Friday 7th November

Some of this week's wonderful exploration has included:

Our big question for this half term is: Who is afraid of the big bad wolf?

We will be exploring traditional tales and nearer the time the Nativity Story.

In English this week we started to explore the story The Little Red Hen. The children used a story map to help learn the story and act it out. We read the story but also watched videos of the story , we then used our oracy skills to discuss how the stories were the same and different! The children then used their oracy and sequencing skills to retell the story in their books.  

The children started guided reading this week and they have amazed the adults at how well they have adapted to the routines of a guided reading session! We are going to have some amazing readers in our class!

In maths this week we have begun to explore representing numbers 1 2 and 3 in different ways! The children are progressing well with recognising, making and ordering numbers.

We have had two 'Understanding the World' days this week.  On Monday we explored Halloween and used lots of learnt skills to cut, stick, and build Halloween tasks.

On Wednesday we learnt all about why we celebrate Bonfire Night. We explored how men tried to kill King James 1^st but did not succeed. We then explored how different people celebrate Bonfire Night. All of our activities were based on this celebration, we even made edible sparklers!

We have explored so much during the first week back at school.

The Foundation Team 

Welcome back to Darite after what a I hope was a relaxing and pleasant half term break. This is one of my favourite half terms of the year with the run up to Christmas, performances and lots more trips and activities! Congratulations to our new school council who were elected this week to make the school an even better place. They will be meeting regularly and already have some great plans - watch this space! Next week we welcome Sarah Wallis from St Luke's hospice back into school to launch this year's Rudolph Run. The children had an amazing time last year and raised a fantastic amount of money for this cause which helps so many families in our community. The annual flu nasal sprays are on Thursday next week. All children in school are eligible for this and we highly recommend that children are vaccinated before the flu season really kicks off. Please see the previous correspondence to give permission if you have not yet done so and would like to take up the offer. Finally, next week if the BBC Children in Need appeal. To help raise money for this amazing appeal, next Friday will be a non-uniform day. Children can come in non-uniform or spotty clothes for a £1 donation. We are also asking for kind donations of cakes and treats for a cake sale at breaktime and lunchtime on Friday. Because of allergies in school, please could you provide a list of ingredients so that all children can enjoy a treat.

What a wonderful first week it has been back after the half term break.

We wish you all a wonderful weekend and hope you enjoy looking through this week's Brunel Bulletin.

Just a gentle reminder that next week we are marking Anti-Bullying Week with the theme ' The Power of Good.' On Monday, the children are welcome to wear Odd Socks to school as we celebrate us all being different and unique. On Tuesday, we warmly welcome our families and local community to join us for our Remembrance Service. The gates by the side of the library will open at 10:40am. We hope as many of our school community will be able to join us for this important date in our country's calendar.

Let's Celebrate! 

This week in Tregantle Class, we have been getting creative with the theme of celebrations and festivals. The children had a fantastic time making firework art, splatting coloured paint onto paper to create bright, explosive patterns that lit up our classroom!

We've also been busy crafting poppies in preparation for Remembrance Day next week. The children showed great thoughtfulness as we talked about the importance of remembering and honouring others. What a lovely way to think about special times of the year.

Our learning through play has continued to shine this week, too. In our music area, we've been linking music with phonics. The children were set the challenge of finding different sounds on the xylophone to create their own tunes - a wonderful way to explore sound and rhythm!

Over in maths, the children have been working hard to become experts at ordering numbers and matching Numicon shapes to the correct numerals.

Their confidence is growing every day, and it's been fantastic to see their enthusiasm and teamwork. What a fun, creative and inspiring week it has been in Tregantle Class! Well done, everyone!

Hello Everyone,

This week in Penhallow, we have immersed ourselves in the story of Little Red Riding Hood. We have been singing songs, which retell each part of the story, drawing story maps, and describing characters. Reception have had some amazing discussions which have sparked their imagination, and we are really proud of the way in which they have 
been creative in their ideas about the story.

In Geography this week we have been learning about the continents of the world. We sang a song, to help us to recall the names of the continents, and completed a jigsaw to place them on a map.

Art this week, has consisted of comparing art work and using colours from Tingatinga art. We also followed instructions to draw  a tortoise in the style of this art work.

We look forward to seeing you next week for our parent/teacher consultations. Please call the school office, or catch us at the end of the day, if you haven't already booked.

Have a lovely weekend.

From The Penhallow Team

Next week is National Anti-Bullying week - we will be working with the class leaders, team captains and student leaders to share their ideas with their classes on the theme Power for Good. Monday 10th November is our chance to nod to odd socks day so please do support this if you can.

Message from PTA: Our PTA Annual General Meeting is on 19th November at 2:15pm (meet at school reception). Everyone's welcome - come along to meet the committee, share ideas, or just see what we're all about.

Welcome back for the second half of the autumn term. It was lovely to see so many of you today at the rearranged autumn/harvest assembly. Thank you to all those who were able to attend for a parent consultation this week and hopefully Class 1 parents have signed up to an appointment time for next Wednesday. We have reduced the length of these sessions for the first consultation of the year and narrowed the focus to talking about how the children have settled into the new school year and to discus their learning attitudes and behaviours. To complement this, we want to share children's learning progress through further opportunities for you to come into the classroom to see what your children have been learning. We did this last half term with our maths morning and art exhibition and are planning further opportunities in the weeks ahead.

