Cedar Class  has 29  children.  The Cedar team are  Mrs Giles, Mrs Bones and Mrs Hall. Making learning fun is our speciality!  There are so many fun things  to look forward to in the year ahead.

Please do not hesitate to get in touch if you ever have any queries or concerns. 

PE days - Term 5 is on  Monday and Tuesday   Please wear your PE kit to school on these days and bring a sun hat for those sunny days we are long overdue!  

***EDIT 15.4.2024 - The PE focus has had to change - we shall be doing handball and cricket again this term as many sessions were missed due to poor weather last term.

Useful Information and Links

Term 5 -Take One Tale and Amazing Bodies

Term 4 - 'May the Force Be With You' and  Robots

"Maybe the odd one out is the third one because 1 and 2 have humans involved. No-one is touching anything in number 3.

"Could it be the drawer because  it is the only one that has a push and pull?"

"It's the one with the magnet because it is the only one with a magnetic force."

What other reasons could there be?

Term 3 Take One Piece and Romans

Give it a title

We had to create the best name for the music that we had heard.   We had no idea what it was actually called. Why not listen to Anna Meredith's 'Connect It' and  see which you think  suits it best from the suggestions below.  In class we talked about everyone  having a different and individual response to what we had heard, therefore no suggestions are wrong!  We talked about  the need for capitalisation of the title and the possibility of using  alliteration to make it catchy. We agreed that  a short title would be more  memorable than a long  choice of words. 

Puffy Penguins

Banging Sticks

The Terrible War Goes On

Roman Fight

Banging Fireworks

Kicking Rockstar

Bang Go Intrigued Indians

Roman Battle

Banging Romans

Dance Along

Battle Brothers

Loud Lane

Tango Dancing

Titanium Hero

Sound Wave

Battle Of Shipwrecked Boats

Cavemen Singing of Torture

Banging Drums

Clap Stomp Clank Boom

People Who Kill

Music of the Beat

Noise From the Jungle

Raging Fireworks

Over several days, we read 'War Game' and reflected on what it was like in  WW1.  From the excitement of signing up to the army thinking that an adventure lay before them, to the angst of  their parents watching their children leave, to fear in battle,  camaraderie, trauma of losing loved ones  and much more.  A football game brings people together despite everything.  There is so much to reflect on in this wonderful book.

What would happen if we didn't have mirrors?  What impact would it have on lives as we know it?

We couldn’t see what we look like. Keira

We could never see our faces and whole body. Talitha and Theo

We wouldn’t have angles. Sienna (reflection)

People wouldn’t be able to do make up themselves. Eva

No-one could see to put their hair up. Keira

People couldn’t play mirror mazes. Sienna

We need mirrors to look at and fix the underneath of cars. Margot

Mirrors are needed when brushing teeth to check you have cleaned them properly. Juliette

We couldn’t reverse properly in cars - we would crash! Tristan

Dentists use mirrors to look at the back of your teeth. Nieva

We wouldn’t have kaleidoscopes.   Talitha

We thoroughly enjoyed the door challenge in Cedar Class!

The class wanted leaves, lots of different coloured leaves on an autumnal tree with  some wildlife. 

We set about making sewn leaves, embellished  with beads and buttons. to further develop  our sewing skills. Children chose autumnal coloured threads and accessories.  Every child made a sewn leaf.

To generate even more leaves we did leaf rubbings with crayons and pastels.   There were exclamations of, "It's magic, it really is!" going around the class.  These leaves were cut with an emphasis on professional cutting.  Some people even looked closely at the leaves, especially the veins, and created observational drawings.

The finishing touch was an owl sat in the tree. Thank you Holly!

We really enjoyed the collaboration in this project.  We have received lots of  praise  from other  children and staff  for how colourful and attractive it looks.

Have a look at the Arts web page to see all the doors from across the school.

In the story of Rama and Sita, light symbolises the victory of good over evil when King Rama defeated  Ravana.  Rows of clay lamps lit their way home.

What does light mean for you? We discussed how light makes some of us feel safe and warm.  It gives some people hope.

People from the Stone Age are thought to be the first humans to wear clothes. They made things like trousers, tunics and cloaks. Animal skins
were stretched out and scraped clean. The clothes were cut out from hide and holes were made around the edges of each piece so that it could
be sewn together using a bone needle. Later in the Stone Age, people started weaving cloth which was coloured using natural dyes such as flowers,
bark, seeds and leaves. This led us to have a go at dyeing some muslin cloth. We used a hammer to  press down to extract the colour - we could hear a slight 'crunching' sound and then quickly saw that the dye had been pressed onto our cloth.  We removed any  residue of leaves and berries and then rinsed it in cold water. It was then left to dry.   Some leaves and berries were more effective more than others because of their vibrant colours  and due to their texture  and moisture content.
 

