A Christmas Present for the Birds! 12.12.19
Bonsai class spent the afternoon making bird feeders for our Forest School area. Using old coconut shells and pine cones, they squished in lard, mixed with seeds, fruit, grated cheese, breadcrumbs and raisins. Other groups made Christmas wreaths and stars and practised their knot tying using an animated knot website. Next week, we will take the bird feeders out to the Forest School area and hang them up for the birds to feast on over the Christmas holiday!
Ebony class started Forest School with a stick tower challenge – which group could build the tallest tower using only small sticks and natural materials found in the woods. There were some interesting results! The winning tower was made by slotting small, hollow sticks into one another, making it look like one long stick! After that, a group re-located some old tyres from the garden behind the bungalow … and found some interesting wildlife – huge frogs! The bug hunt proved popular, especially using the magnifying pots, as some of the bugs were very tiny. After some whittling of hazel sticks and some fire-making with a flint and steel, a welcome cup of hot chocolate was enjoyed by all – the wind was chilly today!
Monkey Puzzle have been creating their own board games this afternoon based around Alchemy Island. They have had to work collaboratively to create a board game from scratch. They started by thinking of their ideas and then creating everything from the actual board games down to any resources they needed to be able to play. Some children created the characters, other magpied ideas and others were resourceful by using pieces from other games. Everyone had a great afternoon playing each others games – what a great way to end a Friday!
We have been working so hard preparing our Christmas play. It was great fun putting our costumes on. Here are some sneak previews!!
Cherry class have been working really hard over the Autumn term learning to play the plastic trombones. 
The children were so proud of their achievements that they invited their parents in for a full performance to see their progress. The class performed amazingly!! The parents were then invited to have a go…… it’s not as easy as it looks is it?!!!
Special thanks to Mrs Price.
Year 3 have been working really hard on their fantastic learning journey “SCRUMDIDDLYUMPTIOUS”. 
All the children were invited to their celebration event with a special golden ticket inside a chocolate bar wrapper. The year group (including the teachers) then came dressed as their favourite characters from the class reading book ‘Charlie and the Chocolate Factory’, to show-case their learning to their parents. All involved had an amazing time creating their own smoothies, making peppermint creams and decorating various Christmas gingerbread shapes, amongst other activities!!!!! Mmmmmmm delicious!!
Please return your bags by 9.00am to school. Additional bags are available from the school office or use any suitable bags you have at home.
They can be filled with unwanted clothes, paired shoes (tied together), handbags, hats, bags, scarves, ties, jewellery, lingerie and belts.
Bags are weighed in exchange for money – a great way to raise funds for school, two great charities (Meningitis Now and bibic) and to have a clear out!
♻♻ Happy recycling!!! ♻♻
Holly class got into some serious whittling at Forest School, with some great hazel sticks. They used potato peelers and worked methodically to create some lovely carved pencil points. Other groups spent time in the school grounds orienteering and developed some fantastic map reading skills. The clock was against them so they had to be quick to find all 12 flags! Read more
In Monkey Puzzle class, the children learnt how to tie a range of knots using a great website called ‘Animated Step by Step Knotting’. They discovered that there are a number of expert knotters in the class who soon started teaching others to tie some tricky knots. Ms Elliot is very talented at plaiting, so she taught some complicated plaiting skills. Outside, the children played Bat and Moth, a game that taught them about how bats use echo location.
FRIDAY 6 DECEMBER 2019
Children can wear non-school uniform in exchange for £1 contribution or donations of:
Refreshments and tombola items (good quality, in-date items only please)
Everyone – homemade cakes, Jingle Jars and/or
Foundation – chocolates / sweets
Year 1 – cakes
Year 2 – bottles (toiletries)
Year 3 – tins / packet food
Year 4 – mince pies / biscuits
Year 5 – bottles (drinks including alcohol)
Year 6 – cakes
Year 6 Ebony class spent the morning at Forest School making miniature homes for animals in the woods… and then creating a mud slide! Thanks to the waterproofs provided by the PTA, they could get as muddy as they liked! We ended the morning with a delicious and warming cup of hot chocolate – what a morning! In the afternoon, groups played Bat and Moth, while others completed a Forest School quiz or wrote a Forest School rap!
Today the children used their knowledge to piece together a poem. The children looked out for punctuation and rhyming words to work out the correct order.
As part of our maths learning, we had to mark some of Miss Tapp’s work.
It was quite tricky for us to see where she had gone wrong – and explain how she had gone wrong.
Here is an example:
Don’t forget to bring your Jingle Jars in this Friday when it is Donation Day for the Fayre.
We also look forward to seeing all your homemade Christmas Hats at the Fayre.
There are prizes for the best hats so get your creative skills flowing!
We have been working collaboratively today as we have started to create word webs. To begin with, we made sure we could use a dictionary correctly by finding chosen words and their definitions. After this, we wrote a word in the middle of our paper, and then we found its definition. Next, we split the word into its prefix and root word and found out what they meant. Our next step will be to find other words containing our chosen prefix and root word.
