Week Ending 15th November 2019

What a very busy week at Eaton Bray Academy!

On Monday, at 11.00am, the whole school observed Remembrance Day by joining the rest of the country in standing in silence for two minutes.

The Year Six children have been selling poppies, and managed to raise almost £300 for the British Legion, which is an impressive sum. Meanwhile, the youngest children, in Hamsters Class made poppies as part of their learning about Remembrance Day.

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It was Anti-Bullying Week this week, and in recognition of this, on Tuesday, everyone was invited to wear odd socks, to celebrate individuality. Throughout the week, each class thought about kindness and took part in activities to promote friendship and understanding. On Thursday, everyone joined in with an anti-bullying assembly, where they reported back on all that they had done.

Deers Class reflected upon the slogan "Say No to Bullying", and discussed how saying rude things can affect a person's self-esteem. In Foxes Class the children started a new challenge that they will be continuing every week. On Mondays, the children will pick the name of one of their friends in the class, and they have to be really nice to them for the whole week. Then, on Friday, the children have to guess who was being nice to them - a bit like a Secret Santa, but more like a Secret Kindness. To make it harder to guess who was being nice to who, the children have to hide their kindness by doing nice things for everyone else as well!

Badgers Class looked at solutions to bullying, and what steps to take if someone is being unkind to you. This could be to talk to family members or teachers. Rabbits created a "50 Acts of Kindness" board. Every time one of the children noticed someone being kind to another child, they wrote this on a post-it note and stuck it on the board. The aim was to have at least fifty post-its by the end of the week.

Hedgehogs Class spoke about Elmer the Patchwork Elephant, and how he looked different to his friends. Elmer learns that his unique colourful appearance is what makes him special and that differences should be celebrated.

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Tuesday was an exciting day for Squirrels Class children, who went on a really wonderful trip to London, to see the famous sights that they have been learning about as part of their London topic work. Amidst blues skies and sunshine they boarded a boat for a cruise down the River Thames, passing London Bridge, The Houses of Parliament and Big Ben (the children learnt that the bell is called Big Ben and that the tower is called the Elizabeth Tower), Tower Bridge and many more places of interest. 

Following a picnic lunch in the park surrounded by lots of birds, the children had a ride on the London Eye, where they got to view the whole of the city spread out beneath them as far as they could see. The weather had turned at this point, but the grey skies didn't spoil the impressive view, or the children's excitement and enthusiam - some of the children were a little nervous beforehand, but loved it in the end!

Afterwards the children enjoyed the London Eye 4D Cinema experience, where they watched New Year fireworks while snow fell, and then went to the shop to buy souvenirs.

What a fantastic school trip! In the words of the children:

"It was really awesome"

"We had a fantastic day"

"It was very exciting"

"It was so good my head nearly burst!"

 

 

 

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Back in school, Rabbits Class children have been really enjoying learning about the Stone Age, and this week have done some magnificent homework. Their tasks included weaving, drawing, cooking and creating models of Stone Age villages. The children were clearly very inspired by all they have learnt this term.

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On Wednesday afternoon, we were visited by the Full House Theatre Company, who came in to perform "By the Light of the Moon" to children in Reception and Key Stage One. This was a play about friendships and celebrating our differences, which tied in nicely with the message of anti-bullying week. It was a lovely story, beautifuly performed and pitched just right for the younger members of the audience, who thoroughly enjoyed the show. 

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On Thursday it was Foxes Class Assembly. The children presented parents and the rest of the school with a round up of all that they have been learning about this term, including their water melon experiment and their dance routine. They sang in French and recited some poetry (in English). After the assembly, parents were invited to stay for a cup of tea or coffee and cake.

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On Friday it was Badgers Class' turn to have a wonderful day out. They went to St Albans to visit the Verulamium Museum. In the museum they watched a DVD and viewed various exhibits depicting life in Roman Britain, learning all sorts of fascinating facts about Ancient Roman culture.

After lunch, the children visited the ruins of the Roman Theatre, and found out about the events that would have taken place there, including music and drama, wrestling, armed combat, and wild beast shows. This was followed by a visit to the remains of a Roman House and Hypocaust with huge mosaic. Next, the children walked across the park to investigate the Roman Wall and the lake, stopping on the way to have a play  in the fresh air!

The final stop was the gift shop, before getting on the coach to return to school, tired but happy!

 

 

 

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Week Ending 8th November 2019

It's been a wonderful week of work at Eaton Bray Academy!

On Tuesday, we were visited by a local children's author, Susie Davids, who visited the younger children to read one of her books to them. The children loved the story and enjoyed talking to Susie about their favourite parts of the book.

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Foxes Class children have been looking at the forces involved in machines and the way we can use force to obtain a goal. Their goal was to ring a bell, which sounds simple, but their "machines" had to have three stages that would use "cause and effect', and the transference of energy, to achieve the goal. These types of machines are called Rube Goldberg Machines; a complicated machine designed to do a simple job.

From their initial concept drawings through to design and building, students drew on their knowledge of Art, Maths, Science, and Literacy to achieve their goal. In the coming weeks, skills will be honed and the children will build machines of greater and greater complexity.

