On Monday afternoon, eleven white eggs arrived at The Shire. We were very happy and excited to see them hatch in their incubator. Nothing happened on Tuesday during the day, but when we arrived at school on Wednesday morning, two chicks had hatched!

They were big (compared to the shells), fluffy, yellow and they were cheeping very loudly. Some eggs started to wobble and the chicks inside started to tap the shell. Then cracks appeared and finally a chick’s head and a foot popped out. After a few minutes the chick was fully hatched! 

It was wet and very tired, and it needed to rest. We have eleven chicks now and they will move to the Brooder Box. We are looking forward to watching them eat and drink, play together, and most of all, to hold them. All our chicks are just so curious (about us), cute, adorable and funny.

Our chicks are named after Fairy Tales and we have, Jack, Red, Aurora, Pinocchio, Tom Thumb, Rapunzel, Gretel, Snow, Goldilocks, Hansel and Cinderella. Do you know which Fairy Tales our chicks represent?
 

Shared writing – Pixies, Elves and Griffins.

The Pixies this week have been exploring how flowers grow, what they need to grow and the different parts of a flower. When out and about, they have been looking out for flowers that bloom in spring. 

3D shapes have been a focus for the Pixies as they talked about how to identify them. They have been making great progress and enjoying lessons on the balance bikes and have been enjoying the sunnier and warmer weather outside.

In the Shire this week, pupils baked chocolate cookies with marshmallows inside.

Elves and Griffins

The Elves and Griffins have made a model set based on the 'Journey' story that they have written with their own ideas.

The children scouted the last outside location and have been storyboarding characters for their film, (about which all we can tell you is - Toby is a spider!)

The Shire enjoyed making Mother's Day cards and learning about the Easter Story.

Wizards

This week in Wizards, as part of our work on the Windrush Generation, the children have been comparing the weather in St. Lucia with the weather in the UK: they have drawn a line graph to represent the data as well as writing questions for their friends to answer.

In Art, the children have drawn some lovely pictures ready for their Easter cards. They have also been drawing images to represent the days from Palm Sunday to Easter Sunday as part of our work on the Easter story.

In the kitchen on Monday afternoon, a group of Year 5s made flat breads with garlic butter – they smelt and tasted delicious! Next week, the remaining Year 5s will be making hot cross buns. We are delighted that some of the Wizards have been cooking at home using the recipes we have used in previous weeks at school.

Dragons

The Dragons have been documentary film-makers this week, exploring the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Bath. They have studied exploration and empire, looking at primary sources and using clues to identify how Romans lived.

For the Dragons geography field study, pupils interviewed people on why they come to Bath and what it is that makes the city special.

The Dragons have been using their knowledge of story arcs to write their own exposition with introduction of the setting and characters.

We were delighted by the number of people who said how well-behaved the children from our school were during our trip.

The School Parliament

The school parliament has been looking at the issue of food waste in school and pupils have been researching and surveying solutions to the problem.

The Pixies this week had fun reading the book 'Pete the cat and the missing cupcakes' as part of their learning about numbers to 10. Pete the cat had cupcakes for a party, but grumpy toad kept eating them. They used the story to bake their own cupcakes and looked at the two numbers of cakes that would total 10. 

They then got to eat the cupcakes, of course! 

The shire baked focaccia bread this week and enjoyed foraging for Rosemary in the garden to use. 

The Elves and Griffins have been looking at the Easter Story this week with the entry of Jesus into Jerusalem on a donkey. The year twos have been learning their two times table. They enjoyed painting watercolour pictures of daffodils. 

Whilst out and about this week, the Shire discovered and had great fun with the new equipment at the playground. 

The Dragons

This week in the Dragons, the children learnt about the warrior queen, Boudicca, and her resistance against the Roman invaders. They found out about the food introduced to Britain by the Romans, including surprising items on the menu, like fish gut oil, dormice and flamingo tongues!

The Dragons made their own stop frame animated short films, using everyday objects as characters in their short films. The children worked in small groups, working collaboratively to produce the finished films.

The Wizards

On Tuesday, a group of children from the Wizards Class represented the school at the 113th Chipping Norton Music Festival at Chipping Norton Town Hall. They took part in a singing workshop with three other schools, performing songs about dreamcatchers. The children sang brilliantly at the rehearsal as well as in the concert, which families were able to attend. They were a real credit to the school!

This week, the Wizards have continued to find out about the Windrush Generation including the Bristol Bus Boycott: they have begun to create powerpoints to record all aspects of both the journey and what life was like for the people when they arrived in the UK.

