Curriculum newsletter, Class Info and Home Learning 2020

Home Learning - Week 7 commencing 13th July

The last week of Year 3!

Dear Tortoiseshells,

We cannot believe that this will be the last message that we will be posting on here for this year!  You have all done so amazingly well throughout this strange time and although we haven't seen you all, we have missed you a lot!!

This week we are focusing on transition into Year 4 from September and on Monday you will all have the chance to meet Miss Giddens in your transition meeting.  In school we have been making 'All about me' books and this week, we will be asking those of you at home to make the same.  Hopefully you will be able to share these with Miss Giddens in September 

We have all had a fantastic year teaching you all and will miss you all a LOT!  We hope you have enjoyed being in Year 3 as much as we have and we wish you the best of luck in Year 4.

From Miss Palmer, Mrs Arnott, Miss Cattermole and Miss Parsley

Home Learning - Week 6 commencing 6th July

Dear Tortoiseshells,

It was so lovely seeing so many of you back in class last week.  We really enjoyed seeing you and getting back to learning in the classroom.  Well done to everyone at home as well, still working hard and sending work in.    

Over the next couple of weeks, we will be coming to the end of our Stone age topic and thinking about transition into Year 4 in September.  Hopefully you have all received your school reports by now and you have had a good read of them with your adult at home.  We are so proud of each and every one of you and we shall miss not teaching you next year!  

Enjoy the last couple of weeks of school wherever you are learning and look out for your email invite to the transition meeting for this class if you will not be in school.

From Miss Palmer and Mrs Arnott 

Home Learning - Week 5 commencing 29th June

Dear Tortoiseshells,

Well done learning all about France last week!  We loved seeing your work come through on the Home Learning email and through the post, and we hope that you have all learnt something new.

We are very excited about welcoming some of you back into class from 29th June. Over the next few weeks, learning in school and learning at home will be mostly the same.  On Wednesdays, when we are not in school, please spend some extra time using the online resources on the home learning timetable.  

We hope you are all well and that you have been enjoying the hot and sunny weather this week  

Keep up all the hard work Tortoiseshells!  We are proud of you all.

From Miss Palmer and Mrs Arnott

**International Week**

Home Learning - Week 4 commencing 22nd June

**International Week**

Dear Tortoiseshells,

Another week has flown by!  We do hope you are all well and keeping yourselves busy.  This week we have some exciting activities for you, because it is 'International week.'  You may remember that back at the beginning of the year we decided to learn all about France.  So every afternoon this week we will be learning something new about this fantastic country.

Well done for continuing to send in photos of all your hard work with the Home learning to the school email address and by post.  We really do love seeing all your work and you are all trying your very best, so well done.

Have another great week and we look forward to talking to you all again soon 

From Miss Palmer and Mrs Arnott

Home Learning - Week 3 commencing 15th June

Dear Tortoiseshells,

What a busy week it has been!  We hope you are all well and enjoyed speaking to Miss Parsley and Miss Cattermole this week on the phone.  They certainly enjoyed speaking with you and hearing all your voices too!

Well done for continuing to send in photos of all your hard work with the Home learning to the school email address.  It is lovely to see work from children that we haven't seen before and as mentioned over the phone, if it is difficult to email work in, then from this week there will be a stamped address envelope enclosed with home learning packs to help return your work to school.  We hope this helps, since we love seeing all your work and it is really important that we see work from everyone in the class.

This week we were particularly impressed with Sofia T's outstanding pebble picture!  What a clever use of creativity to deliver a really kind and thoughtful message.  Well done Sofia, it really made us smile 

Below is the work for Week 3 together with any information and worksheets that you might need.  Remember to do your best with the tasks everyday.  We know it is still a strange time and it is hard to try and recreate school at home, but it is so important that you try to everyday and keep your minds active.  We are so proud of you all.  We look forward to speaking to you again soon.

From Miss Palmer and Mrs Arnott

Home Learning - Week 2 commencing 8th June

Dear Tortoiseshells,

We have been blown away by the amount of work that has been sent in this week to the Home Learning email.  Well done everyone for working so hard!  We can see that you have really enjoyed learning about the Kapiti Plains in Africa and we hope that you enjoyed reading 'Bringing the rain to Kapiti Plain' too.

I have included some photos above that I thought you might enjoy seeing.  The first couple are of Mustafa and his pea plant that we planted in school, which he then took home and planted in his garden.  Look how much it has grown!  It has actually grown peas that Mustafa has eaten as well!  Well done Mustafa   The other photo, shows someone you might recognise helping out in her parents' cafe.  Ruby has been learning to make drinks, use the till and take customer's orders.  Well done Ruby 

Please remember that it is really important that you try to complete all the tasks that we set you each week and ask an adult to send in a photo of your work.  We love seeing all of your work and if you are stuck, a teacher is always looking at the emails and can answer any questions you may have.

