Creativity

Over the past few weeks we have been exploring our Design Technology topic of Moving Monsters; the children have identified what linkages, pivots, inputs and outputs are within different objects and toys. This week we designed and built our Moving Monsters which took a great deal of resilience and patience to achieve. The children surveyed their designs with each other to establish the which should be constructed and then whilst building it realised the adjustments required in order for it to work and meet the design criteria. 

After reading Hibernation Hotel by John Kelly we had a discussion on Hibernation and bears. We used this interest to complete research and create our own information posters. Have a look at the links below and see what fantastic facts you can find on the different types of bears.

We have been Historians this week investigating and questioning who is in the image. 

The children asked many questions linked to clues they found in the picture. 

The young man in the picture is Walter Tull, the first black British Officer in the Army. A courageous and talented young man who we researched in class. 

Follow the link below to learn more about him.

This week we have been reading Winnie and the Midnight Dragon. We love Winnie as a character she is funny and crazy. We have been writing character descriptions, expanding our vocabulary and remembering our sentence structure and handwriting.

Have a read of the book online.

Thank you to all those who attended the Reading Inspire Workshop today. If you were unable to attend, please look out for the pack in bookbags.

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This week we have been revisiting the strategies in school to support us. Children have been able to name adults they can talk to, talking pegs and the 'Stop Rule'. We have also spent time asking the children how they know they are doing well in school. Children discussed the Achievement cards, Beoley Bees and also what successful may look like in their books. Lots of lovely confident discussions. 

We have also spent time going over our Rules when using the technology in school. All children have logged into Edshed to support our assessment and initial vocabulary activities. Please encourage your child to access these free resources at home, they will be part of home learning. Links to websites can be found on our 'Website' pages.

All children have reading books to take home toady. We have selected books for children to confidently read, these will become more challenging over time. We encourage you to comment on reading at home letting us know of difficulties and strengths.  We will hear children read on a Monday when books will be changed. 

WELCOME BACK HOLT CLASS 2023-24

Holt Class 'Plastic Pollution' Assembly 

WELLBEING WEEK

Monday- We started off the week with our bookworm thinking about our friends and what makes them super duper! We created our own Super Duper poster and celebrated our amazing friends. 

We were then part of Sophie James' Dance workshop. We completed a warm up before taking part in a catwalk demonstrating our amazing moves and poses. We ending our session on the tumble track which the children loved! A fantastic start to the week. 

Tuesday- Today was our Sports Day. We started the day talking about how we can keep calm and and recapped strategies to help with achieving the feeling when needed. Our focus in PSHE was encouragement- some of us needed reminding of how amazing we are and that as long as we have a go, we can do it! Children were supportive of their peers during the day and in front of the school community during the event.

Wednesday- Today was all about the climbing wall. The children displayed ambition and resilience as they attempted to climb the wall. All the children had fun and many even climbed further than they did last year. Lovely to hear all the positive signs of encouragement and support. 

Handwriting

Following our INSPIRE workshop and discussion on the schools handwriting scheme. Free resources can be found on the website.

In maths, we have returned to the topic of time. Please remember to access the links on the website page to consolidate learning at home.

Yr 3 children have been investigating soil types and the retention of water within them. The children were inquisitive and made connections with what they know. An excellent investigation.

This term our art theme is collage. Holt class looked at a range of collage pieces and discussed colour texture and media. We then looked at these producing our own piece exploring how we cut/tear and layer. Our work will be working towards a class collage.

Our new Geography topic is looking at a European country. We have chosen Italy. We have started by looking at our knowledge of continents and oceans using the atlas, globe and google maps.

We discussed new vocabulary before looking at some key information about Italy.

We had a lovely afternoon tasting some food linked to Italy- pasta, pizza, mozzarella and olives.

Another fantastic World Book Day! The children had some lovely costumes and had thought about their adjective. The day was full of wonderful book and word based activities including some team work in the afternoon. 

Parents and relatives were invited into school today to work with children and explore resources linked to times tables. Parents were introduced to strategies and resources we use in school and how these can be accessed at home. The opportunity for parents to work alongside children with staff on hand to answer questions was a positive experience. 

All websites can be found on our class website page.

On Friday 3rd February we took part in Number Day and Dressed up for Digits , all in aid of raising money for the NSPCC. We had a great day and joined in many different number activities  in our school teams. Take a look at our fabulous dressing up outfits.

Here are some of our prayer scrolls we made ,we think that some of them looked like the Torah.

