JUNIOR SCHOOL ROUNDUP TERM 1A 2019-20

EY1 children had a wonderful start to their school career in Term 1a, enjoying many new experiences and making even more new friends!

This term has been largely about learning new routines and feeling comfortable at school, and they have all settled in really well. In addition to getting to know their class teacher, they have also met their specialist teachers for Thai, swimming and music. The focus was to help develop their independence with everyday tasks, by unpacking their own bags in the morning and helping to tidy up at the end of the day.

Exploring through play has allowed them to have lots of fun during water splash sessions, use their imaginations to discover new toys, and be introduced to books at a library session.

Each class ended the term with a Teddy Bear’s picnic by the river, where they enjoyed a story and some tasty treats with their favourite cuddly toy!

Our students returned to school full of excitement at starting in EY2!  This term was spent getting used to their new classrooms and meet new friends.  All the children gained a lot of confidence and were happy to go to the classrooms and share toys with other children.

In one of the highlights of the term they also enjoyed a riverside picnic, enjoying sandwiches and watching the boats go by.

EY2 children also got creative in Term 1a, working in pairs to create some fantastic pattern paintings where they blew paint across a canvas. The result were truly amazing, with so many interesting colours and patterns to talk about with the rest of the class.

Year 1 children found out that they were already experts in the first unofficial topic area, “All About Me!”. As well as talking about the things they care about and are interested in, they looked at photos of themselves and saw how they had changed and grown-up since they were in EY, and even before. They also had plenty of chance to adjust to being in Year 1 and improve their confidence and independence at school after moving up from Early Years.

As well as reading and acting out stories they already knew, they had the chance to enjoy something completely new - poetry!  Teachers and children from around the school came in to share their favourite poems as inspiration.

Their first experience of cross country running was filled with excitement for Year 1, as they chased a giant gingerbread man around the track!  He definitely made them run faster!  Elsewhere in PE they also showed off their newly-polished swimming skills to their parents at the ‘come see me swim’ session.

Year 1 also got to use iPads in class, applying their already impressive computer skills to control a ‘sphero ball’ – using ipad controls to make it move where they wanted. This is just the beginning of their technology journey at Shrewsbury!

The Year 2 children had a swashbuckling start to the Year with their Pirate topic! A pirate paid the children a special surprise visit and taught the children how to behave like a real life buccaneer. The pesky pirate even managed to trick some children into walking the plank!

Using their geography skills Year 2 discovered more about where in the world pirates travelled to, then they made maps out of yummy tortillas before devouring them pirate-style!  Arrrrrggggghhhhh.

Using their enquiring scientific minds they researched what materials would float and be best to make their pirate ships out of.  In art they worked together as a pirate crew to create an imaginary island to sail to, using collage techniques. 

The topic came together perfectly in Pirate Day, where the children had fun in their house teams, dressed as pirates of course. They made some delicious pirate sweet treats, sang some seafaring songs and took part in a perplexing pirate quiz. Some lucky children also struck it rich they went on a tricky treasure hunt to find some gold!

Year 3 roared into action this term with their Endangered Animals topic!  They looked at what it means for species to be ‘endangered’, how animals become endangered and where in the world some of our most threatened species live. Children looked at how we can keep these beautiful animals safe, focusing on charities and conservation projects in Asia.

Students learned about the best diets to eat to stay healthy and happy - for both humans and animals!  They looked at different food groups, skeletons and muscles and how these important body parts work together.

Reading ‘Akimbo and the Elephants’ inspired the children to write their own creative stories and poetry. Focusing on characters and settings, they practised their sentence writing, as well as using adverbs and adjectives.

In their half term highlight, Year 3 made animal prints using printing blocks and used them to create animal-themed t-shirts, showcasing them on the ‘big-cat walk’ at a fabulous fashion show in front of their parents.

The fascinating culture of the ancient Egyptians was the focus for Year 4 in Term 1a

The hilarious Jeremy Strong book ‘There’s a Pharaoh in our bath’ inspired Year 4 to write their own poems and stories about how they imagined Egyptian life.

The Year 4 children impressed us all by planning, designing and building shadufs - ancient Egyptian irrigation systems.  They also built their own pyramids using cocktail sticks and clay, and even learned how to mummify apples!

As ever, the topic allowed children to be incredibly creative.  In art, they used ancient Egyptian images as a template to make their own self-portraits using oil pastels and shading techniques. They also built their own pyramids and decorated them with their names in hieroglyphs. Canopic jars were used by the ancient Egyptians during the mummification process, and Year 4 made their own very impressive versions, decorating them with sculptures of Egyptian gods. What a Pharoah’ld time Year 4 have had!

Year 5 kicked off the new academic year with their Groovy Greeks topic, beginning with a ‘hook’ day which saw them becoming archeologists for the day and digging for ancient artefacts.

After reading ‘The Adventures of Odysseus’, the children wrote their own epic Greek tales, and used their impressive dramatic skills to perform them to the rest of the class. 

Known for their beautiful mosaics, the ancient Greeks also inspired Year 5 in their own classical creations.  Using a variety of tools they decorated extremely impressive Greek style vases.

On Greek day itself everybody looked incredible in their ancient outfits, and really engaged in sampling Greek food, taking part in ancient games and exploring the Greek alphabet.

Children explored how friction affects objects, using rice, a chopstick and a bottle.  The children used an impressive amount of scientific vocabulary to explain their findings. Even though all of that rice took a long time to tidy up, I am sure the children will agree that it was worth it! It will be hard to Beta such an Omega topic!

‘Explorers’ provided a wonderful first topic for Year 6 this academic year.

Learning about impressive explorers from around the world was absolutely fascinating - from Shackleton’s journey to the South Pole, to Jean Baret - the first woman to circumnavigate the globe.

Amongst other activities, Year 6 put themselves in the shoes of these explorers and practiced using compasses to map the local area. In science they also learned about bacteria and how it grows; something that explorers need to be very careful about, especially when medical help may be literally thousands of miles away!

A specially themed Explorers day was action packed day of activities for the budding adventurer, including learning first aid, putting up tents and making explorer top trumps cards.  Maybe one of Year 6 children will discover the some of the last uncharted parts of the world in the future?