2014 DT Christmas competition has begun!

Design Technology Christmas Competition! This year the DT competition is based around making a tree decoration and all classes are welcome to take part! ·       Your decoration must be able to hang from a tree
·       It must be made from as many recycled materials as possible
·       You must have your name and class on a label clearly displayed.
·       What type of decoration can you create which make it unique from other decorations before?!

The closing date for this competition is Thursday 11^th December. Please take the decorations to the hall; we will be hanging them ready for judges and assembly!  Good luck!  Finally, we do accept parent help will be needed for this but it should be clear that the child has been involved too!

Thank you so much for your generosity!

Thank you so much to everyone that came to the Bring and Buy Sale on Wednesday. We were very grateful that so many of you donated some fantastic items that were no longer wanted.

 

Due to everyone's generosity on Wednesday and on the non school uniform day on the 14th of November we have raised over £340 for Children in Need!

 

I would like to say a big thank you to all of the staff and children that helped on the day. Well done!

 

Mrs Thorpe

Clarinet concert, Nothe Fort and learning.

Thank you to everyone who was able to come and celebrate the children's success and new found skills in playing the clarinet. I would like to reiterate how impressed I have been at their ability to learn so quickly, not only the physical ability to play but also learning the notes and being able to read music - EVERYONE! It was lovely to hear how inspire the children have all been to want to continue learning a musical instrument.

Our trip to the Nothe Fort was excellent. It was a really fitting way to end out topic, the children were able to show they new knowledge, secure understanding of existing knowledge and prior learning and also learn new things about Weymouth and WW2. Despite the weather the children were all enthusiastic and incredibly well behaved! Well done!

A huge well done to the children who played basket ball today, representing Year 3 and Year 4!

We began an investigation in maths, proving or disproving this statement "Tall people make the best athletes!"The children discussed this and have begun to plan how they will prove/disprove it tomorrow and Friday! In literacy we carried out interviews in order to gather information to be abe to plan and write a newspaper article based around the nativity - with a twist!!!!!

Finally, well done to Shannon who shared her gold medal and silver medal with us from a competition she took part in last week end - gold in floor and silver in vault.
Also Rocco earned a silver medal for 50m butterfly and a bronze medal for 50m freestyle in an inter-club gala at West Dorset Swimming Club!

Keep updating me on your personal successes out of school!

Thanks to our change in the use of photographs on the internet, I will be able to add photos to the blog, so watch this space!

Mrs. Johnson and the Year 4 Team

A few bits of information!!!!!

Hello Everyone!

There will be a note coming home tomorrow to remind everyone of a few bits and bobs this week.........

• Nothe Fort Tuesday - WW2 outfit, gas masks and packed lunches needed.
• Running Club - moved to Wednesday this week.
• Wednesday Bring and buy sale.
• Wednesday - 3pm small concert for Year 4 parents/families to celebrate our learning and progress playing the clarinet - in the pre-school hall........please come and support us!

Auditions were held last week for the KS2 Christmas Play - Ebenezer! Auditions were superb, I was especially impressed with the singing auditions - some hidden talents there!!!! Tremendous effort went into some of the auditions which was amazing - well done!!!!

Parts will be given this week and the children have already been issued with song words - home learning will be to learn lyrics and script parts - please encourage and support children to get learning - this will enable us to make rapid progress with staging if they know their words!!!!!!

I will be putting a slip out soon to see if anyone would be able to help form a small working party that could come into school on a set date and help with prop making! I envisage that this will be the week commencing the 8th December!

This week we will be writing our newspaper reports, carrying out a using and applying investigation in numeracy, singing practice and script reading as well as science - molecular structure of solids, liquids and gases - recognising, understanding and being able to explain that these can change.

See you all tomorrow

Mrs. Johnson and the Year 4 Team

Bring and Buy Sale- items needed please!

This Wednesday (26th) the Children's Voice have arranged a Bring and Buy Sale to help fundraise some more money for Children In Need.

 

We are hoping that you have been able to have a sort out of any unused, unwanted; toys, clothes, books etc ready for Wednesday.

 

Please bring any items for the Bring and Buy Sale to Mrs Thorpe in Year 1.

 

The hall will be open to parents from 3pm on Wednesday afternoon so that you can have a look around without your children! Then the sale will carry on until around 4.30pm (unless we have sold everything!)

 

Items will be reasonably priced from 20p- £2.

 

We hope to have lots to sell and raise as much as we possibly can for children who need our help.

 

Mrs Thorpe and The Children's Voice

Sorry!

I do beg your pardon!!!!!!!!

I meant to write in the last blog about our visitors last Thursday afternoon!
We were very lucky and privileged to be visited by Jenny and Granny Belle (Mrs. Thorpe's Husband's Aunty and Granny). Granny Bell's brother was the 2nd in command in the 617 squadron, chosen for the very dangerous and important mission - The Dam Busters. We learned all about John Hopgood, which was mesmerising. We learned of his incredible courage and bravery as he died during the mission, having tried to give his crew time to escape the burning Lancaster. Two survived thanks to him!

Truly amazing!
Thank you Jenny and Granny Belle!

Year 4

Still busy!!!!!!

Well, what an exciting day!

A huge "well done" to all of you who performed, greeted or spoke to HRH Prince Charles today. You were charming, polite, mature and really were good ambassadors for the school. I think he was very impressed with all of you! You can see photos and a video clip on the Dorset Evening Echo website - a true memory to treasure!

Thank you to Mr. Ray who came in last Friday to teach us more about WW2 and set us a very entertaining quiz! This showed how much you have learned - well done!