In the kitchen this week, the children made plaited bread rolls – a new skill for some of them. Each child was able to take one home, and they were enjoyed by everyone!

We'd like to thank Father Mark for coming in and taking a lovely assembly about Shrove Tuesday, Ash Wednesday and Lent.

In Wizards this week, the children began to create some potential characters for our animation in July. In art, they drew these characters and either painted them or used colouring pens or pencils to help bring them to life. They have also begun storyboarding ideas for different adventures that the characters might go through during the film.

The children who completed Bikeability last Monday and Tuesday received their badges and certificates this week; we would like to say congratulations to them for their hard work in achieving levels 1 and 2.

The whole school celebrated World Book Day on Thursday, and we had some amazing books in a jar which the children created at home. We all thoroughly enjoyed looking at these and all the fantastic costumes too!

Cooking continued this week with groups of children from the Wizards class making cookies to be sold at the school disco. Every child also cooked a pancake – thank you to Mrs. Blackwell and Ms. Hornibrook for organising this! 

The Dragons class

On Monday, the Year 4s went to Chipping Norton School to take part in a pottery workshop. They made coil pots and pinch pots and created a piece of pottery to exhibit at the Kingham Lodge Exhibition in the Spring.

The Dragons have enjoyed making tiffin in our new kitchen - making enough to share with the rest of the school on World Book Day. The children are excited to be starting work on our filming project. They are thinking of ideas for our stop-frame animation.

Our history topic this term is the Romans in Britain. They have been finding out about the Roman Empire and asking the question: 'why did the Romans invade Britain?'

The Shire

In the shire this week the Pixies have been busy learning about Shrove Tuesday. In maths they numbered the toppings they put on play pancakes, and they have made faces with toppings on pancakes.

They had a go using phonics to write shopping lists for pancakes. 

For World Book Day they had great fun designing book covers, dressing up as book characters and reading books with children from the dragons class.

The year 2's have been investigating whether materials are waterproof or not. They had fun guessing which ones would be waterproof and surprising themselves with the results. 

The children have been enjoying springtime activities. When out and about this week, the children went to say hello to Mrs Blackwell's spring lambs, who were very friendly and allowed the children to pet them. They have also been watching their flowers grow, ready to be planted out in their outside classroom and garden.

The Pixies started their topic by looking at travel and transport. They have been very excited about booking cruises and flights to Spain in the role-playing travel agents area. 

The children have been categorising different means of transport into three groups: land, air and sea, making comparisons between the groups. In Maths, they have started measuring length and measuring themselves on the height chart. It was challenging building tall towers to see who could build the tallest without it toppling over!

Pupils in the Shire have made traditional tray-bake vanilla cakes with sprinkles. 

Drum roll please...

A huge “Thank You” goes out to the Friends of Chadlington School for our brand new KS2 kitchen, which has only been made possible through their amazing fundraising work and your generous contributions. Cooking commenced this week with children from both the Dragons and Wizards putting the kitchen through its paces making tiffin and baking cheese straws. The children are looking forward to utilising the produce grown in the greenhouse and garden in future weeks in the kitchen. This will allow us to complete our spade to spoon project. Thank you FOCS - we are thrilled with our fantastic kitchen!

Dragons have been especially keen to cook with food grown in our own 'tiddly squat' garden. This week they baked Tiffin (the tray-bake not the dog!). They observed how chocolate changes state when heated.

The Tiffin is to share with others for World Book Day next week. 

In geography, Dragons have researched places identified as UNESCO world heritage sites and found out what this means. They have also found out about the 7 ancient wonders of the world and the modern ones. For example, the Taj Mahal, which was built by a Sultan for his wife.

In RE, the dragons are learning about the five pillars of wisdom in Islam. 

The Wizards are really excited about making their film to be shown at the end of the year. Ms. Hornibrook shared the outline of the film yesterday (Thursday) with the children, and they have been tasked with coming up with ideas for the plot - watch this space! 

As part of our geography work, the Wizards are going to be finding out about how people have migrated to the UK. This week we have started to find out about the people of the Windrush Generation, who came to the UK to help us rebuild and fill job shortages after WW2. The children researched the countries the people came from and also the cities in which they settled in the UK. They used both atlases and Google Earth to locate the places and then chose one place to look at in more detail, including finding out about the physical and human geography. 

Our value this term is 'WISDOM' and the Wizards have thought about what it is to have wisdom, sharing the Bible story about Solomon. The children used water colours to paint pictures from the story. A busy start to term 4! 