We will be holding our very own Election Day on Tuesday 17th December to vote in our next School Council. The current School Council has given out application forms to anyone interested in taking on this important role.
Those children interested must return their application forms to their class School Councillor by this Friday, 6th December. The School Council will then meet to shortlist applicants. Anyone shortlisted will then be put onto their class ballot paper on Election Day and given the opportunity to give a 2 minute talk to their class about their strengths and ideas.
Good luck to anyone applying!
We had great fun in Literacy today, exploring the sounds different instruments make. We have been looking at poetry to do with our senses and were playing instruments and then writing down words to describe each sound.
We generated our own word bank which will support us when we come to write our own senses poems.
Year 6 have continued their work on fractions, focusing on converting between mixed and improper fractions. Some children became the teachers today and had to mark Miss Tapp’s fraction work, identifying her mistakes and explaining where she went wrong.
Please don’t forget to sell as many raffle tickets as you can and return the stubs and money to the school office as soon as possible!
More tickets are available from the school office if needed.
Loads of great prizes to be won.
Good luck!!
In year 1, we began exploring our senses to describe different objects! We used our mouths to taste, ears to listen, nose to smell, hands to touch and eyes to look.
We described each object using adjectives before exploring how they made us feel.
Our favourite part was during our tasting sessions were we got to try a lot of new foods, describing the taste and smell to our friends.
I think the popcorn was Mr Capell’s favourite!!
The children of Year 4 have been looking at perimeter and how it is the length around the outside of the shape. The children have been challenging themselves with using different ways to find it. These include: measuring using a ruler, counting squares or using facts we already have.
Monkey Puzzle enjoyed getting into the groove making music in the woods today! They used old plastic bins and water-butts as drums and sticks from the woods to beat out a rhythm. Some drummers accompanied singers too. To finish the end of our Forest School session, we enjoyed a Christmas sing-song in the sunshine.
In Year 1, we continued our look into the different ways the part-whole model helps us learn.
Using a number line, we worked through a set of missing number problems before identifying how this would be represented on a cherry diagram.
We had to keep reminding each other that the biggest number had to be the whole!
FRIDAY 29 NOVEMBER 2019
Children can wear non-school uniform in exchange for £1 contribution or donations of :
Toys, books, games, DVDs (U/PG, bags, jewellery, 2nd hand uniform, non-perishable food for the tombola (good quality, in-date items only please)
Redwood class had a busy afternoon both in and out of the classroom today. They took part in a carousel of activities which included: practising tying different knots (including the over-hand knot and the figure of eight knot), playing a memory game with natural items called Kim’s Game, making Stickmen and women based on the story ‘Stickman’ by Julia Donaldson and playing a game called ‘ Bat and Moth’ using echo location! Bats use echo location to find food in the dark; they send out sound waves which produce echoes when they hit an object.
This week, we have been learning about column subtraction in maths. Today we showed resilience, reflection and collaboration when we got stuck in the learning pit. Working together we managed to solve problems and reflect on our mistakes. By the end of the lesson, some of us were able to be teachers and help anyone left in the learning pit.
In year 4, we are getting stuck into Numbots. We are finding it is really helping us with our maths skills. The children have been competing against each other to get through as many levels as they can.
In this lesson, the children combined Numbest with understanding cuiseniare rods and how it can help with addition.
We have been learning more of the phase 3 digraphs this week. Look what we have been doing to support our learning.
We decorated cars when we learnt the ‘ar’ phoneme and we used torn paper when we learnt ‘or’.
Look at this writing! We all tried so hard.
First of all can I say a huge thank you to all of the children and parents of Year 6 for making such an effort with dressing up for Victorian day. We all had an amazing day. It was interesting to see just how far education has come since the Victorian days, even though some of us loved the strict rules and detention!
The day was full of T.O.L.E. (Teacher Organised Learning Environment), with lots of the three Rs (Reading, wRiting and aRithmetic).
We also took part in a Victorian style D.P.A. called drilling!
Year 6 took a trip back in time today to a Victorian Classroom. They experienced writing on slates, learning the three ‘Rs’ (Reading, wRiting, aRithmetic) and performing a Victorian drill. To make the day even more realistic, we dressed up as rich Victorians, chimney sweeps, maids and lots more!
Monkey Puzzle have been busy finding out everything they can about Gold. Gold has been found on Alchemy Island and our researchers need to know lots about it to inform other islanders. They have been finding out any chemical reaction so that happen, what it can be used for, why it’s a sign of wealth along with many other facts. Everyone fold this really interesting and the class worked collaboratively together to help each other out.
In Maths today, we were looking at different ways to solve addition problems and methods we can use to prove we are correct. We spoke about two parts making one whole. Some of us even attempted writing a story to go with the number sentence.
Three children, who had worked incredibly hard to solve the problem, were then appointed experts for the lesson to support others in their understanding. They were so helpful. Well done!
