Month: February 2023

The Three Billy Goats Gruff

Scott Grason-Taylor

The Pioneers made table top representations of the story of the Three Billy Goats Gruff and combined a variety of interesting materials to do this. They used cups and paint sticks to make bridges and then went on to explore how to build other structures. The resulting work was incredible.

The Pioneers got to the point of realising that to build a taller tower they needed a wider base and they set to work to build a wall higher than themselves. Of course,what goes up must come down…and it did!

Great team work and communication was involved.Everyone was careful and respectful and supportive. We discussed our Christian value of forgiveness and everyone was helpful when the wall came tumbling down.

This work will continue into next week.

Learners are awesome!

Scott Grason-Taylor

Wow, we have had a busy, busy week of learning. 

On Monday, we explored printing in relief in Art. We drew our design on paper first, then etched our design onto a polystyrene tile. Using a roller we applied paint and printed onto our sketch books. We were amazed and excited to see the results.

This week in PSHE we have been learning about the people and services that can help us in an emergency. We found out how to phone 999 in an emergency and what we would need to do if this happened. Learners were very sensible and serious about the discussions around this and understood this would only happen if a grown-up wasn’t around to ask at the time.

We are continuing to learn more about Islam in RE and Learners are confident in articulating their understanding. This week, we have found out that a place for worship for a Muslim is a mosque and looked at the traditions surrounding this. We were also interested to find out about the five pillars of Islam and how these five things helped to make a Muslim a better person. Ask your Learner to tell you wat these are!

Friday lunchtime was the perfect end to a busy week. As well as our usual lunchtime music in the playground, we enjoyed a multitude of bubbles from our new bubble machine! Happy weekend everyone!

Learners Class 

Amazing Adventurers!

Scott Grason-Taylor

Hello everyone,

We have had another brilliant week in Adventurers class at Sleights and have all been working extremely hard.

In English, we have started to explore balanced arguments. We are writing about whether animals should be kept in captivity or not. We love learning about this and creating our own fact files about zoos on Jamboard using our Chromebooks.

We learnt DT for the first time this term, creating the tallest towers out of paper. It was very tricky to get them to stand up on their own. We look forward to finding out more about structures in the next few weeks.

In Science, we finished our electricity topic by learning about Micheal Faraday. We will be exploring about living things and their habitats next. 

We have been also been going on Jamboard in computing with Mrs Gurney, creating our own superhero posters. This is really fun!

We hope we have another fabulous week next week. 

Adventurers 🙂

 

The Elf Wants a Rocket

Scott Grason-Taylor

The elves left a video and a letter asking for a rocket. The Pioneers made great efforts with glue and string and paper fasteners and tape to create a wide selection of rockets. They created annotated diagrams noting the materials used and their function. This was stunning work.

A delivery arrived of a water powered rocket and this caused great excitement. We took it out on to the field after discussing any possible risks. We found a safe spot away from houses and trees where the rocket may have got stuck.

The Pioneers counted down from 10 to blast off then ran to collect the rocket after each flight.

They successfully managed their outdoor kit and we didn’t make too much mess of the carpet.

Then later in the week our families joined us for a wonderful session of rocket building and story telling.

It was a wonderful week of learning.

Happy Half Term!

Scott Grason-Taylor

Hello families,

Adventurers have had an amazing week at school this week, topping it all off with raising lots of money for the Children Heart Unit Fund (CHUF) by wearing red, creating art and baking lots of cakes. Also, we want to say a huge thank you to everyone who joined us for out storytelling morning on Thursday. 

In computing, we learnt how to touch type on BBC Dance Mat. We had lots of fun, eventhough it was a little bit tricky. 

We continued to look at Jessica Hogarth’s wallpaper designs in art and created our own colourful and quirky artwork inspired by where we live. 

In PE, we held a hockey match against each other. This is helping our teamworking skills. 

We have finished writing our Wisp narrative stories in English. Everyone has done a really fab job and have created some really exciting stories. 

