Sharing our Learning

This morning, children in Nursery and Reception shared some of their learning from this term with the rest of the school as well as their parents and family members.

The class assembly was on the theme of 'Space' and featured some brilliant songs as well as some excellent learning about the planets, gravity and the history of space exploration.

Well done to all children in Nursery and Reception!

Primary Maths Challenge

A selection of children in Years 4 - 6 carried out the Primary Maths Challenge in November.  During Maths Club, we have been looking at some really challenging Maths problems to help develop our problem-solving skills as well as our resilience when the answer is not immediately obvious.

Examples of the types of problems posed include:

Jenny Juice was picking strawberries in a field. When she dropped a bowl of strawberries on the ground, one third of them were eaten by wasps, one quarter by ants and one sixth by maggots.

dropped a bowl of strawberries on the ground, one third of them were eaten by wasps, one quarter by ants and one sixth by maggots.  What fraction of the strawberries were left?

Abigail, Belinda, Clare, Deidre and Emma are 5 friends who always eat school dinners together.  They decide that each school day they will line up in a different order.  There are 5 days in every school week.  How long can they do this before they have to repeat an order they have used before?  (HINT:  Work systematically.)

Post your answers below!

Algebra, factors and multiplication madness!

Today, at Maths Club, our mathematicians worked hard to beat their most recent times table score.  There is excellent progress being made, for each of the children at Maths Club, in the rapid recall of their times tables.  Willow now has the highest score in the school, completing 82% of the grid in less than 4 minutes - there are a couple of others who are hot on her heels (Ollie/Dylan)! 

We then had a look at some algebraic equations.  We learned that it doesn't matter what the letter is, it just represents an unknown quantity which can be found by manipulating the numbers in the equation.

Finally, we were posed with a problem (which Mrs Comer was given at university, a long time ago!)  The problem was as follows:

Find a number with exactly 36 factors.

The strategies we chose to use were typically trial and error, narrowing our estimates each time.  This problem requires a lot of perseverance!  

We're going to re-visit this next week to identify the progress made.

Mathematician of the week was Professor Pethard!  Dylan could quickly explain how to solve simple algebraic equations.

 

Poetry at the top end of the school

As you will see, from the Year 5 & 6 blog, children in the upper part of the school are being inspired to write war-themed poetry. 

The following is Oscar's fantastic piece of homework:

The trenches are dirty

The trenches are wet

The trenches are our homes

Covering our silhouette.

Violets are blue

Poppies are red -

Representing the blood

that we shed;

We wear our poppies

with love and respect

We will never forget

We must never forget.

Leaving our families

Holding hands with our future;

Bravely marching, we the British warriors

We will never forget

We must never forget.

The oceans of poppies,

Blood and sweat

We must never forget

Please don't forget.

To commemorate Remembrance Day we will be having a visitor from the British Legion in to talk in assembly.  Oscar will perform his poem to the school at this time.

Poetry in Years 3 & 4

I would like to share a poem written by Eleanor in Year 3. 

The Magic Box

I will put in the box

Nice dreams bursting and flowing with happiness,

Secret memories that only I know about

And all the love of the world.

I will put in the box

The sound of fire birds chirping,

A magic stone that transports you to another land.

And tears of sadness from a miserable, poor county.

I will put in the box

Calmness from the calmest person I know,

The smell of the sweetest rose perfume that mums use,

And the sound of the harmless, gentle rain.

I will put in the box

God the father, the son and the holy spirit,

Candyfloss trees and a bright blue river with a chocolate one next to it.

I will love my box forever.

By Eleanor

Keep up the super work Eleanor!

Maths Club

Some excellent achievements at Maths Club this week!  Chloe achieved her blue target card for answering over 50% of her times table grid correctly in less than 4 minutes.  Dylan and Henry are both making terrific progress with their times tables and Harry was mathematican of the week for solving the problem below in the fewest moves.

There are two green frogs and two brown toads:

 

A frog or toad can jump over one other creature onto an empty lilypad or it can slide onto an empty lilypad which is immediately next to it.  Only one creature, at a time, is allowed on each lilypad.

