Updates:

Summer Term in Kingfisher Class

Welcome back to term 5. Here we go for your weekly round up!

• On Wednesday year 3 and 4 traveled to the Royal Bath and West Showground to take part in the annual Field to Food event - which we are proud to say is organised by a past Welton pupil. It was an extremely busy day as we moved around the different activities: beef, sheep, pork, dairy, countryside, food, drink and machinery. The event was run by local individuals and organisations involved in bringing food from the fields to our plates. Highlights of the events were: playing an auctioneer, tasting venison, squeezing and drinking our own fresh apple juice, standing next to a brand new £250,000 tractor, planting seeds, learning about how water gets cleaned for us to drink, watching a sheep being sheared and Mrs Stevens loved being the only one allowed to touch the piglets. Thank you once again to all of the parents helpers who joined us on the day. In English we are now planning to write a recount of the day.

• In Science we were exploring what happens to the length of a shadow when we alter the distance  between the light source and the object. This involved lots of thinking about fair testing. We also learned tnew science vocabulary - translucent, transparent and opaque.

• Our Judaism learning was all about the parting of the red sea by Moses and how this story guides Jewish people today.

• In PE we began our rounders topic - watching a clip of a rounders game and starting to develop our throwing and catching skills.

• In music we listened to and appriased The Dragon Song which we are excited to learn this term.

It has been lovely to see so many of our parents and carers this week and discuss the childrens' progress in all areas of school life. In school we have welcomed our Bath Spa Teacher - Miss Phillips and she is thoroughly enjoying getting to know Kingfisher Class. 

• In English we have been writing, editing and presenting our recounts from the Field to Food trip. We also learnt about possessive plurals.

• Maths has involved learning about adding and subtracting fractions as well as finding fractions of amounts.

• In science we are finishing our Light topic and have been discussing our shadow experiment and completing some end of unit activities.

• In RE Miss Phillips taught us  about the 10 commandments and created our own commandments.

• Music has been taught by Miss Phillips and she has made it really fun to learn our dragon song.

• In PE we developed our bowling skills and enjoyed playing some mini rounders games.

• In History we finished learning all about mummification and went on to see what Ancient Egyptians believed. We researched gods and goddesses and learned more about rituals.

• The Ancient Egyptian theme continued as we made scrolls in Art. We used paper we constructed ourselves in last week's lesson in a similar way to that in which the Egyptians used strips of papyrus to make ther paper. We copied our designs onto the paper.

• In French we have been learning with Miss Phillips to ask how old we are and how to respond.

• PSHE involved looking at tasks once considered 'male' or 'female' and questioning stereotyping.

Kingfisher Class are really working well as a group - exemplifying our collaboration value here at Welton. It's been a week with lots of learning from everyone. Miss Phillips has also begun teaching more lessons, and gave out the certificates in assembly today. It is lovely to have her as part of our Kingfisher team. We are seeing a surge in courage from the Kingfishers as they become more confident to have a go and not be afraid to make mistakes (and learn from them!). Well done team.

• In English we have been analysing an explanation text and planning our own. This will be written based upon the discovery of Tutankhamen's tomb by Howard Carter.

• Miss Phillips taught us maths this week. We learned about British notes and coins and how to convert pounds and pence into pence and vice versa. We also learned how to add and subtract money using manipulatives if we chose to. 

• In Science we have just finished our Light topic and enjoyed an interactive class quiz (photos below) where we showed that we really do have a good understanding of the topic. This was a great example of collaboration as we discussed each answer and made sure any misconceptions were clarified.

• In RE we were taught by Miss Phillips and learnt about the Jewish festival of Passover and its origins.

• In Music with Miss P. we practised playing notes b and g on glockenspiels. 

• In PE we continued to work with Miss P on our bowling technique and took part in a mini game of rounders, which we loved! 

• In History we had fun decoding the hieroglyphs in a secret message. Can your Kingfisher remember what it said? ( Valley of the Kings!) We wrote our names in hieroglyphs and made a fact file. We were exploring hieroglyphs using the evidence we could find on artefacts such as the Rosetta Stone.

