Watlington Primary School

Watlington Primary School

Friday 31 March 2017

Our 'WOW" moments this week!

Foundation Stage
We have been learning about how to keep our teeth healthy. Mrs Holdship talked to us about the best foods to eat, what not to eat and how to brush our teeth. We hope all the children will have lovely, clean teeth now!

Butterflies
We have been working on our Reporters topic and we had a very interesting visit from Mr Grouts-Smith to tell us about his time as a reporter. In Maths we have had amazing investigations about different weights & measures. 

Bats
We have been getting ready to write our newspaper reports. Mr Grouts-Smith visited Bats class to tell us all about being a journalist and his interview with 'George Stephenson'. We have also been learning about position and direction, half turns and North, South, East and West in Maths.


Owls
Owls have pretended to be reporters in the 19th century and written some great articles about Thomas Edison and Joseph Swann.


Foxes
Foxes were very excited at the beginning of the week as the last of the caterpillars turned into chrysalides. We are now anxiously waiting for them to emerge as butterflies.


Badgers
Badgers class loved our first swimming lesson of the year. We had so much fun, especially when we were allowed to blow bubbles under water! We can't wait for next week.


Hares
We have had a busy week in Hares class this week! In English, we enjoyed looking at the "Great Kapok Tree" and we can't wait to write our own extracts next week. The highlight definitely has to be making our 30 rainforest models! We used lots of different materials and techniques. Hopefully you will see them in the corridor some time soon! 

Red Kites

We learnt a new way of planning our writing by using symbols to understand words and then we acted out the symbols with our hands.


Golden Eagles
Golden Eagles have been working hard learning about the present perfect and past progressive tense and algebra in Maths.

Swallows

We loved creating Japanese inspired spring blossom pictures in art. In English, our minds were challenged with getting to grips with the past and the present prefect tenses, as well as the past and present progressive tenses! 

Thursday 30 March 2017

Brass assembly

The Year 5 and 6 brass assembly will be held tomorrow morning (Friday 31st March) at 10am in the school hall. 

The congratulations book certificates will also be handed out. We look forward to seeing you there.

Thursday 23 March 2017

Key Stage 2 were visited today by a member of staff from Bletchley Park, who spoke to us about how to stay safe online. Year 5 and 6 were lucky enough to participate in some 'code breaking' workshops, where we solve problems in order to find out about cyber security. We then had a whole Key Stage assembly where year 3 and 4 joined in and offered some great contributions. 

It was great to hear the children think so carefully about what they use the Internet for, and what they can do differently in order to stay safe.

Wednesday 22 March 2017

Red Kites

This week we got to watch the film version of Goodnight Mister Tom.  It was very emotional!  We enjoyed watching it and our discussion of the differences between the film and the book.  The main story remained the same, but there were lots of small changes to add to the pace and excitement. Some of us preferred the book and some the film.


In DT we finished making our model Anderson shelters.  We've really enjoyed making them and they look great!  Many of them include lots of little details, like lamps, posters, newspapers and 'facilities'.


Our maths this week included some 'decimals orienteering'.  Working in pairs we had to answer lots of questions to score points. 

Friday 17 March 2017

Year 6 PGL

We are on the coach heading home now, on the edges of Swindon.

St Patrick's Day

We have enjoyed celebrating Saint Patrick's Day this morning.  We found out about St Patrick, made soda bread, learnt about how people celebrate the day and coloured in shamrocks and flags.  We had some very enthusiastic dancers, who spent all morning exploring the musical instruments and moving to the music!

Year 6 PGL

Just starting our first activities of the morning. All slept incredibly well and were packed and sorted fifteen minutes ahead of schedule this morning!

We hope to be back in time for the end of the school day, traffic dependent. Any delays will be posted on the school blog.

Thursday 16 March 2017

Year 6 PGL

Another successful day with the children challenging themselves to their limits with the activities. We are all sitting around the campfire now having a singsong and some stories. Some tired faces tonight- all looking forward to head home tomorrow!

Year 6 PGL

Another great night's sleep... all struggled to wake up this morning! Off for breakfast shortly.

