Russet Class Blog
Year 3 & Year 4
Term 6
Week 4
Assessment Week - This week was assessment week and thankfully, for the children, the last formal assessments of the school year. They all performed brilliantly in a week that had some very high temperatures!
Thankfully they could all go for a dip at their regular swimming lessons on Friday afternoon!
Week 3
The two important events on the agenda this week were our trip to Silverstone and Sports Day, both of which were thoroughly enjoyed by all.
At Silverstone, the children explored the history of motorsport, viewed iconic racing cars, participated in interactive exhibits and experienced thrilling driving simulations, making the day truly memorable and enjoyed by all.
The next day was Sports Day and the children really did themselves proud and did their absolute best in all races. We had a great turnout of spectators so thank you to all who came and supported.
Russet Term 6 Week 3
Week 2
Our second week has been a busy one too.
Russet Class have been busy practicing for Sports Day which is taking place this week on the 19th June (praying for nice weather!)
We also started our topic of the Ancient Egyptians and learning about their lives and how different they are to the Ancient Sumer.
Our science investigation concluded with the children finding out that sugary drinks are bad for our teeth with the eggs that we used in the experiment discolouring and turning some rather interesting colours. The egg that we put in water stayed nice and healthy looking!
The children enjoyed the Islamic Art topic where they drew around their own start templates to produce an effective pattern of their own.
The children are looking forward to writing their own adventure stories this week!
We are also looking forward to the Silverstone trip on Tuesday!
Week 1
Our first week of this last half term has gone by in a flash!
We have started our adventure stories topic in English by reading various adventure stories and discussing their different features. We then practiced writing various sentence openers using conjunctions, similes and prepositions.
Year 3 have finished the topic of time and Year 4 finished the topic of money. Year 4 have been working extremely hard in practicing for the Multiplication Tables Check which is taking place next week.
In Science, we investigated Tooth Decay and set up an experiment using hard boiled eggs as teeth and then added various liquids to cover them to see what would happen to the eggs. We will let you know next week!
P.S.H.E covered the topic of the 7 Rs and looking at how we can look after our environment. The children designed their own poster on an R word of their choice.
On Friday, Russet Class were treated to an exciting gymnastics lesson in the hall. The children practiced different types of rolls and jumps using different apparatus.
Lastly, we all enjoyed Worship Wednesday in the church and took part in a service using the value of 'Respect.'
Until next week, have a lovely weekend!
Russet Summer 2 Week 1
Term 5
Week 1
The children came back from their well deserved Easter holiday this week fully rested and ready to learn. We were so impressed by their keenness to learn and developing sense of maturity.
The week started off with Year 3 covering Mass and Capacity in maths and the Year 4s learning about Length and Perimeter. Our new topic of "Animals including Humans" began in science and "Ancient Civilisations" was started in History where the children investigated what exactly a civilisation was. "What makes me, ME" began in P.S.H.E where the children thought about what makes them unique in their own special way.
In English, the children wrote some shape (concrete poetry) about Rivers and Mountains and we were super impressed to see how much effort had gone into their poetry and design/shape of their poems.
Until next week!
Russet Term 5 Week 1
Term 4
Week 4
This week the children completed their Rivers and Mountains extended writing task in English. They all worked really hard on these and I was delighted to read all their good ideas.
The children were also thrilled to use our new tennis rackets and balls in P.E this week. They took such good care of them and felt like proper tennis players practising their skills both independently and as a team!
Red Nose Day completed the week with the children dressing up in red or as a superhero!
Russet Week 4 Term 4
Week 3
This week started off participating in activities centred around 'The bear and the piano', our text for 'World Book Day' which Ilmington School did on Monday. This was to use the expertise of Mr Kemp in Music and Madame Eribenne in French. The children throroughly enjoyed themselves and covered activities such as writing a postcard from the bear back home to his friends in the forest, making musical instruments in forest school, dance and drama in Jazz Class and art and craft in Bramley Class.
Then, the rest of the week was centred around maths and English assessments which we were very proud of the children completing.
Swimming seemed like a real treat for Russet Class after completing a very busy week!
Week 2
This week was a busy one, the time seemed to fly by!
Fractions continued in maths (much to the children's delight!) They are even excited about the fractions assessment which will be taking place soon!
Story writing continued in English as did our spelling, punctuation and grammar lessons.
The children are loving their French lessons which are about discussing different pets in french and using different adjectives to describe them. (Very impressive!)
The children enjoyed learning about gases in science and I set them a question to answer - "Do gases weigh anything?" The children weighed bottles and cans of fizzy drink, then shook them and saw what happened when their tops were opened. We tried just to let the gas escape but it proved a challenge! The children then weighed them again and saw that the mass of each bottle or can had reduced, proving that gas must weigh something.
Week 1
The children came back rested and ready learn again after their half term break.
Fractions kicked off in Maths for both Year 3 and 4. I was super impressed at how much they had remembered from the last time they did it and I had lots of cheers every time fractions were mentioned!
The children were really enthused to start their 'contemporary stories' about rivers and mountains in English and it was really great to read what impressive ideas they had.
