Welcome back to the New Term. I hope you all had a lovely break. This aims to give you some important information and dates so you can plan ahead.
This half term the children will focus on two areas in English. Legends and Stories from the recent past. Legends will involve a closer look at the legend of Robin Hood through the use of film, drama and stories. Stories from the recent past focuses on stories written by Ludwig Bemelmans, including Madeline and Madeline in Paris. In Maths, the children will continue to build on skills already gained looking at data collection, 2D and 3D shapes, division as an inverse operation and solving one and two step problems.
Please ensure your child has their PE kit in school all week but especially on Tuesdays and Fridays for everyone. Both indoor and outdoor kit should be available as PE is often weather dependent. On Tuesday the children will be studying athletics and field events with Mrs Burdell and on Friday we will be working on running, hurdling and throwing with accuracy. Incidentally the children will also continue their language studies with Mrs Burdell on a Tuesday morning.
This half term term the children will be finishing their studies on the topic of light and moving on to look at Forces and Magnets. This will include what forces are and to investigate different forces on a number of objects. Where possible the activities will be practical.
Each child is expected to have an individual reading book suitable for their own reading ability, available in school at all times. This can be either something from school or from home, particularly for the more able readers. The children should record details of their own reading in their reading record book at school and parents/carers when reading at home. Regular reading at home is really important so try to encourage their reading and please sign their reading record book on a weekly basis. In addition to this your child will still be able to borrow books from the school library whenever they wish.
Each week, your child will bring home spelling patterns / words to learn, which will be tested in school on a Monday. They will also be set maths homework which I will set on a Friday each week and be encouraged to learn any tables facts (including the equivalent division facts) that they do not yet know. Literacy homework will be linked to the topic or genre we are focusing on and this will also now be set by Mr Woodsford on a Monday and back on a Monday.
Where should we go ? Guatemala
The topic this term will be Guatemala in South America. We will be looking at what life is like in modern Guatemala especially for the Mayan people. Through their studies the children will be asked to think about reasons for going to Guatemala including, people, buildings and culture. We will focus on both the historic and geographical aspects of Guatemala including their active volcanoes.
The theme throughout the summer term will be special places. The children will be encouraged to think of their own special places and to describe them and what makes them special. We will also have a visit to the local parish church and have a talk with Canon Woodsford about the importance of different religious buildings.
Tyndale on the farm!
On Tuesday 10th May Tyndale Class spent a fantastic day at Woodcock's Farm near Bothamsall. Although it rained for most of the day, this didn't dampen the spirits of the children. Each group had two hours art tuition with the fantastic Liz Hayward, with the theme being a walk in the Bluebell Wood. The children were also lucky enough to have a guided tour of the farm led by Jenny Woodcock. This included a walk through the cow sheds, a tour of the milking parlour and getting very close to a 10 day old baby reindeer. Finally they took a stroll through a real Bluebell Wood. A big thank you to both Liz and Jenny for a fantastic day.
On Monday Tyndale class was visited by the fire service from Retford Fire Station. They were given a guided tour of the new fire engine and they also had a presentation as to the danger of fires. The firemen also talked about smoke alarms and there importance.
During our topic on Light we learned about how people used to tell the time using the sun. As the earth moved around the sun this caused shadows to form on opaque objects at different times of the day. This was how sun dials were first used. We created our own sun dials and tested them out.
On Fridays the challenge this term is circuit training. The six challenges are cricket bowling, football dribble, hockey dribble, tennis ball dodge, rugby ball pass and star jumps. Each round lasts for a minute. The children will be recording their results to monitor improvements.
This term as part of our topic we have been looking at Heroes and Villains. The Heroine we focused on has been Florence Nightingale. We have produced diary entries and looked at photo sources to understand more about what life was like.
In class we looked at forces as part of our science investigation. We studied pushes and pulls and looked at what happened when we did certain things. We looked at objects which could be moulded in different ways and those that couldn't. As a class we then came up with a word bank to describe the different actions we could take. With modelling clay we were able to use force to mould an object.
On Tuesday 1st December Hillary and Tyndale Classes went on a trip to Sundown Adventureland. Thankfully the weather held out and the children had a fantastic day. The good weather allowed us the opportunity to explore the whole park. We got to go on the Robin Hood Ride, Tractor Ride, Rocky Mountain Ride and of course Santa's Sleigh Ride. The children also got to play in Crash Landings Soft Play and have dinner in Pumpkin Patch. This was rounded off with a visit to Santa and to receive a present. It has to be said that the behaviour of the children was excellent throughout the day and they were a real credit to the school.
Party Day and a special visitor.