Badger class have been really busy these last two weeks.  They have been making and baking bread.  We have used a bread-maker and the school ovens to produce a white loaf, brown rolls, and a spicy fruit loaf.  As you can imagine the aroma has been wonderful.  The children have worked in pairs and have produced wonderful work.  They know what ingerdients go into making bread and the techniques required, and have learned new vocabulary such as kneading and proving.

What a fantastic start to Term 4!

Thursday was the Big Day with Badger Class Assembly in the morning and our first Swimming Lesson at Ringmer School Pool.

The children were so excited about performing, there was a real ‘buzz’ to our subject! We hope you were Dazzled by our facts and Zapped by our energy.

The work on treasure maps has been such fun and encompassed many parts of the curriculum. It was an added bonus that we had the 300th anniversary of the rescue of Alexander Selkirk from a desert island, that prompted Daniel Defoe’s  novel Robinson Crusoe.

The water theme continued in the afternoon with our first swimming lesson at Ringmer Pool. Due to the help of many dedicated, talented volunteers we had a tremendous start to the lessons. The children were split into small groups which enabled them to get more specialist teaching  and their behaviour was impeccable. We assessed them according to the reply slips we received, then had some fun with swimming tools provided. It was great day. 

But we mustn’t leave the week without mentioning our Learning Journey for this term – Bread. We began by identifying as many different types of bread we could think of, and came up with more than the number of children in Badger Class. An impressive list and still growing!

It’s the end of a very busy, eventful term during which the children have learned lots about Light and Electricity. You will see some of their work at our class assembly and homework is to compose a short verse using words that rhyme with ‘Dazzle’ and ‘Zap’. We have begun preparing this in class.

Happy Handwriting Week was a great success! The children enjoyed writing out a verse of ‘You are old, Father William,’ by Lewis Carroll, which we read at the beginning of the week, and they saw, day by day, that their handwriting improved by comparing it with the previous day’s efforts. Each day one child was awarded a team point for the most improved handwriting and one child for the overall best of the day. On the final day two awards were given for the most improved handwriting. The challenge now is to remember to write that way in their work.

Next term our new Learning Journey is ‘Bread’. We will be studying the scientific aspects in the context of Materials and their changes of state, looking at different types of bread around the world, making bread, and as Easter approaches, explore the significance of the bread at the Last Supper.

Meanwhile, enjoy the break and we meet again in the first week of Lent, ready with our pancakes!

Our work for SATS  this week produced an enthusiastic stimulus in  making treasure maps, devising different kinds of treasure,  not always on an island, giving directions on how to get it, and providing clues in various forms. It has been exciting and enjoyable.

Next week we look forward to Happy Handwriting Week, when we will focus twice a day all week to improving our handwriting, including teachers!

We have had a very scientific week this week, exploring different types of Electricity – current mains and battery power – and static electricity. Today we had geat fun watching bits of tissue poaper cling to a plastic pen that had been rubbed on a woolly surface. The children experimented with these items and discovered ar first hand the properties of static electricity.

Homework over the next two weeks is to research some famous scientists who discovered things about electricity. The children are asked to make a poster of some scientists and their discoveroes about electricity.

This week we were delighted to welcome Miss Rachel  Baker as our new teaching assistant. She has spent time with the children in small groups and we look forward to working together.

Homework this week is about time and measurement. The children explored various places around the school identifying things which were as long as, longer than or shorter than a metre and then went on to measure smaller objects in centimetres and millimetres. They had great fun and made quite accurate measurements. There was also some very (honest?) estimating going on.

We have begun 2009 in style with an enthusiastic beginning to our new Learning Journey- Dazzle and Zap! This is a science journey covering the topics of Light and Electricity. The children will be carrying out investigations into the properties and characteristics of these two physical processes and finding out about some famous scientists. If this is your particular enthusiasm please contact me if you can help in any way.

Homework this week is about Venn Diagrams which have been the focus of our Handling Data unit.

It must have been THE most exciting event of the two terms. 600 children took part in the East Sussex Big Sing at the Brighton Centre, including over 50 KS2 children from Barcombe, almost the biggest group there. The children worked hard to learn the words  and had a taxing time during the day. All the hard work paid off, however, as in the evening they performed their best, and it was spectacular. The experience was enhanced by being with so many other schools and there were other delights to encourage the children to participatye in music, particularly the East Sussex Youth Orchestra, which showed the children what they can expect to achieve in Secondary School. The feedback was that threy did not want the evening to end.

Homework this week, the last for this term, is to design a Christmas Story Advent Calendar.  The children are to tell the story of Christmas in 24 pictures drawn on the calendar provided.  This homework can stay at home, to be filled in each day until Christmas.

We had our final rehearsal with the conductor of the Big Sing Concert, Mr. John Hancorn, who was full of praise for our quality of singing, number of children attending and enthusiasm for the musical Baa! that we have prepared. Final details have been communicated to you by letter and we are all set to go on Tuesday 2 December. It will be a great day and a wonderful precursor to our own KS2 Christmas Concert. Christmas is definitely on its way, with Advent beginning on Monday.

Homework this week is to learn two final songs that we have been preparing, we are almost there with them, and to plan and draw a storyboard for a story under five headings: 1 Opening, 2 Build up, 3 Problem, 4 Resolution and 5 Ending. We have been working on this form of story structure called a ‘Story Mountain’ in class. The children will then write the whole story under timed conditions next week.

A fabuluous set of festive songs to refine for our Big Sing Concert at Brighton and KS2 Christmas Concert is the main homework this week. The Musical ‘Baa!’ is for 2nd December but the traditional carols will form part of our KS2 concert. So, for both occasions the children need to know the words thoroughly.

Maths Minute is still gripping the children with excitement as all children can see their personal improvement since we began. There is a sheet for each child also for homework.