In RE we have been learning about the importance of praying and finding out how and where Jews pray .We have learnt that many of their scared prayers are written in Hebrew, on scrolls. We made some of our own scrolls to record some of our  prayers. We spent time discussing what is a prayer and how people from all faiths pray.

This week we have had been working on our gymnastic skills and sharing our ideas with each other. 

Friday 13th January

Today we had the opportunity to try out the new musical instruments that arrived this week . We are excited to be able to continue building on the knowledge we learnt through playing the ukelele ,with our new glockenspiels.

Following the successful trial of Times table Mountain in Seafield class, we are running the program across Year 3 and Year 2. This will be a scaled down version but with the same format and layout essentially preparing children for the Year 4. Children in Year 2 will work towards their 2, 5 and 10 times tables and Year 3 securing their 2, 5, 10 and then move towards 3, 4 and 8. These are the required times tables as stated in the National Curriculum. The children will have a quiz on a Monday to assess learning and will have a new target set if needed. Further information can be obtained in school.

You can also find online games to help with speed of recall and typing on Top Marks and Times Tables Rockstars (website links on the website page).

Our current maths topic is division- the children are focusing on understanding and applying the correct terminology, building confidence practically and finally recording. I shall be adding some of our favourite activities and games over the next couple of weeks.

Our DT this term has been investigating wheels and axles. We finally finished our egg box cars , each of us created our own design and using our planning sheets detailed all the equipment and tools that would be needed to carry out the task of making it. Take a look at all our creations .

We made many adjustments, as we were building our models, to ensure our eggs had the smoothest ride possible. We spent time evaluating our cars and finding out which was the best and why .

We have been learning the ukulele for ten weeks and had our final lesson today . We decided to share all our hard work with the school by performing a mini concert to Seafield, Moss and Cherry classes. Thank you for coming to watch us ! We loved performing even though we were nervous , but we soon relaxed and started to enjoy ourselves. Thank you to Severn Arts for helping us learn so many new skills and giving us a taste of what it is like to learn an instrument. 

Design Technology

Design Technology

In D.T. we have been designing and making yo-yos. We have learnt many new skills including how to handle woodwork tools. We each had a planning page where we had to list what equipment and  materials we were going to use, and also draw our yo-yo design. We then set to work assembling our yo-yos, using our planning sheet to guide us.  Once we had produced our yo-yos we then had time to play with them and evaluate how successful they were. We shared our toys with each other so we all had a chance to feedback, to find out which yo-yo we thought was the best in the class. We discovered that the length of the string and the distance between the two wooden wheels had a significant impact on the success of our products.

In English we have been looking at the poem In Flanders Field. We began by looking at the vocabulary, finding words which we thought were meaningful or words we did not know the meaning of. We then reflected on what vocabulary or phrases meant something to us and created our own blacked out poetry.

Our discussion took us to poppies and why red? We then explored the different coloured poppies and investigated purple poppies which represent the animals who took part in the war. We researched and explored the different animals and how they helped our armed forces. From carrying first aid to sniffing explosives; from carrying soldiers to pulling arms; from carrying messages between regiments to flying across seas. We found them all very interesting and used this to centre our poetry around. The children pulled on their knowledge and vocabulary to create some wonderful pieces.

As part of our topic and reflecting on our value this month 'courage', we became historians. Historians ask questions to find information about the past. The children went home and asked questions about relative who fought in the war or volunteered. We had lots of information and old photographs come into school and children relished in the opportunity to celebrate a relatives courage.

It was lovely to have all our parents in to school today, taking part in an INSPIRE Workshop on Reading. The children loved spending time with you, sharing books and developing vocabulary while eating biscuits. Thank you to all the grown ups who attended. I have add the links to the parent page and video links below.

We have been developing our knowledge of place value this term before moving on to addition. Children have been building numbers using a variety of resources including accessing the Base 10 and arrow cards. Having concrete resources has help cement our knowledge before moving on to 2 and 3 digit written calculations.

As part of our Geography project this term 'Our village', we have looked at the human and physical landscapes. Children began with our village and then moved to cover the United Kingdom. We have explored each nation before finding key landmarks deciding if they were physical or human, noticing the affect on our landscapes. 

To our surprise, we then heard a rumour of a petrol station being built on the village hall and car park site. This posed an excellent debate on how this would benefit but also have long term effects on our community and the environment. 

The children created petitions, formed speeches to deliver to their peers and made stickers and posters as part of their 'Stop the Petrol Station' campaign. Children then wrote letters to the local council to express their concerns raising arguments for both sides. 

