This week’s newsletter for Rossall Nursery, Pre-Prep and Prep School.
Dear All,
The children were thoroughly excited to find there had been a light covering of snow overnight on Monday. Whilst it may not have been enough for snowmen or snowball fights, it was enough for them to enjoy making patterns and footprints, as well as memories!
On a week that has been dubbed the most depressing in the calendar (including Blue Monday), I challenged the children to fight back with smiles, laughter and a will to enjoy everything that is on offer to them at Rossall. From my perspective, they have risen to the occasion fabulously, with Year 4 rounding off the week with a wonderful assembly about Chinese New Year. They spoke with clarity and a real interest. We were all thoroughly impressed by their super pronunciations in Mandarin; well done Year 4!
The weather unfortunately put pay to our hockey fixtures this week but the rugby against Highfield Priory turned out to be a wonderful afternoon. The games began as touch rugby, evolving into full contact as the children improved their skills in a ‘coaching match’ scenario. Congratulations on the draw and the win in our two games, but most importantly, on improving your rugby and braving a rather bracing wind!
Our parent lunches began this week, with guests from Years 1, 2 and 6 joining us in the Common Room. The lunches have been organised to offer parents and family members the opportunity to sample the delicious food that is on offer to the pupils, but also to spend some time in each other’s company. Thank you to all family members who attended and we look forward to seeing the other year groups over the next few weeks.
There is a palpable buzz of excitement around the Prep School, as the children put their final preparations in place for our performance of ‘Roald Dahl’s Matilda Musical Jr’. Tickets have now gone on sale for what promises to be a wonderful highlight of our music, drama and dance provision at Rossall.
Have a wonderful weekend.
Mr M Turner
Headmaster of Preparatory School & Nursery
Rhinos and Rams Back in Rugby Action against Highfield Priory
Congratulations to the U11 and U10 rugby teams for a wonderful display of running rugby versus our friends from Highfield Priory.
The frosty conditions didn’t deter the U11 Rhinos and U10 Rams from putting in some crunching tackles and scoring some outstanding tries.
Well done Rossall for two impressive victories, and for hosting our guests so admirably.
Year 6
Our New Year’s resolutions are still going strong, and Year 6 have relished the opportunity to support Mrs Kenmare and Mr Condon in their fitness campaigns. Looking after our heart and health has linked perfectly with our Science topic on the Circulatory System, and pulses have been racing with the variety of activities that the children have been involved in.
Our Science experiment this week led us to investigate the components of our blood by making ‘Blood Smoothies’! Sounds disgusting, but the final product was delicious-Raspberries for red blood cells, mini marshmallows for white blood cells, apple juice for plasma, and sprinkles for platelets; all blended together-we now know the true meaning of ‘Messy Science’!
In our Topic work, the class have enjoyed learning about different types of government from democracy to totalitarianism, which has created some excellent discussion. We have also investigated the history of democracy in England, learning about the Magna Carta and its relevance to our laws and Parliament today. Who knows? Our work could inspire a future Member of Parliament or even Prime Minister!
Year 5
During our week, Year 5 have been focusing on exploring the foods eaten by rich and poor Tudors as well as investigating the difference between their homes. To test each other’s knowledge, they created their very own true or false type quizzes to present to the class. They were shocked to find the rich Tudors ate 5,000 calories a day with 80% of that being meat!
In Science, we have continued to revisit scientific vocabulary such as soluble, insoluble, solvent and solution. They have also moved onto investigating solids, liquids and gases and how mixtures and solutions can be separated.
Whilst previously recreating the famous Tudor portraits, the children focused more on the artist, Hans Holbein, who created them. Henry VIII employed him due to his talented work. Year 5 evaluated different portraits and noticed how Hans Holbein used different techniques for different textures.
In English, we have started reading our book, ‘Arthur and the Golden Rope’, paying particular attention to Arthur and his family’s adventures. First, Year 5 created expanded noun phrases to describe Arthur and each setting within the book and then moved onto applying these to a two verse poem called ‘Inside My Norse Myth…’. They then performed their poems in front of both Year 5 classes.
Year 4
Happy Lunar New Year!
As the Year of the Tiger comes to a close let us welcome in the Year of the Rabbit which the children have been discussing at length. The rabbit symbolises gentleness, kindness, and elegance, yet it moves speedily implying that the rabbit is good at adapting to the environment. Perhaps this symbolism will be in evidence in our classroom, not forgetting that the rabbit is very capable, particularly in spring time, of vaulting and leaping around with grace and energy.
Our assembly this Friday morning focused on Chinese New Year. The children have worked extremely hard at learning their lines and put on an amazing performance showcasing their acting and singing talents.
