Nursery, Pre-Prep and Prep School Newsletter – Summer Term 2021 – Week 10

This week’s newsletter for Rossall Nursery, Pre-Prep and Prep School.

YEAR 6

The excitement was palpable this week as Year 6 hosted the inaugural ‘Balloon Powered Car Grand Prix’! After plenty of preparation and time to make adaptations to their vehicles, the pupils drew breath, blew up their balloons and let them roll, all in the name of Science! They certainly didn’t disappoint with top speeds being reached and although there were a few non-starters this was an excellent introduction to investigate energy transfer and forces.

With just two weeks to go until the end of an era, we have been looking at milestones in our lives, reflecting on special memories. The class enjoyed sharing their baby pictures and created wonderful collages depicting key moments of their life journey so far. This is such a memorable time for the Year 6 pupils as they enjoy their last days in Prep School; we look forward to making plenty more memories before we wave them through the Rossall Archway to Senior School.

YEAR 5

We have had yet another action-packed week in Year 5. The slightly inclement weather has certainly not dampened our spirits! The children made the most of the good weather on Monday and ventured outside to practice their drama pieces. It was lovely to watch them organise themselves in their groups to rehearse their pieces. They have only had them a few weeks and have not had long to practice but the Royal Shakespeare Company had better watch out! I thoroughly enjoyed the performances and judging by the laughter and high spirits the children thoroughly enjoy performing them.

Our book, ‘The Hunter’ continues to promote both fabulous discussions and excellent work. The children are enjoying both the story and the beautiful illustrations that accompany it.

We have moved onto parallel and perpendicular lines in mathematics and we are having fun solving different mathematical challenges.

Our Topic is Benin and the children are creating African masks in art and are enjoying learning more about this ancient civilisation.

I cannot believe that we only have two weeks left! Let us hope for fine weather and lots of fun (and learning) for the finale of what has been a very different year.

YEAR 4

What an electrifying week it has been in Year 4 this week! Year 4 were very excited to get the opportunity to visit the Senior School Science Labs to make and test out some circuit. After learning last week about electrical safety it was time to get hands-on. The children loved the chance to make predictions and then experiment to find out which circuits would work and which wouldn’t. We learnt that a circuit had to be complete to make the bulb light and also that when everyone tests the buzzer at the same time it is very noisy (but fun).

In our Topic lessons, we have been learning about how important ‘perspective’ is in history. As part of our Explorers work, we have investigated the story of Christopher Columbus’ ‘discovery’ of America from both sides and now understand how the native Taino people must have felt – the children are writing some wonderful poems from their perspective.

YEAR 3

This week we’ve had a lot of fun in Year 3! In Maths, we have learnt about mass, measuring with different scales and converting between kg and g.

In English, we learnt more about giraffes and imagined what it would be like to see a giraffe for the very first time.

In Science, we investigated how light travels in straight lines and reflects off surfaces like mirrors.

In our topic, we are really enjoying learning more about Ancient Egypt and we made our own pharaoh necklaces and pyramids.

Great job Year 3! 

YEAR 2

What a busy week Year 2 have had! We have been learning about time in Maths and have been practising telling the time to o’clock, half past and quarter past.

In Topic, we continued to learn about seas and coasts. This week, we learned about a compass and the directions North, South, East and West. The children were amazing at giving directions to get to different beaches in the UK and different countries around the world.  

In Science, we have been learning about the lifecycle and parts of a plant. We even went into the Secret Garden to found plants and consolidate our learning.  

YEAR 1

So this week took a bit of an unexpected turn for Year 1 as we have been back learning from home. We have all adapted really well and managed to get ourselves used to using Google Classroom and lessons on Zoom again, albeit with a few minor glitches, usually from Mrs Roberts’s computer!

We have continued with our class story, ‘Toys in Space’. The toys have been beamed up by a space monster and have been taken on board a UFO. In our Language work, we have written descriptions of the toys, thinking about their appearance and characteristics, and we have created our own space monsters and written descriptions for them. We have been thinking carefully about adding adjectives and joining words to improve our writing further.

In Maths, we have been learning about measuring and telling the time. We have thought about days of the week, months of the year, using calendars and telling the time to o’clock and half past.