In the Shire this week, pupils have been working on their topic 'we are thinkers', and continuing to explore the theme of communication since Victorian times. Children in Year 2 have been creating an interesting museum, programming the sphero indis to navigate a timeline of items of written communication such as emails, letters, text, etc. 

Year 1 pupils have been creating a museum of speaking and listening communication, using rotatory phones, phones, car phones and mobile phones. They programmed the bee-bot to navigate around communication items.

The Pixies

As part of our materials topic, the Pixies looked at how paper is made. They enjoyed discovering the process of how paper starts out as a tree. The main topic this week was making papier mache penguins, which sparked a mini-learning journey about Penguins. They learnt what penguins eat, what they look like and that they come from eggs. They were amazed to learn that penguins don't only live in snowy cold climates and that you can find penguins on the beach in Cape Town, South Africa.

The pixies baked Valentines heart shaped cookies this week.

The Dragons

In the Dragons this week, pupils have been finishing their 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory' work. They have loved their writing linked to the book. The dragons have been designing rooms for a chocolate making factory and making models of machines for DT. The machines they made in DT have working levers and linkages.

The Dragons have been finishing up the IT challenge with Mr Speller with the Sphero Bolts.

A group have made fruity frozen yogurt lollies linked to the 'changing shapes of matter' topic. They studied freezing, melting and changing shapes of liquids when making the lollies and carefully observed what happened at different temperatures. They look forward to using the new kitchen next term for regular cooking sessions. 

Dragons have had their last swimming session, they have loved the lessons and have made good progress.

The Wizards

In D&T, the Wizards have continued building their musicians with cam mechanisms. They followed the instructions carefully and worked well in their groups. This led to the children designing and creating their own model (using a cam mechanism) with a range of different materials.

Thomas was the class expert and completed his own whale model as well as helping other children in the class fix any problems they had. 

This week in Science, the children have been using our inflatable models of the sun and Earth to explain how we get day and night and the seasons. They have also talked about how our solar system works, using a model to explain how the sun is at the centre of the solar system and how its gravitational pull keeps planets orbiting it. 

In the Dragons class this week, they have been drawing Mayan timelines and comparing them with timelines of things that were happening in Britain at the same time. 

In science they looked at chemical reactions. They saw how when they mixed vinegar and baking soda in a bottle, it created carbon dioxide to inflate a balloon.

They have been busy with the Sphero bolts for a competition entry. Programming them to travel a course navigating a range of obstacles.  

In Maths, they have been thinking about division and remainders. 

Wizards class

In D&T this week, the Wizards have been finding out about CAMs and how they are used to make rotating motion into linear motion. They have begun working co-operatively in groups to construct 4 timber kits for different musicians, which use CAMs to create the moving parts. 

In English, the children have started to write a balanced argument using their research about the advantages and disadvantages of tourism. 

The Wizards will be taking part in the Chipping Norton Music Festival in March (more details to follow) and on Wednesday they were visited by a singer and keyboard player who taught them the songs they will be singing (together with other schools) at the event. 

Finally, the children had lots of fun with the RVRs (all-terrain robots) during a recent IT session. They made them talk to each other and created different courses for them to follow by programming them on iPads. 

Pixies

The Pixies this week have been looking at odd and even numbers. They have been doing some topic work and sorting materials into human-made and natural.

In the Shire this week, they baked pin-wheel biscuits. 

Year 1 and 2 have been working with the beebots and sphero indis to operate a tour around a 'museum' of communication made of pictures or models of items of communication.

They are looking at items that we use to communicate with, including letters, telegrams, morse code, email, phones, facetime and even smoke signals!

The little explorers were out and about in the playground this week. They did a great job sweeping the leaves and tidying the beds ready for planting outside the classroom. 

In the Shire this week we have looked at celebrating the Chinese New Year. They dressed in party clothes with a red and yellow theme. In Pixies, they had red and yellow rice to play with on the sensory play table. The role-play area was turned into a Chinese restaurant with menus, decorations and Chinese lanterns. 

The Shire made paper snake chains, lanterns, snakes and fans. They made four snakes and measured which team's was the longest. Then they made one long snake from the four chains and measured it. They practised tai chi and sang Chinese songs. Then they had Chinese food to eat with chopsticks and tried on Chinese clothes.

The Dragons

The Dragons visited Cadbury's world, where they learnt how chocolate was made.

They went on rides, and had a go at tempering chocolate. 

The Wizards 

In English this week, the children have finished their Scottish Island fact files: adding photographs and editing their work before printing. They have started to research and make notes about Galileo from an information book in preparation for writing their own biographies. 

