New additions to our school

Guinea Pigs

This week we invited two new members to our our Stanmore School - Oreo and Bubble. The children all voted for their favourite names and these were decided at random during the celebration assembly -they definitely suit them.

Many of the classes have been to see Oreo and Bubble this week and we can’t wait until they are strong enough to go outside into their run. Thank you to The Friends of Stanmore for buying our new friends and their home and thank you to Mr Foard for putting it all together.

Catkins

This week, we explored the text 'Rosie's Walk', a story about a blissfully unaware hen and a mischievous fox who runs into mishaps! The children did some excellent writing to Rosie to explain where the fox had been on the farm and some even created their own story maps! The children then created some 'Rosie's Walk' inspired art including handprint hens and honeycomb! We checked on the growth of our bean plant and conducted an experiment to see which plant will grow the tallest, the one in the cupboard or the one outside! The children then enquired further about farms, and we learned about the role of animals that live on a farm. The children had a go at 'milking' cows and shearing sheep! Lastly, we visited our new guinea pigs. The adults were impressed at how respectful Catkins were when visiting our new school animal! Super job Catkins!

Rowan

What do plants need to grow?

Last week, we set up an investigation to explore what plants ( grass was the focus) needed to grow and be healthy. 

First, we explored our school grounds to see where grass grew and identified why it was able to grow successfully. We quickly realised that grass wasn't growing as well in our woodland areas as the grass might not have had as much sunlight or water.  To set up the investigation we used four pieces of turf and labelled each grass sample with one of these labels: water and light; water and no light; light and no water; no light and no water. 

Our predictions were all very similar, as we understood that the grass without water or sunlight would not be healthy as it didn't have the things it needed to grow.  

We really enjoyed observing the grass samples this week, as we could clearly see a difference between the grass that been kept in the dark and the grass that had more light. Hurry up next week! We want to see what has happened to our grass!

Birch

Birch Class have been introduced to the wonderful world of Shakespeare this week! They are studying 'The Tempest' and have been exploring the main characters and settings. As part of this work, they created freeze frames of the opening scenes from the play. They will be drawing on what they have learnt to write a playscript later next week.         

Sycamore

Sycamore Class have been becoming creative with music and science, creating their own musical instruments and thinking about how to alter the sound as well as how the sound is made.

Year 5 and 6

Children in Elm, Oak and Aspen have been writing newspaper reports this week based on their text ‘King Kong’ by Anthony Browne. We have loved exploring whether King Kong is a ferocious monster or an animal that has been taken out of it’s native land. The writing has been excellent and we have explored using high level punctuation and direct and reported speech.

R2L

Our target this week has been "I can accept the decision of adults." Building on from last weeks target, the children have thought about what the role of a teacher is at Stanmore Primary School . They decided that its was a teacher's job to teach new learning, teach new skills, keep children safe, model the right choices and to have fun! The children enjoyed a variety of activities this week including Lego building, making play dough, playing competitive games and making bird seed feeders.  The children agreed that although sometimes it can feel tricky to accept the decisions of adults, ultimately, the adults have the children's best interests in mind.