Mental Maths Progress

This academic year, children have been working hard to improve their rapid recall of mental maths facts.  Each week, children in Years 2 - 6 complete as much of a times table grid as they possibly can within a 4 minute time period.  Awards are handed out for the following mile-stones:

2x, 5x and 10x tables

50% of the grid

75% of the grid and

100% of the grid

Aaron, in Year 2, has been working incredibly hard to beat his score each week and today achieved an excellent result of 72%!  All children achieving 75% or more are eligible to compete against the staff in a half-termly mental maths challenge!  Not far to go Aaron ...

Great Gaddesden's Got Talent!

Earlier this term, a suggestion was made (via the School Council's suggestion boxes) that we should host a 'Great Gaddesden's Got Talent' competition.  The School Council decided this was a great idea and over the last week auditions have been taking place at lunch-times, with Year 6 pupils as judges.  Auditions included a wide range of acts, including singing, dancing, playing musical instruments and comedy.  Huge congratulations to our seven finalists (Luke, Fallon, Maddie, Olivia, Fenella, Eleanor and Bradley) who performed in front of the whole school this morning and thoroughly impressed us with their talents.  The judges had a very difficult decision to make as the quality of the acts was incredibly high.  After some careful deliberation, they decided that Bradley was victorious with his excellent rendition of a Justin Bieber classic!

Limericks

Children in Years 3 & 4 have been learning about how to write limericks, using the rhyming pattern:
AA, BB, A.

There once was a girl called Grace,
Who took part in a sack race.
She then climbed a wall
But began to fall
And ended up breaking her face!

By Immy

There once was a boy called Fin,
Who was incredibly thin.
He found a huge rock
And put it in his sock
Then he got stuck in a bin!

By Finley

Immy and Finley have captured the humour in their limericks perfectly!  Well done to both of you.

Play-Leaders

This term, we are looking to improve our lunch-time provision for all children.  With this in mind, Miss Williams and I are training our Year 5 & 6 children to become play-leaders for the rest of the school.  Our play-leaders will work in teams of three and take one lunch-time a week to provide an activity/game for younger children.  Training to date has included:

• What makes a good play-leader?  What skills/attributes are required to ensure that you provide a good session?
• What might be good games/activities to play?  (Taking into consideration the variety in ages.)
• A practical session with children in Reception.

Still to come:

• What can go wrong when you are play-leading?
• Practical sessions with children in Years 1, 2, 3 and 4.

I look forward to sharing their successes with you!

Play-leader training for children in Years 5 & 6 with children from Reception:

Wonderful Writing!

Today, my day started and ended with excellent writing!  First thing this morning, Mrs Jessop came to see me with Andrew who had taken the time at home to create his own legend.  It was an extremely impressive piece of writing with wonderful vocabulary choices.

Then, this afternoon, Miss Williams sent Hattie to see me with a sensational piece of descriptive writing:

I was meandering, one very sunny morning, in the words when the ground just ... rumbled and up grew a gigantican (gargantuan and gigantic) tree.  There it stood.  Roots flooding the surface around me.  

"What?"

I stood bewildered, almost in a trance.  Then, out of the door, that was embedded inside the tree, emerged a small, old man.  He didn't seem at all surprised to see me but I was drawn to his appearance.

In the soft breeze his long beard resembled a lot of brown, furry caterpillars.  He was wrinkly yet his hair was not greying.  Long, pencil-like, fingers rummaged his pockets and he pulled out a stick, which looked like a wand, and he tapped a plant pot.  'He's lost 'is marbles,' I thought to myself.

"Good morning Laura," the man smiled.  How did he know my name?  I didn't have anything to say apart from that, so I just curved one of my eyebrows.  I'm good at that.


Keep up the super work!

School House Garden

Mrs Upton, Mrs Johnson, Mrs Makepeace and Ms Walravens have been continuing on with weekly gardening club and the children seem to be really enjoying it. Last week we made bird-feeders. The children enjoyed mixing up the lard, seeds, cooked rice and breadcrumbs in bowls then crafting birdfeeders from the mixture, which they could chose to take home or hang in the school garden.

Years 3&4 were first out and made yoghurt pots and pinecone feeders. Years 5&6 used lids and made some interesting shapes with the mixture.

If you'd like to have a go at home you can download detailed instructions here http://www.rspb.org.uk/discoverandenjoynature/families/children/makeanddo/activities/birdcake.aspx

School Council Update

The School Council have been working hard to improve life at Great Gaddesden.

So far this term, they have attended a charity fundraising event at Hemel Ski Centre (thanks to Rowan for the invitation!); they have created an initiative to encourage children to walk to school and they have met the mayor.  On top of this, they have used their weekly meetings to share suggestions from class suggestion boxes - including:

New play equipment for the bark area
More lunch-time clubs
An opportunity to have quiet time in the library or church
A Winter Ball
A girls football team

To name just a few!  We look forward to updating you with our progress with these suggestions.