Our Classes – Page 52 – St Adrian's Catholic Primary School

Lovely Listening in Year 3

Year 3 has been very excited this week as they have all used the new listening post for the first time. I’ll will include some photos next week! This was bought with the proceeds from the cake sale, so many thanks for your generosity. This means that at the daily guided reading sessions a group of six children can listen to a good-quality text together. Currently we have a CD collection of Roald Dahl animal stories, of which “Esiotrot” is one of the current guided reading texts. The children have suggested which other stories they would like to. MORE Roald Dahl stories were suggested and they certainly are good-quality, creative texts which extend children’s vocabulary, imagination and make them laugh! David Walliams was also a popular suggestion.

The children are engrossed in the current “Light and Dark” Science topic and use the topic vocabulary confidently. We are still debating how the moon isn’t a source of light itself, but reflects the light from the sun. We have different resources, such as access to the excellent “Explorify” website which Miss Bannams, the Science lead, told us about, to explore important questions like this in a variety of ways. This week the children made their own “light reflectors” and investigated which was the most reflective material to make a safe coat for night-time use.

The children completed their versions of a mystery story day. The task of writing a mystery story was challenging and the class has used the opportunity to experiment with language, such as expanded “noun sound” phrases – eg the squeaking of the metal hinges. They have incorporated similes, long sentences to build suspense, short sentences for dramatic effect and dialogue in their writing this week. Year 3 spend their writing sessions focusing well with presentation in their books really improving. The excellent level of effort they are showing always leads to progress and they should feel proud of how their writing is improving, like I do.

We started our sewing task this week, re-aquainting ourselves with the pleasures and pain of threading needles. Again, focus and team-work was seen round the classroom. If you do have any pieces of lightweight fabric to use in this projects (as per the mail), I would be very grateful to receive it.

Thank you for the RE homework this week. The range of ideas and presentation are fantastic. If you finish yours over the weekend, please do send it on on Monday. Also, if your child has the “Bingo” homework grid, please email or send it in for housepoints (as per the other email). Well done on those children who completed the MyMaths homework. The spellings and MyMaths for this week are both on Google classroom.

Wishing you all a very restful weekend.

Steps to success and a celebration

The children have got through the weeks of SATs. They were magnificent in their positive attitudes. The children have worked so hard and have all done their very best. We are very proud of them all.

During the afternoons, we have had some time to do lots of writing activities. In RE, the children wrote radio scripts for an interviewer to interview St Stephen and investigate why and how he was so brave to stand up for his faith despite being persecuted and threatened with death. The children learned he was in fact the first martyr for the christian faith. The Holy Spirit gave him the courage to speak up for what he believed was right and to share his faith with the people who were attacking him.

The children used their scripts to role play their interviews. They displayed great knowledge and empathy for St Stephen.

Today, the children had a relaxed day having studied so hard for their SATs. Rounders and other games were played, the school provided an ice-lolly for each child and much fun was had by all.

Over the weekend, the children will be busy packing their suitcases for our residential trip to the Isle of Wight. We will endeavour to post pictures on this class page through the course of the week but priority will be given to ensuring all children and staff are safe.

Please pray for good weather, happy and healthy children and staff and safe journeys there and back.

May is the month of Mary

Beautiful-flowers-fit-for-a-queen
The-Annunciation-retold-by-our-Chaplaincy-Team
Queen-of-the-apostles-by-Reception
Queen-of-Angels-by-Year-1
Queen-of-peace-by-Year-2
Queen-of-All-Saints-by-Year-3
Queen-assumed-into-heaven-by-Year-4-
Queen-of-the-Martyrs-by-Year-5
Year-6-artwork-to-celebrate-Mary-queen-of-the-most-holy-rosary
Year-4-get-ready-to-dance-around-the-may-pole
Dancing-The-Barbers-Pole
Year-4-dance-with-style

During our May Day liturgy, the Chaplaincy Team led us as we gave thanks for Mary, the mother of Jesus. All the children created a poster that celebrated Mary’s role as Queen and these have been used as a prayer focus for all the classes. Thank you so much for all the amazing plant donations that have been used to really show how deep our thanks is to Mary. Our service ended with a tremendous May Pole dance by Year 4.

Year 2 love to read!

We are all overjoyed to finally receive our set of new reading books. Here we are, juggling with five books each – it was trickier than we thought to hold the books out and look at the camera at the same time! We shall enjoy reading them at home along with a library book that we choose from our Top 50 reads for Year 2. There are so many books to choose from!

Year 2 Wish list

In preparation for our May Day liturgy, we wrote prayers asking for help as we try to keep the peace in our own lives. Here are our beautiful Mary, Queen of Peace posters that we were very proud to show everyone in school. Thank you so much for contributing such wonderful plants for our floral display. We shall enjoy planting and caring for them and then watching them grow across the next few months.

