Art Week - Purple Mountains, murals and mixing.

We’ve had a brilliant time in art week, exploring the colour purple. This fit well with our current topic Misty Mountain. We were delighted to have Helen Brady join us for a morning to take us through creating our very own mountain mural. Thank you Helen! We learnt how to mark lines with masking tape and all the children were involved putting paint on the board.

We used acrylic paint on wood and added white and black smudges to give snow and rock effects.

We also tried creating a pallet of purple, mixing paints to make as many different shades of purple as possible. It was fun thinking of different names for each shade.

We also had time to make our own version of a mountain landscape, starting with a darker shade at the bottom and working upwards each strip getting lighter.

Real life Dragon fruit!

We had a great time exploring a variety of exotic fruit as part of the stimulus for our new writing unit. We will be creating our own Pet dragon stories based on our shared read this half term: The boy who grew Dragons By Andy Shepherd.

The children were able to get their hands dirty to find out the texture both inside and outside of the dragon fruit, pomegranate, kiwi and cantaloupe melon. We came up with some great vocabulary to help us with our own imaginary fruit descriptions.

Awesome Anglo-Saxon Day

On Thursday we met Mike the Anglo-Saxon expert from Portals of the Past. He delivered a whirlwind history of the British Isles with all the gory bits left in. First we tested our strategy in the ancient Fox and Geese board game. Next we handled lots of artefacts, tried on some clothes and learnt how ancient fishing nets worked.

We learnt some old English and completed a quiz on lots of incredible Anglo Saxon facts before an afternoon filled with weapons armour and battle re-enactments. We even got to take part in a dramatic retelling of Beowulf.

Fantastic Fencing!

The children have been loving their sports week activities, doing boogie bounce trampoline fitness on Tuesday and trying their hand at Fit- Fencing on Wednesday.

We learnt lots of French words for the different actions. Darren taught us fun ways to remember the different moves.

We started by practising with foam swords.

When we had practised enough and felt more confident, we were allowed to try on the masks and use the plastic tipped swords.

Super Senet Instructions

This week the children have been crafty and made their own sets of the ancient Egyptian board game Senet. It is thought to be one of the oldest games in the world and has been found in multiple tombs of the great pharaohs. After a good time playing and getting familiar with it, the children will be writing instructions to the game and emailing them off to our link school Plaistow Primary in London. We hope to teach them how to play too!.

Prickle Pruning on Grounds day

We have been working hard today to take care of our school grounds. Year 4’s focus was the edge of the field fence and getting brambles or stingers under control. The children worked tirelessly in small groups, using loppers to snip back the brambles and carrying the debris to a safe area. Well done for your hard work and thank you to all the amazing parent helpers for their work in the environmental area!

The other Plaistow (London) Adventure!

On Thursday we had a brilliant day out to London. We met at Billingshurst station and jumped on the train to London Victoria. The children were calm and confident as we walked through the bustling station on our way to the underground.

We found the District Line (Green) and headed Eastbound to Upton Park. Noticing the tube sign for Plaistow on the way!

After a short walk from Upton Park we got to Plaistow Primary and were welcomed by our linked classes. We go to watch an amazing dance video and play some ice breakers before exploring the playground at lunch.

After some yummy fish fingers and chips we hopped back in the classrooms to say our goodbyes and headed off to the market to see what bargains we could find.

The children chose some great souvenirs from the diverse arrange of shops. There were sparkly jewellery, cool sunglasses, fancy hair accessories and of course edible goodies like spicy Asian crisps, Caribbean fruit punch and even a massive slice of juicy watermelon.

We marched back to the tube stop, eager not to miss our return train and had a pleasant journey home reminiscing about the sights we’d seen from a trip to the city and the new friends we’d made. Thank you so much to all the adults and parent helpers that accompanied Mrs Ashton-Smith and I. We couldn’t have done it without you and hopefully it was a brilliant experience for the children.

Drumming performance

The Owls have been working so hard on their djembe drumming and singing in their music lessons this term. They have learnt songs to demonstrate different musical beats and songs that could accompany the drumming. On the djembe drums themselves they have worked hard to stay in time, and learnt songs such as ‘The breakfast roll rap’ . They have been amazing and it was so exciting to share all we have done in our performance on Monday. Thank you to everyone who could come and support the Owls, they were incredible!

Djembe Drumming

We were all playing to the same beat this week as Owl Class started their djembe drumming lessons. We learnt how the beat, pulse and rhythm are so important in drumming and started trying out the drums ourselves. We played a game where we had to drum at exactly the same time a tennis ball hit the floor. This could be a lot trickier than it sounds but was a lot of fun! The Owls are really looking forward to the term ahead learning how to drum.

Conker Match!

On the the last Friday before half term we joined in with the whole school for some fantastic, flicking fun!
At Forest school the children worked as a team to select the conkers, drill holes in them using a palm drill. After this they had to measure, cut, thread and tie the string to be ready for battle.

