Let the summer holidays begin!

The holidays started early with a trip to the beach. It was so wonderful to see such happy faces digging and playing in the sand. The weather was perfect, the sea warm(ish) and the ice creams cold! A great day out.

We also managed to squeeze in a dance workshop, artwork inspired by angles and our canopic jars. Plus enjoy a great class party,a game of rounders and two leavers assemblies! On that note we wish all our leavers, both the Year 6 children and our friends in other classes, farewell. We wish them all the very best for the future.

Finally, a huge and heartfelt thank you to all the children and parents I have worked with over the last two years. I have enjoyed being part of this lovely community.

Owl class you have made this year so much fun and we have had so many adventures together. It has been a privilege to be your teacher and I will be thinking of you all in September and sending you lots of luck. Keep aiming high my wise Owls and know that we all believe in you. Enjoy the summer holidays. Mrs Sayer x

Last full week at school...

Well done Owls for another action packed week! You have shown all our values in your endeavours, being a friend and compassionate towards each other at Sports Day, showing resilience and creativity in our art topic and reflecting wisely on the term’s learning as we start to finish off our units of work.

Sports day was great fun and lovely to see so many families cheering everybody on. All the activities gave everybody a chance to shine and have a go. Well done to all the Houses but a special well done to Watermill!

We think this might be our favourite art unit… sculpting canopic jars from a single piece of newspaper has been a challenge but also a great way of understanding form and shape and how materials can be manipulated. Owls are very proud of their work and rightly so.

Transition day arrived this week. New classrooms for some, new teachers for others and a very good day for all. Owls enjoyed their day and are looking forward to September.

It was a shame that the Pilgrimage was postponed but we would have got rather damp! Despite this the children got to meet Penny and Chris (who they would have met on the walk) and had a talk about what it is like being a Quaker. The Pilgrimage will be something to look forward to next academic year.

Have a lovely weekend.

Lights, camera, action!

What a week it has been. To say we were proud of the Owls would be an understatement. Their performance of ‘Fantastic Mr Fox’ at the Corn Exchange on Tuesday was superb. All the children delivered their lines with expression and even though there were nerves they enjoyed every moment of it. Well done team Owls! A huge thank you to Mrs Chrimes and Mrs Stockwell for the brilliant face painting on the evening and to staff who gave their evening to support the children.

On Wednesday the children spent the day creating Canopic jars by sculpting and working with papier mache. They have been left to dry so that we can paint them next week. The children worked hard and realised that they could manipulate the material to create the different head shapes.

A wonderful concert celebrating all the musical opportunities on offer was held after school on Wednesday with Brightwalton school. The children sang, played instruments and even showed off our singing warm up to the parents! The whole school were then treated to a rerun of the concert in assembly today.

The final session of KwikCricket in PE today and the Owls have improved their throwing and catching and bowling techniques.

Owls said farewell to Mrs Norman today. We cannot thank her enough for teaching on a Friday and looking after Owls. We wish her all the very best for the future and a well deserved rest over the summer holiday!

Egyptian day!

Wow Owls - you are brilliant! It was all about the children’s science and history learning this week as we investigated the past and scientific connections. Oh and squeezing in a little bit of rehearsal time!

A massive thank you for the incredible effort families put into the costumes, jewellery and fact finding. The children were brilliant and enjoyed their day very much. A particular highlight was making a shaduf to transport water, having a hands on artefact session and investigating the treasures of the tomb of Tutankhamun.

It was great fun. There was so much gold in the tomb!

I can’t believe I have held a 3,000 year old Shabti.

Science week was great fun. The children investigated electrical circuits and considered the materials that make good conductors and insulators. The children also looked at their fingerprints and studied them for arches, whorls and loops. We discovered that every person’s fingerprint is unique.