Linking IT and Greek Myths, the Wizards have created their own animations or games linked to The 12 Labours of Heracles. They enjoyed listening to the story and drawing images of each task to help them remember what happened. 

In Maths, the children have been calculating angles of both straight lines and triangles; the children in year 6 have also been measuring different types of angles using a protractor.  

We have also found out about the Chinese new year with the children retelling the story of the Chinese Zodiac race organised by the Jade Emperor. They have also used their origami skills to create their own paper fortune cookies!

The Pixies have baked banana cakes and flapjacks.

Pixies and Elves enjoyed a visit from Tree Tech who kindly gave a tree to be planted in the playground, and they were willing helpers when planting the Mountain Ash. The men from Tree Tech told them about trees and how to look after them.

In DT, the Elves and Griffins have been looking at slides and levers and have been using them to make moving images inspired by The Lighthouse Keeper's Lunch story.

The Dragons

In the Dragons Class we have been designing sweet machines in the style of Quentin Blake. Charlie and the chocolate factory has been inspiring our writing in English.

In Maths, we have been looking at factor pairs and multiplication. 

We continue to look at the ancient civilisation of the Mayans and also Isaac Newton's particular interest in alchemy.

As we are studying the changing states of matter, we have explored the water cycle.

We continue to make good progress in our swimming lessons.

The Wizards

Last week, the Wizards thoroughly enjoyed the Pop-Art Workshop on Monday and produced some amazing pictures!

In Geography, they have been revising the order of the planets using a rhyme to help them. They have also been using Google Earth and an atlas to locate a range of tourist destinations worldwide, including the Victoria Falls and the Eiffel Tower. 

As part of our History topic this term, the Wizards have been looking at various Greek Myths, including Pandora's Box: they used cartoons they have drawn to retell the story orally. 

The children have been writing about the islands around Scotland using research they've found, including examples of both physical and human geography. They've also found out how to travel to the different islands and the type of wildlife you might find there. 

Wizards

This term has begun with a new topic - We are Thinkers. As part of our Geography, the children have started to research various holiday destinations in the UK. They have gathered information about activities, location, where to stay in a range of places, as well as looking at both human and physical geography. Using atlases and the internet, the children have labelled a variety of different holiday destinations on a map of the UK. 

This term, the Wizards will also be finding out about Ancient Greece and the myths from this time. They began by looking at The Tale of Persephone and Hades: they listened carefully to the story before creating some lovely storyboards depicting the main events. 

The Shire

When out and about this week, the children in the Shire went to measure trees. One tree had a circumference of 4 metres 90 cm! They will be measuring them again to note the changes. 

They noted the buds on the trees, and crops starting to grow in the fields. They also measured their height and discovered the very exciting tape measures that wind up!

This term the Griffins and Elves are reading The Lighthouse Keeper's Lunch. They have also been scavenging around school for different materials.

The Pixies have been looking at how we communicate with each other. They came in to term with a new post office role-play area. They have been writing and posting letters, buying and designing stamps. They have read and been inspired by the book 'The Jolly Postman'.

They had fun baking marble cakes this week.

In English, the children completed their diary entries about poor children in Victorian times as well as retelling the story of the birth of Jesus from both Luke and Mark's versions of the nativity story from the bible. 

On Wednesday, the Wizards took part in two music workshops focusing on the music from the Georgian and Victorian eras: they listened to music, sang and also had an opportunity to compose their own music by creating leitmotifs for aspects of the industrial revolution as well as Victorian Christmas traditions. 

The children have finished all their Christmas items and are now ready to take home. We would like to take this opportunity to wish you all a happy Christmas, and thank you for all your support this term. 

One of the major highlights in the final week was our wonderful Nativity service at St. Nicholas' Church. The children acted, sang and read their lines beautifully, and it was lovely to see so many of you filling the church for this celebration. Thank you all! 

Dragons

The Dragons have been finishing up their topic work this week. They had a music workshop where they got to compose some Tudor-themed music and come up with their own piece. They attended and were readers at the Christmas Carol Concert. 

They have had their Christmas parties and enjoyed musical statues.

The Shire

The pupils from the Shire this week visited the Wizards to help them make Christingles.

They enjoyed the historical music workshop.

They have been busy painting Christmas puddings.

And very excitingly, they had a very special visitor to their Christmas Party!

The guides were very complimentary about the Dragons in regard to their listening skills and shapes on the dance floor!

In class, the Dragons have finished their miniature portraits in the clay frames that they made last week.

The Wizards

This week, Wizards have continued writing their diary entries in English about life for children during the industrial revolution. 