A HUGE thank you to all who have helped with discussions at home. 

We have had a fantastic day back in school. We have met our new classmates and found out all about each other's summer. Lots of us made scrapbooks and diaries to show and some of us had postcards from our trips. 

We also had a PSHE session to talk about our Reward cards, Talking Pegs, Beoley Bees and the Stop Rule.

We have all logged on to Edshed and have been reading new books. What a busy start to our new school year! 

This week we had a visit from the Worcestershire Wildlife Fund who spoke to us all about Bees. We were all very interested in the wonderful world of bees and the importance of them for the planet.

Our Wellbeing Week was a huge success! From yoga and meditation to dance and climbing all children demonstrated resilience and ambition throughout the week. With Sports Day in the middle, parents had the opportunity to be in school and support all success. A wonderful week in which the children can feel very proud. 

We have been busy this week in preparations for the Queen's Jubilee. We watched a short animated film and wrote the story to go alongside. Following on from our work on portraits, we completed portraits of the Queen. We created chatterboxes to share some of our Queen facts at home. Finally, we finished the week with our very own tea party. The children enjoyed eating cake, making party hats and dancing before finishing with a celebration tree planting in our 'Jubilee Garden'. Thank you everyone who donated cakes and plants. The children had a wonderful afternoon.

Our school trip to Compton Verney was a huge success. The children had a wonderful day exploring portraits, the different galleries and the wonderful grounds. The children were extremely excited to see Mr Gender's art within the exhibition. 

This week we took our maths outside. We had a wonderful time exploring measure, measuring in standard and non-standard forms. The children problem solved, predicted and measured with accuracy. Our Year 3 enjoyed similar tasks and developed their knowledge of perimeter. 

Our new text 'Lights on Cotton Rock' by David Litchfield has really got our imagination going! The children have loved the story which has sparked many conversations about space travel and life in outer space. The children have been very creative with expanded noun phrases this week, creating beautiful setting descriptions.

As part of our history topic and in preparation for the Platinum Jubilee, we have been researching information about our Queen. We have found out some amazing facts about her whilst creating our own fact file about her Majesty. Watch out for facts!

As part of our work we looked at our own family tree. Children have been busy finding information and asking questions about past family members. We are hearing lovely stories and discussing similarities in generational names.

Our maths topic this week has been on money. Check out the website links for some games to play at home.

This week we have been focusing on time. We checked our understanding of o'clock, half past, quarter past and quarter to. Once secure we moved onto reading the time to 5 minute and duration of time. 

This week our topic in maths is Fractions. We have been working out fractions of shape and number finding 1/2 1/3 1/4 and moving to finding equivalent fractions. Great practical work and use of games on Purple Mash and BBC Bitesize. The children have a 2Do on Purple Mash and I have linked Karate Cats Maths below.

This week in Geography we looked at UK landmarks. Some of them we recognised and others we had visited. The children discussed if they were human or physical landmarks before sorting them.

Our optional homework this week was to spot local landmarks. Can you guess which one will be the most popular?

Holt class had a real treat today when Willy Wonka visited with a special box of treats. The children each chose a treat one of which contained a Golden Ticket! The owner of the ticket must let Willy Wonka know by returning it to school tomorrow and collect their prize. 

Thank you Willy Wonka and your helpers for our treats.

Our topic in Science is Animals and Habitats. We have reminded ourselves of the classification within the animal kingdom and discussed our favourite animal and those endangered. We looked at the website below to find out about each category of animal. 

We then sorted them into habitats. Next week we will look at these habitats and how they are changing over time.

In maths we have been looking at shape, exploring the properties of 2D and 3D. We have been remembering shape names and the correct terminology to describe them. We have also been looking at lines of symmetry with year 2 and angles with year 3. 

Our topic of Romans sparked lots of conversation and links to previous knowledge. We have been busy looking at Roman soldiers, the Empire, buildings and significant people. 

This half term the children will be working on Design Technology projects making items with axels, leavers, sliders and wheels. The children will be using a range of tools and skills to create a moving toy. Children will be working in small groups to encourage independence and discussion surrounding design and evaluation.

This half term we are using the text Hermelin in our English lessons. The children first had to guess the character and produce ideas of the story context from a selection of clues. The children quickly began to piece together clues and become detectives. 

Our first task was to look at the double spread of Offley Street and see if we could predict what was about to take place.

The children are enjoying the text and we have already produced some great work.

