Remember Remember!

We started the week with some creative writing inspired by the story of the Gunpowder plot – we produced some poems, some short pieces of narrative, some diary entries and play scripts. It was a very interesting and enjoyable lesson. As part of this lesson, we read the traditional bonfire night poem: ‘Remember, Remember the Fifth of November.’ I was very impressed with the children’s intonation and expression – particular Jace’s. Jace impressed me again, later in the week, reading our ‘Tiger in a zoo’ poem. Jace has, unsurprisingly and very deservedly, been awarded the reading certificate this week.

This week, we have also attended a live musical performance, which was VERY enjoyable and, today, we had an assembly led by a representative from Shropshire Air Ambulance.

In Science, with Dr. Roberts, the children recreated a scale model of our solar system in the school grounds. They used an array of different sized fruits to represent relative sizes of the planets. Is that a grape or is it Venus?

Code Club met on Monday to organise their lunch time club, which will start next week. They delivered a short presentation in assembly on Wednesday and, by lunchtime, all the places were booked! Textile club started thinking about their Christmas project and made some initial designs and listed the resources they would need. They are keen to begin applying their textile skills to this project next week.

Our red certificate this week was awarded to Frankie for his enthusiastic approach to all of his work. Frankie has consistently approached his work with a really positive attitude. He shows great resilience and the ability to review his work critically and learn from his mistakes. Keep it up, Frankie!

Our homework this week is to develop our understanding of time zones (which we started looking at in geography this week) and to consolidate our ability to recognise equivalent fractions. More about this can be found in the homework section on Darwin’s class page.

Have a great weekend!

Mrs. E.

 

 

Autumn – second half.

And…that was the half-term break! Full steam ahead now until Christmas!

We’ve got a busy seven weeks ahead: we have some exciting new books for our reading and writing sessions and we will be mastering fractions in maths. Our PE days will remain the same – Wednesday and Friday. I will also be in touch in the next few weeks to offer parents’ meeting slots. Then, of course, there is the upcoming pantomime trip! #exciting

Code Club will continue on Monday after school – currently, there are no additional spaces in this club but my experienced code clubbers will be offering a lunchtime code club for those who are unable to attend the after school club. Lunchtime textiles club will also continue until Christmas.

Homework is set on Fridays and, usually, handed in on Monday, although this can be subject to change. Information about the weekly homework is posted on this page (see below). This half-term’s homework was two short reading tasks, which are both to be handed in tomorrow.

I am looking forward to seeing everyone tomorrow – don’t forget the adjusted school day begins from tomorrow onwards! (Check the school news page for further information.)

All the best, Mrs. E.

 

 

Happy Hallowe’en

We have been counting down to the Hallowe’en disco in Darwin class for a LONG time. There has been a lot of hushed talk about costumes and hair styles (I don’t think they were talking about mine- but who knows?!). In less than an hour, I will finally get to see what all the buzz has been about! It’s a great way to end our first half-term.

As it is the end of the half term, we have awarded the ‘Star Pupil’ certificates. This is always a difficult choice and it has been particularly tricky this half-term. Each and every member of the Darwin class has ‘snailed it’ in lots of ways. I have seen some amazing writing and some real effort put into tackling maths this half-term. We’ve also had some outstanding examples of kindness and thoughtfulness. It has been a really productive half-term.

After a lot of thought, looking at books and homework records, we selected Rebecca for the Star Pupil certificate in Darwin class. It is very well-deserved: she has been an exemplary pupil and has put 100% effort in to all that she has done. Rebecca always works hard and approaches even the most difficult of challenges with enthusiasm and resilience. She is a STAR pupil indeed!

I have set a small amount of reading homework for half-term. More information can be found in the section below.

Friday 18th October

We have reached the end of the penultimate week of the first half term of autumn. Paradoxically, it feels like both a blink of an eye and an age since we came back after the summer break! I can’t believe there’s only four more teaching days until half-term. We still have a lot to fit into our timetable!

This week has been as busy as ever in Darwin class. We have enjoyed reading more of Anthony Brown’s King Kong and using it as a springboard to inspire drafting our own action-filled texts. In maths, we have thought about different ways to conceptualise division – the children are getting used to my “but what does it mean – what does it MEAN?” mantra! In history, we have continued to learn about the life and beliefs of the citizens of the Shang dynasty – there is a Darwin podcast about this currently in production, which should be ready to publish next week- (thanks to Ava and Jason for their hard work on this!).

The red certificate this week was awarded to Kacey, who is a total star. She is very thoughtful and is always ready to help others – she certainly keeps me organised! Our maths certificate was awarded to Kayden for his extremely positive attitude towards maths and for his excellent concentration and rapid grasp of ‘chunking’ to divide.

This week’s homework tasks can be found in the section below.

Have a great weekend – let’s hope it’s less soggy than this week has been!

Mrs. E.