Starting the month of May…

We started May with the beautiful Crowning of Mary. Year 3 drew very careful pictures of the saints for our contribution “Mary, Queen of All Saints”. We talked about saints important to us, such St Adrians and St Albans of course, British and Irish patron saints, St Nicholas and St Francis. Several children in the class reminded us they are named for saints, too.

We celebrated class worship in the hall at the altar of Mary. They children sang Ave Maria, with the harmony very nicely.

The flowers and plants the children brought in looked beautiful and really made it feel like spring could be here. We will continue to mark the month of May with activities.

Last week, year 3 completed the daily mile like other children did. Here they are enjoying the feel-good effect of exercise and exertion.

We are continuing to explore the feelings and events of The Pentecost. The children were thinking and writing about what the disciples would have felt after the Holy Spirit passed over them. They are developing a clearer understanding of how to answer the big question “What’s the use of energy?”

Last week we explored what the experiences of Resurrection and Ascension may have been like for Jesus’ followers by “hot-seating. ” A disciple kindly came to visit us and we asked him and her questions about their emotions and reactions at the events. Here is one of the followers answering questions.

We saw a few pieces of RE homework today, where the children have thought deeply about the subject and used the symbols of the dove and the flame to illustrate their work. Well done and we look forward to seeing more next week.

The children are improving, daily, to say the time correctly. The challenge this week was to say the same time in different ways – eg 11.43am, 11.43 in the morning, 17 minutes to twelve in the morning, 17 minutes before 12 am. An interesting question discussed was – Is twelve o’clock at night am or pm?

We all continue to be intrigued by the mysterious illustrations in “The Mysteries of Harris Burdock”, experimenting with different words and phrases to write alternative titles and captions for chosen pictures.

It’s great to see the children, coatless, racing around on the field. Let’s hope this sunny weather continues. Have a lovely weekend.

Wow, Year 4!

Wow! All the children in Year 4 have really impressed, this week. We marked the start of May with a ceremony to crown Mary. May is the month of Mary and it is also the month that traditionally marks the beginning of summer. Year 4 entertained our visiting parents and the rest of the school with two maypole dances. It was lovely to see them enjoying themselves and thinking on their feet.

The second ‘Wow!’ is for all the Year 4 families, who raised a fantastic £274 at the Year 4 cake sale. I am pretty sure that this is a record total for a cake sale and I know how much difference this will make to the children in Year 4. We have already spent the money and ordered bean bags for our reading area and some fantastic new books to support our guided reading – I know that the children will really enjoy them. Thank you so much for your hard work supporting the children and the work of our school.

Have a lovely weekend!

Doing our best

The bank holiday meant we enjoyed a four day school week this week. The week began with a whole school celebration of the crowning of Mary, the Blessed Mother of Jesus. The assembly focused on the many facets of Mary. Year 6 made a beautiful display of pictures celebrating the many facets of Mary Mary the Mother of the Most Holy Rosary. The children who are in the Chaplaincy Team helped Mrs Porter ensure the celebration ran smoothly and reverently.

This week has been mainly focused on revision of maths, grammar, spelling and reading as we get ready to show off all the children know in their SATs next week. We know the children have worked so hard and are going to do themselves proud. We are very proud of them.

Each Year 6 child has many different gifts and talents which are not measured by tests and all of the combined make the class a very special community to belong to.

Let’s pray for them through the weekend and over the next week and ask God to bless the children with His peace, courage and strength so they can be determined, resilient and maintain their self-belief that they can reach their full potentials.

You’ve got this Year 6!

News from Year 1 – May, the month of Mary

It has been as busy as ever in Year 1 this week. We started the week by celebrating Mary. May is the month of Mary so we have been making our own May altar in learning through play this week. Thank you for the donations of flowers for the school May altar in the hall. We enjoyed a lovely service on Tuesday to crown Mary too.

Performing actions to a poem.

Programming human computers to get to the moon!

Testing our own computer code!

Completing our science topic pages.

Enjoying a good book in guided reading 🙂

Describing a bulb

We are ready to plant the bulbs.

First of all, we dug a hole.

Next, we put the bulb in the hole

I think I will plant my bulb here.

I need to make sure that the hold is deep enough for the bulb.

Our hall display shows everyone our learning.

We all have black hair.

Our hair is a darker shade of brown.

My hair is red.

We all have blond hair.

Our hair is light brown. Some of us have blonde in our hair too.

Autumn leaves fall.

I wonder why these leaves are still green?

Look, the leaves are changing colour.

These leaves are lighter than you might think!

We need to turn left as we leave the school building.

Next, we turn right and then walk forwards to the postbox.

We are ready to post our letters.