'States of Matter' is our science topic this term and we started this by identifying solids, liquids and gases in the classroom.
It was great to get outside and start our 'Net and wall games' topic in PE. We had a very kind donation of tennis balls by an Ilmington village resident so the children were thrilled to be able to use them outside.
Term 3
Week 3
The children thoroughly enjoyed Ilmington's 'Anti- Bullying' week which took place this week. They explored the topic of bullying in detail and looked at different scenarios around the topic of bullying. They really enjoyed designing their own "Anti Bullying Mascots" and even thought of a name for them.
Year 3 started swimming which they really enjoyed and Year 4 loved drawing their own 'landscapes'.
However, the main focus of the week were the play rehearsals for Alice in Wonderland. Both Russet and Jazz Class are working extremely hard in their preparations for the play next week and both Mrs Keyes, Mrs Brooks, Mrs Pinfold, Mrs Hands and myself are really excited to be able to show you how fantastic your children are!
Week 2
This week has been a busy one.
We continued our topic of multiplication and division in maths and non-chronological reports in English. We linked our topic work of Rivers and Mountains to our non-chronological reports and identified the features and explained what each feature does.
Science started this week with our new topic of Rocks and the children were really keen to explore different types of rocks and see their usage in our world today.
We also looked at how a river changes a landscape by erosion, deposition and transportation and discovered how rivers transport materials in four ways.
'The Trinity' was explored in RE and we looked at medicines in detail and discovered what the use of their labels were for in P.S.H.E.
Swimming started for Year 4 on Friday and 'Alice' practice continued with Russet Class singing the songs so well! Well done!
Week 1
Happy New Year to everyone!
Russet Class have made a fantastic back to the new term. Behaviour has been exceptional and the children have shown a real enthusiasm to learn.
Our new topic - Misty Mountains, Winding Rivers has been introduced and the children have shown a real interest in the physical features of our world. We have started our the unit of chronological reports in English and in maths multiplication and division is continuing. The children are keen to start the new science topic of rocks and are thrilled to learn that the daily mile is continuing in PE along with Circuit Training.
This week we also had the excitement of having a Robotics and Coding session and the children loved learning how to program their own robots and watching a drone fly and flip around the school hall!
The week finished with a fun filled trip to the pantomime in Chipping Norton on Friday afternoon!
Have a lovely weekend everyone!
Russet Term 3 - Week 1
Term 2
Week 2
Electricity took centre stage this week as the children were delighted to start this exciting topic. Their challenge was to make a circuit out of components given to them and make their bulbs light up! They all rose to the challenge and were delighted to make their bulbs light...I even had to turn the classroom lights off for that extra wow factor!
KS2 girls had a trial football lesson from South Warwickshire girls football this week which they thoroughly enjoyed. It was great to see them working as a team and supporting one another.
Russet class enjoyed writing their own rhyming couplet Bonfire or Remembrance poems in English this week and then finished the week writing an Acrostic Poem for Children in Need.
Russet Electricity
Week 1
Russet Class have come back to school with such a sensible and mature attitude for this second term - well done!
We have had a focus on spellings, grammar and handwriting this first week and the children have all risen to the different challenges set.
Our Romans topic has continued with the children finding out about the three different types of rule in the Roman era and have written sentences to describe each type of rule.
Electricity is the focus this term and the children enjoyed sorting everyday appliances into a Venn diagram and explaining their reasoning.
'Be Bright, be seen' is a school initiative organised by Warwickshire Safe and Active Travel and the children enjoyed designing their own outfit to keep safe in the darker months.
The whole school walked to the war memorial in the village on Friday 10th November to pay our respects and to lay a wreath. It was a very special time for the school to be together and to reflect upon past events.
Term 1
Week 8
Russet Class have worked so hard this half term and I want to congratulate them for all their superb efforts both in and out of the classroom. They have all settled back into school really well and I am looking forward to seeing what new learning and excitement next term brings.
Hope you all have a restful half term!
Week 7
Roman Day!
Russet Class enjoyed a fantastic Roman Day on Friday.
They learnt about the life of a Roman gladiator, medicine and surgery, battle, Roman army drill with actual Latin orders, handling ceramics and obviously the most important part…dressing up!
I hope you enjoy our extensive selection of pictures.
Until next week…hope you all have a wonderful weekend!
Russet Class - Roman Day
Week 6
Year 3 were continuing with addition and subtraction in maths this week and Year 4 started column addition for addition and subtraction which they seemed to remember quite well from last year.
The children started the new topic of Explanation Texts and started to identify the different features used when writing an explanatory text.
Russet class explored seeds in science this week and really enjoyed looking at various fruits and vegetables and estimating how many seeds would be in each one!
The children learnt all about religious festivals in Hinduism and enjoyed discussing how they celebrated each one.
Human Machines was the focus in P.S.H.E this week and the children loved going outside to work collaboratively in groups and all be part of a Human Machine! The machines ranged from digging up carrots to washing a drying a fluffy toy!
