Friday 24th June 2022 | Dulwich Wood Primary School

Learning Journey – ‘Foundations

A snapshot of our week:

Reception: We have started a new book, ‘Izzy Gizmo’ about a girl who loves to invent all sorts of gadgets. This has inspired the children to become inventors themselves. They have been fantastic at using their planning tool, thinking about the gadgets they would like to create, drawing and labelling pictures and then building them. And speaking about interesting contraptions, on Thursday, Mr Chris came to reception with a key cutter. The children had a great time working with Mr Chris to cut their own keys. In maths, we have been exploring the concept of doubling in different contexts, working with numbers within 10.

Year 1 have had a week full of making links! We were very excited to start our new topic about Kenya in geography, and we used our map skills to work out which continent it was in, as well as think about how we would travel there. We made links between our learning in geography to our book ‘Handa’s surprise’, and were able to draw comparisons between the two. It was really fun writing descriptions of African fruit in literacy which our partners then had to guess from looking at the clues. To finish our topic about plants in science, we have been growing some cress which we’re excited to try when we do our ‘dips and dippers’ project in DT.

Year 2 We have started our week with an amazing school trip to London Central Mosque where we expanded our knowledge about the religion of Islam. Check tapestry to see some of our lovely photos. In maths, we have been learning how to read the time to 5 minutes, and using our reasoning tool to solve and explain word problems involving time. Please keep asking us what the time is to help us become even more confident reading analogue time. In literacy, we came across some mysterious footprints in our classrooms. We have been trying to find out who they belong to by describing them and making links to what we already know about animals. We explored the concepts of endangered and extinct, in addition to having some great discussions about the various reasons why animals are considered endangered and how this can be prevented.

Next Friday Y2 are going to the Velodrome in Herne Hill to ride bikes and we need as many Parents as possible to come along. Many children in Year 2 are still learning to ride a bike and will need lots of support (at first!!). Please email Mrs Jary (hjary@dulwichwood.com) for further details, you could just meet us there at 10am and stay till 12! The more adults we have the more children will learn to ride! Any Year 3 or 4 Parents who came along last week or the week before and would like to help again with the younger children are more than welcome!

Year 3 Without a shadow of doubt, the highlight of this week for year 3 has been our absolutely incredible trip to the Velodrome. It was a beautiful sunny day so we had a leisurely walk through Belair Park to get there. The children were sooo excited! We were quickly given bikes and helmets and split into groups depending on how confident they felt. The experienced riders were given the opportunity to race round the track with challenging obstacles set up by the coaches! Some of them were super speedy. The less confident ones were given some tuition on how to ride a bike and incredibly, the majority of them learnt how to ride a bike in 20 minutes! It was mind blowing and extremely rewarding to see them confidently cycling around. They used their perseverance tool to the full and lots used their empathy goggles to support and encourage each other. Lots of them said it was the best day of their lives!!! Thanks, so so much to all the parent helpers. You were so patient and encouraging, we couldn’t have done it without you! A massive thank you also to Mrs Jary who organised the trip! Year 3 are dying to go again!

Year 4 have worked incredibly hard this week! We have been practising our instructional writing in Literacy and making cross-curricular links to our history and science. At the start of the week we used evidence to try and determine how the great King Tut died thousands of years ago. Many historians, have many theories as to how this happened, we gathered all the research and then wrote speeches using conjunctions to link our ideas. Throughout this week we have looked at the process of mummification; in order to explore this further we embalmed tomatoes by creating our own natron, which is a type of preserving salt used to maintain the body and help the drying process. We loved working collaboratively and will monitor the tomatoes over the next week. In maths, we completed our topic of time and deepened our understanding of reading and converting time. We used our reasoning tool to answer tricky word problems. On Thursday, things got really messy! We made oobleck (cornflour slime) and learned all about non-Newtonian liquids. They are difficult to characterise as their states change dependent on pressure or temperature. Our lessons have been very practical this week and loads of fun!

Year 5 have finished reading the Sleeper and the Spindle, we reviewed the text, giving our opinions and discussing how it was different from traditional fairy tales. We have also written formal letters to the Queen in the book giving her advice on what to do next. In maths we have been translating and reflecting shapes on grids. This takes lots of perseverance as it is quite tricky at times. In Geography, we are exploring the Scandinavian countries of Denmark, Sweden, Finland and Norway. We have been doing virtual tours, discovering their exciting tourist attractions, and writing brochures and letters about these places.

The Y5/6 Athletics team came second in the Southwark final on Monday, unfortunately the Y3/4 final was cancelled because of the train strike and has been postponed until the next academic year.

Year 6 We started off our week with an electrifying science morning. We were masters at using our making links tool, using our prior learning in year 4 about electricity to help us answer scientific enquiry questions. One of the questions was ‘What would happen if I added more bulbs to my circuit?’ Using the equipment, we investigated and answered the questions at hand. On Wednesday, we had a great reading lesson, where we learnt more about Langston Hughes and the Harlem Renaissance. Using our asking questions tool, we began to learn about the history of Harlem, which helped us to answer the questions about the poems. In the afternoon, we had part 2 of our Police Workshop with our local police officer PC Hazel, we learnt about the issues surrounding knife and gang crime then followed up with a very informative session on how to stay safe which we will build upon next Thursday.

Fun Run

What a fantastic day, thank you so much to Beth and Buffy for organising the event so well and to all the Parents who supported by helping or squirting on the day. Also, a huge thanks to all the children who have collected sponsors to raise money for the outdoor classroom. Please send in or pay directly into the Friends Bank Account by Monday 27^th. All the children are desperate to know which class has raised the most money!

Account: 27107397

SORT: 23-05-80

Chris, our amazing Premises Officer took some action photos at the Fun Run. On Monday your child will be bringing home a tiny copy of their picture with details of how to purchase it. The print will cost £5 and all proceeds will go towards for the Friends outdoor classroom project, it will be printed on glossy paper – size 13cm x 18cm.

Book Launch – Tuesday 28^th June

In KS2 (Y3, Y4, Y5, Y6) we are very excited to have the author Dougie Poynter visit us on Tuesday 28^th June to launch his new book about the importance of whales and understand how and what they can do to prevent single use plastic entering the ocean. In collaboration with ‘Whale and Dolphin Conversation’ and ‘BRITA’ There will be an assembly where children may be filmed or photographed. If you do not want your child to be filmed or photographed please contact the office. (office@dulwichwood.com)

Platinum Jubilee Art Competition Winners

Well done to everyone who submitted their artwork. Miss Bishop had a very difficult job in picking the overall winners. Today in assembly we announced the Reception & KS1 winners. Well done to everyone who entered!

Reception – Edric

Year 1/2 – Ilara

Adults – Ostin’s Mum

Year 5/6 Violin Performance

On Wednesday the Violin Players went to Dulwich College for a spectacular performance of ‘Wombat Stew’. They collaborated with boys from the Junior School and played to an almost packed auditorium. All the adults commented about how well they performed and how well the represented Dulwich Wood. Well done everyone, and a big thank you to Miss Drummond and Mrs Freychet-Stevenson for performing and supporting the group.

Dates for the Diary

Saturday 9th July – Friend’s of Dulwich Wood Summer Fair
Tuesday 12th & Thursday 14th July – Learning Reviews 3:30pm – 7pm (book on SchoolsBuddy)
Thursday 21st July – Term Ends (school finishes at 1pm, No Emu Club)
Monday 5th September – Children return to School