Now, the idea is for the frogs and toads to change places.  So, the frogs will end up on the side where the toads started and the toads will end up where the frogs began.

The challenge is to do this in as few slides and jumps as possible. (We started by using people and then used a colour code in our books).

What's the fewest moves you can complete the challenge in?

Mental Maths

Amongst improvements in Writing, Science and ICT this year, we are also working to improve pupils' mental maths.  This work has included the use of times table grids to encourage children to rapidly recall their times tables within 4 minutes.  A record of their progress is maintained in the back of their homework books. 

In addition there are 3 target cards children can aim for:

Yellow:  For achieving 2x, 5x and 10x tables within 4 minutes
Blue:  For achieving over 50% of the grid within 4 minutes
Green:  For achieving 100% of the grid within 4 minutes

After this, we will see who can complete the grid in the quickest time possible!

Already this term, many children have achieved their yellow targets.  A smaller group have achieved their blue target and we are still waiting for the first person to complete the grid within 4 minutes in order to achieve their green target - Dylan is currently the closest!  Watch this space to see the progress being made with mental maths.

Well done to Immy for achieving her yellow target this week!

Keep up the great work!

Excellent Ambassadors!

I received a lovely email from a gentleman who happened to be on the same train as the Year 5 & 6 trip to London last week:

"I am sitting on a train with a dozen or so of your pupils and three of your staff en route to London.

This is just to say what an absolute pleasure it is to see such bright, cheerful and interested boys and girls, in full flow, yet with manners and due deference to their surroundings and others.

They are all a great credit to your school, and I hope they all go on to great things.

Very reassuring!"

Maths Club

Maths Club started this week with some very enthusiastic mathematicians.

Each week we will work on our mental maths to develop our rapid recall of times tables.  In addition, we will work on a problem together to develop our logical thinking and problem-solving skills.


This week's problem was called:   Button Up!

My coat has three different buttons.

Sometimes I do them up starting with the top button.  Sometimes, I start somewhere else.

How many ways can you find to do up my coat?

How will you remember them?

What if my coat had 4 buttons?

We decided we needed to have a way of identifying each button. 

Cally suggested calling them 1, 2 and 3. 

Beau thought each one could be a different colour.

We also considered using a code: T (top), M (middle), B (bottom)

How many different ways can you find to do up a coat with 3 buttons?

At the end of the session, we watched an excellent video to show how to solve certain, complex calculations quickly.  If you're interested please see the link below ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YCBTw8KAqkw

Finally, the mathematician of the week for the first week is: Max!  Well done Max, you worked logically and systematically to solve the first part of the Button Up problem. 

The Wizard of Oz

This afternoon, Years 3 - 6 put on their first production of The Wizard of Oz.  If you are coming tonight, I can confidently say that you are in for a treat!  The quality of the singing and acting was just brilliant.

Well done to all!

Musical Maestro!

Last week, Hattie took her prep test for the violin. This is no small task and requires a great deal of courage and determination. Hattie has been working hard towards this test and the results demonstrate this. Hattie's examiner said that Hattie's pieces were "rhythmical" and that the "tunes were confident in tone". A fantastic achievement!

Hattie's examiner also said that the listening tests were thoughtfully and correctly answered.  Well done Hattie!

Small Schools Week

Last week, the school came off timetable to celebrate all that is great about small schools during National Small Schools Week.  Prior to the official week's activities, Years 5 & 6 took a trip to Paris to further develop their speaking and listening skills.  Children travelled by Eurostar and engaged in a treasure hunt around the city; a trip up the Eiffel Tower and the purchasing of souvenirs to further develop their French.  

Small Schools Week officially kicked off on Monday 23rd June and involved a great range of activities including:

• A teddy bear's picnic for Nursery/Reception with children from Flamstead School, Gaddesden Row and Little Gaddesden.
• A trip to Tring Museum for Years 1 & 2.
• Rafting on the Grand Union Canal for Years 3 & 4.
• Rock-climbing and caving for Years 5 & 6.
• A whole-school trip to Whipsnade Zoo.