Our history topic this half term is Romans. The children enjoyed using the atlas to find Rome and google earth to look at the buildings of interest. To begin our search for information we first looked at our timeline and how long ago the Roman era was. Then the children searched information text for interesting facts and pictures. 

Year 3 finished off the forces topic with a STEM challenge. They had to use their knowledge of forces to get a marble into a cup. Excellent discussion and ideas. The children predicted and recorded information with great detail.

HAPPY NEW YEAR

This week we have focused on our school value of Gratitude. We have had long conversations about what we are grateful for and how many children around the world do not have the same experiences as others.

This week our maths focus has been on money. Children have been familiarising themselves with coins and values, making amounts and calculating shopping lists. Excellent work. Try and set up a shop or find some coins for children to calculate. Below is an online game which can be differentiated accordingly. 

This week in maths we are continuing to develop our addition of 2 digit numbers. We have worked hard to master horizontal addition using our knowledge of part/part whole and tens and ones. We have now moved on to column addition. The children again have mastered the method and are currently working on carry over. Have a look at the game link below and try to work out the calculations.

Our History focus is around Walter Tull, the first black British Army Officer. We have been researching his life and found out some very interesting facts. We also thought of questions we might ask Walter Tull if he was alive today.

As part of our PSHE lesson we have been discussing friendships. The children made cards for a friend in the class which was very special, the children said 'it was nice to know they meant so much to someone' and that their' friendship is valued'.

We thought about what made a good friend and created our own 'Friendship keys'. 

This week we began to look at forces. We were introduced new vocabulary and made some excellent predictions in our tasks. To finish we made our own 'magic' using a magnet and a paper plate.

Our Science Investigation began with a question. 

Which kitchen cupboard item would be the best at cleaning old coins?

The children were first introduced to a sample of kitchen cupboard items before questioning and predicting which item would work the best.

We had some very logical answers.

'The washing up liquid because it cleans dishes'

'Toothpaste because it keeps our teeth clean'

And some predictions of what might happen.

'The ketchup will make it go red'

The children then placed a dirty coin, all similar in colour into a numbered bowl and a substance was added. We decided it would be best to leave them over night. The results were a surprise. Not all coins were shiny, some became clean but dull and others were patchy. We recorded our results and compared them. We had a think about what could have made a difference to some and not others. The children discussed fair testing. We should measure the substance carefully next time to make sure that each bowl had the same amount. That it would be difficult to know exactly how much dirt is on the coin. Finally we looked at the ingredients in our products and found the ketchup had vinegar in it. This opened further discussion and questions. 

A great couple of days with some inspiring scientists. 

Ready for the half term holidays we made spider cakes. The children helped to write a list of instructions and weigh ingredients for the cakes before decorating them. Each recipe book was filled with clear instructions selecting some wonderful adverbs. The cakes were yummy too!

To help develop speed with our doubles we played a '4 in a row' game. The children quickly recalled doubles and notice patterns when it came to doubling 20 or 120.

An excellent activity and one you can do at home. 

Our portrait topic continues with our own abstract art influenced by Pablo Picasso. The children enjoyed taking time to create bold images.

It was lovely to visit St Leonard's Church for our Harvest Celebration today. The children recited a poem, listened to Gratitude Poetry from Seafield Class and joined the whole school in singing Paintbox and Big Red Combine Harvester. For many children, it was their first visit. 

We were very proud of all the children. 

A huge thank you for your Harvest donations which will be going to Redditch Food Bank.

Last week we had a special gift, homemade Blackberry and Apple Jam! After a lengthy discussion we decided it would be lovely if we could all taste the jam. 

We used the opportunity to not only taste the delicious jam but also to write instructions. Children gave simple instructions before we looked at adding adjectives, verbs and adverbs. A lovely treat and great writing.

This week we started our new text 'Little Red Riding Hood'. We discussed how traditional tales have been adapted over time and all have differences. This week we have created story maps to aid discussion and writing and looked at characters.

In computing this week we have been looking at instructions. How all computer programs are created from a set of very clear instructions. We began by giving Mrs Halliwell instructions to put on her coat. We soon found out the importance of making them clear and simple. 

From this we set about writing clear instructions in pairs. We also tried to give a friend instructions to draw an animal whilst drawing. 

Other activities included using the BeeBot app and creating a paper version. This activity will move to creating algorithms and trouble shooting them over the term.

We have been spending a lot of time getting to know each other, celebrating our similarities and differences. We looked at the test 'Mixed' which opened conversation. We have been playing games and talking to each other making new friends.

We have also taken time to go over our school support systems including the 'Stop rule' and 'Talking Pegs'.

