Learning Journey – ‘Freedom’
A snapshot of our week:
Reception: on Monday, Mr Chris found some items on the rooftop of Reception! It was a telescope and a very shiny parcel, with the book ‘Look up!’ inside. The children figured these might have come from space, as Rocket the character from the book wants to be an astronaut! In maths we have been learning all about positional language (in, on, under, over, between etc.). We also had 2 very special events: A Diwali dance workshop and our sorting hat ceremony, which the children were very excited about!!
Year 1: what amazing artists and designers we have in Year One! So many of you created amazing posters for our home learning project. We’ve had fun this week learning a special dance to celebrate Diwali, it was lovely seeing so many enthusiastic Bollywood style dancers! We have started a new story in Literacy about an extremely mischievous bus who’s been causing chaos in our classrooms! (Naughty Bus by Jan and Jerry Oke). In maths we’re learning all the different ways to make 10 by adding two numbers together. We’re aiming to remember all of them so we have automatic recall! On Numbots, when children complete Stage 3 (Tin): Level 35 in Story Mode, they will unlock Challenge Mode. Challenge Number 5 helps us to learn all the ways to make 10.
Year 2: we have had a brilliant start to the new half term. We started with our first swimming lesson this week and it was amazing. It was fantastic to see so many children overcome their fears and jump into the pool. It was a great lesson and we can’t wait to get back into the pool with Miss Rowe next week. In Maths, we have started to look at subtraction and use concrete objects such as cubes, beads and dienes to subtract one number from another. It was great to see so many children explore and experiment with different concrete objects which will help us with our calculations. In Literacy, we have travelled back in time to meet Mary Seacole. We are beginning to look at why she is such an important figure in British History and how she helped change the views of black women. We have been using our ‘asking question’ tool to explore the history of Mary Seacole using Naida Redgrave’s ‘The Extraordinary Life of Mary Seacole.’
Year 3: we have started lots of fascinating new topics! Thanks to Amelie’s dad, we started our rocks, fossils and soils Science topic by examining loads of precious gems and crystals as well a huge selection of rocks from a beach in Norfolk. The children were engrossed and came up with many adjectives and questions about why they all look different. We have looked at the front cover of our new reading book and read the blurb. It sounds incredible; full of magic, mystery, myths and adventure! We can’t wait to start reading it! We have dipped our toes into our history topic and the children have surprised us by their knowledge of where historical events occurred on a time line.
Year 4 started reading a new book for literacy called Pride, which is the story of Harvey Milk and his campaign for LGBTQ+ rights. The children are already really involved, discussing the role of activism and creating protest speeches and placards. In maths, we have finished our topic of addition and subtraction, practising exchanging and learning efficient methods. For science, we have started a new topic, Animals Including Humans, where we will learn about teeth and the human digestive system. We discussed what we already know and what we want to know about our new topic. For our learning journey, we are learning more about the Windrush, focussing this week on the journey of the HMT Empire Windrush in 1948.
Year 5: It’s official Year 5 love yoga, we had a really fun and engaging taster session which we will build on next Tuesday. We have also started our gymnastics unit in PE and have been exploring various kinds of movement on the apparatus. in Maths we have started our new topic of multiplication and division and have dived in by reviewing our knowledge of factors, multiples and prime numbers. In literacy we are reading The Island by Armin Greder,, thank you to everyone who designed their own Islands as part of their home learning. There have been some amazing ones, we loved the idea of an Island that is just dedicate to the conversation of animals! Please check Tapestry for the next home learning project. As part of our ‘Freedom’ learning journey we have started our new focus on Black British History which ties in perfectly to our guided reading text of Black and British. We have completed our [prior learning checks about sound and are now looking forward to investigating this new topic.
Year 6: in Literacy and History this half term, we will be learning all about the role of women throughout time with a main focus on the Suffragettes. This week we wrote letters to William Gladstone (the Prime Minster during the time of the Suffragettes) persuading him to give women the right to vote as we did not feel it was fair. We made sure we used lots of the new vocabulary we had learnt to ensure we were really convincing! In maths with great perseverance, we continued to consolidate our understanding of long division. In science, we started to learn about the circulatory system and the heart. We are looking forward to a really great half term of learning and would welcome any visitors who can tell us more about the internal workings of the body.
Star Pupils this week
Year 3 – Nathan T, Gilby, Mia & Suraiya
Year 4 – Antonella, Alma, Ysmael & Greta H
Year 5 –Valentina, Hayley Angel & Jadon
Year 6 – Lanaia, Ava, Daniel & Grace
Green Acorn Awards – 75 points!
