YEAR 3
Thank you to all who have made me so welcome since coming back to West campus at the start of the week. A busy first week back after the Easter break. We began the week with a diagnostic assessment, before moving on to mental addition and subtraction skills. In developing these mental strategies, students can work out concepts in real life situations without needing to refer to a written formula. In English, we have written a recount of what happened over the Easter break before working on prepositions of place and time. In Topic we have introduced our new theme- rainforests, where students have been busy identifying the major rainforests around the world and researching the essential vocabulary. Finally in Science, students have been looking at the different parts of plants and learning the different key vocabulary to prepare for the rest of the unit.
YEAR 4
We were very pleased to return to school on Monday after a week’s holiday.
This week, in English, we looked at poems, featuring personification, and even tried our hand at writing our own poems. Poetry certainly makes the world come alive when pencils ‘walk’, windows ‘stare’ and chairs ‘growl’.
In Maths, we revisited telling the time, using analogue and digital clocks. We also honed our skills at calculating perimeter of rectilinear shapes
In Science, we focussed on the structure and function of human teeth, while in our Topic lessons we enjoyed dressing like young people did in the ‘Swinging Sixties’.
In Art, we finished painting our compositions, featuring tulips. We are very proud of our beautiful creations!
YEAR 5
It was so good to see my students back at school after the online learning and holidays. Everybody seems rested and eager to tackle this long and important term.
We explored Poetry further and met another English poet named Mikhael Rosen. This poet does not use Rhyme to compose poems, but has a lively way of telling funny stories which children can relate to. On Thursday the class had the opportunity to write their own poems, and I was delighted with the creative ideas they came up with. After Vanya complimented Polina's great poem by calling her Pushkin, the others joined in by trying to outwit Polina with better masterpieces (until now Polina upheld her title with dignity).
During Maths we continued with Fractions and adding and subtracting large numbers, and in Geography we explored Transport further.
A highlight of the week was the visit of Keepabeat, an organization teaching the basics of First Aid to Primary Kids. The excitement was huge when the Year 5's practiced Heart Massage on life size dolls, how to treat broken bones and to stop bleeding, amongst other things. The students each received a colorful manual, icepack and certificate at the end of the day. I hope that the children never be in a situation where they will have to use their knowledge of First Aid, but we can be assured that, should it happen, they have the knowledge of saving lives. First Aid Skills are extremely powerful tools in any young person's life!
