Monthly Class sharing newsletter Dear Parents and Carers

This week our younger children have been learning about the seasonal changes in nature. We are so lucky to be surrounded by such beautiful countryside and our Forest of Friends is perfect for experiencing each seasonal change. Year 1 were extremely excited to collect a huge basket full of apples from our forest area this week. All classes celebrated Harvest this week by watching Rev Annie’s Harvest Collective Worship and then spent time learning about the meaning of Harvest in class. A huge thank you to all our families for generously donating goods which will now be collected by The Lord’s Larder.

SENDCo information for new parents Mrs McKenzie is our SENDCo. Mrs McKenzie’s SENDCo working days are Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Should you wish to speak with her, please contact the school office. Mrs Sharp or Miss Duffy will book phone call and meeting times. EYFS 2021 open mornings The poster below can be found on our website and the FOAS Facebook page. Please share with your friends and any potential new to All Saints parents. Thank you.

All Saints Church School Ladies Walk, Montacute, Somerset, TA15 6XG

Tel: 01935 826626 Fax: 01935 825788

e-mail: office@allsaints.bwmat.org

www.allsaintsprimaryschoolmontacute.com

Head Teacher: Mrs S Bowditch BA QTS

Please continue reading to find out more about all the exciting learning our children have been taking part in. Kind regards Mrs Bowditch

ACORN CLASS

Acorn Class are settling into school life extremely well. The children are enjoying getting to

know each other better whilst learning about school life and the routines of the day. Since

having lunch at school, the children have been particularly excited to use the "big

playground" as well as the field at lunchtimes.

Our first topic is 'Marvellous Me'; the children have painted beautiful self-portraits, looking

closely at themselves in the mirror to decide what shapes and colours they would need. The

children have been developing their independence skills and are becoming experts washing

their hands!

CLASS 1

This week we have been learning compare objects, groups and numbers using mathematical language; ‘greater than’, ‘less than’, and ‘equal to’. We have started to explore the inequality symbols ( <, >) which we call Mr Snappy! We remember that “Mr Snappy always eats the greater number”. We have learnt to that the = symbol means ‘the same as’ and we say ‘equal to’.

On Thursday we had a practical lesson using dominos or dice to generate numbers to compare using both symbols and language.

CLASS 2

Class 2 have had a very busy first three weeks. It has lovely to all be together again in the

one class and we have enjoyed seeing all our friends and playing and learning with them.

Our topic for this term is called Through the keyhole and we

have started by looking at how we various animals grow and

change. We looked at life cycles and we have been so

excited to watch as out caterpillars have grown and are now

in their cocoons. We are now waiting to see how they

emerge as Painted Lady butterflies.

We had a STEAM challenge where we had to create a

moving caterpillar with at least 4 moving parts.

We also had fun in the forest area where we created

caterpillars and butterflies from natural resources.

We are looking forward to our

class trip to Magdalen farm next

week where we will be looking at

fruit and vegetables which are

being harvested and feeding the

animals.

CLASS 3 In Year Three our topic is Stones and Bones. We have been learning about Rocks, Fossils and Prehistoric People. In English, we read the story, 'Pebble', about a stone who wished to be something better. We used this story to help us to write our own wishing stories. The children came up with lots of exciting ideas such as a sister that wished to be a vampire and a girl that wished to be a mermaid. We have been learning about the properties of rocks and carrying out experiments on permeability and durability. They found out that these properties can be useful in many ways. During history, the children had a thoroughly disgusting time dissecting stone age poo. There were groans of disgust as they pulled the poo apart to discover seeds, nuts and berries. However, I think they secretly enjoyed themselves!

Class 4

We have been delighted in the way the children have returned to school and worked collaboratively together in the first few weeks of term.

In Year Four our topic is 'Shine'. Over the past few weeks, we have been studying 'The Green Book' by Jill Paton-Walsh where the character leaves home and explores a new planet. We used this book to develop our own story writing, looking at setting descriptions and character emotions. We thoroughly enjoyed using drama to enhance our writing. This week the children have been writing non chronological reports on amazing crystal discoveries on their new planet. Bethany has included many features such as an eye catching title, paragraphs and subheadings.

As we continue our topic we will explore the digestive system and teeth. We will also be discussing the impact of climate change is having on planet Earth and the steps we can take to help.

Class 5

Class 5 have settled back into life at All Saints very well and they are enjoying their work on

Space. Already, the children have developed their understanding of the planets in our solar

system, the phases of the moon and how the rotation and tilt of the Earth’s axis affect our

everyday lives. The children recorded their learning through mini fact videos, which they also

learnt to record and change to QR codes as part of their computing. An example of this can

be seen here:

Shining Stars The class have also created stars for a display in Art, developing their origami skills. The

collaborative work is now shining brightly in the Year 5 classroom and has been positively

commented upon by the staff members who have arrived at the door to Class 5.

Stop Press! Class 5 have also become budding journalists, studying the features of newspaper articles

and the way in which they are written. The Class considered headlines, direct and reported

speech and orientation (what, when, where and who?) to grab the reader’s attention. The

Class then created their own newspaper article with a Space theme.

CLASS 6

In Year 6 we have been learning about WW2 through our topic

‘Run to the Shelter’. The children have explored what it must

have felt like to be evacuated during the war through drama

and role play and have used this to help them with their

writing. This week they have finished writing their own short

story based on a real girl who was evacuated to a village in

Yeovil.

The children loved seeing old pictures of Pen Mill

station which helped them to picture how it used to

be!

In art the children used a mixture of media to create pictures

of soldiers which are on display in the school hall.

I

In our science we have been learning about light. The children loved

making periscopes to help them understand the rules of reflection and

to understand that light travels in straight lines.

We have also had great fun in Year 6 discussing friendship and kindness.

The children took part in the ‘Last Rolo’ experiment in our class assembly to learn about

sacrifices. We are also enjoying watching our kindness tree fill up with the children’s names.

It will light up when all the names are on the tree!