This week in English we continued to write our version on Hansel and Gretel inspired by Neil Gaiman's. We practised using similes, alliteration, semi-colons, fronted adverbials, inverted commas and using repetition for effect. Here is our class version so far:

In Science this week we thought about how light is reflected. We learnt that reflection is when light bounces off a surface, changing the direction of a ray of light and all object reflect light. We then learnt that when rays of light reflect, they obey the law of reflection: the angle of incidence always equals the angle of reflection. Our first activity today was to try and prove the law of reflection in pairs. Next we discussed how mirrors reflect light and how they can help us see objects. We then used our understanding of reflection and the angles of incidence and reflection to make a periscope and explain how it works.

This week we began our Harvest preparations by making cards for members of the village as we are unable to deliver our normal Harvest parcels this year. 

We began our week by sharing our history homework where we asked a grown up in our family/ a friend what their favourite toys and games were when they were children. Thank you for getting involved with this and sending your messages/ photos in. It was great to see the children sharing what they had found out with their peers and I very much enjoyed seeing some familiar toys from my own childhood! Hopscotch was one of the games that some of the children had learnt about and we had lots of fun learning how to play this game in our outdoor area. 

In Science this week we focused on naming and identifying the seasons. We then thought more about Autumn and what happens to some of the trees during this season. We listened to Vivaldi's Autumn section from his Four Seasons work and then painted our own Autumn tree to show the colours of the Autumnal leaves. 

This week Cherwell class have been very busy making our own puppet theatres. We painted two large boxes outside, one using rollers and one using paint brushes. Once they were dry it was time to put on a performance! Everyone wanted a go using our ‘mini me’ puppets that we have made of ourselves.

​To challenge every child to be the best ‘writer’ they can be, we have introduced the World Writing Championship. This week we have crowned our first champion…Khloe! She has demonstrated fantastic independent writing applying her phonics, well done.

​We have had a fantastic time making our own ‘haunted house’ out of the wooden blocks. We were able to adapt our work by adding loose parts to our creation. Once we had made our project, Mr Gidlow encouraged us to draw our designs.
Have a great weekend everyone and see you all again next week.

Dear parents and carers,

In our English lessons this week we've continued working on Float, writing our modelled sentences but also exploring the storm through poetry. We created a class poem about the storm, including some wonderful descriptive language. We'll be continuing with this next week.

In maths we've continued our work on place value and rounding. We're working towards larger numbers and next week we'll hit the millions! We've been making sure that we really understand place value and can use our knowledge in a variety of different ways. The children have found the rounding a little trickier, but it's definitely getting there. 

Our PE lessons so far this half term have been based around cardio and bodyweight strength exercises in circuits. The children have been working on improving their form in exercises such as planks, squats and lunges, and also improving their overall fitness. However, on Thursday our lesson was interrupted by this little fellow, who looked like he'd had a little bump on the head. Luckily we managed to scoop him up in a paper hat (not a typo) and I carefully deposited him under the hedge. 

In our science lessons we have been learning about space, and this week we learned the order of the planets from the sun, and also about the features of some of the planets. The children were fascinated that Mars had rovers on t that were exploring, taking photos and sampling the rocks, so we watched a few videos about these brilliant feats of engineering too. Next week we'll be looking at how the helio-centric theory of our solar system developed.

Please remember that water bottles should have a sports lid- we've had a few accidents this week and some soggy work for me to mark!

Mrs B

Three things to ask your child this week:

1. What's your sentence to help you remember the order of the planets in our solar system?
2. How many zeroes will be on the end of a number if we've rounded it to the nearest 1,000?
3. How would you use onomatopoeia to describe the sounds of a storm?

