Spring 2 Week 1

A great week back!  It was lovely to see you all at Parents’ evening, I hope you enjoyed looking at your children’s  learning.

Our Whole School Writing focus is on the book The Tin Forest. The children have been writing some wonderful descriptions of the main character and the setting. We have been creative with the boxes the children collected to make wonderful animals and trees for our forest.

In Maths we have been naming and describing 2D shapes. The children went on a shape hunt around the school. What shapes can you find at home?

The Year 1’s took part in the KS1 Act of Worship on Wednesday to begin Lent.  On Friday the children added their Lenten promises to the school Lenten tree.

Home Learning – Mathletics and Spellings.

Spellings –

how, now, brown, town, down, own, blow, snow, grow, show

Have a lovely weekend.

Mrs Carey

 

Year 6 – 28/02/20

On Monday, we had the privilege of being responsible for the burning of the palms for the Ash Wednesday celebrations at the church and the school. We learnt from Deacon Axcel that the ashes symbolise us being mortal sinners, made from dust, but who will be forgiven though the Resurrection. Thank you to Deacon Axcel for leading the burning ceremony.

On Tuesday, the children finished their PE dance unit in which we focused on the Charleston. Have a look at the videos below to see each group’s final dance!

In English, we began the whole-school text ‘The Tin Forest’. So far, we have looked at the setting description, inferred meaning from the illustrations, and analysed the development of the main character’s emotions. We also started making parts of the tin forest which will emerge within the school next week!

In math, we were looking at 2D shapes, focusing particularly on geometry-related vocabulary. We also had a pancake-themed lesson on Tuesday, in which the children had to investigate from where they should buy their pancake ingredients, using costings from 4 supermarkets and calculating percentage discounts.

This week’s home learning (due Tuesday 3rd March) is as follows:

English You have each been given a sheet with your writing targets on and a story starter underneath. Your task is to write another paragraph of the story whilst focusing on your targets and attempting to use two of this week’s spelling words below.
Spellings Words with the suffix -cial:

official

special

artificial

antisocial

crucial

facial

beneficial

superficial

commercial

financial

Maths

Times tables

(online) Mathletics tasks – area and circle vocabulary

 

Continue to revise all times tables.

Have a great weekend.

Miss Donatantonio

Spring Term 2: Week 1 28th February

It was lovely for Ms Dunning and I to meet you at the parent consultations this week.  For those parents who could not make those dates, please speak to  Ms Dunning or myself about an appontment.

This week we started on our new writing focus, using the story of The Tin Forest as inspiration.  The children arrived in school on Monday with some lovely home learning about tin. They looked at the setting of the story and using their senses,  spent time developing their understanding of how to write descriptive sentences using them.

In Maths the children have continued to look at how to convert measures: Kg to g, cm to m, mm to cm etc….They have also been working really hard on their 6, 7 and 8 times tables.  A website that they have enjoyed using is:

https://www.mathschase.com/times-tables/.  Please encourage your child to log on and have a go!

On Wednesday, the children walked to Our Lady and St Vincent’s for mass partnered with children from Year 6.  Preparing ourselves for Lent, we had a class act of worship with a focus on praying, fasting and almsgiving and the children wrote their Lenten promises. Their Lenten leaves were added to our Lenten Tree this morning at assembly.

On Thursday, our new Science Topic on Electricity was introduced which was met with excitement.  We have continued with our programming sessions using Scratch Jr.

 

Home Learning:

Reading and updating Reading Log

Spellings: accident, special, heart, guide, complete, question, ordinary, experience, century, actually, favourite, believe.

Timetable Practice:  log onto https://www.mathschase.com/times-tables/ and practice 6, 7 and 8 timetables.  Can your child improve on their personal best?

Mathletics:  complete the activities set on conversion, magic symbols (set before the half term).

Have a lovely weekend.

Mrs McNamara      Ms Dunning

Working hard on learning their timetables

 

Our editing session and final draft of our narratives on Leon and the Place Between

Our Act of Worship on Lent: Display arranged by Elena

PE Lesson with Coach Duggan this afternoon with a focus on fitness.

 

 

Spring 2 Week 1

We have had a busy first week back. Along with the rest of the school, we have begun our writing topic on ‘The Tin Forest’.  There have been some lovely posters completed about tin in preparation for this; well done, Year 5. In English, we have read the text and considered the feelings of the main character and how they change over the story. We have also been creative and have been turning junk into a tin forest of our own.

On Wednesday, Year 5 attended mass at Our Lady and St Vincent to receive ashes. The children behaved reverently throughout. This marked the beginning of Lent and today the children placed their Lenten promise on the hall wall.

 

Home Learning:

Spag.com

Mathletics

Spring 2, Week 1

  

The class have worked very well this week, focusing on column addition and exchanging. Next week in maths we will be moving onto column subtraction.

Our whole school writing focus, based on the book The Tin Forest, is well underway. This week we have explored the feelings of the main character and collected adjectives to describe the setting. I am really looking forward to starting our stories next week.

To mark the beginning of Lent we have made Lenten promises and visited Church on Ash Wednesday for Mass. The class have been very reflective and are taking their promises very seriously.

Thank you for your generous cardboard and tin foil donations – we have created some fantastic models of the animals in The Tin Forest.

Home learning:

  1. Spelling – suffixes beginning with a vowel (ed, ing, er).

gardener, gardening, limited, limiting, offering, offered, benefited, benefitting, focused, focusing.   

