Sensational Science Investigations and New Novels!

This week, we made the use of the weather by getting outside within our science lesson. We we were learning about the force of friction and investigating the strength of friction on different surfaces. For this, the children used Newton meters to measure the force when they pulled along an object on various surfaces. Shoes may look an unusual choice for a scientific experiment, however, due to the rubber sole, they produce grip which makes the force easier to measure - strange but true!

Additionally, in English we have just begun drafting our stories inspired by the novel 'Letters from the Lighthouse'. The children have had a lovely time getting into their characters and coming up with all sorts of trials and tribulations that they may encounter. We can't wait to read what happens next!

Sensational Science Investigations and New Novels!

This week, we made the use of the weather by getting outside within our science lesson. We were learning about the force of friction and investigating the strength of friction on different surfaces. For this, the children used Newton meters to measure the force when they pulled along an object on various surfaces. Shoes may look an unusual choice for a scientific experiment, however, due to the rubber sole, they produce grip which makes the force easier to measure - strange but true!

Additionally, in English we have just begun drafting our stories inspired by the novel 'Letters from the Lighthouse'. The children have had a lovely time getting into their characters and coming up with all sorts of trials and tribulations that they may encounter. We can't wait to read what happens next!

Whitsand Class Learning Update 

It has been another busy and exciting week in Whitsand Class!

In Maths, we have completed our unit on place value and number and have now moved on to addition. The children have been exploring how we can use part-whole models to help us understand addition and identify the parts and the whole. We have been working hard to explain our mathematical thinking and are becoming more confident in using our models to support our calculations.

In English, we have come to the end of our Jack and the Beanstalk unit. The children have worked incredibly hard throughout the unit and have put lots of effort into their final writing. They have been trying their very best to remember and apply the key skills we have been practising, and we are so proud of the progress they have made. 

Our Science learning has been particularly exciting! We have been exploring waterproof materials and investigating which materials are best at keeping water out. The children enjoyed carrying out an experiment where they tested a range of different materials to see how waterproof they were, before recording their findings in a table. There was lots of careful observing, predicting and discussing… although some children may have got a little wet along the way! 

Well done, Whitsand Class, for another fantastic week of learning. We are so proud of your hard work, curiosity and enthusiasm! 

Another Fantastic Week in Lantic Class

It has been another busy and exciting time in Lantic Class! The children have been working incredibly hard and have enjoyed lots of practical and creative learning across the curriculum.

In Maths, we have been learning all about number bonds to 10. The children have enjoyed finding different ways to make 10 and practising writing number sentences to show what they know. One of our favourite activities was drawing around our hands! We used our fingers to help us find different number bonds and then wrote number sentences to match. The children were fantastic at spotting the different combinations and explaining their thinking.

In English, the children have been busy completing their final write. They have created their very own Wanted: Wolf! posters. The children have been working hard to make their writing interesting by using adjectives, conjunctions and adverbs of place. We have been very impressed with the vocabulary they have chosen and the detail they have included in their descriptions. There are certainly some very imaginative wolf posters in Lantic Class!

In History, we have been comparing schools in the past with schools today. The children have enjoyed thinking about what is the same and what has changed over time. We were especially excited to look at a photograph shared by Miss Price of Longstone (Brunel) School from around 50 years ago. The children were amazed to discover that our school once had a swimming pool! This led to lots of interesting conversations about what school life might have been like in the past.

In RE, we have been learning about synagogues and exploring their importance to Jewish people. The children have been discovering different features of a synagogue and learning about how it is used as a place for worship and community. They have shown lots of curiosity and have enjoyed asking questions and sharing their ideas as they develop their understanding of Judaism.

Well done, Lantic Class, for another fantastic week of learning! We are so proud of the enthusiasm, creativity and hard work you continue to show.

What a busy and exciting week we have had in Tregantle Class! Phonics

This week, we have been very busy in phonics, continuing to learn a new sound every day. We are so impressed with how well the children are remembering their sounds and applying their learning in class. It has also been wonderful to hear that so many of you have been watching the phonics videos at home — what fantastic support! It was especially lovely to welcome our EYFS parents into school on Friday afternoon for a fun phonics session with Mrs Orchard and Mrs Grinsted. Thank you so much for engaging so brilliantly and joining in with all the activities. We think it is safe to say that you are now officially phonics experts!

