I hope you’ve enjoyed seeing the learning your children have done in their books which they brought home this week. This week started with their final biscuits and continued with finishing off: they particularly enjoyed the science learning about habitats.
Today was a very relaxing day. The children chose to use various computing packages they’ve been learning and had fun doing this. After play they had ice-creams outside, actually in the sunshine which was lovely. It was a sticky, sweet mess which everyone enjoyed. It was great seeing the children playing and chatting with their friends.
Year 4 and I have been together for four full terms, including a day a week for a term and a half before that. This included the unusual transition from the remaining Covid restrictions back to normal school life. It has been a privilege and a pleasure to help your children learn and see them mature and enjoy the normal routine of the school year. Your bag of presents is really amazing – creative, thoughtful and with some delicious treats. You are very generous and I really appreciate the time and effort you all put into that. To say that I will miss the children is an understatement, but more than that I am very proud of their achievements and the fact that they are moving onto year 5 confident and eager for the learning there.
Wishing you all a very happy, safe summer, with very best wishes
This has been another week with exciting changes to the timetable. Year 4 was an excellent audience for the year 6’s production of “Ali Baba and The Bongo Bandits”, when they loved the songs. Mr Creaton was very impressed with them on their “transition morning” to his classroom and thinks that they will make an excellent year 5.
The children are taking their fantastic learning home with them and I hope that you enjoying seeing the fruits of their labours. We are currently focusing on the Science topic of animals and habitats which contains lots of fascinating knowledge.
We are taking in all school books – library books, class books and reading books (so the next book will be ready for each child on the first day back at school). Please check under the bed, sofas, car seats for any school books which may be lurking there so we don’t need to issue any fines.
Please remember the library reading challenge to keep holiday reading up. https://summerreadingchallenge.org.uk/
Today, the children followed a recipe to make biscuits with various flavours. Next week they will decide, as a group, which combination of flavours to use and make their own biscuits.
There are just 3.5 days left with the lovely children of year 4 and then they can have a very well-deserved break.
Last week we painted Kew and this week we built it – at least part of it. Inspired by “The Hive ” pavilion, Year 4 designed and built their own pavilions. As preparation, the children worked in groups of 3 to see who could build the tallest tower using spaghetti and marshmallows. This led to discussions about strong shapes, structure, stability and reinforcement. The children collaborated very well and came up with different solutions to the problem.
Year 4 threw themselves into this week’s activities. They really enjoyed the wheelchair basketball/handball session on Monday, learning some new skills. On Tuesday we learnt some dance moves and on Wednesday had a very creative time playing percussion instruments and dancing to “jazz with Johnny”.
On Friday some children from year 4 attended the “World Games” at Oaklands College. We were part of the “Netherlands” team and did a great selection of sports and sporting activities. All the children showed great perseverance – really needed in the “slackrope” challenge! – and good sports skills. (Photos to follow).
We were sorry to miss “St Adrians Got Talent”, but have heard how fantastic the perfomers – Aiden & Jeremy and Sofia – from year 4 were. We also heard the other perfomers who auditioned, at lunchtime; and they were also excellent, putting a lot of preparation into their acts. Well done to everyone who participated.
As part of our learning about Butterflies in art, we created some beautiful artwork that shows our skills using watercolour paint. The paintings formed part of our school art exhibition and can be purchased by sending in £7 to the school office.
Here we are showing what superb learners we are as we explored the watercolour paint.
We also took part in an exciting drama workshop this week. We explored the story of Peter Pan and had great fun being characters from this famous story, including pirates, merpeople and Tinklebell!
Year 4 really enjoyed being outdoors this week – to bounce, on Wednesday. Thank you for your generosity in sponsoring the children. They all loved the activities, moreso for remembering them from last year so they looked forward to them with anticipation. The teamwork was improved from last year, as they guided each other across the chequer board. I took lots of photos of this and other activities this week, but forgot to upload them when at school (and to post this). Apologies for this: I’ll put them up next time I’m at school, where the i-pad is.
Year 4 loves their science and this week were fascinated to see what effect water, milk, coca-cola and orange juice had on an egg, which was a stand-in for a tooth. Can they tell you what they observed happened to the egg; and what conclusions they drew from this, in terms of the effects on teeth? And also the successful and less successful aspects of using an egg instead of a tooth.
