Top tip for the week

Lumi Nova: Tales of Courage is a digital therapeutic mobile game supporting children with fears, worries and anxiety. Designed for children aged 7-12 years, Lumi Nova helps children to reflect on their feelings, build resilience, and learn lifelong skills to self-manage their worries in a fun intergalactic adventure. 

Free for families in Herefordshire & Worcestershire — Lumi Nova: Tales of Courage

Harvest Festival

Please join us for our Harvest Festival which will be held next Thursday (17 October 2024) at 2.30pm in the Village Hall.   We are collecting Harvest donations of tinned and dried food which will be given to the Salvation Army in Worcester to support their work with the homeless and vulnerable families.

Please bring any donations into school on Thursday morning.  Thank you.

This week in Wrens we have been learning all about how amazing our bodies are with a particular focus on the senses.  Our investigation area contained some very interesting smells, textures and sights.  The feely box was particularly popular as the children challenged each other to guess what was inside using only their sense of touch. Outside at Forest School we practised our listening skills.  It was amazing how many different types of birdsong we could hear.

Our outdoor role play became a doctors surgery this week and I am pleased to report that all the patients received the very highest standards of care!  In topic, we used Google Earth to compare Abberley and Worcester.  Abberley was very green with lots of fields and trees whereas Worcester had many more different buildings, lots of roads and houses, a railway and a river.  In the construction area we have been creating some of the buildings we might find in a busy town or city and the children used their imaginations to create a brilliant hotel and a football stadium!

In maths this week, the children have been helping to teach Squawk the parrot how to count accurately.  Our top tips for successful counting were:

• Don't rush and only say one number for each object/picture
• If possible it helps to move the items or place them in a line
• The last number tells us how many we have altogether

We also learnt we could count sounds and made some very special counting wands to help us when counting larger objects (it also turned out that these were good at turning people into frogs)!

I hope you have a lovely weekend and fingers crossed for drier weather next week.

This week in Drawing Club the children have been exploring the book Jonty Gentoo The Adventures of a Penguin. The children have enjoyed this story. We focused on key vocabulary from the story and spoke about the definitions as well as creating actions to help us remember them. The children drew a character, a setting and an adventure linked with the book. They then had codes to complete which cause magical things to happen in their story. They have also completed their disgusting sandwich adverts this week.

In maths, we started the week by ordering numbers and using related language such as less and greater. Year 1s have been learning how to identify the parts and whole of numbers. Year 2 also focused on this but with more challenging numbers and problems. The children also learnt how to compose addition and subtraction number sentences to match the part whole models.

In computing this week, the children continued to improve their mouse and keyboard skills on Sketchpad. They were tasked with drawing different parts of a story and to use their pictures that they had created to tell the story to their partner.

Little Wandle reading books will still go home at the end of the week but won't need to be returned until Wednesday rather than Monday. This should help to give you more time to read the book with your child a few times whilst it is at home. 

Timetable

Monday: Wellies and a coat suitable for the weather

Thursday & Friday: PE kits

In English this week, the children started off by embedding their knowledge of subordinating conjunctions by writing short stories based on a fantasy setting. The children used brilliant vocabulary to describe many different elements of places which were magical, full of knights, dragons and princesses. We spent time reading more of our story, Varjak Paw. The children are really enjoying this book.

We moved on to exploring the past, present and future tense in our writing and how this looks when we’re forming sentences. At the end of the week the children used information texts to generate word banks. The word banks linked to domestic cats, wild cats and city cats. They included words like carnivorous, nocturnal, fierce and predator. Over the next two weeks, the children will be writing non-chronological reports where they will use all of these skills.

In maths this week, Y3 have been learning about formal addition and subtraction. We discussed place value columns and how lining these up correctly is essential for them being able to 'see' what each digit is worth, especially when working with carrying figures as part of addition. We also talked about using the correct language when subtracting and how we 'exchange' between place value columns, e.g. exchanging one 10 for ten 1s. Your child might have talked to you about this and told you off for using the word 'borrowing' as this implies you are going to give it back!

Y4 maths has also focussed on formal addition and subtraction with 4 digit numbers. The children's prior knowledge came to the fore and they were quickly secure with addition. We started on subtraction with no exchanging to revisit the process and will be moving on to subtraction with exchanging next week.

In science, we were learning about the layers of the Earth. The children had great fun making 'dirt pudding' to help embed this knowledge. We used different foods to represent the different layers and the added bonus was that they got to eat it after!

In geography, we learned about compass points and played games outside to practise remembering these. We then used Google earth to locate the school and started to draw a map of the school, ready for the children to create a route map next week.

This week in English, the children have finalised their diary entries and have begun our next sequence of learning, which will culminate in writing a formal letter to the headmaster of Beacher Prep Middle School, as featured in our book "Wonder." They have been exploring examples of both formal and informal phrases and practicing writing in a formal tone.

In maths, the children have been learning the formal methods of addition and subtraction. They have had numerous opportunities to engage in reasoning and problem-solving activities, reinforcing their understanding of these concepts.

In science, our focus has been on genetics and inheritance. The children discussed how the Beckham children have inherited various physical characteristics and traits from their parents, demonstrating their grasp of this topic.

Finally, in geography this week, we conducted a field study on noise pollution and litter in our local village. The children used tally charts and Likert scales to record how population affects their environment, fostering their skills in data collection and analysis. I was very impressed with their maturity and positivity during this activity despite the unfortunate weather.

Please see below information within the community but independent of the school