Dear Parents,
This week, celebrations of European Day of Languages have seen the staff and children immersed in learning about different languages and cultures. Assembly on Friday morning was a fantastic opportunity to see how excitedly the children had embraced dressing up and learning phrases from a language of their choice.
Also this week, a highlight has to be the lovely Harvest Service, which took place at Ely Cathedral where Fairstead joined with King’s Acremont and Prep to celebrate the harvest theme of water. The singing was amazing and I would like to thank parents for their support and attending the service.
Nursery
Ponies 2 have had a very busy day learning about different cultures and languages. Many of the children dressed up and looked wonderful! The children have had their Spanish lesson outside with Miss Bryan, listened to a story being read in German, created their own flags, recreated our own version of Riverdance, and sang Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes in Arabic. We also tried our hand at many different ways to say hello and goodbye as the children arrived and went home.
Reception
In Reception this week, the children have been busy ‘Exploradactyls’, answering the questions, ‘What is harvest and why is it celebrated?’ They have spent time building churches and cathedrals in the outdoor area, making scarecrows to protect the crops, and have had great fun telling their own stories, based on ‘The Enormous Turnip’.
How wonderful it was to then watch the children taking part in the Harvest Service at Ely Cathedral on Thursday morning. People commented on how smart the children looked and how beautifully they behaved. Well done, Reception!
The children have also thoroughly enjoyed sharing photos of their grandparents and discovering all the things they enjoyed doing when they were in Reception! They particularly enjoyed participating in some indoor and outdoor games which were favourites with some of their grandparents.
Celebrating European Day of Languages was also a real highlight too, this week. Thank you, Miss Bryan, for a wonderful Spanish lesson, encouraging the children to count to 10 in different languages. The children also had great fun saying ‘Hola’ to as many children as they could from Years 1-6, throughout the day. Thank you to you all too, for providing such super costumes to make it such a memorable day for the children!
Year 1
We flew back to Europe this week. Our first stop- Italy!
It has been wonderful learning all about Italy, the delicious food it is famous for and its well-known buildings, including The Colosseum and The Leaning Tower of Pisa! We loved constructing these buildings in the classroom and role playing in our very own pizza restaurant. It was great fun taking orders and delivering pizzas and puddings to Mr Radford, Mrs Rix and Mrs Hazelwood.
Undoubtedly, the highlight of the week was our visit to Pizza Express! The margarita pizzas we made were absolutely delicious.
What a wonderful experience!
Year 2
This week Year 2 have read a new version of the Little Red Riding Hood story. This Little Red was a brave and smart little girl. Many children would have been fooled by the wolf “but not this little girl… which was unfortunate for the wolf!”. We created Venn diagrams to compare the two stories, introduced time connectives for sequence and worked on our comprehension skills to infer meaning from the illustrations. In maths we have been comparing numbers and amounts. In science we have been conducting an experiment to test the properties of plasticine, elastic bands and rocks. We discovered that some things stay in their new form, some return to their original form and some don’t do anything at all! In geography we are exploring compass points and have been using the language to draw fairytale characters on a page. Our performance at Harvest Festival was exemplary- well done to everyone for their hard work, confident reading and beautiful singing!
We have rounded out the week with European Day of Languages. What an amazing display of languages and costumes! We have been using atlases, maps, greeting others in other languages and using our lovely manners working hard to remember the words Miss Bryan has taught us.
Year 3
This week, Year 3 were fascinated to learn about the different skeletons in our science lesson. We identified endoskeletons, exoskeletons and hydrostatic skeletons. We categorised animals into the different types of skeletons and explored the advantages and disadvantages of each. The hydrostatic skeleton proved to be particularly interesting and we used a glove filled with water to represent how it would feel. In maths, we have been using the dienes to represent our calculations. We have been exchanging ones and tens to cross boundaries when adding and subtracting 1, 10 and 100. Going to the majestic Ely Cathedral to take part in the Harvest Festival Service was a really special moment this week. The children represented the school with pride and sang beautifully. Celebrating European Day of Languages was a fantastic way to end the week. We loved discussing our costumes and explaining why we decided to represent different countries. Taking part in so many different themed activities enhanced our celebrations even more. Thank you, Miss Bryan!
Year 4
As part of our Egyptian topic, we have loved finding out about mummification. This week, the children have thoroughly enjoyed recreating the process and mummifying some fruit. We look forward to unwrapping the fruit in a few months’ time!
This week in science, we have been learning about how water reaches our homes and is safe to drink. The children worked together and investigated a filtration system which would purify our dirty water!
In science, we continued to look at how and what we eat. Having looked last week at the mouth, this week, we started to look at the digestive system. The class created some examples of where the different organs in the body are and created a paper representation of a longitudinal section through the human body. They worked as a team to prepare the different organs before positioning and fixing them to an A2 sheet of paper. They then created a body around them.
That was Monday. Friday, however, was the annual highlight of the European Day of languages. A time to celebrate the different cultures around the world and this year the children once again showed their creative skills coming in a range of colours and outfits representing a wide range of countries. To celebrate, we made various landmarks from different countries which allowed us to practise our accurate cutting and sticking skills as well as discuss different 3D shapes.
Year 5
Year 5 continued with their investigation into forces by testing the effect of air resistance by measuring the time it took three different size parachutes to reach the ground when dropped from a height. They had a great time doing it and luckily the sun was shining. Nobody likes parachuting in the rain!
They are currently writing up the investigation in full, using the scientific language of independent, dependent and controlled variables and considering how they made the test fair.
Year 6
It was lovely to spend Thursday morning at Ely Cathedral, singing beautifully and celebrating harvest time with the children and staff of King’s Ely Prep. A huge well done to Eliza and Jessica for having the confidence to read aloud in front of such a large congregation! Years 5-6 stayed on after the service for a very informative tour of the cathedral with a focus on religious iconography. Our guide, Phil, was super and she was very impressed with the children’s questions and behaviour. Well done!
Recent Year 6 English lessons have focussed on descriptive writing of animals, linked to our science work on classification of organisms. The children have been using their imagination to write an owner’s guide for an imaginary creature called a miptor. They chose ambitious vocabulary to describe the miptor’s appearance, behaviour, diet etc and many were inspired to draw a picture of their miptor in spare time. In this week’s History lesson, Annabelle and Amelia kindly shared some very interesting books and artefacts from the 1950s & 1960s, including ‘Bunty for Girls’ and an original poster from Soham’s celebrations of Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation. Thank you for bringing such wonderful items into school!
STEM
In art, Y3 and Y4 have been super proud of their watercolour art. They have explored different watercolour techniques and experimented with wet on wet, wet on dry to produce the most amazing works of art. It has been so wonderful to see the pride and attention to detail the children have given towards their work with some truly impressive results!
Have a lovely weekend!
Michael Radford