Keen Learners

What a busy and exciting time it's been in Tregantle Class!

The children have been absolutely brilliant at practicing their sounds - both in reading and writing. It's wonderful to see their growing confidence as they spot sounds in words and use them in their own writing.

In maths, we've been busy sorting all sorts of items into groups and comparing different sets of objects. The children have also become real experts at ordering numbers to 5 - such careful counting and number work happening every day!

This week, Tregantle were thrilled to take part in their very first Brunel Harvest Festival. Everyone listened beautifully and sang our song "Big Red Combine Harvester" with great enthusiasm - we were so proud of them all!

Our focus for outside learning has been The Gingerbread Man. After listening to the story, the children used natural materials to create their very own gingerbread men outdoors. Back in the classroom, they got creative again by decorating their own gingerbread men at the craft table - such imagination and care went into every design!

To finish the week, we joined together to support World Mental Health Day by wearing something yellow. The children took part in some lovely relaxing and calming activities, helping us all to think about how we can look after our minds as well as our bodies.

What a fantastic week, Tregantle - we're so proud of all your hard work and enthusiasm!

Dear Brunel Families,
Thank you once again for your kind donations for Saltash Foodbank as part of our Harvest Festival. It was so wonderful that so many of parents, grand parents and carers could attend. Next week, we have our skipping workshops taking place on Friday 17th October and we also have Enrich Education onsite net Wednesday to fit our brand new orienteering stations. It will be another busy week at Team Brunel. Good luck to all our cross country racers taking parent in tonight's first run of the season. Please find this week's edition of The Brunel Bulletin. We hope you enjoy catching up with all of the events at our wonderful school over the last week.

Hello Everyone!

As you can see in the photograph, Year 1 and 2 have been hunting for mini beasts in the school garden this week. This was during our science lesson, where we learnt about different habitats, and found micro habitats for living things. When we got back to the classroom, we drew and labelled a map of the habitats that we found.

Our English unit based on David McKee, has come to an end this week, with some fantastic stories from Year 2. These stories really are something to celebrate, as they have used the repetitive phrases in the original Mr Benn stories, to create their own versions. Their writing have some fantastic vocabulary and we really enjoyed reading them. Reception have been busy in their English lessons, learning the story of The Little Red Hen. We are all set to follow instructions to make some bread next week.

Year 1 and to have almost completed their maths unit on place value. Year 1 have been busy ordering numbers, while Year 2 have been partitioning 2 digit numbers. 

Have a lovely weekend,

From The Penhallow Team

What a fantastic week of learning it has been in Year 2 and 3! The classroom has been full of creativity, curiosity, and teamwork as the children have built on their skills across a wide range of subjects. Here's a little peek at what we've been up to:

English

This week, our young authors have been busy editing and publishing their own stories with a historical setting.
The children have shown great attention to detail as they reread their work, corrected spellings and punctuation, and proudly started to produce their final copies. We're so impressed with their hard work and creativity!

Maths

In Maths, we have been exploring number lines and place value. The children practised using number lines to help them understand the position and size of numbers, and to see how tens and ones fit together. They've been comparing numbers, estimating where they belong on a line, and spotting patterns - a brilliant foundation for confident number work!

History

Our History lessons have taken us back to Ancient Egypt, where we've been learning about the gods and goddesses that were so important to the people of the time. The children have been using historical sources - such as pictures and artefacts - to ask and answer questions like "Why were these gods so important?" and "How do we know about them today?"
There's been lots of thoughtful discussion and some fascinating ideas shared!

PSHE

In PSHE, we have been thinking about the need for rules - in school, at home, and in the wider world. The children talked about how rules help to keep everyone safe and happy. It was lovely to see how much they care about fairness and kindness.

 Design & Technology

Our sewing project continued this week as we practised the running stitch again. The children are becoming more confident with threading needles, tying knots, and keeping their stitches neat. There was a real sense of concentration and pride as they improved their technique - well done, everyone!

 Science and More!

We've also been busy in Science, exploring and investigating the world around us through hands-on experiments and observations. Alongside this, the children have enjoyed their singing sessions, bringing lots of enthusiasm and joy to the classroom with music.

It's been a busy but brilliant week full of learning, laughter, and teamwork. We're so proud of how hard everyone is working and how much progress they're making.

Have a wonderful weekend, and we look forward to more adventures in learning next week!

This week in class, we've been writing parts of a non-chronological report using Tier 3 vocabulary to make our work more precise and informative. In Maths, Year 6 have been practising long multiplication, while Year 5 have focused on written methods for addition and subtraction. In Science, we've been investigating the best place to put a sunshade as part of our topic on light, exploring how shadows are formed and how light travels.

The spellings remain the same for this week. 

