Children's Corner

Work of the Week!!!

January 18, 2008

Noah M, Year 1

This week in Literacy we have been looking at retelling the story of Little Red Riding Hood. The children took part in role play and we focused on using story language and exciting words to start our sentences. I am so proud to say that Noah was able to retell the entire story of Little Red Riding Hood independently. He used his phonic knowledge to sound out unfamiliar words and remembered his capital letters and full stops. Noah has continually grown in confidence with his writing since he started with us last September.  It was wonderful to see Noah's beaming smile when he had finished his story. He even said ' I want to keep on writing forever'. Well done Noah. Miss Reid and all your classmates are very proud of you.

January 11, 2008

Rachel H, Year 7

Congratulations to Rachel H, one of our 6th grade students, was placed 3rd in Charlotte Parent's Young Authors writing contest.   Rachel's story ‘The Day of J' is a chilling ghost story set in the Florida of days gone by. An award-giving ceremony will be held on Saturday 26th. January at 3pm at Imaginon.

December 21, 2007

Campbelle S, Year 1

This half term our children have been looking at dinosaurs. A couple of weeks ago Year 1 Rubies planned a dinosaur story. They decided who their characters were going to be, how they were going to begin their story, what was going to be the exciting thing that was going to happen in the middle of their story and how everything was going to be resolved in the end.  Campbelle Smith's finished story is fantastic. It is very well structured with a clear beginning, middle and end. She has used some fwonderful adjectives to describe the setting and time connectives to make the beginning of her sentences more interesting. Campbelle also looked at how to use commas and I was so pleased to see that she had used them in the correct place at the beginning of her story. I thought that Campbelle's story was very funny, imaginative and well written.

December 14, 2007

James C, Foundation 1 (3 years old)

James had made fantastic progress in just a short time in the Nursery class.  As a class we were talking about Santa and his journey on Christmas Eve.  The children then drew some pictures demonstrating their understanding of the sequence of some of the things Santa does on his journey.  James drew a picture of a Christmas tree and Santa leaving gifts under it.  When I was talking to James about his drawing, we used the words Santa and Christmas tree.  James then wrote those words.  He listened to what  I was saying and identified the main sounds within the words and wrote them as a caption under his drawing.  James demonstrated that he can listen to sounds in the spoken word, process them, and create his own caption for his work.  This truly is emergent reading and writing as all of the learning took place through James using his visualisation skills as opposed to copying words and letters from word banks.  Creative writing here James comes.  Well done James.  

November 30, 2007

Matthew H, Year 3

Year Three have been studying stories with familiar settings.  We looked carefully at story openings and especially how to set the scene by using the ‘five senses' to describe the setting.  Matthew worked incredibly hard and came up with some great ideas!  Well done!  'He could hear the waves going out and in. He could hear chatting and laughing with their friends. He could hear them munching on their snack. He could hear the sand crabs snapping at each other."

Hayden L, Year 1

Last week in our Year 1 Numeracy lessons we were looking at doubling numbers to 10. Not only could Hayden Lancaster find all the doubles for numbers up to 10 but he then moved onto doubling 2 digit numbers. He used his place value knowledge to double the tens and then the units. It was wonderful to see Hayden recording his working out. Well done Hayden!

November 16, 2007

Will M, Year 6 and Emmy A, Year 6 (Poetry)

I thank you for the words in food,

Once I hear them I am in a good mood.

I thank you for the words that bring peace,

In places where war doesn't cease.

I thank you for the words that make me a friend

I thank you for the words that mend.

I thank you for the words that give us names,

Like Lily, Annie and of course, James.

Isabella M, Foundation 1 (3 year olds) 

Isa has been working hard learning to read and write.  This term, our main story is 'The 3 little pigs'.  The children were learning to listen for the beginning the middle and the end of the story.  After listening, Isa drew a picture of the 3 little pigs going on a journey to find a home for themselves.  Isa then went on to write her very first sentence!!!  She said her picture was about the '3 little pigs'  and she sounded out the words and wrote them all by herself.  This demonstrates that Isa can hear the sounds in the words and make the connection between spoken and written language.

Well done Isa, all that and she has just turned 4.

