Spring 1 Newsletter
February 2022
We would like to thank all our parents and carers for their continued support during the first half-term of 2022. The school and local community has faced many challenges due to the very high numbers of positive Covid cases for both children and staff. Despite the challenges, it has been wonderful to see our children in school getting on with their day in their normal positive way. Many of you will have seen the proposal to drop all restrictions from Monday 21st February rather than the original planned date in March. We will be keeping all our school community updated as soon as we have received confirmation regarding the changes. We hope you all have a restful half-term break and once again thank you for your understanding and support.
Martin Nicholson
Head teacher
The Ark
This half term the children have been learning about Traditional Tales by reading the stories of The Three Little Pigs, Goldilocks and the Three Bears and Jack and the Beanstalk.
During the last week of term the children had great fun making their own gingerbread men and decorating them with smarties buttons. We hope you enjoyed them at home!
In maths the children have been exploring money by sorting and matching coins. We also set up an Ark shop for the children to ‘buy’ highly engaging items, such as time with favourite toys or small treats.
The Nest
We are pleased to introduce to our parents, The Nest; a new classroom designed to support children who may need some extra help at Grafton Primary School. The children have allocated times to attend, and our focus is child centered and planned around individual needs in order to best support progression and development. When in The Nest, children will be supported with communication via the use of symbols, communication boards, pictures and signs. Communication is very important and encouraged daily throughout the sessions. The children are given the opportunity to build their attention, concentration, turn taking and play skills with exciting and engaging activities. We hope you appreciate the photos of the children enjoying their time in the classroom and look forward to sharing more as the year goes on.
Nursery
This half term the nursery children have been learning all about healthy eating and keeping our bodies healthy.
We have made porridge and jam sandwiches and the children have been using their senses to describe what they can see and how they tasted.
In our role play area we have had a healthy eating café where the children prepared healthy snacks. More recently it has become a dentist and the children have been making appointments for each other and talking about their own experiences of visiting the dentist.
Reception
In Literacy, we have been reading different Traditional Tales and retelling the different stories by using story maps, sequencing pictures and role playing the stories.
Some written activities we covered were writing speech and thought bubbles for the pigs and wolf in The Three Little Pigs, writing descriptive sentences for Goldilocks and The Three Bears and creating wanted posters for The Three Billy Goats Gruff.
During our Expressive Art and Design, the children created their own straw, stick and brick houses. We discussed the strength of the different materials and they shared which house they would like to live in and why? We also used fruit to create pictures in the style of the artist Arcimboldo.
We celebrated Chinese New Year as part of our Understanding of the World. We learnt the story of the different animals and how they decided to take turns, and how 2022 is the Year of the Tiger. We made lanterns and tigers to celebrate and chose to display red items in our class as it is a lucky colour in China.
Year 1
This half term we have been learning all about Space and the United Kingdom! The children have really enjoyed completing art work related to space which has all been 3D! They have made some excellent rockets out of clay using different joining methods and then made 3D pictures of a rocket blasting through space.
In Literacy the children have been busy reading the book Beegu. We have written letters to Beegu, designed alien friends for her and written character descriptions of them. Most recently we have been planning, writing and editing a leaflet for Beegu. Beegu didn’t like Earth because no one seemed to understand her or want her. We have been creating a leaflet about Earth to tell her all the great things about it!
In Maths the children have been working hard on their numbers to 20. We have focused a lot on the children using their number bonds to 10 to help them add and subtract numbers to 20.
Finally in Science the children have been conducting different experiments. We have looked into which materials are waterproof and have discussed what makes a fair test!
Year 2
This half term Spring came early to Year 2 as we explored seeds and how they grow. We used our observation skills to watch bean seeds germinate over time, first we saw the seed swell with water till it cracked and the roots began to grow down into the soil. Next the seed used its food bank inside to grow a small shoot, this grows up towards the light and warmth turning the seed into a seedling (baby plant). Once the seedling has leaves it is then able to make its own food and grow a taller stem and more leaves.
Having successfully germinated bean seeds, we then investigated what conditions seeds germinated the best, varying the conditions for growth in terms of water, air, and light. We had clown pots but the clowns were bald so we planted mustard seeds in the hope that the mustard plants would make hair for the clowns. In total we set up four clown pots and watched them grow over time:
- Seeds with no water but access to air and light.
- Seeds with no light but access to air and water.
- Seeds with no air but access to light and water.
