Our Lady Star of the Sea Catholic Primary School
This weeks spelling are:
Reading
The children’s reading targets have been reset ready for this half terms reading. Please continue reading at home daily.
Purple Mash - How do muscles work? Us ethe clipart and writing prompts to write about how muscles in our body work.
Summer 1 Optional homework
New oprional home learning available for summer - you might want to find out more about William Shakespeare as we are exploring the Tempest in class! We are using active teaching methods- its fun!
Read moreAnother glorious week in the garden! Our meadow seeds have started to germinate and after the holidays we have lettuce, sweetcorn, radishes cucumber, beans and peas to sow, Mmmm all those yummy veggies, we have also noticed our raspberry cane and strawberries are getting flowers on them!!! Watch this space!
Worship
This week it has been Holy Week in school. We have attended the school assemblies which have depicted Jesus’ journey to the cross. Classes 2-6 have represented the Easter story so movingly using dance, music and words. When we discussed what we had watched the children said they found each depiction very “sad”, but we know it was God’s plan and that Jesus would “come alive again”.
We talked about how the world can be a very strange place at times. Things that we take for granted, simple things like visiting friends, going to a café, sometimes are are no longer possible. At these times it is easy to become afraid, to feel isolated, to feel the world will never be the same, yet we are called to be a People of Hope. We wondered; How can we hope in these situations? The children said to pray and to believe in Jesus, he would never leave us.
A visit from Rachel
Our friend Rachel came to school on Tuesday to explain the Jewish celebration of the Passover, this was something the children were really curious about during her first visit. We found out that Passover is a major Jewish spring festival commemorating the Israelites' liberation from slavery in ancient Egypt, marked by the avoidance of leavened foods and a special meal called a Seder. We all had a taste of matzah, a flat, unleavened bread which looked and tasted a bit like a cracker.
Emma’s blog
Hello everyone.
What a very busy week we have had. The children are definitely ready for a rest.
The children have been practicing their cutting skills this week, and they have made good progress and have much better control when using scissors. The children have been busy cutting all sorts of objects, like tubes, boxes and bits of craft paper. They have been coming up with their own ideas and creations, for example, telescopes, phones, and even birthday candles. Such fun.
In PE this week, Mr. Nay and Mr. Murray introduced golf to the children. It was brilliant! The children really enjoyed using the golf putters, trying to hit the ball between two cones. It was tricky but we kept practicing to get our hold and technique correct. We also have been practicing our running skills, having a go at running in lanes on the field. This was tricky, hopefully, with lots of practice, we will have mastered it by Sports Day!
We have been keeping a keen eye on our tadpoles, looking for any changes. Guess what?! we have noticed that some are starting to get their back legs! It’s amazing! I wonder what they will look like by the time when we return to nursery after the holidays.
I hope you all have a wonderful Easter and enjoy your week off.
Emma
Michelle’s blog
Hello everyone and welcome to this week's blog
We have had a very busy week, as we gathered with school each day as we watched the children tell the Easter story. The children were mesmerized as the watched and listened. I'm sure your child will tell you about the performances if you ask them.
We continue to investigate animals and their babies as we took part in a quiz. We got them all correct! Click here to have a go at home.
We also continued our investigation of shadow. We used shadows to draw pictures of our friends and then toy dinosaurs.
We had a lovely picnic on Wednesday as we shared hot cross buns with Reception.
Have a peaceful and restful Easter and we will see you at the start of next term
Michelle
After the Easter break we will be introducing our new learning threads ‘Once Upon a time’ and ‘Minibeasts’. Such a lot of learning!!! Take a look at what we have the planned.
Forest School
Last Friday we all went to Forest school with Miss Lavelle. We made clay faces on tree trucks by using natural resources we could find around the garden. There were some scary faces!!!! We then baked bananas and marshmallows on the firepit and had a drink of juice! Mmmmm, thank you Miss Lavelle.
