News
Newsletter for the week ending Friday 5th June
Welcome back and we hope you had a good half term break.
The Children’s Commissioner is asking for your support in helping children to take in her national survey, The Big Future. This is a valuable opportunity for children and young people to reflect on their experiences, share what matters most to them, and tell the Commissioner about their hopes and ambitions for the future in their own words. The survey is available here.
Dates for the diary:
- Appledore’s first ever Pride will take place around the village on Saturday 6th June (see here) and please see here for a competition for children to win £50 and here for story reading in the library
- Bude Lifeboat Junior Fun Run, 10 June, races for each primary age and younger, see here for information
- Tabsfest, in memory of an Appledore Pupil, is a family music festival at The Big Sheep, Saturday 13th June. See here for info.
Wishing 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 continued to read the story ‘The Three Little Pigs’. We have read different versions and compared them. On Tuesday we were set the challenge of finding a waterproof material to make an umbrella for the pigs. We had great fun testing the materials with a watering can! On Thursday we received a letter asking for our help. The wolf was in town and the pigs asked us to catch him. We decided to go to the woods to make some traps. On Friday we went to the woods again to identify natural and man made materials. Don’t forget to look on the website at the photos for this week.
Year 1 have had a very exciting week back to school with the arrival of our dragon egg! We have been looking after it carefully and read the dragon book that came with it. We loved thinking about what type of dragon we thought it might be. We have started our new topic of Castles and have started looking at the different and important features that castles have. In Maths we have been learning our left and right, which so many children were confident with already! We have also been looking at turns and enjoyed giving instructions to friends to do quarter turns, half turns, three-quarter turns and full turns.
Welcome back to Year 2 after the half term break! They have been learning to tell the time this week in Maths. They have looked at o’clock, half past and quarter to / past. Please keep practising this at home – here is a link to a teaching clock that you can use: https://www.topmarks.co.uk/time/teaching-clock
In English, they have been looking at a new book called ‘Outdoor Wonderland’ and looking at the layout of the pages. The new History topic for this half term is about seaside holidays in the past so they have started this by thinking about what they like to do at the seaside.
Year 3 has very quickly settled back into a learning routine. We have started the new text ‘The story of Tutankhamun’ by Patricia Cleveland-Peck. So far we have been learning about his early childhood. We also created mind maps from a research session on ancient Egypt which we then used the facts to write multi-clause sentences. We have continued with our work on time in maths and learning more about duration (using hours and minutes). For science we have started to find out more about forces with a sorting activity of using push and pull. We have sequenced world civilisations on a timeline to see how the ancient Egyptian civilisation fits in with other worldwide civilisations.
After some glorious sunshine over half term, year 3 have returned to some less pleasant weather but lots of wonderful learning. In English, we continue our sequence on quest stories with the book Firebird where we have revisited expanded noun phrases where we add extra information and detail after the noun – also known as post modifying! We have also recapped similes and prepositional phrases to move our writing on. In Maths we have looked at converting time between analogue and 12/24 hour digital clocks. In Science we finish our work around electricity by testing our own switches to see if they are conductors or insulators. In History we began our work on the Victorians and looked at Lord Shaftesbury and all the excellent work he did to transform the lives of the poor and children’s safety. We explained our impressions of him using primary and secondary sources. We started our new book – Street Child which links in with our Victorian work. Our Values work looks at inspirational people, honing in on environmentalists who are trying to do good for the planet. In RE we explored significant events in our lives and which events may link to religious festivals. It has been a busy and rewarding week.
In Literacy, year 5 have begun new unit based on the beautiful book Where My Wellies Take Me. The children have enjoyed exploring the text and are looking forward to writing some poetry inspired by nature and the outdoors. We have also launched our new History topic on Ancient Greece. Our learning will begin with the famous story of the Trojan Horse, and the children will be exploring whether this tale is fact, myth or legend. They were very excited to start learning about this fascinating period of history, and we are looking forward to some interesting discussions and debates over the coming weeks. In Science, we have started a new unit on forces, where we will be investigating pushes, pulls and how different forces affect the movement of objects. This week, the children also completed their Reading and Maths assessments. We were incredibly proud of the mature attitude and focus they showed throughout. As we begin to reflect on the year, the children have been writing about their favourite memories and highlights from Year 5 to include in their reports. It has been wonderful to read about the experiences, achievements and friendships that have made this year so special. We have also been very fortunate to enjoy some fantastic sports opportunities this week. The children took part in tennis sessions with Alex from ARC and cricket coaching, both of which were thoroughly enjoyed by everyone. It was lovely to see such enthusiasm, teamwork and determination on display.
Year 6 have been retelling The Tempest in Literacy. We have been learning about the protected areas of the South West including areas of outstanding beauty and National Parks. They worked hard identifying the local towns and rivers. They have enjoyed play rehearsals and are beginning to learn their words and the songs off by heart. On Tuesday, they learnt about the natural history of Lundy from the Lundy Ambassadors and wrote postcards which hopefully they will be able to send!