In literacy, we have been learning the difference between technical and general language. We used our skimming and scanning skills to read research sheets about gold before being language detectives to find technical and general vocabulary. Here are some examples of technical language we found: karat, density, malleable, atomic number and chemical. General language included; under, the, a, sometimes and often.
Please don’t forget to sell as many raffle tickets as you can and return the stubs and money to the school office as soon as possible!
More tickets are available from the school office if needed.
Loads of great prizes to be won.
Good luck!!
At Hazeldown, we are extremely passionate about supporting our pupils to achieve anything they want in their later lives.
After working alongside Floyd Woodrow, who is an internationally known, motivational leader, we were inspired to use his ‘Compass for Life’ theory to help our children plan their journeys towards their ‘North Star.’
Thank you to Bibi in year 5 for her detailed articulation of her Compass for Life- we have no doubt that you will continue to push yourself and one day, after your career as a detective, you will publish your own book.
What is your North Star? How will you get there?
Year Two have started applying what they learned from melting their coloured ice cubes (see previous post) . They have been using view finders to paint a section of a picture. They had to look closely at the shades, shapes and colours. Some children started exploring with water colours to make designs on paper which they can cut out or use to back there work.
Year 5 braved the elements today and enjoyed getting muddy! Despite the persistent rain, we made a fire, lit matches, cooked delicious smores, whittled hazel sticks and practised striking with a flint and steel. We even managed to practise the Year 5 Christmas songs around the fire in the pouring rain! Now that’s resilience!
Fir Class had loads of fun in the woods creating their tree monsters to keep the wicked witch away from the woods. They listened to a traditional tale about tree monsters and then made their own. Some were left hidden in the trees – others were taken home!
The Foundation children learnt the oa sound today. They each decorated a toad to help them remember the sound. They looked beautiful!
In our literacy lesson today, we started with a discussion.
We tried to think why we might be using the story ‘A Christmas Carol’ to inspire our story writing. Here are some of the whys we came up with:
We are studying the Victorians and the story is set in the Victorian time so links other areas of the curriculum which helps us build links between subjects.
Christmas is coming and we will be doing our big write close to Christmas time.
The story ‘A Christmas Carol’ is a good story. We know this from all of the versions that have been made from the storyline (Bugs Bunny, Muppets, Disney, Barbie and more).
Charles Dickens was a good writer. He used high quality vocabulary and punctuation that really paints a picture and builds the suspense in our minds.
Hopefully this will inspire us to write our own ‘change’ themed story. Please have a look at the extract below to see the quality of his writing.
The children in Foundation had a great time going on a winter walk! We all wrapped up warm and wore our wellies!
Year 6 have been focusing on fractions this week. We have looked at what a fraction is, equivalent fractions and simplifying fractions to their lowest form. We also looked at key vocabulary for our fractions unit. Today we used diagnostic questions to check our understanding of what we have learnt so far.
Tonight, a team of year 6’s took part in a netball tournament at TCS. They played brilliantly as a team, with lots of communication and collaboration. The team played six games altogether, jointly winning their group. Overall, they finished 4th after a very close semi final and then only missing out on third place by one goal in a penalty shoot out.
Well done Team Hazeldown – excellent effort!
Year Two have been enjoying the story George’s Marvellous Medicine. We took inspiration from George’s recipe and created our own concoctions. What would you include in yours?
Year 5 have had a go at CiP words in maths today to help them understand a variety of mathematical vocabulary that sometimes can confuse them. This will help then children when different vocabulary comes up in questions and will give them more confidence in what’s required of them to work out the question.
As part of our topic, we have been looking at books that transport us to different worlds, this week we have been taken away to Hogwarts. We have been reading about Harry’s first visit into the wizarding world! Our task has been to create an advertisement to persuade the pupils of Hogwarts to visit Diagon Alley. We think a visit into Harry’s world would make a great school trip!
Today the children were introduced to ten frames in Maths. We worked out that we could represent different numbers by drawing dots. We also worked out that a number can be represented in a variety of ways.
We challenged ourselves to find different ways to represent the same number. We then applied our reasoning skills to solve a problem.
Today, some of our year six children started their new roles as part of ‘the lunchtime training team.’
They sat with the younger pupils, modelling the importance of table manners and supported them to follow the rules and routines during lunchtime.
In addition to this, they helped our lunchtime staff to serve the meals and helped with the cleaning up process.
Great start to all those involved; keep it up!
As we reached the end of our literacy unit, we spent the last week drafting out paragraphs for our biographies. Everyone worked really hard and used lots of resources to support their learning.
In addition to completing an orienteering challenge today at Forest School, Year 6 built shelters in the woods, lit a fire and cooked deliciously gooey smores (melted marshmallows squished in-between biscuits), played an amazing Squirrel and Acorn game and created a music area with some cool drumming beats! Roro, the teddy, joined us too – well, it was Children in Need day!