Design Technology
This half term, we have design technology lessons in all classes. I am fortunate to have the opportunity to teach this subject to both junior classes, which also provides me with some lovely photographs for my blog!



Class 4 are designing and making stuffed toys. For the first week, they came up with a design and made a template they used to cut out the fabric. These photos show Rudy's strawberry design.



Class 3 are learning about 'pavilions' and used the first week to make structures through a trial and error approach using match sticks and plasticine. Lowenna and Joey worked together to create the first design and Penny and Madeleine made the second. They are both very elaborate and required a lot of teamwork. I look forward to sharing more in the weeks ahead and hopefully we will be inviting you to an exhibition of children's work before the end of term.

Rocksteady Bands
Our Rocksteady bands started this week with music teacher Joe Spurrell. Once he set up his equipment in the library, which looked like a recording study with everything he had, the children were very excited to join Joe for this first session.

As always, there are lots of exciting learning opportunities in the weeks ahead, culminating in our festive events at the end of term. This year, in a change with tradition, we are planning a whole school Christmas performance at the village hall. Further details will be shared nearer the time, but for those needing to take time off work to attend, here are the dates and performance times:

It was lovely to see the children back after the half term break and we have been busy diving into our enquiry question "How does colour make us feel?"
In addition to this we are exploring different shapes with the children.
This week the children have been busy exploring colour and as it was bonfire night on Wednesday they made some glittery, glue firework pictures to hang in nursery.
They have enjoyed our bonfire themed tuft tray and have created breadstick sparklers to take home and eat.

At story time we enjoyed the books "Sparks in the Sky" and have been exploring the story of "The Colour Monster". The children have been encouraged to talk about the book and how the different colours made them feel as well as discussing what makes them happy, sad or scared.

In phonics this week the children enjoyed playing a game of "I Spy" and tried hard to listen to the sounds at the beginning of the words. We clapped the number of syllables in different words and used our voices to create different noises and sounds.

In maths, we are naming and ordering numbers 1-3 and beyond and have been comparing amounts.

We hope you all have a great weekend and see you on Monday.

Julie and Sarah

 

Pyjamas or Onesies for Children in Need

To celebrate the Children in Need appeal and to help to raise money towards this, we are inviting the children to come to school dressed in their jazziest pyjamas or cuddliest onesies. 

Children will still need coats suitable for playing outdoors and proper footwear for the day. Slippers may get a bit soggy out on the playground! We are asking for a £1 donation with all donations going directly to BBC Children in Need.

Thank you for your support!

October has been such a busy and exciting month for our class! In maths, we've been consolidating our addition and subtraction skills, especially focusing on the tricky concept of crossing into a new hundred when counting in tens. It's been great to see everyone's confidence growing as we practiced using number lines, base ten, and mental strategies to solve problems. In science, we became real scientists by practicing our Scientific Enquiry skills. We learned how to ask thoughtful questions, make predictions, and form hypotheses before testing them out. Everyone enjoyed being curious and finding out how things work through investigation.  

This month we have continued to find the answer to our Big Question 'Where on Earth are we?' by learning that we live in a county called Cornwall. We have learnt to find our local area on the map and have identified the school, the River Tamar and Gunnislake on a local area map. We have continued to learn about materials in Science and have tested their abilities to float or sink and to absorb water. We drew our final 'Wild Thing' illustrations after testing out different ways we could draw the various parts of our creatures body. The half term was rounded off by a Halloween dress up day and disco which was great spooky fun!

What a wonderful start to a new school year!

Our 'Big Question' this half term is 'Where on Earth are we?'. We have practised identifying the shape of the United Kingdom on maps, globes and aerial photographs. We have learnt that the United Kingdom is made up of four countries and have been learning some key facts about those countries.
In maths we have been deepening our understanding of number to 10. We have read and written them, ordered them and found one more or one less than them.
We have continued with Drawing Club just like we did in Reception Class. We have explored lots of stories and vocabulary.
In Science we have been learning about materials and the properties of materials that make them suitable for different jobs. 
Our RE this half term is all about the Christian Creation story. In Art we have begun to explore the techniques used by Maurice Sendak. Maurice Sendak wrote and illustrated the famous children's book 'Where the wild things are'.

 The Storytellers have had an exciting time learning all about Bonfire Night! We began by preparing delicious pumpkin soup, using fresh ingredients that the children helped to chop and stir. This tasty treat was enjoyed later on as we gathered around our very own campfire in the field. 

Using a special "Dragon's Breath" flint, the children worked together to help light the fire, learning all about the magic of combustion and how to stay safe around open flames. We discussed fire safety rules, maintained a safe distance, and everyone had a turn with sparklers, creating sparkling swirls in the air with great care and big smiles.

Due to the bout of blustery weather, our firework fun moved indoors today, where the children got creative! They made vibrant firework pictures by blowing paint across the page through straws and using paper stamps. A sprinkle of colourful glitter brought their artwork to life, capturing the excitement of fireworks in the night sky.

To top off a truly memorable few days, we spent the afternoon making and decorating our own candy apples-sticky, sparkly, and delicious! What a fantastic way to celebrate Bonfire Night with learning, teamwork, safety, and lots of tasty treats.