In Topic, we have continued to learn about the history of space travel and were surprised that some animals have been to space too.

RECEPTION

The children look forward each week to our ‘Fun in the Sun’ Club, although this week it was actually ‘Fun in the drizzle’ Club! The club provides lots of opportunities for the children to develop their gross motor skills. Gross motor skills are the abilities required to control the large muscles of the body for walking, jumping, skipping, and more. Working on gross motor skills helps the children gain strength and confidence in their bodies. It also helps them get exercise and physical activity, which is important for a healthy lifestyle. Developing these skills helps a child’s ability to do more complex skills in future activities, such as playing soccer with a team.

We practise our gross motor movements in three main ways: Firstly through locomotor activity, where we move from one spot to another. We have enjoyed running around the track on the field and enjoyed getting cheered on by the senior children. Some of us even ran around the track several times, others decided to take shortcuts! We are also trying hard to skip with a skipping rope.

We have also enjoyed Non-locomotor activities, which is movement in a stationary place. We love playing frisbee, which is great to develop their skills of stretching, turning and bending.

Finally, we have practised our Manipulative skills through moving objects in a variety of ways. We have enjoyed striking the football between the goalposts and kicking the ball to each other. The children have also used the balls to practise their throwing and catching skills. We have been practising our bean bag throws too, as well as aiming for targets on the ground. All good practise for our up and coming Sports Day!

NURSERY

Babies have enjoyed singing along to ‘Old McDonald’ which inspired the staff to create a tuff tray farmyard using sensory materials.  Crushed up Weetabix, bread and porridge oats were used to replicate different media. During the activity, the children were encouraged to use sounds in their play and there were plenty of animal noises going on.

Sugar-free jelly makes the most mess but the children enjoy it so much. Squashing it between their fingers, squashing it in their hands and using their whole bodies to move it around the tuff tray. The children were then washed and taken out for a lovely walk while we started the long process of tidying up – ‘Oh dear! What have we done?’ springs to mind!

The weather again has been kind so a lot of time was spent in the garden. Climbing on the soft play, sitting in the ball pit and throwing the balls around, and using the mud kitchen as support for standing.

Preschool have enjoyed lots of book-based activities this week. They listened to the story of ‘Goldilocks’ which inspired them to re-enact it out in the mud kitchen outside, creating porridge and talking about the taste. They all presumed muddy porridge would taste yucky!

The bear hunt story which was read in Spanish by Mrs Farrell took them on an adventure around the School. This ended up being inspired by nature we have on-site and the children were exposed to Jackdaws, wagtails and the abundance of bees enjoying the nectar in the clover. On the way back a challenge was set by Miss Hart to see who could run the fastest. This also prompted a race with herself and Miss Ward which Miss Hart proudly took first place.

Princesses have inspired the children when free painting. The children expressed themselves through their art whilst they listened to the Frozen soundtrack. Rapunzel was the favourite princess to paint and the children then used ribbon to create long Rapunzel hair.

AWARD WINNERS

RECEPTION – This week’s certificate of achievement goes to Fox and Junior.

Fox has used fantastic observational skills to paint a lovely plant picture, using the appropriate colours and labelling all the parts of the plant correctly.

Junior has been a great thinker in Maths this week. He has taken his learning further and answered some quite challenging questions. 


YEAR 1 – This week’s certificates are awarded to Isla for creating a fantastic space monster and labelling it with lots of adjectives, and Roman for an excellent retelling of our story so far.

YEAR 2 – This week’s certificates are awarded to Dolly for her amazing contributions in Science, and Aaron for his super Topic work. 


YEAR 3 – This week’s certificates go to Eleanor and Mia for their high levels of engagement in our Ancient Egypt topic, always asking inquisitive questions and sharing their amazing knowledge!


YEAR 4 – This week’s certificates are awarded to Freddie and Joey for showing an understanding of ‘Perspective’ in our Topic work.


YEAR 5 – This week’s certificates are awarded to Maya and Jasmine for excellent collaboration during Drama.

YEAR 6 – This week’s certificates are awarded to:

6R Certificates: Woody and Joel for Outstanding Effort in Maths

6S: Liberty – Outstanding Contribution to the Class
Dexter – Outstanding Effort and Enthusiasm in English

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