May I take this opportunity to wish everyone and Happy and Holy Easter. Have the most wonderful week off and I will see you all on Tuesday 22nd April.
Stay safe and God Bless.
Barbara
What an emotional week it has been! Children have been watching the portrayals of the events of Holy Week and reflecting on them through the class assemblies. Year 4’s portrayal of the Garden of Gethsemane was delivered with such understanding and emotion - we can thank Mrs Gregan for working with the children to create such a beautiful and agonising assembly.
After each assembly, the children have reflected on the message of each event and have recorded this in a little book. This week, we have also received a statue of Our Lady of Lourdes - the patron saint of our diocese. We shared a beautiful liturgy together with Father Peter and children from St Peters. We will look after the statue for a week after Easter and learn more about St Bernadette’s vision.
In History, this week, children have thought about this question, “How serious was the Viking threat to our country?” Together they made ‘living graphs’ plotting the events according to their threat level. We learned how important King Alfred was to protect our country from the Vikings. Our next task was to critically analyse evidence to see if Kind Alfred really deserved the title ‘Great.’
In maths this week, children have been continuing to understand fractions which are greater than one whole and have also brushed up on their column addition and subtraction of 4 digit numbers.
Children have written their own Brer Rabbit stories this week - focusing on all the writing techniques they have learned so far in Year 4.
Conversation starters
History
Talk to your family about King Alfred - who was he? Was he really great? Give reasons why he was but also explain why it is a bit dubious!
My Happy mind
How can you show love to your family over Easter?
This week, the children have chosen a learner in class who has demonstrated every learning character’s qualities. They have chosen Bea - well done Bea! Your class mates said you are always kind and grateful. You are so focused and participate well in class. You spread smiles and you are a funny, kind friend. Well done!
Virtues
The children also voted for our star this week. Emilia your class voted for you because you are kind and generous. You often help others with their work and you are always grateful. Well done!
Tuesday 29th April - Children are going to watch the RSC’s portrayal of the Tempest at the Grand theatre. The price is £8 payable on parentpay. Thank you.
Have a lovely Easter with your lovely children
Mrs Lyons and Miss Bray
What a way to end a wonderful term together! I am sure that you were all moved by the children’s depiction of the Resurrection this morning - many a tear had to be wiped from the eye. This morning is what education is all about. The children having the opportunity to think outside of the box, be creative and to express themselves. We are incredibly proud of them all.
We have continued to really push ourselves to learn in the last week of this term. In addition to focusing on the Easter assembly, the children have been writing their own versions of Jesus’ journey to His cross. This piece is being written in 1st person so the children really have to focus on the emotion of the event. I can’t wait to share these with you after half term. In maths, we have done lots of percentage work and to make sure children remember everything they have learnt, it’s important to keep this ticking over during the Easter break- please keep practicing finding percentages of numbers!
All of the children have revision resources and some past SAT papers for over half term for them to practice and have a go at. They have worked so hard and we are now onto the final push. Support your child the best way you see fit, these will not be assessed by me, so whatever level input you feel is necessary then please feel free. If you click on the button below, it will take you to the section on the Year 6 web page ‘How to Help Your Child.’ I have updated the page with lots of useful sites for the children to access. If you see there is an area that children need more practice, then these sites should help, but remember one of the most crucial ways is through books. So please make sure you set aside time of Easter to read together. The final weeks after half term will be focused on revision and helping the children in each of the different areas.
Voted for by your classmates for being an excellent learning role model within our classroom. The class think you have shone this half term …
Voted for by your classmates who think Ella deserves the STAR award, for being a kind friend.
This week we have the following children helping to take the younger children to their class:
Back to school on Tuesday 22nd April
On behalf of the Year 6 team, I wish you all a restful and holy Easter. Take time to spend with each other and to enjoy the beautiful weather- let’s hope it remains.
Mrs Harrison, Mrs Webster and Mrs Barker
What an amazing yet emotional week it has been in school. Each and every year, the children make holy week even more memorable and this week is certainly one to remember. Watching all of the younger children portray their chapter of the Easter story was moving as this led up to Year 5’s performance of the Crucifixion. Regardless of the nerves, the children lived within their roles and performed with such emotion and meaning.