Maths
In maths, we have continued our learning about subitising and developing our number understanding to 5. The children have been enjoying spotting quantities without needing to count each object, as well as exploring different ways to represent numbers. We have also been learning some new rhymes to help us remember how to form our numbers correctly. The children have loved joining in with these and are becoming more confident with their number writing.

PE Fun
We had a really fun PE lesson this week! We enjoyed moving our bodies like different animals and challenging ourselves to think about how each animal might move. We also had lots of fun playing parachute games, working together and developing our listening and coordination skills. It was certainly a lot of fun!

Settling In
We are incredibly proud of how settled the children are becoming in school. They are really making the most of all the wonderful opportunities available to them, both in the classroom and out in our garden provision. We are already looking forward to more fun and learning next week!

Exploring everyday materials, controlling paint and finding conkers!

We have been busy in Heligan class! This week we have been continuing our science topic of Everyday Materials. We have been exploring materials that are natural and those that are man-made. We have also been looking at different objects and identifying the material that they are made from.

In Art, we have been exploring the art work of Alma Thomas. This week we have been thinking about how to keep our colours bright, and how to control paint to make our pictures stand out. We have created some wonderful pictures.

In outdoor learning, we have made our own bears out of conkers and leaves with Mrs Gregory. We loved doing this activity and finding as many leaves as we could for the bear’s body. We then finished with some fun games using the parachute!

We also had our Harvest Festival assembly this week where we showed our parents and carers the songs we have been learning and acted out the story of the Little Red Hen. We collected lots of food for the food bank too!

Well done Heligan class, another great week.

Building Relationships

Over the past few weeks, the children have been busy making new friends and building positive relationships with both their peers and adults in nursery. Through playing together, exploring activities, and sharing experiences, they are learning important social skills such as taking turns, sharing resources, and showing kindness to others. The children are becoming more confident in interacting with their friends, learning to work and play alongside one another, and developing a sense of belonging within our nursery community. It has been wonderful to see new friendships blossom as the children grow in confidence and independence each day.

This week in pre-school we have continued with our focus on 'all about me'.  We talked with the children about lots of different animals and asked them to tell us what their favourite animal was.  We then completed some art work for our favourite animal. We had snakes, cats, ponies, and cows!

This allowed the children to share their ideas and to think about what it is about the animal that they like the best.
We then had a variety of animals from farm, jungle, artic and pets that we had on our tuff tray to give them all a bath and say their names as we were cleaning them. 
We encouraged conversations around where they may live and what sounds they make.

Our All About Me display now has our paper plate portraits and our jigsaw puzzle faces on to show all our unique features.

We have been very lucky with our continued dry weather as we transition in to Autumn.  The mornings definitely feel cooler, and our playground has an abundance of fallen leaves for the children to play with.

We will be discussing all the changes we see through autumn, and we encourage the children to bring in anything they may want to share that they find whilst out on an autumn walk with their families.

A reminder that Thursday 8th September pre-school is joining Lantic Class and Miss Edwards for a fun forest school day.  Wellies, coats (or puddle suit) is needed for this day. 

The Pre-School Team.

We were incredibly proud to see two of our children invited to the Sherwell Conference Centre at the University of Plymouth for a special celebration of the wonderful work our children have undertaken alongside The Orwell Society.

It was a real honour to share the evening with Richard Blair, George Orwell’s son, and Quentin Kopp, son of Georges Kopp – Orwell’s commander and close friend during the Spanish Civil War. Their presence made an already memorable occasion even more significant. During the evening, Mrs May-Bracey and Mr Woolner spoke passionately about the difference this opportunity has made to children across Bridge Schools.

Over the past few years, our children have explored Orwell’s legacy through inspiring learning experiences, workshops, literature, nature, science and creativity. Most importantly, they have had opportunities to follow in Orwell’s footsteps – learning about the places, people and experiences that influenced his life and writing, while creating work and memories of their own. 

We are incredibly grateful to everyone at The Orwell Society and the University of Plymouth who has helped make these experiences possible. For our children to have their work recognised and celebrated in this way was a very proud moment.

A wonderful example of what can happen when schools, universities and communities work together to inspire the next generation.

Hello Everyone,

It was lovely to see so many of you at our meet the teacher meeting on Tuesday. If you have any questions, or were unable to attend, please don’t hesitate to see me at the end of a day, or email me at hfitzsimmons@polperroprimary.co.uk.

