Monday, 29 February 2016

Why?

As we look this week, a little more closely, at the theme of forgiveness that three letter word of WHY, keeps leaping out of the page at us.

It is such an important question that lies at the root of our theme. Why should we forgive? What is it that motivates us to take this action? Why should we continue to forgive? Why should we even choose to do it in the first place? Why is God so clear on our need to take this action and equally as important, why did he seek to forgive us through the events of the Easter story? There is certainly a lot to think about.


Jesus addresses this in many different ways and we will be looking at some of his parables to help us come to grips with this big question.

FS2 Mud Kitchen


 
 
Our new FS2 mud kitchen. It's not just about fun!

Cognitive Strategies. Joint Planning. Children working together to come up with a plan. So plenty of Negotiation! Joint discussions that lead to an agreed end result . Problem Solving  - taking time to think together or alone to solve a problem or issue. Goal Seeking - Children will work individually or in collaboration to seek and end result. Emotion - Children can explore a range of emotions in a safe and supported environment. Cognition - Children acquire new knowledge through language, interaction and experience. Language - Children can extend their range of vocabulary as well as mechanisms for using and expressing language.

Sensory Motor Actions  - Children make sense of the world through their senses and physical actions. Abstract Thinking - Thinking about the world around them in a different way. For good abstract thinking, children need to be able to use and apply their prior knowledge uniquely.

 
A big thanks to our premises officer for building it for us.

 
If anyone has any real kitchen utensils, old pans, etc. that are not breakable or sharp please bring them to FS2. Thank you!

 



Thursday, 25 February 2016

A time to forgive




This half term we will be thinking about the theme of forgiveness, which links into our reflections on the Lord's prayer as well as focusing our minds on the main theme of the Easter story.

We will be taking the time to think about what forgiveness means, why we should forgive, how many times we should forgive and also what forgiveness looks like in practice. So lots to think about.





Tuesday, 23 February 2016

Year 3 volcanicity!

An amazing display of creativity linked to year 3's half term homework has appeared in the school corridors. Their 3D art work brings to life the year group's study of volcanos in a very real way. Clearly lots of hard work put in over the half term holidays.







Foundation stage beauty


Foundation stage children returned after half term and showed great excitement about the discovery of something new in our mini beast area-  "look, look, the flowers are growing up, how beautiful!"
 

 

Wednesday, 10 February 2016

Year 5 chocolate sale

As part of their topic on chocolate year 5 have been looking into product design and then using these skills to produce their own range of chocolate. The finished items where all put up for sale on Tuesday and were quickly devoured by a very enthusiastic KS2 purchasing audience. Year 5 will be using the money raised to support their forthcoming forest school project. A reinvestment of their hard work into something they all enjoy just as much. Friday will see the year group enjoy a trip to Cadbury's World - so still more chocolate to come!







Ash Wednesday in church





Today all of the school attended St Johns Church for our Ash Wednesday service. We enjoyed learning about the compassion that Jesus showed to Zacchaeus and how meeting Jesus changed his life.


We even had a pancake race and a dramatic retelling of the story. Readings were provided by 6M and the Finches and prayers by the Ducking's and 6S. As usual our orchestra performed at the start and end of the services and we very much enjoyed being joined by parents and family members.




The church is  a special place for us as a school and we will look forward to gathering together again in a few weeks to celebrate Easter.








Respect your environment

This week we have been thinking about how we need to show not just respect for each other but also for our environment. In doing this we took the time to reflect on how amazing the world is that we live in.

We have paused to reflect on the truth in the book of Genesis that God created this world, this galaxy, this universe and that He proclaimed it to be GOOD. Not only that, but he also placed the care and responsibility for it into our hands.



We have thought about how we need to demonstrate respect for the world we live in through our own actions, but also the wider actions of our community and countries.



We have been challenged by some of the quotes and bible verses we have read and we have considered how we each as individuals can respond to this, not just now but also in the future.

FS2 enjoy the wonder of space

Respecting our environment is helped when we realise just how amazing it is. Our Foundation stage have certainly been taking the time to explore the awe and wonder of the universe we live in through their space topic - with a little bit of creative art work and imagination thrown in as well!









My lighthouse

The year 4 STEAM project continued this week with the children using their knowledge and skills to produce some illuminated lighthouses. They are all very clearly enjoying the opportunity to work under the guidance of Mrs V our IT specialist and they are learning a lot about conductivity and circuits at the same time!






Friday, 5 February 2016

Respect others

This week we have focused on respecting others in all of our assemblies, considering how this should influence our behaviour and how we work together as a school community. We have had some great ideas put forward about what this means in practice and some really good examples to learn from  when things haven't gone exactly as we anticipated. We have also reminded ourselves that saying sorry to someone is also a sign of respect.

In assembly on  Friday we will be looking at the story of the Roman centurion who respected Jesus' authority and through this his servant was healed. Its an amazing story of Jesus' compassion and power to heal, but also an amazing story of faith that is a challenge to us all. The story can be found in Matthew 8:5-13.




Then Jesus said to the centurion, “Go! Let it be done just as you believed it would.” And his servant was healed at that moment.

Year 4 refelctions on the STEAM project


On a Monday Morning we have been doing a fun science project called STEAM with Mrs V. So far we have done a painting with conductive paint; we also did an experiment with a circuit board called Ototo. An Ototo board is used like a mini keyboard. You use it by placing your fingers on holes. To do our experiment we connected the Ototo board to the conductive painting using crocodile clips, this worked by touching the conductive painting. We noticed when we touched the painting it made a sound. After we had experimented with this we attached some fruit to the crocodile clips and tested it. We noticed things that contained water conducted electricity. This made pears and apples more conductive then carrots and potatoes. Next week we will be learning how to make a circuit with LED lights.