St Adrian's Catholic Primary School
To learn, to love, to live
This week has been bustling with activities centered around children’s mental health and Safer Internet Day. To kick off our week, we delved into the theme ‘My voice matters’ in class, exploring ways to use our voice to share what matters to us. We took part in a dance and yoga session to help us focus on our physical well being.
For Safer Internet Day, we immersed ourselves in various activities aimed at enhancing our online safety awareness.
.. has been the theme of this week. Some of what we have done is in the bulletin. On Thursday, the children also thought of an achievement they are proud of and shared this with their table. Also key to good mental health is a healthy outdoor environment and the Eco Councillors and other children planted some saplings on the field which will hopefully grow to provide shade and a home for birds and other animals.
The children are really enjoying “The Firework Maker’s Daughter” which is a beautifully written story of bravery and adventure, laced with plenty of humour.
Reading rich, varied and creative literature is a key aspect of good learning and the children are also loving exploring nonsense poetry, specifically “The Jabberwocky” by Lewis Carroll.
They have been learning about data – what it is, the pitfalls of collecting what seems to be straightforward data, and how well-suited computers are to gathering and processing it. They used data loggers, which are borrowed from a local computer hub.
Here is the display of the children’s writing about the (imitation) Roman artefacts we have here and their excellent accompanying sketches the children took great care in drawing.
The children used data loggers for the first time today. They recorded the levels of light and noise and the temperature in different parts of the classroom. Some children went to great lengths to ensure different readings!
Wishing you a relaxing, happy weekend.
Year IV know just what the Romans did for us and they told us all about it on Thursday. They did it with style, confidence and worked brilliantly as a team. The children learnt their lines off by heart so they could concentrate on delivering them clearly and loudly. Thank you for coming to support the children. We hope you enjoyed their ukelele playing. Thanks go to their teacher, Mrs Newman, who prepared all the music and tuned the ukeles the day before the performance.
We used the visit to Verulamium and the resources we have at school to complete some topical writing and Art which are now proudly displayed on the classroom wall. The children have very much enjoyed reading “Escape From Pompeii” and will start a new book very soon.
Everyone looked amazing on Number Day on Friday. Thank you for your donations to the NSPCC. The children played some games from the nrich website to use their multiplication and division fact recall in strategic problem-solving contexts. Maybe you could play the games with your children at home? The links are :
https://nrich.maths.org/6863 – Times Tables shifts,
https://nrich.maths.org/10094 – Four in a Row (or similar name)
Over the last couple of weeks in RE we have learnt that there was a man named Simeon who lived a very long time ago in Jerusalem. He was a righteous man and he was told that he would see the Messiah. Mary and Joseph came to the Temple with Jesus, Simeon took Jesus into his arms and said a very special prayer.
We acted this out in class
In maths this week we continued to look at number 3. Mr Wolf could only eat 3 things so we found things in the classroom we thought he would like.
On Friday we took part in the NSPCC Number day.
We did a number 3 hunt out in the playground, made triangles using lolly sticks and had some number and shape activities at the writing table.
RE
In RE over the next couple of weeks we will be thinking about our families and all the wonderful things families do together. It would be lovely if the children could bring in a photo of their family doing something together e.g. family wedding, birthday, days out. Photos can be given in to share or uploaded onto tapestry.
Important Dates
Half Term – Monday 19th – Friday 23rd February.
Parent Consultation – Tuesday 27th and Thursday 29th February.
World Book Day – Thursday 7th March – Come to school dressed up as your favourite book character.
There will be no reading morning on Friday 8th March as we will be going to the Mothers Day Assembly – parents welcome.
Friday 22nd March – PTA Break the rules day
Friday 22nd March – EYFS Cake Sale after school
School finishes at 1:30PM on Thursday 28th March 2024.
Summer term begins on Monday 15th April 2024.
Have a lovely weekend
Miss Taylor
Over the last few weeks, we have been using games, programmable toys and online coding games to explore algorithms. We have created our own algorithms, tried them out, spotted problems and then debugged our programmes to make sure that they work. This has involved lots of mistakes, discussions and problem solving, which has been great fun!
