Monday 31 October 2016

Class PE Days – Autumn 2

Dear Parent,

Your child will need their PE kit in school on the following days this half term. Please note that these days may be different than those before the half term break as different classes are now having PE sessions with our PE coach, Mr Rowland.

Year Group
PE kit required on….
R
Mondays and Fridays
1
Tuesdays and Thursdays
2
Wednesdays and Thursdays
3
Tuesdays and Wednesdays
4
Thursdays and Fridays
5
Mondays and Tuesdays
6
Mondays and Tuesdays

It is recommended your child has both indoor and outdoor kit in school as the weather at this time of year can be changeable.

PE kit (which should be stored in a simple drawstring PE bag) should comprise of:

·         Plain, dark coloured shorts (not long Bermuda type)
·         A plain t-shirt in the colour of your child’s house team
·         Plimsolls or trainers
·         Hair bands for long hair and micro-pore tape to cover ear studs.

Children may also wear tracksuit/jogging bottoms during the cold weather. If your child wears tights, please ensure they have socks to wear under their trainers.


Many thanks for your co-operation.

Wednesday 26 October 2016

Year 1 - Off to a great start!

The children in Year 1 have had a fantastic start to the year! They have all settled into new routines really well and we have been so impressed with how independent and resourceful they are as well as how keen and interested they are in their learning.

It has been such a busy term that there hasn't been much time to blog - sorry! Here is an update on just some of the things we have been up to...


Harvest Celebrations
We took part in the Harvest Celebrations by bringing in some food we wanted to donate to the Hedge End Food Bank. The children brought in lots of tins, packets and boxes of food and we enjoyed lining them up along the classrooms to see how far they would reach.

We also used the opportunity to practice our number skills by counting to 100 and predicting how many we thought they was altogether.

 





Our Local Area
As part of our geography topic we went on two local walks. The first was to Norman Rodaway and the nearby woods, and the second was to the village. We used maps to find our routes and to help identify geographical features. We also compared the two locations and found that they were quite different. 

In literacy we were reading a story about a meerkat called Sunny who was looking for a new home. We tried to think which place he would like best....

The grass would be good for digging!

Sunny might like the puddles as it is very hot where he usually lives.

Sunny would like the woods because there are lots of  bugs to eat and trees to climb.

Some of us thought that the shade made the woods too cold for Sunny.

The roads might be too noisy for Sunny but the shops could be useful!

We thought Sunny would like this house the best as he could make tunnels in the roof.

Also in Geography we have been learning about the four countries that make up the UK and their capital cities. We play a great airport game which involved flying to the different countries and the capital cities.







Super maths
We have been learning lots inside the classroom too! In maths we have been learning lots of different ways to add and take away numbers. We have been using objects, bead strings and number lines and have been recording our work using number sentences.

Writing addition sentences using objects.

Learning our number bonds to 5.

Using number lines to add numbers.

We took turns to throw the bean bags and add up the scores.

We also used bead strings to add.




These boys set up a car shop to practice their adding skills. They wrote prices for the cars and used coins to buy them.

We used objects to take away amounts.


We wrote our take away number sentences to show what we had done.



We also used our number lines to solve take away problems.

Music
In music we have been learning about the four main families of instruments - wooden, metal, skinned and shakers. Mrs Watling taught us some great songs and we really enjoyed playing the different instruments.







Which family does this instrument belong to?

Which groups are these instruments from?
Do you know what family these are from?

Mrs Watling taught us how to hold the instruments to get the best sound.

Mystery visitor!
Towards to the end of the term we found lots of strange objects in our classroom and discovered the home corner had been transformed into a rocket!
After making some predictions and writing questions we found out the the objects were left by a friendly alien called Beegu!







We will be learning more about Beegu next term so look out for more blog updates!


Rocket Seed Experiment - Update

Earlier this year Kings Copse Primary were lucky enough to take part in an 'out of this world' science experiment!

When Tim Peake blasted off to work on the International Space Station he took with him a number of rocket seeds. The experiment was to find out if being in space would affect the way the plants grow, leading to hopes that, in the future, astronauts would be able to grow their own food in space.

The seeds were sent back to Earth and, along with seeds that had not been in space, were given out to a number of schools and clubs to be planted. The growth of the seeds was carefully monitored and all the results were sent back to the RHS who used them to compile a report.

The results from Kings Copse Primary School will be included in this report, and the RHS were so impressed with the work from us that they asked to include the following picture in their report.


Year 3 compiling graphs to compare the growth of the seeds.

The RHS are meeting Tim Peake in the next few weeks to discuss the experiment. As a thank you, the RHS are compiling a photo book to be presented to Tim Peake to show him all the fantastic work that took place on Earth while he was in space. Kings Copse Primary were invited to submit up to three photos so, as well as the photo above, the following photos will be included.


Checking up on the seedlings in the greenhouse.
Gardening club did a great job planting the seeds and looking after them as they began to grow.

It is really exciting to think that Tim Peake will get to see how much we enjoyed being part of the experiment and all the hard work that all the children put in!

Thursday 20 October 2016

Year 4: Marvellous Map Work!

As part of our work on Superheroes in Geography, we have been thinking about real life heroes, such as the police, firefighters and mountain rescue.  We had a long, hard think about how they would find people who are in trouble without using technology and decided that they would have to use maps.


We enjoyed looking at Ordnance Survey maps and spotting different symbols, line and colours.  Have you noticed any interesting symbols on maps or road signs?

We shared all of the interesting features that we noticed in our groups and were particularly intrigued by contour lines.  What do you think contour lines could be?


We then played a fun game of Symbol Bingo to help familiarise ourselves with some of the symbols we may not have spotted on our maps.

In Maths this week, we have started to use our knowledge of maps and grid references to help with our coordinate work.  We have been finding the coordinates of given positions and locating positions using given coordinates.



Can you find the coordinates for the boat?