The Splash - Spring Term 2

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As part of our Ancient Civilizations project we made death masks like Tutankhamun’s. Some of us lay down with paper strips on our face while a partner stuck brown paper parcel tape on our faces! They look amazing! We have been growing broad beans so we can see them develop. We also grew them in compost.

We wrote some wonderful River poems full of metaphors.&nbsp;Everyone loved the Explorer Dome!

Well, my oh my what an incredibly busy and full of learning fun term we've had - despite the odd hurricane and tropical storm or 3!

Firstly, thank you to our wonderful pupils, amazingly supportive parents and simply superb staff.

In and out of class we have attended and celebrated many special events including (big deep breath in!) watching a Jack and the Beanstalk production, creating yummy pizzas, participating in the RSPB bird watch, conducting minibeasts and their habitats nature searches on the field and in the woods, creating Mother's Day potted flowers and pottery, Valentine's Day cards and Chinese New Year tigers as well as tossing pancakes, World Book Day dressing up and stories, Red Nose Day, the Explorer Dome and Easter egg hunts!&nbsp;Phew - it's no wonder the Poppy staff team are exhausted!

Our mornings have been equally busy, mastering fractions in Maths and creating biographies and fantasy stories in English – not forgetting the week we spent creating our entries for the Short Story Competition!&nbsp;

They have also been introduced to a team building game&nbsp;called Connect 3.&nbsp;This game involves speed, quick thinking&nbsp;and good communication skills. Being the quickest runner in this game could result in&nbsp;making the quickest mistakes, unless you listen to your&nbsp;team-mates!&nbsp;

Year three have had a brilliant half term. In English, we have written our own version of Stone Age Boy - Bronze Age boy. The whole class have worked so hard and their has been a huge improvement in handwriting and use of punctuation. The children are continuing to develop their skills as reflective learners and this has really shown as they have edited and improved their writing.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;

In Maths, we have worked hard learning about perimeter and measures in general. I have been really impressed with the progress everyone has made in the area. We have also been working hard to learn our 3 and 4 times tables, using I’m still standing and up Town funk to help us – ask your children for a rendition!&nbsp;&nbsp;

In science we have been exploring all things forces and magnet. Attracting, repelling, pushes, pulls, contact and non-contact. We have LOVED planting our beans and seeing if magnets affect their growth. We are still looking for patterns, buuuuut it looks as though magnets helped the beans germinate faster. We are now waiting to see if the plants growth is stronger with either. What incredible things magnets really are!&nbsp;

Hi there,&nbsp; Lily and Evan here, reporting for Widemouth!&nbsp;

Our topic this half term has been Blood Heart. We have learnt about: where all the organs are; how the circulatory system works; bad food and calories and smoking. 

During this topic, we had visitors. We had Mr Cornish, from Jays Aim, and Mike the paramedic. Jay's Aim taught us how to do CPR and use a Defibrillator. It made us feel as if we worked for Jay’s Aim. It was useful because if we were ever put into that situation we would know what to do. Mike told us more about defibrillators and his job and used a lot of complicated words.

Our first house event was a great success! The children spent the morning collaborating with children from their house team completing a range of activities. They first got to know some of the other children that form part of their house, the Red Crabs, the Yellow Octopuses, the Green Turtles and the Blue Dolphins. They then constructed their own eco-friendly plant pots and planted their own sunflower seed. Most classes then had time to complete some sunflower mindful colouring and played some rather competitive BINGO! What a fabulous morning!&nbsp;

In science, the children have learnt lots about forces and explored their understanding through a range of hands-on experiments. They particularly enjoyed exploring the effects of water resistance, who knew shapes would travel that slow through bubble bath!&nbsp;&nbsp;

Our writing has been inspired by the book ‘A Monster Calls’. Here are extracts from Tiffany’s.&nbsp; ‘The sinister light of the spine-chilling silver moon sliced through the ancient windows and the darkness of the room. The massive mesmerising moon beckoned Amber pulling her in. Figures lingered in the yard – unnerving, foreboding , threating.’ Tiffany&nbsp;

In Maths, Wanson have covered converting units, area, perimeter and volume and ratio this half-term.&nbsp;

In PE we have improved our skills and techniques in netball and tried Tri-Golf for the first time. Jake got the hang of it very quickly.&nbsp;

We made fake blood as well! We used equipment such as: a pipette, a beaker and a test tube. We also used everyday items like syrup, vegetable oil, red food colouring and milk. In the future, we might (and that’s a might) dissect a pigs heart. YUCK! And go to Adventure International!&nbsp;&nbsp;

In English the first text re write we did was based on a climate change speech by Greta Thunberg. We found this very interesting because we were able to find out facts about our chosen subject. The second was based on a novel called A Monster Calls but we paused it to do our short story writing competition, which is quite a long name. The winner of our class was … Lily Olivier. The name of her story was The Journey to a Loved one. We don’t know who won in the entire school yet. It was judged by an author called Anna Chorten. After that, we continued with our A Monster Calls unit.&nbsp;

We also had a go at creating our own stone carving inspired by the Stone Age art we had been studying.

