Choo-choo Tuesday!

Both Year 3/4 classes visited the Bodmin and Wenford Railway on Tuesday as part of their 'Learning Adventure' on 'The First Railways'.
We received VIP treatment with our own carriages and enjoyed keeping the ticket collector busy, punching 60+ tickets. We are very grateful to the Cornish Heritage Trust for funding our travel and offering us a grant for the coach travel - thank you.
During our lessons we've:
- described how the first trains and railways were developed and composed a timeline of important events in the history of rail travel.
- explained why some steam locomotives are historically significant, say how and why steam locomotives changed over time and describe the similarities and differences of different steam locomotives.
- described how and why the railway network in Britain grew and changed over time.

The Bodmin and Wenford Railway opened in 1834 during the Victorian era, we situated this on our British History Timeline within the class and discussed the use of the branch line in transporting minerals and agricultural sea sand.
During the journey, we completed train -themed booklets and following on from National Poetry Day, we were able to practise our choral poetry remembering the rhythm, rhyme and repetition.
If you'd like to book a trip yourself or find out more, please visit: The Railway - Bodmin Railway

Wednesday 9th October

Wow what a week so far!  We hope that you enjoyed the party last Friday!  Our class stall went well and so many children were enjoying our tattoos!

We have had a very busy week already!  On Monday, we had a guest speaker Ms Clifton.  She came in to talk to the children about when she was at school and also when her grandmother was at school during Victorian Times!  The children learned many different things including that there were no carpets - just wooden floors in school.  They were shocked at this and said it must have been so uncomfortable!

Today, they also had a "visit" from "Florence Nightingale".  They asked so many questions such as "What school did you go to?", "What did you do for work?" and "When were you born?".  They were so shocked again that Florence did not know what electricity was!  And tried to explain to her what a Playstation was!

In maths, we are coming to the end of our place value unit and will begin addition and subtraction next week.  Please do not forget that assignments are set on mathletics every week.  The children's logins are in the front of their reading records.

The children had the last of their science lessons for this half term today.  The Year Two children completed a wonderful experiment about hygiene and the Year Three children made a working arm to show how the biceps and triceps work!

The children also have their last French lesson for this half term tomorrow.  They will be learning the names of the colours.  It has been lovely to hear the children using their french language knowledge in the playground too!  I hope that they have been practising at home!

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"Beary" Good Art! 

This week in Year 1, the children have been experimenting in Art using different grades of pencils. We learnt that 'H' pencils are harder and make lighter lines and that 'B' pencils are softer and make darker lines. 

The children spent the first Art lesson making different lines - curved, wavy, straight, diagonal - as well as exploring how to cross hatch and make other marks, such as scribbled lines and dots and dashes to create different effects. 

For our second lesson, we carefully studied some teddy bears and photographs of real bears and talked about the different shapes, textures and tone. We then practiced sketching small parts of the bears in our sketchbooks - the ears, the muzzle, the sharp claws. We used the different marks we experimented with the previous lesson to see which effects worked best for each body part. 

Finally, we put together all our skills and sketched our chosen bear - either a teddy bear or a from a photograph in the style of Henry Moore, an artist who used different lines to create sketches of animals. Wow! We were so impressed with their efforts and we had an art gallery in our classroom so we could visit each other's work and comment on the parts we liked. The children were really positive about each other's work and the bears have made a fantastic display in our classrooms and in the corridor for all the school to enjoy - look out for them on parents evening! 

Activities and adventures

We are still having a great time - but as teachers we are battling the very poor wifi.  We promise to share the many photos we have taken with you when we return.  Today we have been incredibly busy through the rain and sunshine.  We have climbed walls, battled the high ropes, leapt from the trapeze platform, built shelters and made fires and solved a multitude of different problems.

We have worked together, encouraged each other and built memories that will last a lifetime.  We finished the day off with a sing-song around the campfire!

Looe Primary's 40th Celebration! 

We have had a wonderful week in Foundation/ Year 1.

On Friday it was Looe Primary’s 40th birthday! Our stall was cupcake decorating and the children decorated the signs for it. We had some wonderful little helpers too. Thank you to everyone that bought a cupcake from our stall, fingers crossed we raised the most money!

We also had the Pop up Play Village in to visit us. We loved the construction area and the bakery area the best. The children were so excited when they saw everything to play with, and they practised their sharing and taking turns really well.

In English, we finished our Bear Hunt learning journey by writing our own verse of the story. We changed the story to ‘We’re going on a Monster Hunt!’ Foundation helped us to think of actions to our new verse and year 1 wrote it down. We are moving onto poetry next and will be focusing on ‘Owl and the Pussycat’ by Edward Lear.

We have had a great week and I look forward to the next!

Thank you.

The Foundation / Year 1 Team.

Our Harvest Festival

Brunel Primary and Nursery Academy recently held a heart warming Harvest Festival, bringing together pupils, families, and the wider community to celebrate the season of giving and gratitude.

The event, attended by Reverend Parkman from Saltash Baptist Church and Elizabeth from the local Foodbank, highlighted the importance of community spirit and support. The children showcased their talents by singing a variety of hymns, including the enchanting “I Am the Earth” and the playful “Cauliflowers Fluffy.”

As always our children's joyful voices filled the hall, creating an atmosphere of celebration and reflection on the abundance of nature and the generosity of others.