I’ve been very impressed with the children’s understanding of the digestive system and their memory for the parts of the system – spelling oesophagus is a bit harder than saying it! But everyone could do the latter and had very good goes at achieving the former.
Rounders is a fantastic outdoor summer sport and this week the children were developing their tactics – when is it best to run and when to stop at a base, for example. We were a spectator sport for the nursery children and parents at the Pentecost party who looked like they were having a great time.
I can’t post any pictures of the careful paintings the children have done as these need to be a surprise straight after school on Wednesday 7th June. The children focused very well, following the style of the painter.
We have a little more of “Letters From the Lighthouse” to finish before starting “The Lion, the Witch and The Wardrobe”. The children have been doing a lot of individual reading out loud and so their confidence and expression have improved. It’s a riveting story and we’re all very keen to find out what happens.
I hope you all have a very relaxing, enjoyable half-term break whether it’s at home or away and look forward to seeing everyone again for the last 6 weeks of the school year.
Rather than wind down for the end of term, in Year 5 we believe in squeezing out every bit of curriculum time that we can. We had a great time on Tuesday along the Alban Way and Sopwell Nunnery ( thanks to Mrs Parrett, Mrs Bird and Mrs Watson making this possible).
Later, back in class, we were able to complete some brilliant project work based on the trip.
Please look at the Herts Reading Challenge this summer – enjoy yourselves, relax and stay safe -come back refreshed and ready for Year 6!
Well this week was Sports Day – And what a slick opperation it was! Now these things don’t happen by accident – We made sure that we haelped the Key Stage 1 sports day go well by helping Mrs Hayes and Mrs Thompson . Later we also helped with orgaising of the Key Stage 2 Sports Day as well as competing.
Later in the week we were treated to a lovely act of worship from some of the boys in our class
This week the children were proud to display all their work at the Open Evening. Parents were treated to an array of artwork, sculpture and bridge constructions. Others tried their hand at solving some encrypted messages or identify St Albans buildings from the past. The bravest of brave even watched a selection of terrifying videos that the children had made depicting the The Marwell Murder Mystery.
Sorry – Photos refuse to load but I have put them on the Google Classroom
SPEC LATEST
Friday Morning,
A very quiet night was had by all – none of the usual disagreements over shining torches after lights out or the dreaded 3 am knock at the teacher’s door… “I can’t sleep” .
One case of fake snoring and excessively noisy trips to the shower at 6 am was all I can report.
Some quotations:
“That’s the best night’s sleep I’ve had for three years”
“Great Hot Chocolate”
“Food is great (kisses thumb and first finger)”
“I like the forsest”
“campfire was brilliant”
“Grat sharing with your mates”
“They have vegetarian hot chocolate !!!”
Now for the final room check –
Teacher: So you ‘ve all checked your room and made sure you’ve left nothing behind
Boys : (Heads nod vigorously) Yes we’ve double checked – it’s all clear.
Teacher: So why is there a sock over there, a tooth brush by the sink and a coat under the bed?
Boys: (sheepishly in unison) Oh .
Off to breakfast now – and here’s a few more photos from yesterday
Hi All,
Just to say everyone is having a great time.
Activities today have included drama’s on the lives of the saints, treasure hunts, hamma bead crosses and exposition of The Blessed Sacrament followed by fireside stories at the campfire and hot chocolate.
Now its time for bed and sleep …
This week we have started finding out about the tragic events at Marwell Manor. Lady Anne has been found murdered and many of the children are convinced it was her husband who comes into millions from her will – or does the house keeper, Ruth, have something to hide.
Yesterday we all celebrated Ascension day at the Church. Year 5 helped with Year 1. The children behaved beautifully.
I had a really hard time deciding who would go forward to deliver their speech to the school. After much deliberation, it was decided that Kane was our best bet – he delivered his speech with aplomb to the rest of the school and we are now far more aware of our excessive use of plastic and how we can remedy the situation.
We have learnt all there is to know about the perils of using too much plastic and have all prepared speeches to deliver to the rest of the school about what they should do to address this issue- they might be asking you to listen to their speeches as they practise.
May is also the month of Mary and we have produced some artwork which celebrates some famous martyrs (Mary- Queen of Martyrs).
As we finish our work on plastic we move to a new genre in English – Mystery writing.
Miss Allen, our new sports coach, has started teaching dance to the pupils.
