School Blog

Thoughts on our Changes Assembly

 in Church / Skiddaw by

In class assembly today, Skiddaw class reflected on these important questions of change. Their responses were interesting, many and varied.

What has changed in your lives recently?

RJ – seasons, HR – leaves on the trees, JG – everything!,  IW – our classroom, CH – we have grown taller, AR – our bones weaken as we get much older

What has changed in nature?

RK – hedgehogs hibernating, DP – birds flying off to warmer places (migration), Heating coming on in our houses as the weather gets colder.

How do you feel about these changes?

Some are exciting and we look forward to them, others can be a bit worrying.

Who helps you through changes?

Mums and dads and families, our teachers and our friends.

People of many faiths believe that God is like a parent or a carer. Even when everything changes, he is always the same and ready to help us.

 

 

Number facts practice in Scafell

 in Scafell by

Scafell have all been working super hard in their maths lessons recently so we wanted to let you know about one of the things we’ve started doing to really boost our mental maths skills.

In maths, there are 72 basic number facts which more complicated calculations are built on. If you can instantly recall these simple number facts, calculation becomes much easier as brain-power is freed up to think more clearly about the problem as a whole. We will be learning five new facts each week – after fifteen weeks we will have learned them all!

We’ll be testing our recall of the facts every week and seeing how much we can improve our score. See below for some helpful hints and tips to really get these facts embedded in your brain!

Little and Often

Practice makes perfect! These facts are quick, but to really get them to stick, regular practice is key. You can do this anywhere and everywhere – in the car, before bed, after tea, at the park… Wherever you are, take 2 minutes to learn these facts!

Mnemonics

If you’ve got a tricky fact to learn, one of the best ways is to think of something wild or outlandish to help you remember. The crazier the better. Rhymes, jokes or silly stories are memorable, fun and stick in your brain. This is a great way to learn 8×8….

I ate and I ate until I was sick on the floor – eight times eight is sixty-four!

Related Facts

Sometimes a new fact is very closely related to one you already know. If you know 9+9=18, that means you also know that 9×2=18 because they are both two lots of 9. You can also use this to work out 8+9=17 as it’s just one less, or 9+10=19 as it’s just one more.

Fact Families

Number facts come in families – when you’re learning one, learn the family to effectively learn four facts at a time! For example, if you know 4×6=24, you also know…

4×6=24

6×4=24

24÷6=4

24÷4=6

Best of luck with your facts practice this week. We look forward to seeing you smashing your high scores in weeks to come!

Parachutes and Trim Trail

 in Bowfell / Whole School by

Reception have enjoyed their turn on the Trim Trail this week, developing their balance, co-ordination and upper body strength. They have also been learning fun parachute games which involved lots of careful listening and making waves, mushrooms and being a washing machine!

 

Skiddaw Fruits and Vegetables

 in Skiddaw / Whole School by

In Art, Skiddaw class have been enjoying ripping magazines and newspapers whilst creating our collages of pears, apples as well as orange and purple carrots. These are now proudly on display in our classroom.

We are all enjoying snack each day, before morning play, and it has been great to see a mouth watering range of different fruits and vegetables being munched including peas, strawberries, pears, carrots and bananas. This week we have had some radishes and it was wonderful to see some children keen to try this slightly spicy vegetable for the very first time.

 

Marvellous Maths in Skiddaw

 in Skiddaw / Whole School by

We’ve been busy working with place value in maths. We have been partitioning (splitting up numbers into hundreds, tens and ones), matching numbers to words, ordering and counting in all manner of ways using all sorts of practical equipment to show our understanding. I was thrilled to hear someone talk about wanting to be a mathematician when they leave school this week too!

 

Outdoor Learning in Year One

 in Bowfell / Whole School by

Year One have made the most of the beautiful September weather this week and enjoyed lots of their learning outside both in the playground and in their outside area.

Bowfell build a stream

 in Bowfell / Whole School by

Children in Nursery and Reception had fun earlier in the week when they built their own ‘stream’. They had been using the large loose parts to build bridges and trickles from the tap ignited their imaginations and 10 minutes later lots of children were working together to create a stream from the tap across the outdoor area including around corners! They worked brilliantly as a team, problem-solving and testing out their ideas and changing tactics when things didn’t quite go to plan. Even the ducks enjoyed their ride down the stream!

Skiddaw’s Lego Village

 in Skiddaw / Whole School by

We had great fun making a Lego village in Skiddaw class. We made shops, garages, houses and gardens galore finished off with post boxes and trees. There was lots of imagination on show with added extra details. We set out our buildings on our road mats and we were very proud of our creation!

Writing in Year 5

 in Scafell by

Following on from our fun and engaging day of baking bread last week, Scafell pupils have been writing their own versions of recipes.  They have worked really carefully to ensure they have included all the features of instructions such as: bullet points, subheadings, numbered steps in chronological order, imperative verbs and time openers.

The children are already demonstrating that they are motivated and determined to do their best and the outcomes are very impressive.  Here are some of our year 5 pupils with their writing – Great start everyone!

Year One’s first week back

 in Bowfell / Whole School by

Year One have had an amazing first week! They spent time getting to know Miss Eastham by playing drama games, reading and discussing stories and playing in the different areas of the classroom with their friends. They made a beautiful rainbow together which is now proudly hanging in the window in Helvellyn classroom. They also demonstrated their patience and determination when learning how to make pom-poms and did not give up when it became tricky! Well done Year One, we have loved having you back!