… was one of the headlines year 4 chose to start their reports on their trip to Verulamium Museum. They also wrote about what they had learnt and their ideas show insight.
It was a beautiful day to walk across Verulamium Park and the interest in the dogs we passed along the way was almost as great as that shown in the Roman artefacts we handled during the workshop session. It was a fantastic opportunity to actually touch the same objects that Romans made nearly 2000 years ago. The children then had the opportunity to learn more about the Roman history of their city by exploring the museum exhibits.
We are very grateful to the two Mums who came with us, midweek; and without whose support we couldn’t do these very valuable enrichment activities. Thank you.
The Roman topic, studied in History and through reading “Escape From Pompeii”, has provided the children with opportunities to learn about vocabulary, practise art and understand the impact of a hugely significant civilisation.
Big Garden Birdwatch
This week we took part in the Big Garden Birdwatch. The children really enjoyed making their binoculars to use and were excited to take them out and use them. We went outside on Tuesday morning, Wednesday afternoon and again on Friday morning to see if we could see any birds in trees or on the field. We were also had a look to see if the birds have been eating the bird feeders we made.
The children will bring their binoculars home today – please ensure they are supervised while using because of the strings.
Other photos this week including the children playing ‘Bertha on the bus’, exploring the objects beginning with ‘g’ and a very long road track which the children have loved.
Important Dates
Monday 29th January – INSET Day
Friday 2nd February – NSPCC Number Day – Wear a math themed outfit
Half term – Monday 19th – Friday 23rd February
Reminders
Please can children have a small keyring on their book bag handle so they can identify their book bag when getting ready for home time.
Jewellery such as bracelets, rings and necklaces are not part of the school uniform – please can children keep them for after school, weekends and holidays. Children are allowed to wear stud earrings if they have their ears pierced.
Have a lovely long weekend
Miss Taylor
This week we have continued to explore the story ‘We’re Going on a Bear Hunt’, the children are confident with joining in the repeated refrains and the actions.
We also watched a fantastic video of Michael Rosen performing and acting out the story which the children joined in with.
We went up to the Library again this week. Just a reminder – the previous books needs to be returned in order to take out a new one.
In PE this week we worked on our ball skills. We held our balls on different parts of our bodies and tried very carefully not to drop them.
In RSE this week we talked about our bodies and all the wonderful things we can do, the children helped match the picture to the correct part of the body.
Other photos this week:
Bird Garden Birdwatch
Thank you so much for all the toilet roll tubes, we would love a few more if you could save them for us over the weekend.
Book Bags
Please could all book bags have a small key ring on the handle so children can identify their own book bag at home time.
Important Dates
Join us every Friday 8:45 – 09:00 AM for reading morning in the Nursery classroom.
INSET Day – Monday 29th January.
February Half Term – Monday 19th – Friday 23rd February
Have a lovely weekend
Miss Taylor
The two weeks off have done everyone a lot of good and everyone is raring to go with learning. We started lots of new topics this week, including out book for writing “Escape From Pompeii”. The children role-played being citizens in Pompeii, before the volcano erupted.
The children explored replica Roman artefacts to better understand life in Ancient Rome. We shall see real versions of these when we visit Verulamium Museum on Wednesday 24th January.
In Maths, we have been learning about other ways to work out the answer to multiplication calculations and today the children used Dienes to show that multiplying a number by 12 is the same as mutliplying it by 12 and by 2, which are straightforward calculations to do; and then adding together these two answers.
I found out today that the cake sale raised £199.10 which is really fantastic! Thank you for your generosity in organising, making cakes as well as buying and selling them. I will discuss with the class what we would like to buy with the money.
I hope that you all have a lovely weekend and let’s all hope that it’s not going to be bitterly cold.
The children are enjoying being back at school and are very happy to be able to play with their friends. Here we all our, out and about enjoying each other’s company as we welcome in 2024.
