What a fantastic start we have had to 2025 in Willow Class with an investigation about blood vessels! Our new topic is Heartbeat where we learn all about the circulatory system. We delved deeper into how this works and we explored the connection between blood vessels and blood flow. We found that if blood vessels are clogged with fatty deposits, they are narrower and the blood will not flow through as quickly which can lead to health problems. We are looking forward to learning much more!

We wanted to share this information with you to help keep your child safe online and ensure that they understand the risks of phones as well as the benefits. 

Have a lovely Christmas and we will see everyone in 2025!

On Friday, Willow Class had their natural disasters WOW Day which was both exciting and educational! The children began their day by building and decorating their own volcanoes. Afterwards, they got comfy with cushions from the book corner and settled down to watch 'Elemental' which was a brilliant way to learn about the natural elements. Finally, once their volcanoes were dry, they spent the afternoon mixing a range of substances to create a chemical reaction that simulated a volcanic eruption. It was a fantastic, hands-on way for them to apply their understanding and they had great fun doing so! 

During our No Outsiders lesson for this half term, we read a story called 'King of the Sky' written by Nicola Davies which is a story about a young Italian boy who moved to Wales with his family. He feels isolated and alone until he makes an unlikely friend, an old man who lets him fly one of his pigeons in a race. This friendship helps him to learn how to belong. We discussed how the boy felt throughout the story and how the events affected his emotions. Then, we used this information to draw a storyline showing the main events and how they impacted him. Here are a few of our examples! 

We had an incredibly fun French lesson today where we ended up playing a board game called Escape the Castle! To start, we completed a crossword to help us recall the nouns for rooms in the house. We then learnt nouns in French for items you may find in a castle. To finish, we played the board game to practise our vocabulary. 

This morning, we wrapped ourselves up and got outside for our PE session of football. To begin with, we practised our dribbling and passing skills before having interceptors who tried to gain possession of the ball. We ended with mini matches where we had to work collaboratively and come up with different plays that meant when to dribble and when to pass. Here are some pictures of our skills! 

Our new writing unit, that we will be focusing on over the next few weeks, is call 'Wisp'. It is a beautifully illustrated, inspiring book and we thoroughly enjoyed reading it and exploring the language in today's lesson. After writing down all the effective vocabulary on our whiteboards, we used this to create shared poems. 

This half term, lots of the children have worked incredibly hard on their homework projects linked to our topic of island life. They picked different Caribbean islands to research and then chose how to present this learning. Mrs Barnett was absolutely blown away by the effor that the children put into these projects - here are a few for you to see! 
It has been a brilliant half term is Willow Class so far and everyone is ready for a well-deserved break! See everyone on Monday 4th November! 

We have had an absolutely brilliant WOW Day in Year 6! We started our morning by making our own periscopes which link to our science topic of light. We discussed how and when these are used and after we made our own, we wrote down instructions on how to do so for others to follow. To finish off our morning, we decorated them and then went to spy on some other classes - we were pretty stealthy but eventually, we were caught! During the afternoon, we watching the film 'Hidden Figures', which is based on a true story and links to our learning about Katherine Johnson for Black History Month. We found it moving and thoroughly enjoyed! 

It was an exciting end of the day in Willow Class yesterday as we listened to all our applicants for the role of school council representative give their speeches. We couldn't believe that 16 of us wanted the position! Mrs Barnett was blown away by the effort put into our speeches and how clearly we spoke. It was a close call but this is our winner - please welcome Willow Class' school council representative 2024-2025!