesus Storybook Bible helps to articulate to children how all of the accounts of the prophets point to the coming of Jesus. During this time of Advent, preparations like Jesse trees, Advent wreaths and crib scenes help us to keep our focus on preparations for the arrival of Christ.
Just like when we welcome a special guest into our home, it is helpful to spend time preparing our hearts, minds and souls to receive Jesus again this Christmas. The children have spent time in prayer and praise this week focusing on their personal preparations this Advent season.
Making Music
Congratulations to Jay & Santiago who have won this term's M:Tech Gold Disc award for their digitally generated masterpiece. The children used the M:Tech platform to generate musical effects to accompany this action shot arrangement. Great job!
Jay_K_and_Santiago_G-Stunts.mp4Space Exploration
This week has been DT week for Year 5 and we have combined our scientific learning with our Design and Technology by creating prototype Mars Rovers. The children have enjoyed learning about the history of rovers, pneumatic systems and how to safely cut and drill wood to create a prototype complete with a moveable scoop.
Road to Bethlehem
In RE over the last few weeks, Year 1 have been learning to retell the different parts of The Christmas Story. Making links across the curriculum, this has also been our focus in English. Using everything we have learned so far in Year 1, including capital letters, full stops and adjectives, children have been writing different parts of the story, which they know very well now! We were particularly impressed with their writing about the journey to Bethlehem. Children thought carefully about what the journey would have been like - long, tiring, exhausting, dusty, and tried to show this in their sentences. Well done for some fantastic writing this week, Year 1!
Evolution and Inheritance
This week in Science, Year 6 have continued their fascinating unit on Evolution and Inheritance. In our first lesson, we were able to use our learning from our Living Things unit to help us understand how we know different species are related. We then discussed what characteristics we have inherited from our family and the difference between an inherited feature and an acquired characteristic. We listed hundreds - from tongue rolling to freckles and dimples as well as musical talents and athletic ability. We then put our learning to the test (and also had great fun) seeing if we could work out the parents of a range of Mr Men and Little Miss characters and what features they had inherited or possibly acquired. Building on this, we then explored adaptations in the animal kingdom grouping them into either behavioural or physical. Take a look at some of our fantastic work.
Temperamental Pens!
Last week in Year 2, we read 'The Day the Crayons Quit'. The very next day, we came to school to find out that our felt tip pens had all disappeared, just like the crayons in the book did! They left us a letter saying how they'd have enough - apparently pink isn't used enough, lids get left off and the poor things are left gasping! So since then we have been working on our persuasive letter writing skills, ending up with the children each writing their own persuasive letter to the pens, begging for them to come back. The children learned about the different sections of a persuasive letter (we call this 'finding the shape') and we had some wonderful creations. We are really hoping the letters work and that our pens will return. Watch this space...
Mastering PE
This week in PE, Year 4 completed a carousel of activities which built upon the skills they have been practising in this term’s sports. We joined as a year group to take part in activities to show off our teamwork, hand/eye coordination and perseverance. It was lovely to see the children totally absorbed in their learning and cheering each other on when the going got tough. We were fortunate that it was one of the rare afternoons which hasn’t been affected by rain this term! We will shortly move on to master new skills in our spring term sports of netball, lacrosse and gymnastics.
Nursery Christmas
The Christmas celebrations in Nursery are well and truly underway. Both classes have performed their Christmas Nativity and did amazingly. A big thank you to all of the parents/carers for helping the children learn their song words and providing some wonderful costumes. The Nursery has been a busy hive of creativity, with glitter, cotton wool, glue and Christmas decorations flying everywhere, as well as special letters being written for a special delivery to Father Christmas. We also joined in with Christmas jumper day and enjoyed our Christmas dinner.
All Wrapped UP!
Alberto Giacometti was a painter, drawer and sculptor. He is most famous for his tall, thin figures made of bronze. How would you describe these works of art? Year 3, had a brilliant yet sometimes frustrating day and a half learning about his work. Our topic started with us drawing some of Giacometti’s figures and thinking about the shape and size of the human form. All the children had fun, striking poses as they explored making strong action shapes with their bodies. We had to guess the actions they were showing, it was harder than we thought! Next, using foil, they explored how to make a foil sculpture by cutting, folding, bending and shaping. It was frustrating when the foil ripped so easily, but the classes persevered. Although a 3D figure was made, it lacked any stability to stand up so a skeleton was required. After planning their own action figure sculpture, the children set about making them using pipe cleaners for the skeleton structure before wrapping the framework in the foil. Lengths of foil were required to add strengthening as all the children managed to successfully create a 3D figure. They wrapped the project up with a gallery show, just like real artists. Fun fact - Over 140 metres of foil were used during the project!
Homemade Christmas
Inspired by tree decorations the children were already familiar with, designers in Reception became excited by the opportunity to decorate their own class trees with homemade designs. Starting with a star, of course, the children developed a number of different Christmas ornaments to represent the Advent season and brighten up the classroom. It brought festive cheer to all!
Wild about Reception
Also in Reception this week, the children have been busy immersing themselves in animal themed play! Look at the amazing spider web they built using the crates and wooden planks. Our love of animals has also stretched into the land of dinosaurs. We enjoyed making dinosaurs and taking them to explore in our play area.