This week in Penhallow we have been continuing to improve our writing through ‘drawing club’. Our work this week has been based on the story ‘Not Now Bernard’ by David McKee. The children have enjoyed being creative and imaginative, inventing their own monster for the story, writing codes to make their monster move, drawing Bernard’s house, and deciding which foods the monster could eat. It really is a joy to see our children enjoying stories and being imaginative. Well done Penhallow. 

In art this week, we have continued to work on self portraits, as well as creating a large collage of Elmer the elephant. We have used a variety of materials this week including paint, pastels and collage materials.

We have been so fortunate with the weather again this week, and everyone has enjoyed plenty of time learning outside. We have used chalk to draw and practice the letters that we have learnt in phonics. The children have been practicing being collaborative, building dens, solving problems together and discussing ideas. 

Reception have been working hard in mathematics this week, where we have been using number blocks characters to learn about the numbers 1,2 and 3. They have been practicing their mathematical vocabulary outside of our mathematics lessons as well as practicing forming these numbers correctly in the outside area.

Have a lovely weekend,

From The Penhallow Team

Class Leader elections were held this week with the children writing their manifestos and presenting them to the class. We held a blind vote to elect our chosen candidate - Congratulations to Harriette, Jowan, Emilia and Stanley.

We've continued to apply our knowledge of Place Value in Maths, using Base 10 to support our understanding, moving onto number lines and calculating intervals and the difference between numbers.

In English, we've identified subject and verb in independent clauses and discussed the use of pronouns in our writing.

On Monday, we were very lucky to be visited by an author called Laura Sweet who shared chapters from one of her books and also gave us a step-by-step drawing workshop on how to draw one of her characters called 'Toad'. Thank you Laura, we loved it! Please take a look here too: St Cleer Primary Academy - Heads Blog

Carnglaze caverns

Another Wonderful Week of Learning!

We have had another fantastic week at school, and the children have continued to amaze us with their enthusiasm, curiosity and positive attitudes towards their learning.

A particular highlight of the week was our trip to Carnglaze Caverns yesterday. The children were wonderful representatives of our school and made us incredibly proud. They listened carefully, followed instructions and showed great excitement and curiosity throughout the trip. It was lovely to see them enjoying the experience together and making some special memories.

Please remember to check your child’s book bag this evening, as they will be bringing home letters containing important information about the pantomime in December. We are very excited about this upcoming event and hope the children will enjoy the opportunity to take part in such a special festive experience.

Maths

In Maths this week, we have been developing our understanding of numbers to 20. The children have been practising ordering numbers and thinking carefully about which numbers are bigger or smaller. We have also been comparing different amounts and using mathematical language to explain our thinking. The children have enjoyed using practical resources and talking about how they know which amount is greater or smaller.

English

In English, we have been revisiting our learning about verbs. The children have been identifying verbs in sentences and discussing how verbs tell us about an action or what someone or something is doing. We have been working hard to use our growing understanding of verbs when speaking and writing, and it has been wonderful to see the children becoming more confident in recognising and using them.

History

Our History learning has been particularly exciting this week as we continued our exploration of flight and the Wright brothers. The children designed and created their very own paper aeroplanes, thinking carefully about how they could make their planes fly. They enjoyed testing their creations and beginning to think like inventors, just as the Wright brothers did when they were experimenting with flight.

ICT

In ICT, the children have been learning more about using an iPad to take photographs. They were challenged to take three pictures, thinking carefully about what they wanted to capture and how they could use the device appropriately. This gave the children an opportunity to develop their confidence with technology while also beginning to understand how photographs can be used to record and communicate information.

Music

In Music, we have been learning about tempo and how the speed of music can change. The children followed instructions carefully and explored how music can be fast or slow. They enjoyed responding to different tempos and developing their listening skills while working together as a class.

PSHE

During PSHE, we have been thinking about being responsible and what responsibility looks like in our classroom. We discussed the importance of looking after our belongings, making sensible choices, following classroom rules and helping others. The children shared some lovely ideas about how they can show responsibility every day and considered how their actions can help to make our classroom a happy and positive place for everyone.

Well done to all of the children for another brilliant week. We are incredibly proud of the effort they are putting into their learning and the kind, caring and responsible attitudes they continue to show. We hope everyone has a lovely weekend and gets plenty of rest ready for another exciting week ahead!