Year 1 - our children become authors!

Although we have only been in school for 4 days this week, we have squeezed in plenty of exciting learning! We were really delighted to share all aspects of the children’s learning with you at the two Parents’ Evenings too; if you were not able to make it, please speak to your class teacher to arrange another suitable time.

In English this week, we planned and wrote our farm stories, based on ‘Farmer Duck’ by Martin Waddell. We were so impressed to see how the children structured their stories and included many of the grammatical features that they have learned during this unit of work. We have compiled a class book of the stories which we are looking forward to sharing with other children at Stanmore Primary School.

We have also sent off our ‘thank you’ letters to Longdown Dairy Farm. Here are some examples of the children’s independent writing.

Multiplication and division has been our maths focus this week, particularly multiplying by 5 and 10, and seeing how we can use multiples of 10 to derive multiples of 5. The children have explained their understanding throughout the activities. Next week, we will be revisiting fractions (halves and quarters) and applying our knowledge to a range of problems.

In science, we have started to look at animals and their young, identifying their similarities and differences and why this might be. We have also spent time outside in the Quad to explore the seasonal changes and hunt for signs of spring. We compared our observations with those that we made in winter, noting the changes to flowers, trees, the weather and our clothing. 

We continue with our guided reading and phonics daily. 

We hope you had a wonderful 3 day weekend!

Year 6 - art worth an award

A group of Year 6 children entered an art competition recently. On Tuesday, this week, four children were invited to receive their awards. Out of 175 entries, two children from year 6 received 3rd place prizes and two children received special accreditation awards. Well done Year 6!

Zoological learning

This week we were invited to a lecture and afternoon tea with Jane Goodall, a zooologist, at Winchester College. We had 3 boys attend to represent Stanmore.

On arrival, the boys were presented with two books, one of which has been signed by Jane herself. These books will be available in the library soon.

Year 5 - River studies and volcanos?

We have had another very exciting week in Year 5. Despite the weather, we have completed outdoor learning in English and enjoyed a field study trip to the River Itchen.

In maths, we have been set a challenge with very complex math problems about volcano studies forming an extremely important sector of geological studies. Calculating everything carefully (using our understanding of multiplication, division, addition, subtraction and fractions), we have successfully completed most of our task; we look forward to continuing it next week.

In English, we have continued our learning journey based around single use plastic and how it is bad it is for the environment. For this journey, we have learnt how to use colons and semi colons and will be using these in our balanced arguments, which we will be writing next week.

Following on from our exciting trip last week to Winchester College, this week we studied the river Itchen (Winchester’s own chalk river!). We learnt all about hydrology, ecology and classified invertebrates. Again we had lots of fun, learnt new skills, developed our knowledge and most importantly we had more cake!

Year 1 - visit to the farm and World Book Day

What an exciting week we have had in Year 1! On Tuesday we had a wonderful day out at Longdown Dairy Farm to bring alive our current topic of ‘Down on the Farm’ (see the photos below). The children were eager to be farmers for the day and enjoyed animal feeding as well as collecting eggs and holding the baby chicks. We loved seeing the tiny piglets (Mrs Jones wanted to bring one back to school!) and baby goats, as well as some of the larger animals, such as Pearl the Shire horse. Very many thanks to our parent helpers who accompanied us on the trip; we hope that you had a lovely day too! Some of the photos from our trip are on the website now.

On Thursday, we celebrated World Book Day by dressing as a crayon from the book ‘The day the crayons quit’. The children thought that the story, comprising of letters, was very funny and were eager to write their letters to Blue Crayon to ask him to come back. During the rest of the week, we have been learning grammar skills in preparation for our story writing next week. This has included the prefix ‘un’ (unhappy, unkind etc.) as well as recapping on the use of capital letters and full stops. Next week, we will be learning about personal pronouns (he, she, they, I, we) as well as planning and writing our farm stories. 

In maths, we have continued to work on addition and subtraction, and thinking about the different ways that this could be represented, such as with concrete resources, pictorially, on a number line, as a bar model etc., and using these skills in a variety of contexts. Next week, we will be revisiting multiplication and division by 2, 5 and 10.

We have been learning about the United Kingdom in Geography, including the countries and their capital cities, as well as the main seas that surround our island. We have started to look at the features of the countries and will be thinking about what is the same and what is different about them.