• In French we have been learning simple dialogue such as to ask 'how are you and the responses we might give.

• PSHE involved looking conflict resolution and we acted out scenarios that we may encounter in real life.

Yay! The sun came out at last. Here's our weekly roundup...

• In Science we recalled naming the parts of a plant then went on a plant hunt and used our own criteria top sort our plants - see photos in carousel below...

• In RE we found out all about why Jews travel to the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem. We thought about what message we would leave at the wall if we were a Jew. 

• In Maths we practised working out change- we found this quite tricky and will revisit it before the end of the year. We have now begun our unit on time abd have begun by looking at Roman numerals. WE have begun to tell the time to and past the hour in 5 minute intervals on an analogue clock. Lots of us found this quite tricky so we could benefit from some real life practice at home! Please watch this video with your child to help https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/articles/zsvbp4j  We have continued our times tables learning. Don't forget to keep practising them at home too as quick recall really helps in all aspects of Maths.

• In French we learned the months of the year and days of the week with Miss Phillips.

• Our History unit this week built on our English unit about Hpward Carter. We looked at items found in Tutankhamun's tomb and analysed what the artefacts told us about life in Ancient Egyptian times. We enjoyed this video clip too https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B14DtKlT_Vghttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B14DtKlT_Vg 

• Art with Miss Phillips was the start of a unit on still life drawing. We sketched everyday objects such as apples and our waterbottles!

• In PSHE we looked at the different ways to keep us safe online. We looked at details of an online game, and discussed whether this was a safe game to play. 

• In English we moved onto the writing phase of our explanation texts about Howard Carter and his dicovery of the tomb of Tutankhamun. 

Yay! The sun has stayed with us for our Sports Day! It was lovely that so many of you could join us. We had an amazing morning too doing dance and having fun with Bath Rugby.

• In Science we began an experiment to see if planting more than one seed in a pot would affect growth (photos below).

• In RE we ended our Judaism topic with a quiz!

• In Maths we learned about time. We learned about minutes and seconds and had fun timing ourselves doing various activities on the field using a stopwatch.

• In French we recapped our learning from the last unit with Miss Phillips.

• In History we found out all about Cleopatra.

• Art with Miss Phillips was the start of a unit on still life drawing. We sketched everyday objects such as apples and our waterbottles!

• In English we followed instructions to mummify a tomato (photos below) and are now preparing to write our own set of instructsions - using adverbials of time and imperative verbs. 

• Music was a hit... we began to learn the Bob Marley song 'Three Little Birds'.

Wow how this term has flown past! We hope you enjoy the photos below of us conducting experiments, enjoying sports day and engaging in some practical maths work on time! Have a relaxing half term and let's hope the sun shines for us this week and throughout term 6.

• In English we have been writing instructions about how to mummify a tomato. We have been using imperative verbs, and hope to give these instructions to the year 2 class to follow! 

• In Maths we have continued to work on time. We have learnt about the amount of days in a year, learning a rhyme to help us. Can your Kingfisher remember it? 

• In History we looked at artefacts from inside a typical Egyptian home, and  learnt about what they were used for. Then we compared Egyptian objects to modern objects. 

• In PSHE, we looked at different rules and discussed reasons for having them. 

• In RE we had our first lesson in our new topic of Islam. We looked at a prayer mat and discussed how Muslims used the mat to pray. 

• In Science we looked at water transportation in a plant and conducted an experiment using celery and food colouring. See photo below! 

At the end of her penultimate week in Kingfisher class, Miss Phillips has written our blog....

Another lovely week in Kingfisher class! We learned about D-day on Thursday in a thought-provoking assembly by Mr Lyle. On Friday we welcomed visitors from the Sai international school from India. We enjoyed learning about Indian culture and festivals, colouring in

pictures from the story of Rath Yatra.

In English this week we began our new topic of using descriptive language in narratives. We looked at a picture of a house from a magical forest and created a collaborative word bank of adjectives. We discussed synonyms we could use to make our narratives more powerful. We will continue writing our pieces next week.