This year, the Harvest Festival was particularly meaningful as families contributed food and donations to support Saltash Food bank. Elizabeth expressed her gratitude for the overwhelming generosity shown by the Brunel community, especially during these financially challenging times. “Every donation helps us make a difference in the lives of those in need,” she stated, underscoring the vital role of community support. As the event drew to a close, headteacher Mr. Woolner thanked everyone for their contributions, emphasising how important it is to come together and support one another. “We are incredibly grateful for the kindness of our families,” he said. “Your generosity not only helps those in need but also teaches our children the value of compassion and community.” The Harvest Festival at Brunel Primary and Nursery Academy was a beautiful reminder of the strength that comes from coming together, especially in challenging times. What a wonderful celebration we had with the whole of our Team Brunel community.

Super start to day 2

We settled down to sleep by 10:30pm - but we were awake very early!  We have managed to make our dorm rooms very cosy - and even got to dry out our wet shoes overnight in the 'dry-room' which was a nice surprise!  After a huge cooked breakfast - we have enjoyed activities such as the 'Trapeze', problem solving, abseiling and archery.

More photos to come shortly when we can get the wifi to work!!

This week we are answering our new enquiry question which is "How do i know it is autumn?"
The children have explored our autumn themed tuft tray, looking at different objects and exploring the different properties of them.
There has been some great arts and craft happening including handprint hedgehogs and leaf printing with the paint.
On Thursday we  did some cooking and the children enjoyed making some apple crumble and today (Friday) we have been in the school garden and on the field collecting sticks for an art project next week. The children explored with interest and were keen to see what was growing in the greenhouse.

At story time we have been enjoying a selection of stories including "The leaf thief" and "In the woods".
In phonics this week we have been exploring loud and quiet sounds, copying sequences of actions e.g. clap, stamp, clap, stamp and we have been trying to recognise sounds that have the same initial sounds.

In maths, the children have been enjoying our new abacas outside and have been practicing counting all of the different coloured balls on it as well as drawing and practicing writing numbers and mark making on the chalk boards.

Bags2school- We are collecting any good condition clothes, shoes, bags and belts for Bags2school. If you have any items then please bag them up and bring them to nursery before 9am on Wednesday16th October.

See you next week

Julie, Sarah and Jade

Fantastic first day at Beam House (PGL)

After a very early start - we have had a great first day at Beam house.  The bus journey was very smooth - and we arrived a little early.  After a short while to stretch our legs - we were able to get ourselves settled into our rooms and have our packed lunch outside in the sunshine.

This afternoon, we enjoyed activities such as archery, abseiling and the Trapeze (which looks terrifying)!  After a delicious dinner - we have played a great game of 'Ambush' in the dark (we loved the war-paints) and we are settling down for our first night 'sleeping' in our dorms!

A great first day!!

The children have settled into Year 2 brilliantly and have engaged with all their learning so far. We also made it on a school trip to Carnglaze Caverns which the children thoroughly enjoyed! We focused on using adjectives to describe the setting and enjoyed listening to the echoes in the cave. Please enjoy reading more about what we have been up to!

English

This half term we have been learning all about traditional tales. We started off by exploring lots of traditional tales and what they are. Then start looked at labelling and listing nouns before writing captions for pictures from traditional tales. 

Now we have focused on Golidlocks and the Three Bears. We have been busy learning all about expanded noun phrases and the 5ws. We practiced re-writing the story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears before making changes to the original and now we are working on writing our own versions.

Maths

This half term we started by thinking about place value. This means making and drawing numbers, comparing numbers and their value, ordering numbers and partitioning numbers. The children have made a great start to their maths learning and have got stuck in! Please see below for some useful websites for children to be practising their maths at home. Their Times Table Rock Stars logins are now ready for them to use and practise their times tables at home. Little and often is the best way to go with this! Please see the bottom of this post for the children's KIRFs this half term. These are number facts that children need to be able to recall quickly. We practice them in school daily but any practice at home would be great too!

https://play.ttrockstars.com/auth/school

https://whiteroseeducation.com/1-minute-maths

https://www.topmarks.co.uk/maths-games/daily10

History

This half term we have been learning all about the history of flight and how it all started with the Wright Brothers. The children have thoroughly enjoyed learning all about this and can remember a lot of information each lesson! We started off by learning about who the Wright brothers were and what happened in their lives. We will move onto learn all about Bessie Coleman, Amelia Earhart, Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong before thinking about flight today and learning about Tim Peake.

Design and Technology

This half term we have linked our DT to our Science by thinking about what humans need to survive. In our Science we have explored the importance of eating a healthy balanced diet and now in our DT we will be making fruit smoothies! The children have enjoyed learning about different fruits and vegetables and where they come from. They also got to taste different fruits to help them decide what they would like in their fruit smoothies. We will also practice cutting skills before we make our smoothies.

PE

This half term we have been focusing on ball skills which includes throwing and catching, dribbling both with feet and hands as well as batting. The children have really enjoyed getting stuck in and giving everything a go! We even managed to enjoy a game of quick cricket to bring all our skills together.

What a fantastic week of learning Year 3 have had!

During our Geography lessons, we have been looking at earthquakes and how we can build earthquake safe buildings. We investigated the rock types around our school grounds. We used magnifying glasses and a rock identification sheet to explore the different rocks that we found.

Year 3 were also excited to receive their adopted Jaguar pets which they worked on in Year 2. Each toy jaguar will be living in one of the Year 3 classroom and we will be naming them next week.

Please don’t forget swimming continues on a Wednesday afternoon until half term and outdoor PE on a Monday up until half term.

Many thanks,

The Year 3 Team

We were invited to Gunwen Methodist Chapel to take part in the celebrations of Crying The Neck.

Crying The Neck is a harvest festival tradition once common in Cornwall, in which a farm worker holds aloft the final handful of cut corn and a series of calls are chanted.