We loved the Mercy Mass on Wednesday and sang beautifully as well as performing a moving dance to the Circle of Mercy song. We all wanted to perform in front of everyone, but there just wasn’t space for all of us in front of the altar, so we are looking forward to everyone being involved in performing it for you during our class assembly next year.
The Circle of Mercy is timeless
After the mass, we planted some viola plants under our new Mercy Tree and we were all promptly rained on, which stopped our camera working. At least the plants and tree enjoyed the rain!
Our new tree is planted by Bishop Paul, Brother Nelson and Father Michael along with Sister Margaret, the first head at St Adrians, followed by Mrs Hawkes, the second head and Mrs Porter, our most recent head. (Mr Bedford arrived a little later).
Last week, we attended the District Schools Award Ceremony and were very pleased to be awarded runner up in the Plant to Plate category. All through the year, we enjoy caring for the gardens outside our classroom and it was lovely to achieve this award as our outdoor spaces are so important to us and our wellbeing.
The Awards ceremony took place in the Council Chamber, with the Mayor of St Albans, which was very exciting!
Every child in year 4 was a credit to themselves and their school at Wednesday’s Mercy Mass. Along with the rest of the school, their singing was beautiful and rousing and they participated fully and respectfully in the service.
After Mass there were some celebrations inside and out. The children planted violas round the commemorative tree which had been planted earlier in the day. They then chose activities in the classroom, with many children deciding to play “Interland”, the game where the children learn how to be safe online. We also started our learning about Black History Month, learning about Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King from “Horrible Histories” and sharing what we already know about these famous icons.
The classroom is looking bright and interesting with the children’s learning on the wall, including the home learning about Joseph. The paintings were done – carefully – in acrylic paints, throughout the week. Thank you for the painting aprons, at short notice.
What a busy week we’ve had! We were very excited to model on our new ‘Creation table’ and use our imagination to create different things. We’ve had castles, caterpillars, elephants, nests and so much more. We’ve been learning how to join, stick, link, fringe …. We were also labelling our work, thinking about all the different graphemes we’ve learned so far.
At the end of the week the children voted and please put your hands together for our winners! I wonder who is going to win next week…
Little Wandle This week we’ve learned 4 new sounds. Please practise the new sounds over the weekend and support your child with their Little Wandle home learning. This will really help them remember the new phonemes and graphemes.
In Maths this week we discussed why counting is as important as subitising. Last week we used subitising to identify the numbers in a set and this week we developed counting skills to enable us to identify how many they are in a set that cannot be subitised.
We also explored all sorts of things that can be counted, including sounds. We sang counting rhymes to support our learning. Why don’t you have a go too:
Have a fantastic weekend! Looking forward seeing you all on Monday! Mrs Solakova
It has been another busy week for Year 1. From a new book English to drawing the human body, it’s been a varied week in Year 1!
We started the week by looking at the human body. We played a game of ‘Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes’ to get ourselves warmed up! Then, we drew and labelled our own bodies! We worked in small groups and drew round a real person, it was so much fun. We then labelled the different parts of the body together.
We also started our new text, Naughty Bus by Jan Oke. This endearing books includes lots of photographs and simple text to describe the adventures of a toy London bus, as a young boy plays with it throughout the day. Have a look at the video below to see the book come to life.
Thank you to the children who have already submitted their home learning via the Google Classroom. Now you all (finally!) have your log ins, I look forward to seeing lots more home learning.
Year 6 have had a busy start to the new school year and I have been proud of everyone who has put themselves forward to serve our school community through the many roles and responsibilities that Year 6 undertake.
It has also been great to celebrate the children’s learning through our classroom displays.
To start the year in RE, the children have been reading the story of the creation as told in Genesis. They have had great fun retelling the story in their own words and next week they will be writing the story in their own words. They are learning about nouns and adjectives, so retelling this wonderful story is a great way to put this new learning into practice and also show just how great they are at using full stops and capital letters in their super writing.
As part of their learning about the sacrament of baptism, the children are also beginning to design their own baptism candle using religious symbols that are important to them. We are looking forward to seeing lots more designs as they come into school.