We continue with our guided reading and daily phonics, as usual. 

Notes:

Parents’ evenings – 12thand 14thMarch 2019

Many thanks to everyone who has booked a slot for parent’s evening already. Please see your class teacher to arrange an appointment if you are having problems accessing the online booking system. 

Toys in classrooms

A gentle reminder, please, that no toys are to be brought into school; this includes leaving them in book bags or rucksacks. Thank you for your understanding. 

Parent mornings (Wednesdays 8.45am – 8.55am)

It is lovely to see so many parents joining us for reading or maths activities on a Wednesday morning – the children very much enjoy welcoming you into their classrooms! Please can we remind you that children must be accompanied by an adult if they are in the classroom before the whistle goes at 8.55am, unless they have been in Breakfast Club. Thank you.

Year 5 - plastics, rivers, snakes and spiders

We’ve had a brilliant week in Year 5! We have been putting our keys to success into practise to help us succeed in all areas of our learning.

In English this week, we have been gathering facts about single use plastic. We have been doing this because we will be writing a balanced argument. At the moment, based on the facts, Beech class are against single use plastic.

In maths this week, we have been practising our addition and subtraction; we have been consolidating our knowledge and skills by answering multi-step problems in different contexts.

On Wednesday afternoon, we were very fortunate to be invited to Winchester College for the first part of our river project. While we were there, we learnt lots about Chalk Rivers and even got some cake! They brought out lots of interesting animals such as snakes, cockroaches and millipedes. But the highlight of the afternoon was Miss Kingshott’s face when the tarantula appeared!

All of year 5 came in jubilantly on Thursday (World Book day) because we were all yellow crayons! As you all know, yellow is the colour of the sun not orange. This is what years 5 and 6 were debating. In groups of six, we came up with some compelling arguments as to why yellow should be the colour of the sun. We debated in two parts, A and B, C and D. The group containing A and B, had their debate in the quad and run by the lovely Miss Kingshott, whereas C and D were inside in elm class. Both groups were very close.

FoS - Cake sale proceeds

We made £172 at our cake and uniform sale yesterday and the rain just about held off! Thanks to everyone who supplied such a lovely selection of bakes, to those who helped run the stall, to those who spent their pennies and to mother nature for being kind! Rachel, Jen, Hayley, Ali and Jo.

Year 6 - Young Writers Spooky Sagas Competition

Mrs Kempson entered 10 hair-raising tales from Year 6 writers into this year’s Spooky Sagas Competition. After receiving 22,000 entries, we are very excited to have received confirmation that all 10 children have had their work chosen for publication in Spooky Sagas for the South East!

“I am delighted to let you know that I’ve chosen all of the work from your school for publication in Spooky Sagas – The South East. Having work published is a fantastic way to boost confidence and showcases writing skills as well as giving pupils a real audience and purpose for their writing. Having all your pupils’ work chosen is something to be proud of, it doesn’t happen every day! I was impressed with their reading and writing and it’s clear you’ve really inspired them with Spooky Sagas – it’s been a privilege to read and every piece will make a fantastic addition to Spooky Sagas – The South East!”

The book is scheduled for publication on 31st May 2019 and we will receive a free copy to share with the children at school.

A massive well done to all the children who entered and a huge ‘thank you’ must also go to Mrs Kempson who has worked tirelessly to enthuse the children and promote their love of reading and writing (as well as taking the time to organise the entries!) We are very proud of all of you!

Year 5 & 6 - our girls playing football

The Year 5/6 girls took part in football tornament on Wednesday afternoon at Henry Beaoufort School, Winchester. Despite not playing as a team before, the girls played from strength to strength against some tough competition. Not only did they do themselves proud, they represented the school showing great sportmanship, teamwork and persistance. The girls had enormous amouts of fun even though they did not win, their enthusiasm kept Miss Kingshott and Mrs Kempson smiling. 

Well done girls!

Year 5 - bridges and high speed trains

Year 5 have had a busy week, displaying their amazing bridges built in Design and Technology. Parents and carers were invited in to take part in a lively debate about whether a High Speed Train link is needed to connect the northern cities with the south. The children presented well constructed arguments in favour and against resulting in the adults voting 48% in favour and 52% against, in contrast to the children who were a resounding 93% against the High Speed Train link after considering all the pros and cons.