The Chronicle

This week, Junior 6 have been busy creating biomes in boxes, as their unit of work in geography comes to an end. They have conducted lots of personal research about their chosen biomes and put a visual presentation together to inform others about it.  They then gathered lots of resources to build a 3D model of what their biome looks like, including the animals and plants that have adapted to suit their environment. The children have made their own representations of the tundra, the taiga forest, the savanna, the ocean, and the desert to name a few. It has been a fantastic opportunity to see the children fully engaged and immersed in their learning and living out so many of our Crackley Compass elements including collaboration, responsibility, activeness, and enthusiasm.  We are looking forward to after half-term when the children will be able to present their work to each other.

As October is Black History Month, Junior 5 have been learning about this topic across the curriculum. During PSHE, Mrs Duigan gave an interesting talk about Nelson Mandela and her own experiences of growing up in South Africa when it was against the law for those with different ethnicity to mix. In English, Junior 5 completed a comprehension, expanding further on their knowledge of Nelson Mandela. For Science, Junior 5 researched Katherine Johnson by using texts, books, and the internet to create a fact file. In the last two Art sessions, Junior 5L have been learning about the prominent Mexican painter, Diego Rivera. They have been working in two groups to recreate his painting ‘Flower Carrier’, each child creating one section of the painting using colouring pencils exploring shading and tones before combining them to create the whole picture.

This week, Junior 4 had a wonderful time finding ways to persuade people to buy their own tea. They started by having a tea tasting lesson, where they were asked to become tea connoisseurs and generate feel good phrases to help them with their persuasive writing. Some ideas included ‘feel the sunset kiss your taste buds’ and ‘it was like a warm embrace on a cold winter’s day’. Enthusiastically, they then used all of this vocabulary to create their own persuasive writing and we were all very impressed with their work. We are now nearly at the end of the first half-term of Junior 4 and all of the children should be very proud of their hard work, creativity, curiosity and excellent attitude towards their learning. Well done Junior 4!

This week, in Maths, Junior 3 have been practising the strategy of bridging through 10 to help us quickly and efficiently add numbers mentally. We used a super resource called the ‘Rekenrek’ to help us visualise the numbers and spot the bond to 10. We are so excited for our maths lessons, and we are working much more flexibly with numbers. We have also been working hard in English lessons, planning our own Stone Age characters complete with captivating details such as scars, missing teeth, and windswept hair. We drew some inspiration from our Art and DT lessons where we have been making Stone Age tooth and shell necklaces out of clay and twine. I am sure you will agree that we look both fetching and fearsome.

Well done for a wonderful half term, Junior 3. We have had such a lot of fun together and we are looking forward seeing you again soon after a restful half term.

This week Junior 2 explored the medieval fortress Warwick Castle. The trip was packed full of educational opportunities alongside an equal measure of fun. The children walked under the portcullis entrance before visiting the Great Hall where they saw a knight in armour with his horse, along with a jaw dropping display of swords and spears. Children enjoyed a guided tour and found out more about our fascinating past from an expert historian. In the Time Tower, Junior 2 learnt all about the history of the castle through spellbinding story clips which walked them through the ages. The exciting day finished with a trip into the Zog playground.

Junior 1 have completed their first half-term being as busy as ever! We were delighted to welcome Louise and Warwick Bear into school from Warwickshire Road Safety to talk to everyone about how to improve their safety skills, as well as trying to make our journeys' greener. She reminded everyone of the benefits of walking or catching public transport which includes reducing pollution, being active and finding time to talk! On Thursday we visited St John’s Museum in Warwick as part of our Victorian topic. Everyone loved the immersive experience which really brought the Victorian experience to life. The highlight of the day was the 1888 school room led by a School Ma’am where everyone got the chance to do their reading and arithmetic by rote, use a class abacus for their sums and practise their handwriting using slates. What a wonderful end to this half term; we hope everyone has a lovely break.

In the summer term of 2022 Junior 1 worked together to create a wonderful piece of 3d artwork to which we gave the title ‘A Fishy Tale’.

Everybody created fish using different materials, such as sticks, card, netting, googly eyes etc. and after tie-dying some material for the sea they were sewn on to create a collaborative sea scene. The work was sent off to the ISA reginal finals and we are delighted to be told that we won in our age category. A copy of the work will now be sent off to the national finals and we will be keeping our fingers crossed for another win. If you would like to see this award-winning piece of work it is hanging on the wall between the two Junior 1 classrooms.

Well done to last year’s Junior 1 class who helped create this masterpiece.

As part of Black History Month, Reception have been learning about the extraordinary life of Mae Jemison. They recreated a timeline of her achievements, from becoming a doctor, to working in the Peace Corp, to developing a vaccine. She was the first black woman to go into space, then after leaving NASA she set up a number of educational programs to teach children about science. She then became an Author, writing a book about her life as well as a number of books about space for children. Reception agreed at the end of the lesson that she had led an inspirational life, with several children vouching 'to be like her when I grow up.'