What a Choco-tastic Day in Year 4!

Year 4 had a choco-tastic time during our ‘Chocolate’ topic entry point day at Cadbury World where we learnt about how chocolate is made.  First we looked around the factory, learning about the history of Cadbury’s and how chocolate first came to Europe.  As we walked further into the factory we got to see some of the machinery that is used to produce and package chocolate bars.  As an added bonus, we were able to taste some melted chocolate with a choice of: white chocolate, popping candy and jelly babies as toppings.  At the end of the exhibition we were able to visit the 4D cinema, which we all thoroughly enjoyed.  To end our day we had a talk called ‘from bean to bar’ where we watched videos explaining how a cocoa bean is used to make chocolate.  To top off a fantastic day, we were given lots of free chocolate to take home and enjoy!

 

SCHOOL COUNCIL MEETING - Friday 7^th November

Hi all, just a quick, but exciting, note to tell you that the new and shiny ‘Huff and Puff’ equipment has arrived! We have tried to order everything you requested.

We are very lucky to receive all of these amazing items, so please take good care of the equipment whenever you are using it (as it costs lots of money!).

      Thanks for reading this message.

 From your Year 6 School Councillors,

Ali (Secretary) and Zain (Chairman)

 

PS – Remember to speak to your class’ School Councillor if you have any suggestions to improve life at Chilcote.

 

PPS – Look out for an exciting competition to win a place on a once in a lifetime School Council trip to…(you’ll have to wait and see).

Video lesson: Maths: Mental/written methods of doubling

Year 6 Football Match

On Wednesday 5^th November the Chilcote boys’ football team played against Severn Road School at Ninestiles. This was a tough game as both teams were unbeaten after their first matches.  The game started brightly for Chilcote who dominated the early possession. After a mad scramble in the Severn box, with the ball pin balling around the area, Chilcote grabbed the first goal of the game courtesy of Johnny. Chilcote continued to dominate and should have doubled their lead. Then, Severn began to come into the match and the game turned quite scrappy. Both teams tackled well and clearly wanted the result. After half time the match was still very even. Then, after a Severn corner Chilcote broke and Bradley fed Harry who managed to slip the ball past the goalkeeper. Chilcote then had a couple more chances to finish the game off, but didn’t take them. Overall this was a fantastic performance from the whole squad, who all played their part in the match. Well done boys let’s get another good result on Friday!!!  

Year 6 Treat – World War I Soldier Visit!

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Today, Year 6 were lucky enough to meet a ‘real’ World War One Soldier. He was in full khaki battle uniform, with equipment (including a rifle able to shoot 20 rounds a minute).

 The soldier was full of fascinating knowledge of what it was like to be a ‘Tommy’ in the trenches. He described what the conditions were like, what equipment was needed and how tough it was. In fact some of the soldiers were as young as 14 years old (they pretended they were older!).

 It sounded a tough existence in the trenches and not somewhere you would like to be – even for a day. In fact, soldiers died fighting over the same land in France and Belgium for nearly 4 years; most Tommies thought the war would be over by the first Christmas!

 We now look forward to learning more about World War I during Remembrance Commemorations next week (we even get a chance to dress up ourselves!).

 Thank you for reading.

 

 

Year 4's Trip to St Peter's Church

Today, Year 4 visited St Peter’s Church in Hall Green for the exit point day of our ‘Living Together’ topic.  The children had designed and made some wonderful, imaginative sculptures linked to the theme of remembrance.  To give them inspiration, they looked at existing art work, such as the poppies currently being showcased at the Tower of London.  To create their sculptures, the children thought about the values linked to Remembrance Day such as: respect, hope, love, peace and sacrifice.  When the children arrived, they were given the opportunity to present their sculpture to Reverend Stephenson and other members of the church.  After, they were given a tour of the church and were shown the images in the stained glass windows.  It was a lovely end to our community topic and gave the children the opportunity to reflect, and pay respect to those that fought in the war. 

Year 1's Day at Cannock Chase Toy Museum

The children in 1 Elm and 1 Fir thoroughly enjoyed their day at the Toy Museum. We have just started our new topic called 'The Magic Toymaker' and we are going to be learning lots about old and new toys and what materials were used to make old toys. Today the children learnt the names of some old toys such as a diabolo and a marionette puppet. They had great fun playing with the cup and ball, the yo-yos, the diabolo and the hopscotch! Before lunch the children compared old and new teddy bears and dolls and watched a fantastic puppet show! After lunch there was just enough time to make our very own peg dolls. Finally we pretended to be robots, soldiers and a jack in a box and learnt a super dance routine!

