This week’s newsletter for Rossall Junior School and Nursery.
YEAR 6
| It has been a very busy first week back. There is definitely a sense of positivity after Monday’s announcement and the Year 6 children have returned full of enthusiasm. We are now on our new book; “Island” which links incredibly well with our topic on the Victorians and science work on natural selection. We have been learning about the era in which the Victorians lived and where that sits in relation to other important historical periods. In our literacy sessions, the children have written some fabulous newspaper reports about Darwin’s expedition to the Galapagos and have been looking at philosophical and ethical questions posed by the story of Jemmy Button, a native boy from Tierra del Fuego who was brought to England to be “civilised”. Mr Condon, myself and the key worker children can’t wait for the return of everyone on the 8th March, with the hope of a little uncivilised behaviour!! |
YEAR 5
| As another very successful week of online learning comes to a close, I am in awe of what the children continue to achieve. Their continued resilience, cheerfulness and sheer determination to do their very best really does humble me on a daily basis. I look forward to letting them into the Zoom meeting every morning and hearing their news. It is amazing how much news we have to share every day! From haircut disasters to baking on Zoom with Grandma, it is all going on! We are finding the time to fit a little work in too! Fractions are no match for Year 5; we can now confidently add, subtract and work out word problems involving different denominators, improper fractions and mixed numbers. Our new book, ‘The Darkest Dark’ is already inspiring the children to write beautiful, descriptive passages using expanded noun phrases. Topic is really taking off! The children are excited to learn all about flight through the ages. Our Art this week has focussed on Sculpture. It has been interesting to look at the different ideas the children have had and how they have expressed themselves. Well done Year 5, another amazing week!! |
YEAR 4
| The best thing about starting this new half term has been knowing that (fingers crossed) it will be the last one that starts online! It will be brilliant to have the Year 4 classroom full once again with Year 4! In preparation for coming back to school on March 8th, Year 4 have made a great start this week to all our new work! We have started our new book that will inspire our writing, ‘When the Giant Stirred’ and this links perfectly with our new topic ‘What A Disaster’ where will investigate the causes and effects of natural disasters! In Science, we will be looking at ‘Living Things and Their Habitats’ and the children have sent me some lovely photographs of environments close to them that they enjoy being in! |
YEAR 3
| It’s been a bright start to this half term in Year 3 and we have started lots of new units! In Maths, we have started measuring length using mm, cm and m, working on being accurate and precise. We started reading our new book, ‘Big Blue Whale’, starting our class Whales Facts Chart to collect the information we find out. Our new topic is ‘Protect the Planet’ where we have learnt about some of the world’s environmental problems, inspired by Greta Thunberg to be eco-warriors, and started to look at rainforests. In Science, we started ‘Roots and Shoots’ learning about plants – very apt as Spring arrives! We can’t wait to get back into school all together very soon. |
YEAR 2
| Year 2 have come back to school with such enthusiasm for their learning! This week we have been focusing on alternative spellings and pronunciations in our Phonics lessons. In English, we have been introduced to our new book, ‘Major Glad, Major Dizzy’, who we have learned are toy soldiers from the 1900s. We have written descriptions about our own toys, using noun phrases and adjectives and looked at how toys have developed over time. In Maths, we have all become professional statisticians and have mastered tally charts, pictograms and block diagrams! |
YEAR 1
| Welcome back! After a restful break, we are well and truly back into the swing of our remote learning in Year 1. We have started our new topic ‘Down in the jungle’. In Language, we have started to look at our new class book ‘The Lion inside’ by Rachel Bright. We have made predictions and started to think about the setting of the story. We have written some fantastic descriptive sentences. Here are some examples of our amazing writing. “The sleeping lion snores on the giant rock.” – Zach “The scared gazelle is staring at the lion with it’s big eyes.” – Abrianna “There is a big, round, yellow sun shining bright in the sky.” – Annaiya “A tall, dark, grey, towering pile of boulders.” – Roman In Science, we are starting to think about what animals eat and grouping animals by their diets. Are they carnivores, herbivores or omnivores? In Topic, we have become weather reporters for the week, listening to and watching the weather forecast for our area and another area of our choice, and using this information to film our own weather reports. A super start to the half term! |
RECEPTION
| It’s almost spring … which for many farmers across the UK – means lambing! Although we are extremely lucky to have our own farm here at School, we, unfortunately, don’t have any sheep, which means no lambs. Reception Class are lucky enough though, to receive weekly lambing updates from a farm during lambing season. They are pre-recorded videos that cover many curriculum areas such as growth and life cycles, or simply as an enrichment activity – a sort of virtual farm visit! This first video was an introduction to the farm and the work they have been doing to prepare for the lambing season. The children then learnt about types (breeds) of sheep. We learnt there are over 60 breeds of sheep kept in the United Kingdom and many more found all around the world. Different breeds might have different types of wool or be better at living in certain places. Many breeds of sheep are named after the places they were first kept. The children then created their own model of a sheep. It could be realistic or a creation of their own. Some even thought of a name for the type of sheep they had created. |
NURSERY
| Splish Splash The babies have enjoyed washing the animals this week or should we say enjoyed washing themselves. They made bubbles by squeezing the sponges and squashing the rollers all over the animals. The empty boxes have provided hours of fun with the babies enjoying hiding the animals and finding which box will fit what animals. The staff provided large boxes for the children to hide in which they loved and engaged in games of peek a boo. Who needs toys when a cardboard box will do the trick and costs nothing. The animal theme continues with the babies enjoying dressing up in the animal material and trying to make the noise of the animals whilst trying to scare the grown-ups. The babies have also enjoyed a couple of nice days to explore the garden. Since we opened in September, they have now mastered climbing up the slide themselves and sliding down. The rain suits are ideal to make the ride faster and more exciting. The children in the big room went on a beach clean after one little girl brought in a book about saving the planet. They walked along the shore and found lots of objects that people have dropped and objects that have been washed up. We spoke about, that we wouldn’t like to have a bath at home with all this rubbish in it so how must the fish feel. We collected some rubbish up and brought it back to the nursery to put in the bin. If we all did a little bit to help the environment there would be no rubbish around at all. We never miss an opportunity to learn so on the way back from the beach we played I spy. The children are so good with their letter sounds and came up with some interesting things to spy out. The masked singer must be a popular choice at home to watch and the children wanted to put their own show on. They made their own masks, stage set and sang their own version of their favourite song. ‘Take it off!’ was shouted out at such a pitch it was deafening. |
AWARD WINNERS
RECEPTION – This weeks certificate of achievements go to Kaxshaan and Beau.
Kaxshaan always has a smile on his face in our live Zoom lessons and tries hard.
Beau is always eager to volunteer answers to questions in our live zoom lessons and has made great improvements with his handwriting.
YEAR 1 – This week’s certificates are awarded to Zach for writing fantastic sentences in his Language work, and Anthony for excellent Maths work. Well done!
YEAR 2 – This week’s certificates were awarded to Eryn for her super contributions in Maths, and Dolly for her outstanding descriptive writing.
YEAR 3 – This week’s certificates go to Archie and Rhiannon who are both making progress in different ways in their English and writing!
YEAR 4 – This week’s certificates go to Kieran for being an enthusiastic and creative learner, and Jacob for being an enthusiastic and creative learner.
YEAR 5 – This week’s certificates go to Vivian and Joshua. Both children have worked incredibly hard this week and have made some fabulous sculptures.
YEAR 6 – This week’s certificates go to Michael for his incredible creativity, Archie for sharing his vast scientific knowledge, and Jasmeet and Ollie for their outstanding effort and quality of work.
