Week Four

Another exciting week of learning and new experiences has just flown by.  Here is a selection of the children's thoughts on what they learnt and enjoyed this week:

'This week I really enjoyed our visit to the trenches (even though it was very cold). Learning long division was a little bit tough to start with but now I'm glad that I can do it. At the end of the week, tag day was good. Wearing your own clothes makes it comfier and happier.' (Lily A)

'I enjoyed doing long division in maths and I feel more confident with it. I also liked going to the trenches although it was quite cold. French was fun, especially learning how to insert the symbols (accented letters) - we are typing up our sentences about the planets.' (Anon)

'We have done long division in maths. We went to Hawthorne Trench for the WWI anniversary. In music we have been doing drumming and we did it to the song 'Rolling In The Deep' by Adele. We have been doing tag rugby in PE and we are making our catching and passing more improved so when we do a match on the field we will be so much better.' (Kimberley)

'I have enjoyed doing the long division because some of us were utterly stuck and now we know everything. I also learnt about the trenches in WWI, that the German trench was much MUCH smaller than the English trench.' (Toby)

'I enjoyed the trenches and long division because I'm much more confident at it now. It was very interesting to the the differences between the British and German trenches.' (Anon)

Don't forget that the Hawthorne Trench is open to the public this weekend if you would like to visit it with your family. (Website link below.)

Also, the Purple Mash Christmas card competition closes on Sunday 25th November. If you want to design another card and enter it you can do so at home. (Website link below.)

This week's spellings:

Alpha

height

weight

ceiling

piece

niece

Beta

deceive

receive

perceive

relieved

retrieve

Gamma

achievement

hygienic

lenience

conceited

foreign

Plus please keep learning all the words on your Year 3/4 and 5/6 word lists.

Week Three

We enjoyed another special week in school as we were joined by 21 children from a Chinese primary school.  Seven of them joined Oak class for the week and took part in our lessons.  Luckily they spoke good English (our Chinese is non-existent!) and we really enjoyed making friends with them.  We also enjoyed doing activities with them such as learning how to write in Chinese using brushes and ink. Not only was their English very good, but they were a whizz at maths too! Their week with us ended on Friday when they attended our Celebration Assembly at which they sang their school song (in Chinese, of course) and presented us with a banner of their school. Oliver also handed over one of the kites they had made with us to one of their pupils as a reminder of their visit. It was special because it had both the Union Jack and the Chinese flags painted on it.

In French we have started creating our leaflets on the planets using Publisher. We hope to be able to show you some of these in next week's update. 'The Gospel' is our new unit in RE. We will be studying the teachings of Jesus and asking 'What would Jesus do?' in different situations.

Well done to everyone who got their Christmas card designs in on Monday. Letters went home on Friday with your personal login details for the website where your parents can order copies of you cards if they wish. Don't forget to do this soon as there is only a one-week window in which to order.

This week's spellings:

Alpha

co-ordinate

co-own

single-minded

self-service

three-dimensional

Beta

re-enter

jet-propelled

get-together

able-bodied

topsy-turvy

Gamma

co-operate

quick-tempered

brother-in-law

pitch-black

word-of-mouth

Plus please keep learning all the words on your Year 3/4 and 5/6 word lists.

Week Two

This has been a very special week at Elham School with all our preparations and commemorations of the centenary of the ending of World War I. At the oldest in the school, we in Oak class have had the privilege of playing a big role in these very important events.

On Monday we welcomed our own village war hero, Mr Henry Shackleton, into school as we do every year and the whole of KS2 enjoyed listening to his experiences as a bomber pilot and prisoner of war.

On Friday morning, we walked to the village war memorial with Rev. Jane where we held a short service of remembrance which included reading of two emotional poems: 'We shall keep the faith' by Moira Michael and 'The inquisitive Mind of a Child' by an anonymous poet. The service culminated in us all reading out the names of all those men from Elham who were lost in both WWI and WW2, and in us planting a cross for each of them.

After the service, we were invited to visit the WWI exhibition at the Methodist church. It was a wonderful exhibition full of wonderful items and we especially enjoyed looking for information about the lost soldiers for whom we had laid our crosses earlier in the morning.  We would very much recommend you visiting it if you have time this weekend. It is on from Friday 9th to Sunday 11th November.

Finally, on Friday afternoon, we attended our school Remembrance Service in St Mary's Church along with all our fellow pupils and staff. Those of us who had not read at the service in the morning had their chance to play a role in this service instead. Mrs Godden and Mrs Vincent were both very proud of how well we all behaved and carried out our tasks today.

Whatever you are doing on Sunday 11th November at 11am, try to stop for a minute and remember those who 'gave their tomorrow for our today'.

Homework

Please design a Christmas card to any design you wish. Your parents will have the chance to buy copies of it if they wish. Your artwork should be done on the piece of A4 art paper provided and you can use any thing you like. For example: paint, pens, glitter or sequins. (You are advised not to use light colours as they do not show up well.) Make sure your design covers the whole sheet. It may be portrait or landscape.

Please hand in your design to Mrs Vincent on Monday morning (12th November) so that we do not miss the deadline for having your designs scanned ready to be made into cards.

This week's spellings:

Alpha

refer

referring

referred

transfer

transferring

Beta

transferred

prefer

preferring

preferred

preference

Gamma

infer

inferred

inference

confer

conferring

Plus please keep learning all the words on your Year 3/4 and 5/6 word lists.

Week One

Half-term just flew by and we got straight back to work on the first day of Term Two.  We were lucky enough to be selected as the first class to enjoy Forest School activities with Mr File and on Tuesday afternoon we enjoyed our first session.  We were focusing on using all five of our senses and took it in turns to be blind-folded so that we could concentrate on our other senses without being able to see. We had a great session and cannot wait for next Tuesday, whatever the weather. As Mr File says: 'There is no such thing as bad weather, just the wrong clothing'.

With the centenary of the end of WWI coming up at the end of next week, we have been busy with our WWI work.  We are each creating a leaflet in Purple Mash describing how animals were used during the war and on Tuesday, Annie Begley came in with the ceramic poppies we had made so that we could add a glaze to them before they are fired in the kiln. The glaze went on pink, but we have to trust that they will come out red!  Please come and join us at our Open Morning on Friday 9th November where you can see all our hard work (and that of all the other children in school too). We will be carrying out a short cross-laying ceremony at the village war memorial at 10.45am and the whole school will be attending a Remembrance ceremony at St Mary's church as 1.30pm and you are very welcome to attend one or both of these too.