As well as many, many more!  A great number of parents have told me how much children enjoyed the week's activities.  We are delighted and are already beginning to discuss next year's events!

Sincere thanks to all staff, parents and governors who ensured that the week was such a success. 

A special thank you to Nicholas and Viola Halsey for giving their time so freely on Friday and for the use of their estate.  (We are already discussing a re-visit in the Autumn Term!)

Wonderful Woodland-themed Writing

As part of Small Schools Week, children in Nursery and Reception spent their morning at the woods collecting various items.  This afternoon, they have created some woodland-themed writing and Trystan came to show me his work. 

Keep up the super work Trystan - we are very proud of you!

i-pad training

This afternoon, each class was given some training using some new apps for the i-pads from a company called Toucan.  Following this, all staff received training with some new and exciting apps for use across the curriculum.  This is largely in preparation for the new Computing Curriculum which we will be following as of September 2014, but following today's training, I think we will see some examples of the i-pads being used even more creatively in the not too distant future ...

Scientific Enquiry

There is a buzz of scientific themed excitement in Years 3 - 6 this morning!  Over the course of this half-term, children are working in teams to develop their understanding of the 5 scientific enquiry skills (Research, Classification, Fair testing, Observing over time and Pattern finding).  Each member of the team has a specific role to play, for instance Equipment Officer, Presentation Manager, Project Director, Photographer, etc.

At this stage, each team has decided on the theme of their Science project (plants, micro-organisms, electricity, etc.) and are now conducting research, using the ipads, to see what equipment/resources they will require to carry out their investigations.  We will keep you updated with their progress!

Super Readers!

There has been some fantastic progress going on with reading in Reception: Matthew, Maddie, Lucy and Olivia have all gone up a stage in their reading!

They tell me it's because they are reading all the time - at home, at school, at Grandma's house, at Nanny and Grandad's house at Grandpa's house, at breakfast time - all the time!

What a difference it's making!  Well done to you all.

Performance Poetry

Children in Years 3 and 4 are working on their performance poetry.  Working in groups, they have presented their poems to an audience.

Corey, Kaia and Bradley have created a fantastic performance of their poem; excellent expression and great team work - take a look.

Marvellous Maths!

This morning, children in Reception were adding multiples of 10.  They created some very challenging sums such as 70 + 20, 50 + 40, 30 + 40.

Extremely impressive work from some of our youngest children. 

Dear Mr Walliams ...

This is the year of WRITING at Great Gaddesden and we are continuing to see tremendous quality writing across the school.

Last week, Years 3 & 4 were concentrating on writing persuasive letters to David Walliams.  (Their goal is to get him to name a character after them!)  There are some really terrific examples of great quality writing.  Hattie is one such example:

Great Gaddesden Church of England School

Church Meadow

Great Gaddesden

Hemel Hempstead

Hertfordshire

Thursday 8th May

Dear Mr Walliams,

I hope this is not a waste of your time but I have had a character idea named after me.

Everyone agrees you're the most talented author we know (hence why we are researching you for English!)

My name is Hattie (I can also be called Harriet).  There are many personality traits in the name Hattie - cheeky, adventurous, fiesty, wild and so on.  In addition, Hattie can be spelt in many different ways:  Hatie, Hatty, Hatti, Haty, Harriet - the list is endless!

I look forward to hearing from you.

Yours sincerely,

Hattie

Well done for the terrific choice of phrasing and vocabulary!

License to write ....

Yesterday, Grace became the latest recipient of a pen licence.  These are gifted to children who consistently demonstrate a neat cursive style to their handwriting.  Grace has worked really hard on her presentation and we are delighted with the results - excellent work Grace!

 

 

Summer Term Clubs

This week marked the start of our Summer Term Clubs.  We have a great range of clubs running this term - Tennis, Rounders, Multi-skills, Science, Art, 'Messy' Club, Karate, Street Dance, Knitting and Cooking!  Each of our sports clubs are either fully or part-funded by the School's Sports Premium, providing every child with the opportunity to try something new or different, or enhance their skills even further.

Amanda's Amazing Talent!

