What a busy 'it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas' kind of week!
There are only ten days left to the term and we're packing in a lot of topic work and Christmas activities. One of the things we are most looking forward to is our whole school nativity - watch out for the video being posted on Facebook later in the term.
There's a lot to be said for fellowship at this time of year. Our Christmas Service will be an internal Googlemeet one. Maybe we can't all get together to worship at St Wilf's just yet but at least the children are having fun in their classes, enjoying the run up to the big day nearly as much as the actual holidays themselves. Christmas is one of the best times to be in a Primary School and it's great to know that the world and its troubles don't seem to affect the fun for the children - Christmas is still just as magical for them. But one day Brayton will be able to celebrate Christmas all under one roof again and that will be great too.
Whether we are in our classrooms or in our living rooms, together we celebrate as one.
Whole School Attendance
That's below target attendance but it is an improvement on last week - and there's no wonder it isn't quite where it should be at the moment!
However - an amazing 322 children had 100% attendance this week - that's also an improvement.
An amazing 66 children have had 100% attendance this year so far.
Nursery - Stars
What a festive start to December and the beginning of Advent! We have started our own Advent calendar and begun our countdown to Christmas, exploring the theme of stars through the stories of How to Draw a Star, and How to Catch a Star. We have fished for stars in the water, played with starry playdough and made starry calendars. We have enjoyed making nursery all Christmassy and we even have a Christmas tree in our home corner to decorate! On Thursday we joined in with the whole school art afternoon, looking at the artist Kandinsky.
In maths we have explored 2D shape, and making arrangements with shapes. In phonics we have enjoyed using the music instruments to add sounds to stories.
Superstar - Reggie Russell
FS - Moon and Mercury
Run, run as fast as you can, you can't catch me, I'm the Gingerbread Man!! Is a rhyme I'm sure we have all heard more than once this week. Yes, this week we have been looking at the story of ‘The Gingerbread Man’, thinking about the main events in the story and, in particular, what the characters are thinking. We have used large speech bubbles to help us write what the characters say during the story. Also, we have read an old version and new version of the story and have been comparing the two trying to work out how we can tell that one is older than the other.
Obviously, we couldn’t look at the story of ‘The Gingerbread Man’ without making some delicious gingerbread biscuits which the children took great pride in making and decorating.
In mathematics We have been learning about shapes and understanding that shapes come in different sizes and have sides and corners.
On Thursday we took part in our whole school Art afternoon and really enjoyed listening to some music whilst creating our own pieces of abstract Art in the style of Wassily Kandinsky.
Finally, as we have now entered into December we have discussed what advent is and what Christians do to celebrate this.
Superstars - Isla-Mae Roberts, Tom Loose
Y1 - Galaxy and Venus
After travelling to infinity and beyond with our present topic, we have enjoyed sharing our final space related story of Beegu (a friendly alien who gets lost on Earth). This led to using lots of descriptive language to create our own 'wanted' posters and writing a letter to Beegu. In maths we have recapped place value as well as comparing and ordering numbers. We have completed our historical timeline by finding out about Tim Peake and his contribution to space travel. We participated in a whole school art afternoon on Thursday, creating Kandinsky style artwork. We have been very busy getting the classrooms Christmas ready - creating a class advent calendar and decorating the tree as well as learning Christmas songs to sing for our whole school virtual Nativity.
Superstars - Arabella Hazell, Penelope Wood
Year 2 / 3 Jupiter, Saturn and Neptune
Another busy week for us as we start to get festive! In maths, we have been working on column addition across tens and hundreds. We used this knowledge to solve word problems with different parts.
In English we have read ‘A Pebble in my Pocket’ and have planned a recount detailing the journey of a pebble’s life from its beginnings 480 million years ago!
We have enjoyed a whole school Kandinsky afternoon and made a start on our calendars. All in all, a busy but productive week!
Superstars - Rocco Lea, Demi Wyrill
Year 4 Mars and Earth
It’s been an action packed, busy week in Year 4 with us wrapping up plenty of our Year 4 work. In Art this week we have been exploring Kandinsky and using wax crayons to recreate some of his most famous artwork, colour study using squares and concentric circles. The children produced some lovely pieces and really enjoyed this work. In topic, the children watched some documentary clips about krill and took notes about what they learned. Using their new found facts the children then made an A3 poster containing plenty of information and diagrams. Once completed they then drew detailed diagrams of the krill and some of their predators to bring their work together. Of course we have to mention our preparation for advent, the children have been very excited preparing for our part in the whole school nativity and making other Christmas preparations.
Superstars - Oliver Manning, Sebastian Draper
Year 5 Asteroid and Pluto
This week, we have been planning and drafting a Tudor crime story, which sees our main character accused of treason. We are trying to show off our Year 5 grammar skills as we develop our plots, some of which engage the reader with interesting and unexpected twists, describing our character's journey to the Tudor criminal court. Many of us are linking our plot with what we have learned about the Tudor period from our guided reading novel. Currently, tension is running in our novel as William tries to find and save his father from his fate in Newgate Prison, as he, himself, is accused of treason.
Less dramatically, we are investigating the area and perimeter of shapes in maths, while in PSHCE, we have enjoyed learning about value for money through trading. We learned how one Canadian man made a series of successful swaps, trading a paperclip for a house! This led to us creating our own imaginative trading trails. We certainly have put our imaginations to work this week in Year 5!
Superstars - Chloey Hodgson, Alfie Jessop
Year 6 Nebular and Constellation
This week in year 6, we have continued to work incredibly hard to build our understanding of different grammar conventions, with an aim to include them within our writing. From determiners, semi-colons, colons and causal conjunctions, the content of our explanation texts will be out of this world. Many members of year 6 would like to have a mini-break on the new Moon base that has been constructed, or endlessly peer into the galaxy, with the new top of the range and highly sophisticated Armstrong Telescope. In maths, we have worked on coordinates in all 4 quadrants, and the translation and reflection of shapes. The accuracy of the diagrams has been a sight to behold! In topic, we have begun our design and technology project. Researching, analysing and generating ideas, for our very own sundials. Just another feather in the cap for our Sun - helping us tell the time! The week was capped off with our Art sessions in which we recreated the work of Wassily Kandinsky. With its dark background, bold circles and nebulaic clouds, it had to be his work - Several Circles. Have a great weekend everyone!
Superstars - Arthur Richardson, Imogen Chalkley
