News
Newsletter for the week ending Friday 1st April
The UK Government has published new guidance detailing ‘next steps for living with Covid‘ that is applicable from today. The guidance states Children and young people who are unwell and have a high temperature should stay at home and avoid contact with other people, where they can. They can go back to school, college or childcare when they no longer have a high temperature, and they are well enough to attend. There is no mention of an obligation to test your child for Covid when they first become unwell or before you consider them well enough to return to school. If you did test your child when they first became unwell and they tested positive this guidance says they are able to return after three days provided they are well enough. The guidance does not require you to test your child before they return after three days. If you decide to test your child on day three and they remain positive, please return your child to school when they no longer test positive.
We are hoping to open holiday club on Monday 11th, Tuesday 12th and Wednesday 13th April in the first week and Tuesday 19th and Wednesday 20th April in the second week of the holiday. If you want your child to attend, please email admin@appledoreprimary.co.uk before Monday morning. Being able to open on any of these days depends on enough children attending and we will contact you on Monday once we know if sufficient bookings have been made. For pricing and opening hours please click here.
Please read on to find out what has been happening around the classes and for football match reports…
We wish you all a lovely weekend
From Jeremy Cooper and all the children and staff
AROUND THE CLASSES
This week in Turtles and Dolphins we have started learning about Spring. We have looked at where this fits into the cycle of the seasons. We have focused on animal cycles this week. We have found out about the chicken and the frog cycle. We have made some chicken and frog models and painted pictures of them.
This week Year 1 have carried on with our Slime book! We have been looking at different types of slime and evaluated how clear the instructions were. We then learnt about verbs and looked through different slime instructions to find the verbs. In Maths we have been measuring with cubes and now learning to measure in centimetres. We have loved doing our Art lessons with Abi this half term and this week we had a go at some paper weaving so we could make some lovely Easter cards. It was quite tricky to start with but the class showed great determination to complete them. If you were unable to come to the Phonics meeting on Tuesday then please have a look on Google Classroom where the PowerPoint and handout have been uploaded.
This week Lundy Puffins have been finding out about Christopher Columbus in their history lesson and answering the question: Why did Christopher sail across the unknown ocean? In their English work, they have been writing diary entries for Christopher Columbus and also imagining they are explorers going to a new land. In Maths they have continued learning about 2D and 3D shapes. In outdoor learning last week, they had great fun finding natural and man-made materials and talking about the difference between them, whilst in Values they are discussing the question ‘Why do some friends feel like family?’ as part of their work on Friendship.
Year 4 combined drama and R.E. when they created freeze frames to depict the key events of Holy Week. They worked very successfully in groups to find the tableaux and then transition between each picture. Once they had achieved this they added very limited dialogue to each scene to add to the power of the piece. Year 5 can now play their Mary Poppins piece very proficiently with correct fingering and timing. This piece allowed them to explore crotchets and minims so with our next piece we may increase the complexity with some quavers! Year 3 have been considering how Hindus celebrate Diwali and this week have looked at the story that is being remembered. They have now finished learning the choreography for their classical Indian dance to which we will add some narration before filming. There may then be a chance for them to retell the story of Rama and Sita through this medium. Year 6 have recorded the audio for their maths revision song and are now busy making the props they need for the staging be fore we record the final thing next week.
This week, in year 3, the children have been learning how to add and subtract money as well as find change. We have also begun our new unit ‘Statistics’ where the children have created tally charts. In English, the class has been learning how to use adverbs in their writing, practised writing in paragraphs and have written up conversations between Paddington and Mr Brown using speech rules. In Philosophy, the children heard the story ‘Too Good Friends’ and discussed their big question: ‘Do you have to stay friends with somebody forever?’
HMS Echo have enjoyed their last week of teaching with Miss Wood, focusing on life for Victorian children. They crawled through tunnels to find out what it was like to be a chimney sweep and, using what they had learnt from the story Chimney Charlie (by Roy Apps) they wrote diary entries as Charlie. They also worked hard in teams to plan, design, make and evaluate a moving chimney sweep model in DT. FInally, they enjoyed their last week of swimming where several children achieved distances they had been working towards. One group had a particularly fun lesson as they had to wear pyjamas!
Year 5 have had fun writing their Haiku and Kenning poems; these have linked with our theme of space and also spring. In maths we have been completing the end of term assessments and revising less confident areas (adding decimals and Roman numerals). We have continued to listen to the Planet Suite music by Holst, this week we have listened to Saturn (The bringer of old age), Uranus (The Magician) and Neptune (The Mystic). In science we answered the question ‘What is the universe and what is it made from?’ We learnt how to write the number a billion trillion in digits (do you know how many zeros are needed?) We have played tag rugby and cricket this week in PE as well as doing the park run
Year 6 have been writing about wizards this week and demonstrating their skills using figurative language. In maths, they have completed a unit on area, perimeter and volume and are now looking into ratio. In science, after conducting their own investigations into how exercise affects pulse rate, they have written up their findings and come to conclusions. The ups and downs of friendship has been a focus for P4C and they are building skills using variables in games in computing. The children have had a chance to try on sizes of hoodies so please look out for online payments soon. Thank you to all those who have responded with regards to SATs breakfasts.
Match report for Appledore Y5 girls v Torrington Bluecoats Y5 girls On Monday 28th March we traveled in the minibus and most of us were very nervous. We didn’t know what to expect from our opponents. We walked out onto the pitch and they were training. They looked very collaborative. We knew the moment we saw them it was going to be a very hard match. Before the actual game we had a warm up match and it was girls v boys.The whistle blew and the games started! We started with the ball and Rosa was striker so she started with it.Mila was right wing Ruby was left wing and Rosie, Amelie and Nancy were defenders.Eleanor was goal keeper.They were good but we ended up with the score 4 to us and 3 to them. Eleanor was a good goalkeeper, with the total saves of 4 goals. Rosa scored 2 goals, Mila scored 1 goal and we all worked together to score the last one. A great team effort! Reporters: Rosa, Eleanor and Rosie
Match report for Appledore Y5 boys v Torrington Bluecoats Y5 boys It was a great match but the results were amazing! There was a rule that there was a blue D which we couldn’t shoot in. In the first ten seconds one of our players called William scored by dribbling past the whole team straight from kick off! Appledore 1-0 Torrington. In the first half, both teams had a couple more shots on goal but none went in. Most of them flew past the post or were stopped by the goalkeepers. The possession was tight as well because it was hard to tell who had the most of the ball. It was really a tackling, winning the ball and shooting sort of half. The score was unchanged for the first half. The next half was very INTENSE! There were more shots and more saves, let alone the tension and drama. They scored 1 goal against us. To be honest, it was an amazing goal as they got the rebound of the post and blasted it into the side netting. Afterwards our team’s goalie saved a few goals whilst our striker got a couple mid pitch shots. The draw was agonizing and we couldn’t go into penalties. In the last minute they won a very dangerous free kick. When they shot it was blocked by Dylan.The game was tight but it ended 1-1. A tie game. Reporters: Dylan and Albert
