This week’s newsletter for Rossall Nursery, Pre-Prep and Prep School.
YEAR 6
| If Friday witnessed the beginnings of a festival of football (Euro 2020), then Monday can only be described as an amazing festival of education; the Year 6 children brought all their learning together to create fabulous display boards and interactive activities for the entire Preparatory School to enjoy. There were games, quizzes, prizes, bubble machines, music and so much more, but the most important aspect was the fabulous learning that had clearly taken place and was being passed on to younger (and some older) members of the school community. There were some incredibly proud teachers! If that wasn’t exciting enough, we are swiftly moving on to our new topic, Milestones and with only three weeks left of the year, we have got to squeeze a great deal into a relatively short period of time. Tuesday once again brought great excitement as new arrivals joined the Year 6 children, they say there’s “one born every minute”, the miraculous production of flour babies from Mr Condon’s magic cupboard was slightly quicker than that! The children have personalised their new responsibilities and are now in the process of ensuring they flourish over the next week, or for some simply survive! Our ‘Under the Sea’ Exhibition Year 6 enjoyed sharing their knowledge about all aspects of the Sea from Plastic Pollution to Mysterious Creatures of the Deep. It was a wonderful day of learning for pupils from Reception to Year 6 and the children loved taking part in fun activities and interactive displays to further their learning. |
YEAR 5
| “Oh I do like to be beside the seaside, I do like to be beside the sea!” is a popular British music hall song written in 1907 by John Glover-Kind. Year 5 spent a glorious morning on the beach creating collages using seaweed, pebbles and their imaginations. Their creations were fabulous. The children worked in groups and had first to decide what collage to make. Two groups decided to make sea turtles and the third group a whale. To watch them work collaboratively and organise themselves to search for their natural materials and then create their masterpieces was a real treat. ‘The Hunter’ is providing us with much to discuss around the topic of hunting. I am amazed at how much general knowledge the children have around the issue and how balanced their views are. We have been detectives in Mathematics calculating missing angles using our knowledge of angles on a straight line, angles of a circle and right angles. The children are beginning to understand that you have discard the unimportant information and concentrate on what matters. An important life lesson, not just a mathematical one. |
YEAR 4
| Have you ever read a book or a story that you didn’t want to end because you were enjoying it so much? I have, lots of them in fact. Year 4 have done some wonderful writing this week. Inspired by the music of Edvard Grieg’s, ‘Hall of the Mountain King’ they have told the story of Peer Gynt, a travelling poet, who after exploring the cave where the Mountain King lives writes home to tell his mother about his adventure. We have some tremendous writers in Year 4 and their use of expanded noun phrases, adverbials and ‘wow’ words were fantastic to see! I will leave you with a line or two from one of them… “I lit my torch and walked boldly forwards. The light illuminated strange patterns on the walls; patterns that appeared to be moving! Strange voices echoed as gaseous fingers rested on my shoulder. Stalactites and stalagmites blocked my way but I bravely pushed through…” Year 4 were surprised to be sent on their own exciting adventure today – we’ll tell you more about that next week! |
YEAR 3
| Another fun week in Year 3. In English, we continued reading Zeraffa Giraffa on her journey from Egypt to France, and practised using time connectives to write captions for pictures from the story. In Maths, we looked at 2D and 3D shapes connecting this to our learning about angles, and used different resources to construct our own 3D shapes. In Science, we had a lot of fun investigating different materials to see how reflective they were as well as a trip to the Astronomy centre to learn how the moon doesn’t produce its own light but reflects light from the sun. And lastly, in our topic about Ancient Egypt, we learnt about pharaohs and mummies, and the children roleplayed the different steps in the mummification process! Well done for a fabulous week boys and girls! |
YEAR 2
| This week in Year 2 we have become botanists! We have learned about how seeds are dispersed and the importance of soil. We created our own helicopter seeds to investigate how the wind helps these seeds disperse and have started an experiment investigating ‘Do plants need soil to grow?’ We have planted some seeds but not the normal way; we have use paper towels and sandwich bags and are eager to see if our seeds begin to sprout. In Topic, we have continued to learn about beaches. We have learned what physical and human features are and collaborated to compare Rossall beach with beaches in Vietnam and Australia. |
YEAR 1
| If you were wondering what happens to your lost toys…they have been taken to space by aliens. Be careful not to leave them out in the garden at night or they WILL disappear! We have started our Toys in space story this week and found that the toys have been left out past bedtime. We have thought about how the toys are feeling being left all alone in the dark, surrounded by the night sky. We have used our imagination and our visit to the planetarium last week to help us describe what the toys can see, hear and feel while lying in the garden looking at the stars and darkness around them. We also used last week’s visit to help us when creating our own paintings based on Van Gogh’s famous Starry Night painting. We have learnt how Van Gogh uses different colours to show different emotions. We have been looking at lots of information books about space to find out about the different planets, as well as the sun, moon and stars. In Maths, we have continued to learn about place value and numbers to 100, thinking about comparing and ordering numbers and number bonds to 100. |