This morning Amanda has shared with me an incredible talent that I had no idea about!  Amanda is a natural photographer.  She received a new camera at Christmas and has since been busy taking incredibly artistic pictures!  Most recently, Amanda has visited Whipsnade Zoo as well as another wildlife sanctuary with fantastic results.  She has chosen her favourite pictures below:

Amanda, we can't wait to see more of your work!

The NEW Curriculum!

We are having an exciting INSET day today talking about the wonderful opportunities that are coming up - both over the course of this term and beyond for learning across the curriculum.  There is much to look forward to!

This morning, Miss Ayres delivered some fantastic training following a course she had been on regarding the new Geography curriculum. 

Fieldwork is at the forefront as well as map work and a healthy balance between 'Core Geographical Knowledge' (facts, locations, names, key vocabulary, etc) and a 'Sense of Place' (senses, emotions, values, opinions, etc.) 

We are all very excited about what the new curriculum has to offer!  Watch this space for further updates from staff leading various aspects of the school's development.

Mental Maths

Each week, in our Mental Maths lessons, Years 5 & 6 are trying to improve their mental agility in their understanding of number, shape & space, data handling and measures.  This is supporting their attempts at beating their own scores in mental maths tests.

Josh and Ollie have been working really hard on their mental maths to decipher the answers to problems involving algebra as well as geometry.  Today's test included the following questions:
                                                                                                  

i)  Simply this expression: 10y2  - 3y2

ii)  Using three as an approximation for pi, find the circumference of a circle with diameter eight centimetres.

Speak to Ollie or Josh if you need any help with these!

Wonderful Reading in Reception

Lucy has demonstrated some truly brilliant reading this morning.  She has been looking at some really tricky phase 5 words - including: 

people    should     where    thought     through     asked

Lucy's progress has been really fantastic and we are very proud of her achievements.

Harvey's Writing

On Friday, Mrs Lilley shared a sensational piece of writing that Harvey had completed in BIG writing.  The task was to write a story with a repeating phrase.  Below is Harvey's story:

One summer day I went to the zoo with Buster.  I told him to not run off but he didn't listen then I went looking for him.  Suddenly I saw a squirrel peeking behind the tree. The squirrel was nibbling loads of nuts but where's Buster?  There were two slithering snakes hiding behind the bush, the snakes were eating mice but where's Buster?  After that I found Buster!

Harvey's vocabulary choices are terrific.  Fantastic writing Harvey!

Writing in Reception

Our Reception class are budding authors!  This afternoon they read the story 'The Wind Blew' by Pat Hutchins.  Following this, they created their very own book, of the same title.  Each member of the class produced their own page explaining what the wind did.  This was a truly terrific example of the fantastic writing happening in Reception!

!

Writing a biography

Yesterday, I had the privilege of teaching Years 5 & 6.

Within their current Literacy unit, they are learning how to write a really terrific biography.  They have each been able to select who they would like to write a biography on (famous names include: Daniel Radcliffe, Sir Alan Sugar and Dame Maggie Smith).

Charlie's biography is on Chelsea footballer, Demba Ba.  I was so impressed with the quality of Charlie's writing as well as the great improvements with his presentation, that I felt I had to share.

Keep up the fantastic work Charlie!

Challenging Data Handling

This morning, I had the opportunity to work with Years 3 and 4 on various types of data-handling.  As a class, we identified that there a great number of ways that data can be presented.  These included:

Pie-charts

Bar graphs/Bar charts

Tally charts

Venn diagrams

Carroll diagrams

Throughout the week, children will have an opportunity to develop their understanding in these areas through the use of their enquiry skills.

Dylan, Krysta, Callum, Hattie and I then worked on some challenging data handling involving 3 different types of averages:

Mode (Most common)

Median (The middle value, once the numbers have been put into ascending order - smallest to largest)

Mean (Add up all the values and then divide by the total number of values)

By the end of the lesson, all four

children had a good understanding of these concepts.

They all have a challenge in their books ready for tomorrow!

Writing Workshop

Today, a small group of children from Year 2 were joined by pupils from Markyate, Flamstead, Gaddesden Row and Little Gaddesden to take part in a writing workshop delivered by Mrs Lilley.