Adventurers 🙂 

Friday 10th February 2023

Scott Grason-Taylor

The Leaders have finished a brilliant half term by writing their independent flashback stories in English. It was a pleasure to read them all. Well done, Leaders!

In science, the children learned about voltage and explored the impact of it on the brightness of a bulb. The children made excellent predictions and supported these with their scientific knowledge. 

On Thursday, it was lovely to welcome families into school again to take part in our storytelling morning. The children enjoyed creating their own stories using the story telling props and cards. 

On Friday, we ended the half term by raising funds for CHUF, a charity that supports babies and children with heart disease. It was great to see so many children in school wearing red and for the children to reflect on why we raise money for this cause. A highlight for all children was the whole school cha cha slide for CHUF. 

Have a great half term everyone!

Storytelling Week

Scott Grason-Taylor

Hello Families,

This week we have enjoyed embracing ‘Storytelling’ within each day. 

We have spent time writing thought-provoking stories, to share the struggles of those who are refugees and migrants. 

When we were joined by families on Thursday morning, we shared our stories to raise awareness, and we also worked on writing new stories that were inspired by the things we are interested in.

Including our newly-learned IT skills, we have also worked hard creating stories using Chromebooks, and made them look professional through the use of formatting. 

As we spend our final week of this half-term learning about Generosity, we are thinking of ways that we can continue to help Refugees and migrants. Please pray for those in needs, and help where you can. 

Discoverers 

A Silver Award for the Hedgehog Heroes!

Scott Grason-Taylor

We are overjoyed to celebrate our Silver award accredited to Sleights this week. Learners class have delighted in their role as Hedgehog Heroes over the last two years. We have shared posters, lead assemblies, written to neighbours and many other things in our campaign to raise the awareness of hedgehogs in our community. We cheered together and felt very proud as our Silver award was announced! A huge well done Learners Class old and new!

As part of our history work, we have been learning about the different types of monarchy this week. We found out about the differences between absolute monarchy and constitutional monarchy and we decided that a constitutional monarchy was a much fairer way to rule! However, we did enjoy creating our own rules and laws as rulers of an absolute monarchy – this was great fun!

On Friday, Learners class have been printing as inspired by our focus artist Andy Warhol. This week we were concentrating on making a clean print and used a range of hard and soft materials. We are looking forward to looking at more of Andy Warhol’s styles and  techniques.

Come and join us on Thursday 9th February, as we will be opening the classroom doors to families to join us for some storytelling activities. Learners can’t wait to share their favourite stories with you!

Counting and Sorting and Lots of Talking

Scott Grason-Taylor

This has been another truly tremendous week of learning in Pioneers. We know what we need to do and we are getting it done. The Pioneers have been excited about number with a focus on the composition of 6,7 and 8. We have talked about what we see and how we see it when looking at collections of objects. We then used counters and wonderful blutac to represent 6,7 and 8 and then wrote calculations using = and +. We also worked on our number formation.

We talked about the shapes and built with them,discussing which were best to stack and roll and why some others were a bit more challenging. The Pioneers spotted faces they recognised and built up their mathematical vocabulary to describe what they saw. We sorted them by colour and by shape and by size. This was fabulous to observe.

Notes were written to add to our buildings.

Friday again!

Scott Grason-Taylor

What a busy week Adventurers have had again!

We have continued planning our Wisp refugee stories in English and are ready to start writing them next week. Everyone has really enjoyed reading The Wisp and we are excited to add our own twist to the story in the book.

In PE, we played our first hockey game in teams of 4. We had so much fun and are getting better and better at passing and defending the ball.

We have started exploring a new artist in art, who is a little closer to home. Jessica Hogarth is from Robin Hood’s Bay and we have all been really inspired by her artwork and created our own sketches of Whitby in black pen.

In science, we have tested whether different materials are conductors or insulators. We have also learnt about how insulators can keep us safe. 

Adventurers 🙂