We cannot wait to perform ‘Fantastic Mr Fox’ for you all. The children have been so impressive in learning and performing their lines. Please can costumes be in school on the morning of Tuesday 4th July so that we can be ready for the technical rehearsal during the school day. There will then be a final run through at 6pm before we perform at 7pm!

Have a wonderful weekend. Hope to see some of you at the Chaddleworth fete.

Longest day of the year...

In the week that we saw the longest day of the year we squeezed in a huge amount in to our days. This week has been assessment week and the children have all reviewed their learning in Maths and English from the year.

Lots and lots of practice for our production of Fantastic Mr Fox as we looked at the calendar and realised we have less than two weeks until our performance! The costume list is attached below, information regarding tickets has been sent out and we know that it will be a lovely evening to watch this ‘fantastic’ performance.

Any item highlighted in yellow needs to be provided by the children/families. The Corn Exchange will provide the rest.

In our Egyptian topic we have been learning about the different gods and goddesses and the role they had in the lives of people living at the time. Owls are really enjoying this history topic and using great questioning skills such as ‘Why were Pharaohs buried in pyramids but not in temples?’

Year 4 enjoyed a day at John ‘O Gaunt secondary school to end off the week and Year 3 enjoyed having time in class by themselves!!

Have a lovely weekend, enjoy the sun!

Have you ever mummifed a tomato? We did!

Despite the heat, Owls have coped really well and been very busy with lots of learning. Play rehearsals have been going well and Owls are starting to add in their expression and stage directions to their parts. Please can the children learn any lines they have throughout the next two weeks as the performance date is 4th July and although it seems a way off it is just around the corner!

Ancient Egyptians may not have mummified a tomato but Owl class enjoyed doing just that! They were learning about the process of mummification and why this civilisation preserved the bodies of the Pharaohs and Queens. We will ‘dig’ them up again at the end of term to see what effect the process has had.

Wednesday 28th - Dress up for Ancient Egyptian day! Owls are to come to school in an Egyptian inspired costume for a day of art, craft and science - Egyptian style!

Science circuits investigating. What is a circuit? How does electricity flow around a circuit? As you can see Owls had fun learning about parts of a circuit and how they are represented on a diagram.

Although the weather looks slightly cooler please can all children bring in a sunhat, water bottle and apply sun cream if required. Thank you. Have a lovely weekend.

Summer term - full steam ahead!

Good to see the Owls back after a sunny half term. The children have got straight back into the routine.

In Maths lessons this week we have been learning how to tell the time to 5 minute intervals and 1 minute intervals and have started to record as digital and analogue time. Owls have realised that telling the time involves fractions, times tables and number line knowledge! We used the part/whole method to find ways of making 60 minutes. 35 minutes past is the the same as 25 minutes to because 35 add 25 = 60.

We are very excited to be heading to Ancient Egypt this term and learning all about this intriguing civilisation. The children have learnt about when in history it was and what was happening around the world during this time. Did you know that Stonehenge was built before the Pyramids of Giza - well we do now! In our English writing we are looking at traditional tales and will be writing our own versions set in Ancient Egypt as a follow up to reading The Egyptian Cinderella.

The Corn Exchange Production of ‘Fantastic Mr Fox’ is on the horizon and the children have been given their parts this week. Please support them in learning their lines. The performance will be on 4th July and as soon as the Corn Exchange have confirmed a time we will let you know. Information about costumes will also be posted shortly.

Summer is definitely here so please remember sun hats, water bottle (every day) and sun cream if needed.

Have a good weekend. See you Monday.

Have a happy half term!

Well what a term. As usual so much has been squeezed in!

Thank you for all the reading, spelling practice and times table number crunching you are supporting with at home. Year 4 - you will have your multiplication check after the half term. Keep remembering those facts and use Purple Mash to help!

Athletics fun in the sun. Owls have been thinking about developing stamina and accuracy across a range of disciplines. They have learnt how to use a sprint start and use their arms to power through a sprint, accurate throwing of shot put style ball and long distance running skill.

