Rev Ben’s Collective Worship
In today’s collective worship, Rev. Ben began by engaging the children in an interactive challenge, where three children had to use two pieces of paper as stepping stones to cross the hall. This activity set the stage for the theme of the session: perseverance and trust in challenging times. Rev. Ben then shared the Bible story of Moses and the Israelites' long journey through the desert, highlighting the struggles and faith they experienced along the way. After listening to the story, the children were encouraged to reflect and discuss key questions: 'What did God's people do during their journey through the desert?' and 'What are some positive alternatives to complaining when things get tough?' These discussions helped the children connect the story to their own lives, exploring how patience, gratitude, and faith can guide them through difficult situations.
Reception - Collections of 3
Reception have been looking at the composition of 3 by looking at different collections. We made collections of 3 using the connecting shapes and talked about what we could see to make 3. E.g. 2 red shapes and 1 blue shape makes 3.
National Poetry Day in Year 4
As part of National Poetry Day, Year 4 have written their very own poems based on The Amazon Rainforest. They developed their use of both similes and metaphors to up level their examples. We recited the poems and gave peer evaluations. Once we had finished, we wrote the poems again for a poetry competition called Wonder Verse in which the best poems are selected and published in an actual poetry book. We can’t wait to hear if any of our poems make it to publication so we've got everything crossed. Happy National Poetry Day.!
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Year 3- Class Worship-How important is it to know about the author behind the book?
During our class worship, Year 3 explored a story from Picture News about a book vending machine at Linlithgow Academy in Scotland. The machine offers children access to a diverse selection of over seventy books. The children discussed their preferred books and authors and why they liked them, with suggestions including humorous books, books that enhance vocabulary, and books that provide insights into historical events. We thanked God for allowing us to read books and learn from them, including the Bible and books written by other people.
Year 3- Science- Investigating how shadows are created and change size.
Year 3 scientists had planned to conduct a shadow experiment outdoors using natural sunlight, but the weather turned overcast. Instead, they used a torch as an artificial light source in the classroom. The children recorded their findings using simple scientific language and drawings. They observed that the size of shadows changed when they moved the torch. They noticed that the shadows were smaller when the flashlight was closer to the object and larger when it was further away.
Whole School Worship: What is Spirituality?
In our Tuesday worship, the theme was spirituality and what it means to us. Mrs Ham talked about things that we can see (physical/ material things) and things that we just feel (spiritual things). We played a fun game where we had to put on a pretend pair of binoculars if it was something physical/ material that we can see or cover our eyes if it was something spiritual that we can't see. We had things like connecting with nature, a big house', money, connecting with friends, inner peace and believing in a God. She introduced the ‘windows’ looking out on the world and how we should take time to learn, to gaze, to wonder and admire and ask ‘why?’ We looked at some of the ways we can live life in all its fullness and today we particularly focused on being 'grateful' for all of God's creations. We also explored how taking notice is one of our five ways to wellbeing too. We looked at some of God’s creations in a video and discussed our favourite ones with our partner. There were lots of 'WOWs' and 'aahhs' at some of God's amazing creations. We finished with a prayer thanking God for all of his creations and sang 'If I were a butterfly' to sing thank you to God. Across this academic year, we will continue to further explore what spirituality means to us at St Barnabas.
Year 6 - Developing batting and fielding skills
Year 6 continued their cricket sessions and started to focus on batting and fielding. The session involved a drill in which the batter had to hit the ball off a tee and the fielders retrieve it. This allowed the children to experiment with different shots and see how their body shape affected the flight of the ball, and see how important communication is when fielding as a team.
Online Safety: In-game Chat
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Year 4 - English : Information Texts
We have started our first non-fiction unit in English this week. We will be making good use of the rich geography knowledge we have gained about the Amazon Rainforest in order to create information texts over the next couple of weeks. We began by researching the Amazon using a range of secondary sources such as fact files and websites. We then looked at a number of examples of information texts and spent time identifying key features, such as subheadings and text boxes.
Year 4 - PE: Batting Skills
Our specialist cricket coach sessions continued this week with a focus on developing batting skills. The Year 4s learned some golden rules for batting: use the flat side of the bat, hold the handle with your dominant hand at the bottom, stand sideways on and take a big swing. Needless to say, there was a marked improvement in the batting in this week’s game compared to last week’s.
The WOW Group - Our Spiritual Garden
After a great deal of hard work and creativity on the part of Mr Fairbanks and the WOW Group, the new spiritual garden was launched in Tuesday’s worship. The WOW members presented the rest of the school with ideas for using the garden as intended and in a respectful manner. Unfortunately, the garden was a bit flooded due to the heavy downpour on Monday, but we are hopeful that it can be used towards the end of the week.
Year 4 - RE: Jesus’s Authority
In RE this week, we began with a matching game in which children had to match the gospel story with the painting. We spent time discussing the paintings and how the artists portrayed that Jesus was acting in God’s name. The children provided some thoughtful answers about the miracles Jesus performed, particularly his ability to heal those who had lost hope.