An exciting week in year 3/4!

This week the children have been busy writing their biographies. We have been so impressed by their beautiful handwriting and great work. From Matilda to Ronaldo, the children have worked very hard to write interesting, informative and exciting biographies.

This week, we have seen some beautiful home learning to celebrate the Chinese New Year after we read all about it last week. The children have made some incredible paper lanterns and drawn some beautiful dragons.

Next week, the children will be needing to bring in empty plastic containers and tissue boxes for their DIY instruments in science so please keep hold of anything that may be of use and ask your child to bring it to school. Some children have even had a go at making some at home. Here are some amazing bamboo panpipes!

Continue ReadingAn exciting week in year 3/4!

Nursery: week 4 (w/c 23rd January 2023)

This week in Nursery…

We have been learning about the Chinese New Year celebration and used our fine and gross motor skills to:

  • use scissors to make paper lanterns
  • fold paper to make fans for decoration
  • move in the style of a Chinese Dragon dance; we travelled in different ways along straight, curvy and zigzag pathways, with a ‘rise and fall’ movement, incorporating ribbon sticks too!

We also had fun using our fine motor skills to make, cook and eat jam tarts.  They were scrumptious!

We have focused on identifying the /g/ sound at the beginning of words (e.g. girl, glue, grapes, goat). Linked to words beginning with /g/, we have continued to develop our vocabulary with Yakka Dee (cBeebies) and watched the episodes for: goat, gloves, glasses, grass. In small group time, we have continued to play a variety of blending games with words, where the adult sound talks a word and the children work out what the word is by blending the sounds together e.g. g-oa-t = goat. We have also enjoyed a variety of stories.

In our learning about ‘dreams & goals’, we have listened to the stories ‘After the Fall’ and ‘Almost Anything’, on the theme of perseverance.  We talked about how we all find things tricky at times but we should never give up and keep trying until we can do what we set out to do.  We introduced the ‘Persevering Parrot’ to help us remember ‘to keep trying’.

NEXT WEEK:

The children will be making scones to eat in school next week. The ingredients we will be using are:

  • self-raising flour
  • dairy free butter
  • water
  • a little sugar
  • raisins/sultanas

Please let us know if your child is allergic to any of the ingredients listed above. 

From the Nursery Team ?

Continue ReadingNursery: week 4 (w/c 23rd January 2023)

Reception – Spring Week 4

What a great week we’ve had in reception this week. One of the stories we enjoyed was called ‘Best Test’, which was about a group of woodland animals who couldn’t decide who should be allowed to eat a strawberry. They decided on a ‘best test race’ which would test all their abilities and the prize for the winner would be the delicious strawberry. Unfortunately, when the race finished a snail had eaten the strawberry! The animals decided that they had all been winners anyway as they had all become great friends during the race!

  • In our letters and sounds we have learnt the digraphs (two letters making one sound) ‘ur’ (curl the fur), ‘ow’ (wow owl), ‘oi’ (boing boing) and the trigraph (three letters making one sound) ‘ear’ (get near to hear) this week.
  • The children have been enjoying our daily dough gym and handwriting sessions. This week we have been learning how to write our zebra family letters – z, x, w and v.  
  • We learnt two songs this week, ‘If I Were a Minibeast’ and ‘Pitter Patter Caterpillar’ which the children really enjoyed. Both were quite a challenge and rather wordy, the children showed great enthusiasm and perseverance to retain the words in just a few days. 
  • For our cooking activity this week both our reception classes made jam tarts. The children were fantastic at weighing out the ingredients, rubbing them together to make the dough and finally rolling it out and cutting it before we baked them. The children then enjoyed sampling them for snack later in the day when they had cooled down – they were a real hit and by the end of the day we had none left!

A request:

We are collecting recycled materials for our junk modelling station. Ideally, we would like small boxes, washed yoghurt pots, kitchen rolls and small containers. Please can we ask that any recycled material that previously had nut products inside do not come in due to allergies that we have in school.  Please could the items be brought in a bag. Thank you                                 

Have a super weekend – the Foundation Stage Team ?

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Continue ReadingReception – Spring Week 4

Year 2 Learning W/B 23.1.23

We’ve had another busy week in Year 2.

In maths, we’ve started our learning about multiplication and division. We have been learning about equal and unequal groups and have had a go at making them.

In writing, the children have been writing their own stories based on Augustus and his Smile. They have been remembering punctuation, expanded noun phrases and are developing their handwriting too. Below are a few extracts to enjoy.

In art, the children have enjoyed painting; experiencing colour mixing and experimenting with creating texture.

We hope you have a super weekend from the Year 2 team.

Continue ReadingYear 2 Learning W/B 23.1.23

Football Success 23/01/23

The Exwick Heights 1st team have had a stunning start to the league! After losing their first match in a tight 2-0 game, the team knew that they had to pull out all the stops in order to climb up the league table. They came back with a fighting spirit and did not concede a single goal in their following three games, winning all with comfortable margins! They won 6-0 against Cranbrook A, 7-0 against Broadclyst and 6-0 against Cranbrook B! Impressive victories!