As part of our RE, the children have been looking at world faiths, including the Jewish festival of Hanukkah and the Hindu and Sikh festival Diwali. The children have drawn a storyboard of the Rama and Sita story to help them to retell the story verbally. They have also been looking at the Christmas Story through our readings for the Nativity next week. 

Our layered portraits (in the style of Mike Barrett) are now complete. The finishing touches included blending the portrait with the background as well as adding some ink quotes and pictures from the era. The children really enjoyed the process, which included watching each part on video before they continued with their artwork. 

In DT, the children are making Christmas decorations to hang on their trees at home: these have been created using different stitching techniques with the support of Mrs. Attwood, our resident expert!

In PE, the children put all their netball skills into practice by playing matches, focusing on footwork, different types of passes and shooting skills. 

Finally, thank you to all those parents who came to watch the brass assembly: the children worked really hard this term and did a magnificent job of playing jingle bells in two parts. Another busy week for the Wizards! 

The Shire

In the Shire, the Elves, Griffins and Pixies have been busy rehearsing for the Nativity next week. Elves and Griffins continued making Christmas cards and stars, also focusing on phonics and spelling tests. They have been busy with data handling, taking surveys of favourite ice cream flavours and the most popular Beatrix Potter character, which had interesting presentation of character attributes and result interpretations!

The Pixies have been learning about shapes and went on a shape hunt around the school and in cooking they iced some Christmas biscuits.

Dragons this week have been comparing the Tudor and Elizabethan Ages. They have been looking at the food eaten in Tudor times and comparing it with what we eat now. Also, they have created some clay frames and will be painting miniatures in them, in the style of Nicholas Hilliard. 

In RE, the Dragons have covered the Nicene Creed and early church history, whilst investigating how people's beliefs change over time. In Maths, they have been working with fractions and counting in decimals. In English, they have been retelling the story of The Snowman. 

The Dragons programmed the Sphero Bolts to turn and go under a bridge. They've been enjoying their gardening advent calendar which contains seeds and making a postbox for Christmas cards.

The Shire

Meanwhile, in the Shire they have been shape making with willow, trying to make star shapes like their Christmas decorations for the Christmas Tree Festival. They have also been making Christmas decorations and re-using the Beatrix Potter model hill, valley and garden for retelling the Nativity. 

At the Chipping Norton Christmas tree festival, the visitors chose our 'Let your light shine' themed tree as 1st on the Friday and 2nd on Saturday and Sunday out of a total of 41! We were honoured! 

The Elves and Griffins have been busy with the Indi Sphero and placing the tiles that control the direction of the Indi.

The Pixies have looked at Hannukah this week - what it is and how it's celebrated. They made potato cakes called Latkes and crafted a menorah.

Wizards

This week, the Wizards have begun to research the Victorian era which has included finding out about Queen Victoria and how the British Empire expanded during her reign. 

Benny and Jimmy-Isaac created a slide show about Dr. Thomas Barnardo (which was shared with the class) and the work he did during the Victorian era to support poor children by providing somewhere to stay. They also found out about the Ragged School: a free school founded by Dr Thomas Barnardo to educate poor children who were mostly dressed in rags, hence the name Ragged School. 

In Art, the children have nearly finished their layered portraits, and are very pleased with the results. 

As part of our RE work, dragons have been finding out what Christian stewardship is and how this links to the bible. We looked at the story of Noah as he looked after both his family and all God's creatures by building an ark and how this was a great example of Christian stewardship.

In English, the children are using their research to create diary entries about what life was like for children working in factories during the industrial revolution. 

We have our final swimming session at Kingham Hill School next week, which will be a fun session. The children worked hard on gaining water confidence as well as working on refining the different strokes. 

When out and about the Shire made journey sticks. They walked to the recreation ground, picked up nature items they found and attached them to the sticks, they will compare and contrast what they found with sticks they will make in the summer. The Elves and Griffins have been making portraits of James 1st and Guy Fawkes in the style of Andy Warhol and also experimented with blending chalk which had the benefit of turning them blue like smurfs!

This week we had a SIAMS inspection and are thrilled with how well the children represented the school. We are glad to report that it was clearly seen that we live out our values in school.

The Dragons have been continuing to study Tudor life in preparation for their visit to Sulgrave Manor on 12th December. They have been creating Christmas presents and cards and making great progress towards their brass sharing assembly. They have been reading the book 'The Lost Words' and finding out the names of plants and animals in our environment. 

Outdoors we have planted our trees in the garden. 

