Little sparks have magic moments

Our topic for the second half of the Spring term is 'Food, Glorious Food'. In class we will be concentrating on foods from around the world. Hopefully the half term research has stimulated some family chats about typical foods from different countries.

Below is a copy of the letter for permission for this activity

Steve Manning came into school to tell the children about Tom Farriner's experience of the fire. (Tom was the baker who owned the bakery where the fire started). Later on, our class will visit St Nicholas Priory to take part in a workshop and drama session based on the Great Fire of London. Last week, Mrs Varley came into school to help the children bake bread rolls. We had two one armed girls taking part in this activity as Lily had a broken arm and Lizzie had a sprained arm! The children are writing diary accounts about The Great Fire of London which will be modelled on Samuel Pepys diary of the event.

Book week starts on October 5th and our school theme is books by Roald Dahl.
Class AS have been reading Esio Trot (tortoise spelt backwards).
Jenny Baker kindly came into school and brought a selection of tortoises for the children to look at. The largest (and oldest one) was Mabel who is 15 years old and weighs 17 kgs.
The children have been deciphering codes in 'backwards writing' and are in the process of making papier mache tortoises - lots of popping balloons!

During this topic we studied Hanukkah which is the Jewish Festival of Light. We were fortunate to have a visit from Mrs Robin Kanarek from the hebrew Community in Exeter. Robin also visited Classes HC and CW. She was impressed with all the children's knowledge and their enthusiasm.
The other main focus in this topic was of course our KS2 production - Shake, Rattle and Roll. All the children worked very hard to learn their lines, their cues and their songs.

As the title of the painting is 'Tobias and the Angel', we decided to do a whole school project on angels. Each class has painted or created angels that are now on display in the school hall. Class AS painted angels on silk. Some are in the hall and the rest are in the classroom. We are very grateful to Mrs Skolmli who spent a lot of time framing this beautiful art work.
The River Tigris meanders in the background of the painting and this led us to discuss the features of rivers. The children have produced some lovely collages of the journey of a river.
The children then wrote adventure stories about the journey of a little boat travelling down the river. Pop in and see the display of their stories and their little paper boats.
Also in the painting Raphael, the angel, is holding a special box that contains a remedy to cure Tobias' father's blindness. The children have talked about what special things they might like to put in our special class box.

We raised the magnificent sums of £90 in our class cake sale and £33 for the Haiti Appeal.
Many thanks to all the parents who baked cakes and to those who bought cakes. Thanks also to the parents who helped to run the stalls.

Each Monday Mr Vaughan will do a timed tables test with the Class, if you look in the classroom each child has a frog and they will be on the lilypad showing the table they are on.

Children will have weekly spellings which will be tested on a Monday with Mr Vaughan. Their scores will be in their home school books, along with incorrect words highlighted. Team points are given out for all the right spellings.....so get practising!!

27th January 2010
3rd February 2010
10th February 2010
17th February 2010 - no swimming - half term
24th february 2010
3rd March 2010

Mr Vaughan will teach P.E. on Mondays and Mrs Stephen will teach it on Thursdays. This term we willl be concentrating on swimming and dance. It would be useful if the children could leave their PE kit in school as our sessions may be altered sometimes. Please also send your child with clothing that is suitable for outdoor wear e.g. track suits or jogging bottoms and sweatshirts.

Our forest school session is on Wednesday afternoons. The children will need to come to school in their uniform and they will change into their forest school clothes in the afternoon session. I will tell them in advance, if we will not be going to the forest school on that particular week.

It would be much appreciated if you could send your child to school with a drink bottle for water. The sports lid type of bottle are the most suitable.

Class trip to St Nicholas Priory is on Friday 2nd October

The children will be performing their class assembly to the parents on Friday 13th November.

The children were fortunate to have the opportunity (a treat for a brilliant class assembly) to take part in a dance workshop on Friday afternoon.
The workshop was run by WREN music. Separate flyers (advertising a workshop that they will be running in Sidmouth shortly) will be going home soon.