The children loved sharing their learning with their adults during the Climate event at school. We’ve had such a wonderful half term and produced learning in all subjects that we can be proud of.

We have had such a wonderful time learning about forces in science. Our first investigation was to see how far a car would travel on different surfaces. We made predictions, carried out our investigation using our observation and teamwork skills. We recorded our results in a bar chart.

After the investigation, we concluded that the car travelled furthest on the smooth surface because there was less friction and that the car travelling on the bubble wrap was stopped because the bubbles got in the way.

We have learnt all about the stone age and how things changed significantly for people during this time. The class have been fascinated by the idea of such revolutionary new technologies, like the wheel, changing things so vastly!&nbsp;

In conjunction with World Book Day, many of our pupils took part in a sponsored read! As a school we strongly promote the love of reading and this event really showed how much our pupils do enjoy a good book!

All the money raised went to purchasing new books for our library! Thank you so much to all who took part.

Did you know? The Greeks invented the Olympics. The Greeks also created a range of pottery and developed their designs over the years. They were also some of the best architects!&nbsp;&nbsp; The children created their very own Greek pots this half term; we were really impressed with their final products. We also became architects and built our own wooden bridge structures after investigating what makes a strong structure.&nbsp;&nbsp;

It may have been a short half term, but we have certainly packed in lots of exciting learning!

The River’s a stasher,&nbsp; Cramming her pockets,&nbsp; Gold and treasure,&nbsp; Tiny gems in mini lockets.&nbsp;

As we are learning about Rivers and Mountains in Geography, we have written some metaphor poetry for them in English.&nbsp; Here is just one superb example to share with you:&nbsp;

The River’s a youngster,&nbsp; As she giggles and snots,&nbsp; Always has time,&nbsp; To sleep in her cot.&nbsp;

The River’s a transporter,&nbsp; Beautiful, bright,&nbsp; Always keeps flowing,&nbsp; To find the perfect campsite.&nbsp;

The River’s a ballet,&nbsp; Flutters and flows,&nbsp; Flooding the stage,&nbsp; Extraordinary shows.&nbsp;

The River’s an artist,&nbsp; Painting valley’s and towns,&nbsp; A turquoise paint meander,&nbsp; Slipping around.&nbsp;

The River’s a monster,&nbsp; Harsh and vexed,&nbsp; Blood shot eyes,&nbsp; She’ll discover you next!&nbsp;

What a busy, exciting term we have just come to the end of! 

Crackington class have become experts in all things Ancient Greek over the last few weeks: we even hosted our own Greek Day where we created Greek cookies, invented Greek mythical creatures and held our own Olympic Games with Northcott class!

Add in creating Greek clay pots and using saws and sandpaper to build wooden truss bridges and you can safely say that the class have really got stuck into this term’s topic work.&nbsp;&nbsp;

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Bude Primary Academy Junior's Celebration Bulletin

Spring Term 2 - Monday 28th February to Friday 8th April

For Science week, we have planted some broad beans: some with soil and some without.&nbsp; We have been observing them closely, waiting for them to germinate.&nbsp; Nothing yet, but we are hopeful.&nbsp;

In Design Technology we are making a Pavilion, so this week, we created a simple frame for a structure, as well as how to reinforce it to make it stronger.&nbsp; The children accepted the challenge, and their resilience was extraordinary – they should be proud of themselves.&nbsp; &nbsp;

Summerleaze would like to thank you for your ongoing support and wish you all a safe and Happy Easter.&nbsp;

PTA news Our next PTA meeting will be on Wednesday 4th&nbsp;of May at&nbsp;5.30pm, with a view to start at 5.40pm. This will take place in the Junior School hall. All parents and carers who would like to attend are more than welcome.&nbsp;

PTA Dancetastic Disco Firstly, a HUGE thank you to all of our PTA members and staff who supported with our dancetastic disco yesterday, it was a resounding success! The children had a wonderful time showing us all of their groovy dance moves and we raised an amazing £748.00!!!

This half term we have learning about rivers and mountains. The Nile is the longest river in the world and the Amazon is in South America. We have been making Pavilions in DT out of lollipop sticks and cladding. They had to be stable and reinforced. we also had to think about aesthetics – this means they should look nice. Triangles are strong shapes.

We had a great trip to the Church to learn about Easter as part of our RE. We learnt about how Jesus on the cross and he came back to life – the resurrection and Good Friday and Palm Sunday.

