In science this half term Year 6 have been studying light and shadow. They have looked at ways in which shadows are formed and how light from a light source is blocked by opaque objects and therefore shadows are created.

The children linked this with Christmas and made shadow puppets of reindeers and other Christmas ideas. The children will perform their shadow puppet  plays next week.

During Maths week this year, Year 3 have focused their learning around the story ‘The Royal Treasure Measure’ by Trudy Harris. This is a story all about the problems  King Balbazar and his subjects have  because they do not have a standard unit for measure!

There are problems with  making doors, curtains and royal robes fit, so the king decides to hold a competition to find a standard unit of measurement. People in his kingdom used everything to measure with – from candles to sausages!

During the week, Year 3 worked collaboratively to first estimate and then measure accurately to the nearest centimetre and some to the nearest millimetre. Then the challenge was set to find total measurements of two shorter pieces of chain as the king needed chains of certain lengths for different occasions. This was a tricky challenge because Year 3 had to apply their previous learning of written strategies to solve the problem. Would every two pieces of chain meet the criteria? Extra challenge also had some children using decimal amounts to add together!

Ask Year 3 to explain and demonstrate their addition skills.

This week during Maths week we have been exploring measure – length and height. We have been using the language of measure and exploring how to measure using forms of non-standard measure. We know we can measure using anything, as long as the item is the same. Take a look at all the measuring we have been doing!

On Friday Year 2 performed their class assembly exploring Christmas around the world.

The children learned their lines, learned new songs and used their acting skills to put on a fantastic show. Their voices were loud and clear and they sang beautifully – well done!

We visited China, Australia and Poland to see how they celebrate Christmas. We found out that in Poland they believe the star (Gwiazjda) is very important at Christmas and when they see it on Christmas eve, they can begin their feast!

In China they believe Jesus is the light of the world so lights play a very special part in their celebrations. Many Christians in China make paper lanterns to decorate their trees.

In Australia Christmas falls right in the middle of their summer holidays so it is very hot! Many Australian Christians head to the beach for a barbeque and games on the sand!

Photos to follow!

During last week Year 6 have been looking at Victorian Workhouses in topic work. They had to imagine they were a child from the workhouse keeping a diary. They  used the features of diary writing and even managed a shift in formality.

In Year 1 we have been focusing on the book the Smartest Giant in Town. This week we have become authors and written our own versions of the story. We made sure we included story language and we also thought carefully about the punctuation we need to remember in our sentences.

Have a read of our stories!