Friday 18th March 2020 is Red Nose Day in the UK. At Green Top we will be raising money for the event by selling red nose’s. Red nose’s will go on sale from tomorrow and school councillors will be bringing them to each class in the mornings, priced at £1.50. On the day, we will also be raising money by wearing something red and bringing in a £1 donation. To go along with this, the school council have also thought of some activities that we will be doing in the afternoon.
On Friday, I had the pleasure of taking a group of children from Year 3 and 4 to Trinity to take part in an afternoon of Basketball. I was SO impressed with how well everyone worked together and with the children from the other school. The children listened to the coach really respectfully and gained some fantastic skills! Well done everyone!
What a busy but lovely week we’ve had this week!
In English, we’ve just started our new writing cycle so have been hooked in by doing lots of collaborative learning. We’ve conducted our own debate arguing for/against banning plastic straws. I was blown away by how children expressed themselves and their arguments as well as the great research they carried out using the iPads to gather appropriate evidence.
Later in the week, children worked in groups to become experts in certain areas that linked to our guiding question ‘Why should we protect our beautiful planet’ and then presented their findings to the rest of the class so that in turn, everyone else became mini experts too. Children then worked hard to summarise the finding of each group and record their answers. This was a challenging task as it not only required children to stand up, present and recall their own finding but then listen to everyone else’s and write their findings too. You are all stars!
In Expedition, we are half way through Case Study 3-music and we love it! So far we’ve learnt about rhythmic ostinato, graphic and standard notation as well as taking part in a round within a song. The children split in to groups and performed ‘We don’t talk about Bruno’ from Encanto and they all sang beautifully. I’m excited to see you in the recording studio!
I’m proud of you all as always!
Mrs Faulding x
Thank you so much Leila for bringing in your fabulous home learning of polar bears in their habitats. It’s wonderful to see you fully immersing yourself in to our expedition and I’m so proud of how much effort you’ve put in to this box model. Lots of lovely attention to detail.
Well done- 100 HoWL points for working hard!
Mrs Faulding x
A big well done to Crew Oldridge on being awarded first place for your attendance this week. We can see that you’re all working really hard ensuring that you are coming to school each day. Keep it up!
Another well done but this time to Crew Tortora on winning the overall HoWL points for this week so they got to spin the prize wheel. It’s fab to see that you are all getting smart, working hard and being kind. All of these contribute to lots of HoWL points being awarded! Enjoy your extra play time, you super stars!
In Accelerated Reader, we celebrated Crew Faulding for their above average reading percentage and also Crew Myers for their 0.3 percent increase since before half term. Year 4 are smashing it! Keep it up!
Year 3 and 4 Crew Leaders x
Well done to our postcard winners so far this week!
Really impressed by how you’re all immersing yourselves in to your English and expedition learning this week!
Keep it up!!
Mrs Faulding x
Children from Year 2-5 had a fun-filled time at XP East today as we met up with children who are also digital leaders from across the trust. We began the day with a brilliant tour of XP and XP East before working hard to understand the role of a digital leader, why digital leaders are important and the qualities a digital leader should have. I was blown away by the children’s efforts and collaboration but also the courage they demonstrated to share their ideas in front of a big audience! A great day was had by all and the children will now share their learning with the leadership team at Green Top. Thank you to Mr. Portman and XP for having us for the day…we had a great time!
We looked at the handwriting statement on our writing rubric and focussed on the wording of it, ‘using horizontal lines to develop joined handwriting’. The children reflected and compared their own handwriting against this statement and we made a pledge.
We discussed where our letters should be sitting on the lines in our books, looking at ascenders and descenders and then used the interactive Letter-join videos to practice writing the letters correctly using the horizontal lines.
We then practised writing some new key words that we’ve been introduced this week from our music case study (CS3). The children were incredibly focussed throughout the task and produced the most stunning handwriting, all using those horizontal lines ready to join.
I’m proud of you all but I could also see how proud you were of yourselves and the beautiful work that you had produced. I now challenge you to produce this on every piece of learning in your books! I know you can do it! ⭐️
Mrs Faulding x
Yesterday afternoon, we took some time to really focus and harness in on some particular skills in readiness for our next assessment week.
Some children grappled with a reading comprehension task that linked to our expedition focus, really sticking their teeth in to their retrieval skills and developing their understanding of a text. You all did amazing!
Other children asked if they could develop their rapid recall of their times tables to support them with their arithmetic tests. They used TT Rockstars battling against each other, encouraging one another to do their best and to beat their scores each time. You all smashed it! I can see huge improvements in all of you!
Well done everyone!
Mrs Faulding x
