Team R:
After the Easter break, the children have settled back into school wonderfully and have enjoyed spending lots of time learning outdoors in the sunshine. They had great fun playing in the sand, building, digging and exploring together. The children were excited to investigate orange water, mixing, pouring and splashing as they discovered new textures and colours. Ice creams were a big favourite too, with lots of imaginative role play in our outdoor shop. We have also enjoyed running, laughing and sharing games with friends. It has been lovely to see everyone happy, confident and ready for a fantastic new term ahead together.
Team 1 / 2:
Phonics and Reading in Team 1/2
The children in Team 1/2 have been working incredibly hard in their phonics and reading sessions, and it has been wonderful to see their confidence and enjoyment growing each week.
A key focus for the children has been developing their fluency and speeding up their reading. Through regular phonics practice, the children have been strengthening their ability to recognise sounds quickly and blend them smoothly when reading words. As their confidence grows, we are seeing them read with greater pace, accuracy, and expression, which is fantastic progress.
The children have also been practising re-reading sentences and short texts to help them become more fluent readers. This helps them recognise familiar words more quickly and allows them to focus more on understanding what they are reading, rather than just sounding out each word.
Some of our Year 2 children have been particularly enjoying reading Diary of a Killer Cat by Anne Fine. The story has been a big hit in class, with many children finding the main character, Tuffy the cat, very funny and entertaining.
The Diary of a Killer Cat has given the children a great opportunity to explore new vocabulary and talk about the meaning of unfamiliar words. They have also been diving deeply into the text, discussing characters, predicting what might happen next, and explaining their ideas using evidence from the story.
These discussions are helping the children to develop their comprehension skills, encouraging them to think carefully about what they read and to share their thoughts with confidence.
It has been wonderful to see the children so engaged, enthusiastic, and proud of their reading achievements. We look forward to continuing to support their progress as they become increasingly fluent and thoughtful readers.
Team 3 / 4:
Building Brilliant Volcanoes with LEGO! 🌋
This week, our Year 3/4 children had an exciting hands-on experience during a fantastic LEGO workshop all about volcanoes!
To begin, the children were given a few helpful tips on how to get started. They learned that a strong volcano needs a solid base and were shown how to build the main pyramid shape that forms the centre of a volcano. This structure helped them think carefully about balance and design—just like real engineers!
Once they had created their central shape, it was time to let their creativity run wild. And wow—did they impress us! The children used their imaginations to build the natural landscape around their volcanoes. Some added rocky cliffs, others created flowing lava using bright colours, and a few even designed trees, rivers, and mini scenes around their models.
It was wonderful to see how each volcano turned out completely unique. The classroom was filled with creativity, teamwork, and problem-solving as the children experimented with different designs and ideas.
Not only did the workshop help develop their building skills, but it also encouraged them to think like designers and explore how natural structures are formed.
Well done to everyone who took part—you should be very proud of your incredible volcanic creations! 🌋✨
Team 5 / 6:
Year 5/6 are starting a new DT project called ‘Bridge the Gap’, where we will be investigating strong shapes and structures with minimal equipment to create a sturdy bridge that can hold a small amount of weight over a small gap. We have started with investigating the Da Vinci bridge – a construction that does not use any joining techniques other than balance and friction to stay together… if you are extremely careful when building it!
Lunchtime Choir
Before the Easter Holidays, the school choir were thrilled to be able to sing for the residents of Rownhams Manor Care Home. Our visit coincided with Edna’s upcoming 100th birthday and the children were delighted to present her with some cards which they had made. We were pleased to share our love and joy of singing with them all and to be so warmly received!
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