Beginning Algebra in Year 2!

Yep, you heard it here first! The super smart members of class 2 spent some of Challenge Friday looking at some algebra to help develop their understanding of multiplication and division. Using coloured rods, the mathemegicians considered questions such as "2 x lime = green", and "5 x cream = green" before attempting to deduce possible values for each of the colours. This activity stimulated some incredible mathematical discussion and the children definitely came away with an image of what multiplication looks like in practice. 

Community Open Day

St Helen's was able to show the local community all of the wonderful artwork and projects we have been involved in this term. Members of the community were entertained by the choir and served coffee and cake by the wonderful PTA

Tasty creative homework!

A girl in year five created this amazing edible treat for her creative homework as part of the Medieval England topic. Mmmmmmm

Numeracy in Class 3

During our numeracy lesson this morning, Year 3 were looking at measuring mass in kilograms (kg) and grams (g). We had a go at weighing various samples of rock, and recording our results. We began by estimating the sample's mass and then found it's actual mass by reading the scales. 

The finished dinos...

How fantastic are the finished dinosaurs?!?! Most of them stand up and all of them look great. There are some particularly impressive euoplohcephalus models (yep, easy for me to say!). You can identify them by their bumpy skin and club like tails. 

Scientist at work in Class 6

Today we have been investigating mixing different liquids and solids to see what changes take place and whether they can be reversed or not. We also burnt a variety of materials to look at the irreversible effects of burning. We carefully observed these changes and discussed them using scientific vocabulary.

Roman tortoise in Class 4

This is a famous Roman formation. The solders in front and sides interlocked their shields. The soldiers in the back lines placed their shields over their heads to form a protective shell over the top of the men. 

Class 6 Tudor biographies

Last term class 6 students made a biography on a Tudor of their choice. They did lots of research and put lots of effort into them. With many thanks to Mrs Theobald for helping and guiding the children.

Class 6 Writing Fantasy Stories

This half term we are reading Coraline by Neil Gaiman;a very creepy fantasy story in which Coraline meets her 'Other Mother'. We have used a figure of 8 to plan our story; one side the ordinary world, the other is the fantasy world. We have had to think carefully how to engage the reader with every sentence we write. You will get a chance to read our stories so far on Parents' Evening coming up soon.

Edukid Charity Event

Today's Edukid Charity Event was really successful. It was great to see so many families coming to help raise money for education in Uganda. The lanterns looked lovely as they sailed down the river. Well done.

Numeracy in Class 4

Today we have been working hard to understand what happens to the numbers when we subtract. We have been focusing on what to do if we have to 'borrow'. 

Collaborative home learning in Class 2

Someone has put a huge amount of effort into a piece of creative home learning ... Thanks to Dad too!

More fun with clay...

A few pictures of afternoon two of our clay dinosaur project. Today we had to overcome challenges such as creating strong leg joins, creating and using slip and smoothing cracks.

There was some tremendous concentration and attention to detail and some of the dinosaurs are beginning to look amazing. Most of us need only add in the detailing of the skin tomorrow and we're looking forward to showing them off at the open afternoon tomorrow. 

Clay Creations

We are very fortunate this week in class 2 to be joined by fantastic local artist and teacher Karen Hawkins. She is helping us to create our favourite dinosaurs in clay.

Art in year 5

Class 5 have been learning about Leonardo da Vinci and have used it as a basis for their artwork.

Just keep swimming...

Class 2 is really enjoying the weekly swimming lessons at Northam pool. They have all made fantastic progress, especially seeing some children had never been swimming before the start of this term. Everyone is having lots of fun and building confidence, fitness and a fantastic skill for life.

Art week in Class 3

Throughout the week, Class 3 have been learning about the artist Wassily Kandinsky and creating some of their own art work based on his work called 'Squares with Concentric Circles'. The children found out about the artist himself and created a chain of facts which are displayed in the classroom. We also experimented with different media in our sketch books and then chose our own shapes to create a concentric shape piece using oil pastels. At the end of the week, we began to create papier mâché bowls which we will decorate with our own concentric shape design. We are looking forward to sharing our work in the art exhibition in school next week!