During their History and Geography lesson, the children learned that the Anglo Saxons left lots of evidence of their settlement in the local place names that we take for granted. They learnt some Anglo Saxon language and were amazed that these words appear in place names that they knew only too well. For example, 'ton' means 'farm' and 'ea' is derived from 'eau', meaning water. 'Eaton', therefore means 'farm near water'. Looking at a local map, students found many local place names and deciphered their meanings.

In Music and dance, they have mixed five songs together and are now learning some dance moves that they will put to the music. The songs the children have chosen are from the 1980s to today and they are having fun trying to dance to them.

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There was more Science excitement in Badgers Class, when they took their volcanoes out onto the school field to watch them erupt. They poured water, washing-up liquid, vinegar and baking soda into the mouth of the volcano, and watched as the ingredients reacted together to create a froth of "lava". They then repeated the experiment using Coke and Mentos for a second "explosion."

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In Hedgehogs Class this week, the children have been celebrating Bonfire Week. They found out about the origins of Bonfire Night by acting out the story of Guy Fawkes, and shared their own experiences of firework displays in news time. There were lots of art activities for the children to choose to complete, with some children turning the small outdoor area in front of the classroom into a firework display by creating chalk patterns, whilst others created chalk firework pictures. Some children painted pictures of fireworks in free painting time and created their own model rockets. During their fine motor sessions, the children had to carefully draw a trail to find a rocket. They also wrote their names in glue and covered them in glitter to look like a firework display. 

Mrs Matthews lit a bonfire in the Hedgehogs outdoor play area, and the children watched from a safe distance.

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On Thursday, Otters Class enjoyed a wonderful trip to London to the Natural History Museum. They travelled by coach, and enjoyed spotting all the exciting sights of London en route to South Kensington.  In the museum they looked at fossils and dinosaur exhibits, which tied in nicely with their topic work for this term about these prehistoric creatures.

After a picnic lunch, the children took part in a stegosaurus workshop, where they met Sophie the Stegoaurus, and learnt lots of interesting facts about her. They were fascinated to learn that the stegosaurus' brain was only the size of a lime, and that consequently Sophie wasn't terribly bright!

Finally, following a visit to the gift shop, the children returned to school tired, but full of enthusiasm for all that they had seen and learnt.

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Week Ending 1st November 2019

Strange things were happening at Eaton Bray Academy on Monday of this week... members of school staff kept noticing small bars of chocolate mysteriously appearing on their desks! No-one was quite sure how they got there, but could it have had something to do with Deer Class children, who were being secret agents for the day...? Great stealthy fun!

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Year Five children have had a fantastic week! They have moved on to learning about multiples and factors in Maths and have started to learn about Prime Numbers as well. Whist reading The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, they took a side-step and tried to write an instructional text - they had to write detailed instructions on how to use a kettle. Regardless of how easy this sounds, when you are trying to write instructions for someone who has never seen one before you have to be very precise. One simple mistake in the instructions means that you could end up with water everywhere; as they found out!

In Art and D&T, they designed and carved pumpkins for Halloween. Nothing was wasted, as the scooped-out parts were given to our local wildlife.

In Science, the children are now learning about 'Forces'. Push and Pull forces are everywhere, Even rubber bands, which students found extremely difficult to stretch when they tried to pull more and more together, can store enough potential energy to explode a watermelon. It took over 400 rubber bands, but we finally saw the amount of energy stored and transferred when the rubber bands squeezed the watermelon enough to cut right through it and push half of it into the air! Next week, they will start building their own machine.

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More explosions with Badgers Class, who have been learning about volcanoes! They have had a lovely time making and painting their own volcanoes, and are looking forward to next week when they are going to use baking soda and vinegar to make their volcanoes erupt!

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Rabbits Class have been finding out about cave paintings, as part of their Stone Age topic. Their wonderful cave paintings recreations make a fabulous display on the classroom wall.

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In their Science lessons this week, Squirrels Class children have been investigating what makes the best material for teabags! They tested various options by wrapping loose tea in the different materials and infusing it in hot water. They concluded that tin foil was the very worst choice for making a cup of tea, and that fabric was the best.

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Friday was officially "Elmer Day" in Hedgehogs. To celebrate, the children completed a number of activities all designed to help them focus upon colour, pattern and improving their fine motor skills to help with writing.

The day began with a retelling of the story by different members of the class whilst the rest performed the actions. The children took it in turns to complete various activities including decorating a cake for Elmer, designing a tabard using repeating patterns and covering an Elmer shape with a pattern of cubes.

The finale of Elmer day was a parade showing their cakes and tabard.  They also sang The Elmer Rainbow Song.

 

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With the grand opening of Mount Foodius creeping ever closer, Deer Class children spent the whole day cooking on Friday, perfecting their recipes for ravioli and pizza. It was a really messy business preparing all the dough, but the end results look great, and everyone is looking forward to feasting on the delicious Italian dishes on the evening of Friday 22nd November.

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