In addition to this special week, the Our Lady of Lourdes statue had arrived at our school as she continues on her pilgrimage around the diocese. We all came together in worship on Wednesday to celebrate this, along with St Peter’s school who had kindly passed on the statue from their pilgrimage.
In between all of our holy week preparations, we have been finishing off our maths and English units. In English, we have been writing our second newspaper article, with the first being about Jesus’ crucifixion, we now turn to his resurrections two days later.
In Maths, it has been all things shape this week with us focusing on calculating area of shape. We have been looking at combination of shapes such as rectilinear shapes (practice again saying this out loud) and using our area formula calculate bigger shapes.
We finished our week with fun and celebrations. Our second group got to have their first experience of forest school out in the shining sun whilst the rest of the class completed a class Easter hunt! There were plenty of chocolates to go around, especially in the Easter raffle, along with some other class prizes.
RE- One of the big learning points from Jesus’ journey to death was sacrifice. Has there been a time in your life that you have sacrificed something for the greater good?
English- We have just finished our class novel of the Windrush Child. In the final chapter of the book, it focuses on the injustices around equal rights throughout history and how we aim to solve these issues. If you were the Prime Minister, what would you do to make the world a better place?
Let’s Celebrate
As it is the end of term, the certificate and virtue star have been voted by the children for whom they think has displayed those characteristics throughout the whole term.
Learning Certificate Winner of the Term goes to Matilda
Virtue Star of the Term goes to Louis
Notices
Homework- Please check the homework blog to keep on track of your child’s SPAG, multiplication and division practice and also their reading.
Forest School- This will be starting on Friday 4th April. You will be sent a text the previous night to make aware who is doing this on which day as the class are split into groups. The children will just need to bring in a change spare of clothes- ones suitable for outdoor activities and working within a forest environment. Long clothing will be needed (no shorts).
The groups are;
Group 1- Daisy, Grace, Isioma, Jacob, Lilly, Logan, Matilda, Seth, Teddy, Toby
Group 2- Amelia, Beth, Finley, Hudson, Hugo, John-Paul, Joseph, Poppy, Sean
Group 3- Charlotte, Ciaran, Gus, Josh, Lorenzo, Louis, Rory, Rose, Tommy, William
Each group will have four sessions of forest school spread out across the rest of the year.
School will reopen on Tuesday 22nd April
Please read all about Year One's fantastic week seven of Spring 2!
Read moreTime certainly does fly when you are having fun! I cannot believe that All Stars is completing its second full term in operation! With an abundance of games, art and craft and a weekly sporting session, we have had a ball! The lighter morning and evenings have meant that we are able to have more outside time with den making, football and scootering and with the drier, warmer weather we have had the field as well. The children have loved having the additional space to run wild after a busy day of learning. We have had great fun making Mother’s Day, Spring and Easter crafts, including Easter crispy cakes! We would like to thank both you and your children for making both clubs a huge success and for your continued support in our new venture and we look forward to having your children after the holiday.
Have a Holy and Happy Easter, may the sun continue to shine!
God Bless
The All Stars Team
This half term, the children completed their artist study topic. We have looked at a variety of artists, their style and their inspirations for their pieces. The children then went on to complete this unit by choosing an artist for inspiration to produce a piece of art. This could be a narrative piece, a message or a topic close to their heart and in any media they wished to use, be water colours, water based paint, oil pastels, or pencil work. The results were amazing, and the varied styles and ideas were wonderful! Well done Year 6 for producing some great work! We then moved onto our electrical systems, where the children have looked at different toys and thinking about function, form and fit for purpose features. They have gone on to producing a steady hand game using their own design criteria and specifics. This topic will be completed after the holidays.