Wednesday 15 March 2017

Year 6 PGL

Another great day on residential. We have enjoyed being in the sunshine and pushing ourselves to the limits with high activities such as the trapeze and Jacobs ladder, as well as raft building and problem solving.

Off outside again shortly to do an orienteering task....!

Red Kites

This week in Red Kites class we have been learning about….

In D&T we decorated our Anderson shelter and all worked in groups of 2-3 while some of us were out doing cycle proficiency.  We used clay, wood and material to add details and all of them looked pretty good.

In maths we did decimal word problems and played a little game to help us with placing our decimals on the number line.

In science we learned about burning candles.  First, we watched candles burn.  Then we lit candles and put different volume of jars on top of them and see how long it takes for them to burn out, it was such much  fun!  The more oxygen in the jar, the longer the candle burns.  We found out that a burning candle creates CO2 and water.


Year 6 PGL



Having fun raft building! Only five have fallen in so far!

Tuesday 14 March 2017

Year 6 PGL

We have had a great day here at Liddington. The children have worked well together and have participated in climbing, canoeing, mountain biking, challenge course and the tunnel trail. Lots of tired faces this evening- all in bed asleep now!

Year 6 PGL

All getting up and dressed after a good night's sleep- we were all asleep by 11.00pm!
Lots of fun activities planned for the day including canoeing, tunnel trail and climbing.....!

Monday 13 March 2017

Year 6 PGL



Rounders in the sunshine while we wait for our rooms.

Year six residential

We have arrived at Liddington and are all sat in the sunshine eating lunch with big smiles on our faces!

Friday 10 March 2017

Bali Rai author talk

Year six had a really enjoyable visit to Icknield yesterday where they were able to meet and listen to a real-life author, Bali Rai. He spoke to the children about what inspired him and then we participated in a workshop where we had a go at writing our own story.

Our thanks go to Mrs Shannon and Mrs Didcock for organising this brilliant opportunity!

Year six residential

Many thanks to all those who have paid in full for the PGL residential visit. Please can any remaining payments be sent in to the school office as soon as possible. If you would like to discuss payments for the visit, please approach Mr Attree in confidence. 


We are due to depart mid-morning on Monday 13th March. Please arrive at school at the normal time. The children can come in to school via the community / hall entrance, where they will be able to leave their bags. They should then go to class as normal.  Any medication should be handed to members of staff, clearly labelled with your child's name. The coach is due to return us to school before the end of the school day on Friday 17th March. All parents must arrange for their child to be collected at the usual time. You will be informed of any delays via the school blog.


Mr Gale and Miss Johnson

Monday 6 March 2017

Return time


Key Stage 1 are making great progress and are hoping they will be back at school by 4pm

KS1 Science Museum trip

All have arrived safe and well at the science museum and are looking forward to the rest of their day.


Friday 3 March 2017

Foxes really enjoyed the buddy reading with Red Kites for World Book Day










World Book Day - Badgers Class







World Book Day, 3rd March 2017

Red Kites took part in the whole school World Book Day (WBD).

Selected as worthy of special mention were Arlo (Sherlock Holmes), Joel (the BFG) and Charlie L (Charlie Brown).

Selected as "Best in Class" (Red Kites Class) was Rosie (Gangster Granny).

We had a really nice day with lots of WBD activities.

Stewart Haveron

cc

Wednesday 1 March 2017

Red Kites

Today we had science.  We had a bottle of Diet Coke and we stuck a mentos mint to the lid; there was a hole in the lid and using a skewer Mrs Dowling pushed the skewer into the hole of the diet coke.  It caused a reaction and coke squirted through the hole in the lid.

We also had a tube that we filled with vinegar and then added bicarbonate of soda.  We then quickly turned it upside down and backed away; it shot up in the air.  This was a chemical reaction and an irreversible change (it created CO2.) When we put a balloon over a bottle of vinegar and bicarbonate of soda, it filled with CO2.

We then looked at several different reversible and irreversible changes.



A lesson in sound

This afternoon Badgers class took a musical approach to science by exploring how we make and alter sounds. The children experimented with different instruments to make a range of sounds - their preference being, the louder, the better!!