Mr King and Miss Dore gave a great demonstration of how to swing the conkers safely. We had some trial matches against other year fours before heading off for smashing fun with children in other year groups. Sadly Mr Butler’s conker was one of the first to be obliterated.

Anglo Saxon Day

We had a very exciting start to our week in Owl Class. We came in dressed as Anglo Saxons and had an expert come in to help us become experts ourselves in our knowledge of the Anglo Saxons. We looked at artefacts (including a smelly fish, a warm coat and a horn cup), learnt about their lifestyle, and played a game called ‘fox and geese’. Mrs Howe did attempt to win against different Owls but she kept getting beaten… Most excitingly we looked at Anglo Saxon weapons and army re-enactments. The Owls particularly enjoyed discovering more about the different weapons needed on an Anglo Saxon battlefield and getting to use their shields we have made. It was very intimidating to watch them marching forward with their shield wall and I think if they went into battle they would be a fearsome army! We also re-enacted the Battle of Hastings to see how the Normans finally won the victory.

Farm Camp '24

This Thursday and Friday we had a fantastic time camping out near Mrs Jesse’s farm. There were lots of new skills learnt, amazing sights and smells and even smiles and laughter on a damp morning in the woods.

After helping to assemble their own tents, the children listened carefully to a safety briefing and went on a boundary walk around the woodland. We then began collecting firewood, digging a fire pit and putting together the fires, using Mrs Jesse’s “upside down” method.

When the fires were all ready, we went on a short hike across the fields to the farm to see how sausages are made. We saw some cute cows and their calves, met Flick the dog and most importantly got to take some fresh sausages back to camp.

We returned back to camp and began to light the fires, some groups getting started very quickly while others had to persevere to find their spark. Soon there were sausages sizzling in all the frying pans and children happily waiting for dinner.

The rest of the evening was spent playing games in the woods and in the fields, learning big group games or den building.

As the evening drew on we gathered round the big fire pit and were treated to a sing-a-long with Mrs Jesse and her guitar.

Next it was time for the night walk, most children were very excited to see the woods after dark but some nervy ones needed to stay close to adults for support. All the children showed great resilience to stick it out and shared a magical moment listening to the rustling branches in the moonlight.

The next morning may have been a bit of a wash out but the children still kept their spirits high, helping to make a bit shelter and making their own breakfast and lunch independently. All the children did really well and hopefully made lots of great memories. Thank you to all the adults who helped out and pick up and drop off too!

Ancient Egypt workshop - Hands on mummification!

On Tuesday we had a visit from Horsham Museum who brought with them some incredible ancient Egyptian artefacts, most of which were about 5000 years old. Whilst this time scale may be tricky for the children to grasp, the children took part in lots of activities that highlighted important parts of Ancient Egyptian culture.

After trying on traditional Egyptian dress (and learning it was common for children below 9 years old not to wear any clothes!!) We then got to try the complicated ritual of mummification. There were so many little steps and each of the children had the chance to come up and do a job, whether that was removing an organ, drying out the body, or the wrapping.

The final part of the ceremony needed the God Anubis to welcome the body to the afterlife.

Plaistow Primary - London visit.

We felt very welcome visiting our friends at Plaistow Primary in East London on Thursday.

The children were bubbling with excitement as we boarded the train to Victoria from Billingshurst Station.

We navigated the tube and the busy colourful market to reach the school just in time for a quick introduction in classrooms before lunch. The children were amazed by some of the differences in the surroundings and one child was even overheard saying “Wow they have stairs!” We loved looking at the display boards and spotting the same topic work that we have been doing.

The children played on all the new equipment and lots joined in with a big football game at lunch.

Before beginning the journey back, the children were tasked with finding something new to buy that was unavailable in their local stores at home. There was an abundance of cultural jewellery and fresh exotic foods for the children to sample.

All the staff were particularly pleased with everyone’s sensible behaviour and were happy the train connections all went smoothly and on time, unlike last year! A massive thank you to all the adults who helped out and made this trip possible.

Art Week fun

We have had a great time learning new techniques and exploring ways to represent different weather or climate conditions.

It started with an inspiring assembly from Mrs Tappenden, launching this years theme of Surprise! a tiger in a tropical storm, by Henri Rousseau.

The children practised their sketching skills looking closely at tigers in different poses. We then used tracing paper to transfer these onto styrofoam tiles so that we could make our tiger prints.

After a few goes testing it out we then printed the tiger on our 3 different backgrounds and added more detail including special effects to each picture. We are really happy with the finished results and can’t wait to show you at the parents gallery this Monday afternoon. See you there!

Awesome Autumn Photography

It feels like Winter is definitely here now with the frosty mornings and Christmas decorations up. However in the last week of Autumn we crept outside with our iPads and captured some lovely images to show how our school grounds are changing. These are a selection of the children’s best images.