Heartsease Primary Academy Newsletter -20th November 2023

Office update

Diarrhoea/Vomiting

Please be reminded that if you child has an episode of diarrhoea / vomiting they need to be at least 48 hours clear from the last episode before returning to school.

Weekly class updates

Nursery

This week we have been thinking about the moon and space. We have read the story 'Whatever Next!' by Jill Murphy about a small bear who goes in a rocket to the moon. We have acted out the story using props. We have looked at pictures of the moon and tried to make our own using scrunched up tin foil and paint. We have practised counting to and from 5 singing the rhyme 5 little men in a flying saucer. We have looked at 2D shapes and used them to make pictures, e.g. a rocket.

Ruby Class

This week, Ruby class started reading and writing about 'Dogger' about a toy dog that gets lost. In maths, they started learning to recognise coins. In History, they continued to look at shops in the past, and compared old coins with new. They made an obstacle course in the forest, then drew a map of it, with key. In computing, they learnt that computers need to know the properties of objects in order to be able to group them. They have used this skill in other areas e.g. grouping coins by their properties. They are very busy practising their Christmas play. 

Reception - Jasper/Jade Classes

This week our core book has been Leaf Man by Lois Ehlert. The children have enjoyed retelling the story to each other with stick puppets in the small world, and reenacting parts of the story in the home corners and outside. We have been learning about the changing colours of Autumn. In maths our focus has been putting objects into two groups and using a part-whole model to represent groups.

We have been enjoying singing our Christmas songs. Maybe the children have been singing them to you at home!

Year 1 - Onyx / Opal Classes

This week we have learnt that a tree is a plant but has different features such as bark, a trunk, branches and twigs. In maths we have challenged ourselves to understand numbers to 20. In geography we learnt about the four capital cities of the United Kingdom and where they are. Please continue to hear your child read at home even if its green words or a couple of pages a day from their performance book.

Year 2 - Aqua / Amber classes

In maths we will be practising jumping in 10s first and then 1s when adding 2 digit numbers. It would be fantastic if your child could do this at home too! 

In English we are writing a formal invitation, editing it and writing it in best.

In science we will be learning about what animals need to stay alive: water, food and air. In geography we are learning about what the city of Nairobi is like. 

We will also be having a digital photography lesson and practising for our Christmas Performance.

Year 3 - Coral / Crystal classes

Year Three made their final fabric box which was a real challenge.We used fabric paper -ask us what this is. In science, we have revisited rocks. There are three types: igneous, sedimentary and metamorphic. Ask us to explain the difference. In maths, our journey to know more about calculating and money continues. Please give us the chance to look at real coins and think about spending and change. In reading, we have been exploring the place between where magic lives and in writing we are investigating how to write dialogue - when you read with us make sure we notice inverted commas (speech marks).

Year 4 - Topaz / Garnet class

This week, year 4 have continued to build towards writing an adventure story! We've been making sure that all of the nuts and bolts are there before starting to write the story. In our reading this week we have read four pieces of writing on the concept of freedom and imprisonment and thinking about how we could compare and contrast them. In our maths, year 4 have displayed their maths mastery, absolutely wheezing through our unit on multiplication and division. 

Year 5 - Emerald / Sapphire classes

In Year 5 this week, we have been continuing with designing and making a belt that enables you to be seen more clearly by people driving. This has taken into consideration the needs for the belt to be fluorescent for the daytime and reflective at night. Our topic in science concluded last week by finding out that the smaller the animal the shorter the gestation period before their baby is born. We also looked at the magical world of the seahorse and sea dragon where the males carry the fertilized eggs. Within writing we have been exploring Haiku and Cinquain poetry. Thinking about its structure and poetry form. Mathematics sees us moving onto the addition and subtraction of fractions. Within these lessons we are applying our understanding of equivalent fractions as the denominator needs to be the same to add or subtract. 

Year 6 - Diamond / Quartz classes

Year 6 have done some fantastic writing for their stories with a moral, we will continue with these next week.

In maths we have moved onto multiplying and dividing fractions - we are getting lots better.

In History we learnt about The Battle of Britain and how important radar was to our eventual success.

We have started practising our songs for the Carol Evening on 13th December. It starts at 4pm. Please make sure that your children come back to school for this, it will be lovely to hear you all joining in with our Carols.

New House Captains:

Dragon: Henry and Kendal

Unicorn: Maryum and Paul

Griffin: Imogen and Edward

Phoenix: Taylor and Orlagh

Bees Knees Awards

• Ruby Class - Jaxson-Lee - For working hard to learn our Xmas songs.
• Jade Class - Evie - For her enthusiastic approach to everything! Well done Evie .
• Jasper Class - Emmie-Rose - For some lovely independent writing.
  
• Onyx Class - Oliver - For always working hard and being kind to others.
• Opal Class - Leo - For being courteous towards others; sharing your knowledge with them when they find something challenging. I am very impressed by your attitude towards learning which enables you to achieve in all subjects.
• Amber Class - Milan - For role-model behaviours and absolutely smashing the reading and maths tests and getting amazing scores. Well done Milan!
• Coral Class - Hiba - Hiba has been fact finding in maths and using the inverse to check her calculations. She aced the lesson and should be so proud of herself. Well done Hiba!  
• Topaz Class - Rokas - For trying his best in all lessons this week, and completed each task to the best of his ability.  Brilliant!
• Garnet Class - Archie - For continually setting a fantastic example within the class, always following adult instructions the first time of asking and ensuring your area is amongst the tidies
• Emerald Class - Alexander - For his great determination in Maths this week, Fractions has been a hard topic but he has shown perseverance through the tough questions, and really pushed himself. Great work, Alexander!
• Sapphire Class - Ruby - Ruby for her perseverance in Bushcraft this week. Ruby was doing everything correctly to start a fire but the sparks would not catch the cotton wool. After many tries it finally ignited. Excellent resilience Ruby. 
• Diamond Class - Aiden - Because the writing he did for his story was amazing, Well done!
• Quartz Class - Edward - For showing brilliant determination in dividing fractions by integers. He is also a very polite and kind member of the class, who always works hard across all lessons. Well done!