In the Wizards class this week, we started with a Street Dance Workshop where the children learned different styles of street dance including breakdancing. At the end of the session, they performed a routine. Everybody enjoyed this and realised how energetic the sport of dance can be!

In Art, the children drew their portraits of monarchy from either the Georgian or Victorian period (in the style of Mike Barrett) ready for creating our layered portraits next week. The children have also created their own advent calendar which will start very soon. Take a look up in the Wizards class window next week...

The children have also been learning more about the Georgian era of History including why we ended up with kings and queens from Germany as a result of issues with having a Catholic monarchy. 

We have been busy learning lots of songs ready for the Big Christmas Sing as well as our own Nativity, and we are looking forward to taking part in the Big Christmas Sing on November 29th. Hopefully, this will get us in the mood for Christmas!

The whole school took a festive trip to see the Snowman Ballet, which was a delight and the children were a credit to the school and their parents.

We have been making Christmas stars for the Christmas Tree Festival in the Methodist church in Chipping Norton. 

The Dragons have been programming for the Global Sphero Challenge. They've been building robots and then programming them to use pens to write words.

Whilst thinking about compassion, the Dragons have been looking at the parable of The Prodigal Son. We've been continuing our work on the Tudors and talking about how they kept their houses warm with tapestries. In the outdoor classroom with Mrs Blackwell we've been planning on what we can make with the crops that we will harvest. One idea was soup with leeks.

Some of our self-portraits in the style of Hans Holbein.

Henry VIII Gallery

This week, some of the Wizards attended the netball festival at Chipping Norton School, which had to be indoors because of the snow! The children all took part in a series of skill-based activities including shooting, passing the ball, footwork and moving into spaces. A very enjoyable afternoon! 

In Art, the children have been creating decorations for the Christmas tree which will be part of the Christmas Tree Festival in Chipping Norton, as well as beginning their Christmas cards to send home. 

In History, our 'House of Hanover Family Trees' are now complete, and we have started to create our topic book for this term. We have also answered the question of why Britain was known as the workshop of the world because of its advancement in producing goods using machinery whilst selling them around the country as well as abroad. 

After a discussion about our value of compassion, we looked at the story of The Good Samaritan. The children discussed the following questions: What is the moral or lesson to be learned from the story and why do you think the priest and Levite walked past the injured man? They then wrote their own version of the story, including an illustration. 

They have also been drawing a family tree for the House of Hanover in preparation for looking in more detail at the kings and queens in the Georgian and Victorian periods. 

In Art, the children have been doing some printing using polystyrene squares to create a pattern to make a calendar. Next week, they will be creating layered portraits of the Monarchy in either the Georgian or Victorian eras. Another busy week! 

Biscuits baked and decorated by the Wizards to sell for BBC Children in Need.

In the Shire we have looked at Armistice Day and poppies. The pupils learnt about the different colours of poppies and what they represent. For example, the purple poppies remember the animals that died in the war. They created some poppy art with poppies that they had coloured and made fingerprint poppy pictures.

When baking this week, Pixies made some thumb biscuits with jam that looked like poppies.

The Dragons studied money this week using different amounts of coins and notes. They have costed and ordered trees and shrubs for the eco-garden according to which ones will yield the crops needed for activities, with Mrs Blackwell.

The gardeners have been in school helping to finish digging the beds we will need for our shrubs and trees, although the children had already made a great start! They have also placed gravel around the raised beds to reduce the amount of mud brought into school. We will be able to get the bare root plants in the ground so they become established over winter.

Dragons have started to create animations with Mr Hornibrook for our summer film festival.

Pupils have started to look at historical diaries and some have even been inspired to write their own diaries at home. 

Key Stage 2 started writing computer programmes to complete time-travel missions for the Sphero Global challenge. More to come on this - watch this space!

The Elves and Griffins were also looking at Guy Fawkes and when out and about collected various nature items to press in to clay for painting next week.

The Dragons have been historians this week looking at the Tudors and Henry VIII. They are studying monarchy and religion. They have learnt the fates of each of Henry's wives, about the difference between Protestantism and Catholicism and how Henry set up the Church of England in order to divorce his wife. 

They also have been looking at how to draw up a character in writing using Henry VIII as an example. The Dragons copied portraits of Henry VIII and then drew self-portraits. 

Over in the Wizards, pupils finished off last term's work with a quiz and have been looking at the kings and queens in the Georgian and Victorian periods. They are starting to find out about the Industrial Revolution.

The Wizards have taken to their swimming well at Kingham Hill School and are looking forward to an upcoming street dance workshop and netball festival.

