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    • Stars, Lights and Layers

      Published 05/12/24

      Dragons Class -

      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. 

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    • The Snowman, Sticks & Street Dance

      Published 29/11/24

       

      This week the Pixies came into a winter wonderland in the classroom as it had snowed! They had magic sand snow to play with and were retelling the story of The Snowman in preparation for the visit to the ballet on Wednesday. They have baked lemon drizzle cake this week.

      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.

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    • Snow, Spheros & Soup

      Published 20/11/24

      The Shire's plans this week for out and about were curtailed by the snowfall! Instead of bark rubbing, they took a trip to the church where they saw the font, talked about baptism and found a kneeler with a tapestry picture of the school. They looked at the architecture of the church and gravestones and noted how the blossom on the tree in the graveyard might make people feel peaceful.

      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. 

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