Top tip for the week

Supporting your child to cope with change (Transitions) | Worcestershire County Council

This session is for parents and carers of children and young people who have or may have SEND who struggle with change or are approaching a significant transition.

Hot chocolate and toast

Next week we will be serving hot chocolate and toast at break times for the cost of £1.00.  All monies raised will be donated to The Salvation Army, Worcester, to support their work with the homeless and vulnerable families.  Please see below for the day your class has been allocated:

Monday - Wrens
Tuesday - SkylarkS
Wednesday - Kestrels
Thursday - Merlins

The children looked amazing in their World Book Day costumes and I hope they all enjoyed their first World Book Day at Abberley.  It was lovely to see how many of the children brought in books to accompany their characters. Unfortunately, we didn't get time to read them all today but we always enjoy sharing favourite stories so please do send them with your child.

This week we have been thinking about some of the hotter regions of the globe. We discussed what the climate is like at the equator and started to investigate the continent of Africa. We then used our knowledge to make a desert and a savannah environment in our tuff trays.

In maths this week we have been exploring the composition of 6.  The children showed really good understanding of this concept and started to record their working as a number sentence.

In art we looked at the artwork of Marz Jr and recreated his pen and ink work to produce some amazing cityscapes.  We are looking forward to our trip to watch the Sealegs Puppet Theatre on Friday - keep an eye out for the news story.

This week in English, the children have been learning about alliteration and created some wonderful poems about the rainforest using this new skill. They did really well with these and it was lovely to see their creativity as they experimented with language and sounds. Also this week, we took a close look at a version of our class text, The River by Mark Martin. The children carefully unpicked the vocabulary and answered comprehension questions to demonstrate their understanding of the text. Over the coming weeks, they will be using this piece as inspiration for writing their own circular narratives.

In maths, the children have been subtracting multiples of 10 from any number up to 100. They have also been practising adding two 2-digit numbers. We began by adding numbers without crossing a 10 and then moved on to applying their knowledge to add numbers that do cross a 10. The Year 2 children practised this using column addition, while the Year 1 children approached the learning in a similar way but used practical resources such as Base 10 to help them represent and solve the calculations.

In history this week, we took a closer look at the four explorers we introduced last week - Dame Ellen McArthur, Matthew Henson, Mary Kingsley and Christopher Columbus. The children chose one explorer that interested them and wrote about them in their books, sharing some of the facts they had learned.

In computing, the children explored different ways to present data. They were given a map of a zoo showing different animals and used practical resources such as cubes to represent the number of each animal. Once the map was taken away, the children were still able to tell how many of each animal there were by remembering the colours they had chosen to represent them. For example, yellow for lions and brown for monkeys. They then used pictures of each animal to create a pictogram to represent the information from the map.

In outdoor learning this week, the children had great fun creating bird feeders for the birds at school using lard and seeds. They mixed the ingredients together and pushed the mixture into pine cones to make the natural feeders. They also had the opportunity to draw and design the garden area at school, adding any extra features they would like to include. See news article for photos.

Timetable

Tuesday & Thursday: PE kits - please can those with longer hair have their hair tied up ready

Wednesday: Outdoor learning - please ensure your child brings appropriate clothing on this day

This week in English, the children continued exploring our class text The Rhythm of the Rain. They carefully analysed an example of a setting description, focusing on how the text was structured and how the writer's knowledge we have studied helped to engage the reader. We discussed the features that make an effective setting description, including the use of precise vocabulary and details that help the reader imagine the scene. This work is helping to prepare the children to plan and write their own setting descriptions next week.

In maths, we began our new topic of fractions. The children were introduced to the different parts of a fraction and what each part represents. We then focused more closely on the numerator and the denominator, discussing how the denominator tells us how many equal parts a whole has been divided into, while the numerator shows how many of those parts are being considered.

During DT, the children explored a variety of pavilion structures and discussed their purpose and how they are used in different environments. They looked at features such as shape, stability and materials before beginning to design their own pavilion structures. Their designs are being inspired by our previous geography topic on the Amazon rainforest.

In PE, our focus was on rallying skills in tennis. The children worked with a partner to practise controlling a ball using a racquet, developing both their coordination and accuracy. They gradually built up their skills before challenging themselves to see how many controlled passes they could make to each other, demonstrating teamwork and perseverance.

In history, we learned about the location of Ancient Egypt and explored why the River Nile was so important to the civilisation. The children considered how the river supported farming, transport and settlement and they were able to draw on their prior learning from geography to help make these connections. It was fantastic to see them applying knowledge from other subjects to deepen their understanding.

This week in English, the children have begun writing their discovery narratives based on the work of Charles Darwin. So far, the children have focused on the end of the voyage aboard the HMS Beagle, describing the moment the ship arrives at the mysterious island where Darwin will eventually discover a brand new species. They have been working on setting the scene and building suspense before the discovery itself.

In maths, the children have been exploring percentages. They have been learning what percentages represent and how to find simple percentages of amounts. Over the next few lessons, we will move on to finding percentages of any given amount and applying these skills to a range of problems.

On Wednesday morning, we visited the Worcester Flics Gymnastics Centre. The children had a fantastic time and all appeared to really enjoy the experience. They were encouraged to step outside their comfort zones, trying a range of activities during a fun-filled morning led by the Chantry's young leaders.

In history, the children have been learning about the gods and goddesses of Ancient Greece. This week, they created fact files about a god or goddess of their choice, researching their family relationships, symbols, powers, and roles in mythology.

In science this week, we started our new topic, 'Living things and their habitats'. We looked at how plants reproduce from either a single parent plant or two parent plants.

In computing, our new project is called 'Big Data 1'. We thought about how large amounts of data can be stored efficiently and how libraries have adapted from keeping paper records to using barcodes to store data. We discussed QR codes and used the iPads to follow a QR code trail around the school.

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