OUR SCHOOL NEEDS YOU!

Our school needs your help to collect Tesco schools vouchers! Vouchers collected in previous years have exceeded 20,000 and have helped us to obtain some exciting resources. This year we are looking to set a school record and collect more vouchers than ever before! Please try to collect as many vouchers as you can and do not be afraid to ask your friends, neighbours, work colleagues for their vouchers as well. Many people who do not have children simply discard these vouchers and we could make valuable use of them. Collecting boxes are by the school office. Please bring in your vouchers on or before 01/06/12.

Last Chance - Digital Leaders Application

Mr. Spracklen is welcoming children to apply for the role of 'Digital Leaders' within school. If you wish to apply, you will need to fill out a short online form (available now on SWGfL Merlin - see picture) before 7.00pm on 30/03/12. Children from Reception to Year 4 are encouraged to apply with the aim of appointing a child from each class to the 'Digital Leaders' team! The form will ask you why you should be considered for this role and we will be looking for original responses that come from the children. Below the responsibilities of a 'Digital Leader' are listed:

Website/Blogs/Online:

Write blog posts for your class and comment on other blogs across the school
Helping staff to upload pictures/videos to their blog

ICT Clubs:
Plan and lead ICT club at lunchtimes for Years R/1 and 2/3 (1 day each)
Possibly lead an after-school ICT club

Other
Change photographs on the TV screen in the reception

Organise competitions e.g. a drawing competition in Purple Mash

Possibly attend events and other schools to share ICT learning

Attend after-school training for staff and parents - with your parents' permission of course!

Trialling new software as required

Mr. Spracklen recommends!

Mr. Spracklen recommends: http://neave.com/bouncy-balls/ as an excellent site to 'play' with at home. This small activity is a fun and exciting way to introduce your children to the 'control and monitoring' element of I.C.T. Can your child make the bouncy balls move with their mouse? Can they make them jump with their voice? Comments on this activity are encoruaged. 

Children: Are you having your say?

We have some great discussions on SWGfL Merlin that pupils from Year 2 have started. To access these: log in to SWGfL Merlin, click the Year 2 icon and navigate to the bottom of the page where you will find a link to these discussion boards. Current discussions include: 'What is your favourite country and why?' and 'What is your favourite Fairtrade Food and why? (and your not aloud to say because it's yummy!). Why not login now and respond or start a new discussion of your own. It would be really good to see every child contribute to this online area from home.

Help? Maiden Castle Farm

As you know, we are off to the farm on Wednesday 28th March. We are in need of some parent helpers though, if you are willing help please see Mrs. Webb or myself. Children will need to remember their wellies, warm clothing, lunch and a drink for the trip. We will be leaving just before lunch and returning for the end of the day. We hope to find out about how lambs are important to the farm and how they are looked after.

A SPECIAL THANK-YOU!

I want to say a special thank-you for the excellent support from everyone who attended our short 'celebration event' on Friday. I am sure you will agree that the children worked really well in their groups to create some excellent independent projects during our Olympic Humanities Week.  We now hope to make a display of the work in the classroom that will highlight what we found out about the countries we were representing and also about how we can work better together. 

This week in Numeracy - W/C: 26/03/12

 

This week in Numeracy we will be re-visiting calculations and seeking pupils to record their work in writing, e.g. record their mental calculations as number sentences. We will be exploring this through adding and subtracting three- digit numbers this will include bridging 10 or 100. Example questions will include: 26 - 17 = ?, 51 - 27 = ?, 123 + 94 = ?. Why not explore these examples and similar questions at home this week? We would love to see any home learning completed in school. To see the written method we use in school for yourself visit the DASP Maths page: http://www.dasp.org.uk/maths.htm - this is an excellent resource!

This week in Literacy - W/C: 26/03/12

This week in Literacy we will be re-visiting the wonders of poetry. We will be reading, writing and reciting poetry thinking carefully about what makes a good poem taking account of punctuation, sound patterns and different forms of presentation. We will be using simple poetry structures to make a substitute for our own ideas - by this doing this will create our own poetry. To support your child in their learning at home, why not have a go at this? Find a poem either in a book or on the Internet and change a few of the words around... it doesn't matter if it doesn't make sense - it is all about exploring language and having fun! Can you think of a better adjective to describe what the poet is seeing?

Maiden Castle Farm Visit

We are off to the farm on Wednesday 28th March.  Don't forget your wellies, warm clothing, lunch and a drink.  We will be leaving just before lunch and returning for the end of the day.  We hope to find out about how lambs are important to the farm and how they are looked after.

REMINDER - Ofsted Parent View

As you know at the Prince of Wales First School we are always looking for feedback and encourage you to provide this in a variety of ways. Whether this is through face-to-face conversation, comments on our class blogs or through our annual parents questionnaire, we always welcome your feedback. Building on this, we would now encourage you to go online and express your views using the new 'Parent View' website from Ofsted. This 12-question survey will help other parents as they make important choices about their child's education and provide Ofsted with information about our school that will help them inform their priorities for inspection. The questionnaire does not allow free text
comments but invites responses to a series of closed questions. To express your view, please visit our school website now and click on the parent tab and look for the link to the Parent View website. Alternatively, visit: http://parentview.ofsted.gov.uk/.

