On Tuesday, Year 6 took part in the annual Safer Internet Day, where they explored how technology has changed over time. Together, they had lots of fun thinking creatively and sharing ideas on what changes they thought might happen in the future.

In RE this week, Year 6 were fascinated by a video taken of a 3D app, which allowed them to explore Herod’s Temple in Jerusalem. This gave the children a really good understanding of the scale and layout of the temple, and also gave them additional information about what Passover would have been like during Jesus’ time. Many children have asked for the link to be added to the blog, so that they can have a go at downloading the actual app and exploring it for themselves.

3D Walkthrough of the Temple in Jerusalem (youtube.com)

This afternoon, the class were led in a very special Palm Burning Ceremony by our Year 6 Liturgy Leaders. The children had been given the responsibility of burning the palm crosses donated by the parish community, in preparation for Ash Wednesday, next week. As the class watched the palms burn and turn into ashes, they were reminded that God created us from the dust of the earth, and it is from this humble beginning that we emerge with purpose and potential.

In Maths this week, the children have continued to consolidate their understanding of formal long division written methods, and have applied this to real life problem solving.

In English, Year 6 began their new non-fiction unit, based on the wonderful book Arthur Spiderwick’s Field Guide to the Fantastical World Around You by Tony DiTerlizzi and Holly Black.

Next week, the class will be planting bulbs and will need to bring in a small flowerpot from home, thank you!

Home Learning

Daily reading

TTRockstars

Spelling Shed

Mathletics

SPaG.com

Parents, if you haven’t already done so,  please remember to book an appointment to meet with me next week, at one of the parent consultation evenings. Thank you!

Have a lovely weekend,

Miss Pemberton

Today, the children in Year 6 were led in prayer by Lucy, Naomi and Grey, in a very beautiful act of worship on the theme of ‘Diversity’. The accompanying music, bible reading and reflection were very well thought out, planned and executed, and certainly set a high benchmark for the rest of the class. Well done children!

This week, Year 6 have been very busy completing their Maths assessments, the results of which allow the staff  to identify any gaps in knowledge or any misconceptions. Next week, they will also be assessed in reading.

Yesterday, 13 of our Year 6 children joined the rest of the choir attending the very exciting and energetic Young Voices concert at Wembley Arena! The day and evening were lots of fun and the children’s behaviour and performance were outstanding! Meanwhile, the rest of the class joined Ms Donatantonio and had a fun-filled afternoon, playing different dice games.

Home learning

Mathletics– Division

SPaG.com– Antonyms and Synonyms

Spelling Shed

TT Rock Stars– as discussed in class today, it is imperative that you are secure and fluent in every times table to 12, as this is the basis for so many other areas in Maths. If you are not, it is now a matter of urgency!

Daily reading

Have a wonderful weekend,

Ms Pemberton

It has been a very good week in Year One. The children have been progressing with their Animal dance sequence and worked in partners to show each other their animal dancing. They helped each other by discussing how they could improve their movements and took it in turns to demonstrate these. They had fun playing a game of mirror images copying each others movements!

Science

In Science year one have been looking into materials and their properties. We talked about various objects and the materials they are made from. The children each found two items in our classroom and wrote about the materials they were made from. They talked about their use, purpose, flexibility and predicted longevity.

Italian

Year one are enjoying their weekly Italian lessons on a Tuesday with Corrado. They have been learning how to name colours and Seasons in Italian. This week the children learned how to name items of clothing and associate the clothes worn according to the Season.

Maths

In Maths the children have been identifying and representing numbers using ten frames. They are working on adding using ‘Think 10.’ They have been using their knowledge of number bonds to ten to aid calculations.

On Wednesday we sadly had to say goodbye to our cook Lisa. Lisa has worked as a member of the catering team for many years at Pope Paul and she will be greatly missed. Year one made a goodbye card and got to present their card in assembly and to say thanks to Lisa for all she has done for the children at Pope Paul over the years. We wish Lisa all the best for the future!

RE

In RE this week the children focused on scene 3 of The Passover Story. We read through the scene together and then the children went off to work in groups to re-enact what happened. They were very good at identifying the main characters, describing the setting and working together to perform their story to the class.

Art

This week the children used watercolour to work towards developing imagery from imagination. The children watched a video by artist Emma Burleigh giving them a set of instructions and it was very clear to see them using those skills within their own work. They could only choose 2-3 colours and had to draw using lines, shapes, dots, splattering brushes and also using the opposite end of the paintbrush to create mark making. Not an easy task, Well done Year 1!

Mathletics – please complete the activities set.

Handwriting sheet – practice letters sent home. You do not need to send this back as they are also practised daily in school.

Spellings – please practice the spellings with your child for a spelling test next Friday. This also does not need to be sent back.

Reading – 5/10 minutes daily

Have a lovely weekend.

Mrs Poyaidzis and Mrs Barnes

The children in Year 4 had another busy week of learning.

In Maths, the class further consolidated the use of fraction walls to order and compare non unit fractions and to recognise fractions that are equal. The class also identified non unit fractions of sets and shapes.

In English, the children used their ‘Dragon plans’ to write their final non-chronological reports using formal tone, technical vocabulary and expanded noun phrases. Through 4 cohesive paragraphs they described the animal’s origins, habitat, appearance, behaviour, weaponry and general benefits as a battle companion. After some editing, the class will publish their reports including maps, diagrams, etc next week.

In Science, we introduced our second practical enquiry of our topic for the term, ‘States of Matter’, this time about gases. Through hands on experiments next week, the class will answer 3 questions about gases: Do they have weight? What happens to them when they are heated? and Can they be made by combining liquids and solids? This week, they have planned their investigation thinking about resources and ways to record. We also learnt how to construct accurate bar graphs to represent our findings from our last, liquid based lesson.

In RE, the children looked at the Passover in Jesus’ time. They used Google Maps to find out how long the journey from Nazareth to Jerusalem would have been on foot and had a look at the Temple in Jerusalem where Joseph and Mary showed sacrifice. They later wrote a play script, allocating dialogues to Jesus and his parents recalling the main rules for the 7 day long festival.

In PE, the class merged some of their groups to work on a longer routine as part of their Roman Dance unit.

On Thursday, whilst the choir attended the Young Voices at Wembley, the remaining children played highly competitive and enjoyable dice games with their Year 3 learning partners. After a few rounds, they also invented their own games which they shared with other children from Year 5 and 6.

Please find further game ideas on the blog!

Have a lovely weekend,

Ms Varga