October 26, 2007

Bethany W, Year 5

The Year 4/5 class has been learning about Literacy genre of explanation texts as well as learning about the heart in their Science lessons.  The students had a combined assignment of using explanation texts describing how the heart works.  Bethany produced an excellent explanation of how this organ functioned. She could identify the technical language, present tense, verbs and connectives.  Well Done!  Miss Appaiah

October 19, 2007

George B, Year 8

The students in the Upper Middle School have been studying South Africa for the past three weeks.   They were all asked to complete a lengthy presentation exploring why people lived where they did in the country.   They needed to explore the climate, the physical geography, the natural resources and the economy in order to determine which factors determined the population density of different regions.

George decided to present his findings with the help of Powerpoint.   He spoke clearly and confidently to his visual prompts and he was able to justify the conclusions that he had reached.   The presentation is available on the website by using the following link.

October 5, 2007

Lauren I, Year 1

This week in Literacy we have been looking at the Story Book 'I looked Through My Window'. We made our own magical windows and imagined what we could see through it, then we drew a picture about what we could see. After that we wrote some simple sentences describing what we could see through the window. We also looked at how we could make our sentences more interesting by adding special adjectives to describe the things that we could see. Lauren's work is very special because she worked independently on most of it. She also used her imagination so well to describe what she could see. After reading her work I felt as though I was looking through her magical window with her. Well done for this wonderful piece of work Lauren!

September 28, 2007

Emmy A, Year 6

The Year 6s and 7s are investigating the continent of Africa, and then focusing on South Africa, before comparing it with the US.  Part of their learning will be from second hand resource materials such as atlases, databases and the internet, part will be first hand through corresponding with students in South Africa. 

Emmy Adams completed a great piece of work in the form of a map showing and naming the major physical features of the continent and then proceeded to draw on this information in order to give excellent reasons why some countries were more densely populated than others. Well done Emmy!

September 21, 2007

Caramia A & Luke P, Foundation 2 (Reception)

We have been learning sounds since the first day of school at the rate of a sound a day.  We learn the sound and how to form the letter, which is important in helping the children become independent readers and writers in the future.  Alongside learning the sounds, the children are involved in daily activities where they practice blending sounds to read and segmenting sounds to write.  We provide a stress free environment so that the children will develop reading and writing skills when they are ready and we make a HUGE fuss when any child learns something new.  On Wednesday two of our Foundation Stage 2 children wrote their first words in school.  Caramia Axland sounded out 'Emma' and 'mom' and Luke Pfeiler wrote 'mom'.  We were very excited for them and cannot wait to see the next steps in their learning.

September 14, 2007

Haley C and Rachel H,  Year 7

Openings are especially important in stories. They need to be interesting enough to ‘hook' the readers and make them carry on reading.  Year 6 and 7 spent time this week analyzing story openings and working on their own paragraph.  Read Haley Collins and Rachel Herring's story openings to see how they described the setting and used words and details to hook the reader.

The girl ran through the dark, damp wood. Sweat poured down her forehead. She looked up at the sky.  Dark, unforgiving clouds were slowly covering the moon.  She knew she didn't have much time.  She tripped over something and plunged towards the ground.  The clouds had now covered the moon and time was scarce.  Still on the ground she looked up.  There it was- a freshly carved tombstone was looming above her.  A tombstone with her name on it.

Rachel H.

Panting and running, she dashed through the wood.  The dark fog made it difficult to see.  The shadows made it confusing because of the full moon that loomed overhead.  Leaves rustled everywhere she ran.  Every pant she made seemed like a million years had passed.

Haley C.

Well done!

June 29, 2007

Grace C, Foundation 2 (Reception)

We have been learning about subtraction and some of  the strategies that help us to calculate answers, for example counting backwards, using a numberline and crossing off objects to find the new total.  On Friday, when the topic was introduced, Grace needed lots of support to help her figure out the answers and was demonstrating a beginning understanding of a Year One subtraction objective.  On Monday, Grace was a fabulous, independent learner; she listened and participated beautifully during the whole class session and demonstrated a clear understanding of the concept of subtraction.  I am delighted with the progress she made in a short time and it means that we can move on more quickly to look at new strategies, such as the link between addition and subtraction.