Here are the KIRFs for this week:

Writing
This week, I share some of the wonderful writing our children are producing. Writing is one of the most complex lessons for children as they have to think about spelling, handwriting, grammar and punctuation at the same time as creating work that is interesting and engaging; it takes a lot of effort to get it right. However, the Year 3 and 4 examples above demonstrate how successful the children are becoming.  They include similes such as 'the sea was as clear as crystal' and descriptive and powerful phrases like 'I went to a park with mysterious shadows lurking in the dark'. You will have the opportunity to read your own child's writing at our first parent carer consultation of the year. This will be an opportunity for you to find out how your child has settled and look at their learning books. The office will be sending a link for you to sign up to a session with your child's class teacher on the following days:

Monday 3rd November from 1pm: Class 3
Tuesday 4th November from 1pm: Class 4
Wednesday 5th November from 1pm: Class 2
Wednesday 12th November from 1pm: Class 1

We hope you will be able to join us.

Victorian Day
Today, Class 2 had a fantastic Victorian day in support of their history learning. This photo shows the children writing on slates in a much altered classroom. Unfortunately, Mrs Connell's learning was not up to standard so she was made to wear a 'dunce cap' at the back of the room. In the afternoon, the children were shown how boys and girls were treated differently in Victorian schools, with the boys doing woodwork and the girls needlework. We promise the cane was not used during the day, although I did model giving Ati Charlesworth five stripes across the hand!


Rocksteady Band
We have been overwhelmed by the response to the Rocksteady Band offer; although this shouldn't be surprising given the level of excitement it generated. As she has enough interest to make this viable, music lead Abi Flashman will now liaise with Rocksteady to set up these music lessons. We will try to schedule the Rocksteady lessons at the same time as our class music lessons so participating children will not miss out on other curriculum areas of learning. 

Wild Wellbeing
I am pleased to share this free half term holiday opportunity that may appeal to you and your children:

Dear all!

Year 3 have been busy again!  In maths, we have moved onto addition and subtraction - please do not forget that your child has mathletics assignments assigned to them for homework!  We do allow time in school for them to access however, it is beneficial if they can practise at home too!

In English, the children have finished their own versions of the "Egyptian Cinderella" story. We will be sharing the stories on Friday with Miss Stricklands class :)  The next unit is to write an Information Text about the pharaoh "Rameses II (Rameses The Great) where the launch included a very special visitor who is over 3000 years old!!  The children questioned "Queen Nefertari" and found out lots of information in preparation for our Egyptian unit.

In science, the children are continuing their learning on human and animal skeletons.  Last week, they created a full sized human skeleton using sticks and this week, they drew various animal skeletons using chalk on the playground!!!

In art, the children will be making their own Egyptian scrolls so when they are finished, I will post them on our page!

That is all for now!  Please do not forget, Reading logs to be in school every day; book changes every Friday and Reading Eggspress/Mathletics assignments are set every week!!!! Thank you for your continued support!

Mrs Brewer, Mrs Miller and Mr Liddement

So day 2 has also included three hours of boulder climbing and the children are still full of energy! The view must be adding additional fuel to their engines - it is beautiful!

Storytellers took their learning outdoors for a hands-on, creative adventure! Armed with hammers and bright wool, the children made their very own wooden name plaques. They carefully tapped in small nails to outline the first letter of their name, then wrapped colourful wool around the nails to bring their initials to life.

It was such a brilliant activity for our little preschoolers, full of fun, focus, and a little bit of challenge! Using real tools helped them feel so grown-up while strengthening their hand-eye coordination and fine motor skills. Threading the wool around the nails gave their fingers a great workout, building the muscles they'll need for early writing. Working outdoors made it even more exciting, with plenty of giggles and proud smiles as they admired their finished creations. The children couldn't wait to show off their wonderful wooden masterpieces!

...and so the year 6 team made it through their first day and night. The dry weather meant that the river activities could be enjoyed in full. Look at those faces. This morning brings a hearty breakfast and more challenges that will build up the skills ready for the final racre tomorrow!

River adventures, climbing trees, relaxing with friends...that's what year 6 residential is bringing to our wonderful team. Day 1 almost in the bag. Time to dry off and tuck into jacket potatoes followed by board games and relaxing into the evening. 

Our fantastic Year 6 team are on a 3 day adventure this week at Dewerstone Cottage. I have no doubt that the team work and outdoor learning will both challenge and inspire them. 

This week at nursery we have been exploring autumn leaves on the tuft tray. The children talked about what colours they saw and explored sounds that they made using words such as crunchy.
We have been discussing what animals you might see in autumn and the children then made some paper plate owls. They have enjoyed fruit and vegetable printing in the paint.

At story time, we have enjoyed stories such as "The Leaf Thief" and "The Enormous Turnip" and the children have enjoyed reinacting parts of the story in their play.

In maths, we have been using pine cones to count and order, looking at quantities and have continued to explore shapes.

A reminder that we have a Bags2school collection on Tuesday 14th. If you have any used but good quality clothes, shoes, bags or belts then please bag them up and bring them to nursery before 9am on the day.

Have a good weekend

Julie and Sarah