      2. Mathletics activities have been set.

Have a lovely weekend,

Miss Pringle

 

Year 2 Blog Week 22

What a busy first week back it has been! It was wonderful to meet with all the Mums and Dads at Parents’ Evening this week. We hope you enjoyed celebrating all the learning in the books.

This week Year 2 took part in a very special KS1 Act of Worship for Ash Wednesday and to mark the start of Lent. Lent is a time when we pray, give up treats and do kind things for other people, as we prepare to celebrate the great feast of Easter. Year 2 thought very carefully about their Lenten promises and created a beautiful display for our Sacred space in the classroom.In Maths we have been concentrating on telling the time. We pretended to be clocks, turning clockwise and anti-clockwise. There were lots of hands turning … half turns, full turns, quarter turns. Everyone used great reasoning to prove their times.

In English we are focusing on the book The Tin Forest as part of our whole school writing project. Year 2 have started their junk modelling and have created some wonderful collage tin creatures.

Home Learning:

Mathletics: Time

Spellings:cries, flies, dries, replies, supplies, denies

Common exception words: children, only, cold, told, everybody
Have a peaceful weekend,
Miss Davey

Week 6: February 14th

This has been another busy week!

On Tuesday the class visited the Watford Central Mosque and the Imam shared information about the mosque, traditions and the Muslim faith.  The children showed great respect in this place of worship and back in class wrote about what they had learnt on The Qur’an and the Five Pillars.

The Lady’s prayer room       Washing Room

 

The Muslims pray five times a day at these times depending on sunrise and sunset

The Imam showed the children the Qur’an

On Wednesday the class in swimming continued to develop their skills and practised jumping into the water and swimming to the end of the lane!

On Thursday afternoon, the children led a drumming concert to the rest of the school with Caz who has been teaching them composition and performance skills on the djembe drums.  The children looked confident in their performance and showed how much they had learnt from their lessons with Caz since September.

For E-Safety Day, the children discussed the importance of being SMART when accessing the internet and watched an educational video that taught them the importance of staying safe on the internet.

Please click on the link if you would like to see what they discussed and watched.

https://www.childnet.com/resources/the-adventures-of-kara-winston-and-the-smart-crew/watch-full-movie

 

The disco was enjoyed by all and we even got to join in with some of the moves!

In English the children were publishing their final narratives on Leon and these have been added to their writing portfolios.

This afternoon, the children had another fun session with Coach Duggan and worked in teams using the outdoor environment in their investigative work.

            

Home Learning is a whole school project on designing information on tin to link with our whole school writing project on The Tin Forest.

Have a lovely half term!

Ms Dunning and Mrs McNamara

Year 6 – 14/02/20

For the final week of the half term, we celebrated Other Faiths Week, where we looked this time at the Islamic faith. The class learnt about the Five Pillars of Islam, and on Thursday visited the Watford Mosque, where along with Year 5 they had the opportunity to hear from the Imam about prayer rituals and the importance of the Five Pillars. The children’s behaviour was impeccable, for which they earned an extra playtime. Thank you to Axcel and Mrs Darling for accompanying the classes.

 

In D&T, the children have learnt different stitches which they can choose to use for their felt phone cover. They learnt how to do running stitch, backstitch and overcast stitch.

In English, the children wrote non-chronological reports for their mythical creatures, and did paintings to illustrate their writing. They have used fantastic language and I can’t wait to compile all of their beautiful work into a book.

In maths, our topic has been Area, and so we have been doing lots of reasoning and problem solving for finding the area of composite shapes, triangles and parallelograms.

Home learning for the half term:

Spellings (from Year 5 & 6 Statutory Spelling List):

attached

available

average

competition

conscience

controversy

correspond

embarrass

especially

exaggerate

 

We need your help!

The class gardens this year are going to be designed to encourage  biodiversity in the area. Year 6 are lucky enough to be making a garden for butterflies, and so it would be fantastic to receive any donations to include in our garden. Butterflies enjoy bluebells, marigolds, buttercups, hyacinth, clover, garden mint, knapweed, thistles, blackberry bushes, heather, lavender, Bowles’ Mauve wallflower, marjoram and willowherbs.

Thank you in advance.

I wish you all an enjoyable half term.

Miss Donatantonio

Reception Spring Term Week 6

Reception have officially made it to the half way point!

We hope that you enjoyed Reception’s first ever class assembly this morning. The children have worked extremely hard this week, in preparation for this special occasion. Thank you for your support!

This week was ‘Other Faiths Week’ in school. Reception took part in a workshop about Judaism. As well as learning about Jewish artifacts and traditions, the children had fun learning a Jewish children’s song.

Next half term, we shall be joining the rest of the school in focusing our learning around the book The Tin Forest. Please see the school’s newsletter for the whole school home learning activity in preparation. Please note, this is optional for Reception.

Well done Reception, you have been fantastic this half term! Wishing you a restful half term holiday.

Mrs Theo and Mrs Gymer

Spring 1 Week 6

During our final week of half term, we have been learning about Islam as a part of other faith week. On Wednesday, Year 5 learnt about the Qur’an and then on Thursday visited the Watford Mosque. The imam was very informative and the children showed exceptional respect.

Later on Thursday, it was disco time and Year 5 had a great time with glow sticks!

 

In maths, we have been focusing on formal methods of addition and subtraction. The children have thrived in this unit and have been completing cryptorhythms. I have been really impressed with their problem solving skills in the past week.

Today we worked hard to bring our art unit to an end. After weeks of learning about painting and colour, the children created Hockney inspired school landscapes.

Home learning:

This week, there is a whole school home learning. We would like children to learn about tin in preparation of our upcoming English unit based on The Tin Forest. Find out where it comes from and about its properties.