In Chestnuts, we have had an Ancient Egyptian afternoon where we invited parents to see what we have been up to.
We tasted lots of typical Ancient Egyptian food such as bread, honey, figs and cheese. We also made jewellery and Tutankhamen style headdresses.
As part of national fieldwork fortnight, Chestnuts carried out transport and pedestrian counts around the Fellgate estate.
We came back to school and analysed what we had found. We thought about how the council often carry out fieldwork to make decisions on road crossings, traffic calming measures and pedestrian walkways.
As a treat, Chestnuts visited the Customs House to see The Little Mermaid.
The children really enjoyed the film.
Chestnuts recently visited the library at The Word, where we took part in a story telling session.
A kind librarian read a great story about a young girl travelling around the world in a hot air balloon. She visited lots of different countries, which we have studied throughout our history and geography work. We have also read many books at school about these places.
The children were great at talking about what they have learned. The librarian was very impressed with how many amazing books Chestnuts have read this year.
Before we returned to school, we had a chance to explore the huge collection of library books. The children promised they would come to the library to choose their own books. Hopefully this will continue to improve their reading. 
The children in Willows took part in a virtual author visit with singer turned author JB.
They were introduced to his book ‘Ace and the Animal Heroes’ and got to hear about his career in the band JLS and then how he became a children’s author.
The children got some tips on how to create interesting story lines and also took part in a farmyard quiz.
JB answered the questions we sent him and even gave us a shout out too!
How long did it take you to write the book?
18 months (but about 8 years in total, from when it was first an idea!!)
What is your favourite type of music?
Classical.
What do you enjoy doing?
I love my farm with all the animals and getting to spend time on it with my family.
This week, Willows and Cherries began building their mini greenhouses. Using hot glue (with adult support!) and lolly sticks, they created two squares and then added the frame ready for the roof to be put on next week.
Take a look at them so far…
In English this week, Blossoms have been learning about the features of a balanced argument. Today, they used those features to have an oral debate about whether school uniform should be worn in school. The children worked in groups and were either for or against the argument. As a team, they came up with reasons for or against, supported them with evidence and then held a debate; sharing both viewpoints. Next week, we will be drafting our own written balanced arguments.
This half term in Science, we are learning all about the properties of materials. This week, we have been investigating which materials are soluble in water. This means that they dissolve and create a solution. We tested six different materials and were surprised by some of our results. For example, the tea leaves did not dissolve and we expected them too. We discussed this and thought that maybe the water needed to be hot for this to happen. We also found that some of our group’s sugar and water did not dissolve fully even though sugar is a solute. We decided that this was because there wasn’t enough water for the amount of substance and showed the importance of a fair test as different groups used different amounts of water and material. Excellent scientific enquiry Blossoms!
Over the last week, all classes have been considering this years theme for Mental Health Awareness Week: anxiety.
All children can describe anxious feelings and give examples of times they have felt this way. We understand, at times, anxiety is a normal human emotion and speaking to a trusted adult is good when we experience these types of feelings.
Children produced thought bubbles; suggesting many excellent ways to overcome and manage anxiety. Hopefully, these ideas can help us all, in the future.
This week, in history, Chestnuts have been researching ancient Egypt as part of our topic.
We have found out lots of new information about:
We worked as groups to answer lots of questions and present our research on huge posters.
