Health week at school

The children had a great time this afternoon aboard the life bus with Helen and Harold.  They learnt about the different food groups and the benefits to their health.  Helen taught them about the importance of lots of sleep as well as how to sort out arguments with their friends.  We also had a chat about medicines and how they can be good or not so good for us.  A good time was had by all!  Look out for more photos of our 'Healthy School Week'.

Phonics Play website

The children are preparing for the national phonics test next week. We have been playing games on the Phonics Play website.  If you would like to have a go at home with your child, the link is below.  I can't make it into a hyperlink but you can copy and paste into your search bar. Have fun!

Congratulations Brendons

Well done Brendons on winning the team points for last term.  We had a lovely time having lunch with the children.  Hopefully we will get the chance to do this with some of the other teams later on this term.  Keep on earning those team points Beech!

Computer geniuses!

The children have been learning how to use the new school laptops. We have practised logging on and using some of the software that we have in school.

Rodway Farm

What a fabulous day we had on Friday when we visited Rodway Farm.  The weather was gorgeous and the children thoroughly enjoyed the tractor ride!  We saw cows, calves, sheep and newborn lambs.  A fabulous day!

Pets come to school for our topic

As part of our topic of growing, we have looked at animals and their young.  We were lucky enough to have some furry visitors in class last Wednesday.  Harvey's mum brought in Princess.  She told us a lot about what Princess looked like when she was born and how she has grown.  Mrs Symonds also brought in a mother guinea pig and her tiny babies and we were able to discuss the differences between the animals when they were born.  

Reading Meeting

Thank you to all of you who attended the meeting.  I have not been able to upload the phonics film as the file is too big, but have some links for the Read, Write inc. website that you may find useful. I will attach some questions for you to use as comprehension questions also.

Please don't forget to come to Beech's reading workshop on Wednesday at 3.30pm in Beech.

Incredible India Day

We had a fabulous day on Thursday.  We made an Indian Toran to go over our classroom door.  We had great fun tasting Indian food and deciding whether or not we liked it.  Finally we were all able to show our Indian artefacts and tell all of our friends what we know about India.  A great day!

Welcome back to the Spring Term

The children have settled in well and apart from the niggling winter bugs, they are raring to go and full of great ideas.

Christmas Dinner

The children enjoyed their Christmas dinner today.  Thank you to everyone who made it so enjoyable.

Homework - Autumn B

A huge congratulations to all of the children for the lovely homework projects that we have recieved this half term.  We have had great fun this morning playing the games that the children have invented, and listening to the children telling us about the people that they interviewed, and what they found out.   Well done to all!

High Visibility Jackets

Earlier in the term, the children learnt about road safety and staying safe when out and about in the dark.  The children have been lucky enough to be given high visibility jackets kindly donated by Specsavers in Taunton.  They have written letters to Specsavers to thank them. 

Christmas Nativity 2014

A huge well done to all of the children for their superb performance this morning.  They have practised so hard and not one of them got stage fright!  I hope that you all enjoyed the performance.

Polly's Puffin

We braved the cold today and went outside to practise our storytelling with our partners.  The children are beginning to know Polly's Puffin quite well now and enjoyed mirroring the actions with their partners.  Please can you help them to practise this weekend so that they will really know the story and are ready to begin changing parts next week!

Creative Homework - Autumn B - just a reminder!

• Complete a questionnaire with 2 adults that you know asking them questions about toys or games they played with when they were your age.  You will need to do this for 2 adults, preferably of a different generation.  The idea is that the child ‘interviews’ the adults to find out how they spent their play times when they young.  The questionnaire should be completed by your child through discussion with them, although it can be scribed by an adult.  It should not be given to an adult to fill in as the purpose of this homework is for your child to find out information about the past by asking questions.
• Make a board game that can be brought into school for us to play.  It may have whatever focus you like and can be made out of any safe, light material so that the children can easily transport it in the classroom when they play it.  It is important that they are able to explain how to play it and so it should be accompanied with a set of rules, these may be written or typed.  Due in: Monday 15^th December 2014. 
• If you need any help, please ask one of the staff.

PLEASE DO NOT FORGET THAT IT IS INSET DAY ON MONDAY 10TH NOVEMBER. 

SEE YOU ALL BACK IN SCHOOL ON TUESDAY,

Number Fact Homework - w/c 03.11.14

We had a problem printing the homework for this week, so I have uploaded it to the class webpage.  Please have a look at it with your child if you can by clicking on the link below.  If not, don't worry, a hard copy will go out next Tuesday.

Welcome back to Autumn B

We have had a great start to this half of the Autumn term, and the children are really beginning to show what they are capable of. 

This week we have had a day off timetable working on a sustained piece of writing about The Windmill Farmer.  We did a lot of work on the use of adjectives in our writing.  Follow the link to watch the short film that the children were writing about.

http://www.literacyshed.com/the-inspiration-shed.html

A very special visitor

Today we found out that we had a very special visitor in the outdoor classroom.  We went to investigate, and discovered Town Mouse eating cheese and crackers and making a right old mess!  We thought of some questions that we could ask him about why he was here, and how he got here.  He told us that he came to Taunton on the train, and then got a ride to Staplegrove on the Park and Ride in a lady's handbag! He gave us a recount of his time with the Country Mouse, in the Big City - it didn't sound like he had much fun!

Welcome to the Multi-Academy Trust

We had some special visitors to school last Friday.  They were from the Multi-Academy Trust and they had come in for a special assembly to welcome us to this special Family.  As a welcome gift they brought us a beautiful Staplegrove bear, which each class will get to share in their classrooms.  This week he has been visiting Beech Class.  I wonder what we could call him?

School Councillors

Well done to all the children who ran for School Council.  I am very proud of you all for standing up and giving your campaign speech.  We are proud to present Frank and Poppie as this year's Beech School Councillors.

Studying the environment around us

On September 10th the children in Rowan and Beech went on a walk around the local area.  We used an aerial map to plan our walk down Hudson Way and onto Bindon Road where we looked at the shops and houses.  We were able to identify the types of houses in Rhodes Close and our adults filled out a tally sheet to help us count.  When we got back, we used the pictures of our own houses to make a pictogram. 

Big Puzzle Day

On September 8th the Happy Puzzle Company came to visit.  The children were put in teams with Rowan children and given puzzles to work out.  The rules were that they were not allowed to give up! The children had a fantastic morning using their problem solving skills to help them succeed and move onto the next puzzle.  

Welcome to Beech Class

Welcome back everyone.

The children have come back full of enthusiasm.  They have already completed a piece of independent writing!

Today we have been talking about our learning and how we feel when we are learning.  We used the analogy of buses and bus stops with the red bus stop being our danger area when learning was too challenging, and the blue bus stop when learning was not challenging enough.  We decided that the best place to be was in the middle on the bus, and discovered that if we mixed red and blue, we would be able to become Purple Learners!