Year 1's Puppets

As part of our topic "The Magic Toy Maker" we designed and made our own puppets.   First we needed to look at puppets that can be bought in the shops and decide if the were well made and a good design.  We also looked at how they were put together.   Next we designed two different sorts of puppets and decided which one we wanted to make.

Some of us made glove puppets using old socks, lots of us made sharks with sharp teeth!   Some of us made dragon puppets, we used paper cake cases for the body and straws for the handles.   Other puppets were made from felt, fabric, buttons and wool.    We all had lots of fun designing and making our puppets and are really looking forward to playing with them.



Year 4 Ancient Egyptian pharaohs homework

Here are the links from on the Ancient Egyptian pharaohs homework sheet.

http://www.globalegyptianmuseum.org/kids.aspx?lan=E

http://primaryhomeworkhelp.co.uk/egypt/pharaoh.htm

Remember to use these as a starting point and write what you find in your own words.

We are looking forward to hearing about what you find out!

Year 4 Entry Point Day

Year 4 had a fantastic day on Monday this week, when experts came to deliver our entry point day for our new topic, 'Temples, Tombs and Treasures'.

All of the children took part in several workshops covering different areas of Ancient Egyptian history.  The children learnt about Ancient Egyptian food, music and dance.  The children were shown how linen was made and were told about the clothing that the Ancient Egyptians wore.  It was great to see some of the children wearing Ancient Egyptian outfits and we all found it entertaining when a child from each class got to wear a wig!

The children particularly enjoyed the workshops on Ancient Egyptian toys and mummification.  In the toys workshop they got to play with the toys; including wooden blocks that could be used to play jenga, marbles and they learnt that all toys were made from wood or clay.  Year 4 experienced that these types of games can be more fun than more modern games that require technology!  The mummification workshop was great fun with the children working in teams to wrap one team member in bandages.

In the afternoon they learnt about the Battle of Kadesh and took part in a reenactment with each class playing the role of the two armies.
It was a brilliant experience and the children learnt a lot about their new topic.

Year 3 History Day

Year 3’s new topic Scavengers and Settlers focuses on the survival and lifestyle of early man. The time periods we are learning about range from the Stone Age to the Iron Age. 

Year 3 children enjoyed an all day workshop as part of their entry point day exploring parts of the fashion, diet, and weapons of early man. Year 3 were given the opportunity to take part in workshops based around the Stone Age. The children created a class cave painting, and also enjoyed learning about hunting, traditional burials, and tools used by early man. 

Year 3 investigate a Stone Age burial in their Murder Mystery task!

Creating hand prints as part of Year 3's cave painting workshop.

Year 3 investigate tools and weapons used in the Stone Age.

Doctor Foster needs Nursery's help!

Nursery are really enjoying learning lots of new nursery rhymes as part of their topic this half term. On Thursday we received a special letter from Doctor Foster who asked us to help him find the best material to make a waterproof hat and coat. The material had to wipe dry after water had splashed on it, like in his rhyme:


Doctor Foster went to Gloucester in a shower of rain.
He stepped in a puddle, right up to his middle,
And never went there again!



We found that leather and rubber were the best materials for the job!

Year 5 and 6 Mixed Sportshall Athletics

On Wednesday 14^th January 18 children, from years 5 and 6, represented Chilcote in a mixed sportshall athletics competition at Billesley Tennis Centre. They were competing against two other schools; Hollywood and Grendon. Although, other schools will be competing on a different day and the overall winner will be decided from the two days. The events included: obstacle relay, relay races of varying lengths, over under relay, chest push, standing long jump, speed bounce, vertical jump, standing triple jump and javelin throw. All of the children tried their best and really pushed themselves to get the best times/distances that they could. The children were awarded points based on these times and distances. Chilcote ended the day on 212 points, which put them in first place, only 2points ahead of Hollywood in second. Well done to all of the children involved (Seren, Connie, Phoebe, Megan, Anika, Emily, Aleena, Ellie, Leah, Ali, Max, Bradley, Johnny, Jack, Kyle, Leo, Sam and Zain)!!!   