Their enthusiastic approach was also particularly evident during our science experiments which continue to look at changing States of Matter. Our starting point was to find out the ideal conditions for evaporation to take place and to do this the children emulated ‘water particles’. The children have vivid imaginations so becoming a water particle and changing their molecular structure is child’s play for them.
For our History topic we called upon Doctor Who’s Tardis to transport the children back 2000 years to life in Roman Britain. We looked at why the Romans wanted to come to ‘Britannia’ and why their army was so successful; even though they insisted on wearing sandals in the middle of winter. Definitely an inappropriate choice given the snowy weather we have had this week. Anyone wanting to join the Roman army had to be physically fit and a minimum height of 5’7” which was above average for the time period. According to evidence from Roman skeleton remains the average height for males during this period was 5’5” compared with 5’9 ½ in today’s values.
In Art we have been channelling our inner Kelly Hoppen to create an interior design for a Roman Villa. The children have been busy planning a detailed mosaic floor which they are going to create later in the term using a wide variety of materials.
Year 3
We have had a fun-filled week in Year 3! We are hugely enjoying Stone Age Boy, and this week we compared Stone Age life to modern day life by using a venn diagram. We learnt about past tense and present perfect tense, writing sentences inspired by Stone Age activities. We have also been reading The Iron Man by Ted Hughes and this week we wrote a description of the Iron Man using similes.
In Topic, we built on our learning from last week about Stone Age homes by learning about Skara Brae, an ancient Neolithic village discovered in the north of Scotland. We designed our own house adverts to sell Skara Brae! We also finished off our Cave Art and it looks very authentic.
In Maths we are furthering our multiplication skills by looking at multiplying 2-digit numbers by 1-digit numbers using strategies such a partitioning and grid method.
For Science we continued learning about types of rock and properties of rocks, this week using a fact file to research different rocks.
In Art, we celebrated Chinese New Year by making our own Chinese dragon puppets!
Well done for a fab week Year 3.
Year 2
It has been another fabulous week in Year 2, we have been getting our teeth into lots of different areas of the curriculum this week and the children have really impressed with their desire to share their knowledge and further their learning.
In Mathematics we have moved from multiplication to division. We have learnt four different ways in which we can approach these forms of calculations, myself and Mrs Lawton would encourage you to ask the children to demonstrate this to you.
In English the children have been completing some fabulous writing, they have written a diary entry focussing on using the past, present and future tense, I was delighted to read such fabulous pieces, well done Year 2!
In Science we have started learning about materials and the qualities that make them suitable in the construction of various items. The class thoroughly enjoyed the hunt around our classroom for articles, but the highlight, as it so often is, was the opportunity to create Material Monsters under the tutelage of the wonderful Mrs Payne.
We are now turning our attention to next week, the children cannot wait for our trip to Clitheroe Castle. A full report will be available here next week!
Year 1
This week Year 1 has been developing their drama skills in English; we have been trying to act out different expressions and feelings that the characters from our story might have.
We also played ‘Hot Seating’, where we volunteered to pretend to be a character from the story ‘The Curious Case of the Missing Mammoth’ and then we thought of questions to ask this character. We had such a giggle but at the same time it helped us to really understand and internalise the story. Well done children!
In Phonics we are consolidating our knowledge of split digraph sounds and to help us stretch our skills we went on a split digraph hunt. We spotted so many words that are spelt with the split digraph, it was quite surprising! Learning these sounds are certainly aiding our everyday writing, and our everyday writing is certainly getting better and better with each day!
Fantastic week Year 1, well done!
Reception
Traditional tales like The Gingerbread Man, Little Red Riding Hood and Goldilocks play an important part in early literacy. A traditional tale is a story that has been told and re-told for many years, and consequently, becomes a story that almost everyone knows. Traditional tales are also referred to as fairy stories or fairy tales.
Traditional tales present many learning opportunities for our EYFS children and can be used to help develop reading comprehension and early writing skills. Traditional stories and fairy tales are an amazing way to spark children’s imagination and hook them into their learning!
This term, we have created a lovely small world area complete with three little pig puppets and three houses. We will be turning our role play area into Mr & Mrs Baker’s bakery, encouraging the children to take on a role in their play outdoors and we have even retold traditional tales with story maps. We have painted the Gingerbread Man and made our own healthy porridge for The Three Bears and of course, we have read countless versions of various Traditional Tales. The puppets have definitely been a favourite resource, used to retell stories to friends and even to create some new versions of our most popular Traditional Tales. We have even practised using our positional language to find story characters that have been hidden around our classroom.
