From Mrs Ross

My highlights have been many and have included the wonderful Pilgrims' Play session today, when Mr Burton led a fabulous 'All Join In' music session with the Pre-School visitors and our Reception boys.  Another highlight demonstrated the resilience of our very youngest learners on their return from a chilly Forest School morning.  The excitement of bringing me two frozen orbs, whilst asking me to look closely at the "nature inside the ice!" was both delightful and infectious!  I have also enjoyed several lunches with the Year 1 and 2 boys, who have been working hard on their table manners and healthy eating habits.  Well done boys!

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Pilgrims' Shell Awards

• Year 2 – to Oliver E for his self-motivated independence towards his work throughout this week. Well done, Oliver!
• Year 1 - to Attilio S - for listening and taking on board advice on how to improve his work and acting on this next time.
• Reception - to Arthur O-B for his increased enthusiasm and effort with his independent drawing and writing.

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Diary dates

Diary dates	Times	The week ahead
Friday 3 February	0915-1130	Pre-Prep Open Morning for prospective parents
Saturday 4 February	0800-0830	PPA Breakfast in the Yard at drop-off
Friday 10 February	1115-1145	Celebration Assembly for Parents, Octagon
	1200	Half-Term begins
Monday 20 February	0830	Term resumes

 

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Notices

Menus - Please find a link to next week's menus here, on My School Portal. 

Message from the Head Nurse, Nicki Beaumont:

This is a reminder to all parents and guardians that we have boys with severe allergies to certain foods, and therefore have a policy whereby no food is to be brought into the school and/or given to boys at any time, especially at Sign-Out.
Some boys are so allergic to allergens like sesame and nuts that even their smell is enough for them to have a severe reaction. Please could you help us with disseminating this information to family and friends to keep our boys safe.
Many thanks.

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From the PPA

To book tickets for the PPA Quiz night, please go to My School Portal and select the Bookings tab. Then choose the PPA Quiz form.

 

Year 2

Our journey of Africa has continued through Tanzania and the Serengeti, stopping off to see some of the footage of the animals that live there via the fantastic BBC production of the same name. We have visited Addis Ababa, the capital city of Ethiopia, to compare the life of a young girl from this city with the life of a young girl living in another similarly hilly capital city, Edinburgh. The boys were interested to learn that the two children led very similar lives … they both ate types of pancakes for breakfast!

We have also travelled back to Kenya to finish our reading of the story, Lila and the Secret of Rain (mentioned last week) and retell the story by creating a story map and develop our understanding of using time conjunctions to link our sentences together e.g. next, after that, finally, in the end. Before leaving Kenya behind, we have also taken the time to visit the Maasai Mara and the famous tribe that live there. The boys’ interest was certainly piqued by the ‘jumping dance’ that the men in the tribe perform and the amount of colourful beads and jewellery that they wear.

Friday’s art lesson saw the start of boys creating their own Maasai tribal jewellery… watch this space for colourful updates! Interestingly, the boys spotted that the Maasai tribe’s favourite colour is also red which the boys connected to their learning of Chinese New Year last week.

Thankfully, we have also had the time to finish our patterned Chinese Dragon decorations too, to practise our handwriting using a programme on the Surface Gos, and to join in a joint singing assembly with the Junior boys and their Junior Band.

Phew! We do like to keep everyone busy!

Mrs Ford
 

Year 1

This week in Year 1 the boys have been exploring The Chinese New Year.  They have learnt more about the different traditions and how many families celebrate this.  

"The Lunar Race" story was read together.  This story, if you do not know it, is of a race between twelve animals.  The Jade Emperor sets a challenge that if the first twelve animals complete the race successfully by crossing the river to the finish line, they will have a year named after them.  Each animal completed the race, except the poor cat.  Ask your son why the cat did not have a year named after it!  Ask them also if they think the rat, was a deserved winner!  This story is great also for looking deeper at characteristics, personalities, winning and losing and fairness.  A great read if you can find a copy and share it at home.



 As this is the Year of the Rabbit, the boys explored what a rabbit is like.  We then looked at how some people believe that if you were born in the year of the rabbit, you have certain characteristics and personalities.  The rabbit is seen to be creative, witty, soft and warm, affectionate, positive and clever.  We then looked at which year people were born in, and I set the challenge to find out what characteristics this animal has, and if this was true about the person.  Which year are you born in?  What characteristics does this animal have?  Is this like you?  

Using the rabbit and talking more about Chinese traditions, lucky colours and actions were discussed.  Why do some people sweep their homes and premises at the beginning of the Chinese New Year?  Which colours are seen to be lucky?  Using this information, the boys learnt about silhouettes and sun sets and sponge printing.  They created colourful sun set sponge pictures adding a rabbit silhouette. I think they look very affective, and have decorated our classroom beautifully for the Chinese New Year. The boys will bring these home at the end of next week so you can equally admire them.  

A busy week!  Well done for all of your hard work boys.

A few notices:

• *Please can all boys have a warm woolly hat and gloves in school every Wednesday for Forest School, it can get quite cold.
• *Every Friday we will have a "Show and Tell" session in class.  If the boys would like to, they can bring a show in from home ready to tell about it.  Please can this not be a toy, anything precious that could get broken or something that you have said they can NOT bring.  The best ideas for example, are something that has been made, found when on a day out, a souvenir from an outing or something unusual to tell about.  Please support your son in knowing what they are going to say because they will be asked questions about their show and need to be confident in talking and answering the questions.  This session has been very popular in the past and really helps to develop speaking and listening skills.

Many thanks for your continued support.

Mrs Huntley

 

Reception

In Reception this week we have been learning more about the Chinese, Lunar, New Year. The boys have immersed themselves in our role play area, dressing up as the Jade Emperor who instructed the animals to have a race across the river in order to name the twelve Zodiac years.

They have learnt many facts about the traditions and how it is celebrated in different parts of the world. The colour red has featured highly, being the colour of happiness and good luck, from coloured water, sand and noodles to name a few.

With, beautifully decorated, lanterns and dragons adorning our classroom it really does have a Chinese feel, Well done boys, Kung Hei Fat Choi to you all!

Mrs Kent

 

Forest School 

This week with Year R, we explored the process of freezing and melting. The boys were give a frozen ice globe filled with some wonderful natural materials. The boys spent some time using magnifying glasses to see what they thought was hidden inside their globe. We also had some fun creating some games we could play with our ice orbs.

The art of storytelling is great fun. On our journey to the arboretum we told the story of the ‘Three Little Pigs’ with the help of the boys. On arriving at the arboretum, we chatted about a suitable home for the three little pigs and the boys worked in small groups to try and create a home that would withstand the ‘huffs and puffs’ of the big bad wolf!

The Year 2 boys recalled some of the knots they had previously learned in their Forest School sessions, and I gave them the challenge of seeing how far they could make a stick travel using some string and another stick! Of course, the boys very quickly realised they had the required skills to make a bow and arrow and rose to the challenge. We then put their designs to the test, which caused great amusement. At the end of the session we chatted about some of the challenges they had faced.

Mrs Walker