Year 2 Topic: Circus Entry Point Day

Our new topic is called, ‘The Circus is Coming to Town'. So, today we were treated to a visit from Richard, who is a professional juggler. He taught us all his amazing tricks using: scarves, juggling balls, peacock feathers, ribbons and spinning plates. We also discovered the science of circus performances by watching these incredible circus videos. It all built up to us performing in front of the entire school in assembly where we also wore the fantastic clown bow ties and hats we had made. We all received an enormous round of applause from our astonished audience and Richard capped the day off by balancing on a skateboard whilst juggling three large skittles!

We cannot wait to start our topic where we'll be juggling: English, where our class novel will be Claude at the Circus; Maths, where we’ll be investigating how money is involved in the circus; Computing and Design Technology, where we’ll be building and programming our own Crazy Clown robots; PE, where we’ll be creating circus dance sequences to music using props and the skills Richard taught us; History, where we’ll be researching how circuses have changed; Geography, where we’ll be mapping our own dream circuses and identifying where and why circuses are popular with different cultures around the world; Science, where we’ll be fair-testing materials for circus tents and thinking about how the circus can upcycle drinks bottles that people leave behind to help the travelling circus workers and performers; PSHE, where we'll be thinking about how animals are used in circuses and imagining life as a traveller; Art and Design, where we'll creating self-portraits as clowns! As if that wasn't enough, we'll all be bringing in our Circus homework projects for an exhibition on our Exit Point Day.

PHEW!

In assembly I talked about how fortunate we all are at Chilcote to access free education and to enjoy a range of activities.  I also said that it was important to take all the opportunities that are presented to you and that you could make a new year's resolution about this.

The illustration above by Satoshi Kitamura shows articles 28 and 29 from the UN Convention on the 'Rights of the Child.' 28 All children and young people have the right to free primary education. 29 All children and young people have a right to relax and play, and to join in a wide range of activities.

What can you see in the picture?
Name some of the activities that you are able to take part in.
What new activities or challenges would you like to do in 2015?

Year 6’s Design Technology Christmas Stockings

This week Year 6 started creating some outstanding stockings by using brilliant coloured felt and thread; also they were provided with a sharp needle. To start off with the children had to evaluate the stockings from previous years and others which had been bought from the supermarket. They answered questions like: ‘why do you think this material has been used?’ These got many fantastic answers!

Next the children created wonderful designs - there were many vibrant and warm colours filling the page!!

Then, they all had to write a set of helpful instructions, which they could use like a recipe for a cake; this took a while but it was all worth it.

Finally came the exciting part – we began sewing. At first it was very tricky for new sewers, but they soon got the hang of it and everybody had their head down working extremely hard on their stockings. As time passed you could walk past the room and see startling stockings filling the room with Christmas spirit and striking Christmas colours!!

The next thing you knew was that everybody had a fabulous handmade stocking to admire and take home…now Year 6 is going start their Christmas party and hopefully have a lot of fun.

By Amy, Year 6.

Junior Choir visit Oak Tree Court

On Thursday 11^th December, Junior Choir visited Oak Tree Court Residential home to perform some of our favourite songs and have a Christmas sing a long with our friends there.

We enjoyed drinks and some lovely Gingerbread men whilst chatting to the residents and were lucky enough to take part in a soft toy raffle which was won by Luke! We had a lovely time and thoroughly enjoyed our visit.

Many thanks to all the residents who made us so welcome and many thanks also to Mrs Bundy and Mrs Grigg who accompanied us on our visit.

Year 2 Computing: People of the Past Scratch projects

This half-term we have spent:

1 hour playing with Scratch

1 hour doing a homework research project

2 hours writing and drawing a storyboard

6 hours programming and debugging with Scratch

1 hour self and peer evaluating.