 

Friday 11th October

I can’t believe that we’ve reached the end of another school week. They seem to be rushing by at a rate of knots! As ever, it has been a busy week in Darwin class. We have been enjoying reading King Kong and rewriting sections to further develop the setting, character and action. There have been some excellent pieces of writing produced. I was particularly impressed with James’ work, which I have included below. I think you will agree that his vocabulary choices are excellent!

I have awarded the red certificate to Jay, who has also produced a fantastic piece of work in English (see below). Look at the handwriting, the punctuation and spelling! Jay has been a joy to teach all week – he has a positive attitude and has become a very resilient learner! He has also been running a lunch time basket ball club, which is going well!

 

Details about this week’s homework can be found in the section below. Have a great weekend!

Mrs. E.

Friday 4th October

In Darwin’s English lessons this week, we have focused on punctuating direct speech and integrating it into the ‘action’ of stories. It’s a lot to think about and the children have shared some amazing draft work.

In maths, we have explored multiplication a little further. We have refined our ability to use column multiplication and we have looked at other ways of multiplying, which may be more efficient – depending on the numbers involved. We have reminded ourselves about multiples and factors. This week’s homework is a chance to consolidate this learning. (See the homework section below.)

In history, we have learned about ancient oracle bones – artefacts from the ancient Shang Dynasty. We have started to gather information to enable us to write a short historical report. Some of the children asked if I could put the questions on this page so they could continue gathering information. I have included them below.

Finally, our certificate winners this week are Jason and Cat. Cat was awarded the red certificate because she impressed me with her resilience this week, particularly when it came to her reading homework. Jason has been awarded the writing certificate because he impressed me with his evaluation of his own written work. As he cast a critical eye over his draft, he told me that he wanted to develop the cohesion in the final paragraph. I agreed that he had a good point. I am looking forward to reading his final version!

That’s it from Darwin this week. Have a great weekend!

Mrs. E.

 

School Councillors

We have had a busy week, as usual, with some added extras!

Today, our Year 6 pupils undertook ‘Playleader Training’ so they will be able to run lunchtime activities and, this afternoon, we held our elections to appoint school councillors to represent our class. All of the candidates’ speeches were outstanding and the votes were very close.

Here they are, our Darwin School Councillors for this academic year. Next week, they will visit the other classes and help them to run their democratic voting process. By the end of next week, our full school council should be up and running!

Congratulations to these excellent people:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For this week’s homework, please see the section below.

 

Have a fabulous weekend.

Mrs. E.

Place Value, Poems & Printers.

This week, we have perfected reading (and in some cases reciting) our extract from Hiawatha. In our next lesson, we are going to use this poem to inspire our own poem about the Big-Sea-Water aka Gitche Gumee aka Lake Superior. I am looking forward to seeing which one wins its author the writing certificate next week. (This week’s certificates will be awarded on Monday morning).

In maths, we have really mastered place value now and have given some serious consideration as to how important it is when we are calculating. Next week, we are going to look at rounding and negative numbers.

My remaining Code-Clubbers from last year had an exciting delivery today. We have purchased a 3D printer to enable us to make some of our Tinkercad creations come to life! Code Club will run for five weeks this half-term, beginning on Monday 23rd (3:15 until 4:15).

If your child would like to attend Code Club, please let the office know via text or complete the form below. Places are limited and are allocated on a first-come, first-served basis:  Code Club Form

Information about this week’s homework can be found in the section below.

All the best, Mrs. E.

 

What a fabulous start to the school year!

Here they are, the new Darwinians and what a wonderful bunch they are; I am really looking forward to working with them all. We have had an excellent first few days of term, playing dice games to explore place value and looking at what constitutes a ‘simple sentence’ (which is more complicated than it sounds!).

I am looking forward to really getting stuck-in to our curriculum next week. We will be looking at the poem ‘Hiawatha’; digging deeper into place value and finding out about ancient China – among many other things. PE will take place on Wednesday and Friday afternoons. Children are welcome to attend school in their PE kits on those days, but can bring it in to change into if they’d rather.

Homework is set on Friday to be handed in on Monday. Details about this week’s homework can be found at the bottom of our class page in the ‘homework’ section.

Good Luck Year 6!

As promised, below is the link to the leavers’ presentation from our exhibition on Thursday. It was lovely to see you all; the children really enjoyed sharing their many and varied interests with you. I read the comments you wrote on the exit tickets out to them – they were very chuffed!

I have very much enjoyed teaching this year’s Year 6 pupils. They have worked extremely hard and have achieved great success. They are all more than ready for the next step in their education and I wish them all the very best.

We always say that, once you have been a pupil at Stoke-on-Tern, you are always a ‘Stoke-on-Ternian’! We are always happy to see our ex-pupils and we fully welcome return visits from them. If there is any way in which we can be of help or support in the future, please do not hesitate to ask!

It just remains for me to say thank-you for your support over the years. It has been a privilege to be a part of your children’s lives.

Mrs. E.

 

A few pictures snapped after break when the pupils shared their projects with the rest of the school: