Term Four, Week Six

So we have finally arrived at the end of term four - this academic year is passing by so quickly. There are signs of spring everywhere and the weather is slowly improving. Let's hope for some warmth and sunshine over the Easter holidays.

We had a lot of fun on Friday morning making woven Easter baskets from thin card (which Mrs Godden kindly then filled with Easter treats). Some of us found this more challenging than others, but we were all very pleased with the results. Have a look at the photos of our finished baskets below.  If you would like to make another at home, the link to the instruction video is below.

Then on Friday afternoon, it was Oak Class's privilege to lead the Easter service in St Mary's Church.  Rev. Jane was very pleased with how well everyone read and conducted themselves during the service, so well done to you all.

Earlier in the week, we used the laptops to word process our letters to the supermarkets, asking them what they are doing to help save our planet from environmental disaster.  We sent these letters to our local branches of Tesco, Sainsbury's, Morrison's, Lidl and Asda.  Hopefully we may have received some replies by the time we return from our two-week break.

Please try and do some practice for your upcoming SATs over the Easter holidays. There are links at the bottom of week five's report which will take you to resources you can use. The CGP books are also very useful for SATs questions (link below).

Have a wonderful Easter everyone!

This week's spellings:

Alpha

cylinder

sphere

prism

cuboid

triangular

Beta

parallel

perpendicular

vertex

vertices

pentagonal

Gamma

tetrahedron

hemisphere

polyhedron

dodecahedron

three-dimensional

Term Four, Week Five

Term Four is positively flying by and this week has been as busy as ever. One of the week's highlights was watching the Blue Planet Live lesson for KS2 pupils on Tuesday. Presented by CBBC's Naomi Wilkinson, this interactive programme for 7-11 year olds looked at the importance of the Earth's rich marine life. Guided by expert wildlife biologist Lizzie Daly, we explored what constitutes a healthy ecosystem and discuss the threats to our oceans such as plastics and overfishing. We heard from Steve Backshall live from the Bahamas as he demonstrated what sharks can teach us about ecosystems, how human behaviour can threaten shark life, and how the UK is connected with animals across the world. After seeing the damage we are doing to our oceans and all the life which lives within them, we felt motivated to do our very best to reduce our plastics use and we used our English lessons to write letters encouraging others to do the same.

On a beautiful, warm Friday afternoon we welcomed guests, parents and Rev. Jane into school for a very special service at our forest school. Not only did Rev. Jane bless our forest school (with some enthusiastic help from Felix in Silver Birch class!), but she also blessed a very special wooden story-telling chair. This was presented to the school by the Elham Gardening Society as a memorial to one of their members, George Crow.  We were honoured to have Mr Crow's widow tell us a little about George's life and how he loved to hear the laughter of children.  We are now looking forward to many warm, sunny days when our teachers can take us up the field to the story chair to read us a tale or two in memory of George.

As the Easter holidays are almost upon us and we have the dreaded SATs beginning on 14th May, it would be great if you could all do some maths revision over the Easter break.  There are links to two useful websites below and you can, of course, always log in to Mathletics are home and practise problems on any area you may find difficult.  If you have lost the Mathletics login card which was sent home earlier this year, please ask for a new one.

Homework

A short piece of homework on Islamic Prayer was sent home this week and should be returned by Friday 5th April please.

This week's spellings:

Alpha

believe

often

question

although

popular

Beta

excellent

individual

rhythm

necessary

achieve

Gamma

muscle

profession

restaurant

accommodate

awkward

Term Four, Week Three

It's been Science Week this week and what a great time we have had.  We have been lucky enough to have welcomed into school several visitors who have all taught us about different aspects of science and who allowed us to carry out hands-on investigations which we would not normally be able to do in school.

On Tuesday we welcomed scientists from Pfizer into school and they taught us how to make mini lava lamps (sadly we were not able to keep them), then on Wednesday we were taught lab safety by Mrs Levrett (the mum of Sarah in Beech class. She also explained to us how glow sticks work.

We were also visited by the North School, who set up all sorts of experiments for us including ones on magnetism, how light circuits work and testing the colours on M&Ms! We also took cell samples for the insides of our own cheeks and looked at these under a microscope.

Finally, on Friday, Karen from Affinity Water visited us in class and talked to use about how we get out water and how it is purified so that it is safe to drink. Did you know that most of the water in the Folkestone area is taken from aquifers in the Whites Cliffs of Dover? She then put us in groups to build our own water supply network which we tested using water. We had a great time doing this and she commented on how well the teams all worked together to build an efficient network. Our systems were all quite successful and we made surprisingly little mess! (See photos below of this activity.)  Karen then kindly stayed on and ran an assembly for KS2 where she told us about how we could save water. Did you know that leaving the tap running for two minutes twice a day whilst you clean your teeth using 24 litres of water? What a waste of clean water (as well as money). By the end of this assembly, we all really appreciated how lucky we are to be able to have clean, safe water available on tap at all times, unlike many less lucky other places in the world.

