Foundation Unit
Our learning this week has been focused on teaching the Foundation Unit of the importance of Remembrance Day and why we proudly wear poppies in the lead up to November 11th. We have embraced the theme of poppies by creating large paper plate poppies that we wore with pride for our two minute silence on Thursday. They have printed with apples to create fields of poppies and learnt about the purple poppy and how it symbolises the remembrance of animals.
Year 1
Year 1 performed their assembly brilliantly on Thursday, after the whole school stood silent for the 11 ‘o clock 2-minute silence. They spoke with clarity and could be heard across the playground. We then invited the whole school to join in with our song ‘Wear a Poppy Today’. Pupils wore their handmade poppies with pride as they performed.
Year 2
This week the children have been busy, working on the Art topic. Our focus this term is ‘Elmer the Colourful Elephant‘ by David McKee. There are many stories about Elmer and his friends – the main point being it is OK to be different, we are ‘All Unique’.
Year 3
We have been working hard at our English Speaking Board (ESB) this week and presenting talks, readings, and poems to the class. We have some very interesting props on the tables, from conkers to walking a wind powered robot. We also have a giant combine harvester costume made from boxes…there isn’t a dull corner in the classroom! In maths we have been looking at fractions of shapes and how we can work these out. We have been birdwatching in English – looking at where different birds live and their different characteristics…we even had a mini session on different bird song. We had no idea that every breed of owl has a completely different ‘hoot’ and a raven can mimic human sounds just like a parrot! We also studied the difference between fiction and non-fiction. Geography took us to mountainous regions in the world. We looked at Remembrance Day and what this means, reflecting on what life must have been like for families during the First World War. This was followed by two minutes of silence and Mrs Lockyer’s special assembly.
Year 4
We are continuing to practice our talks, poems and reading for English Speaking Board (ESB) and we are enjoying listening to each other’s. In Maths, we have been extending our understanding of fractions, learning about decimal fractions, and revisiting the column method for addition and subtraction. In English we have been developing our writing skills and have created a plan for a report about the school. Healthy eating has been the focus in science, and we have been developing a meal plan for a hockey team (currently an unsuccessful one!). All of the food groups have been explored and justifications made for the choice of food items in the planned meal, in the hope that their fitness and energy levels will improve. In Art we are continuing to study landscapes and complete our paintings in the style Paul Klee. We are using abstract blocks of colour to represent features of landscapes, using water-colours.
Year 5
Year 5 have been very busy this week practising for English Speaking Board (ESB). They have been very good at listening attentively and providing thoughtful, constructive feedback to each other. In science this week we used the internet to conduct detailed research on an animal. Lots of interesting animals were chosen including the praying mantis, lemurs, and the grey wolf. We then used this research to begin creating our Google slides presentations. The presentations are looking great so far, although we have lots of work still to do. In maths, we got the protractors out and learned how to measure and draw angles accurately. We have also been discussing and using mental methods to solve multiplication and division calculations.
Year 6
This week we have been practising our English Speaking Board (ESB) talks, which are coming on very well, and revisiting fractions. We all enjoyed playing tag rugby up at the field on Wednesday and researching our animal to prepare a David Attenborough style documentary. We also learned about Remembrance Day and held a two-minute silence on the playground. In ICT the class are finding out about an artist to create a PowerPoint presentation on and in Geography we are looking at mountain climates. Another busy, productive week at Windrush Valley Private School Oxfordshire!