The Picts got their name Picti (painted people) as they painted themselves with blue dye made from Woad. At first, they settled in Orkney then they went to Fife. The Scots didn’t really come from Scotland but came across the sea from Ireland. 

The Anglo-Saxons invaded Britain because their land often got flooded and our land was better for farming. They built their villages near a water source so that they had fish to eat and water to drink as well as wash and water crops. They had a chief in the villages who would have the biggest house of all. In their houses they had a fire so they could cook, have heat and light. They got rid of the stone houses built by the Romans and built their houses out of wood with grass on the roof. They also built wooden fences around their villages for protection. 

The Anglo-Saxons used runes to write with and we used them to write messages for people to work out. They came from Denmark, Germany and the Netherlands and spoke their own language which we are still using parts of today. We learned about the 7 kingdoms that the Anglo-Saxons split England into: they were called Wessex, Essex, Northumbria, Kent, East Anglia, Sussex and Mercia. 

In Geography, we learned about 4 and 6 figure grid references and found places on a map using a key. We also labelled an 8-point compass. 

In Art, we designed and made an Anglo-Saxon brooch out of clay. We also drew illuminated letters in the Anglo-Saxon style. Our self-portraits were inspired by Rembrandt’s many portraits of himself. We also took part in a charcoal workshop where we drew birds using hatching, cross-hatching, stippling and ink wash techniques. These are displayed on mobiles in the Wizards Class. 

At the end of this term, we went to Oxford on a school trip where we learned lots of interesting information including that the ending of names had different meanings in Anglo-Saxon times. Eg. ford as in Oxford meant a river crossing. We went to the Ashmolean Museum where we saw the Alfred Jewel. On the end it looked like it had a snake head. It was gold with a picture inside. There were coins and we found out that each Anglo-Saxon kingdom had their own coins. This is different to today where the whole of England has the same coins with the head of King Charles III or Queen Elizabeth II. 

After the Ashmolean Museum, we went to Christchurch Cathedral and saw a huge stained-glass window telling the story of St. Frideswide (the patron saint of Oxford). We also saw her shrine. Some of it was the old stone and some had been repaired more recently. The old stone was much colder so we could tell the difference. We also saw the stairs from the first Harry Potter film! We then went to the Museum of Oxford and two people got to wear Anglo – Saxon clothes including a tube dress held together with brooches. We took part in four workshops including handling some artefacts and trying to work out what they were. We have had a very busy term!

The Vikings have proven to be a rich and rewarding topic for the Dragons this term.  So far, the children have explored and answered questions about the Viking age and have looked in particular at the Viking invasion of Britain over 1,000 years ago. Key questions included:

Who were the Vikings and where did they come from?

Why did they raid British shores, and why did some of them settle here?

How did they live, and what was everyday life like for most Viking settlers? What made Viking longships so successful?

What can we learn about their beliefs through our reading of Norse myths and sagas?

What do we know about the Vikings in Britain? What evidence do we have they were here?

Excerpts and illustrations from children’s work this term:

On Viking beliefs: I’m going to tell you about the Norse gods and goddesses. I really liked the stories about the gods doing crazy and strange things. We learned about Odin, the god of wisdom and the All father. He gave up his eye to gain wisdom. Freya was the goddess of love, war and death. The Vikings believed that when they died, they would go to Valhalla.  There they would feast all night and battle all day.

On Viking Long houses: I liked learning about Viking Longhouses mainly because I knew 0% about Viking normal life before this term…. Viking longhouses had no windows, so it was dark.  Actually, it wasn’t dark, because there was a big fire in the middle. They used oil lamps too, which could set things on fire. The animals had a different room in the longhouse.   

I liked learning about Viking Longhouses because it was fun to learn how different everything was in the Viking age. Many families lived in one room. They didn’t have any windows and there was no light except for an open fire which they used for cooking. Instead of sleeping in normal beds, they slept on benches around the room. Vikings settled here in Britain partly because the weather was warmer than their homes in Scandinavia. Some Vikings came to raid monasteries because they owned gold.  They also wanted to kill monks!

On Viking food: I liked learning about Viking food because it was fun looking at the differences between Viking food and modern day food. For example, the Vikings actually ate cake (well it was oatcake, but still cake).  

On Viking Longships: Viking longships were quite clever, because the stern was the same as the front of the boat.  This meant that they had an easy escape route because they could just sail backwards!

They visited the Ashmolean museum and saw the Alfred Jewel thought to be made for King Alfred. They visited the shrine of Anglo-Saxon princess and saint - Frideswide in Christchurch College.