Keep up the great work Tortoiseshells!

From Miss Palmer and Mrs Arnott 

Home Learning - Week 1 commencing 1st June

Dear Tortoiseshells,

We hope that you have all had a lovely half-term and a break from all the hard work that you have put into your home learning this term already.  Both Mrs Arnott and Miss Palmer have been getting out into their gardens and doing lots of weeding to make them look better whilst enjoying the fantastic sunny weather.  We wonder what you have been up to?  

Below is your Home Learning for this week with some documents to help you with some of the lessons as well.  We are continuing with our Stone Age topic but we are also starting a few new topics in Science, RE and Computing.

As always, remember to send in your work to the homelearning@margaretwix.herts.sch.uk email address so we can see your brilliant work.  Also use this address for any questions that you might have.

We look forward to calling you towards the end of the week and seeing how you are getting on.  Stay safe Tortoiseshells and we will speak to you soon 

Miss Palmer and Mrs Arnott

22.5.20

Happy Half-term Tortoiseshells!

George the giraffe, Miss Palmer, Mrs Arnott, Miss Cattermole and Miss Parsley all want to wish you a Happy Half-term and say that we are missing you lots.  We have loved talking to you all over the past few weeks and we can't wait to get back together in the classroom again.

George has been enjoying spending time at Mrs Arnott's house and he has been brushing up on his reading , but he is missing you all too!

Make sure you enjoy some of the sunshine, have a rest and check back here next week for the home learning we are setting for after half-term.  We look forward to speaking to you again soon and seeing how you are getting on.

Take care Tortoiseshells 

Miss Palmer and Mrs Arnott

               Home Learning - Week 5 commencing 18th May

Dear Tortoiseshells,

We hope that you have had a good week and have enjoyed the sunshine returning, albeit a little bit colder!  Mrs Arnott has been getting out and about this week and spotting nature wherever she can.  We have included some photos above.  Do you know what type of plant this is, that has beautiful pink flowers?  Can you spot the sheep and their lambs?  And can you identify the bug?

This week is a special week: Health and Well-being week!  As well as all the usual activities in the morning, the activities in the afternoon will all be about health and well-being.  We hope that you enjoy the tasks that we have set you.  Miss Palmer and Mrs Arnott are both going to do some random acts of kindness as well and we will share them with you next week!

Thank you as ever for all the amazing work that you have been sending in to our email address this week.  It has been so lovely to see your fairy tale stories and puppets, your work on fractions and some great woolly mammoths!  Keep up the good work Tortoiseshells, we are very proud of you all 

It has also been so good to talk to all of you on the phone this week and see how you are getting on.  It is tricky trying to do so much school work at home, but we think you are all doing a fantastic job at this very strange time.  Thank you also to your parents and carers who are working so hard to support you. 

Have a good week Tortoiseshells and keep sending in your work to homelearning@margaretwix.herts.sch.uk.  We can't wait to get back in the classroom with you all!  

Miss Palmer and Mrs Arnott 

Home Learning - Week 4 commencing 11th May 2020

Dear Tortoiseshells,

We hope that you have had a good week and that you enjoyed the sunny Bank holiday weather!  Miss Palmer loved having the chance to read a good book and get her garden in shape, whilst Mrs Arnott blew up a paddling pool with no help from her sunbathing cat  (see photo below!). 

On Friday, it was a special day: VE day or Victory in Europe day and 75 years since the end of the Second World War.  Maybe you saw some photos and video clips on the television?  There were lots of Union Jack flags and bunting around New Greens and Mrs Arnott enjoyed listening to 'The Last post' and 'We'll meet again' from the garden.  Mrs Arnott also got the chance to design her own '75th VE Day' tea cup whilst at school this week with the Key worker children.  Apparently, on VE day 75 years ago, the Royal family came out on their balconies to greet the public 8 times!!  Maybe you learnt some interesting facts as well?  It must have been a truly amazing day. 

Below is the home learning grid for this week and a couple of attachments to help.  The special project this week is all about animals and Maths and we can't wait to see what you come up with!  Thank you once again for remembering to send in photos of your work.  We have loved seeing what you have been up to and it is obvious that you are trying really hard to do some school work every day.  We will speak to you later on in the week and remember, there is always the chance that you will get a mention from Mr Johnston in Celebration assembly on Friday.  Keep up the good work  

We miss you all and hope to see you again soon,

Miss Palmer and Mrs Arnott

Home Learning - Week 3 commencing 4th May 2020

Hello Tortoiseshells,

We hope that you have all had another good week!   Did the rain give you a good reason to dig out your wellies and go and splash in some puddles?  The car park by Toulmin playing fields started to flood and made a lovely, big puddle to wade through!  Batchwood woods has also been much muddier than it has recently and Mrs Arnott has been in there most days.  If you do live nearby, then use your exercise time to come and see the last of the beautiful bluebells which have covered the woodland floor.  I have added some photos to show you.  Do you recognise the woods from last time we visited? 

