Hot July brings cooling showers,

Apricots and gillyflowers.

July….July…. how can it be July already???

As you know we like to focus on vocabulary and the meaning of words that perhaps we have not come across before - well I have to admit that I did not know what a gillyflower was and so I had to look it up (it is good to reinforce to children that even as adults, if we don’t know the meaning of words we need to ask), so if like me you did not know what a gillyflower is I can now tell you that “a gillyflower is the carnation or a similar plant of the genus Dianthus, especially the Clove Pink Dianthus caryophyllus.”

So here we go with our learning this week - after the excitement of last week, it was back to business as normal.

We started the week off with our usual phonics, maths, free flow and reading!

Last week, Alex (our drumming teacher) treated us to a showcase drumming performance. We watched and listened in awe as some of our pupils from Year 1 to Year 5 demonstrated with enormous talent and skill what they have been learning in their lessons. The audience (the whole school) were so generous in their praise and delight and quite rightly so – well deserved. If your child is interested in taking up drumming in September, please do get in tough and we will pass the information onto Alex.

Alex’s drumming performance certainly whet our appetites and so we got out the djembe drums in our Pantomimus lesson this week – we are working towards a recognisable tune/ beat (as you can tell it is certainly a work in progress but we like a challenge!!!). Watch this space!

On Wednesday we released our butterflies – it was one of the most wonderful moments of our year. We walked up the hill, we stopped several times, we had to get the release location just right. Eventually we all agreed on a spot. We put on our very own butterfly wings – we were bright and colourful – well we had to be because did you know that a collection of butterflies is actually called a kaleidoscope and that is what we were - a mix of changing and beautiful colours twisting and turning and billowing in the wind. Ms. Reynolds opened the net and one by one we released the butterflies – they were free to go and live life in all its fullness.

As we started our descent down the hill, we were sure that the butterflies were following us so we paid a quick visit to the village bug hotel to let Karen know that our very own butterflies might be visiting the hotel soon and if they did please could they have the luxury suite – Karen assured us they would have only the best! Doesn’t the bug hotel look amazing - we are so proud to have been part of this project.

Next week….we have another very busy week ahead – we hope to release the frogs back into the river and of course we will be visiting Trindledown. If your child has raised a small amout please coud this be sent into school on Monday so that we can total it all ahead of the vist next week.