What a wild week we’ve had…. someone walked in our classroom and left some footprints on the floor, black fur and a ripped piece of paper…
The intruder also left a sack labelled ‘Sam’s stuff’. Inside the sack we found different things beginning with ‘S’, like sandwiches and strawberries, and also a book…
The book was super mysterious too. Especially when we read only half of it… The children were thinking about what could happen next, who might be Sam and why he left his sack in Reception.
We will continue reading the story next week and hopefully will find out!
Little Wandle Thank you so much for supporting your children. I am impressed by how well they are writing their letters and remembering all of them. Great job Reception! The first writing certificates are now ready and will be given on a Monday. This week we’ve learned 4 new sounds:
We also played lots of blending and sound talking games. Maybe you can have a go at home too.
What’s that noise? Think about the different sounds the animals make While playing the game instead of saying ‘What noise does the cat make?‘ you can say ‘What noise does the C-A-T make?‘ Then your child will have to blend the phonemes in their head and make the sound. Have fun!
Maths In Maths this week, the children were encouraged to quantify sets of objects by subitising, rather than counting. When subitising, children can say how many there are in a small group of objects by ‘just seeing’ and knowing straightaway without needing to count.
Subitising can be categorised as ‘perceptual’ or ‘conceptual’. Perceptual subitising is used for very small sets of objects (initially up to about 3) and conceptual subitising is used when sub-groups can be perceived within a larger set and the whole is recognised, e.g. if 6 dots are arranged in a dice pattern, children may recognise this as ‘two 3s’ and know this is 6.
The focus for this week was perceptual subitising and the children were subitising up to 3 objects. We met number 1,2 and 3.
Have a fantastic weekend! Looking forward seeing you all on Monday! Mrs Solakova
It’s been another busy week for Year 1 as we get settled into our new classrooms and routines. We have really enjoyed seeing some of the home learning that has been sent in with the children. Please bare with us as we continue to work with Herts for Learning to resolve the issue with log in details for the Goggle Classroom. We hope to have log ins out to you all next week.
Please see a copy of the Show and Tell rota below. Show and Tell is a great way to develop turn taking, plus speaking and listening skills. We will have time every Friday so please make sure your child is prepared with something to either show or tell.
Year 3 went back in time to the Stone Age. We discovered what life was like during this time by taking part in some exciting activities such as; building dens, hunting for Stone Age food, flint knapping and many more activities.
It has been such a pleasure to meet all the new Reception children. We had a fantastic start to the term and the children are settling in very well. In the past 2 weeks we have been learning about the areas of the classroom, how to safely use equipment, how to tidy, where to find resources and so much more. Our role play corners have been particularly busy. We prepared lot’s of delicious meals in the home corner and camped under the stars, reading stories and melting marshmallows by the fire. What a treat!!!
Lunch time was also a success and the children are becoming more familiar with the routine and where to go. I am really impressed by how polite they are saying ‘please’ and ‘thank you’ to the dinner ladies. They are showing super skills while walk and balance their trays. Well done Reception!
We are very good following the timetable, knowing what we are doing at the moment and what is coming next.
Our first PE session went really well too. This term we will be doing gymnastics and think about the different ways we can move changing speed and direction. We are also going to learn how to listen and respond appropriately to instructions.
This week we began our Little Wandle journey and the children learned four new phonemes
If you are able to, please support your child practising the new sounds. Pronunciation of these sounds is really important, rather than ‘s-uh’ we teach ‘ssssss.’ Avoid adding ‘uh’ or ‘er’ to the end of sounds. Practising how to form these letters is also crucial – why not practising forming them with chalk, paint, tracing the letter on your back and guessing what sound it is.
Today the children chose their first sharing book, so look out for reading and writing folder and reading record book.
Lots of children came into school today sharing their feelings about Her Majesty the Queen’s death. Here at St. Adrians we encourage children to discuss how they think and how they feel. At home it is just as important. Maybe you and your child might want to watch the video and talk about it with you.
The children prepared a little something for our Friday assembly, reflection on what we have learned about the Queen.
‘I miss her and I am going to make her a card and send it to Heaven.’ ‘I am going to give her a card and flowers out the window and it will fly up to Heaven’ ‘The Queen died and would make her a picture and give her flowers to put on the floor like the others.’
Have a lovely weekend! Looking forward seeing you all on Tuesday! Mrs Solakova
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