In maths we finished the topic of time and began our new unit of shapes. We have looked at direction and practised turning clockwise and anti-clockwise. We looked at right angles and found some around the classroom. Can your Kingfisher find any right angles at home?

In science we learned about how plants reproduce. After labelling the reproductive parts in plants, we dissected a flower and drew pictures of the stamen, pisil, and the petals.

In music we used glockenspiels to play along with Bob Marley’s Three Little Birds. We practised A and G and took turns in playing each note collaboratively.

In PE we began our new topic of cricket. We practised bowling and batting, ending the lesson with playing cricket in small groups.

In RE we continued our learning about Islam. We watched videos of a young Muslim praying and wrote down significant information about his prayer rituals. Can your Kingfisher remember how many times a day Muslims pray?

In geography we looked at a map of Europe and talked about which countries we recognised. We found Europe on a globe and labelled our own maps.

In French we learnt about fruit and vegetables nouns. We practised saying I like/I don’t like (je mange/je ne mange pas!), along with other fruits and vegetables.

In art we explored mark making on a variety of textures. We rubbed wax crayons on paper across different surfaces, such as the wall, a chair, and even a shoe! We then drew pictures on top of our rubbings.

In PSHE we debated as to whether we needed rules, and what was the reason for them existing. We then ordered certain rules by their importance.

This was my last week in Kingfishers class! I have loved getting to know all of you and have enjoyed teaching and learning with you. I will miss you all very much, thank you for being superstars. Miss Phillips. 

In English this week we finished our slow write about the fairy tale house in the forest, ensuring we used lots of descriptive language and synonyms. 

In maths we practice measuring accurately in cm and mm, and compared horizontal and vertical lines. Can your Kingfisher find horizontal or vertical lines around the house? 

In science we looked at seed dispersal, watching videos of scientists discussing how plants distribute their seeds across distances. 

In PE we practised bowling and batting in a game of cricket. 

In music we used drums to create a rhythmic pattern to Bob Marley’s music. 

In RE we learnt about the ritual that Muslims have before praying. 

In geography we chose to write about France, the United Kingdom, and Italy. We looked at fact files and chose interesting facts from them. Can your Kingfisher remember any? 

In French we looked at plurals, counting fruits and vegetables. We then ended the lesson playing French bingo! 

In art we drew different parts of flowers. 

In PSHE we continued to look at rules and why they are important. 

At last the sun has come out to play. It has been lovely to get outside and enjoy our wonderful school grounds in the sunshine - at the bottom of this week's blog are a couple of pictures of us enjoying the sunshine at lunchtime. 

• In English we have been writing our own setting descriptions. There have been some amazing expanded noun pharses, creating really effective imagery. 

• In Maths we have looked at shape. We have recognised and draw parallel and perpendicular lines, and have drawn polygons on dotted paper. We have named and described 2d shapes. 

• In science, we created posters to show the life cycle of a plant which we will use to help us when we present to Wrens next week. 

• In PSHE, we looked at how much care babies need at the start of our Changing Me unit.

• In RE we are making booklets for an employer explaining how to support as Muslim at work.

• In PE we have been developing our fielding skills. 

• Music has been great fun singing and playing along to "Three Little Birds".

• In Geography we revised physical and human features and looked at examples of both throughout Europe.

We are still going strong in Kingfisher Class despite the fact that the end of term is in sight.

• In English we have been creating persuasive speeches for why we should improve our playground and suggestions of how we could do this - linking them to our Welton values and rules. 

• In Maths we have concluded our work on shape by naming and describing 3d shapes. We had a go at drawing nets and making our own cubes

• In Music we learned more about Reggae Music

• Geography saw bus investigating the human and physical features of the Alps

• Science involved presenting our life cycle of a plant posters to Wren Class - they have also been learning about plants and growing. See the photos below...

• In RE we are moving on to think about the words of shahadah and what this means for Muslims.