Welcome Holt Class 2021-2022

It is lovely to see so many familiar faces and new ones. We have spent the last few days getting to know each other and familiarising ourselves with a new classroom.

I am truly amazed by how tall some of our sunflowers have grown. Brooke is now at 223cm and Deli at 122cm.

I wonder if our wonderful summer will encourage them to grow taller?

After 14 weeks of nurturing our crop we dug them up! The children were surprised to see that the potatoes were not always attached to roots. 'It's like digging for gold!' 

The Climbing Wall 

On Thursday we were lucky to have a climbing wall! At first the children were excited with an element of uncertainty. After 3 goes each we could see children overcome fears and with each attempt, climb a little higher. Well done Holt Class!

Wellbeing Week

What an amazing week! We have been taking part in a number of activities this week including games, sports day, archery, boccia and skipping. Our physical exercise and fun was only one part of our week. We have also been listening to music, pair and group indoor games activities, alongside quiet and reflective work on friendships, mindfulness and what makes us unique. It has been a pleasure to be part of a wonderful community watching children be ambitious.  We are proud of each and every child. 

A huge thank you for those who have made the week possible.

After exploring our topic on space we found out that Tim Peake did not eat biscuits in space as the crumbs can end up in your eyes. We also found out that your sense of smell is affected in space therefore you can't taste all your food. We decided to test it out. We created a science investigation to find out if you need to smell in order to taste accurately. We had great fun tasting crisps while holding our nose and see if we can predict the flavour. Lots of crisps tasted plain. We did notice the colour of one crisp made us think it was a certain flavour. We decided that to taste and enjoy food, you need all your senses.

Our trip to Bishops Wood was amazing. The children were inquisitive, creative and worked well as a team. We are all very proud of them and achievements during the day. 

Holt Class Sunflower Challenge!

After watching our sunflowers germinate and grow they all went home for the half term. I hope you have managed to re-pot them and get them outside in the sunshine. 

We would love to see how they are doing and before we break up for the summer, find out how tall they are. The class are excited and we can't wait to find out who can grow the tallest sunflower. Email me your pictures and sunflower measurements.

The last 2 weeks of term are having an art focus. We are exploring the work of Gustav Klimt famous for his work using gold leaf in 'Adele Bloch Bauer'. The children have been creating a fact file about the author as well as recreating his work.

This week 'The Tree of Life' has opened our PSHE activity and has inspired a number of symbols and representations of important aspects of our own lives. 

This week we have planted our runner beans. Most of our plants had grown and were beginning to climb the windows. We found an empty bed outside the classroom to plant them. Let's hope we get some runner beans soon.

Our experiment left us a little stunned. The only bean to not germinate and grow was the bean with no water. Many of us were shocked and surprised by the growth of some beans especially the bean with no light. We had some very detailed, scientific conversations about a plants needs and also predicted if our beans would recovery after a strange start. 

Our potatoes have also grown, so Jacob helped to cover the growth to encourage a larger crop of potatoes in a few weeks. We shall keep you posted.

Our 'Pretend' School Trip.

This week we spent the day in the outdoors. Our day started with a trip to the local stream to look at spring growth and to do a little bit of fishing. The children were fantastic and had a great time catching fresh water shrimp and sticklebacks.

We had snack back at school before building dens. The wind made the construction tricky but we worked hard in teams to make it watertight before Mrs Halliwell got the hose out. Not all the dens were watertight.

After an excellent lunch we were pond dipping in the grounds catching newts, water boatmen, water snails and blood worms. Finally we popped corn on the fire pit and recapped the day.

A wonderful day enjoyed by all.

A new term and a new topic! For the next few weeks we shall be looking at plants. We have already been busy talking about what we know about plants and creating questions to further our knowledge. The children have been busy labelling parts of a plant with year 3 learning lots of new vocabulary. All children have discussed what a plant may need to survive and have planted sunflowers and runner beans. We will keep you posted on developments.

As a class we chitted potatoes before Easter, these are now planted and will be ready to top in a few weeks time. 

The children have also created an experiment to see if we can grow plants in different conditions. Our experiment has beans growing without soil, water, sunlight, in sand and in a confined place. We shall keep you posted with all our growing.

A very strange term came to an end with some 'cracking' Easter crafts and cards. We discussed the Easter story and had an 'eggcellent' Easter themed sports day.

We also took part in a farewell to Pete the Postman. He has been a great postman and has been into school to support the curriculum in the past. Enjoy the rest Pete!

Welcome back!

