What a wonderful start to the academic year! The Hive came back after the summer holidays ready and raring to go and have done a super job settling back into Ab Kettleby life.
It’s been a busy half term with so much going on. We started off by reviewing our Behaviour Boost and finding our feet. We reminded ourselves of the school rules, setting boundaries and expectations for ourselves, and thought about our future aspirations.  

 We looked at democracy within our British Values and considered the importance of ‘our voice’. We were excited to vote and elect our new School Council, along with our Head Boy and Head Girl. They have hit the ground running, joining meetings and making plans for the year ahead.

  

In English, we have really enjoyed exploring the story – Beowulf - which has been incredibly inspiring! We came up with our very own version of the legend and after drawing/designing what a new character/monster would look like, created a wonderful piece of descriptive writing! We were proud of the ideas, skills, punctuation and vocabulary we were able to include. 

    

The children have also demonstrated some excellent values in maths so far this term. We have explored place value and worked with up to 6-digit numbers in ordering, comparing, and rounding! We moved onto some addition and subtraction problems where our skills were really put to the test! We’re all so impressed with how eager the children are to learn and the resilience they have shown during challenges.
It has been wonderful discovering more about Anglo-Saxons within our Big Question this half term – ‘Who were the troublemakers in History?’. The children have explored what village life would have been like for the Anglo-Saxons and looked at a few of the different jobs that people would have had, like a ‘tanner’, ‘weaver’ and ‘potter’. We have also been exploring Anglo-Saxon artefacts and the need for archaeology in our society. We grouped together and shared our new knowledge.

Science has been a lot of fun these past few weeks as we have been finding out more about the job of the ear! The class had a think about ‘sound sources’, and looked at some new vocabulary, finding that the word ‘vibrate’ is a crucial part of it all! We have also explored how sound travels and changes over distance. We looked into different sources of transmission and couldn’t quite explain how a telephone works. We made string telephones to experiment with the way our voices move through objects and learnt all about the particles involved. It was amazing to see how our sound energy can be changed into electrical energy to move through objects before changing back to sound energy going into our ears. To finish things off nicely, the class were tasked with making their own musical instruments. After planning and designing, we tested out how to make sounds experimenting with pitch and volume. We had enormous amounts of fun but also succeeded in creating some amazing instruments that truly did alter in pitch!  

French, music and sports have been additional areas of enjoyment where we have pushed our skills to the limits! We have loved our Thursday afternoon visits from Mrs Grimes who delivers our French lessons. This will continue into next half term where our language will further develop. 
We are also on a roll with Mr Emerton who is currently teaching us drumming. We have worked hard to position our drums and bodies correctly to form a range of sounds and have begun to practice varied rhythms! 

  

 For many of us, PE is a favourite and we have not held back! Mrs Sporty Brown has been preparing us well by taking part in the 2K run each week. Children have been continuing to beat previous times and demonstrating a great sporting attitude when cheering each other on!
What a brilliant start to the year. We can’t wait to see what more is to come! 😊