Spiritual, Moral, Social and Cultural Development (SMSC): Blog items
Introducing the superb cast of a Midsummer Night's Dream!
Date: 17th May 2021 @ 9:03pm
Twenty children from Year Five are going to be a Royal Shakespeare Company film this summer along with children from other local schools. Everyone has been really committed to learning their lines and are enjoying paericipating in such an exciting project! Here are a few photographs of the cast.
Fantastic Forest School Fun For Year Five!
Date: 17th May 2021 @ 8:41pm
Year Five have been really enjoying their forest schools sessions! They have completed a collaborative challenge of building a tower using only natural materials, found tadpoles in the pond, built a campfire and sampled popcorn cooked on the fire. The children are currently working towards the completion of a forest schools certificate.
Mental Health Awareness Week - Nature
Date: 12th May 2021 @ 8:25am
This week we got out into Nature and took notice of the world around us! We listened to the birds, smelled the grass and touched the grass whilst also noticing the wonder of nature. This was to help calm us down and give us som strategies to help improve our mental health. We also understood the 5 important things we can keep doing to help ourselves feel more resilient: Connecting with others, staying active, keeping learning, taking notice and giving of our time.
Date: 10th May 2021 @ 11:25am
Today, we took part in the #Take10 challenge. The event began with a 10 minute live event with the author Anthony Horowitz, who discussed what kind of books he enjoys reading and how he got into writing books. We all then read together for 10 minutes, including the adults. We are going to try and make sure we read for 10 minutes every day as this can help improve our vocabulary, our imagination and helps with our mental health.
Date: 10th May 2021 @ 7:27am
Today we began our DT journey of making pizzas. We looked at what we already knew about pizzas, including how we make them. We began by tasting pizzas and evaluating what we liked/disliked. After that, we went into Redcliffes to make our pizza sauce. We read through the pizza sauce recipe and weighed out and measured the ingredients we needed. Then, we all had a go at chopping and peeling onions and garlic. After that, we mixed together all of the other ingredients: tinned tomatoes, tomato puree, oregano, basil, brown sugar and a bay leaf. We then heated the sauce through for 20 mins and set it cool. At the end of the day, we blitzed the sauce to make it smooth.
Date: 7th May 2021 @ 8:13am
Today we began our DT journey of making pizzas. We looked at what we already knew about pizzas, including how we make them. We began by tasting pizzas and evaluating what we liked/disliked. After that, we went into Redcliffes to make our pizza sauce. We read through the pizza sauce recipe and weighed out and measured the ingredients we needed. Then, we all had a go at chopping and peeling onions and garlic. After that, we mixed together all of the other ingredients: tinned tomatoes, tomato puree, oregano, basil, brown sugar and a bay leaf. We then heated the sauce through for 20 mins and set it cool. At the end of the day, we blitzed the sauce to make it smooth.
Turning Negatives to Positives!
Date: 5th May 2021 @ 7:14pm
We have been busy over the past few weeks thinking about Healthy lifestyles. During DT day, we learned about making a healthy tortilla pin wheel using different ingredients; we learned about eating food in moderation and having lots of fruit and vegetables for the vitamins and minerals they give our bodies!
We also talked about having a healthy balance of work and play for our mental health, doing exercise and some mindfulness, having positive self-talk and resilience. We talked about turning the negatives into positives and how we can make sure that we appreciate and know what we are good at. For example
Shakespearian Actors and Actresses!
Date: 4th May 2021 @ 4:33pm
22 children from Year Five took part in a workshop with a Royal Shakespeare Company director and a number of other local schools.They rehearsed and acted out speeches from
Date: 29th Apr 2021 @ 7:58am
Year 4 had a lovely morning yesterday as they had a virtual visitor. The children completed a workshop on Ramadan as part of their topic question of why do Muslims fast during Ramadan. The children learnt more about why Muslims fast during Ramadan, when Muslims break their fast and the special celebration of Eid.
Fabulous Food - Tortilla Pin Wheels
Date: 28th Apr 2021 @ 4:12pm
Today we learnt about healthy eating and having a balanced diet in moderation. We created our own Vegetarian Tortilla Pinwheels which could be used for the Olympic Games Opening Ceremony party. First we looked at lots of different images and designs to find out what the pinwheels needed to be like - their shape, colour and ingredients. Then we taste tested the ingredients to find out which we liked and disliked. We designed our pinwheels and thought about how we need a variety of foods to be healthy from a range of food groups. Then we carefully and hygienically prepared the ingredients in the kitchen before we constructed our pinwheels. Finally we evaluated them to see if they were tasty and if we had been successful!
Date: 27th Apr 2021 @ 2:59pm
In Reception we have been reading the story
Date: 26th Apr 2021 @ 8:24am
This week we remembered Captain Sir Tom Moore and how much he fundraised for the NHS by completing 100 laps of his garden. He was inspirational and embodied the British Values and fighting spirit throughout the Covid Pandemic. We completed our own Challenge 100, by doing 100 of anything.
In Forest school some people collected 100 flowers or pinecones, did 100 star jumps, built their own tower and completed 100 leaps! Some people even made 100 sparks!