Well this week we have been busy preparing for our Class Mass and I have to say it was a wonderful experience. The children read, served and sang beautifully and were very reverent. A big thank you to Fr Francis for celebrating the Mass and to Mrs Porter and Mrs Parrett for their in help preparing the Mass.
We have been doing lots of work for Earth Day. We wrote some poetry and did some research into reducing our carbon footprint and using single-use plastic ( Don’t be surprised if your children give you a hard time next you put a ready meal in the microwave!)
Our brave boys were in action in the Six-a-side and kept two clean sheets. Unfortunately, in a very tight competion a headed wonder goal from a Skywood striker meant that we missed out on going to the finals tournament on goal difference.
Easter Art Competition and Parade
Congratulations to the two winners from Year 5 and the wonderful contributions from Year 5
Computing
This week we have extended our crytopgraphy lessons to binary signals using morse code.
Chicks
We had a chance to see the baby chicks in reception this week.
Holy Week
In RE, we re-enacted aspects of the events of Holy Week
Computing
We have started a new topic in Computing and how messages could be sent across distances. Historically this was accomplished using semaphore.
Wow – what a week.
WORLD BOOK DAY
Every year this is an event which the children enjoy by dressing up as their favourite book characters. This year, we paired up with Year 1 and read their books to them.
And whilst on the subject of wonderful books, it has been suggested to me that children, on their birthday might wish to donate a book to the library. There is a suggested list on amazon for some titles for year 5 and the link is below:
We have been looking at personal development and how to avoid succumbing to undue pressure to do things we would rather not do – helped by some role-play.
History of St Albans.
Using Archive photos, we have identified how various views and landmarks of St Albans have changed (or not changed) and attempted to match them up with their modern counterparts.
Mothers’ Day
Not a dry eye was left in the house after our beautiful rendition of Bob Dylan/Adele ‘s ‘Make You Feel My Love’.
Well another hectic week rolls by- this week we have had more work on our bridges; internet safety; and well being so there have been sessions off timetable
Yoga and Dance and mindfulness
Investigating how we can be manipulated on the internet (Internet Safety Day)
Well this week we have been busy with science experiments – investigating insulation. This involved taking a series of temperature readings and using the chromebooks to help us analyse our results.
NSPCC Numbers Day
Following a tip off from a parent, we tried our hand at a few maths packages that are currently on the market (IXL Maths and Maths frame) – fun was had by all.
Well things are still buzzing in Year 5 and our class is still busy with Mrs Bartley- we have moved on to bridges in DT.
Whilst some of the class were away representing the school at the indoor sportshall athletics, the rest of us took some time to do some problem solving in maths.
We have been working very hard with Mrs Bartley on our electric light up boxes – much more fiddlly than it looks but it has been a great learning experience.
Well this week we have been working with fractions. Whilst some of us parents (and tutors) will know the mantra of’ times the bottom and top to get equivalent fractions’ , here is us putting theory into practice.
Wishing you all a very happy and holy Christmas and New Year.
We have been quite eclectic in our activities :
You will know from the Harvest Festival that we are a musical bunch, and here’s more evidence ….
In RE we have been having class acts of worship which have been prepared and delivered by the children. We have also learnt about the prayer that Jewish people say called the Shema and how they keep it stored in a special box called a Mezuzah.
In maths we have been calculating square and cube numbers but first get real concrete experience of what this means
Well another fun week has flown by. We have completed our Shakesprianesque plyscripts and look forward to starting our new book . Christmas will be here soon and we have started to sing some carols for the Carol Service (see home learning). Naturally, being Year 5, we were best and were awarded the singing trophy.
Friday was also Children in Need day and there was a cake sale. Naturally, being Year 5, our cakes were best.
Friday was also Multiplication Tables Day. We have taken part in a TTRS competition and did a variety of times tables related activities.
The Curriculum rolls on and now we are gearing up for some serious Times Tables work in Maths. In English, we have started learning about The Bard, and in particular , The Tempest. We are currently writing our own scripts for our Shakespearean scene based on a black and white video clip of a 1908 film version. Here we are, working in our groups, with the initial draft of our scene
THE CENTRE FOR COMPUTING HISTORY CAMBRIDGE
Our first trip of the year. This time we were off to Cambridge to sample the delights of The Centre for Computing History Cambridge. This is a fantastic museum – 0pen to the public by the way. Inside was a vast cornucopia of computing memorabillia and paraphernalia starting from even before my time – although the site of the 80s classroom and early computer and video games brought a tear to my eye. They even had the coverted ZX81 and Sinclair Spectrum. Looking at the size of the computers, the children were taken aback by the fact that they had significantly smaller computing power than a modern laptop.