Dragons: The Dragons have been studying the Vikings, the invaders that the Anglo-Saxons fought with. There has been a lot of study of the similarities and differences between the periods and people of those times. They enjoyed re-enacting a 'beserk' charge with shields. 

The Shire: The Shire have been looking at the Victorian era with their focus on Beatrix Potter. They have been comparing a Victorian childhood with their own. They looked at the significant effect Beatrix had on the National trust, land use, farming and trade.

Last week the children enjoyed their trip to Cogges Manor Farm where they baked bread as the Victorian's would have, in the Victorian kitchen. 

The children learnt about threshing and grinding and had a go at grinding grain for flour. They got to see the animals and the kitchen garden, which is just like Mr McGregor's.

This week they baked hedgehog rolls and last week they baked carrot muffins! They both made the classroom smell delicious, and the children enjoyed eating them.

The Wizards have been investigating where the Anglo-Saxon invaders came from and identifying on maps the location of their seven kingdoms. The Wizards learnt about Rembrandt's use of line drawings and this week they have been trying out their own versions of self-portraits.

Last week, the Wizards were creating illuminated letters.

The Dragons class have been studying Viking longhouses and what life was like inside them. They have been extending their writing to include more ideas. The Dragons are continuing to work on capacity and volume and applying their understanding of scale in practical contexts.

Mrs Hornibrook cut the ribbon on the glasshouse and parents were invited to see inside the beautiful glasshouse which is a new feature in our eco-garden classroom.

With our new eco-garden classroom area, the children will be able to develop environmental awareness, connect with nature, learn risk-taking, resilience and adaptability. They will learn by doing and engaging their senses; learn about healthy lifestyles, build confidence and develop social skills.

Not only this, but it will be used for the delivery of key subject areas of the National Curriculum. For example, the children were able to think about how much compost was needed and the capacity of each pot.

Measuring the beds for planting plans and grids.

The children have been considering whether we can grow a Viking crop, and what our seedlings need to survive.

In the pond area the children have been observing and recording the variety of living things that can be found in a freshwater habitat. 

They have been using classification keys to identify and name living things in the pond area. 

The Shire went on a nature walk and gathered berries. They picked blackberries and rosehips, hawthorn and elderberries. Once Mrs Mahoney had boiled the berries, the children used the liquid for painting.

One of the colours was reminiscent of Peter Rabbit's blue jacket, so perhaps Beatrix Potter used natural berry-made paints for her illustrations? 

The Shire: the Pixies have some new building blocks which they have been enjoying using to build with this week. The Elves and Griffins have been continuing to create their sock rabbits. 

Dragons: have been on residential in the Lake District where we'll be doing some geo investigation into rivers and the water cycle. We are looking forward to sharing photos with you soon.

Wizards: have been joined by some of the Dragons this week. We have looked at the story of Joseph and we have started to create a collage based on the story. The Wizards have found out about the Picts and how they invaded Britain - they also used the symbols the Picts used when writing to create some words and sentences for other children to work out. In Geography, the children have used online maps to find different places in Scotland where the Picts settled. 

We are Storytellers: is our new school wide theme. It's a humanities-based topic looking at people and places.

Meet & Greets: We warmly invite you to our Meet and Greet on September 18th at 4pm, to hear more about the changes at school including our outdoor learning, the eco garden and new greenhouse build.

Class changes: it's exciting to see the new starters settling in to school well. We are so pleased with how ready for school the new pixies are. The pixies, elves and griffins (year 2) are now in a new group named 'The Shire'. This will help to maintain friendships across the group, easing the transition from foundation to key stage 1 and ensuring the children are well-known to the staff. 

The Shire: are extremely happy with our new cooking facilities and looking forward to baking soon. With the topic of Beatrix Potter there are some really exciting creative builds upcoming and sock rabbits being made for the big film project. This term we will be visiting Cogges Manor Farm and looking at farming and land use.

Dragons: are looking at Viking myths and legends beginning with Norse myths in History and English. We welcome 2 new dragons this year. Next week is the residential in the Lake District where we'll be doing some geo investigation into rivers and the water cycle. 

Wizards: this week the wizards have decorated the letters for the 'we are storytellers' display. They looked at the 8 compass points in preparation for geography. We will be looking at the Anglo-Saxons, how they invaded and settled in Britain after the Romans left. We are looking forward to tennis sessions with Excel Tennis on Mondays and the brass sessions begin on Tuesday morning.

We have three new members of staff this term, Clem Raisbeck; Receptionist, Abi Roff; Communications Officer and Aimee Simson; Teaching Assistant in the Shire.