I wonder when my letter will arrive?

We cut our hot cross buns in half and then into four quarters.

Year 1 swimming stars!

St Adrian’s summer fair

As part of their service to others, Year Six pack all of our donations up, ready to take them to the foodbank.

Pupils from Year Six visit the FEED foodbank in St Albans to find out more about the important work that is done there.

Year 1 pupils ‘read’ the Torah using a yad.

Our whole school assembly on Judaism

Pupils try writing out their name in Hebrew.

Year 3 pupils

Write a key to describe the symbols that are on your baptism candle.

Create a piece of art on the theme of Bread of Life

These children are planning a class worship session together.

These children are trying out their ideas ready for when they lead their next class worship.

Good Samaritan liturgy in Year One

Father Francis leads our worship.

Father Francis invites responses from the children.

Father Francis shakes everyone’s hand at the end of the liturgy.

The children enjoyed preparing the prayer focus.

Reading Logs – Wcb First Grade with Children Reading Clip Art – Free Design Templates

Reading Logs – Wcb First Grade with Children Reading Clip Art – Free Design Templates

Reading Logs – Wcb First Grade with Children Reading Clip Art – Free Design Templates

The School Council led an assembly to tell us how the money raised will be used to help other people around the world.

Children think of others during Lent and bring in donations for the Catholic Children’s Society

Nursery children pray with the whole school.

The Chaplaincy team take part in our liturgy.

Plants and flowers form part of our celebration of Mary.

Children from each class had a workshop in which they explored their Catholic Social Teaching theme.

Dew drops on a spider web.

Year 1 – Van Gogh, Self portraits

Year 2 – Angie Lewin, Plants and Growing

Year 3

Year 5

Year 6

EYFS

Making our magnetic fishing games in Science.

Year 2’s observations of leaves and plants

Learning about plants in Year 2

Observational skills in Nursery

Visits to Feed, our local Food Bank

Smile at Someone

Year 3 making ‘sedimentary rock’ sandwiches

Reception’s remote learning Science project

EYFS’ volcano experiement

Oscar’s vegetable tart

Katie’s crumble

Abbie’s crumble

James making his vegetable tart

Lara’s vegetable tart

Alex expressing himself by having a kick about in the garden

Oscar’s mask

Isabella’s mask

Lucy’s mask

Olivia’s mask

Harley’s mask

Lara’s mask

Henry’s mask

Sophia’s mask

Abbie’s mask

Leo’s mask

Isabella’s monkey menu

Joshua’s monkey menu

Joshua’s research for his monkey menu

Olivia’s penguin menu

Jessica’s lion menu

Year 5 critical worker children recording their readings from a dissolving experiment

Year 5 critical worker children conducting a dissolving experiment

Measuring the distance droplets travel

Recording and measuring in groups

Sorting materials

Observing

Grouping and sorting using our own criteria

EYFS – Cooking

Year 3 – Georgia O’Keeffe, Mother Nature

Year 3 – Georgia O’Keeffe, Mother Nature

EYFS – Exploring colors and techniques

Year 6 – Botanical Art

Year 6 – Pop up book

We learned about mixing primary colours to make secondary colours. Primary colours are red, blue and yellow. Secondary colours are green, purple and orange. By May,

We have learned that warm colours are red, orange, pink and yellow and the cooler colours are light blue, dark blue and purple. By Harper S

We have learned that Wassily Kandinsky was a very good artist. By Alessia

We have learned that Wassily Kandinsky made artwork that had colours that go together well. By Mia Grace

We have learned about Wassily Kandinsky’s painting called Squares with Concentric Circles. By Harry

We have learned to do concentric circles with colours.

We learned to use powder paint, pens, clay and oil pastels in our artwork. By Gigi

Next-put-two-spoonfuls-of-each-mixture-onto-your-wrap.

1 Our-shopping-list

The-trickiest-bit-was-learning-how-to-fold-the-wrap-up

We-learned-how-to-make-a-bridge-with-our-fingers-when-cutting-the-cucumber.

We-tore-the-lettuce-into-small-pieces.

We-used-knives-carefully-to-cut-up-the-ham.

We-worked-together-as-we-grated-the-cheese-to-make-sure-we-didnt-get-our-fingers-too-close-to-the-grater.

Red, green and white colours and beautiful daffodils to celebrate Saint David’s Day

Our inspiring Lenten Promise display

A class liturgy to reflect on our lenten promises

World Book Day characters

‘Sharing books is fun’

‘We enjoyed recommending a book to someone new’.

‘It was great to spend time with someone that we don’t normally see’

Making new friends

Just look how well the children are concentrating as they share their favourite books!

What have you enjoyed learning this year?

Keeping active is fun!

Watch us jump in the air!

Give an act of kindness says Roisin every day.