What do we measure mass in? What do we measure capacity in? These are the questions Owls have been answering and using scales to measure accurately with.

Marvellous magnets!

Oh we did enjoy making games using magnets in science this week. Some fantastic ideas about how the magnets would be used to move a playing piece or collect points - well done Owl class you used your learning powers brilliantly.

On Thursday we started our project with the Corn Exchange and took part in lots of activities to get us thinking about how to reveal a character through body shapes and actions. Owl class will be performing their version of ‘Fantastic Mr Fox’ at the end of the project on 4th July. We are very excited!

Weights and measures in Maths this week. Reading scales and intervals proved tricky to start with but with lots of practice we have secured this piece of learning and can now work with grams and kilograms to measure mass accurately.

Over the week we have been reflecting on Mental Health Awareness week and had a class assembly on The Science of Kindness - did you know being kind slows the ageing process and reduces strain on the cardiovascular system?! Owls all agreed the message is simple. Be Kind. There were 10 top tips to promote self kindness too and they are things we can do every day. Have a lovely weekend.

Week of the 9th May

After a weekend filled with scones, crowns, a colour run and a music celebration it was good to return to a fairly ‘normal’ routine in class!

The children have worked with care and attention to detail in their recount write ups. They have written a report about the battle between the Iron Man and the Space-Bat-Angle-Dragon. Super sentence work has been the focus and we will publish our reports next week!

Reading for pleasure is a joy to see and Owl class have been enjoying visiting the library van and having quiet reading time in class. It is a wonderful opportunity to listen to readers and expand their vocabulary. Please remember to listen to your child(ren) read, even if they are independent free readers, as there is always a word or two that they are unsure of. Comprehending is different to decoding. VIPERS are a great tool to support this.

More magnet magic. We investigated which materials are magnetic and answered the question ‘Are all metals magnetic?’ It was interesting to find that some coins were magnetic whilst others are not. We discovered it depends on when the coins were made because the metal used to make them changed. Next week we will use our learning about magnets to design a game!

This term’s PSHE focus is on relationships and roles. We started off our learning by thinking about different types of jobs and who can do them. We considered the word ‘stereotype’ and why some people hold this view. Owl class were brilliant as they all agreed gender was no barrier to a career.

We hope you are noticing that Owls are more confident with their money! This week the class have added amounts, added up shopping lists and started to find change using a written method. The children have really understood the use of decimals in the context of money.

Enjoy the weekend and see you Monday looking smart as we have class photos but also remember to pack swimming kit!

A right royal celebration...

This week we have been reflecting on the Coronation and what it actually means. The children learnt about St Edward’s Crown and the different pieces of the Crown Jewels used in the service. On Friday the whole school watched Mr Withers crowned King for the assembly!! We were also incredibly proud of Eleanor for playing God Save the King. She was brilliant. In the afternoon Owl class celebrated with a tea party. It has been a great day.

In French this term we have been thinking about parts of the town and different shops you may find there. The children are learning to describe where places are using prepositions. Bravo Owl class for excellent speaking and listening skills.

We have finished reading The Iron Man in class and have thoroughly enjoyed this wonderful story. We have summarised the text, retold parts of the story and written a letter to the Iron Man thanking him for his bravery, strength and clever plan.

Wow we enjoyed looking at magnets and discovering that this force acts at a distance just like gravity! We know there are two poles on a magnet and that like poles repel but opposite poles attract. Next week we will be sorting materials into magnetic and non-magnetic groups.

Owls are brilliant with money. They have played lots of games this week where they have had to order and compare amounts, convert between pounds and pence and they are now ready to calculate totals and find change in next week’s learning.

Enjoy (another!) Bank Holiday weekend and we look forward to seeing you on Tuesday 9th May.

Week of the 24th April

A busy week! On Monday some of the girls from Owl class attended a football tournament at Park House school. They were brilliant representatives of the school and achieved second place in their group! The teamwork, courage and determination they showed was wonderful to see.