Miss Ross

June 22, 2007

George B, Year 7

In Year 7 and 8, we have been looking at the 1850s in North Carolina. At the time, the state was known as the Rip Van Winkle State and was economically challenged. We studied closely the life of one particular business man who flourished at the time, a man by the name of Thomas Day. He was a successful cabinet maker based in Milton, NC and produced 1/6 of all furniture made in NC. Having learnt about his life and his products, the students discovered that Day was an African American. The students were asked to write an essay which recounted his life, described his furniture and discussed the issues that he may have faced. George wrote an excellent essay which showed great maturity. Not only did he meet the success criteria of the task but demonstrated some very advanced historical skills. He described and debated a number of opposing opinions about Day, his actions and his community standing and then, supported by evidence, offered his own opinion.

Congratulations George on a fabulous historical essay!

Mrs Haworth

June 15, 2007

Isabella M, Foundation 1 (Nursery)

Isa was learning about shape, space and measurement during a Maths activity.  Her treasure map demonstrates her understanding of:  beginning and end, spatial orientation and directionality and sequencing and order.  She made a map that containes her house and a trail to the treasure.  Well done, Isa!  Keep up the fabulous work.

May 25, 2007

Leila S, Foundation 2 (Reception)

Leila is a super writer!  She has been learning how to write in sentences and about the structure of stories.  Last week, she listened to the legend of Robert the Bruce and the Spider.  There is a moral to this story which is 'If at first you don't succeed, then try, try, try again.'  She recorded the beginning, middle and end of the story correctly using illustrations and words.  It has been wonderful to watch Leila's progress since she started our Foundation Two class and the delight she takes in her writing.  I am very proud of you, Leila.

May 18, 2007

Sara T, Year 4

The Year 3-4 students have been working on writing stories using the first and third persons.  Specifically, the students were asked to write a story in the first person from another person's point of view.  Sara Tonnesen wrote a fabulous piece of writing using the correct punctuation marks and wonderful expressive verbiage. 

Here is a paragraph from her story.

I love being the onboard computer because I see everything that is going on, let's get back to the situation.  Commander Niner, who is Tommy's dad, told him off.  But little did they know big craters were heading for the Ship Stardust, which is our ship.  So I stopped what I was doing and I said, "Stop fighting! Oh and by the way a meteor shower is coming!"

Well Done!

May 11, 2007

Jake P, Foundation 1 (Nursery) 

This week Jake was so pleased with himself as he learned to write his very own name. 

During the term Jake was learning to sound out the letters of his name and then write them individually. 

By writing his name Jake has demonstrated that he can identify the sounds and letters  that make up his name AND tell his body how to write them on paper.   Jake managed to write successfully by telling his hands, eyes, arms, feet and tummy to do something together that allowed him to write his beautiful name. 

Well done Jake for working so hard and learning a new skill.

May 4, 2007

Parker C, Foundation 2 (Reception)  

In Foundation 2 our topic is 'Minibeasts' and this week's focus is snails.  In Literacy the children have been beginning to write simple sentences and use the appropriate punctuation.  On Monday the children thought about something they would like to learn about snails and wrote it out as a question.   I was very excited by Parker's writing because it demonstrated the significant progress he has made.  He held his pencil correctly, formed the letters well and was able to work out that he needed to convey his message.  He included a question mark at the end of his sentence.  We are all very proud of you, Parker. 

April 27, 2007

Lucas T, Year 2

Lucas was chosen for Work Of the Week this week because of his superb story!

In Years 1 and 2 we read the text "The Owl and the Pussycat" by Edward Lear; which is a traditional rhyme from the UK. The children learned the rhyme off by heart and then we looked closely at it and began to tell it as a story. The next step was to change the main features of the rhyme (such as the character, the vessel and the setting) in a story plan. Finally the children wrote their own version of the story using these changed characteristics.

Lucas was chosen because not only did he write an excellent story following his plan, but his finished piece of work shows that he has tried hard to listen to the advice that he has been given with regards to finger spaces and handwriting.

Well done Lucas! I am very proud of you for earning this weeks work of the week!