This term, we have been learning to join clay to make some super clay sculptures. We started off by making their own penguin to co- inside with their class learning. We moved on to pinch pots, using the skills of slip and scoring to join clay and embellish their pots with decoration. Continuing on they then learned how to apply negative and positive decoration to a clay tile of their own design. Finally, the children used all their knowledge to plan and make a clay house tile. We have all very much enjoyed this topic and loved getting our hands mucky!
This half term we have been putting an array of knowledge to the test in our Design and Technology topic. The children have shown such perseverance with building their bridges. We started off looking at the three main types; beam, arch and truss and discovering which type was the strongest. The children were then set the task of having a go at making a spaghetti truss bridge, this task is definitely for the faint hearted- it would test the patience of anyone! The children took it all in their stride and shown impeccable resilience when the spaghetti kept snapping! We then moved on to our woodworking skills, using our maths knowledge to measure and cut accurate lengths to construct their bridge. I am so proud of all the children for navigating this topic so wonderfully with their partners and their enthusiasm in helping others when they could. You have all been wonderful craftspeople Year 5 well done!
This half term we have been exploring electrical systems and how they have developed over time. The children were tasked with making a torch to fit a set design criterion. They could either; design and make a torch for a police officer or someone who enjoyed caving. They had to decide on the relevant style of torch, taking the specific criteria for each person into consideration. This could be either in the form of a hand held or a head torch. The children were very creative in completing their torch with an off/on switch and were all successful in making a fully functioning torch! We have now started our next topic of Sculptures and 3D.
We’ve had another busy week - full of reflection and joy …….
Read moreSo many children have smashed their reading target this term! Let’s get off to a great start to Summer 1 with lots of reading and ready to quiz when we get back.
To be completed on IXL;
Y13- Find the area of rectangles and squares
On IXL:
H1- Using action and dialogue to understand characters
Q4- Choose the best transition
This term, the children have been looking at the different ways they could use paper. From 3D drawings through to sculptures. We have had so much fun manipulating paper into tower sculptures, the tree of life 3d art and a collaborative whole class spider sculpture! The children have shown so much resilience when the paper would not bend the way they wanted it to. This topic has been perfect for their fine motor skills and building up their finger muscles by rolling an array of different sized cylinders to produce their tower sculptures. Their imagination has run wild with this topic and they produced fabulous work!
This half term, the children have been learning all about textiles. From traditional methods such as Batik and William Morris to learning the process of developing their own ideas for repeated patterns, inspired by the rainforest. With such wonderful vibrant colours and unique wildlife and plant life, the children have let their imaginations flow to produce samples of print ideas. We have so vey much enjoyed, creating mood boards and using the prominent colours to create detailed drawings to use in our pattern making. It has been wonderful to watch the children develop their skills and I cannot wait to continue their creative learning journey with them.
We have learned all common multiplication facts and so many of you know them instantly. One thing that has really helped us to learn them is the times tables songs we have learned along the way. We decided as a class to collate these into a video so you can practise our songs at home - especially those of you still struggling to remember those key facts.
Everybody - please practise your TT rockstars every day over Easter - and practise singing along to these songs with your class friends to help the times tables sink in.
Please see this weeks home learning for Year One.
Read moreDear Parents,
Thank you for all your support and help over the Spring Term it is greatly appreciated. We wish you a Happy and Holy Holiday this Easter. There is no formal homework over this special break but we’ve ensured all the children will be returning home with books to read - from class and the school library. Please continue to enjoy reading - it is the gift that keeps on giving!
If you find yourself with time to spare on a rainy day. You could complete one of the optional homework tasks or find out who Shakespeare was. When we return we’ll complete a two week block of learning on Shakespeare and the play “The Tempest”. On Tuesday 29th April we’ll be off to the Grand Theatre in Blackpool to watch the RSC close encounters version of the play! This trip is on parent pay £8.
Have a lovely break- God Bless
Dear sponsors - this walk was epic. Every child was a hero!!!!
Read more590 Tahoe Keys Blvd, South Lake Tahoe, CA 96150
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