News
Newsletter for the week ending Friday 6th June
It has been great having the children back after the break and how has this year gone so quickly that we find ourself in the last half term?
This week Year 5 walked to the slipway on Tuesday morning where they sang for a host of Bishops. Appledore had been chosen as the location where Moira Aston was announced as the new bishop of Crediton and we were invited along to sing to show the community spirit of Appledore. The children sang three songs beautifully in the sunny yet windy conditions. We had inadvertently selected the new bishop’s favourite song in our programme and she enthusiastically accompanied the children in their rendition of “From a Distance”. This is the song the choir will be performing at the Big Sheep and a google form has gone out to choir members for you to let us know how many people will be attending the festival. There are no physical tickets this year!
Atlantic Racquet Centre in Bideford are running a number of beginner tennis classes for children and adult and for more information please see here and here.
Dates for the diary
- For free after school school summer girls’ rugby taster sessions in June with Bideford Rugby Club girls in years 3-6 please see here
- Sports Day Tuesday 17th June and reserve date is Tuesday 24th June
- North Devon BioBlitz Friday 27th and Saturday 28th June is free to all. Please see here and here for information.
Wishing you all a good weekend.
From Jeremy Cooper and all the children and staff
AROUND THE CLASSES
This week in Turtles and Dolphins we have been learning about summer. We talked about the things that we like to do in the summer and how summer fits into the seasons. We have changed our role play to the beach and we have loved selling ice cream to each other. We have painted pictures of summer and made ice creams. We have looked carefully at shells with magnifying glasses and drawn pictures of them.
Year 1 had a very exciting start to the week when we found a dragon egg in our classroom! It came with a note from its mother Mrs Flame where she asked if we could look after her precious egg. We’ve been careful to check on it throughout the day and make sure it is warm and safe. We’ve even looked at a dragon book, Tell me a Dragon, and put some actions to it. In Maths we have been learning our left and right so please keep practising this at home! In our topic lessons we have started our new History topic where we are learning all about castles. We loved looking at different castles and learning about some of their important features.
Welcome back Year 2 after the half term break. In Maths, they have been revising addition, subtraction and division. In English, they have been looking at a book called ‘Outdoor Wonderland’ which is a mixture of instructions and information. Our new History topic is all about Seaside Holidays in the past and they began by thinking about what they enjoy doing at the beach. There are quite a few PE events coming up over the next few weeks: tennis, House cross country and sports day, so please make sure a full PE kit is in school.
Year 3 have had a brilliant first week back. We finished our topic on time in maths, and we used all of the skills that we have learnt over the last few weeks to answer some word problems and reasoning questions. In English, we read to the end of Cinderella of the Nile, and wrote some commands to tell Rhodopis what to do to get her slipper back. We then began to plan our own story based on Cinderella of the Nile, we changed the main character and where the story was set. In science, we finished our topic on plants from last half term by thinking about how seeds are dispersed. We then sorted different seeds according to which method of seed dispersal they use. We started reading The Story of Tutankhamun in guided reading and we made a family tree of all of the members of the Tutankhamun family using the information from the text to help us. In Computing in our e-safety lesson, we talked about why some activities online have age restrictions and why it is important to follow them.
It’s been a busy week back in Year 4 this week. In Maths, we have started learning about time where we have recapped how to tell the time on an analogue and digital clock and we have been solving some duration and timetable problems. In English, we have continued our unit of the Firebird where we watched a video about a dragon slayer to inspire our writing and we practised using some expanded noun phrases and high level vocabulary to describe the characters and the setting. In Guided reading and History, we started reading the book Street Child and we learnt about a man called Lord Shaftesbury who is considered to be a very important Victorian. He helped change the laws for how children were treated during the Victorian era. Next week, on Monday, the children will be completing their multiplication tables check! Extra practise over the weekend would be great!
It has certainly been a very busy start to this half term for Year 5. On Tuesday we walked down to the quay to sing three songs for the newly appointed Bishop of Crediton. Then on Wednesday we spent the day at Plymouth Aquarium; after our guided tour we took part in a workshop exploring the impact plastic has on marine wildlife. We completed our sea turtle work in the art studio on Thursday, ready to make into a wall hanging; the children have been told to collect two pieces of driftwood ready to make these. On Friday we had both cricket and tennis as well as making Trojan horses in our outdoor learning session.
Year 6 have been reflecting on the year so far for their reports as well as retelling The Tempest in Literacy. In Maths, they have been completing mixed questions to keep their skills ticking over as well as trying some challenges: well done to Livvy and Cecily who managed to complete Prison Cells. In Science, they have begun looking into how light travels and how we see – some investigations are yet to be completed. They have also been analysing data from the Burrows trip. They have enjoyed cricket and tennis as well as play rehearsals. Please keep sending the pictures of when they were younger and let us know how your child will travel to The Wake Park.