March 23, 2007

Seth W, Year 1

In our Design Technology lessons this term, the Year 1 and 2 children are learning how to design and make a puppet.
This week the children had to join pieces of fabric in a variety of ways in order to make a decision about how they will join their final puppet together.
The children rotated around three tables. Firstly, they had to work independently to draw around a template and then cut out the two identical pieces of fabric, join these pieces together by stapling and stuff it with cotton wool to make a simple 3D puppet.

Next the children worked with Mrs. Strange to sew a simple running stitch. Finally they worked with Ms. Hackett to staple, pin, glue and tape pieces of fabric together. Seth Watkins was chosen for Work Of the Week because he worked so conscientiously and independently to complete all of the tasks set to such an excellent standard.
He was also able to talk about which method of joining fabric he found difficult and which technique he will use when he makes his puppet over the next few weeks.
Fabulous job Seth!

March 9, 2007

Lennart B, Year 7

The Year 7 and 8 students recently completed a long term focus on the American Revolution. They were given a set of guidelines to follow and were asked to produce a project that took into account multiple learning styles, and could be displayed and presented to their peers.

Lennart did an exceptional job of researching the Battle of Bunker Hill. Without making reference to any notes, he spoke with confidence to the class conveying not only his obvious knowledge, but his enthusiasm and interest too! We all learnt a lot about the Infantry, German troop involvement and battle formation.

To support this, Lennart produced an incredibly detailed diorama which he hand painted himself. His close attention to detail in his diorama and the depth to which he was able to talk about the topic really brought it alive for those of us who listened to him! Congratulations Lennart!

March 2, 2007

Chloe F and Bella H, Foundation 1 (Nursery)

Chloe and Bella were learning all about the Very Hungry Caterpillar, this week. They finished the most fabulous story book, complete with a beginning, a middle and an end.  They demonstrated great learning; clearly sequencing the events of the story as well as explaining the details of the character and the setting.  Well done girls! We are very proud of you. 

February 9, 2007 

Danny S, Year 3

Year 3 and 4 have been writing Viking Legends. They studied various Viking gods and goddesses then created their own. Then, they planned and wrote their own legend.  Danny wrote a wonderful legend about his god, DS. He was asked to try to use adjectives and time connectives. He wrote this excellent paragraph: The Frost Giant's lair was covered with snow. It was rocky with frost and icicles. Royston put his magical key in the door of the frost giant's icy castle but none of them could read the door knob! DS finally opened the door and he blasted the door with water from his sword. Suddenly they were surrounded by Frost Giants and quickly they all combined their powers.

Well Done!

January 16, 2007

Danny G, Year 8

In History last term Year 7 and 8 were studying the American Revolution. Part of this module was to read a book entitled "The Year of the Hangman". This text belongs to a special genre of writing called uchronic.  A uchronic story is based on a historical fact and asks the question, what if? For example, the book the students were studying asked what if the rebellion against British rule was crushed and George Washington was waiting execution. The trick is to combine fact and fiction seamlessly. This week's Work of the Week is awarded to Danny G whose story not only met the objective of adding a fictional twist to areal event, but also was well structured and written. His story set in the Aleutian Islands during World War II is really a great read! He brought his characters to life and wrote so convincingly you began to believe his account of events was real!

Congratulations Danny!

December 15, 2006

Sam C, Year 7

In Literacy lessons last week, the Y 7/8 students were looking at poems that contained similes and metaphors. They analysed Langston Hughes

poem, Mother to Son which is about a mother giving advice to her son through the metaphor of climbing a staircase. The children were asked to

write a poem with their own messages of advice, using a metaphor. Sam's poem impressed us all. The rhymes fitted the text, the message

was honest and thoughtful.  Well Done Sam!

November 15, 2006  

Jack D, Nursery

The children in Miss Armour's class have been story boarding.  They have been drawing pictures from stories as one of the first steps in writing a story. Jack's level of detail in his story board about "Brave Bear" showed his ability to retell the main events of the story and demonstrate his knowledge and understanding of the text and the story line.  Well Done Jack!

October 20, 2006

Olivia A, Year 1

This week’s Work of the Week comes from Olivia A in Year 1. 