As well as having great fun learning about so many aspects of Science this week, we also enjoyed our Literacy with Mrs Short. We watched the video of 'The Plague Doctor' (link to the YouTube video below). It is a very powerful story and inspired us all to write our own versions of the narrative from the perspective of one of the characters.

On one final note, it has been a very wet and windy week. We really hope that spring is just around the corner (there are signs of it - daffodils have flowered and the hedges are beginning to come into leaf) and that the weather will be considerably better next week! Bon weekend tout le monde!

This week's spellings:

Alpha

stopping

excellent

destination

opposite

challenging

Beta

strength

emergency

nastiest

climbing

generally

Delta

physically

headquarters

illuminated

destructive

individual

Term Four, Week Two

It is truly amazing how much Oak Class children can learn in just one week and this week has been particularly busy. In maths we have covered pie charts, line graphs and how to translate shapes - click on the links below for more information on any of these subjects.

In literacy we have been learning about how to write a balanced argument. This has included having debates in class about subjects such as: Should homework be banned? Is TV good for children? and Is chocolate good for breakfast? It was great to see the children expressing their opinions and next week they will be able to put their learning to good use when they write their own balanced arguments.

Members of the class represented Elham School at the Shepway inter-schools football tournament at the Three Hills this week. We managed to beat Dymchurch 10-0, but unfortunately our luck then ran out as we had to face some much bigger school and we subsequently lost all our other games. However, a great time was had by all, and as they say, 'It's the taking part that matters, not the winning!'

We continued our science topic work this week by learning about the 17th century Swedish scientist Carolus Linnaeus who invented a system for classifying all living creatures. This system is now used by all scientist to define every animal - this is called its taxonomy. If you click on the link below and have a look at lesson two, you can find out more about Linnaeus and how how his system works.

Some of us also got the chance to create some artwork this week when we looked at the art of Clarice Cliff and then made our own images in her unique style. We were really impressed with our results and you can see them on display in class or by looking at the photos of them below.

Finally, the highlight of our week must surely have been our visit to watch Michael Morpugo's 'War Horse' at the Marlowe Theatre. What a truly wonderful show it was. The puppetry of the horses was amazing - they looked so realistic in the way that they moved that we soon forgot there were actual puppeteers operating them. It is fair to say that some of the teachers and parents all shed a tear or two as some the more emotional parts and children's hands often covered their ears at some of the louder battle scenes, but we all came away knowing we had watched an extraordinary show.  We are so lucky to have a great theatre on our doorstep and teachers and parents willing to offer us the opportunity of experiencing first-class shows.

What experiences will next week bring us, we wonder?

This week's spellings:

Alpha

whether
peculiar
rhythm
disguised
families

Beta

occurred
echoed
gingerly
audience
generation

Delta

emergency
knowledge
technique
nuisance
physically

Term Four, Week One

Oaks enjoyed an exciting and educational trip out on Wednesday when they joined other primary schools at the Three Hills sports centre for the annual primary 'Safety in Action' workshop. They went from stand to stand, learning about and practising skills across a wide range of safety issues, including:

Water safety (RNLI)

Knives (Kent Police)

Drugs (Kent Police Community Officer)

CPR (Paramedics)

Railway safety (British Transport Police)

Fire hazards and evacuation plans (Kent Fire Brigade)

School Attendance (Schools Attendance Office)

Peer pressure

Internet safety

Each session was very hands-on and we feel sure the children appreciated the time which all the professionals gave to educate them on these important life skills.  The children had to answer questions on their learning and for each one they got right, they were given a raffle ticket. The draw is being held this Friday, 1st March, so fingers crossed that we have some winners from Elham School.

As we start a new term, so we have started new topics across different subjects. Here are a few of them:

PE - Basketball (outside, weather permitting)

Science - Living Things and Their Habitats

Literacy - Writing a balanced argument

Maths - Data handling (pie charts), coordinates and translating/reflecting shapes

French - musical instruments and 'Le Carnaval des Animaux' by Saint-Saens

RE - Islam, What it means to be a Muslim in Britain today

We are especially looking forward to next Thursday when we will be joining the reset of KS2 on a trip to The Marlowe to see 'War Horse'. It should be amazing, so check back next Friday for our reactions to this production of Michael Morpurgo's wonderful novel.

This week's spellings:

Alpha

century

important

special

complete

colourful

Beta

creature

extremely

challenging

successful

environment

Delta

mysterious

extinguishing

approximately

thoroughly

apprehensive