We thought about all the skills we’d used to complete our project:

Safe web researching

Programming

Maths

English

Art

Music

History

PHEW! Mr. Setchell and Mrs. James are so proud of our work. Here’s three examples you can check out for yourself . . .

http://scratch.mit.edu/projects/39859202/

http://scratch.mit.edu/projects/39862550/

http://scratch.mit.edu/projects/39861768/

Reception Nativity

On Thursday 11th December both Reception classes performed brilliantly during our nativity. We were so proud of their clear voices and beautiful singing and now we really feel like it is Christmas. Well done everyone, we think Santa was watching and he was very impressed!

Year 6 Christmas Joy!

On the 11^th December, Year Six had lots of fun making Christmas cards. They all looked fantastic with beautiful bells on the front and lovely red card behind. All the children enjoyed making them and I am sure our families will also enjoy putting the cards somewhere everyone can see them at home. Our marvellous 'making' skills really shone when we were creating these masterpieces; they looked incredible!  

Furthermore, Year 6 are designing and making more 'Christmasy things,' such as our Design Technology topic, which is to create a super Christmas stocking. We have already designed and planned what our fantastic stockings will look like in our D.T. booklets, and I can assure you that the blueprints all looked great!

We will have to use our sewing skills as the stockings will be made out of felt, silk and cotton and sewed together using running and blanket stitches. The actual making will take place next week and none of us can wait for this festive fun! Whilst the designs are now finished, we are currently working on the instructions, which will help us when it comes to make these awesome stockings next week.

So far during this winter week we have had lots of fun and we know that we will continue to enjoy the rest of it!

Thanks for reading!

Grace, Year 6.

Festive Fun at Forest School!

This week our Forest School sessions sadly came to an end, but we had a brilliant last session! We invited our parents to come down to the woods with us, showed them around the allotments and the woods, and shared all our brilliant experiences and memories with them.

We have been working on making fire and fire safety over the last few weeks, and it was great to set up the fire circle, have a bonfire, and cook crumpets and toast marshmallows with our families! The crumpets were delicious with the honey from the bees from the allotments.

We also added a bit of festive cheer to the bare winter trees with our beautiful pine cone Christmas decorations and God’s Eyes.  It was great to see so many mums and dads joining in too!

A big thank you to all the parents and grandparents, who gave up their time to come with us.  Also to Dave who comes with us every week. And well done to all the children in Year 2. You have been a fantastic group, grown in confidence and made brilliant progress!

Chilcote e-safety advice centre for pupils

Click this link to use the Chilcote e-safety advice centre

Value of the month: Love

Today in assembly, we thought about our value this month which is 'Love' by covering many of the subjects we do at school . . .

Music: We sang along to 'All you need is love', by The Beatles at the start of the assembly.

English: We used our Speaking and Listening skills to share what we thought Love meant.

RE: We thought about this Bible passage, 'Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one's life for one's friends'.

History: We learned that a famous World War I poet Wilfred Owen wrote a poem called 'Greater Love'.

Science: Grace shared that your heart pumps blood around your body and speeds up when you see someone you love like your parents at home time.

Maths/Art/Computing: We all created this binary image of a heart by working as a team.

We all held red or white card to make the shape of a heart.

SCHOOL COUNCIL EVENT: ST.BERNADETTE’S SCHOOL VISIT!

Today we had a really fun time as St Bernadette’s Catholic Primary School (from Yardley) came to visit us at Chilcote!

We got to know each other over some squash and biscuits; we talked to each other and made lots of new friends.

Then, amazingly, we were recorded being interviewed (we got asked lots of different types of questions and we asked some questions too).

Soon enough we got to know each other well and we became really good friends. The teachers from the other school were really friendly and nice too!

Hopefully the final edited video of our interviews will be available on our school website – it’s really interesting, so have a look out for it! If there’s time you could even see it in a Class Council!

 

From Ali

School Council Secretary.

Anti-Bullying Day in Year 3

Children in Year 3 took part in learning about anti-bullying through reading myths and legends, creating story boards, playing games and created anti-bullying posters. The children in Year 3 also enjoyed creating artwork and slogans to raise awareness about anti-bullying in school. The children then took turns to exhibit their work to the students in Reception. 

Playing Anti-Bullying games in teams.

Working in groups to share ideas about Anti-Bullying.

An exhibition of work in Reception.