The children read a poem called “The Dark Wood” and had to identify the repeated words and discuss the  structure of the poem.  Olivia’s is called “The Blue Sky.” 

She was chosen for Work of the Week because she followed the structure of the poem and took sheer pleasure in her learning. 

Please take some time to read her poem and you will see why we are so proud of her. 

Well done, Olivia!

October 13, 2006

Alex L, Year Reception (Foundation 2)

Structured Play is an invaluable part of our Early Years program because it allows children the opportunity to investigate, interact, socialise and practice skills that they have learnt during guided tasks with an adult. 

Alex L chose to practice his writing skills during his Structured Play time last Thursday and produced a delightful piece of text that thrilled me. 

I was excited not only by the fact that he spelt commonly used words correctly, formed his letters well, wrote a structured piece of writing and used punctuation to demarcate sentences but also by his enthusiasm for writing.

Thank you so much, Alex - you really made my day.

October 6, 2006

Wills M, Year 5

In Literacy lessons last week, the Y5/6 children were looking at the features of classic poetry.  One of our lessons focused on ‘The Tyger’ by William Blake. During the lesson, the students analyzed the structure of the poem and identified the descriptive vocabulary used by Blake. They then looked at a painting of a tiger by Henri Rousseau and used this image to inspire their own piece of poetry about a tiger. Wills worked independently to produce an impressive piece of rhyming poetry which showed consideration of the painting and the classic style of Blake. This work is displayed outside our classroom to be enjoyed by all. Well done Wills.

‘Tiger, Tiger, hunting prey,

Why does he do it in the middle of the day?

Tiger, Tiger, hunting in the    forest,

Your roar is an angry chorus.

Tiger, Tiger, when you munch,

It sounds like the leaves that crunch,

Tiger, Tiger, caught his prey,

Tiger, Tiger has made his day.’

September 29, 2006

Cassady D, Year 3

Singing is an ongoing part of the music curriculum.  This week, all children in years 3 – 8 have been learning a song for this year’s school production of “Aladdin”.

Children can vary enormously in their response to the dramatic requirements of a song and it was wonderful to see the whole of year 3 and 4 enjoying and engaging in singing  during their music lesson on Monday. 

In particular, Cassady  showed great enthusiasm; singing with expression and showing excellent awareness of rhythm  and pitch. 

Well done Cassady.

September 22, 2006

Eva B - C (Year 5)

In Literacy lessons last week, the Y5/6 children were looking at the features of biographical writing. We looked at how biographies are structured and presented. The children were asked to interview someone familiar to them and produce a written biography about their life. They collected the notes as a homework task and were given a literacy lesson to produce their biography independently. Eva worked extremely hard to produce a very comprehensive biography which contained many of the features discussed over the week.

Well done Eva.

June 30, 2006

Foundation 1 (Nursery)

In Foundation 1, we have all been looking at nursery rhymes. One of our favourites was Hickory Dickory Dock. We decided that we would build a clock for our mouse to climb up and down. The clock helped the children remember the words as it provided a visual stimulus and helped bring the rhyme to life.  It was great fun to build the clock and it helped Mrs. Armour because it provided her with information on how each student visualized the learning contained within the song. 

We really enjoyed working together on this project. We love our clock and hope that you will come and see it in our classroom.

June 23, 2006

Years 6 and 7

The students in Emma Haworth’s class have been studying a historical theme about ‘Settlers’.   The voyages of the Spanish, the Dutch, the French, the English and Swedish to the New World has been set in the context of the lives of those who preceded them—the Native Americans.

The students were asked to present their learning to the rest of their class through a project which spanned the half term holiday.   They were asked to consider the different learning styles of their peers—visual, auditory and kinesthetic.   Some worked in groups and some worked individually.

All the presentations were outstanding.   Some were in the form of a game, some in the form of dioramas.

All may be found in Emma’s class with the exception of Matthew Gill’s which wouldn’t fit through the door!   It may be found in the Cafeteria.

June 9, 2006

Grant W, Foundation 2 (Reception)

Grant has the ability to read large numbers, especially now that ‘Deal or No Deal’ is his favourite television programme!  In class, Grant has been working with hundreds, tens and units material to help develop his understanding of place value in two and three digit numbers. 