Across the day, the children were treated to various workshops including a talk on the history of computing; morse code as a method of binary communication; controlling devices using programming on a Raspberry Pi; and a trip to the Game Zone which had all manner of arcade games and computer games from days of yore.
The big data disk from 1959 is about a metre across and holds onnly 4MB – roughly enough memory to send 30 emails (without attachments).
Programming with the Raspberry Pi
Using Morse Code
Fun in the Games Room (below)
Well this week we have been tackling some rather tricky maths and have got our heads around inverse operations whilst in English, we have all but completed the first draft of our (Katherine Johnson’s) memoir. We have been gearing up for our Computing Trip to Cambridge with some rather beautiful patterns produced by our algorithms (more on theactual trip to follow).
Wednesday was the Harvest Festival and it was great to see all the classes delivering songs of thanks for the harvest as well as more sobering thoughts for those that still go hungry. We did our part with our rendition of ‘In my Lifetime’
In English, after being inspired by the book, ‘Here We Are’ , we have written our own guides to lead a good life and maintain health and well-being. We are currently studying ‘Hidden Figures’ which chronicles the struggles and ultimate triumph of four African American Women working for NASA during the space race with the Soviet Union.
This makes a timely backdrop to our Black History Month celebrations, where the children learn about the contribution that Black people have made to our culture, community and development. In particular, we have been studying Baroness Benjamin (Floella Benjamin ) and her memoirs on living in Trinidad and then coming to England as part of the Windrush Generation.
In response to an initiative from the Well-being Team, we have been decorating hands with a view to making a beautiful collage.
In maths we have been learning about Place Value and playing games against each other.
Science has seen us very busy learning about the solar system – researching on laptops; doing a find the planet treasure hunt and mapping out or own scale model of the Solar System.
The Vikings had their gentler side too and, when not pillaging and plundering, loved nothing more than creating knots; printing patterns ; carving animals and mythical creatures; and producing ornate, deocrated jewellery. As a precursor to our study of the Vikings later this term, we have been studying Viking Art.
Sporting Prowess
Well as if all this wasn’t enough, members of Year 5 . Lots of the boys were in the football team playing against St Columba’s. Whilst the Year 6 Netball Team was stengthened by the inclusion of our very own Neve.
This week in Year 5 (26th -30June)
We finally completed our people in action sculptures – here was a photo from our display at the open evening. And also us investigating the power of levers in science
This week in Year 5 (19th -23rd June)
We have had a very busy day with lots of art, learning about Degas and how to use body proportions for people in action.
Many of year 5 were involved in the didtrict sports and there was also wheel chair basketball as well for everyone. ( More details on the sports page)
We took part in St Adrian’s got Talent with two groups of girls
Well done Maya , Lucy Rukksika, Abbie, Katie, Jess , Lara and thanks to Beth for helping to organise the competition.
This week in Year 5 (9th -14th June)
This week in English we were learning about the Mars Rover for our new Book, Curiosity. And Finally, we completed our fans in DT.
In Science we have been investigating air resistnce with paper helicopters and of course on Friday we sang our hearts out for our dads.
This week in Year 5 (5th -9th June)
Well we have been very busy again- with the hot weather we have been making desk fans to help cool us down as part of our DT project. The art display on Wednesday was a great way toshow case our artistic talents. And, of course, on Thursday, we all went to Mountfitchet Castle and the House on the Hill Toy Museum
SPEC 2023
(Subsequent posts will be added to the bottom of the SPEC post so that it will read chronologically)
SPEC 2023 (Wednesday morning until lunch time)
Well we’ve never been away on a school trip but don’t we look excited as we wait for the coach to arrive.
We’ve arrived safely and time for a bit of orientation and warm up games before lunch
Time for lunch – everyone was happy with the food…
Now for a bit of exploration and play after lunch in the beautiful grounds:
SPEC 2023 (Wednesday afternoon and night)
So then , after running off our lunch it was time for some games and a treasure hunt then drama in the chapel.
