Comets Years 2/3/4

It feels like I haven't had as much time with the children this week due to Monday's teacher training day and various other commitments, but we have still packed a fair bit in!  At the end of last week, our long-awaited interactive whiteboard was finally installed in Comet Class, so there was great excitement on Tuesday morning when we started to use it in our lessons.  It is a great addition to the classroom and we are really enjoying using it.

Another special delivery came via the postman when we received a Christmas postcard from Paddington.  Throughout the year, he has been sending us postcards from around the globe to let us know about the work of Unicef.  The children really look forward to opening them and finding out about all the different countries Paddington has visited.  So far this term, we have received news from Madagascar, Bangladesh...and now from Ivory Coast where Unicef has supported projects to use recycled plastic bottles to build new schools.  Each month, a member of the class volunteers to update our travel journal which documents our learning about each of the countries...

 

Many thanks to Charlie who was keen to use his research to complete the page about Ivory Coast.  Take a look below to see how he has been shining like a star.

Our third exciting delivery came on Tuesday when Mrs Bourne-Arton arrived with the most beautiful Christmas tree for the children.  They had great fun decorating it and it looks rather splendid in our school hall.  Not only did she bring the tree, but also £135 in donations from locals who attended the patronal celebrations on St Nicholas' Eve.  We are so grateful to the Bourne-Arton family and everyone in our village community for all the continued support we have received this year, including laptops donated during lockdown to help with home-learning.

As we come to the end of our work on The Happy Prince in English, the children have been thinking about the moral of the story.  I have been blown away by the quality of the discussion about what the children think we can learn from this tale.  We have now turned our attention to preparing our drafts for publication.  The children have been thinking about the intended purpose and audience for their writing as they have edited and improved their drafts ensuring that their re-telling of the story is coherent and conveys the range of emotions stirred up by events in this classic but still very relevant tale.  Again the children have been very articulate when describing what they want the reader to feel and think about when they read the stories.   We are excited about sharing our stories with you very soon...

In Maths this week, the children have worked hard with Miss Asker to record all they have learnt so far about multiplication and division ready to continue with this concept after the Christmas break.  Well done to everyone who took the time to catch up with their work on addition at home this week.  It is lovely to see the children's enthusiasm for consolidating their learning at home and parental support with this has been much appreciated.  I am not setting any Maths homework this week in recognition of the extra work the children have done this week.

Talking of homework, I have awarded quite a few shining stars for home-learning this week as well as for effort with phonics, discussion work and much more.  A special mention goes to Ted whose turn it was to share and recommend a favourite book.  He chose to tell his classmates about 'Born to Run' by Michael Morpurgo.  This went down well with everyone, especially the many animal lovers in the class.  I wonder if anyone will read this over the Christmas holidays?  Next week will be very busy so we have decided to postpone Matilda's turn to present a favourite book until after Christmas.

 
 

Many thanks to the children who have volunteered to help with the readings at Sunday's all-age church service at St Nicholas Church.  All are welcome to come along to celebrate the third Sunday in Advent.  The service starts at 9.30am.  I look forward to seeing some of you there if you can make it.

Wishing everyone a super weekend!
Miss Mandelson