Dear parents and carers,

We've had a smashing week in year 5! In English, we've continued with our work based on "What We'll Build" by Oliver Jeffers and have been researching and writing about different inventions and developments. We learned to organise our texts using headings and subheadings. Next week we'll be using this in some writing about an exciting science experiment.

In maths we have continued with our work on multiplication. This is improving but does need some more time next week, before we move on to division. Please keep practising those times tables at home- more children used TTRS this week but it's still not all of them yet.

The children have really enjoyed our building projects and most are now finished. After our whole school celebration assembly on Monday to see what we've all been doing, I'll be sending the models home. Most are done but some of the more expansive ideas still need some finishing off!

Mrs B

Three things to ask your child this week:

1. ​What methods can you use for multiplication?
2. What did you build?
3. Have you done your TTRS yet?

We have continued our focus on the story 'What We'll Build' by Oliver Jeffers by thinking about places that feel like home. We discussed the differences between a house and a home and what it meant for somewhere to feel like home. We drew pictures and wrote about the places that we had chosen and it was great to see this learning extended into our continuous provision as children built models of the places that they had chosen. 

In PE, we have continued our Boing games for Interhouse and it was great to see excellent team work this week in our Treasure Chests game. The children had remembered their previous learning about how to throw and catch effectively and it has been great to see their independence in PE really come on. Well done Year 1!

In our Australia Topic work this week, we learnt more about Aboriginal symbols and dot painting. We then used our learning to choose how we were going to decorate our tapping sticks ready for our class Australia Day in a couple of weeks time. Take a look at our eye-catching designs:

We were very excited to have our first Forest School session of Year 1 this week. Take a look at what we got up to:

We have had a fantastic two weeks in Windrush Class; I have been really impressed with the children’s Must-do Mole attitudes and it has been lovely to have a full classroom again!

In our English work, we have been writing diary entries inspired by the book, Escape from Pompeii. The class have worked so hard on completing their first drafts and have all been Steadfast Squirrels! We will be writing our best copies next week.

In maths, we have been recapping some work on Multiplication and Division. We have practised using partitioning and groupings, as well as the written method for multiplication. 

In our PE lessons, we have had lots of fun trying out different Boing Games which focus on teamwork and problem solving. This week we played ‘Going on a Bear Hunt’; the children had to cross the space by stepping on the spots, and try to collect as many items to fill their ‘honey pots’. They all showed great team work skills!

In the afternoons, we have continued with our whole school project using the book, What We’ll Build. I have really enjoyed working on this project with the class; we have had some thoughtful discussions and produced lots of brilliant work. On Friday, we enjoyed having the afternoon to build the objects and inventions that we designed. 

It;'s been lovely having the children back in school. This week has been a whirlwind of activity. Following on from our writing on The Great Chocoplot this week we have been finding out all about the history of chocolate and how it is made to create our own leaflets filled with chocolate facts and information. 

In maths this week we've been revisiting division and the children have done really well at getting to grips with dividing 2 and 3 digit numbers by 1 digit and finding remainders using various methods. 

In the afternoons we've been continuing our focus on What we'll build and the children have done a lovely job of describing their happy places and drawing their special people and objects. 

In PE we've had great fun with Boing Games: Whack it back and Lost treasure. 

Our spellings this week include the 'au' digraph and can be found on Spelling Shed, we would also like children to practise their times tables (with TTRockstars or any other method) and to read regularly as part of their homework again. 

A reminder that next Thursday is our Topic sharing activity so children can bring in their topic work and projects if they wish. 

We have had another fabulous week  in Foundation Stage this week. We have been practicing lots of new skills and working on building our relationships with our friends and our teachers. 
We began thinking about a new story 'Oliver's Vegetable's' by Vivian French. The children used different materials to make some of their own art work and we explored the different ways that Oliver moved in the story.
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We have also been thinking about subtraction in math's as well as recognising our numbers to 20. We used number fans so the children could all show me their answers for our subtraction questions. 

The children have enjoyed practising new skills in PE and have really loved exploring our forest school which I have loved exploring with them this week.
Hope everyone has a lovely few days,
See you next week, 
Mrs Ballard.

It has been a brilliant week in Thames Class and so lovely to all be back together again! There has been a real buzz of energy on the classroom all week and lots of happy faces. 

We started the week by sharing our designs for our dream classrooms which was part of our remote learning, I loved seeing the range of creative ideas the children came up with. 

This week our main focus has been a book by Oliver Jeffers, I have have yet to reveal the title to the children but will be sharing this with them next week. We started off by thinking about a place we most feel at home in. We though about what
is in the place, how does it make us feel and what is it about the place that makes you feel this way. We then produced a drawing of the place we feel most at home. 

Next we used an illustration from the book as inspiration for some paired artwork. In pairs, we each chose a colour  that represents us. We then painted it onto paper using watercolours, our swooshes needed to converge with that of our partners. When the paint was dry, we overlayed this with pictures, letters, symbols and numbers drawn with oil pastels or pastels that tell a story of us with  some of the shared interests or dreams between the pairs at the convergence points. 

It has been absolutely fantastic to have everyone back together in school again. It was great to see so many happy, excited faces and we enjoyed being back with our friends. 

Our main focus this week was the book 'What We'll Build' by Oliver Jeffers. We began by sharing our perfect classroom designs which was part of our remote learning challenge. Take a look at some of the brilliant designs:

Then we worked in small groups to design and make our own models. We could design and make anything that we wanted to by using junk modelling, Lego, Duplo and other construction resources. We spent the whole day working on this activity and it was great to see everyone working well in their teams, sharing, supporting each other and creating some fantastic models. Take a look at what we made: 

Part of the story focuses on tools and what we can build using them. We were very excited to have been able to finally finish our moving vehicles which we started before the school closure. We used a saw to cut the dowel to make the axles then added wheels. Take a look at our finished vehicles: 

Hello Everyone,
It has been truly AMAZING to have our wonderful classroom full of fabulous children this week. They have all come back to school eager to learn and really delighted to see their friends and teachers again. We have had a really busy week getting back in to our class routine and we began our learning by looking at the book 'What we'll build' by Oliver Jeffers. We explored different ideas the children had about what they could build then they worked in teams to make their creations. 

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Continuing on from building houses we also thought about measuring from the story and the children had to put my tools in height order from the tallest to the smallest. This was quite a challenge but they all persevered and had some very good reasoning discussions for their final decisions.

We also planted some sunflower seeds and thought about what a flower needs to grow. The children's were very knowledgeable and knew all of the facts but my favourite answer was "They need love."

As you can see we have had a very busy and enjoyable first week back in class and I can't wait to let you know what we have been up to next week.
Have a lovely weekend,
​Mrs Ballard. 

Dear parents and carers,

I am really looking forward to welcoming my superstars back into the classroom on Monday. They've worked hard with their remote learning and I am really proud of them. Thank you for all of the help and support you have been giving them.

It was lovely to speak to you all about your children this week in our parent/teacher meetings. Please don't hesitate to contact me (via the office) if you need me at any point or have any questions. 

Next week we will be starting our whole school project, and I am really looking forward to seeing where the children want to go with it. 

Mrs B

Three things to ask your child:

1. What are you looking forward to doing at school next week?
2. What positive things have come out of lockdown for you?
3. Do you know where your bag, PE kit and water bottle are? (Or that might just be in my house where we've lost everything!)

Here are a few of today's fabulous World Book Day costumes!