Reception learn about Vaisakhi and Sikhism
Date: 23rd Apr 2021 @ 8:49pm
This week Reception have been learning about Vaisakhi, a very important Sikh festival which a celebrated everyday year in April. The festival celebrates Sikh new year and the founding of the Sikh community in 1699. Miss Kaur brought in come special items from home to share with us and talked to use about how she and her family celebrate this festival together.
We found out the Sikhism originates in India, which is a very long way away. We were lucky enough to look at Miss Kaur's Granth, her special holy book, which includes scriptures and holy stories related to the Sikh religion. We also looked at
Date: 20th Apr 2021 @ 4:24pm
Fourteen children from Year Five took part in a musical theatre workshop with Georgia from the Italia Conti Theatre School. Everyone loved learning to sing, act and dance musical numbers from the musical
Date: 15th Apr 2021 @ 7:23pm
This week we had our first Forest School session and it was brilliant! The sun was shining and we had all remembered our outdoor clothes. We saw some tadpoles in the ponds, which we also filled up with water. We ate pineapple and we did some natural painting with berries. Some of us dug some holes and some of us started to make sparks to light small fires.
Date: 25th Mar 2021 @ 11:32am
Cedar class use daily sensory circuits to help them focus into learning. We focus on the 3 main elements to help stimulate the brain which increases pupils concentration. First, we activate the body by completing short active tasks. Today we focused on incresing the heart rate with shutle runs. Then we use coordinating activities to focus our mind. Today we used log rolls and balancing exercises. Finally, we calm our bodies by doing relaxing exercises to regulate our emotions and put us into the 'green zone' of regulation. Today we completed wall stretches and the weighted blanket.
Lots of Laughs for Comic Relief
Date: 22nd Mar 2021 @ 7:01pm
We wore red, brought in some fundraising money and told lots of funny jokes to Raise money for Comic Relief. Being funny and having a laugh is one of the resilient moves that we can use to help ourselves feel better and look after our own mental health and well being. We also raised money for different charities, while enjoying ourselves!
Year Five are enjoying creating their gymnastic routines working as a team with a partner.
Date: 22nd Mar 2021 @ 4:05pm
Over the last two weeks, Year Five have been creating routines in their gymnastics lessons. They have been mostly focusing on mirrored and matched balances, arabesques and different ways of travelling. Working together as a team was vitally important whilst devising their routines.
Date: 19th Mar 2021 @ 3:37pm
We had a great time raising money for Comic Relief today! We all swapped one piece of our uniform for something red to show our support. This afternoon we had a laugh a minute with some classic jokes and we played 'Pin the Nose on the Panda'. Thank you for all of your contributions for such a good cause!
Making animal habitats at Forest School
Date: 19th Mar 2021 @ 10:10am
This week at Forest School the children enjoyed learning about animals and their habitats. We talked about different habitas and what animals need to survive. The children then worked together to collect sticks, leaves, grass and stones in their buckets and used them to create their own animal homes.
"I'm putting leaves in mine to keep the animals warm" Ellie-Mae
"We are sticking the sticking in the ground to make a wall" Arthur.
Then we explored the Forest School area and looked for different animal footprints in the mud.
Afterwards we were made a fire to boil the water ready for our warm vimto drink. We talked about how to keep ourselves safe whilst making a fire. The we discussed the three different elements we need to make a fire; heat, wood and air.
"Lisa wears a special fire glove so she doesn't burn her hand' Lyra-Rose
"Never go in the middle of the circle beacuse you might get burnt" Oscar.
At the end of the session we enjoyed a lovely drink of warm vimto and sang some songs around the fire.
Date: 4th Mar 2021 @ 3:56pm
This afternoon, Cedar had great fun in our Boundary Forest School area.
First, we went to look in the ponds and couldn't believe how much frogspawn there was! We discussed the lifecycle of frogs and can't wait to watch them grow.
Next, we made jam donuts, yum! We lit the fire and set to work making the batter, before frying our donuts over the fire. They were absolutely delicious! We showed good resilience when using flints to start the fire and good team work when making the donut batter.
Date: 11th Dec 2020 @ 4:44pm
On Rainbow Laces day, we learnt about stereotyping in sport. We discussed who imagined when we said the sports: gymnastics, ballet, football and swimming. We looked at famous males and females in these sports and the amazing accomplishments that they have achieved. By the end of the session, we had a good understanding that it doesn't matter what gender we are, we should play sports that interest us most.
We learnt that we should not stereotype people or judge them based on their looks or genders. Be who you want to be and do the things that make you smile!
Rainbow Laces Day - Celebrating Diversity
Date: 10th Dec 2020 @ 8:34pm
This week we have been taking part in 'Rainbow Laces Day' which is a chance to celebrate diversity and learn about the importance of respecting other people's differences. We learned about a variety of sports people who are all LGBT, including Tom Daley and Colin Jackson. We discussed that all people are worthy of respect and it is wrong to disrespect people because they are LGBT.
Date: 30th Oct 2020 @ 10:25am
Music was our focus for Black History Month in Year 5. We focused on the contributions that artists such as Ella Fitzgerald and Bob Marley made to twentieth century music and culture. We listened and appraised different genres of music and created some wonderful artwork.
