Junior School Newsletter – Michaelmas Week 12

This week’s newsletter for Rossall Junior School and Nursery.

YEAR 6

December is now upon us and the Year 6 children are feeling very festive. We are working hard to complete our final piece of writing in preparation for the numerous fun activities we have ahead of us next week. However, we are already getting in the spirit. Class Christmas trees are sparkling with decorations and we have had a fabulous time baking Christmas cookies this week. Excitement levels are incredibly high and they will only be increasing over the coming days. Good luck parents!

YEAR 5

What a lovely week we have had in Year 5! We have finished reading The Lost Happy Endings and it is fair to say it is not the ending any of us had predicted! I am so proud of the writing that the children are producing, they are working hard to include the different techniques we have learned throughout this term. Rossall Rotation proved a highlight of the week yet again! Another visit to the Rossall Kitchen to make delicious Christmas gingerbread people was very successful. We now have our class Christmas tree and have begun to decorate it. The children have decided the theme for our tree is ‘Hope’. Year 5 never cease to amaze me, the discussion about all the different things we have to be hopeful for was beautiful.

YEAR 4

Year 4 have been getting into the festive spirit this week! We have decorated our Christmas tree and have had a naughty elf in the classroom who has been up to all sorts of tricks! We have visited Rossall kitchen and made some delicious chocolate muffins – I was so impressed with how well the children listened and followed the instructions! Their washing up skills were also amazing! We are looking forward to our circus on Monday afternoon to kick off the final week!

YEAR 3

This week in year 3 we are coming to the end of our term’s units with some exciting projects. As part of the British Antarctic Survey’s Antarctica Week event, we participated in a live zoom with a real Antarctic explorer! We learnt what it is like to actually go to Antarctica, as well as why not to eat yellow snow! We also started to make our own magnet games which we will showcase next week. To finish our work with Winter’s Child, we created our own fantasy characters and will write our own stories next week!

YEAR 2

In our Language lessons, we have planned and written our own fact files about owls. We have used adverbs, conjunctions and expanded noun phrases to add lots of description! We have also written our lists to Father Christmas this week. We had lots of fun creating our own special Christmas stamps, writing Father Christmas’ address on our envelopes and sending them to be posted!

YEAR 1

Lights, camera, action!

This week Year 1, and the rest of the Infants, have been in full nativity mode; costume checks, singing practise, rehearsals, recordings. We are looking forward to sharing it with you, albeit in a somewhat different way than normal.

As well as all of this excitement and drama we have managed to start designing and creating our monster puppets using our newly learnt sewing skills. “This will be easy” the children said… oh how wrong they were! We have continued to learn about 2D and 3D shapes and created a ‘Top tips for keeping your books safe from Nibbles the book monster’. One of our ideas was to get the school chickens to chase him away. What a great idea!

RECEPTION

Children learn by doing and doing is noisy, untidy, messy and unpredictable!

Messy play is basically exactly what it sounds like – allowing your child to make a controlled mess so they can use their senses in a logical and educational way. And while the idea of making a huge mess often puts parents off, the benefits of messy play are huge and totally worth the minimal inconvenience.  

Messy play, or sensory play, is the term for any activities allowing children to work with their hands to create a controlled mess. Often involving traditionally messy ingredients such as paint, sand, slime, water, clay or mud, it is geared toward exploring feelings and imagination. This week in Reception has been no exception but I guess ice, snow and puddles are a little cleaner! 

Messy play has no end goal. The point of it is to let children explore the materials in front of them in whichever way they wish. They can touch, smell, listen and see each item in whichever way pleases them the most. Allowing them to interact with their surroundings fosters their creativity and brings them joy. It can stimulate their curiosity and allow them to ask questions and look for their own answers as they make discoveries about each new object.    

Through messy play this week we have learnt about the different ways to make ice melt, made polar habitats out of snow for our penguins and polar bears, practised our handwriting in shaving foam, mixed paint to create cold colour pictures  and off course, practised our jumping in big puddles!

NURSERY

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas………

The children this week have turned into little Christmas Elves preparing lots of Christmas crafts to take home later. Cars beware; you will be full of glitter shortly! 

