Power Down Day and all that ...

We seemed to have space raced through this week!  Firstly I would like to say a big thank you for the amazing rockets that have been created as part of the children's home learning.  And an even bigger thank you to all those families who remembered the restriction on size!  As I hope some of you will have seen, the rockets are now flying in space (well, ok hanging from the lights).  I am sure you will agree that they look marvellous.  We had a real array of creativity from edible to lego built rockets.  

Next week's home learning will be to produce a guide for 'everything you know about fractions'.  Again this can be as creative as you like from pop-up posters to models showing factions.  The home learning will be due in on Monday, 7th December 2015.

This week the children have begun to learn more about fractions - recognising what a fraction is and its equivalence.  There has been some great progress this especially from the Year 2s.  Next week we will be learning fractions of amounts, objects and numbers and learning that if we know, say, 1/4 then we can work out 3/4.

Literacy next week will be continuing to learn how to write that all important description of a scene - the where and the when.  Last week we had fun learning that we could use our five senses to help us write scene descriptions.  

The children had a great couple of days learning and composing their own musical pieces with Mrs Martin at the beginning of the week.  Well done Mrs Martin and Mrs Sibley for not complaining too much about the headaches!  

Our space helmets continue to be the focus of our afternoons.  We have added visors and a layer of white paint.  Next week we shall complete our space logo to add to the helmets.

Today the children have all enjoyed learning in the dark as the School took part in Power Down Day.  The morning saw the children design their own garden. The brief was to design a garden to attract bees.  As we know bees are a vital part of our eco-system and I think the children all enjoyed the challenge.  Some great designs were created and all will be entered into a class competition with the winning design being created in our own Veg Trugs (kindly donated by Friends of Fordham).  

This afternoon the children produced posters to encourage people to remember the 4 Rs - re-cycle, reduce, reuse and repair.  We had a very good chat about how the children and their families might try to use one of these at home. Watch out for children turning lights off behind you and asking for teddies to be sewn up!

Have a great weekend.

Mrs S

A little bit of extra home learning - thank you Imogen!

We created our own Space timeline

Fabulous edible rocket

Sophie used her design skills from lessons to create the perfect plan to build her rocket

Now it's your turn - composing their own space theme

Cutting the shape to size and adding visors

Adding a bit of measurement to Power Down Day 

Cosmic Learning!!

This week we  discovered our camera!  So a catch-up of photos at the end of this blog.

Firstly, I would like to say a big thank you to Friends of Fordham for the donation of a new Class camera.  We shall take very good care of this one and make sure it doesn't get misplaced (or taken by strange aliens!).

The children have been busy making their own space helmets out of art roc.  We just have the Year 2s to complete next week. Art roc is a plaster of paris which is incredibly messy and so we would like to say a special thank you to Mrs Sibley (who resembled a snowman after her two days of helping the children) and Mr Martin who had the task of mopping up after us!  This week we shall hopefully have 'dry' space helmets to  design and paint.

We have had a great week continuing our learning of multiplication and have progressed to division. The children will continue this next week to make sure they are confident in solving multiplication and division problems before moving on to fractions.  Please continue to practice times tables at home - it makes all the difference.  Well done to all those children who are having a go at Mr Wainwright's multiplication challenge - keep going and get that masters certificate!

During literacy we have continued to learn how to write newspaper reports.  Today we wrote our final plan for writing our own newspaper report on the Apollo 11 moon landing.  It has been great to hear that the children have been discussing this at home - Dylan has certainly learnt from his Dad! Well done both.  We will then move on to writing adventure stories.

Our Year 2s joined Mrs Masterman and her class on a wonderful visit to the Cathedral this week.  I know that they all came back excited and enthused after their visit.  Talking with Mrs Masterman it seems the trip was valuable to our children's religious learning with many activities such as role play and writing prayers.  Thank you to Mrs Masterman and her team.  Can I just remind families of Year 2s to also check the Class 2 blog for updates on our joint learning, particularly for Science.

The Year 3s are continuing their science unit on light.  This has involved blindfolds to help us learn that dark is the absence of light and how important it is to wear florescent materials to be safely seen at night.  Next week we shall progress to understand that light travels in straight lines.

Homework was sent home this week.  Especially for Sophie's Dad, we have asked the children to build their own rocket (this will help the children to write descriptively next week).  Can I ask that the children make a rocket which is no longer than 30 cm.  I am sorry if this restricts those creative minds, however it is just a simple case of having enough display space in the classroom.  The models can be made out of any thing (cardboard, recyclable bits, tins etc). I have even heard a whisper of an edible rocket!

Thank you for supporting our School Council and their efforts to raise money for Children in Need today.  The children looked marvelous and I am told by Mrs McMillan that the Cake Sale was a great success.  I can't wait to find out how much the children raised.

Finally, next week is Friendship Week.  It seems timely to remind the children of the importance of e-safety and in particular 'on-line friendships'.  Perhaps you could also discuss e-safety with the children at home.  To help you these are the websites we recommend : childnet and kidsmart. The links for which can actually be reached through the Parents section of our main website (Safeguarding and Child Protection).

Using our senses to guide ourselves through the dark!

Watch out for those planets as you travel through space!

Mirroring movements is an important aspect of creative dance

Creating movement to Holst's Mars from the Planet Suite

Yes, the Space Dome!

Apologies for wet uniforms this week!

We had to measure first to create the right size ....

of our balloons!

Cutting the art roc - a very messy business

Our first collection of space helmets.

Rocket maths - finding missing multiplication numbers

We are safe, we are seen, we are reflective
(and in the background our display to help us order the planets, created
by the children)

In a dark cupboard - investigating light!

Reflection from a light source

Our children in need day!

Have a lovely weekend.

Mrs S

Mnemonics, space domes and the first boy to fly to the moon!

What an eventful week back, although I am bereft of photos for you because I have misplaced my Class camera. As soon as we are reunited I shall of course upload! 

So to try to give you a tester of the children's learning this week without pictures:  we started the week by creating funny mnemonics to remember the order of the planets: My Vicious Elephant Mostly Jumps Silently Under Nettles was just one example. 

Next we began to learn how to use a grid to help us multiply 2 digit numbers by both 1 digit and 2 digit.  Some children have even begun to use the expanded column method to multiply.  We shall continue with multiplication next week.  

In English we are looking at Newspapers (Recount).  We have begun by learning by heart a news article, which involves George winning a competition to be the first boy to fly to the moon.   By learning the text this way it will help the children remember key words and phrases or when they write their own independent newspaper article next week.

The children all enjoyed the Space Dome.  We learnt wonderful facts about space and I am sure the children will draw on these in their work during the coming weeks.

We have also begun our unit on Creative Dance.  We are preparing a dance about a new alien coming alive on a plant - all to Holst's piece Mars from the orchestral suite "The Planets".  This also links to the children's appreciation for one of the 10 suggested classical pieces by the BBC that children should know. 

 So until I find my camera that's all folks!



Mrs S

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