This week, we have enjoyed printing from the plates we made last week. Our artwork has been inspired by natural themes we have seen in the work of Peter Clayton. We have experimented with printing onto different colour papers and our own painted backgrounds.
Our Caritas Ambassadors are growing into their roles with the children, this week, leading our classes in praying the Rosary.
We look forward to next week, when our ambassadors will be helping us to celebrate in our Harvest assembly and our whole class will work together to perform our harvest song. We would be grateful for donations to our collection of items for the Feed food bank in St Albans which can be brought in at anytime over the next week.
Hello children and parents, This week in Reception was a full on one, with parents consultations, planting spring bulbs, learning 4 new sounds and our first digraph, talking about measure, mass and capacity and of course lots of play and fun games with friends 🙂
In Little Wandle this week we’ve learnt 3 new graphemes and a digraph. The children are getting better and better at remembering the terminology and they already know that a digraph means 2 letters, but one sound!
We also learnt a new tricky word, which you will find in your child’s blue book:
Thank you all so much for all the hard work you are doing with the children at home – We saw some fantastic learning outside of school!
In Maths we were comparing size, mass and capacity. We used lots of mathematical language and learnt how to describe and recognise differences. Which string is longer? Which string is shorter?
Which object is heavier? How do you know? Which object is lighter? How do you know?
Would the tall giraffe fit inside the box? Does this container hold more or less? How can you find out?
In RE we had a moment of quiet reflection and talked about what we’ve learnt so far. We all had a turn thinking about what makes us precious. Well, I think the children had great ideas and responded really well showing me how well they have been listening in the last couple of weeks. Here are some of the quotes. Enjoy 🙂
I am precious because I am kind! I am precious because God loves me! I am precious because of my family!
It was lovely seeing you all during parents consultations. As always I would like to say thank you for your support and kind words. Here is a copy of our Autumn term home learning grid. You are welcome to bring any home learning to school or if you prefer you can upload it on Tapestry!
And finally congratulations for all your hard work and motivation! You truly deserve the awards, red sash and golden rosette!!!
Have a lovely weekend and looking forward seeing you all next week! Mrs Solakova
We all love to spend time outside and there are lots of things to do in the playground to boost our wellbeing. Here are some of the ways that we have fun out and about during lesson times and at playtimes!
The children used acrylic paints to create self-portraits using the photos you sent in. I love the way each one is unique, and looks like the painter, even though many of the features are identical.
The children continue to love investigating electrical circuits and very much enjoyed exploring insulators and conductors. There were some “eureka” moments which was great to see.
In learning about how Samuel and David were called to serve God, we did a “hot-seating” activity, with “David” being questioned about how he felt when he was anointed and realise he had been chosen by God.
They have also continued to deepen their understanding about Greek society and made these informative and attractive posters containing what they have learnt. They will see some real artefacts and find out more on our trip on 15th November to the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge which I am very excited about. (I would’ve liked to have gone sooner but the afternoon clay session wasn’t available before then and I wanted to make the trip a full day to justify the cost of the coach.)
Sadly we didn’t have ukelele this week as Mrs Newman needed to run her child’s ukelele assembly! But the good news is that there will be two sessions next week.
It has been lovely to touch base with you all about your children’s progress. I hope that you are as proud of them as I are. They’ve already come a long way in year four and I know that they will continue to shine and excel.
This week in maths we looked at matching. Matching buttons, matching shoes and matching towers. On Wednesday morning we were given a welly boot and had to look in the playground for the one that matched!
Other photos this week
Family Photos
Thank you for sending in family photos, the children love looking at them. Next week in RE the children will be talking about who is in their family so please send a photo in if you haven’t done so already.
Library Books
The children were excited to take home a library book this week. Please read the book at least once a week. Books need to be returned every Tuesday in order for a new one to be taken out.
Important Dates
Harvest Assembly – Friday 25th October – Nursery will be singing a song.
Half Term – Monday 28th October – Friday 1st November.
Individual/Sibling photos – Thursday 14th November
Children in Need Day – Friday 15th November
EYFS Nativity Performance – Wednesday 11th December – 10:00AM.
We have been learning what the internet is. We used a ball of string to demonstrate how we can connect through a smart device to any other part of the world through the internet.
We talked about what devices can connect to the internet and how the devices talk to each other through cables and wifi.
Hello children, parents and carers, This week was a special one. As part of our Care for creation learning we’ve learnt lots about how to look after God’s world and all his creations. We recycled and picked rubbish, we planted flowers for the bees and butterflies and made promises to always protect our beautiful World.
In Little Wandle this week we’ve learnt 4 new phonemes! We are all very proud to say that we now know 12 graphemes… Well done Reception!
We also introduced a new vocabulary ‘tricky word’ and even learnt our very first tricky word which you will find in your child’s book bag. Please help your child to read all the words ‘by sight’ (reading by sight means being able to read a word without the need for ‘decoding’ or ‘segmenting’ and ‘blending’). New words will be added weekly working towards all words required for Reception.
In class the children have plenty of opportunities to embed their learning by playing phonics games. They are successfully applying initial sound to the correct grapheme and blending CVC words. I am very proud to say that we now have readers! How exciting!
At the end of the week we also remembered that St Adrians is a Mercy school and we should live and learn like the Sisters of Mercy, be respectful and kind. We created a beautiful banner and proudly displayed it in the classroom!
And finally congratulations for all your hard work and motivation! You truly deserve the awards, red sash and golden rosette!!!
This week Black History Month was marked by learning about Benjamin Zepahanian’s work and life with Mrs Gallaher; and we are now reading exploring “The Undefeated” by Kwani Alexander.
We all really enjoyed the excellent year 6 assembly. As well as hearing the important messages about the Mercy charism and about the life of Catherine McAuley, it was wonderful to see some older siblings speaking so well and setting high standards for the younger children at school.
The children’s thoughts on St Alban are now on the wall and in a book.
I hope you all have a lovely relaxing weekend and look forward to seeing you all at consultations next week.
We continued looking at colours in maths this week and the children took part in some activities such as sorting colours and a colour hunt around the classroom.
On Thursday afternoon we took part in our first yoga lesson. The children did very well copying the moves on the screen and following the story of Betsy the Banana!
Other photos this week
Library
From next week the children will start bringing home a library book. Our Library day will be Tuesday. Each Tuesday the children will select a book to take home and share with their families. Please return the book each Tuesday so a new one can be taken out.
Important Dates
Thursday 10th October – Parent Consultations
Friday 18th October – For a £1 donation, children can come to school wearing red to support show racism the red card.
Friday 25th October – Harvest Assembly – Parents welcome to attend
Monday 28th October – Friday 1st November – Half Term
It was great to welcome so many of our families into school this morning to share our class assembly.
We travelled back in time to learn about the life of Catherine McAuley. We also learnt about the beginnings of the Sisters of Mercy, who founded our school. The children shared the Mercy values of Dignity, Excellence, Justice, Service and Stewardship and reflected how we continue to live these everyday through our golden rules. The children did a fantastic job: working together to act out the stories and share their message. They should be proud of what they have achieved together.
To mark National Poetry Day yesterday, we wrote cinquain and haiku on the theme of God’s unconditional love. The children neatly captured profound ideas in just a few syllables.