It has been wonderful to see and hear so many children back in the school. We have all had different experiences over the last few months but one thing is for sure, it is fantastic to see our friends and teachers again.

We have had a busy week going over our bubble rules and playing some of our termly PSHE games and support activities. Mr Veness had a wonderful morning introducing our new playtime box and creating games with the children. The parachute games are always a favourite.
In class we have a new text 'The Disgusting Sandwich' by Gareth Edwards. The children have enjoyed looking at the illustrations, finding some lovely word types and creating a story map. Watch the link below and decide... would you eat the sandwich?

Linked to our story, we discussed what we would like to see in a park. Children became 'Park Designers' with a pot of change to purchase stationary and craft to recreate their original designs. A great way to check money knowledge. Next week they will complete them before pitching their ideas. We will see if we have a budding Sir Alan Sugar or Karren Brady amongst us.

Our Christmas topic has begun and after introducing a selection of core faiths we are focusing on Christianity. We thought back to our visits from Reverend Irving and our visit to St Leonards church. We discussed the importance of the Bible and key features of and church to Christians. 

Our theme flowing through our topic is 'Journeys'. We watched 'It's a boy' which follows three quails on a journey to protect Mary and Joseph as they head to Bethlehem. The children had to predict what part three quails had in the story before watching it and producing a film review. Some excellent writing and an outstanding 5 stars awarded.

We have been enjoying information about Greek Gods. Excellent peer reading in our opening lesson finding out some of the more popular Gods and the powers and control they had. 

The children enjoyed playing Greek God Top Trumps which linked in well to our number work in comparing numbers.

The children enjoyed this so much we began to create our own Gods and a class Top Trumps set of cards.

As part of our Ancient Greek topic we have been looking at art work in the form of pottery and the print used in design. 

The children have been completing some printing and creating their own clay pots. 

Ancient Greeks

This term our topic focus has been on Ancient Greeks. Our first task was to locate the country using an atlas, globe and using googles maps. We compared the size and position with England and discussed the weather and landscape.

After a discussion on the meaning of ancient we went outside to find information hidden in the school grounds. We found a number of facts and question prompts which provoked some interesting discussion and recall of our Egyptian topic and how we looked for evidence and connections.

An excellent start.

After listening to our music appreciation on Charanga we decided to explore some of our precussion instruments. We listened to Evelyn Glennie an amazing musician who feels the music after losing her hearing at the age of 8. We watched a performance of her playing the glockenspiel which inspired us to have a go. 

We split into small groups and took it in turn to repeat a beat and add our own. 

As part of our Florence Nightingale topic we discussed the hospitals in Scutari and the changes made by Florence and her team. We thought about how the soldiers would feel in the hospital conditions before Florence arrived and then after. Children put themselves in the shoes of those soldiers as they wrote letters home describing the hospital and how they felt.

we then linked to our history, compared the old hospitals of Victorian times to our new modern super hospitals. The children agreed that most changes have continued, good hygiene, trained staff in uniforms and care. The additional improvements are down to technology and modernisation of equipment. 

Holt class linked our discussion on heroes to our modern day heroes in the NHS and made them some fantastic medals to say thank you.

This week in our science lesson we had to predict how much sugar was in some of our favourite drinks. Mrs Halliwell put 3 teaspoons of sugar into her cup of tea, the children said it was too much. We decided to predict how much sugar was in each type of drink before we found out. Most children predicted Coke to contain the most followed by Frijj. Susie talked about the difference between natural and artificial sugars. 

We were all surprised with the results. Will they stop us having these drinks? Most of us said no as long as we only have them as a treat and don't have them with lots of other sugary or fatty treats.

Last week we were looking at the trees in our grounds and close by. We spent time discussing evergreen and deciduous trees. Using a spotter sheet we set about identifying trees and bushes and discussing seeds, fruit and cycle of them. Can you spot the tall oak tree in the Village Hall car park?

We also spent a very wet Friday afternoon looking for life in our pond. Not much to see at this time of the year but we did find water snails, water boatmen and a small newt.

Today we enjoyed our Beoley Positivity Games. The children and staff enjoyed the physical and  PSHE activities. The day began with some football and hockey dribbling and goal attempts followed by a positive and inspirational video. We discussed our own characters and the strengths we hold. We used these positive words on our own rosettes. 

After lunch we continued with our PSHE and praised our peers in a positive comments activity. After a clam start we were back in the sunshine for our field games which included throwing, running and jumping. 

A fantastic day in the sunshine.