Then a bit more exploring…
A great way to work up an appetite- ready for tea
and a play…
Before finishing off some earlier work with hamma beads…
Then , after this, it was back to the chapel for exposition
Then to round off the evening, singing around the campfire with hot chocolate, marsh mallows, biscuits and a drama about St Joan of Arc.
9: 15 pm. Now it is bed time . The children have brushed their teeth, showered and completed their skin care regimes and settled down for the night.
10:30pm … All quiet on the western front !
Thursday Morning
All the children made it through the night and , unusually, there were no tears or children wanting to go home at 2 am. However, suffice to say, they will all probably want an early night when they get back home.
Its 7:30 am – the children are up and ready for play before breakfast. They head off to do some more exploring in the woods or climbing up steep muddy hills on this beautiful summer’s morning ; a tear springs to my eye as I’m magically transported back to my carefree childhood in the halcyon epoch that was the mid 1970s.
With appetites suitable whetted, its time for breakfast – a selection of croisant, pain au chocolat, toast, preserves, fruit, yoghurt and cereal- just like they have at home.
Thursday mid -morning
details to follow…
After breakfast was ‘Stations of Light’ where, in the serenity of the grounds, we read readings whilst walking the Stations of the Cross.
Check out the Year 5 (St Paul) page for subsequent updates.
Then time for break…
Afterwards it was off to the cinema and then preparation for Mass.
Mass in the Chapel.
Our final meal at Spec- bangers and mash
What a wonderful couple of days – Thank you to all the saff at SPEC and to our own Mrs Porter and Miss Cartwright.
Hello everyone, This week we were super creative and actually builded a real castle using cardboard boxes paint and bricked wallpaper!!! What a big project it was, but guess what… we did well and our special magical writing place is ready to be used next week. In our castle the children will be able to write a short story/ sentence and dress up as a princess or knight. We have everything needed to make a book and at the end of each day the children will be able to celebrate their story writing with their friends. Can’t wait to see all the amazing books. Stay tuned and check the blog every week to see it too.
On Wednesday we celebrated National numeracy day. The children had access to many fun activities like making a number block crown and number block fan. They also printed numicons on a playdough and did number bonds to 10 while eating cheese biscuits:
We can’t be more excited to tell you that 4 out of 5 butterflies emerged and they are healthy and eating juicy fruit already. Hopefully the fifth one will emerge too, so we can release them all next week.
In Little Wandle we’ve read super long words like ‘lunchbox’ and ‘handstand’ and again practised chunking them up ‘lunch’ and ‘box’. Chunking long words is really useful and helps us read with ease. We’ve learned 4 new tricky words too:
Please practice reading them at home.
In Maths this week we practised thinking about pairs of numbers that make 10 using our double dice frame. The stem sentence we used was: ” I can see 4 counters, so I could say: “4 needs 6 to make 10”, or I could say “6 needs 4 to make 10”. You can practise the stem sentence at home too. We also played with 10 frames and had yellow and red tokens to make 10 in different ways.
In RE we talked about Judaism. Mrs Ruffell was very kind to come and tell us all about her family traditions and she explained what Seder meal means. We talked about the meaning of each food on the plate. The children could wear the special Jewish hat called kippah.
Things to remember: Wednesday, 24 May 2023, 2:15 pm – Pentecost party We will encourage children to wear red to school on the day; red being the liturgical color of Pentecost. Any voluntary contributions towards the food (which will be limited to red items) should be provided by Monday 22 May.
Have a lovely weekend! Looking forward seeing you all on Monday! Mrs Solakova
As we’re well into this half-term, the children have really got to grips with learning in lots of different areas. They have really enjoyed planning and sketching their works of art for the art display after May half-term and learning more about Anglo-Saxon England. They have a passion for the detail involved in the digestive system so I think there are many budding doctors in the class! And also some journalists, judging by the informative articles about Howard Carter’s discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb which the children wrote. We are nearly there with correct direct speech punctuation. We attended a lovely Ascension Day service yesterday, where the children were impeccably behaved and sang beautifully. It was lovely to step out into what finally felt like spring, to worship at church. Sorry for no photos this week – the mini i-pad went to PGL.
Wishing you all a relaxing weekend and good luck with the various sports tournaments and competitions taking place.