Owls have been working with care in their Iron Man writing and really thinking about sentence structures. Have a read through their wanted posters!

In science this week the focus was on friction as a force and Owl class had to answer the question ‘What surface creates the most amount of friction?’ The children investigated different surfaces and pulled ‘vehicles’ across them and timed the results. They discovered that rough and bumpy surfaces were slower so the children concluded there was more friction between the two surfaces.

PE was great fun. We are practising different athletic sports. This week it was running and varying our speeds for different activities.

Enjoy the bank holiday weekend and we will see you on Tuesday.

Building it up...

Welcome back Owl class. You have all settled back in to your learning with such a great attitude. You all recognise that the more effort you put in the more you get out of school and the learning opportunities on offer. Keep building up your knowledge and building up your skills.

Science - Forces and Magnets. Great fun and learning in our first lesson where we had to identify forces in action. Making paper aeroplanes enabled us to observe thrust, air resistance and gravity. In class we thought about forces acting on objects and when a force is a push or a pull. We all recognised gravity pulls on objects.

The coming of the Iron Man! Oh we are enjoying this fantastic story. Ted Hughes uses repetition and fronted adverbials to add description and interest in his sentence structures so we are aiming to write in a similar way.

It is time to think about money and measurements in maths. To start our learning we are making the link between tenths as fractions and decimals. This will help support our learning when thinking about how many pence in one pound or how many cm’s are in a metre.

Our Geography focus this term is the River Nile. We learnt some fascinating facts about the river and could not believe how long it actually is! It was also a good opportunity to recap what a continent and a country is so that we could describe the location of the Nile accurately.

Enjoy your weekend Owls. See you Monday, ready for swimming lessons!

Spring term completed!

Wow… what an action packed term it has been Owls. We started off with the residential back in January and ended it with a wonderful day of Easter reflection and craft! The weather has been pretty consistent (damp) but our spirits have remained high and there has been lots of learning along the way. Have a restful Easter holiday and think about our learning powers so that you come back ready to enjoy your learning and to be curious. Your learning questions are the best part of being a teacher.

DT project - designing and making packaging. Owls used their creativity to design packaging using their knowledge of 3d nets and considered marketing to the consumer. Plus there was a bit of chocolate to go in the boxes!!

Easter service, Easter craft and fun…

Running, dancing and thinking!

Running: Wow! What an amazing experience to attend the Cross country event on Tuesday. Every Owl went and either cheered or ran. They were brilliant ambassadors for school and entered into the spirit of the event by giving 100%. There were over 1000 children that ran and Owls, along with Red Kites, did themselves proud. The children also met Ellie Gudgeon who won a gold medal for karate at the Commonwealth games.

Dancing: We had a carnival in the hall on Thursday! Samba moves were taught to us by Zoe and we all had a great time. In the afternoon every class performed and I think we all felt we had visited Brazil and got into the spirit of the dance.

Thinking: About the Eater story, about Food chains, about packaging and boxes and about the writing of the Maya (not at the same time!). It just goes to prove how varied and different every week is when we look back on our learning!

Next week we are off to the rainforest and at the end of term we finish with our church service at Chaddleworth. Have a wonderful weekend.

A busy week!

Owls have been learning about the Jewish faith and the festivals and artefacts linked to Judaism. On Tuesday, along with Kingfishers and Robins, we visited Reading Synagogue and were welcomed by the congregation who had prepared activities in the hall and a tour of the Synagogue. It was a fascinating trip and the children learnt a great deal about Passover and Shabbat. We even learnt the words to Hava Nagila!

Lots of fraction action this week in maths. Owls are trying to secure the structure and concept of finding a fraction of an amount. They are doing this by using Bar models and manipulatives to secure the link that the denominator is also the divisor!

