The Chronicle

The last two weeks have been very competitive for Junior 6 on the sports field. There might not have been any external fixtures but we managed to create a real competitive edge internally. Last week saw the J6 boys compete in House Rugby, while the J6 girls battled it out on the new AstroTurf in House Hockey. Jupiter ended up triumphant in both hotly contested tournaments. This week, the J6 headed to the sports field and played a mixed touch rugby tournament. The boys took on the leadership and coaching mantle to help guide the girls through the first game. Following that, the girls came into their own and put in some fantastically timed tackling. This then led into equally competitive football! The girls relished the opportunity to try different sports.

Linking the creation topic in RE and reflecting that kindness is a sign of God’s love for us, we embraced how we could do a kind deed each day in October through making our own kindness calendar. Ideas ranged from giving a kind comment to as many people as possible; making a gift for someone who is homeless or feeling lonely; leaving a positive message for someone else to find; calling a relative who is far away to say hello and to have a chat with. We were unanimous in recognising that when we are kind, everything gets better. We help others, we help ourselves and we encourage others to be kinder too. We appreciated that every act of kindness matters. Concluding our Aztec in Art topic, where we designed an Aztec brooch or headdress using an array of detail and colour, we showcased our completed work in vibrant, radiant and vivid colour. Don’t they look amazing?!

J4 have explored the concept of ‘pitch’ this week, as part of their Science topic on ‘Sound.’ They all made and beautifully decorated their very own musical instruments - straw panpipes - which were made to demonstrate that pitch can vary. They discovered that their longest straws created the lowest pitch and the shorter ones, the higher pitch. We are sure that Mrs Olden would be impressed with their musical creativity! Let the panpipes play on! 

This week Junior 3 have been so excited to begin learning about Wangari Mathaai as part of ‘Black History Month’. We read the story of The Tiny Seed and discussed how one small act of kindness and compassion can grow, like a tiny seed, into a movement that changes the world. We thought about all the attributes that Wangari had that made her successful, happy and a wonderful role-model to us all. We were very pleased to see that many of these attributes are the same ones we are working towards on our Crackley Compass. We have also loved finding out about the Kenyan artists, Elisha Ongere and Sarah Shiundu, both of whom create art inspired by their homelands. We were thankful to Daiya for also sharing her wonderful story of Sulwe; a little girl who teaches us that it is important to ‘feel good about yourself being beautiful on the inside as well as the outside.’

Year 2 have been getting hands-on in so many lessons this week. In Science, we have been using play dough to create objects and then we described them using all the vocabulary that we have been learning in our Materials topic. We are proving to be super scientists and can use so many technical words to explain what and why we have done something. We have seen children create ammonites, pancakes, houses by squashing, twisting and stretching their materials. We are very excited to be making our own materials monsters next week.  Watch this space!

In Geography we have looked at aerial views of castles and have created our very own from Lego. Can you see any gatehouses, battlements, mottes, or other features of castles in the photos?  In English and Drama, we have been absorbed in acting out and planning our very own version of a well-known fairy tale. We will spend next week writing these. We are going to try to include role reversals, plot twists, alternative settings, or funny fairy-tale combinations. There is so much to look forward to each week and all of your teachers love how enthusiastic you are in your learning. 

Alma Thomas was the inspiration of our artwork this week to help celebrate October being the Black History Month. She was the first African-American woman to hold a solo exhibition at the Whitney Museum of American Art. She loved to use bright colours, so we did the same and created our artwork using paints and corks to stamp with. We have also been busy in Maths learning how a part-whole diagram works and linking it to addition number sentences. Our English lessons gave us the opportunity to create finger puppets of The Three Little Pigs that we can now use with our straw, stick and brick houses that we made in Design and Technology. We had a lot of fun acting out the story using our new props and then writing to the wolf to tell him to leave the pigs alone!

The weeks are simply whizzing by in Reception, it’s hard to believe that half-term is nearly upon us! This week our ‘Wonderful Woodland’ displays are looking even more fantastic after we added the clothes peg dragonflies we made in our Art lessons. We have also done some brilliant labelling of owls and discovered that they have talons for their toes! In Maths we explored repeating patterns and enjoyed using corks and paint to create repeating patterns of our own. We also learned that repeating patterns can be heard in stories too – perhaps you’ve heard them in We’re Going on a Bear Hunt – ‘swishy, swashy, swishy, swashy’!