- Seeds with access to water, air, and light.
We made a prediction as to which seeds / clown pot we felt would grow the best and are still monitoring their growth. Have a look and see how they are doing from the picture below. Can you tell which seeds had which conditions?
We are hoping our horticultural skills will develop further next term when we plant bulbs and try to grow bean plants that will produce bean pods, following the plant lifecycle through all the stages.
Year 2 Rights Ambassadors
During this half term we have been very busy making sure that teachers have been switching lights and computer screens off to save electricity and help the environment.
We popped into the dinner hall at lunch times to remind children having school dinners about putting food into the bins and not dropping it on the floor. We also reminded the children having packed lunches to try and make healthier food choices.
At play times we monitored the friendship stops and suggested games that children who were lonely or unhappy could play or join in with.
We also made walk to school posters to try and encourage members of staff and children to walk to school instead of talking the car.
Finally, we wrote a script and did an assembly for the year 1 and 2 children explaining what are role within the school was and what we have been doing each week.
We have lots of exciting things planned for next half term too.
Benjamin, Samreen, Hafsa, Jasmir, Amina, Ryan, Kelechi and Abdul Reham.
Year 3
This half-term, the children enjoyed reading ‘The Egyptian Cinderella’. The children wrote their own version of the story and included their own character in the story. In Science, the children have been learning about light. The children have participated in different investigations this half-term, which included using the dark den, investigating reflective surfaces and creating shadows using torches. As part of Safer Internet day this week, the children learnt how to be safe online. The children will continue to learn about Ancient Egypt after half-term and we will have an Egyptian day for the children too.
Year 4
Year 4 have had a brilliant start to 2022!
Amazing Archaeologists
To start our new History topic off, we took part in our own archaeological dig to explore some Anglo Saxons artefacts. We had lots of discussions around what the items were and how they were used. We have also been using different sources of evidence to see what Britain was like when the Anglo Saxons landed on our shores. Using this information, we have created our own Anglo Saxon villages.
Smart Scientists
We have been investigating solids, liquids, and gases in Science as part of our study into States of Matter. We have enjoyed the practical investigations which have allowed us to really understand the three states. By using sponges, balloons, and raisins, we have been able to explore this topic in a fun way and we are now looking forward to investigating ice and how quickly it melts.
Delightful Dragons
In Literacy, using our new text, Tell Me a Dragon, we have been exploring dragons. We have been looking at the different types of dragons within the text and creating descriptions of our own creatures. Our reading lessons are based on 'How To Train Your Dragon' and we have really liked reading about the adventures of Hiccup. Dragons have also been the focus of our art lessons and we have been creating our own dances based on some dragon poetry we have created.
Year 5
This half term in Literacy, we have been reading and analysing one the most famous world’s love stories, Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare. Some of us found the ending of the story disappointing because we wanted Romeo and Juliet to have a happy life together. However, most of us thought that it was a very romantic story. We really enjoyed our hook lesson as we learnt a lot about Elizabethan times. We found out what people ate in those times and which items they used every day. Elizabethan clothes fascinated us. They were very different from the clothes we wear today!
In Science, we have been learning about Earth and Space. We were very interested in finding facts about our chosen planet and investigating why we have day and night. One of the activities all of us liked was designing our own posters, which showed different phases of the moon. Working with our friends and sharing ideas was a great learning experience.
(Jaida and Valeria 5 Rowan)
Year 6
This term has been a busy term since returning back to school from the Christmas holidays. There has been a lot of practice in the lead up to our SATS exams and we have been very proud with all the hard work that the children have put in to their learning!
The children have enjoyed learning about the Polar Regions and have learnt all the struggles that Ernest Shackleton and his crew went through during their dangerous expedition over 100 years ago. Throughout the half term, we have been so pleased with the independent research the children have been doing at home and have enjoyed reading everything they have found out.
The year 6 ambassadors have done a fantastic job of taking over the schools Twitter account during Safer Internet Day. They were very excited to go around the school, see the different learning taking place, and take pictures that were posted online. The rest of year 6 were able to learn and discuss the different ways to stay safe online and we hope they think carefully about this when online in the future.
Towards the end of the half term, the year 6 football team played their first game of the season and did the school very proud. There will be more games next half term so good luck to all of the children involved!
The children have coped extremely well with the changes in school this half term and we would
like to say a massive thank you to them for all of their hard work.
Well done and have a lovely holiday.
The Year 6 Team
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