RECEPTION
| Do you remember helping your parents bake cookies or make dinner as a child? Did you realize you were learning skills such as how to count, measure and read recipes? Cooking activities for children can help them develop confidence and skills naturally in the kitchen. Cooking together also can help your family commit to healthy habits that can last a lifetime. Last week we ventured to the Rossall kitchens, where we learnt how to peel vegetables, cook and mash them. They do say that children who have a hand in making the vegetables maybe a little more willing to try a sample when they sit down at the dinner table. This week we made carrot muffins and it was lovely to see the children patiently waiting their turn, listening to instructions and sharing equipment. The end result was amazing, muffins that tasted just as good as they looked! Children that refuse to eat carrots at dinner times were actually confidently eating them raw and enjoying the muffins when cooked! From learning how to safely handle kitchen equipment to cleaning up spills and putting things away, helping in the kitchen provides ample opportunities for the children to learn responsibility. Maybe our little star bakers will be keen to help out in the kitchen a little more now? |
NURSERY
| The sun has got his hat on hip hip hip hooray…….. The glorious weather we have had this week has meant we have been out more than we have been in. Not that we need the sun as an excuse to be outside! Our preferred space is our beautiful grounds. Sandpipers have been to the beach and enjoyed making marks in the sand with the pebbles they found. Playing in the sand is terrific for developing motor skills, building hand-eye coordination and strengthening muscles. The children also exercise their fine motor skills when they learn how to properly hold a spade in their hand. Who would have thought so much fun had so many learning opportunities? A few pebbles were brought back to the Nursery for the children to paint with. Pre-school have enjoyed reading the story, ‘The Colour Monster’. A story about a monster who wakes up confused as his emotions are all over the place. Miss Hart spoke to the children about feelings and told them that’s it’s okay to feel sad, angry and confused but when you do, it’s great to talk to someone about it. After the story, Miss Hart asked them to choose a coloured pom pom from the jar to show how they were feeling today. It is so lovely to hear the children express themselves and thankfully, everyone was feeling happy and felt loved. The children going into Rossall Reception in September are having a great time in their swimming lessons. From one week to the next, they have made progress and will continue to do so over the coming weeks. As part of Rossall School readiness, Mrs Tripper took the Reception Class on an adventure across the school field. They had a lovely afternoon playing games together using counting skills, listening skills and physical skills. The Maintenance Team have been remarkably busy creating some lovely items for the garden. The children have been practising their balancing on the beams they have made, used the paint board to create some amazing pictures, made mud pies in the, not one but three kitchens, and used the wooden den to keep cool from the sun. We are all so thankful for the amazing creations. The Sanderlings have also had a lovely new kitchen added to their garden area. It’s a great support for the babies to stand against and pull themselves up, and so many of the children are making their first steps. The older children love to come to the fence to see the babies in the garden and enjoy talking to them. A group of older children sang nursery rhymes to them and the babies loved the interaction and the attention they received. |
AWARD WINNERS
| RECEPTION – This week’s certificates of achievement go to Valencia and Beau. Valencia thoughtfully completed our problem-solving activities this week and demonstrated excellent accuracy when using scissors. Beau carefully completed his Math’s work this week and also remembered to form all his numbers correctly.  YEAR 1 – This week’s certificate in Year 1 go to Matilda and Emma for excellent effort and precision in Art.  YEAR 2 – This week’s certificates go to Alfie for his super comprehension skills in our English lessons, and Spencer for amazing independent learning during our Maths lessons on time.  YEAR 3 – This week’s certificates in Year 3 go to Jasper for challenging himself in his writing, and to Huxley for his fantastic knowledge about Ancient Egypt. Well done!  YEAR 4 – This week’s certificates go to Roman B for excellent work in Mathematics, and Roman I for excellent progress in swimming. YEAR 5 – This week’s certificates for Year 5 go to Bailey and Aran for excellent teamwork.  YEAR 6 – This week’s certificates in Year 6 go to Ruby, Theia, Harry and Sophie for their outstanding contribution for the exhibition.  |
SPORT
| WYRE SCHOOL CRICKET CHAMPIONS Congratulations to the Rossall U11 Cricket Team for winning the Wyre Schools Cricket Tournament yesterday afternoon at Norcross Cricket Club. What a performance to win all their matches. Well done, Rossall!  |
