25th September 2006

Conway Residential



The Year 6's are off to Conway on Monday for their action-packed residential. We say a huge thank you to Miss Wilson for organising the trip, and the other staff who are giving up time with their own families to take the children on a fantastic break. I am sure that we will hear all about it when they return (although they may be VERY tired when they return on Thursday! They will return at approx. 7.30pm and school will be open from 7.00pm for you to collect them.

Year Five children


The Year Five children will have a fantastic time this week, despite missing some of their friends in year 6! We are planning a transformation of the Year 5/6 area into a conservation area. The children will be working in teams, to research all about minibeasts and the type of plants that are needed to attact them. They will be making minibeast models from papier mache, modroc (plaster), card, paper and all sorts of junk materials. We are going to give them a few ideas to start them off, but the actual design and production of the art work etc. for the area, really is up to them. We can't wait to see the ideas they have and the end product will be there for you see next week!!

Junk Material Plea!

In order to help the children be as creative as possible (and messy!) we would be grateful if you could send in ANY junk materials that you may have at home, that you have been saving for a rainy day! These might include egg boxes, yoghurt cartons, empty plastic containers, foil wrappers, toilet rolls and kitchen rolls...the list is endless, but the more materials the children have access to, the better. After all, we investigating the theme of recycling!!

The children will also be asked to make a diorama (a scene in a box). They will need an empty cereal box for Thursday, so that they can make a model of what they would like their minibeast garden to look like. When the year 6's return, we will be starting the hardwork of actually transforming one of the models into the real thing!

Calling all green-fingered parents!

The children have had some really fantastic ideas for creating their minibeast garden, but all of them require a considerable amount of digging, planting and gardening 'know-how' to get it off the ground. If you are able to offer any help with any aspect of this project, please let any member of the 5/6 team know as soon as possible. We have access to some funding for materials and are keen to get the project started as soon as possible, before the winter weather sets in.

http://www.kented.org.uk/ngfl/games/minibeasts.html

This is designed for early years, but the children will really enjoy creating their own minibeasts

Looks like a fantastically creative week...please remind your child to bring in an old shirt for all craft activities!!

18th September 2006

Thank you to everyone who has made the start to the new academic year so succesful. The children have been very organised and are now in the right frame of mind to start the year ahead after our induction period. Last week, each class voted for the children they would like to be our class representatives on the School Council. Many congratulations to them and we know that they will do us proud!

Induction meeting

We will be holding our annual induction meeting on Tuesday at 3.15pm for parents of children in Years 5 and 6. We will be discussing all the issues that are important throughout the year, as well as giving you the opportunity to ask us anything that can help to support your child's learning. We look forward to seeing you there.

Conway meeting

The Year 6 residential to Conway is fast approaching and the children are really excited (despite them being Year 6's!) There will be a meeting for parents this Thursday at 6.30pm in the school hall. You should have already received a letter telling you the 'kit' which the children need to bring with them, but the are copies available in school should you need one.

Homework

Homework will begin this week for Year 5/6. Each week, your child will receive a set of spellings, which they need to learn for a spelling test on Fridays. We would also like them to use these spellings, to create a series of sentences, to develop their vocabulary, punctuation and sentence structure. They will also bring home a piece of numeracy to be completed on a weekly basis. Literacy and Numeracy will be given out on MONDAYS to be returned on THURSDAYS. Science homework will be given out on WEDNESDAYS to be returned on TUESDAYS. We would ask that you sign and date your child's homework before they hand it in. If there are difficulties with any aspect of homework, then please see any member of the 5/6 team.

Literacy

We will be working on aspects of Journalistic writing. It would be great if you were able to show the children any of the newspapers, magazines or pamphlets that you read yourselves. It will help them to understand that there is a purpose to reading and writing beyond the classroom. Ask them to point out some of features that are common to all types of journalistic writing. We are looking particularly at extending sentences by joining them with a variety of connectives. A great game to play, is by giving your child a sentence and asking them to think of a second sentence to join it to, using a connective. The more humourous, the better!

Science

We are investigating the topic of reversible and irreversible change. This is a particularly good topic to cover in the kitchen, as we investigate the effects of heating and cooling on different materials. Remember getting your child to make Rice Krispie cakes in Foundation? Start with a block of chocolate and get them to make some of those cakes again. This time, tell them that you would like a small bar of chocolate back again when they have finished! Can they tell you how they did it? (without buying another bar!!)

Art Work

The children will be undertaking lots of art work this year, and although they are the oldest children in the school, they can still get a bit carried away with paint, pastels and charcoal! It would be great if the children were able to bring in an old shirt from home to protect their uniform during art activities. Thanks!

Home-School link books

Many thanks to all the parents who have written comments in their child's home-link book. We do read them all and reply as soon as we receive them. Please do remind your child to show you their diary, as there will always be targets and information in there for you to read. If there is any other information which you feel that would be of use to you, please let us know.

We look forward to seeing some of you on Tuesday!