Our new text has been inspired by our Awesome Summer Reading certificates which featured 'There's a Lion in my Cornflakes' by Michelle Robinson. The children loved the story and has got our imagination going. We have already used the book to write sentences and we even created our own cereal packets. We discussed the ingredients in cornflakes and home we wrote these down. 

This week we are thinking about which animal we would like free in our cornflakes. Watch this space for more exciting Holt class news.

Welcome to Holt Class

We have been spending time getting to know our class mates and learning new routines at school. Although some things have changes, the children have returned with lots of enthusiasm and are excited to learn. 

Our first text has been 'The Colour Monster' by Anna LLenas. We found the story helped us to talk about our feelings. We recapped on our talking pegs and other ways we can communicate our feelings at school.

World Book Day 2020 has been full of excitement and fun! We firstly looked at each other's costumes and took pictures. We thought about our favourite character and created bunting to hang.

After we had a book hunt! We found books we had forgotten about which has encouraged us to rotate the books in our class library.

We have listened to stories and watched authors read and answer questions online.

To finish the morning we listened to Michael Rosen's Chocolate Cake.

In the afternoon we chose some of our new books to read, we went to the hall and played lots of fun games.

World Book Day is the best day!

Holt Class Children

A great day talking about our identity, what makes us unique and how important it is to 'Be free to be me!'. Excellent discussion about who we can talk to if something worries us or makes us sad, recapping our rules when online. Holt class also talked about celebrating our individuality. 

"It is important that if you like something you can, you shouldn't not like it because you’re a boy or a girl". 

Safer Internet Week.

We start our week with an assembly and in beginning to look at our identity. 

As a class we shall review our rules for when we access the internet. Children use a number of apps and the internet to access many learning resources. It is important that children to know what to do if they are ever upset or confused about anything they see or hear, whether in or out of school. Encouraging children to feel safe and engage in conversation with adults is very important. 

Children's Mental Health Week

This week we will focus on mental health and wellbeing in our Social, Emotoinal and Mental Health (SEMH) lessons this week. We talked about how we keep not just our body healthy and relaxed but also our minds. Many of us relax listening to music, reading, building Lego or colouring. We also like the outdoors where we can walk, play and look at nature. We used the 5-a-day website to chill. A 2 minute exercise which helped us to breathe deeply and switch off our mind. We then spent. A quiet 10 minutes listening to relaxing music and creating our mindfulness colour squiggle.  Each day we will cover a different aspect of mental health. Our main focus is to 'Find your Brave' which we will explore in assembly and class.

More information can be found on www.childrensmentalhealthweek.org.uk 

As part of our computer topic this term we have been using purplemash to improve our tying skills and develop our coding. Children have been using iPads and laptops which has helped to build our confidence across technology hardware. 

You can access Purplemash at home and complete your 2Do's.

Excellent work today looking at maps of the world and the United Kingdom. We have been working hard to remember the continents and oceans of our world but also the four countries of the United Kingdom and capital cities. 

We have looked at foods named after the places they were created just like Hermelin who was named after a local cheese. The children used the iPads and google maps to zoom in on the area the product is from and then locating them on the map of United Kingdom. Great work which encouraged questions and made us feel very hungry. 

Today we have been on our new subscribed websites.

Spelling Shed is linked to our spelling scheme and will consolidate spellings taught in school and offer recap of words sent home. All children will have login details sent home and differentiated tasks to complete.

      https://play.edshed.com

Times Tables Rockstars will also complement the curriculum for maths and also prepare children for the year 4 testing. A parent letter and logins will be sent home over this term.

       https://play.ttrockstars.com

Spring Term

This term our topic is linked to a book. The children were introduced to a variety of items linked to the text and were asked to use the clues to predict a character and possibly theme to the story. The clues included cheese, notebook, pencil, sweet and match. We had some excellent predictions before actually reading the book. The children were excited and the story didn't fail on providing entertainment and discussion. 

We had a very busy end to the Autumn term. We continued our work on Victorians comparing items from the period to today's alternative. This lead us to discuss many great inventions during and after the Victorian era. Our class book 'Oliver Twist' was a real hit and lead to many discussions within our PSHE topic. Children worked very hard to learn songs and put together a shortened version of the story for both the school and parents. A very proud moment for us all as many children spoke out with confidence and took on character roles with great detail.

A huge thanks to PC Sweeney and Sergeant Phillips for joining us on Monday. It was very interesting to hear about their careers and what inspired them to join the service. We spent some time talking about aircraft from the past and present. Sergeant Phillips recommended the Royal Air Force Museum at Cosford. With free admission it is the perfect opportunity to see some of our iconic planes. 

