The Chronicle

This week in Junior 6’s English lessons, we have been continuing our work on The Spiderwick Chronicles. We read Chapter 5 in detail focusing on the vocabulary used and thinking about Jared as he read the book he had just discovered. We have been thinking about the fantastical creatures that Arthur Spiderwick discovered and linked this to the discoveries made by Charles Darwin. We had great fun creating our own creatures and becoming experts in our field, writing encyclopaedia reports about them and are looking forward to producing our own compendiums in the form of class field guides next week.

During Well-being Wednesday, Junior 5 participated in a discussion about how they can remain safe in different scenarios, such as riding on a public bus, taking cakes out of the oven and crossing a road. On Thursday, Junior 5 had an interesting, interactive talk about road safety from a lovely Road Safety Officer from the Road Safety Education Team at Warwickshire Council. They learnt about distractions and the effect they can have when crossing the road. The children thought of their own distractions and ways that they could make them safe. One of the distractions could be food and drinks and one idea was to use a straw when having a drink so that your eyes would remain on the road.

This week Junior 4 have been learning about taking measurements using different units of measure. They have been investigating the most appropriate unit of measure and measuring device to use in different situations. The students ended the week putting their measuring skills to good use during an outdoor "Measuring Scavenger Hunt!"

Junior 3 have been loving their History lessons, where the Ancient Egyptians are in full flow. We have been looking at how the ordinary people would have lived on a day-to-day basis, along the twice yearly muddy banks of the River Nile. We have explored how farmers grew their crops and which farming tools they may have used, the plough, the sickle and the mattock were tools of choice. However, it was the great irrigation system, The Shaduf, which really sparked their attention. We made a mini one each, using a range of resources……the focus was upon balance and stability. Not as easy as this looks! The children were amazed to find out that this implement is still used today. We marvelled at the footage of one in action from 1940 where dozens of Shadufs in a long and rickety line, moved water up a hill to a field. In other areas we have begun our maths topic of ‘Measurement and Perimeter’, so fully expect your children to be prowling around the house with rulers and tape measures.

This week Year 2 have children wrote a letter to a school in Hong Kong, telling them all about Crackley Hall; Children are excited awaiting a reply. In Maths we continue to work on arrays, making multiplication sentences. Next week we move onto sharing and division. In PE, children showed great progression in netball, competing in mini games, and working on our teamwork. Children finished the week making fruit skewers in science; what a lovely Friday treat!

Design and Technology was a smash hit both last week and this week as the children were making vehicles, linking in with our history topic of ‘Transport’. They made a wind-powered vehicle, from car, straws, wheels and wooden doweling. It had a large sail that catches the wind and propels it along, like a land yacht. There was sheer delight on the children’s’ faces when we tested them with a hair dryer and they flew across the floor! In Science Junior 1 have been thinking carefully about the dangers of winter weather. As we know, the cold weather can bring us some wonderful snow to play and build in, but it also can leave us with frozen water and ice on the paths and roads, which can be very dangerous. To help warn people of the dangers, Junior 1 created some warning signs to help others know when it is not safe.

This week Reception have been finding out about animals that live in the Arctic. We found where the Arctic is in the world, and what it is like there, before finding out about the animals that survive in the cold. The children loved working together to explore the ice in our classrooms, breaking free the hidden arctic animals from inside! They also used their phonics knowledge to write a detailed and descriptive list of arctic animals and ‘wowed’ us all!

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