Celebration Event - Tomorrow

To celebrate all the children's hard work this week, we would like to invite the Year 2 parents into school for a food tasting session and to see all the work the children have been doing during Olympic Humanities week. This will be done on Friday 23rd March from 3.10pm - 3.30pm in the classroom.

Sport Relief Mile

We are planning to join in with the “Sport Relief Day” on Friday 23^rd March by all “running a mile” within the school grounds and dressing up in fancy dress (the theme being “something silly”). There will be a 3-lap course set up within the school. Different groups of children will be covering the mile-long course in different ways- mostly walking, some children using wheelchairs, some running parts of the course, there might be some skipping, dribbling footballs, balancing tennis balls on rackets etc. I’m sure you get the idea. We will be encouraging the children to come up with their own entertaining ideas for the event. Older children will be allowed to cover more than a mile if they are comfortable doing so, though we will be limiting the amount of time participating to one hour. The children will not be put under any pressure to actually finish the mile if they become tired. We will, however, be presenting the activity as a worthy challenge. We will be doing this on the morning of Friday 23^rd March, starting at 9.30, though staggering the classes to avoid congestion at the start. The Reception class will be doing the “run” in the afternoon. We are asking the children to collect some sponsorship money. All money collected will go to the Sport Relief fund. We provide you with a copy of the Sport Relief sponsor form. As well as a funny costume the children will of course need appropriate footwear for the “run”. Thank you for your support. Yours sincerely, Mr D MacBean - P.E. Co-ordinator

Books, Bears and Pyjamas Day

On Friday 30th March, we are planning to have a “Books, Bears and Pyjamas” Day. POWSA are asking the children to come to school dressed in their pyjamas, bringing their teddy bear (or similar) and their favourite bedtime story. POWSA would like you to send in a small contribution to their fund raising effort as well. During the day the children will be working co-operatively with Years 1 and 2 (Mrs Moger and Mr Spracklen) working together (like the A-Team!). The classes will be split in half and each half will spend part of the day with their own classteacher and half the day with the other classteacher. Throughout the day, the children will be sharing their books with each other and then in pairs will be writing and illustrating their own bedtime story. We think it will be a great way for the children to finish a busy term with some great collaborative learning!

Amazing Day

Today we had an amazing day in Year 2 with lots of exciting activities throughout the entire day. To find out more please ask your children! We would all like to hear what they thought of the day with a comment on this blog or through a discussion in SWGfL Merlin - how many comments can we get? Encourage everyone to comment.

Jurassic Coast Van

As part of our Olympic Humanities Week, all pupils will be visited by the Jurassic Coast Van on Wednesday. This is part of the ‘Big Jurassic Classroom’ project that the school is involved in which encourages us to think about our local World Heritage Site as the Olympics draws closer. On Wednesday why not ask your child what work they completed with the Jurassic Coast Team? Did they see any fossils? Can they remember the fossil names? How is a fossil formed?

Mary Anning Fossil Workshop

As part of our Olympic Humanities Week, pupils in Year 1 and Year 2 will be visited by a visiting Drama group on Wednesday who will be completing some very special Literacy work with us on the theme of Mary Anning the fossil collector. We all look forward to this exciting morning of live drama and inspired writing! In preparation of Wednesday’s visit why not see what your child can find out about Mary Anning or her home town of Lyme Regis?

Olympic Humanities Week

We have a very exciting week planned in Year 2! This week, we will be working together collaboratively to complete a special challenge set by Mr. Spracklen. The task will see us each take on a role such as: time keeper, recorder, presenter, etc to create a very special piece of group work. Our work this week will include a visit to Dorchester library on Thursday to find out more about one of six countries we are researching and presenting on. These six countries are: USA, China, Russia, Italy, Mexico and Australia - if you have anything from any of these countries that you would be willing to let us borrow this week we would be very grateful.

Library Visit - Thursday 22nd March

On Thursday 22nd March we will be visiting Dorchester Library as part of our Olympic Humanities Week which will see the children work in groups to research one of six countries (USA, China, Russia, Mexico, Italy and Australia). We will be leaving school at 9am and returning in time for lunch at 12.30pm. If you are free and would like to join us for the morning then we would welcome your help, please see Mrs. Webb or myself if you are able to do so.

Dangers posed by Jequirity Bean Bracelets

The DCC Health and Safety team have alerted us to the dangers posed by Jequirity Bean bracelets. These bracelets have been on sale at various retail outlets across the UK,including the Eden Project in Cornwall.  The Jequirity bean bracelet ismade from the deadly seed of the plant abrus precatorious. It contains thetoxin abrin that if swallowed, has the potential to kill in doses of just 3micrograms. Abrin is chemically similar to ricin, a chemical warfare agent.People who have bought, or are in possession of the bracelets, are beingurged to bag them, then wash their hands and avoid touching their eyes.They should then hand the bracelet into their local police station where itwill be disposed of safely.There is further information available on the Public Health Agency websiteon the following link:http://www.publichealth.hscni.net/news/pha-issues-safety-warning-jequirity-bean-braceletsWe have attached an image of the bracelet for your information.