We have started this half term with a 2 week topic linked to Remembrance Day. In Holt class we linked this to Walter Tull, the first black officer in the British Army. The children have thoroughly enjoyed being inquisitive learners asking purposeful questions and wanting to expand their knowledge. This continued to home with children asking questions about relatives that experienced or served in the war. 

Great work writing fact files, discussing feelings, designing medals and stained glass windows. Excellent work. 

Fantastic shape work Holt class.

The dilemma in Holt Class. Should we build a swimming pool?

After spending time discussing our school and village the children decided that it could be improved by adding a restaurant, swimming pool or a zoo. After much consideration the children decided that a swimming pool would be the most suitable. 

The benefits being:

Health- we would all become great swimmers and be very fit after a morning swim.

Safety- we would all be aware of the dangers of water and be able to swim to a good standard.

Environmental- currently we use a coach to get to the swimming pool and with no travel needed we would not be polluting the air around us.

Finance- we could allow members of the community and other schools use of the pool for a small fee therefore raising school funds.

Holt class were very excited and quickly got to work writing persuasive letters to Mr Irving noting all the benefits of having a swimming pool onsite.

It was not until we looked at the grounds that the children realised the consequences of building a swimming pool.

Our green space would have to go, with that the chickens and the pond as well as our garden.

The roads around school could get busy with traffic and may have to be altered to accommodate the traffic. 

With more traffic and heating in the pool pollution would most certainly increase and the cows would not be able to feed in the field.

But most worrying, our little friendly, caring school would change.

After all we said describing our school and village would we want it to change?

It did not take long to realise this was not what we wanted and quickly stopped our letters getting to Mr Irving.

What a dilemma! 

A great couple of days work with some lovely discussions, Swimming pool designs and letters.

The BFG by Roald Dahl

This week we watched extracts from the film The BFG. We used these to help us generate words to describe characters and setting. The children though of their own dreams and what they would be. We listed ingredients before creating our own dream jar.

What makes our school special?

We have been spending some time thinking about what makes our school so special. We looked around our school and thought of different words to describe it. This is what the children had to say.

'It is the best school in the world because we have chickens. We are eco too because we don't like plastic in the ocean'. Willow.

'Beoley First School is an amazing place because we have a great garden and a weather station'. Tillie-Mae.

'I like to play on the slide, we have lots of fun playing'. Dylan.

'Our school is amazing because we have a pond with newts, dragonflies, tadpoles and pond snails'. Billy.

'The stage is so big we have a climbing frame on it'. Coral.

'You will get to make lots of friends and be put in classes'. Oliver H.

'People are kind and creative, helpful and happy'. James.

'We have chickens and they have yummy eggs. The children look after the chickens'. Scott.

'We have a garden with flowers and plants in the flower beds'. Jonathon.

'We like Beoley First School because we have kind teachers'. Wesley.

'I love my friends, we play in the playground'. Ayla.

'I love the playground, it is big'. Brooke.

'We have lots of teachers, they make us do lots of hard work but we have lots of fun'. Kaitlyn.

'Beoley First School is amazing, we have fun and games and have lots to do'. Susie.

'We do lots of PE, we have a shed with lots of footballs inside'. Sonney- Jae

'We have a cool classroom but we play and learn lots'. Harrison.

'Our school is so special because we have a lovely garden that has vegetables and bees' Florence.

'Beoley First School is fun because the teachers are funny'. Amelia.

'There are lots of flowers and lots of trees at our school'. Oliver P.

'In the winter we drink hot chocolate and soup at the fire pit'. Evie D.

' We have lots of lovely flowers and trees'. Delilah.

'Beoley First School is fabulous!'. Mason.

'Our classroom is a happy place'. Lucie.

'We have a garden where we grow vegetables to make us big and strong' Alex.

Mrs Taylor has begun our topic on 'Bodies'. We have discussed the different body parts before we focus on the skeleton and muscles.

The children had great fun finding out about our heart beat and breathing before, during and after activities. Children designed and recorded response which we will analyse in maths.

The Twits by Roald Dahl

Mrs Halliwell shared her favourite book, The Twits by Roald Dahl. The story is very entertaining and has encouraged us to develop our vocabulary and create some fantastic character descriptions. We enjoyed watching a clip of the story online.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eWvyB-QvbVA

We have had a great start to the new academic year, talking to old friends and making new ones. Our class environment had changed and we will continue to make it ours over the next few weeks.