A great week to finish our first half term back and we enjoyed out last harvest festival, this time the turn of our youngest children. We go again after half term with all that is entailed with Christmas!
Outdoor Learning – we need help this half term holiday if you are out and about on walks. We have been given a free resource to start our own tree nursery, but we need some seeds! Tree seeds of any kind – acorns, conkers, rowan berries, elder berries, sycamore, field maple helicopter seeds. Ash are probably one to avoid as we don’t want to spread any disease. Collect your seeds in a paper bag – if you can label the bag with the location that the seeds were collected- that would be great. Bags can be given to your child’s class Eco Ambassadors in the new term. Eco Rangers can then plant the seeds to start off our tree nursery, which will then link into a wider tree planting initiative through the Biosphere project! Stay safe! and don’t eat berries, watch out for plants that sting and only collect from the ground- we don’t want to damage trees in our foraging!
We await a response from Devon Country Council regarding a 2023-2024 term dates query we have and will publish them as soon as possible.
Thank you for all your support this half term and please do click on ‘more’ to read the remainder of this article. We wish you all a super half term and look forward to welcoming you back on Monday 31st October.
From Jeremy Cooper and all the children and staff.
PS – see you at the disco!
PPS – well done Harry for being awarded the House Cup for Responsible
AROUND AND ABOUT THE VILLAGE
Bideford Pannier Market and Great Torrington Pannier Market have many Halloween activities over half term. More details for Great Torrington can be found on Facebook.
AROUND THE CLASSES
The highlight of the week for Turtles and Dolphins has to be our harvest festival. The children were amazing in their first ever stand up before an audience. thank you so much for your support with their words. And thank you for your support this half term. It has been a wonderful first half term. All the children have worked so hard and thoroughly deserve the rest.
Year 1 have been writing all about our trip to Exmoor Zoo this week. We have been making sure to use time connectives such as ‘first’, ‘then’, ‘after’ and ‘finally’ to show the order we did things in. In Maths we have been using the part whole model to help us write addition sentences. In RE we were thinking about ways to take care of the Earth and thought of some really important things such as turning lights off, picking up our rubbish and walking more.
We have had a busy end to the term in year 2 with lots of excitement about the Halloween Disco! In Maths we have continued our work on Addition and Subtraction by adding and subtracting 1s, adding three 1-digit numbers, and adding to the nearest 10. Most of our Maths this week has used number bonds to 10, some children are still struggling with these so if you could work on these at home too that would be great! In English we have written our own instructions for How to Wash a Cheeky Chimp. In Science we talked about adaptations and designed our own animals with different adaptations. In RE we have learnt about one of the Five Pillars of Islam – The Shahadah. In Philosophy we walked around the school looking at areas of the school we liked and areas that could be improved. We spoke about who was responsible for looking after the areas.
Year 3 had a wonderful trip to the Eden Project where we became rainforest rangers. We learned how to survive in the rainforest and walked around the rainforest biome. As we explored the biome, we searched for plants that we would be able to eat and we discovered lots of different fruits growing, including bananas, figs, star fruits and pineapples. We also searched for things that we could use to help us collect water and a we found variety of plants that we could use to provide shelter. We also spotted a gecko! In English, we completed publishing our stories for the writing wall and we started reading a new book called ‘Lord of the Forest’. We explored the use of different noun phrases to describe the tiger from the story and then wrote a letter to the tiger to persuade him that he is the lord of the forest.
Year 4 thoroughly enjoyed a trip to Morrisons on Wednesday where they looked at the different types of packaging used in the store and looked at ways in which the supermarket was trying to reduce the amount of plastic being used in store! We then took the information we learnt and produced booklets to encourage shoppers to use less plastic. They wrote about the problem with plastic, their findings in Morrisons and suggested ways for shoppers to make small changes but have a positive impact on the environment, such as reusing plastic bags, using paper bags instead when necessary and to shop at the food counters more. As well as this, the children have been learning about the column method in Maths, and when it is appropriate to use it. In English, we have been watching a video called The Girl and the Fox as a stimulus, and children used a thesaurus and Chromebooks to up-level their vocabulary to make their writing more sophisticated.
Year 5 have started a new literacy text, ‘Women in Science’, with a focus on writing a biography. In maths they have completed the addition and subtraction unit and about to start multiplication and division. Keep practising time tables over the half term break as these facts will be needed all next half term. We had a visit from Asda and had an opportunity to taste seven different fruits. It was great to see all the class trying the fruits (many were surprised by liking them!) Have a well deserved rest next week with your families.
Year 6 are at the end of our Climate Change topic and children have ideas about what we can do to help to minimise the negative impact our modern lives are having on our planet. In Literacy, we have been refining skills with punctuation ready to apply in our story work. In maths, we have been using prime, squared and cubed numbers as well as improving accuracy with multiplication. Science has involved creating curious creatures which we had to classify as we have been learning what characteristics animals have to be part of a group. In PE, we have completed a unit working on social skills and we have begun learning the rules of Handball too. As requested, look for grammar terminology sheets on Google Classroom and Maths skills to help children remember terminology. Have a lovely half-term.