• There are plans afoot of an end of term local adventure trip - watch this space for more info!

Another week of learning in Kingfisher Class and a very exciting Thursday as on General Election Day, we went to spend time in our new Year 4 class!

• Transition morning was a success and Miss Plaskitt really enjoyed getting to know us all.

• In English we have been working with year 4 in preparation for the MNSP poetry slam. This involved buddying up with year 4 and Miss Plaskitt so it was a further chance to get to know our new teacher as well! I wonder who will win and go forward to the final?

• In Maths we have started to work on our last White Rose unit which involves looking at Statistics. So far we have investigated pictograms- how to construct them and how to extract information from them

• In Music we continued to work on the Three Little Birds song but also began to learn a new suprise song for Mrs M (ssshhhhhh!!!!)

• Geography saw us investigating the human and physical features of Russia. Did you know how massive it is!?

• Science involved consolidating our understandning of plant life cycles. We are amazed by the range of ways that seeds can be dispersed.

• In RE we are learning about the  shahadah  and also the special artwork which muslims use called Arabesque.

• In DT we investigated wearable technology and looked at digital and non digital products.

• We are really looking forward to our trip next week- The Two Parks Chlalenge, but we really need more helpers. Please speak to the team if you are able to come with us. It will be fun- and there are doughnuts!

• NO NEW SPELLINGS BUT FEEL FREE TO LOOK BACK AT PREVIOUS WEEKS AND PRACTISE ONES WHICH YOU FOUND TRICKY.

Scooter Training

We really enjoyed scooter training this week. Certificates have come home and we are keen to fit in another session before the end of term. Look out for a text to bring scooters to school. Please see the parent letter on the back of certificates.

Two Parks Challenge 2024

I am incredibly proud of the group of 24 Kingfisher children who walked 5 miles today to complete the first ever Welton Two Parks Challenge. The walk was a celebration of our time together this year and also a display of all of our Welton rules and values.The children walked 5 miles and played in two parks (plus a trip to the library en route). Everyone was amazingly behaved and members of the public commented on how polite and friendly our children were. Well done team you fully deserved your medals and certificates awarded by Mr Lyle at the finish.

Ember wrote this recount of the trip which we would like to share with you...

When we arrived at the library, we returned our books. I borrowed my book with my library card so I could finish it. At the library we met someone who used to go to our school! A nice lady read us some cool books and one of the names was Old Macdonald had a Phone. The trip was fun but it was only getting started...

Next we went to the park by the sports centre and had a small play. I climbed up and over the top of the climbing frame. I didn't go on the spinny thing though. The park was really fun but we still had to do the big walk!

As we were walking to the cycle path, we saw a squirrel, a cat  and we heard lots of birds. One of the trees was very tall and that was where we saw the cute grey squirrel.

In the second park I was first to go on the swing. I swung very high and it was so much fun! Next, I went on the zip line. It was very cool. On the first time queuing up I had to jump off because someone went all the way back to where I was standing.

On return to school Mr Lyle was waiting for us with a medal to celebrate our achievements. We were all so proud of what we had completed and we ended the afternoon with an amazing Rocksteady concert. 

And so the end of our second year with your lovely children has come to an end. We have both enjoyed teaching them again this year and wish them every success and happiness as they move into Year 4. We would all like to say a HUGE thank you for all of the flowers, gifts, cards and messages and for sharing your children with us- most of them for the second time. I would personally like to say goodbye to all of you, as I am leaving school today to begin a full time teaching post in Year 6 nearer to home. Welton will always have a very special place in my heart and I will miss everybody. After 25years here, it is like a second family to me. I know Mrs Stevens will keep me updated on your children as they progress through the school.

It has been SUCH a fun week to end on- I'm sure they will have shared with you all of the amazing sports activities they have enjoyed this week. There are some photos below of us break dancing and beat boxing which we loved! Both of the instructors have you tube channels which the children may like to look at with your supervision- BEAT BOX TANGENT and JACK STEPHENSON.

Have a wonderful summer and stay safe. x