This week in Numeracy - W/C: 12/03/12

This week in Numeracy we will be handling data, this will include a walk where we will try to answer the question: 'Is yellow the most popular car colour in Dorchester?'. Why not try posing your own questions at home? For example: Do we have more Disney or Pixar DVDs? Can we create a graph to show our results?

This week in Literacy - W/C: 12/03/12

This week in Literacy we will be building on our work on the Great Fire of London and will continue to think specifically about Samuel Pepys. This week children in class will be writing a diary entry in the style of Samuel Pepys. We are really hoping to 'fire up' the children's imaginations in Year 2 this week and the classroom is likely to get a little hot at times!!! Why not start writing a diary with your child at home this week to support our work? Focus on the writing in the first person and using time connectives such as: next, then, first, finally, etc.

Students in the Classroom with Year 2

We have had visits from a number of students recently who have spent some time working with the children in Year 2. Mr. Simon Swain, Mr. Matthew Smith and Miss. Natalie Bick are all graduates who are spending some time with us with a view to getting some experience before continuing into Teacher Training.

Drawastickman.com (Episode 2)

You may remember that earlier in the year the pupils enjoyed looking at a website called ‘drawastickman.com’. All the children were fascinated by this website which allows you to draw a stickman and see him or her come to life on your screen. The website has just launched Episode 2 which is as equally engaging as the first episode and I would encourage you all to have a go at home using the following website: http://www.drawastickman.com/.  Enjoy! 

Could you be a Digital Leader?

Mr. Spracklen is welcoming children to apply for the role of 'Digital Leaders' within school. If you wish to apply, you will need to fill out a short online form (available now on SWGfL Merlin - see picture). Children from Reception to Year 4 are encouraged to apply with the aim of appointing a child from each class to the 'Digital Leaders' team! The form will ask you why you should be considered for this role and we will be looking for original responses that come from the children. Below the responsibilities of a 'Digital Leader' are listed:

Website/Blogs/Online:

Write blog posts for your class and comment on other blogs across the school
Helping staff to upload pictures/videos to their blog

ICT Clubs:

Plan and lead ICT club at lunchtimes for 3/4 and 5/6 (1 day each)
Possibly lead an after-school ICT club

Other

Change photographs on the TV screen in the reception

Organise competitions e.g. a drawing competition in Purple Mash

Possibly attend events and other schools to share ICT learning

Attend after-school training for staff and parents - with your parents' permission of course!

Trialling new software as required

Assembly Words

Last night (Monday), your child hopefully bought home their words for our assembly on Friday. If for any reason these have gone missing, please see Mrs. Webb or myself who will happily get you another copy. We look forward to you all joining us for our assembly on Friday 9th March at 9.20am. Please remember that the children will need to bring in their Victorian outfits back for that day so that they can change into them for the assembly please. Many thanks, Mr. Spracklen

This week in Literacy - W/C: 05/03/12

This week in Literacy we will be building on our work on the Great Fire of London and will be thinking specifically about Samuel Pepys. This week children in class will be writing a diary entry about a special day (our visit to the Priest House Museum) and will consider how time connectives can be used to support their writing. Why not start writing a diary with your child at home this week to support our work? Focus on the writing in the first person and using time connectives such as: next, then, first, finally, etc.

This week in Numeracy - W/C: 05/03/12

This week in Numeracy we will be thinking all about fractions. Through the week we will be looking for children to use simple fractions that are several parts of a whole and recognise when two simple fractions are equivalent. E.g: understand and use unit fractions such as 1/2, 1/4, 1/3, 1/5, 1/10 and find those fractions of shapes and sets of objects. E.g: recognise and record fractions that are several parts of the whole such as 3/5, 2/4. E.g: recognise some fractions that are equivalent to 1/2, e.g 3/6, 6/12, etc. A great website to explore at home this week is: http://www.bgfl.org/bgfl/custom/resources_ftp/client_ftp/ks2/maths/fractions/index.htm. We would love to add some home learning on fractions to our maths areas and home learning board!

We are now available on iTunes!!!

A big thank-you to everyone who contributed to our radio show for Global Awareness Week 2012. The recordings we received from home were brilliant and we especially enjoyed hearing the excellent guest appearances from parents and other family members. The final product is one to be truly proud of and you can download it now and listen at home using iTunes. To do this, just follow this link: http://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/year-2-fairtrade-radio-show/id507502690.

Friday's Celebration Event

On Friday 2nd March, there will be some displays in the hall from each class showing their work this week on Global Awareness. Each class will also have some food they have made to sell! We shall also be putting on some dance and music displays throughout the afternoon. This is intended to be a very
informal celebration of the week's work and you are invited to join us at any time from 2.15p.m. until 3.45p.m. There will also be a Traidcraft stall selling Fairtrade items and providing information. If you are not able to come along you might give your child a small amount of money for them to buy some food
from the other class stalls.