Class 4

This week Class 4 have been practicing their tennis skills! During the P.E lessons the children have been doing various activities. One of the activities is to place the tennis ball on the racket, rotate the ball around the head of the racket and get the ball to settle in the hole of the racket handle. This activity is called Park the Car. Another activity involved being put into teams of five or six with a tennis racket each.  They had to pass a ball between rackets to see which team could ‘snake’ to the other end of the yard the quickest. They finished the lesson with some paired work, to see who could keep a rally going for the longest.  The children thoroughly enjoyed themselves, in fact, I think a few of them might have their sights set on Wimbledon!!

Another busy week in Class 4 this week, including the CAFOD sponsored walk and a visit from the Transport Police to make the children aware of safety issues relating to a number of different types of transport.  Alongside this, the children continued their work on sustainability in preparation for their week at Middleton.  Excitement is mounting!!!

It’s been a busy week in Class 4 this week!  The children doing cycling proficiency are making great progress and are becoming very good at negotiating junctions.  Each week Miss Connor hears nothing but praise from the instructors for the way in which the children conduct themselves during the sessions.  Well done everybody!

The children did a great job learning their poems for homework and thank you parents for sending in your thoughts and comments on the poems.  We’ve been listening to them throughout the week and it was especially lovely to see Ellie and Jane taking a leaf out of Michael Rosen’s book and including some gesture in their performances, as shown in the attached photos!  Well done girls!  Continuing our poetry theme, the children have done some group and paired work to complete a ‘bank’ of lines that can be used in a variety of ways to create poems.  They then worked individually to write their own poems based on these ideas.  Jane was so bursting with ideas she stayed in to write a poem ‘off the cuff’.  Miss Connor loved it so has attached it for you to enjoy too.

On Friday Class 4 had a visit from two ladies from Harehope Quarry.  They spent the morning working with Class 4 on weather, climate, climate change, renewable and non-renewable energy and sustainability.  The children were keen to get stuck in with all the activities and braved the cold to learn about collecting data on the weather.  Our visitors kindly left us a box of equipment so we can continue to make some measurements throughout next week.  Those children going to Middleton will take this data with them to use on a project during the week.  Unlucky for us, the crazy cat turned up again!  Some of the children were wondering if it was Macavity the Mystery Cat paying us a visit…..!

Emerald eyes 

All is silent….

All except the faint noise from downstairs,

Tip tap, tip tap, tip tap on the dining room floor,

The noise is fading now I’m sure it’s distant.

He enters the kitchen.

His body sways from side to side,

His fur brushing against the cabinet,

He smells food. He senses food. I know he’s on the hunt.

I can hear him coming back upstairs,

The soft pitter patter of his paws,

He stares at me slyly… why is he doing that?

Every thing goes hazy as I fall into sleep.

As I wake I realise the cat isn’t there,

Suddenly I feel something sliding down my arm,

I look down and all I can see is great slash in my arm,

Why did he do that last night? Did he sense food?

I try to remember last night’s events,

But I have no such luck,

The one thing I will never forget,

Were his emerald eyes glowing in the darkness as I tried my best to sleep.

By: Jane Hayman

All of the children who attended the inter-school cross country competition at St. John’s did St. Chad’s proud!  The Class 4  teams consisted of Jack Armstrong, Jack McLeod, Ethan Dixon, Thomas Tavernor, Aaron Burton and Dylan Dawson for the boys, and Alice Hughes, Katie Bradley, Emily Lamb, Ellie Clayton, Jane Hayman and Enya Clark for the girls.  A huge well done to all the children who volunteered to take part.  They ran their socks off!

World Book Day was lots of fun at St. Chad’s this year.  The children were involved in all sorts of activities throughout the day, including popping down to Class 1 and Class 2 at various points in the day to read the children their favourite stories.  Miss Connor’s favourite feature of the day was “DEAR”, standing for Drop Everything And Read.  At various points in the day the school bell was rung, at which point all children and staff had to down tools and pick up a book for a few minutes.  What a treat!

Friday saw the arrival of our second CAFOD fundraiser, with Crazy Hair Day!  Well done to all those children who made such a big effort with weird and wonderful hairstyles.  Jack Armstrong gets full marks for artistic design, having gone to the trouble of making a star stencil to use in his funky style!