Y3 – Adam, Leayah, Stan, Fabian, Marni, Paolo, Sonny, Jason, Ohemaa, Amber, Mylah, Yasmina, Fabio, Margot D, Mia, Woody, Max, Arlen, Liliana, Charlotte, Rudy, Kelechi, Margot R, Mathis
Y4 – Bay, Mia, Dino, Greta H, Joey, Benji, Anna, Hector, Lola, Vitoria, Raheemat
Y5 – Maria, Delphina, Destiny, Valentina, Hayley, Ceyla, Mary, Isla, Lily, Seren, Hafsa, Emilie, Frank, Rocco
Y6 – Ava, Ralph, Lanaia, Alfred, Isabella, Pemi, Calista, Jeannie, George, Laurie, Myelle, Muzakkir, Leah Rose, Alex, Michael, Youness, Skye, Princess, Mirabel, Isabelle, Daniel
House Points |
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| 50 | 44 | 44 |
Flu Immunisation
The Flu Immunisation will take place at school on Tuesday 9th November. The NHS Immunisation team have unfortunately closed the link for your consent therefore we will be sending out a paper copy on Monday for those who were unable to complete it online. It must be returned by Tuesday 9th November. Only children with parental consent will receive the flu immunisation (nasal spray). For further information see: www.nhs.uk/child-flu
Dulwich Wood Home Learning
Check Tapestry for home learning:
- Daily Reading – online reading Bug Club (Y1 & Y2) or myON (Y3 – Y6)
- Daily Maths – practice on Numbots (Y1 & Y2) or Timetables Rockstars (Y2 – Y6)
- Weekly – Spelling words to practise
- Fortnightly – Open Ended Research Project. Your child can present it in any format (the more creative the better), they will be given the deadline date of when to bring it into school to show.
- Monthly – STEAM Question (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Maths), answers go directly to Miss Summers (Year 3 Teacher/Science Lead Teacher).
Learning Reviews
Learning Reviews will be held via Zoom on Monday 22nd November. School will be closed on this day. Make your booking via Schools Buddy (contact the office if you need help booking your appointment).
Diwali – The Hindu and Sikh Festival of Light
We all had great fun on Wednesday celebrating this wonderful festival, the whole school danced Bollywood and classical styles with Steph and learnt about the adventures of Rama and Sita and the importance of light. We hope you have all been enjoying the fireworks and wish you a happy and safe Bonfire Weekend.
Poppy Appeal
Assembly on Monday 8th November will be about Armistice Day and we hope to be selling Poppies in the School Office from Monday. If you are out and about this weekend and want to support the Poppy Appeal please do buy a poppy for your child and encourage them to wear it on Monday.
Children in Need
We will be going spotty on Friday 19th of November, School Council are working out their game plan and will let you know next week what will be happening.
Fruity Friday
Today was our first Fruity Friday in a long time, thank you so much to Emma Gee and her team for getting it back off the ground. It was so well supported that we ran out of supplies! Please bear with us, there will be more next week, sorry for any disappointment caused!
Dates for the Diary
Tue 9th Nov – Flu Immunisation (Rec – Y6)
Fri 12th Nov – Reception/KS1 Celebration Assembly
Fri 19th Nov – KS2 Celebration Assembly
Mon 22nd Nov – Learning Reviews (School Closed to children)
Fri 26th Nov – Reception/KS1 Celebration Assembly
Fri 3rd Dec – KS2 Celebration Assembly
Fri 10th Dec – Reception/KS1 Celebration Assembly
Tue 14th Dec – Reception Christmas Performance 9:30am & 2:30pm (more details to follow)
Wed 15th Dec – KS1 Christmas Performance 9:30am & 2:30pm (more details to follow)
Wed 15th Dec – KS2 Christmas Evening Performance – St Stephen’s Church (more details to follow)
Fri 17th Dec – School Finishes at 1pm. No Emu Club.
Save this date! Friends of Dulwich Wood -Christmas Event Saturday 4th December
Reindeers (real ones) Santa’s Grotto, food, treats, books and toys and much, much more!
Christmas Trees will be available to pre-order and collect on the day (so don’t buy one yet as all proceeds made from your Christmas tress purchase go to the school and last year they were great value and great quality!)
Raffle Tickets
We are currently gathering prizes for the raffle and are hoping (!) some of you (or your connections) might be able to donate things or experiences for prizes, as has happened in the past. We’ll also be going to local businesses to ask for donations, so if anyone has connections we’d love to have an introduction if at all possible!
If anyone would like to donate a prize please do let us know. We’d love to keep the standard of the raffle high as we’ve heard it has been excellent in previous years!
Look out for more details on next week’s newsletter about how to purchase tickets for the event and how-to pre-order trees!
