Friday update 14.1.22

Hello everyone and happy Friday! 

We've reached the end of our first full week back in school of the new year and it's been great. A particular highlight this week was our first Forest School session. Miss Prince visited us before we went outside to explain the rules of Forest School and what our first session would entail. Following this, suitably armed against the mud with our waterproof gear, we went outside for a full afternoon of fun, teamwork and outdoor learning. Alongside the key personal skills which children will develop during Forest School, we are also linking it with our Anglo-Saxon topic in History to provide enrichment activities. As such, this week was based around what it would feel like to be a settler and invader. The children began by working in teams to build dens, considering where a good defensive site might be located. They then played several rounds of 'Capture the Flag' where they had to invade other groups' territories and steal their treasure. We were lucky that the weather stayed dry and I think a great afternoon was had by all. Our next session will be in 2 weeks' time. For this, could I ask a favour? Please could you keep any onion skins you might use over the next week or so? We are hoping to use these to make our own dyes. Thanks!

We have been busy in our other curriculum areas too. In English, we've started our new text 'How to Invent' and had a focus on recapping key grammar knowledge this week, including what makes a sentence, different types of clauses and different types of sentences. In Maths, we've carried on with Multiplication and Division and learnt how to multiply three numbers together as well as practising different methods of mental multiplication. History was our first lesson in our unit 'Anglo-Saxons and Scots', where we discovered why that era is known as the 'Dark Ages' and how we actually know about life in Britain at that time. In Science, we explored the difference between Solar and Lunar eclipses. The children are enjoying our new Computing unit, 'Repetition in Shapes' where they are learning different commands for programming. Finally, we have now started our Gymnastics unit for our SAINTS PE lessons. On Tuesday next week, we will have our extra PE lesson (lead by me) so please can children wear PE kit to school as normal. No Forest School next week.

Spellings this week are homophones:
cereal, serial, check, cheque, through, threw, draft, draught, stares, stairs

Please keep reading every day at home and recording this in reading diaries, as well as learning times tables. I'm pleased to hear that lots of children are now regularly practising at home for the Year 4 Multiplication Check at home.

That's it from me for this week so have a lovely weekend.

Miss Radbourne