Week 7 Term 1

 Kaya,

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend. I spent the weekend celebrating the festival of Xavier! It is his 9th birthday tomorrow and without intending it, our schedule seem to be either basketball or birthday related. On the theme of birthdays, I want to wish Ruby Drmota a happy birthday for this Saturday the 20th March.

This week is a very exciting week for my new partner in crime, Miss Hurst as this Wednesday 17th March is the celebration of St Patrick's Day. Therefore the theme for Wednesday will be GREEN and all things Irish! Tell your child to come with an open, green heart. They are welcome to wear a green accessory of some sort along with their normal school attire. 

Lá Fhéile Pádraig sona duit! (Happy St. Patrick's Day to you!)
I also just wanted to include a little note on Saint Patrick's Day for those of you that do not know the background. Saint Patrick is the patron saint of Ireland. Born in Roman Britain in the late 4th century, he was kidnapped at the age of 16 and taken to Ireland as a slave. He escaped but returned about 432 to convert the Irish to Christianity. There are many legends surrounding the life of Saint Patrick including the legend where he rid Ireland of snakes.

There are many traditions that we celebrate on Saint Patricks Day and many symbols used for the day. Including:

The colour green - Catholics are known to wear green on the holiday of Saint Patrick. It is also the colour of Ireland too. 

The four and three leaf clover - While trying to convert the Irish into Christians, St. Patrick used the shamrock to explain the holy trinity with each leaf representing the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The three leaves of a shamrock are also said to stand for faith, hope and love. A fourth leaf is where we get the luck from.

A leprechaun - According to Irish folklore, leprechauns were cranky tricksters who you wouldn't want to mess with. They live alone and pass the time by playing tricks on the Irish people. The good-natured leprechaun soon became a symbol of St. Patrick's Day and Ireland in general. 

What's your leprechaun name? Maybe share it with your child in celebration of all things small, green and Irish. Mine according to the instructions below is Stumpy McLucky. 

Week 6 Learning

Maths:

In Maths, one of the main concepts we have been focusing on are factors and multiples and learning the difference between both. This topic highlights the importance of our timestables to the students and shows them why we have assigned it for homework. Below you will find a great song that the students have loved about factors and multiples that describes it in a effective and fun way. Enjoy (you will not be able to get the catchy tune out of your head - you are welcome 😃). 

Writing:

In writing, we have started our focus on Narratives. The students started their week writing their cold task using an image (below) selected for their inspiration and focus of their story. The image depicted an elephant (Nellie the Elephant, if you can remember the song?) leaving a barren and scorched place with bags packed and a baby tiger on her back. The students wrote beautiful tales about Nellie. 

We have also started to look at sentence structure, adjectives, similes and alliteration. Ask your child to explain similes or alliteration with you? Towards the end of the week, we then looked at describing a setting using the 5 senses, what can you see, feel, hear, taste and smell? Making their stories more descriptive and visual. The students did a wonderful job at recreating their setting for Nellie the Elephant using the 5 senses. Read some of the student's favourite sentences below, incredible use of descriptive language.

- I can feel the humid and dreadful bubbling heat seeping through my blistering skin (Lucy)

- I feel the chilly breeze against the sad burn't sticks falling from the flames, one by one (Georgie)

- I can see weeping trees begging for water(Pearl)

- With every step she could hear the crunching of the barren land under her blistered feet (Kirra)

- I feel the bubbling hot coals piercing through me feet causing them to blister (Austin)

- The dry, dusty flakes of burnt ash furiously trying to knock my back and make me crumble against the black even ground below me (Tara)

- The muffled, raspy call of a lone bird in the hazy smoke (Tara)

- A terrible vivid image of my home burning, a thought that makes my mind swirl with fear (Max)

- I smell the suffocating smoke and vapour that asphyxiates all growth and living things (Imogen)

- I hear the eerie shouts and calls bursting my ear drums as the helpless living things are becoming closer to death (Imogen)

Next week we will be looking at characterisation and character development. We will continue listening to the audio book of Narnia for inspiration. 

Swimming Lessons:

The students have been working hard at the beach in their swimming groups despite the daily changing weather. They have been commended on their hard work and effort by their individual swimming teachers. There are couple of groups (I think level 8&9) that are doing their clothes swim on Monday, can you just check in with  your child to see if they need to bring in their spare clothes. Can I ask that if your child is not taking part in swimming lessons can you please send a note with them.

Week 7 Reminders 

Leavers Shirts:
The students were so very excited to have their leavers shirt arrive on Friday. Unfortunately, we very quickly realised that after the long wait they came with some typo errors on the back. These errors had been picked up and addressed to the company in the drafting period. Because of this the company has agreed to fix these mistakes and send new shirts. Therefore the students will keep the shirts they now have and we will have a new shirt by the start of next term with the corrections. 😀 Thank you for your patience with this. 

PAT Testing:
Thankfully, we got through the PAT tests this week. The students definitely applied a growth mindset of having to do these tests twice which we are grateful for.

Reminder about First Aid: 

We have organised for the students of  Year 5 and 6 to complete a First Aid Response course by St John of God. This is a free incursion and each session will run for 45 minutes. The Year 6 classes will have their training on Friday 26th March from 11.15 - 12pm. 

Housekeeping:

1. Headphones - Can you please send the students headphones in with them this week? Can these headphones please remain in the school, as when they are needed for activities there are a few students without them, thank you. 
2. Charging Laptops - Can you also please ensure that the students laptops are on charge every night! We have had quite a few flat laptops this week, and it this causes issues at times with the students learning in class, thank you so much.
3. Library - there will be no library for the Year 6 students over the next two weeks due to swimming lessons. 

Upcoming Events

1. Swimming lessons will continue at the beach this week. 

We will depart the school at 1pm for the beach and return at 2.30pm. 

Please ensure your child has all the items they need for swimming including:

(sunscreen, rashies, googles, bathers, flip flops, towel, spare undies and wear sports uniform every day).

2.  Parent Teacher Interviews week 8 and 9 (timetable to be emailed for booking slots soon, please let me know if these weeks will not be suitable and we can organise a time this week.)

Homework Week 7

Due: Friday, 19th March
Our homework diaries having not arrived as yet. The students will continue using their homework books for now. Thank you to those parents that sign the students work, please ensure you do this especially on a Thursday night before they return to class on a Friday. 

Home Learning Grid includes:
1. Reading 20 minutes each night - write title and amount read into their homework book each night.
2. Spelling Activities - spelling grid to be completed in homework book. 
3. Mathematics - Times Tables - Orally practice (x7 written and timed) 
4. Three well-being tasks from learning grid.

Have a wonderful week everyone! Don't forget to go green on Wednesday!

Mrs Ricciardone & Mrs Murphy