This week we are continuing our learning about journalistic writing and features of a newspaper. Today our grammar focus was understanding complex sentences - main clause and subordinate clause using "Gimme 5" to help! Ask your child about the "crab family" - Suzy and baby Alan (and the bit of fish hanging from his claw)!!!!!!!!!!!
In numeracy this week we are carrying out investigations and problem solving. Keep learning your x tables - we will be resuming those as normal this week!
In guided reading we are completing our reading comprehensions - it would be good if you could focus on inference skills when you are listening to your child read.
Clarinet is back to normal this week.

Don't forget that auditions for the Christmas play - Ebeneezer are being held this week so make sure you have prepared either a song (if you are auditioning for the singing) or a passage, poem or drama if you are going for an acting role!

See you all tomorrow,

Mrs. Johnson

Great Baking!

Good Evening Everyone!

I would like to begin by saying a HUGE well done to Year 4 for their tremendous cake baking home learning, superb dancing today and brilliant hosts! It was a really fun afternoon drawing our learning about WW2, nearly, to an end. I would like to thank all of the families that were able to support our party today, I know the children were really proud of their efforts and new skills and were really keen to show you - thank you for helping to create a wonderful memory for each child that will never leave them! WOW!

Last Friday, as I am sure they told you, we had a stone carving expert called Bec come in to work with us. You may have noticed a large piece of stone at the front of the school - Bec is going to set Year 4 a competition to create a design that she will carve onto it. She was so impressed with, not only their behaviour, manners and kindness but also their ability to carve Bath Stone cuboids. The children drew a design, then carved it and painted using acrylics. They are displayed in the corridor and the classroom - please have a look!

After composing WW2 themed Haiku and Tankas Monday and Tuesday, we are going to be learning about journalisitc writing. We will be having a big focus on spellings and handwriting across ALL writing from this week on - the pen licence tick list will be making an appearance too!!!!

In maths we are learning to read and interpret data. Keep learning those times tables!

We have 2 more visitors this week, so keep reading the blogs to find out more.............

NO CLARINETS THIS WEEK!

Well done again for some superb home learning!!!!!!

Thankyou to Mrs. Thomas, Mrs. Scott, Mrs. Long, Miss. Pearce and Miss. Howard for all their hard work today, setting up and serving.

Mrs. Johnson

Thank you!

Good Evening Everyone!

Thank you to all of you who were able to make it to parents evening - it was incredibly valuable and great to see you all! I will endeavour to tackle tasks that I spoke to some of you about, next week! If you were unable to make it then please come in and arrange an appointment with me - I think there were only 6 families I didn't meet!

This week we have been learning to understand and add/subtract through zero - using negative numbers! In literacy we have been creating fireworks poems, learning to use onomatopoeia and personification (ask your child to explain what they are!) - some truly amazing poems have been created!!!!!!!! In RE we began our new topic about how Christians use symbolism at Christmas. Our Science saw us finishing our electricity topic - as Isabelle put it "Mrs. Johnson, I thought Science was awesomely hair-raising!" (static electricity - great joke!!!) In French we learned more masculine words and are able to construct a sentence with an adjective.......C'est un perroquet bleu! (How do the French use adjectives differently to the English? Tell your family!!!!)

I hope you received the information about our VE Day Tea Dance Party on Monday afternoon from 2pm in the school hall. Home Learning was to make some fairy cakes/a whole cake, decorate it with a WW2 theme and bring it/them in on Monday morning. Please come along and join in the fun. Children also NEED TO WEAR THEIR EVACUEE OUTFIT FOR THE DAY.

Talents that we have seen in school this week include Georgia and Elise wowing us with their amazing recorder playing, Amy, Polly, Mollie and Georgia singing to us - very tunefully and confidently may I add (super impressed!) and Ben, Shannon and Erin singing and playing for us today.....keep the talent coming!

I would like to take this opportunity to welcome Miss. Howard and Miss. Pearce to Year 4. They are PGCE students from Plymouth University who are spending 5 weeks this half term with us and 6 weeks after Christmas with us, teaching the class at various points beginning with small groups and lesson inputs, gradually working towards whole class teaching.

Thank you for all the wonderful Poetry competition entries - deadline tomorrow - I look forward to judging them!

Mrs. Johnson and the Year 4 Team

The Great PoW Poetry Competition

The Great PoW Poetry Competition.........

Roll up, Roll up, Roll up..................don't forget the Great PoW Poetry Competition is in town!!!!!!! A reminder that the closing date is this Friday, so you still have a week to get your creative master pieces in to your class teacher.

Check back on the last blog for details, remember the theme is Autumn/Winter, there are no limits, only to say - be as creative as I know you can be!!!!!!!!

I can't wait to read them all and choose a winner from each class!!!!

Good Luck!!!!!

Get writing if you haven't already!!!!!

A VERY excited Mrs. Johnson

On Your Marks, Get Set..............

Hello Everyone,

I hope you have all had a restful half term - refreshing yourselves for the exciting and busy Christmas half term!!!!!

Remember we are not back in school until Tuesday, also there won't be any running club this week as clubs all start back after he first week!

During one of our PE lessons we will be embarking on tag ruby so it will be essential that the children ALL have a warm tracksuit in their PE kits and trainers too as we will be outside weather permitting!

FYI - Next Tuesday the children will need to bring their WW2 evacuee costumes into school. In the morning we will be visiting the War memorial to lay our wreath and in the afternoon you will be invited to join us for a VE Day Tea Dance in the school hall from 2:30pm.

Clarinets continue for another 5 weeks so keep practising and watch this space for info regarding a small celebration concert.

A reminder that everyone should have water bottles in school and, in year 4, they are allowed to have them on their tables so they can easily drink when they need it! This is really important and does have an impact on learning.........those children that regularly have theirs in school are always asking to refill them during the day which is brilliant!!!!

Finally I look forward to meeting you all at parents evenings this week!

Mrs. Johnson