May wrote a great list of different ways in which you can Connect, Give, Take Notice, Keep Learning and Be Active.

Harry’s top tips for good mental health.

Look at Harper’s wonderful examples of ways in which you can improve your wellbeing.

We have had a wonderful week opening up all the parcels filled with library books. Thank you to everyone!

Alessia said that it must be something very special inside as the box says ‘Fragile’ on it.

We opened the box very carefully.

Inside, we found five tiny caterpillars. They are eating up the layer of food at the bottom of the pot and we will watch them to see how they change. It is exciting!

Celebrating St Patrick’s Day

Having fun raising money for Comic Relief.

Yellow daffodils for St David’s Day

Yellow and Blue for Reach out for Refugees DAy

Year 6 and Year 4 lead our Stations of the Cross liturgy

Stations of the Cross

In our Easter bonnets …

A song to finish off our liturgy

Our school choir sings loud and proud!

… with all the frills upon it.

With thanks to our wonderful Chaplaincy Team

Our amazing Easter gardens

We used many different media.

Created by KS2

Inspiring artwork

We are raising money for the Catholic Children’s Society

Bright colours to celebrate Easter

Break the rules fay!

What a surprise it was to have snow after a few days of warm sunshine!

We had great fun in the snow as it grew heavier and heavier.

We used the paint we mixed to make finger prints.

Take a look in your child’s bookbag for their beautiful Easter card.

To make our Easter cards, we mixed powder paint together to create our own colours.

Look carefully and you will see the cross on our Easter cards.

Do you think there is enough paint for printing?

Smiling earth day poster illustration

On Earth-Day-we-created-a-drinking-station-for-the-bees-and-butterflies

For Earth Day, we-planted-lots-of-bee-and-butterfly-friendly-plants

Alex-helps to teach-us-about-the-earth-and-the-sun.

We made kaleidoscopes in our Light and Dark workshop.

We had fun exploring mirrors and torches.

We-reflected-light-off-a-mirror. and onto different surfaces.

Here we are in the dark, ready for our Light and Dark workshop.

St-Georges-Day-dressed-in-red-and-white

Swimming superstars!

Eight-laps-1-mile

Enjoying-our-great-new-playground-markings-

We found an interesting place to read to an adult!

Running-the-Golden-Mile keeps us fit.

You should have received a letter about Numbots, please ensure your child is having at least 4 minutes of practice each day. This will really help the children rehearse their addition and subtraction skills.

We’re also off to the zoo! You should have received an email about the trip, please make your voluntary contribution as soon as possible.

We have now started our sharing books. Your lovely Amazon book donations have now become our sharing books for the class. To find out more about our class sharing books, please see letter inside your child’s sharing book.

Have a lovely weekend,

Miss Battams 🙂

Fun in Four

We’ve had another busy week learning together at school.

We were excited to meet Kate Gray, the paralympic athlete and broadcaster, who inspired us with her story and determination. After leading us in a warm-up, we ran the ‘golden mile’ (eight laps of the field) with Kate.

We are enjoying starting to learn May pole dances as part of our PE this half-term. Even though we have only just started, we have taken a crash course so that we might be ready to give our first performance on Tuesday, following the crowning of Mary.

We have made banners to honour Mary as we mark the month of Mary with our crowning ceremony on Tuesday, 3rd May. We have chosen to honour Mary as Queen, assumed into Heaven.

Thank you to all of the families who have supported our Year 4 cake sale today. The children have lots of exciting ideas about how we can spend the funds raised. Many of these are linked to making our book corner more comfortable and inviting.

It’s not too late to get involved in supporting our 50 Books. You can click on the banner below to check out our Amazon wish-list and see what fantastic books we are hoping to read next.

Have a lovely weekend and enjoy the bank holiday!

Inspired to ‘Go for It’!

Amidst a hard working week, we had some light relief with a visit from Kate Grey, a Paralympic swimmer, who is now retired. She currently presents disability sport for the BBC.

Kate gave an inspirational assembly about her life in sport, overcoming her barriers and how she has used them to make her stronger. She then called up and praised the Sports Ambassadors to thank them for the contributions they make to the sport in our school. Mr Creaton also had a special mention as our school’s PE Subject Leader.

To begin with, Kate did a warm up with the whole school in the hall and then we all did the daily mile, followed by a photo opportunity with her.

Kate’s key messages were about resilience and being the best we can be. This is such an important message for Year 6 as they are currently working so hard on their SATs preparation. They are learning to learn and rise from their mistakes and to use them to make them stronger.

However, it is important for the children to remember that they have so many talents which are not measured but make them the wonderful young people they are.

So, we will learn from Kate’s example: if we have our eyes set on our goals, put in the hard work and ‘Go for It’ we will achieve our dreams!