Learning Journey – ‘Surroundings’

Reception: As we are now halfway through the school year, we started the week by looking at all the children’s writing folders. They enjoyed flicking through their work and were amazed by their own progress. After that, we enjoyed the story ‘That’s not a daffodil’ and discussing the changes in our environment now that winter is coming to the end. The children have been super excited, looking all around the garden to see how many signs of Spring they could spot, like buds on the branches, shoots on the ground, daffodils, etc. If you are out and about this weekend please get them to point signs of Spring out to you, it is quite uplifting!!

Year 1: We’ve had a great start to the half term! On Tuesday, we used our collaboration tool to build structures using junk. We then realised that what we were doing linked to our new book: Iggy Peck Architect by Andrea Beaty. We really enjoyed using drama to help us think about how different characters in the book were feeling, we put on our empathy goggles and wrote thought bubbles. In maths, we have been ordering numbers up to 50, and we are becoming more confident in counting up in 2’s. We’ve started learning about different materials in science and we loved sorting different objects and going on a materials hunt! Please note that from now on Year 1 will be having PE every Friday and Monday.

Year 2: What a fantastic first week back we have had! We came across a mysterious box in the classroom labelled “Grandpa’s Stuff”. We decided to take a look inside where we found some clues as to who Grandpa was, and also a picture of a young boy. Later on, we found out that the boy, Finn, is the main character of our new book “Ocean Meets Sky” by the Fan Brothers. Finn is going on a magical adventure, and we can’t wait to jump into this journey with him. In Maths, we have started exploring 2D shapes and their properties. We had a great time looking around the school for those shapes. We were so surprised when we started to see shapes everywhere. We have also been using geo plans to make 2D shapes using elastic bands and best of all, making pictures using only shapes. In Science, we looked at different pictures, sorting them into 1. Alive 2. Never alive 3. Used to be alive, which generated some great discussions about some of the items in the pictures. We also played a guessing game in Geography, where we tried to match the countries in the UK with their respective flags.

Year 3: This week we have started our new book ‘Cloud Tea Monkeys’ and our journey of discovery to become apprentice tea tasters! We smelt, tasted and described different teas and designed enticing labels for them. We made sure we tested the temperature of the teas with data loggers before we tasted them! As part of our surroundings learning journey, we attended a STEM session about how schools are built. It was fascinating to hear from all the different people involved in such projects and to learn about their roles. We were really intrigued by the role of the ecologist and what they do to protect the environment and local wildlife. It has given us loads of ideas that we would like to follow up!

Year 4: We have had a great first week back in Year 4 and have been wowed by the Anglo-Saxon home learning response, some of the broaches are truly outstanding well done and thank you! In maths, we have been practising our time tables knowledge through games, loop cards and factor posters and in literacy, we have been focussing on different types of clauses in our sentences, as well as creating a variety of adverbial phrases and exploring how we can build up our sentences. For our learning journey, we have continued to learn about settlements, identifying the origins of settlements around the UK through clues in their names, as well as building confidence in our map skills. Finally, we have started a new reading book, ‘Letters From The Lighthouse’, making predictions about the characters and setting. 

Year 5: We are exploring out of space through our new book ‘Curiosity the Mars Rover’., the first robot of its kind to travel to the red planet. We have been discussing the space race and the issues surrounding it! In geography we have been looking at settlements around the world noticing where and how cities are formed as well as celebrating the amazing Anglo -Saxon home learning that many children completed with enthusiasm in the half term holidays. African drumming lessons are also back this half term and we look forward to show casing our skills to you soon. Next week 5B are going to the Dulwich Prep Science Lab to investigate changes in materials and their properties, 5A have been invited to go the week after. Over the coming weeks Mr Blackshaw will also be taking some KS2 children over to play football after school with boys from the Prep. In PSHE we finished our internet safety project ‘Safety starts with you’ and next week we will be returning to the action plans we wrote about what we could do to improve our school. One group have already achieved their goal which was to work with the Friends of Dulwich Wood to have a disco in order to raise money to bring the guinea pigs back. The disco is on March 11th, see below!!

Year 6: We have all come back raring to go! We have pushed ourselves in maths with our new topic algebra! At first we were worried after hearing dreaded stories about how difficult algebra was…turns out that was a lie! We have realised it’s a lot more straightforward, and easy to get your head around – we particularly enjoyed writing algebraic expressions! In literacy, we have started our new text ‘Can We Save the Tiger?’ by Martin Jenkins. Pretending to be poor farmers, we debated on what to do with a new predator that has been killing our livestock. Once we discovered who the predator was, most of us changed our minds because they are endangered animals. We are excited for our future learning based around this text! 6B went to Dulwich Prep this week and had their turn at dissecting a heart! Today swimming is back on after several weeks when the pool was out of action, everyone is so excited about getting back in the water!

Star Pupils this week

Year 3: Paolo, Eddie, Margot D & Marialey

Year 4: Heve, Elizabeth, Tashawna & Scarlett

Year 5: Hafsa, Frank, Joao & Amandine

Year 6: Princess, Isabella, Xavier & Isabelle

Acorn Awards

Green Acorn Awards – 75 points!

Year 3: Remi

Bronze Acorn Awards – 150 points!

Year 4: Nehemiah, Thelma, Emmanuel, Jack & Heve

House Points 
121 116 118

 

Dates for the Diary

  • Thursday 3rd March – World Book Day
  • Friday 4th March – KS1 Celebration Assembly
  • Friday 11th March – Dress to Express Disco/Festival (FODW Event)
  • Monday 14th March – Learning Reviews 
  • Friday 18th March – Comic Relief Red Nose Day 
  • Wednesday 23rd March – A Quiz & Chips (FODW Event)
  • Monday 4th April – Tuesday 19th April – Holidays
  • Wednesday 20th April – Children Return to School

World Book Day Thursday 3rd March

Please encourage your child to come to school dressed as their favourite character, Teachers have lots of fun activities planned and we have author visits for Reception and KS1 – Stephanie Clarkson and KS2 will hear from Ingrid Persaud. They will also receive a £1 book token.

The following week KS2 have been invited to meet various authors at Dulwich College.

If you want to buy a signed book please send in the correct amount of cash in an envelope with your child’s name and year group on it by Friday 4th March. The authors will dedicate the book to your child and sign it. They will then collect it at the end of the workshop.

Learning Reviews Monday 14th March

Please make an appointment via SchoolsBuddy. The bookings will be live from 5pm today.  Please note under the new guidance around living with Covid this will be the last review to be organised in this format.

Comic Relief Friday 18th March

This year children will be able to buy red noses from the School Office (we will let you ‘nose’ when they have been delivered… boom boom!)

There will be a House Competition to win the funny nose cup, the winning house will be the one that tells the best jokes!!!

Friends Coffee Morning

Thank you to all the Parents and Carers who came along to the Friends Coffee morning on Wednesday; it was great to meet so many new people and celebrate all the brilliant work the members do.

Dulwich Wood Friends exists to promote positive relationships between staff, families, carers and local community. Please look out for and support the Friends events, we always need volunteers for Fruity Friday and the next big event is the disco!

Dress to Express Disco  – Friday 11th March from 5.30pm -7.30pm 

  • A family festival on the playground!
  • Entry is £1 via the front gate, no need to book.
  • Everyone one is invited from Nursery to Year 6 but all children must be accompanied by a paying adult. Babies in arms go free!!
  • There will be drinks, sweets, pizza and jerk chicken to buy at the disco.

More details on the poster below, please join-us in your craziest disco outfits for some well-earned family fun.

Dinner Menu – Week Commencing 28.02.22

Friday 25th February 2022