They use the stem sentences:

This is the whole. The whole has been divided into 4 equal parts. Each part is one quarter. One quarter of 24 is 6 because 24 divided by 4 = 6.

We are enjoying our learning about the Ancient Maya - lots of Owls have produced some wonderful home learning and fact gathering which is lovely to see and share. The Ancient Maya number system is very interesting, we learnt that they counted in 20s rather than using the Base 10 system that we count in and had a place value holder!

They used symbols to represent a value and recorded the symbols horizontally.

It is wonderful to see the children enjoying their reading and borrowing books from the school library and the library van. At the end of the term the new vocabulary lists will be available to support your child’s learning - why not use the Easter holidays to find a great book about some of the upcoming topics of the summer term? These will include: The Ancient Egyptians, Forces - Magnets and Electricity and in Art, sculpture work.
Have a great weekend!

Snow time!

It was lovely to see the children playing in the snow this week! Despite a few pairs of soggy socks everyone enjoyed seeing the field covered in snow.

The history focus to our learning has linked to the geography learning from last term and Owls definitely had a great insight into how connected our topics are by learning about Cacao beans and how important they were to the Ancient Maya of MesoAmerica. We tried Cacao nibs, and used our sense of smell and taste to compare it to the chocolate we can buy today. As you can see from the pictures some children liked it while others were not so keen!! Thank you Mrs Chrimes for providing us with the cacao.

In PSHE the children have been thinking about healthy bodies and making choices that develop healthy habits. We are trying to improve our fitness over the term with regular exercise. We also thought about healthy relationships and what a healthy friendship looks like. We thought about the term being ‘friendly’ and what this means. Some wise words from Owls now to just act on those wise words.

Have a lovely weekend.

World Book day and more!

Thursday was the focus of the week and a great day was had by all. The children wore some amazing costumes and stepped into a book as they listened throughout the day to Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll. They looked at character descriptions and similarities/differences between books and film versions. The children shared their books in a ‘Speed Read’ at the end of the day and of course tried to guess who the Masked Readers were!!

In Science Owls answered the question ‘Can people with longer femurs jump further?’ In class we talked about what makes a fair test and how we would go about investigating the question. We made predictions and then gathered results once we had measured our jumps. The results were not quite as expected! The children thought about why that might have been. A very useful experience of thinking about why there might be anomalies in the data!!

Homework - just a reminder that spellings are set every week on a Monday and the test is on a Friday and on the class page the KIRFS for each term have been there to support Maths at home since the beginning of the academic year.

The children have been given a new book to support times table learning and this work will be set on a Monday and is due in on a Friday where we will mark the work in class. Thank you for your support in this.

Enjoy your weekend everyone.

Week of the 19th February

Owls have started the term off with a new History topic, The Ancient Maya. They were surprised to learn that this Civilisation built pyramids, not just the Egyptians! We will continue to explore how the Maya lived in the rainforests of Central America.

In French this week the children have been continuing to learn about food and meal times. The children have also been learning how to say if they like a food or not. As it was Shrove Tuesday this week the children also had a go at flipping pancakes - counting how many times they could do it, in French of course!

The human body and skeleton have been a focus of our learning in science. This week the class thought about how a skeleton moves and investigated the role of muscles. Owls made a model of how the bicep and tricep muscles work together to move the arm bones, one muscle contracts while the other relaxes. The elastic bands were not as reliable as our own muscles though!

Have a good weekend.

An action packed term.

Children’s mental health week has seen us all think about ways to connect and who we connect with. We enjoyed creating these links in class and celebrating all the people and things we feel connected to.

This term you have learnt to rock climb, scale heights, work as a team, play a trumpet, create block prints and repeating patterns, multiply and divide accurately, locate the world’s rainforests, write information texts and create fantastic poetry. Phew!!

Have a wonderful half term Owls. Remember your learning powers ready for next term. Thank you for all your hard work and super effort. Mrs Sayer.