In the big room we made decorations for the tree in the hall and they were treated to a chocolate to say thank you from Mr Quatermain and Mrs Roberts. The children were pleased to see their creations on display for all to see and truly enjoyed the chocolate.

A trip down to the beach on a sunny morning gave us the idea of a Christmas craft. The children chose a stone, brought it back to nursery and have designed a snowman. Our environment gives us so many opportunities; we are so lucky.

The first frosty morning provided the opportunity to talk about Jack Frost. We read the story Jack Frost by Kazuno Kohara,  which introduced new words to the children such as hibernation and icicles. The children enjoyed a run around on the field trying to find Jack Frost but unfortunately all we found was torrential rain just as we were the furthest away from Nursery. We returned looking like drowned rats, those puddle suits you provide get well and truly used and serve their purpose – thank you.

The Christmas production is coming on very well; you will be so proud. We have to remember they are so young and the actual filming day will be the only day they have done it all together. Fingers crossed it all goes well or we may have created our own version of ‘who’s been framed’!

The Baby Room is having an influence on the children in the big room who wanted to create their own Baby Room. More space was provided for them to create a cozy corner for their babies, nappies, wipes and baby milk was provided for role play opportunities. They have a long way to go as we kept finding abandoned babies all around the room. However, when we reminded them that looking after a baby was a full time job they kept coming back to pick them back up and return them to the baby area.

Talking of babies, they have also had a busy crafty week making crafts we know you will treasure forever. They also enjoyed spending time in the garden, hiding in the tunnel and feeding Rossall’s chickens, who are becoming so cheeky they even tap on the door. Some of the older babies have been exploring the big field. For a baby, it must feel like they are going to the end of the earth but they love it and can run exceptionally fast. Who knows, if we train hard now we may have an Olympian in the making!

AWARD WINNERS

Reception – This week’s achievement certificates go to Fox for learning all his phase two tricky words and Josephine for demonstrating a good knowledge of polar animals.

Year 1 – Annaiya received the Certificate of Achievement.

Year 2 – Lara for super independence in all her learning and Ben for asking interesting questions in the Astonomy Centre.

Year 3 – Cara for engagement in topic and Eleanor for challenging herself in English. 

Plus the TTRS Champions! Year 3 were the Rossall School winners of Maths Week England Rock Out 2020! Ahill, Rhiannon and Jasper were the overall individual student winners. Well done!

Year 4 – Dawood for trying hard with his listening skills and Roman for a positive approach to Maths!

Year 5 – Lockie For resilience during Rossall Rotation and Betsy For being a super communicator.

Year 6 – Congratulations to Blossom and Shamini for being awarded the Class Certificates this week.

HOUSE SPORT

Girls’ House Football Hits The Target!

Congratulations to all the girls in Years 5 and 6 who took part in the inaugural Junior House Football. It was fiercely contested and all the matches were very evenly matched. Congratulations to Clifton who just topped the table on goal difference. All the results will be combined with the other year group matches and our champions will be announced next week at our Final Awards Assembly!

Year 6 Boys’ House Hockey

Year 6 boys house hockey matches took place on Wednesday afternoon. The boys were raring to go, and there was a fine display of hockey skills and teamwork for all to see. 

All three matches were closely contested…hard tackles, silky skills and superb passing ensured the hockey was of the highest standard. Assheton won overall by pipping  Hesketh and Clifton to the post in the final seconds. Well done to all Year 6 boys for playing with such enthusiasm and passion.

Year 3 and 4 House Football

What an exciting afternoon the Year 3 and 4 children had on Wednesday, when they took part in their house football matches! Rossall’s state of the art sports centre was a fantastic venue for the event. The matches were all closely contested, and it was fabulous to see all the children having such fun. The team spirit and attitudes of the children were exemplary. The Year 3 winning team was Assheton, with Hesketh winning the Year 4 competition.  Well done to all of the participants! 

Please note, the Carol Service and Christmas Nativities (Nursery & Infants) will be recorded for parents to watch at their leisure.

PHOTOS