Bags2school collection we have another Bag2School collection booked in for the 27th&nbsp;of April, the first Wednesday back.&nbsp;The Easter two-week break is the ideal opportunity to de-clutter, clear out and fill a black bag with items that could be recycled and reused. You can include a variety of items in your donation bag. All funds raised will go straight into our PTA fund.&nbsp; Bags should be brought into school on the morning of Wednesday 27th&nbsp;April. The bags will be dropped outside the front of the Infant School and the bags will be collected just after drop off.&nbsp; Look out for more events coming up next term!

This term the children have been learning gymnastics with a coach during their indoor PE lessons. During their outdoor lessons they have been improving&nbsp;their throwing and catching skills by playing a game called&nbsp;Silent Ball.

In PSHE we have learnt about different ways to save our money and how this can help us in the future. We even visited a virtual bank to experience using a debit card and withdrawing funds whilst remembering to check our balance first!&nbsp;

We have been learning about food in this half term, with a focus on fruit. This helped us to write our own fruit salad recipes in Spanish.&nbsp;

This term the children learned&nbsp;about rivers and mountains in&nbsp;their topic work. They then used this knowledge to&nbsp;paint detailed images of a river&nbsp;flowing to the sea.

These images were then&nbsp;combined with the poetry that&nbsp;they wrote in their English&nbsp;lessons.

In addition, we have continued with our daily circle times, phonics, reading, spelling, number and shape learning; weekly soft-play, PE and song choices and have had just about enough time to immerse ourselves in our ball pool and a range of gloopy play activities, visit the Infants school and also bike, trike and scoot on the big playground!

Each week we have celebrated our pupil certificate winners for achievements such as story reading in front of the class, superb communication progress, helping other pupils, good manners and excellent attitudes to all areas of our learning.&nbsp;

Indeed, all these attributes are the foundation of our expectations in Poppy Class and we look forward to their continuation during the longer days of our warmer summer months.

Take good care and have a happy and safe break.

Millook class have been fascinated to learn about magnetism. We have learnt that the same poles repel and the opposite poles attract. We are going to use this understanding to create our own magnetic games.

Blood Heart has been our main topic. From using our ‘Flashback Learning’ to demonstrate what we already knew on our ‘live’ body templates, to developing our knowledge of the circulatory system; we have researched the major organs of the body, how the heart works and how our blood functions.&nbsp; Here is a diagram by Rose:

Year 6 were lucky enough to have Jason ‘Jay’s Aim’ charity in to show us how to use a defibrillator&nbsp;and how to perform CPR.&nbsp;

‘Learning about the Ancient Greeks was one of my favourite learning projects so far. I especially liked creating my own Greek pot.’ ‘I really liked writing a biography about Alexander the Great in English. A fun fact about Alexander, the unconquerable legend, was that sources say he was conquered by a feeble fever.’ ‘It was really fun making the bridges, we learnt a lot about strong structures!’ ‘I love birds so LOVED learning all about air resistance in science this half term!’

‘We really enjoyed taking part in the writing competition, it really challenged us to create the most entertaining stories whilst testing our geography skills!’

Dates for your diary!&nbsp; * Our class assembly - Thursday 5th May 9am&nbsp; * Eden Project trip – Wednesday 18th May (information will be sent out after Easter)&nbsp;

Well done to the Green Turtles, the house captains and vice captains will get together to decide on your reward after the Easter break.&nbsp;

Total house points so far:&nbsp; Blue Dolphins - 715 Red Crabs - 845 Yellow Octopuses - 682 Green Turtles - 1,012

We have come to the end of another fantastic half term of learning! We’ve been super busy celebrating events such as Science week, World Maths Day and World Book Day. Northcott have also REALLY enjoyed learning all about the Ancient Greeks.&nbsp;&nbsp;

In history, we have been learning about the Stone Age. As part of the topic, we have been studying prehistoric monuments. We have learnt about how Stonehenge was built and some possible theories as to why it was built. This inspired us to create our own monuments using different media.

In our first Maths unit we did Area, Perimeter and Volume, which was a surprisingly quiet unit! We learnt how to find the area of different shapes such as : squares, rectangles, triangles and parallelograms. We also learnt about metric measures like millimetres, centimetres, meters, kilometres, grams and kilograms. Our latest unit was ratio where we learnt how to use it. Also, most recently we have been doing SATS practice. NOOOOO!&nbsp;

In PE, we have been playing two different sports: Netball and golf. In Netball we learnt different passes, the rules (obviously) and we played mini games too. In golf, which was a hit, we learnt putting, chipping and pitching. As well as that we had one session of Hockey, which was a nice little taster!&nbsp;

We are incredibly proud of this half term’s Splash – school just gets better and better!&nbsp; We have enjoyed so much with a very busy curriculum.&nbsp; Inside you will see children learning how to be scientists, historians, artists, architects, golfers, first aiders, fundraisers, conservationists, writers, poets, computer programmers, leaders and much much more.&nbsp; Seeing the children excel and grow in confidence through unlocking their potential is what makes working in education worthwhile.&nbsp; Happy Easter to one and all.&nbsp;

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