Term 4

The term is flying by in a whirlwind of activities. Our trip to Dover Museum was very successful and we were so lucky with the weather. Everyone enjoyed the train and the workshops at the museum were fantastic. We got to handle a half a million year old hand axe and some real artefacts from the Bronze Age. We also made a model of the Bronze Age boat out of clay and we had a good look around the Bronze Age Boat gallery too. 

We all enjoyed World Book Day and our super DT day yesterday making our savoury tarts. 

We hope you enjoy looking at the photos!

Term 3

WEEK ENDING 01.02.24

Today, we watched four videos sent by Raven's mummy. Raven is in South Africa visiting her family. We watched her open an ostrich egg. Her grandad had to use a drill because the shell is so hard. Raven is staying on her Aunt's farm. Raven filmed the pigs, geese and sheep. Raven showed us wild lemons growing in the garden and she open a fig to show us. Raven and her sister   have enjoyed riding about on  a trailer pulled by Betsey the tractor! We are all looking forward to welcoming Raven back to class next week and hearing more about her adventures. 

On Tuesday, Mrs Boden was very nervous because Mr Fisher came into class to film our writing lesson! We have very nearly finished our diaries about the Stone Age Boy. This week we have written about the hunt and the following celebration. 

We found out about all Iron Age hill - forts in History this week. We can tell you lots about them such as; they were built high up so that enemies could be spotted far away and that they used pebbles to throw at intruders. Hill-forts were safe places to go to when there was an attack from a neighbouring tribe. There homes were round and next week we are making our own roundhouse settlement.

In science, we found out about different kinds of fossils and we made our own zigzag books about the different stages of a mould and cast fossil. We also watched a Newsround report about the pliosaur which was discovere in Dorset and the end of last year. 

Week Ending 26.01.24

It's been another busy and successful week in Chaffinches. We enjoyed watching the performance of 'Aladdin' yesterday even though it was quite loud and the Aboo the baboon had quite bad wind! 

Our class read is 'Stig of the Dump' which is one of Mrs Boden's favourite book. We listened to the part where Barney and Stig went hunting and Stig shot a horse and bit a hound's ear! We are enjoying it and so is Mrs Boden! 

We are continuing to write a diary entry for 'Stone Age Boy' in the role as the time-travelling boy. Yesterday, we described some of the skills he learnt such as making fire. Today, we are going to write about the hunt. 

We found out that the Bronze Age was an important time in prehistory. People know about the Bronze Age through grave goods and we learnt about the Amesbury Archer who was buried near Stonehenge with lots of objects from the Bronze Age. Find out more by following the link below. 

In Science, we used the Mohs Scale to determine the hardness of rocks by scratching them with a finger nail, a 2p coin and a steel nail. Next wee, we are learning all about fossils and we will have another visitor in from Brook museum to help us to learn all about soil. 

Class Blog Week ending 12.01.24

On Tuesday, we had a special visitor. Louella, from the Cross-Channel Geopark, came to tell us all about the ground beneath our feet - literally! We learnt that in Wye we are walking on four layers - soil, chalk, gault clay and sandstone. We then drew these layers on huge pieces of paper and put them together. See photos below. 

We are excited about starting our swimming lessons tomorrow! We get go in a minibus and we are looking forward to learning how to swim or improving our swimming. 

In English we have been reading the book 'Stone Age Boy' and now we are writing a diary based on the story. It's about a boy who trips and travels back in time to the Stone Age. He meets a girl called Om and he learns lots of Stone Age skills such as making tools from wood and flint. 

PE was very cold but we all enjoyed tag rugby. We are learning all about Mary Anning through a storybook called 'Stone Girl, Bone Girl'. She lead a very interesting life discovering fossils in Dorset. 

We are loving Art! Last Friday, we used sticks, mud and our fingers to create our own cave paintings. 

Week Ending 13.10.23

We are reading a new book in English called 'A River' and we are using it to create atmosphere through careful word choices and description of weather. The proper phrase for this is pathetic fallacy. We have learnt to use personification, similes and metaphors and powerful adjectives to improve our descriptive writing. We have written some impressive description so far. In Reading, we have started a new book called 'Ocean Meets Sky' which is beautifully illustrated. It's about a boy called Finn and the journey he takes to honour his grandfather. 

In Maths, we are learning to use column addition. We have used the base 10 counters to help us to understand how the ones and tens are regrouped. 

In Geography, we looked in more detail at the River Stour and we stuck some photos into our books as a visual reminder of our trip and what we learnt too. Mrs Boden has put up a nice display in the cloakroom. 

We designed our Christmas cards yesterday. We are all really looking forward to the Christmas holidays! 

Week Ending 06.10.23

Our best learning this week was all about the River Stour. We learnt that the Stour is a chalk river which is a very special and rare habitat. We found out that there are eels in the river which means it must be a clean river. The Stour is full of wildlife like herons, fish, beavers and otters. It was great to be learning outside the classroom and Lauren was really kind and knew lots about the river. Just before we returned to school, we saw a crow dive - bombing a kestrel! 

Week Ending 22.09.23

Yesterday, Helena brought in her shadow puppet show. She had made some wonderful stick puppets to tell her eco - adventure story about keeping the forest clean. There was Lavender the Fox and Bluebell the Hedgehog who were worried about the state of their home because the humans were dropping rubbish everywhere and the trees were being chopped down. Luckily a Genie Butterfly appeared and granted them their wish to help the humans to keep the forest clean and healthy. We all very much enjoyed her show and we were impressed with how well she used the puppets to tell her story. We all agreed with the moral of the story too. 

Week Ending 15.09.23

We've had another busy week of learning in Chaffinch class. 

We learnt how to write in the first person and we used this to write a postcard from Raindrop Bill to his friends describing his journey through the water cycle. 

We made some fabulous models of rivers together. Each group made a different part of the course and then we put then together to make the whole course. We had to know about features such the source, estuary and waterfall and then describe them. We were really proud of them and of our learning. Mrs Boden was pleased with how we  successfully collaborated!

Maths has been all about numbers to 1000. We have linked our understanding of place value in 2-digit numbers to help us to understand how to partition 3-digit numbers. 

In RE, we watched a film about a boy called Nathan and we thought about what his life is like as a Christian in Britain today. 

Unfortunately, we did not get to do our Yoga session because our usual space wasn't available but Mrs Boden and Mrs Porter will sort this out for next week. They will collaborate!!!! 

Week Ending 08.09.23

We've really got off to a flying start in Chaffinch! 

This week:

Reading - Flotsam is a wordless book but we can still 'read' it using the pictures. We learnt that flotsam is a word which describes objects which have been stranded (thank-you, Conner) on the beach by tide. 

English - Raindrop Bill! This is a story related to the water cycle. Raindrop Bill goes on a journey around the water cycle. He meets some fish on the way and sings them a song. We practiced re-telling the story as Raindrop Bill.

Yoga - We have learnt some poses. We think that yoga is good for our brains because it helps to clear our minds and it's good to stretch our bodies too. 

Maths has been all about place value. We know that numbers can use the same digits but in different places. For example both 61 and 16 use a 1 and a 6 but in 61 the 6 is the same as 6 tens but in 16 the 6 is the same as 6 ones. Do you know the value of 1 in both 16 and 61? 

We have learnt about the water cycle which is a way of describing how water moves around the world. We drew it and labelled a diagram with some big words!

On Monday we agreed a class charter which is linked to our three school rules. We use this to help us make the right choices and to work together as a team. We have made a lovely display.