11th September 2006

Induction Time

The children all came back to school looking really smart in their new uniforms, eager and keen to start another school year. Thank you for ensuring that they all have the correct uniform and equipment for their learning. During the first week back after every term, we have an induction period across the whole school, where we talk about some of the issues that have an impact on their learning. Some of these include classroom organisation, care of possessions, golden rules, playground rules and care of the school and ourselves. Should there be any issues which we need to be aware of, please inform your child's classteacher as soon as possible. As always, drop-in evening is on Wednesday evenings after school, although we are available most evenings should you need to speak to us. Also, remember that the diary is another means of communication between home and school and we will reply to your comments as soon as we receive them.

Housekeeping!

This blogspot will be updated every weekend in preparation for the week ahead. We will include details of everything your child will be learning, ideas of how you can support your child and websites which can you can access at home to continue what has been learned at school. If there is anything which we haven't included and you feel would be useful, then please do let us know!

PE will be mainly on TUESDAYS for all year 5/6 classes and these will be taken by Mr. Michael McGreal. He will also be responsible for Mrs Millington's class on Wednesdays whilst she in undertaking outreach work as part of her AST role. Since all the teacher's plan and work very closely together, please be assured that all three classes will be receiving the same curriculum and lessons throughout the week.

It is really important that your child arrives on time for school each day, as we have activities for the children to complete as soon as they come in. It really is the best possible start to the day for your child.

The parents of children in Year 6 should have received a letter on Friday informing you of the change to the Conway Residential. The children will now be returning to school on the THURSDAY evening. This is because we have had to change the INSET day for staff to the Friday. The total cost of the residential has now been reduced to £200 to compensate for this. There will be meeting for year 6 parents on Thursday 21st September at 6.30pm in the school hall. Thank you for your understanding.

Curriculum

We will be starting some of new curriculum this week and we are looking forward to working with your child on some really exciting topics. Your child will be working in lots of different ways - individually, pairs, as a whole class, but one of the main ways in which we will be working, will be as part of a co-operative learning team. This means that no child will be working in isolation and that they will be able to develop and acquire new skills by working together with their peers. The children are used to working in this way and it produces some amazing results. Watch this space!

In numeracy, we will allocating the children into their groups,so that we may assess their skills and provide a suitable starting point for each individual. We would ask that as an on-going activity at home, that you work with your child to learn the times tables! It can be difficult, but it really does put your child at an advantage if they are able to have those facts to hand when they are working with numbers. A great website for ideas is http://math.about.com/cs/arithmetic/a/timestables.htm
It states that your child will be able to know all the times tables in 21 days! Even if it does take a little longer, it is a method well worth persevering with and a lifelong skill for your child.

In science, we will be investigating the topic of reversible and irreversible change. This is really good topic to investigate in the kitchen. Remind your child about the process by which the change took place - heating or cooling. Some ideas for this, can be found by going to http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/scienceclips/ages/10_11/rev_irrev_changes.shtml
We will also be looking at how evaporation fits into the water cycle. This will form the basis of the science homework which will be brought home this week. An online activity for this can be found at http://www.kidzone.ws/water/

We are also beginning our topic on the Aztecs. This is also known as the Indus Valley Civilisation. As we are just introducing the topic this week, it may be a good idea to begin some research on the topic at home. We will be using http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/indusvalley/ in school to begin with. If you come across any other useful sites during your research, then we would love to hear from you.

Homework

Homework will begin next week for Year 5/6. Each week, your child will receive a set of spellings, which they need to learn for a spelling test on Fridays. We would also like them to use these spellings, to create a series of sentences, to develop their vocabulary, punctuation and sentence structure. They will also bring home a piece of numeracy to be completed on a weekly basis. Literacy and Numeracy will be given out on MONDAYS to be returned on THURSDAYS. Science homework will be given out on WEDNESDAYS to be returned on TUESDAYS. We would ask that you sign and date your child's homework before they hand it in.

Finally, your child should bring home their diary EVERY day for you to read and sign. This blogspot is a means of communicating activities and news for all of year 5/6, but the diary is an individual way we can inform you of your child's progress. It can be difficult to get your child to read aloud at this age, but you can still check their understanding of the text, by asking them questions about what they have read. We love reading your comments in the diaries and it gives your child a real boost to know that you are helping them in their learning.

Thank you for all the positive comments we have received so far!

5/6 team.

Welcome Back !

Welcome back to the start of a new school year! We are looking forward to working with our new Year 6 children and welcoming last year's Y4's to Year 5!

We have got lots of interesting and exciting activities for you to do this year, and lots of it will be investigation work. Sometimes, we might give you the answers...but you have to work out the questions!! We could even ask you to be the teacher for the lesson...what will you help your friends to learn??

This week, your child will be bringing home their home-school link book. This is a really important method of communication between staff and parents. It will contain weekly targets for reading and oher areas of the curriculum. As in other years, we would ask that you read and sign this book on a weekly basis.

We intend to hold an induction meeting after school in the first few weeks of term, so that we can show you some of the things which your child will be expected to do during their time in Years 5 and 6. This will also be an opportunity for you to ask any questions which you may have. We will let you know the date as soon as possible.

Let's make this a really successful year!!