A big congratulations to all children in Russet class that wrote speeches in order to be part of the school council. All children spoke really clearly and sensibly and everyone who took part should be very proud of themselves. The results will be revealed next week.
Until next week…hope you all have a wonderful weekend!
Russet Week 6
Week 5
Happy Harvest Festival!
I want to congratulate Russet class on their fantastic Harvest Festival this week at the church. The children did the school proud in speaking their lines so clearly and accurately and supporting their peers. Well done Russet Class – you are a true inspiration!
Year 3 were adding and subtracting 1s, 10s and 100s to/from 3-digit numbers this week and identifying which digit would change each time. Year 4 completed their end of topic assessment on Place Value and will be moving onto Addition and Subtraction next week.
The children wrote their draft biographies about Julius Caesar this week and are just in the process of editing, polishing and improving their work. It is great to see how the children have understood the features of a biography and are using these in their work.
Russet class explored the part that flowers play in the life cycle of flowering plants and were challenged to label the different parts of the flower. They did really well in remembering the names of the different parts and even scored 80% in our class quiz!
The children understood what makes a good historical question and they devised questions about aspects of everyday life in ancient Rome. They then found the answers to these questions using non- fiction books and various fact sheets.
They all loved their P.E session with Chuck and it was great to see them still being able to use the field for their activities.
Until next week…hope you all have a wonderful weekend!
Week 4
Blue flowers and more!
Year 3 finished their place value topic this week with comparing numbers to 1,000 using greater than, less than and the equals sign and then moved onto ordering numbers to 1,000. Counting in 50s was the last small step to be covered before they move onto Addition and Subtraction next week. Year 4 are currently learning how to round to the nearest 10, 100 and 1,000 before they also move onto Addition and Subtraction in a couple of week’s time.
In English we learnt about Biographies and identified what a biography is, identified features of a biography and then practised writing a biography on Roald Dahl. The children will be finding out all about Julius Caesar next week and eventually writing their own biographies on the famous Roman Leader.
The finished their investigation of how water is transported within a plant and were thrilled to see that one of the carnations had turned blue! Last week we took two carnations, we put one in blue water and the other in plain water and wrote a prediction as to see what would happen. They checked their predictions to see if they were right and then we wrote up the experiment.
The subject of Karma was covered in R.E which led to some very thought provoking and interesting conversations.
Harvest Festival practice started in earnest this week and children and doing so well learning their lines for the upcoming service next week.
Until next week…hope you all have a wonderful weekend!
Week 3
Another busy week for Russet class!
The children started off using hands on resources to flexibly partition numbers on Monday and making their own place value charts. They were then challenged to add 1, 10, 100 and 1000 onto numbers, read number lines and estimate numbers on a number line.
Our Diary Entries topic has continued this week with the children writing their own draft diary entry from either the character of Athena or Arachne. The children loved the idea of visiting "Spelling Square", "Punctuation Park", "Grammar Garden" and Vocabulary Valley" to edit and improve their work and write up their final version in neat. The diary entries they produced were fantastic!
We asked historical enquiry questions in our Romans topic this week and the children used their research skills to find out the answer to questions about topics such as food, school, family, clothes, jobs and leisure.
The theme of Botanical Art continued this week with the children learning about the botanical artist Katie Scott and sketching a range of natural objects. The children used the Ilmington toolkit values of perseverance and focus to sketch conkers, michaelmas daisies, tomatoes, apples and pine cones...I have never seen them so quiet!
The children investigated how plants get the water they need and explored water transport in plants. We set up an experiment using blue dye and white chrysanthemums to see how water travels around a plant. We are looking forward to sharing our results with you next week!
Our P.S.H.E lessons involved the children being able to describe good and not so good feelings and how these affect our physical and mental state. We discussed how these feelings made us feel and what we could do to help ourselves and others.
Have a restful weekend everyone!
Russet Week 3 - 22/9/23
Week 1 & Week 2
What a busy first two weeks Russet Class have had!
The children have started Place Value in maths, revising the value of numbers, representation of numbers and using base 10 to partition numbers.
Diary Entries have been the focus of our English writing and the children have enjoyed finding features of diaries and started to write their own diary entries based on our class reader – Roman myths.
The children were very excited to start the Romans topic last week and were very surprised to find out that the Roman Empire lasted for nearly 1200 years! They explored roman artefacts and found out what they were used for and tried to remember their roman names.
Russet Class were thrilled to get out and about with nature last week and were set the task of finding some natural materials to do some natural botanical weaving with. We used pallets from forest school and made a base using willow and then wove some other natural materials that we found on our nature walk into the willow. It was great to see the children work as a team!
Mrs Billings’s flowering tomato plants were the focus for the children to learn about the features of a plant. The children could successfully explain the function of each of the plant’s features and then investigated what requirements were needed for a plant to grow.
Sue from SCARF came into school on Monday to talk to the children about friendships, feelings and the brain! The children really enjoyed discussing the different scenarios, meeting Harold the giraffe and finding out what makes our brains work.
French, computing and DT were also up and running along with some fantastic music lessons!
Until next week…hope you all have a wonderful weekend!