Rufford Park Primary School

Weekly Update 30/9/22

Mr Kyriacou (n.kyriacou) on: Beech Tree Blog

Hello,

This week, the children went on their Romans trip to Murton Park. They became fierce and skilled Roman soldiers, they learnt how to march, they did weapons training with swords, spears and shields, they made some beautiful oil lamps, they scared away a Celtic invader and they learnt all about how the fort was built and protected. The children were absolutely fantastic - they had good manners, they were keen and enthusiastic during every activity and they lots of fun. We were very proud with how they represented the school. Well done! Please click the following link to see a slideshow of pictures from their trip

We have continued reading our class novel this week and the children are thoroughly enjoying it, particularly the cliff-hanger at the end of this chapter. We have also continued to practise our retrieval and inference skills.

For our writing, we have been focusing on identifying coordinating and subordinating conjunctions and using them in sentences in a variety of ways. We have also been focused on making notes about our memories at Murton Park and all the brilliant activities that the children got to do throughout the day.

In computing, we are continuing our work around programming. This week, our lesson focused around drawing lines. We were making our sprite (which was a pencil) move around and write by creating a set of digital instructions, which could then be controlled using certain keys. The children were then tasked with writing different block letters with the sprite. The children absolutely loved it and I can't believe how much their confidence has increased each week, it's wonderful to see!

Computing-Drawing Lines

Spellings for this week: immortal, impatient, immeasurable, imperfect, impossible, immovable, impolite, immature, improper.

Take care,

Mr Kyriacou :)

Weekly Update-23/9/22

Mr Kyriacou (n.kyriacou) on: Beech Tree Blog

Hello everyone,

This week, our writing focus has revolved around identifying and using recount features that appear in the story of Romulus and Remus. The features we have been looking at are: openers, adjectives, conjunctions and paragraphs. The children have been working incredibly hard, building up their knowledge about each feature and practising to use those features. Below, the children were starting to practise using good openers and to punctuate them correctly. We then focused on adjectives and making the writing more descriptive. By the end of this week, the children have produced some brilliant descriptive pieces that describe what Romulus and Remus could see on their hills, using a variety of different senses, and they've included exciting openers and fantastic adjectives. It's been lovely to see the build up of their knowledge, vocabulary and their confidence.

It's also really lovely to see how much the children enjoy reading and to see their confidence building when reading to the class. Our story time book that we are currently reading is The Beast of Buckingham Palace by David Walliams.

In art, we are currently focusing on European artists, specifically, the work of Anselm Kiefer. His work focuses on broken buildings, relating to his memories of the aftermath of WW2 and he uses a variety of materials within his work. The children have been focusing on practising their sketching skills, accurately observing and drawing what they see. They worked incredibly hard and have produced some lovely pieces that are accurate, are three-dimensional and have depth to them.

Take care,

Mr Kyriacou :)

Weekly Update-16/9/22

Mr Kyriacou (n.kyriacou) on: Beech Tree Blog

Hello,

We've had another busy and productive week in Beech Tree. 

We are continuing to read our class novel, The Thieves of Ostia, and have just finished reading the third chapter today. The children are really enjoying it, and have been doing some fantastic retrieval work, making some super inferences and also some brilliant predictions as to what will happen next.

In maths, we have been focusing on number lines up to 10,000, as well as comparing and ordering numbers up to 10,000. The children have been focused, enthusiastic and eager, and this reflects strongly in their written work. 

In science, we focused on what scientists do, what they might look like, might wear and the different areas of the world that they might work in. We had a fantastic discussion and it really helped the children to see all the different areas of science that they might want to work in one day. It also helped them to understand that science is involved with lots of different jobs that they might not have thought of.

We have continued our ICT work, which currently revolves around programming, and this week the children programmed their characters to be able to move through a maze from start to finish. They listened really carefully and followed instructions accurately to successfully allow their character to move in certain ways when certain keys were pressed. The children are absolutely loving it!

The children also had their first swimming session today. We had mixed range of emotions before going, but I can confirm that they all absolutely loved it once they got in the pool and were very excited about coming back.

Take care,

Mr Kyriacou :)