Children had opportunities to use similes, VCOP (Vocabulary, Connectives, Openers, Punctuation) and 'The power of 3' to make their writing really fantastic.

We are looking forward to seeing the impact this workshop had on the writing Eleanor, Evangeline and Nancy produce over the coming weeks! 

You've got mail ...

As part of our writing week, Nursery and Reception have been busy leaving messages across the school for members of staff.  When I returned to my office this morning, I had a lovely post-it note from Hope and a message in a bottle from Lucy.

Excellent, purposeful writing from our youngest children! 

Writing Week at the Woods

Yesterday, Years 5 & 6 visited the woods as inspiration for their descriptive writing.  The results are fantastic; evidenced here in Oscar's work:

"When we finally arrived at the woods we split into two teams.  The hunt began.  One of the first things I saw was a piece of emerald green moss that grew on dilapidated branches.  I picked it, with my stone-cold hands, which smelt like fresh soil that had been placed in a plant pot. I was treading through the mud that suddenly became black quick-sand."

Not only was Oscar's work brilliantly descriptive, but his handwriting is looking tremendous too!  

Keep up the excellent work Oscar.

Sensational Writing!

On Friday morning, Years 5 & 6 had a BIG Writing session.  I was thoroughly impressed by the quality of the writing - so much so that I felt I had to share!  Below, you will see a sample of this writing from Josh.  He has effectively built the tension in his writing as you will see from this excerpt:

A distressed figure dashed through the abandoned house.  She scaled the blood-splattered, crumpled wall with her clammy finger-tips.  Petrified, she scanned for the phone.  Then she saw it.  Her pale blue eyes were transfixed on the disconsolate, once shivering, face of Jennifer Mulls lying on top of the marble floor.  

"Click"  went the flashing Sony cameras.  Exhausted, Police Officer Charles collected the photographs of the pale, weary body.  He peered round the bitter room.  He spotted something unfamiliar...

Speak to Josh if you want to know what happened next!

SAM Learning

This morning, Years 5 & 6 were (re-)introduced to SAM learning.  This is an on-line tool which supports development across the curriculum.  Children are able to log on to their account (either at school or at home) and complete challenges in Maths, English and Science.

Children in Years 5 & 6 have a curriculum guide to independently track their progress in these areas as well as their Mental Maths and Spelling scores.  There are also opportunities for pupils to work on the Key Stage 3 (Years 7 - 9) curriculum. 

Unity

This month, we have been concentrating on the value of 'Unity'.  We have identified that being able to 'work together' is an important skill to develop.

We watched this video and then answered the question:  'What has this got to do with Unity?' 

 

'It's better when people are working together.'  

'It all started from just one person and developed into everyone dancing together.' 

We discussed that it was a good metaphor for showing unity within our own lives and looked at the quote that we have on our Values display:

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world.  

Indeed it is the only thing that ever has."  Margaret Mead

Creative Writing and Handwriting Club

Miss Groves' Year 1 and 2 Creative Writing and Handwriting Club has got off to a flying start this term.  There is some wonderful descriptive writing taking place.  Children are choosing a mythical character (fairy, goblin, etc.) to describe.  They are thinking carefully about their WOW words (adjectives) as well as working carefully on their handwriting.  A special mention to Evangeline for her super presentation!

First Week in 2014 ...

I have just had a look at each class blog and have been so impressed with the quality of learning taking place in each and every class.  For instance, today:

N/R children have been using their enquiry skills to find out more about a mystery object as well as putting the technology available to them to wonderful use (Rhys - keep up the fantastic Maths work!)

In Years 1/2, there has been some terrific vocabulary (WOW words) used to describe one of the character's feelings - including shocked, perplexed and amazed - in the text they are studying this half-term.

Children in Years 3/4 have been focusing on improving the quality of their writing in their BIG write lesson.

Finally, in Years 5/6, children have been developing their scientific enquiry skills to find out more about the various parts of flowers.

If you haven't already, I would urge you to visit the class blogs.

A terrific start to a new year and a new school term. 

Carroll Diagram supporting scientific enquiry skills in Years 5 & 6.