Magical Mayhem at Forest School!

There were all sorts of weird and wonderful happenings down at Forest School this week!

Heggarty, Hall Green’s resident witch, left the children a magical potion to find! It was very sparkly and smelt very strange. The children had a great time creating their own marvellous mixtures, based on treasures they found in the woods, and with the help of Heggarty’s Activation Potion, they were soon creating magic of their own! The children were transformed into fairies, zombies, vampires, bats and much more; they had a fabulous time and did some brilliant English work on instructions, adjectives, and drama at the same time.

The children have had a great time learning how to identify the different trees in our woods too, and have developed their own Makaton signs to help them remember which tree is which. We had a quiz to see who could identify the most leaves which the children loved!

Computing video lesson: The difference between the Internet and the World Wide Web

Video lesson: Maths: Mental/Written Methods Of Finding Division Facts

Our Super Skylines!

As part of our topic on 'Our World' year 1 have been exploring different skylines. We have looked at different artists' work such as Barabara James and L. S Lowry and made comparisons between urban and rural skylines. Take a look at our fantastic gallery!

Nursery's Diwali Day

This week Nursery have been learning about Diwali. We looked at special diva lamps and sung a song all about light.  We had a special talk and watched the candles being lit. We also enjoyed dancing to bhangra music and exploring the story of Rama and Sita.

After half term we will be starting our new 'colour' topic.  We will begin by learning about fireworks and talking about how we can stay safe on Bonfire night.

 

 

SCHOOL COUNCIL MEETING

Monday 13^th October

 

Today in our School Council Meeting we fed back to each other and here is what we are hoping to get in the future

Huff & Puff Equipment

Footballs

Skipping ropes

Different types of balls – rugby, tennis etc

Pogo sticks

Bouncy hoppers

Cricket bats

Table tennis bats & balls

Tennis racquets

Bowling sets

Stilts

Hoops

Netballs

Wobble boards

Swing ball

 

Thanks for reading from ALI  secretary of school council.  

Year 2 Geography: Shirley field study

We enjoyed a wonderful day on our geography field study trip to Shirley. First stop was the brilliant new library to see how the new building at Park Gate had changed the geography of the park area. We saw the part computers play in the running of the library; this fitted in with our Digital Literacy unit in Computing where we've been looking at technology in our lives.

After that, we recorded images and sounds of the park's human and physical geographical features, and made audio notes by using the amazing Book Creator app on the iPads.

Although most of us had been to Shirley Park before, looking at its Geography certainly helped us to see it and appreciate it in a new way.

Nursery's Autumn Treasure

Nursery have been busy collecting autumn treasure on the way to school this week.  We have been busy investigating the different items, and talking about what is the same and what is different. What coloured leaves can you spot?

Forest School are Buzzing about Bees!

On Wednesday, our Year 2 Forest School went to the allotments to meet our bee keeper friend, Colin Smith, to find out all about his bee hives and how his bees make yummy honey. We learnt so much and we all really enjoyed eating honey sandwiches with him! Colin's hives house 50,000 bees and this year alone they have produced 320 jars of delicious honey. We had a fantastic time learning from Colin, and got to sample some very tasty raspberries too. We are so grateful to our friends at Scribers Lane allotments for welcoming us there and the children are learning so much about growing and harvesting fruit and vegetables. Dave our school gardener has been helping too and the children really enjoyed helping him back at school.

Some fabulous facts about bees from Colin:
There are 500 types of bees in the UK alone
Honey is actually bee sick!
It takes 1000 bee journeys to make 1 teaspoon of honey
The queen bee lays 1,500 eggs a day!
Male bees are called drones and don’t leave the hive. It is female bees who collect nectar and can sting you... But they only sting if they are threatened.

2 Rowan in the garden

Inspecting the French beans

Digging the compost

Preparing the ground for next year

Constructing a house for wildlife

Learning about the different plants

Assisting Dave our fantastic garden expert

Harvesting the Plum tomatoes