 We have had another busy week in Windrush Class with lots of exciting learning and hard work happening!
In our English lessons we have started looking at The True Story of the Three Little Pigs by  Jon Scieszka. We have been thinking about how we can use similes in our writing and challenging ourselves to use interesting adjectives and adverbs. The children have put a lot of effort into their writing so far!
In this week’s Art lesson with Mrs Mills, the children have started learning about how silhouettes are made and have started to think about the colours and shapes that make silhouettes look more effective. This week the children used oil pastels to create a rainbow-coloured background, and then cut out a tree shape from black card to create the silhouette. I was really impressed with how carefully the children had worked on their art this week!
In Thursday’s PE lesson we completed a netball-themed circuit of activities. We focused on accurate passing with a partner, aiming our bounce-pass into the centre of a hoop, and moving with the netball before passing. We all had lots of fun and there were lots of Must-do Moles trying their best in each round of the circuit!

We've had another action-packed week in Glyme Class...

The children have done really well in maths - problem solving with rounding to the nearest 10 and 100. In our writing, we have been continuing our sentence stacking about the Happy Prince, looking at alliteration, simile and contracted form e.g. will not to won't. See if your child can remember any examples of these. 

The children continue to wow us with their artwork. In Science the children produced some excellent scientific diagrams of an invertebrate. They have produced some beautiful rainforest artwork and below you will see some of their wonderful self-portraits from last week. 

Our spellings this week include the prefixes il-, im- and ir:
illegal
illegible
immature
immortal
impossible
impatient
imperfect
irregular
irrelevant
irresponsible

This week in English we have started building up sentences around our new story Stardust. We have used exclamations, used adjectives about touch, written about times we were jealous and used alliteration.
In maths we have been revising place value, counting backwards and forwards within 20 and 50, thinking about tens and ones and comparing numbers using less than, greater than or equal to. Next week we will continue to build on this work.
In Topic we learned about the different countries in the UK.
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In science the children used what they learned last week about floating and sinking to select a material to help Traction Man to float. they had a Traction Man spoon to which they attached their material and then tested their selection. Here are some photos:​

Today in our RE lesson we finished adding actions to the story of Noah's Ark. We created a story map of symbols to remind us of the words and as a class we chose different actions to link with them. We all told the story together, using actions and words. The final piece was very effective!

We also thought more about Noah's qualities and his actions in the story. The class thought of questions that they would like to ask Noah based on the events in the story and the type of person we think he was. We then spent the final part of the lesson with some children in character as Noah, answering the questions that we had prepared.

You're invited to our virtual Macmillan Coffee Morning. To take part this year we would like you to bake and donate from the comfort of your own home.

Thames Class (Year 6) have already been whipping up a baking storm to help inspire you for this fantastic cause! Below are some of the recipes they created.

To donate to please visit our Just Giving page at: www.justgiving.com/fundraising/appletonprimary

We would love to see your baked goods so please do send in photos to the school office.

Why not watch Mia's Baking Show below to learn how to make a Jaffa drizzle loaf? 

Follow Phoebe's baking tutorial for a fantasy cake.

Why not try: 
Elliot's Spiced Fruit Cake
Orla's Marbled Victoria Sponge
Clara's Raspberry & Lime Curd Bars
Anna's Easy Chocolate Cake

It has been another fantastic week in Thames Class! The children have been working incredibly hard to get back into the swing of things and have yet again produced some lovely work this week. 

In Maths this week we have been focusing on number and place value and we really enjoyed ordering and comparing numbers as part of our Active Maths this week. We also played Roll and Round in pairs to brush up on our rounding skills!

In English, we started our work on Hansel & Gretel by Neil Gaiman. We read a section of the story and then identified the key points so far. We then worked in groups to create freeze frames of some of the key points. In our groups we thought carefully how each character was feeling at that point and shared these feelings when we shared our freeze frames with the class.

In Science, we learnt that light travels in straight lines from light sources to our eyes, and from light sources to objects and then to our eyes. We worked in groups to a human model to show how light enables us to see using a piece of wool to help us. In the same groups, we then produced an educational programme for children all about how light enables us to see. Our programme had to include and introduction, an explanation of how light travels and how we see and a conclusion. We also created props, picture and diagrams to support our explanation. We then shared our programmes with the rest of the class.