“Shaping bright futures together”
Spring Term, 29th January 2021 in Lockdown
News from Mrs. Peacey As we reach the end of what seems like a very long January, despite the snow last
weekend, there are definite signs that Spring is on the way. The primroses in the bank
opposite the school are starting to flower and the bulbs planted around the school are
pushing through and we look forward to them brightening up the school grounds.
COVID update
Should your child
receive a positive test
at a weekend or
during the holidays –
please ring or text
07709987018 and
leave a message.
This week’s Science Challenge in Class Hawthorn was to investigate whether
materials can change shape. The children found everyday items from around
the house – or classroom – and had great fun carrying out their experiments.
Well done to all – we have lots of super scientists in class.
Child Mental Health Week is taking place on 1-7 February 2021 with a theme of ‘Express Yourself’. Teachers have
changed some of the activities to take account
of this. On Wednesday we are encouraging all our pupils - both those at home and those in
school - to take part in 'Inside out day' by dressing up for the day with at least one item
of clothing inside out.
Mrs Peacey’s Google Classroom Next week Mrs Peacey will be opening the doors to her online
Classroom…join in when you see the link pop up in your Google Classroom.
One exciting bit of news is that Mrs Clements is due to return from her maternity leave after half term and will be job sharing with Mrs Tulley. To start with they will both work together and once Mrs Clements has got the hang of the Home-Schooling routine, or we are back in school again then Mrs Clements will be in class for the first three days and Mrs Tulley will be in on Thursday and Friday. Mrs Tulley is also going to work with groups of children from all classes to give them additional support.
At this juncture I would like to thank Mrs Tulley for doing an amazing job, she has worked so hard and always retains her positivity and fantastic sense of humour. She is a real asset to Ashton and I couldn’t be happier that she will be working with us for the foreseeable future.
Thank you to all the teachers and
particularly to Mrs Brown for working so
hard to get Google Meet up and running,
this will continue to develop next week. We
know that many of you who met with your
teachers and class mates today really
enjoyed the experience and that more of
you have a meet scheduled for early next
week. Please let your class teacher know if
you have not received the invitation or
permission forms.
“Shaping bright futures together”
This week many of us have been on adventures to the
moon – some flying in our home-made space rockets,
others travelling in carboard boxes and
even the bathtub – many of us packed
picnics and write lists of what we
needed to take with us.
For more photos of our Acorn adventures, please look at our class blog at
https://www.ashton.worcs.sch.uk/news/acorns-news/
A
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We have enjoyed some lovely story books, written our own
storyboards and retold and re-enacted stories. We have found
out about the first moon landing and looked out for this week’s
full moon. We have designed and built model rockets and lunar
buggies, explored phases of the moon and heard about the
moon’s effect on the tides. We have discovered how moon
craters were made and investigated fizzing moonrocks, created
some aliens and designed parachutes to bring our teddies back
down to earth again.
We have all been working hard
with our letters and sounds
and our reading is coming on
well whether we are learning at
home or at school.
In maths we
have been
investigating
different
combinations of
the numbers 6,
7 and 8.
https://www.ashton.worcs.sch.uk/news/acorns-news/
“Shaping bright futures together”
CLA
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After a gloriously snowy weekend, there’s been lots of learning for Hawthorn children again this week.
In English, we have been finding out about George Stephenson who is generally known as ‘the father of the railways’. The children began by making their own fact files and storyboards, and are now writing his life story. In the process, they were challenged to find out a fascinating fact. Did you know that in addition to inventing ’The Rocket’ and setting up the early railways, he also invented a cucumber straightener! Who knew that we needed such a thing!
In maths, Year 1s have been
working on addition and
subtraction up to 20 and we’re
so proud of all the work they’ve
been doing. Families have been
very resourceful in finding
items at home to support
learning – Ethan used mini
marshmallows and pasta shapes
in his ten frames! Year 2s have
moved on to division and are
exploring the links with
multiplication and times tables.
Our topic work was directly
linked to English as the
children found out about the
history of trains and the
railways.
In RE, we read the story of the lost
coin and afterwards the children got
all arty and creative. Their challenge
was to design and make ten coins
then turn them into a piece of
jewellery, a mobile or an item of
their choice. The results were really
impressive, with some of their
creations shown here.
“Shaping bright futures together”
NEW
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WILLOW
We have seen some fantastic work this week and have been really impressed
with all the effort that has been put into the tasks we have been setting.
We know how much effort is going into the tasks and really appreciate all
the time and effort from the parents who are supporting too. We are
however, concerned by all the screen time you are having so please make sure
you do take regular breaks. You could try to follow the 20-20-20 rule:
When following the rule, you take a 20-second break from looking at a screen
every 20 minutes and during the break, focus on an object 20 feet (about 6
meters) away. This relaxes your eye muscles and stops them from getting
tired.
There is also a free Google Chrome extension called Screen Shader, which
allows you to tint your screen and will reduce glare from the screen. There
are lots of colours to choose from, you could have a different one every day!
Maths this week has had a division
focus for Year 3, Year 4 have learnt
about area Year 5 have investigated
square and cube numbers. You are
doing a great job learning some tricky
concepts. Next week Year 3 and 4 are
looking at measuring length. If you
don’t have a ruler at home there will be
some in the entrance at school for you
to borrow.
Francesca’s maths poster
Bethany’s volcano Top
Trump card
“Shaping bright futures together”
Our English work has continued,
for part of this week, being
inspired by David Walliams
characters. The work has really
developed your creativity and got
your imaginations working over-
time. Well done for entertaining us
both with your instructions, recipe
ideas and introducing some
potential new characters to rival
the ones created by David
Walliams himself!
Topic has continued to focus on volcanoes and earthquakes
and the children have learnt about different volcanoes
around the world creating Top Trump cards for them. They
discovered that Mount Fuji had a post office on its summit!
They also designed safety advice for people in earthquakes
zones and building designs to prevent damage in the event
of a quake. The week after next we will be asking the
children to create a model of a volcano so start saving
newspapers or scrap paper for some papier mache, a small
plastic bottle and a shallow box (a cereal box would be
ideal)!!
more
NEW
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George’s earthquake
safety poster