The Chronicle

In English lessons this week, Junior 6 have been continuing their reading of the novel 'The Lion and The Unicorn' by Shirley Hughes, which tells the story of Lenny, a young boy who is evacuated during World War 2. The children have been focusing on their creative writing skills, thinking about in particular how they can use personification and complex groupings to make the world come to life. This also ties into our History topic on World War 2 in which the children are starting a new independent research project. For this task, the children will be investigating a particular area of life during the Second World War such as The Blitz or the life of Anne Frank and presenting their findings to the class. The children have approached this topic eagerly and we can’t wait to see the results of their hard work.

Over the last few weeks, Junior 5 have been creating their own beautiful bird tables. Junior 5L started this process by creating a base under the guidance of Ms Holmes. This base was made using: a square piece of wood and coloured popsicle sticks. These were attached using glue, nails and hammers. The children have been discovering the challenges involved in not only using a hammer but also the difficulty in hammering small nails. This alongside learning to use a hacksaw and balsa wood has been interesting indeed. They have drawn their own bird table designs and used their initiative to make their ideas come to life. I hope the birds appreciate their new feeding stations. Well done, Junior 5! 

Le foot, c’est ma passion! Junior 4 have been exploring sport in French lessons recently. The children were fascinated by the Tour de France competitors being able to race over 2,000 miles and they had many interesting questions about the logistics of the race; where the riders go to the toilet? Where they sleep and what happens to the many used plastic water bottles?! The children showcased their creativity and dictionary skills when designing their own Tour de France top with motivational language on the front. Many of us will be watching some of the race to see who gets the ‘Maillot Jaune’ in July!

The children found that handball was a common game in France, but netball was not played as much there as it is in the UK. Junior 4 learnt that French nouns have a gender, how to give their opinions on different sports and to use some adjectives with ‘c’est’. Madame Westerman was particularly impressed with the children’s spoken French, enthusiasm and curiosity! Allez Junior 4!!

Junior 3 are literally up to their elbows in Greek myths, and loving it! We have had a very busy week as we continue making our Greek pots which has proved to be a fantastic opportunity for collaboration and teamwork as learning partners have supported each other in building a ‘frame’ and then covering it with plaster bandages. The pots are really taking shape (pardon the pun) and excited chatter has now turned to how we will decorate them, with some preferring geometric patterns and others planning elaborate mythical creatures. Either way, they are surely going to be a sight to behold on the mantlepiece. We have also been doing a lot of practical investigating in Science, exploring different types of soil, and learning all about the parts of a flower. We even dissected our own flower this week and labelled all the parts.

We hope the good weather holds and that you can all spend time outdoors enjoying a wonderful half-term break.

This week Junior 2 welcomed Curious Creatures, to support our topic on Rainforests and habitats. Children were thrilled to have the opportunity to handle the animals, under close supervision, and were ready with their questions to find out more about their unique characteristics and the habitats they live in. We had an Amazonian Milk Frog and a White Tree Frog, both of which were extremely jumpy! The Crested Gecko, content to sit in the palm of a hand, and the Argentine Tegu Lizard was a marvel to see as he explored the astro area specially laid out for him. There were also Corn snakes, Bornean stick insects, a Royal python, a Savanna bosc monitor lizard, Chinese water dragons and a Boa Constrictor! We will finish this geography topic next week by thinking about how we can protect the rainforest.

What better way to finish off this half-term, than with a trip to the MAD museum in Stratford, followed by a visit to the park?! The MAD Museum offers everyone the opportunity to experience moving art. There were so many buttons to push, levers to pull, sounds to make, lights to flash, balls to drop and mazes to make, to name but a few. Much enjoyment was had creating marble runs on their gigantic magnetic wall and there was sheer delight on their faces as they had the chance to make noises, be creative, sit and watch or learn how different mechanisms work. This was then topped off by a picnic by the river and a trip to the local park to get rid of any extra energy they still had. Good job we all have next week off to recover!!

This week, Reception M have been writing descriptions about the sea creatures that we saw on our Sea Life Centre visit. The children came up with amazing adjectives and learnt how to add them into sentences. Some of the descritptions were just delightful! The children also finished painting and then varnishing their stone bee or ladybird. They have also been learning about odd and even numbers in Maths, where they found perfect pairs to make even numbers and saw which numbers had odd ones left out!

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