The children are enjoying their swimming lessons and they love spending time in the water. They have recently been learning about the importance of water safety, and have enjoyed playing games in the pool during their sessions.

In English, we have been enjoying looking at short stories. To encoorportae this with Halloween, the children were excited to write their own ‘Spooky’ short story. We looked at different ways to open a short story in order to catch the reader's attention. We also looked at short sentences to create tension and the diamond moment, where the writer makes one important part of their story really stand out and shine! Take a look at the wonderful writing of the children in Macaw class.

Swan class @FP have been having a go at printing – replicating the method that the artist Hokusai used when he created ‘The Great Wave’.

In maths, they have been using tens frames to practise their number bonds to 10!

We also really enjoyed our trip to St Paul's Cathedral with Flamingo class - you can see some of our photos below:

Wednesday 22^nd November -4.00pm

Friday 1^st December-9.15am.

In maths the children, in Dove class @FP, have really enjoyed learning about ‘greater than’ ‘less than’ and are enjoying looking at the whole number and splitting it into parts.

In English we have been looking at the story ‘The Tiger Who Came to Tea’. We have been sequencing the story and writing our own version, changing some of the characters.

Finally we went on a trip around the local area. This was a great success and the children really enjoyed finding all the different objects we had taken pictures of.

Thank you to all the parents that came along with us.

The children in Puffin Class have been incredibly busy researching budgies this week! The children want to care for our new class pets as best they can so have been visiting the school library, looking through non-fiction books and looking up information online. 

The children have drawn some beautiful pictures of Sherbet and Cyril and many of them have even learnt how to spell their names!

In maths we have been working on number formation, and the children have been writing numbers in chalk on the ground, and on BusyThings online.

We have had a fantastic term so far In Nightingale class @FP doing lots of great learning and creative activities together. We have been using colourful semantics to form sentences about the ‘Snail on a mission’ animation in preparation for our writing. We have also enjoyed writing about ourselves and painting self portraits. 

In maths, we have been looking at partitioning 4 digit numbers and discussing how many thousands, hundreds, tens and ones are in each number. Every week, we learn a new Makaton symbol and this week's is the sign for noisy. We have also started Lego build sessions this week which have been a great way to work on our speaking, listening and communication skills. 

This week in Eagle class @FP, on the run up to the National Poetry Day (5th October 2023), we have been reading several poems with the class. We decided what we wanted our poems to be about and determined the best format for the chosen topics. It was interesting exploring words, rhymes and rhythm before writing the poems, thinking particularly about the impact we wanted to have on the reader. The most important part for some of the children was evaluating each other's poem after they were performed. The children were able to articulate strengths and possible improvements. Most of the poems painted visual pictures, focused on the main idea or told a different story. Here are some examples. 

October is Black History Month and we have included a great poet in our English lessons, Karl Nova, whose first collection of poems, Rhythm and Poetry, is the basis for our own poems about the seasons. Karl Nova uses a range of references in his poetry and takes inspiration from Shakespeare to hip-hop artists. However, his greatest influence was his mother for introducing him to books as a child. On that note, thank you to those that attended our first Parents’ Reading Friday in September.

We have all been learning to review each other’s work and deciding whether to change our work or keep it the same. Here are some comments on Sanya’s poem, below: I liked the powerful imagery – the image of icy and heisty. Maybe you could change heisty for feisty.

Read more here: https://wp.me/peWTXe-yH

This week, Year 5 have been reading ‘Noah Barleywater runs away’ which is an adventure fairytale story about a boy called Noah who takes an untrodden path through a forest which leads him on a very unusual journey. We have been using our inference skills this week to be detectives and use clues to help us to figure out what will happen next.

We have enjoyed reading and writing poetry over the past two weeks. The children loved exploring how layout can affect a poems rhythm and meaning.

In maths, we are learning how to add and subtract 4-digit numbers. We have been using both mental and written strategies such as the column method.

In science, we are looking at all living things. This week we focused on life cycle of different animals.

In art, we have been focusing on using lines to represent things seen, imagined and remembered. We have been drawing and developing artists techniques.

Macaw class have begun their swimming lessons and have enjoyed building their confidence and skills. Some of the children have even taken a deep dive!

Year 3 really enjoyed their trip to the British Museum - especially the walk from the museum back to Charing Cross!