Many of the children got into the spirit of things and took part in our first CAFOD fundraising event this week.  We saw some fabulous costumes, staff and children alike and raised over £100!  Miss Connor’s favourite Class 4 outfits were those of Ethan and Declan.  Well done everybody!

Cycling proficiency training began this week, with children and instructors braving the wintry conditions to get stuck in!  They began with full safety checks of all the bicycles, before doing some activities to check braking and signalling skills.  All of the children thoroughly enjoyed it and are looking forward to the next session.

Class 4 children had a fantastic morning at St. John’s on Friday, working in the DT workshop with Mr Adair.  They each had the opportunity to make a wooden noughts and crosses game, including using hacksaws and the large drilling machines.  Everybody thoroughly enjoyed themselves (although the drilling was a little taxing for Miss Connor’s ‘health and safety’ nerves!!) and I’m sure you’ll agree that the end products are brilliant!  Well done Class 4, you were a credit to St. Chad’s!

Guess the game!

Class 4 thoroughly enjoyed their Christmas party this week!

On Wednesday Santa visited with a gift for everyone!  Whatever it was that Aaron asked him, he looked very pleased with the answer he got!

As the performance date looms ever closer, it’s all hands on deck in the props department at St. Chad’s!  This week, the teaching assistants have been working extremely hard on fantastic props and scenery ready for the full dress rehearsal next week.  Never mind Countdown to Christmas; we’re counting down to the date of our first performance!

In their eagerness to put their skills in to practise on a full-size netball court, the children in Class 4 overruled Miss Connor’s concerns about the cold weather and voted for P.E. outside this week!  Whilst the children donned their shorts, Miss Connor felt there was nothing for it but to prepare herself for arctic conditions.  She couldn’t understand why the children fell about laughing…!

In Science the children are investigating what makes cut flowers last the longest: 2 teaspoons of liquid plant food, 2 teaspoons of sugar or plain water?  So far all of our specimens are looking nice and healthy.  Watch this space to see how they progress!

On Wednesday this week, the whole school thoroughly enjoyed a performance by Wizard William and his drama company.  Jerome was one of the children selected to greet Queen Guinevere with a very special type of bow!  See him here in action alongside Amelia, the King and Wizard William!

Everybody (including Mrs Robertson!!) has been working very hard this week, preparing our Christmas production.  Bring on the Greek dancing!

The children thoroughly enjoyed a visit from Jet and Ben!

AFRICA UPDATE:  Following a fantastic afternoon at the Christmas Fayre and a constant stream of coppers being put in our collection wells, St. Chad’s have now raised over £300 for the Change for Change campaign.  This is over half of the cost of a well!  A HUGE thank you to everyone who has been donating their loose change.  Keep those coppers rolling in…!

This week has been our first week this year of looking at one of the other major world religions.  We have been learning about Judaism; in particular the feast of Passover.  The photos show Ella wearing a traditional Kippah skull cap, Jack holding a yad (used for reading the Torah), Alice holding the special cup used in the Seder meal during the Passover celebrations and a replica Seder plate and Torah.

As part of our topic work in Class 4, we have been making Greek comedy and tragedy masks out of clay.  We have also been learning about how, at Olympia, victors were awarded a crown of wild olive leaves, at Delphi a laurel crown, at Corinth a pine crown and at Nemea a wild celery crown.  The children have had great fun creating some of their own!

The children in Class 4 had a special visitor this week – from one of their new Class Governors!  Mrs Stringer spent Monday afternoon with the children and got well and truly into the spirit of things, especially in practising her shooting skills!  What a whizz she was on the netball court!

In Numeracy, the children have been doing some data handling.  Linked to our work in science, they collected data about just how much exercise they all do in one week.  Once they’d collected the data, they produced bar charts both by hand and using their fantastic ICT skills.

In Reception Class  this week, the children have done a fantastic job of starting the campaign!  With the help of Mrs Hebron, they have made two wells for the rest of the school to put their loose change in.  They did all the cutting and sticking themselves.  Keep your eyes peeled for when the wells appear around the school - they're fabulous!  Well done Class 1!