Once again, Miss Palmer and I have really enjoyed speaking to you all over the phone.  We miss you all very much, but love to hear about what you have been getting up to!

We continue to be so impressed with how many of you have been working hard at home and have been sending your learning into the

email homelearning@margaretwix.herts.sch.uk  Well done!  Mr Johnston will continue to lead an online Celebration assembly each week, so keep sending in the work, we love to see it all! 

Special mentions to some individuals who have sent in some examples of outstanding work, which have made our day...

Felicia, who has been consistently working hard and has carefully typed e-mails for computing and a made a fantastic model of a stone age hut; Lydia, who planned and then made an accurate and detailed model of the human skeleton; Poppy, who created a colourful and informative poster all about stone age homes; Sofia T, who has been an all-round superstar with beautifully presented work and impressed us with a life-size model of a human skeleton and a thoughtful card for her cousin; Jibran, who has been doing some fantastic Maths and making amazing progress on the reading and spelling games on Nessy; Jessica, who ‘wowed’ us with her beautiful written labels showing the parts of the human body; Sofia H, who has been working hard on her times tables and created a detailed labelled drawing of a stone age house; Ruby, who completed a tally of the 3D shapes she found in her house and made a fantastic board game which she played with her family; Maya, who’s work is always of a high standard and created an amazing stone age diorama; and Amal, who created her own PE workout and has been doing some lovely writing with lots of interesting story language.  

We also want to give special mentions to some individuals who we know have been working hard on the reading, writing and maths using Nessy, Times Table Rock Stars and Numbots...Very well done Idris, Sofia T, Mia-Rose, Amal, Terry-Ann, Felicia, Ruby, Maya, Mustafa, Jibran, Jessica, Sofia T, Skye, Kaysie, Sofia H, India, Poppy, Zahra and Layton. 

Below we have attached this week’s learning for you to complete at home plus all the handouts you will need. There is an extra weekly challenge at the bottom of the grid this week.  Remember to check Facebook for any extra challenges as well!

Also this Friday is a Bank Holiday. We have set work for you to do, but if you would prefer to spend time relaxing with your family, that is fine too!

Stay safe, do your best and we hope to see you again very soon.

Miss Palmer and Mrs Arnott

Home Learning - Week 2 commencing 27th April 2020

Hello Tortoiseshells,

We hope that you have had a good week and that you have been enjoying some of the glorious sunshine!  Miss Palmer and I have really enjoyed speaking to you all over the phone and hearing about what you have been up to with your families.  We miss you all very much, but it has been lovely to hear your voices again 

Thank you to everyone that has already sent through photographs of their work.  We really hope that you are enjoying the tasks that we have set and learning all about the Stone Age.  We absolutely love seeing your home learning and all the other things that you have been up to.  It is clear that you are all working so hard on continuing your learning at home, even though it is strange time.  Well done - we are really proud of you 

If you haven't sent in any work already, don't worry, there is still time.  Just ask your parent or carer to take a photo and send it to this address: homelearning@margaretwix.herts.sch.uk.  There is going to be a Celebration assembly on Friday 1st May, so your work might get a special mention!  

Stay safe, do your best and we hope to see you again very soon.

Miss Palmer and Mrs Arnott

Home Learning - Week 1 commencing 20th April 2020

Hello Tortoiseshells,

We hope you had a good Easter break with some rest from Home Learning and maybe even a little bit of chocolate!  We are missing you all but we have had lots of fun thinking and talking about what activities we could set you for this new Summer term.

Hopefully now, you have found a routine that works at home for you and your family.  If not, we have attached an example of a daily timetable that you could follow or adapt to help you complete the tasks we have set you.

Our new topic this term is the Stone Age and you will see that most of our Literacy is based on this as well as some of our other subjects in the afternoon.

We will post each new week of activities here and remember (parents) that if you are unsure about any of the activities, please use our email address for any questions: homelearning@margaretwix.herts.sch.uk

Do your best, share some of your work with us using the email and we look forward to seeing you when we are back in school J

Miss Palmer and Mrs Arnott

Music Home learning - 20th April onwards

Mr Mitchell has updated his website with new Music activities and will be adding more each week.  Follow the link below to access the materials and ask your carer to check Parentmail for the password. 

Have fun extending your musical knowledge!

 https://www.dragonofthenorth.com/

Dear Tortoiseshells,

We hope you are enjoying the sunshine since we have not been at school!  Below is a grid of lots of fun learning that you can continue at home while you are not at school.  Try your best to read, practise your times tables and then choose a Topic activity from the grid each day.  We can't wait to see what you have been up to when we return to school 

Be kind to your families and enjoy spending some time with them too.  Check back here often for updates and photos of what we are up to!

Best wishes,

Mrs Arnott and Miss Palmer