Welcome back to the Summer Term!

On our return to school after the Easter holidays, we found a message in a bottle.  The message explained that we were stranded in a deserted island and hidden around the school were objects to help us with our survival (well, notes telling us what we had found)

Conrad, Jake, Abigail and Emily soon realised how much perseverance is needed when searching for survival. After a good 20 minute seeach and 3 sets of clues, they finally found their message.

I was so impressed with the ideas and knowledge that children already have about survival skills and we had great discussions throughout the morning.  They then had to write their own message in a bottle.  For just the first few days back after a long holiday, I was by impressed at the creativity and imagination they added into the letters.

We have been learning about how symbols are used for maps and to help plan routes which is an important part of survival.  In groups, children designed their own island, thought about where they wanted to place different things and then drew a map with symbols and a key to match.

We have also enjoyed our first music lesson for the term, using the Djembe drums to help us learn about and play cyclic patterns.  I was very impressed how quickly so many made progress with being able to hear, play and repeat rhythmic patterns.  (Luckily class 3 were out at PE as it was a little loud!) 

We have finally finished reading Kensuke's kingdom, our class book, and already I have seen ideas from the book in children's writing this week.  This book, and our new Michael Morpurgo class book, will link through our topic as both link to survival on a deserted island.  Our art work this week linked to Kensuke's Kingdom.  We looked at the art work of Hokusai, a Japanese artist.  I have been so impressed with the art work produced.  Here are some interpretations of 'The Great Wave.'

And in amongst this I have really enjoyed discussing learning with each child this week in our learning conferences. I was particularly proud of how clearly and confidently all could speak about their learning and we could discuss together successes of last term and targets for the coming term.  A copy will be coming home for you to see next week. 

Mrs McMillan