In our first forest session with Lizzy today, we were introduced to 3 important ideas.

We must look after ourselves, each other, and the forest and it's inhabitants.

We were given a tour of the different forest areas - fire  circle, mud kitchen, screen or performance area, music area, mud pit, and two camp making areas.

We were shown how to carry sticks and much larger logs and palettes safely.  We were asked to only please get mud for the mud kitchen from the  mud pit, otherwise digging holes on the paths could make them dangerous. Also, no gun play please in the forest!

The groups were given free time to explore the area for themselves. The mud kitchen was particularly popular with all sorts of potions, soups and medicines being concocted!

Circle Time

In a circle time activity on Friday afternoon, Cedar Class were asked what they wanted their class to feel like and be like for the entire year ahead.

Below are some of the many answers they gave.

Children coming to school and going home with a smile on their faces!

Happy

Quiet

Calm

Time to think

Like home/Like a family

Safe

Cool

Caring

Focussed

Respectful

Happy

Fun

Energetic/bouncy

Colourful

“Feel like fizzy sweets” (feeling lots of energy)

Lots to discover/excitement

Challenges

“Delicious learning”

Extra plays (for hard word)

Children will be brave/confident

Everyone will show kindness

Trying their best

Making mistakes

We are confident that we will achieve all of the above.

Which three words or phrases do you think are the most important and why? What further ideas might we add as time goes on?

Below are some of the photos and learning from last academic year.

Term 6  -  The Tempest, Plants and Wallingford

Term 5 - Take One Tale and Amazing Bodies

"I liked Bradley’s game because it was very creative."  Joe

"I liked Jago’s game because the space before the end said you had to go back to the start if you landed on it. " Eriin

"I liked Matilda’s game because it was very colourful and she had used bubble writing!"  Sarah

"I liked playing Bella’s game because every time you got near the end, if you rolled a four or six, you had to go back one place." Louie

"Freddie’s was my favourite game because if you landed on number seventeen, you had to go right back to the start." Matilda

"Sinead’s was my favourite as it was really fun. I liked that there was lots of details on it." Emily

Term 4 - 'Robots' and 'May the force be with you!'

 In readiness for making robots from recyclable materials, the boxes had to be turned inside out which required disassembling them carefully and then reassembling them.  This was not as easy as it sounds and required cooperation of an extra pair of hands in many cases! Thick cardboard boxes needed the flaps hot glue gunning, but for thinner card boxes masking tape alone was enough provided we remembered to press it down securely. Many people still  automatically want to use too much masking tape, but talking about cost and being environmentally friendly helped many to use it  efficiently and  more effectively.  This left  the boxes plain to enable decoration and embellishments to be added for our final robot design. Whilst the boxes were flat we used the opportunity to talk about  nets of 3D shapes and even revised 3D shape names.

Steps to Success for writing headlines (S2S)

• Use capital letters - refer to classroom display if not sure
• Small number of words (maximum 4 or 5)
• powerful/ ninja vocabulary choices
• Use of alliteration  - same sound starting letters 
• Use punctuation - ! ?
• Avoid using  little insignificant, weak words like 'the', 'a'
• Use clever word play or puns  (This is tricky at this stage!)

Can you think of a headline for something that has happened to you today?  Give it a try! Get all the family involved and practise your skills!

 Three books we shared in detail this week are pictured above.

 'Journey' is a wordless text and part of a trilogy.  The book talk and ideas that came out of this book across 3 days... WOW,   is all we can say! There  was uproar when we finished the book but also a promise of  revisiting the second part in the trilogy  next term.   It is a book about loneliness, friendship, bravery and imagination where everything and anything is possible!

Battle Bunny explores the potential of turning a seemingly boring text into something very exciting through editing pictures and  words. Editing is an important skill that we teach throughout KS2.

'The Boy, the Mole, the Fox, the Horse'  is such a beautiful  book. Many people will be familiar with the  short film of it shown over Christmas, but having the book creates discussion with the brilliantly posed questions in the text  and can explore worries, concerns and  attitudes. It has  themes of love, uniqueness and acceptance.  It is a must for every bookshelf and one you can revisit time and time again.

Term 3 - Our projects are Take One Piece and the Romans