You can help your child at home by reading traditional stories with them and encouraging them to talk about what they have read. Ask them plenty of questions about the characters to help develop their reading comprehension.All of this exploration of characters’ feelings helps children to think more deeply about the characters that they write about, so it can really help them with their writing as well as their reading comprehension. If you have a favourite traditional tale that you share together at home, please send the story book in with your child so we can enjoy the book together in class too.
Nursery
“The beautiful thing about learning is nobody can take it away from you”
B. B. King
The Sanderlings have been out and about this week and have particularly enjoyed a woodland walk which was perfectly paired with jumping in muddy puddles. In the garden the babies have enjoyed playing in their sand tray, using their outdoor equipment and wrapping up warm to enjoy the light dusting of snow that had fallen. The Sanderlings were also excited to find out they were going to visit our onsite petting farm, the babies enjoyed seeing the rabbits and were surprised to discover a new addition to the farm – Silkie chickens – they are so fluffy. In the small world area the babies have had a prehistoric land set up with some of dinosaurs from the Cretaceous period (Stegosaurus, Tyrannosaurus and Velociraptor) along with books that contain information about each dinosaur that even have a recording of the sound each dinosaur would make; the babies loved trying to replicate loud roaring sounds, it really made them laugh. At the end of the week The Sanderlings were feeling creative and were immersed themselves into a painting task on the floor using their bodies to create marks on the page.
The Sandpipers have had a fun filled week which was made even better by the unexpected snow day. At the start of the week the children started to celebrate Chinese new year by mark marking Chinese words using red and yellow rice, glitter, pictures of the symbols associated with each word and paint brushes to create the marks. This activity was followed by the children learning a hand washing song to teach them the importance of hand hygiene and the correct way to wash our hands. On Tuesday the children had a visit to the farm where another new song was introduced – the lining up song. At the farm the children also used their prior learning of hand washing after handling the small animals to make sure they were lovely and clean before returning back to nursery. After returning to nursery the children discuss any pets they have at home, discussing the different types of animal and how we care for them. Linking back to Chinese New Year, the children talked about their wishes and talked about how they could achieve them in the future. The children also took part in Chinese music making whilst practising moving in time to the music – there are some brilliant dance moves in The Sandpiper’s room. In our garden the children have been exploring, looking for sticks and were very excited about the addition of a new swing. Finally, the week was finished with a story about Chinese New Year and how it is tradition for each year to be celebrated using an animal for the Chinese zodiac, this year is the year of the rabbit.
The Preschool has been learning all about alliteration, thinking of words that all begin with the same letter sound, the children even tried to incorporate rhyming words where possible. As we were lucky enough to have snow this week the children took their learning outside to create different marks in the snow using different items such as sticks, the children made straight lines, zig zag lines and some children even tried to draw letters, shapes and numbers. As the rest of the nursery is celebrating Chinese New Year the children in preschool have enjoyed stories around the traditions celebrated during the new year period. One of our families even shared some traditional food that families share during this time of celebration – mooli cakes, coconut milk sticky pudding, fried sesame puffs, deep fried dumplings with shredded coconut, sesame seeds and sugar filling – doesn’t it sound delicious? Look out for our own Chinese New Year themed feast next week! In their cookery class with Mrs James the children have made overnight oats using oats, yoghurt, fruit and honey. The children used their cooking skills to make a batch of playdough, it was lovely to see the children so happy when they realised they had accomplished their task. Finally, Mrs Harris took us for a dance class where we were shown how to warm up and cool down our bodies, move to music and had a fun time dancing freely together.
Awards
Year 6
6R- Jacob and Alfie for Perseverance in Maths
6S- Lex- Outstanding Commitment on the Rugby Field
Muhammad- Outstanding Enthusiasm in Sport
Year 5
5S:
Caitlin for showing perseverance when creating her poem.
Sam for showing enthusiasm and independence in all of his learning.
5R:
Thomas for showing energy and enthusiasm.
Tommy for showing perseverance when creating his poem.
Year 4
In Year 4 our certificate winners this week are Sebastian for outstanding enthusiasm and work ethic in all activities and Spencer for working hard to prepare for our class Chapel service.
Year 3
The Year 3 certificates this week go to Hope and Mykhailo for amazing independence in their learning.
Year 2
Valencia; Outstanding effort in Mathematics
Alicia; For being a kind and thoughtful friend
Year 1
This week’s certificates of achievement in Year 1 go to:
Dylan for saying his sentences out loud before writing them, and for writing them with good effort!
Theo for his motivation and determination in writing all week- he has produced fabulous sentences each day!
Reception
This week’s certificates of achievement go to Clark and Jasper. Both thoroughly enjoyed our Gingerbread Man experiment this week and participated fully in the lesson. There were also some great answers to questions asked.