There have been so many highlights. Theo and Raff have both scored impressive goals from the half-way line earning the absolute respect of their team and coaches. In our most recent game, defending remained strong with Brody and Daniel steady at the back, keeping the ball far from Louis who was ready and fearless in goal. The team even encouraged another of our superb goalkeepers – Noah – to try his luck upfront where he successfully scored two superb goals showing his impressive range and skill as a player. Wilf and Brad, who have played many games for Exwick, kept a cool composure, making clean, confident passes whilst also scoring themselves. Riley, who the players voted as their captain for the game, controlled the game well with a calm and encouraging demeanor, passing the ball beautifully and scoring some stunning goals.

The team are a close-knit, talented group who display excellent teamwork, game on game. They are a pleasure to watch and I have every confidence that they’ll progress well through the tournament.

Congratulations Exwick 1st Team!

Miss Baxter

Continue ReadingFootball Success 23/01/23

Amazing art in year 3/4!

This week, we have seen some incredible art both in school and handed in for home learning. In school, we have looked at rainforests in art and the children have created beautiful pieces using rainforest images as a starting point.

Here are some of the wonderful pieces of home learning that have been handed in. The children have created beautiful drawings and paintings of Frida Kahlo or work inspired by her art.

In science, the children have continued learning about sound and will soon be creating their own musical instruments using materials like cardboard and plastic. Please send in any empty tissue boxes or cardboard boxes of a similar size, plastic bottles or plastic tubs which could be used to make an instrument. Thank you!

Continue ReadingAmazing art in year 3/4!

Happy frosty Friday from Year 5!

We have enjoyed another busy week. Ashton and Toby from 5 MW would like to tell you about our post today:

We have been learning about haikus, where you have to write a poem which is 3 lines long. The first line is 5 syllables, the second is 7 and the third is 5. To check if you have the right number of syllables, you can clap whilst saying the word. When writing a haiku, you can describe emotions or words like snow, monkeys etc. You can make your haiku rhyme if you want to, but you don’t have to.  Here are some of our modern haikus:

Fear

Body is trembling

Biting my lip really hard

Filling up with tears

Ella, 5MW

Boredom

Keep slumping over

Lost in a drought of nothing

I do not like this

Finley, 5MW

Angry

I was aggressive

Degusted, infuriated

In despair, felt betrayed

Jack 5LS

Powerful

Like a stampede

Nowhere to run, nowhere to hide

I need help, help me

Ruby 5LS

Here are some extended haikus we wrote too:

Anger

It smells like ashes

Here comes the hellish torture

Always attacking me.

My hope is long lost

I wish that no one was here

Come true, I need this

It tastes like a lime

Always bitter to me

I am mad at it

Sabela 5GT

Boredom

Nothing to enjoy

tastes like loneliness and guilt

I go to play games

Like devil’s murder

smells like a rainy weekend

sat there all alone

Misty and cloudy

horrible and deafening

stressed and wretched

Mason 5GT

Continue ReadingHappy frosty Friday from Year 5!

Snow, science and a super speaker!

This week the children were very excited to see the snow on Wednesday! We watched the snow safely from the sidelines and the children told us all about their slippery journey to school!

In science, the children have been learning about sound and will soon be making their own musical instruments which will need to change volume and pitch. Please keep any clean plastic bottles, tissue boxes, cardboard boxes or plastic pots which could be used to make their instrument and ask your child to bring them in to school. Here are some ideas for instruments they could make. https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/howto/guide/5-instruments-kids-can-make

In RE, we were visited by a brilliant Hindu speaker called Ravi who told us all about what his faith means to him and how he worships as a Hindu in Exeter. The children listened beautifully and were able to ask him some great questions about Hinduism.

The children have also drawn some amazing Hindu temples (mandirs) using shading and pencil control and made some from lego for home learning. Here are some incredible examples.

Continue ReadingSnow, science and a super speaker!

Reception – Spring Week 3

We have continued to explore our theme ‘into the garden’ reading a variety of stories. One of the stories we enjoyed was ‘Grumpy Frog’. In the story Grumpy Frog, he loves the colour green, he loves to hop, and he loves winning. But when Grumpy Frog doesn’t win, he gets very grumpy. Grumpy Frog learns about compromise and tolerance, friendship and the power of saying sorry.

  • In our letters and sounds we have learnt the digraphs (two letters making one sound) ‘oo’ (zoom to the moon), ‘oo’ (hook a book), ‘ar’ and ‘or’ this week. We have been spelling a variety of words, including tricky words (was, you, they) and reading sentences.
  • The children have been enjoying our daily dough gym and handwriting sessions. This week we have been learning how to write our cat family letters- c, a, d, o, e, f, g, s and q.
  • Our junk modelling station has been very popular this week the children have been making all sorts of interesting creations such as pirate ships, jet packs, superhero capes and witch’s hats!

For your information:

The children will be making jam tarts to eat in school next week. The ingredients we will be using are self-raising flour, raspberry jam and dairy free margarine. Please let us know if your child is allergic to any of the ingredients listed above.

A request:

We are collecting recycled materials for our junk modelling station. Ideally, we would like small boxes, washed yoghurt pots, kitchen rolls and small containers. Please can we ask that any recycled material that previously had nut products inside do not come in due to allergies that we have in school.  Please could the items be brought in a bag. Thank you                                 

Have a super weekend – the Foundation Stage Team ?

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Continue ReadingReception – Spring Week 3