The Chronicle

On Monday this week Junior 6 visited the Confucius Institute at Coventry University to gain some experience of Chinese culture. The children participated in different pursuits, highlighting some traditional Chinese activities. We tried calligraphy, Chinese dance and Tai Qi. During the calligraphy session, children learned how to hold a calligraphy brush and use ink to form different characters.  One of these characters was 中 (zhòng) which means winning a prize or scoring high in exams. 

In Tai Qi, they learned a sequence of moves and had fun with the traditional Chinese fans, some also had the opportunity to try on outfits. In the Dance session the children learned a Chinese dance and played some games incorporating the moves from the dance. It was great to see the children having a good time.

Junior 5 have been studying the topic of music in French this term. The children have learnt the names of different instruments in French and discovered that although we often associate accordion music with France, it is thought the accordion was invented in Berlin. They have enjoyed saying which instruments they play, getting to grips with verb endings, listening to different types of music and giving their opinions on many songs. In fact, there was no holding back with sharing their opinions … French country music was certainly not as popular amongst the children as reggae!  The timing of the Eurovision Song Contest was perfect – as the children listened to several entries and gave their scores. The combination of folk music and rap in the Ukraine entry and the Breton electro-pop from France were highlights. We even dressed up as pop stars!

Pupils in J4 had fun in their History lesson playing the ‘Trading Game’. The class split into Vikings and Anglo Saxons and began using their natural resources to trade. The children soon realised that the Vikings and Anglo Saxons were good traders and sailed as far as Asia to trade.

During their English lessons, Mrs Jackson-Mayne’s class entertained Junior 1 with their fantastic Tall Tales. It was lovely to see the pupils so animated as they read and told their own stories to the excited Year 1 audience

What an exciting week it has been in Junior 3. The highlight was definitely seeing all our masterpieces hanging in the school hall at Wednesday’s Art Exhibition. We had such a wonderful time, from helping to set up, to viewing the final display of work from across the school and finally getting to take our creations home where we will be able to continue to enjoy them for years to come.

Our time telling skills are improving day-by-day, we have now moved onto learning about 2D and 3D shapes, and we had a lot of fun exploring prisms, pyramids and nets. In Science we got dissecting again, this time celery, as we found out how water is transported in a plant and located the xylem tubes – a rather soggy task. We are now all looking forward to the Summer Fair this weekend.

This week Junior 2 enjoyed an amazing trip to the Botanical Gardens in Birmingham. They were treated to a workshop in the rainforest with live animals! We were so proud of their behaviour and how engaged they were in the workshop. Junior 2 have clearly retained a lot of what we have already discussed in class and they definitely wowed the presenter with their knowledge. We couldn't leave without a walk around the stunning gardens themselves, it really is very tranquil and a wonderful place to have a picnic. We will finish this Geography topic next week by thinking about how we can protect the rainforest. 

Junior 1 started the week by exploring the grounds of the school in Science. They were observing what they could see, hear, feel, and smell as they walked around and noticed changes that have happened recently. The biggest change they could see were the signs of spring – blossom on the trees, new plants growing, green leaves appearing on bushes and trees and more minibeasts! In History we linked our topic to DT and made some old-fashioned toys – a penny spinner and a thaumatrope, to show how people in the past could have fun, even if they had little or no money! Some of us thought these toys were better than the ones we buy in the shops! Our highlight of the week was when Fiorella performed on her guitar for us and played Big Blue Bear. We thought she was wonderful and very brave to perform in front of us all.

This week we have been thinking about where we would like to fly to on an aeroplane and what we might see or do there. We have been exploring maps and globes and we took a closer look at Australia. Reception have also been busy making their model vehicles out of recycled bits and bobs. We can’t wait to see them once they are finished. They have put so much time and thought into designing them and what they want them to look like.