First, he counted out the material to show two digit numbers then we added one more ten.  Once he had completed this a number of times he was able to calculate two digit numbers plus tens mentally.  We are very proud of you, Grant. 

Well done!

May 26, 2006

Michael T, Foundation 2 (Reception)

We are very proud of the progress that Michael has made in his writing since he started school with us in September.  We looked at a piece of work that he completed in October when he was using emergent writing to tell a story.  He used continuous lines and 'wrote' from left to right rather than using any letters.  Last week, Michael was writing an imaginative story about a mermaid.  He used his knowledge of phonics to sound out words and our 'password wall' to spell some commonly used words correctly.  In addition, his letters are formed beautifully which demonstrates the degree fine motor control he has.  Michael has gained a great deal of satisfaction from seeing the progress in his own learning.

May 19, 2006

Tricia M, Year 6

In Design Technology, Year 6 and 7 have been investigating “hand-eye coordination” games. Having looked closely at the game “Operation” and examined how it worked and discussed why it was a perennially popular game, they were set the task of designing, making and evaluating their own game. Their targeted audience were the children in Foundation 1 and 2 and they were encouraged to consider, not only how the game worked and how it could be made appealing to these children, but also to take into account safety considerations.

Tricia chose to work independently on her game “Brush ‘em!” She planned a game based on a toothbrush and incorporated an electrical circuit into her design by ensuring that the bristles of the brush were conductors and would complete the circuit, causing a buzzer to sound. The object of Tricia’s game is to take it in turns to touch the bristles with a “wand” and to find the “Buzzing Bristle! If you hear the buzzer sound, you are the winner! It is not only a good hand-eye coordination game, but a good test of memory too!

I was very proud of the independence Tricia showed in her project; she took the time to “measure twice, cut once” and really thought carefully about every aspect of her game.

May 12, 2006

Patrick B, Year 1, Age 5

The Work of the Week is a piece of writing by Patrick B in Year 1 (Kindergarden).

As part of their learning in Literacy, the children had been reading a fantasy story called “I looked through my window” it was a repetitive story that the children could quickly pick up and join in with. Patrick had to listen carefully to the story with the rest of the class, and then he was given 5 pictures which he had to cut out and sequence in his book. The children were then asked to write one sentence to match each of the pictures.

Patrick was chosen for work of the week because he wrote more than one sentence and worked hard and carefully.

He also tried hard to use capital letters and periods in his sentences. He shared his story with the rest of the school in assembly.  Please read Patrick’s story – we are SO proud of him! 

May 8, 2006

Years 3, 4 & 5

April 7, 2006

Annika P., Nursery class, age 3

Annika worked very hard on her painting of Mrs. Hoskins.

Since she started school her grip has improved greatly and she now has good finger  control of her pencil and paintbrush.

She was asked to observe very carefully what Mrs. Hoskins was wearing and what she looked like.   You can see from the picture that she has  thought about face shape and what colour to use for the hair and eyes. As she painted she described what she was doing and at the end she described her painting to make a Guess Who clue card.

March 17, 2006

Nicole W., Year 6

Year 6 and 7 have been looking at how to solve different types of problems using algebra.

Having looked at examples of using algebra to solve problems, the students wrote their own.   For this task, Nic had to write her own word problems that made sense and had reasonable answers.   She had to check each problem in turn to make sure that she knew the answer and could help her partner solve it, if necessary.   I was impressed how hard her brain had to work.

Here is a sample:

Mr. Fresinbooger needed 5 Aspirin and 5 Tylenol.   Aspirins are 10c more than Tylenol.   He pays $3 in all.   How much does each drug cost?

Wow, sounds like Mr. Fresinbooger had a real wild night!

March 10, 2006

Matthieu D., Year 2 

The children in Years 1 and 2 have been looking at the great fire of London and linked to this work they have moved onto learning about fire safety in history, in particular, the story of the John J. Harvey fireboat. 

Matthieu D. was chosen for work of the week because his writing showed that he had listened carefully to the story and remembered a lot of facts; as well as presenting his work in cursive handwriting.

Well done Matthieu!