We have continued our learning about the Maya civilization and culture. The children worked in small groups to investigate, research and make notes about different aspects of the Maya civilization and how they have influenced our society today: for example, the invention of chocolate; and the playing of team games. They found some amazing facts such as the Maya used hot chocolate as a medicine, albeit, a lot different from the hot chocolate we drink today and  included chilli peppers.

English
This week has included assessment in reading. All of the children have made good progress and are able to infer (read between the lines) in a piece of text. They enjoyed reading the stories in their reading assessments.

Maths
This week has included learning the key vocabulary for converting units of measurement. The children recognise that kilo derives from the Greek language and means a thousand and milli derives from the latin language and means a thousandth. This has helped them to solve simple conversion challenges for grammes and mm, for example. 


best wishes,

Mr Parry, Mrs Swabey and the Talland Class team (Mrs Walters and Ms Rowlands)

This week's jokes:

Where do sharks go on their Summer holidays? Finland.


What's the favourite tree of an English teacher? Poetry. 

A fun week of learning! 

We have had another wonderful week in year 1. We finished off our maths unit of money this week with a fun, practical lesson. We had to buy ingredients to make biscuits! We used our understanding of coins and our addition skills to collect the right amounts to buy our ingredients from Miss Bolger and Miss Masters. We could then decorate our biscuits with what we had bought! They were very tasty! We loved gathering the correct money and using our problem-solving skills.


In English, we have been learning all about the RNLI to make an informative poster. We have watched videos, looked at books and used the information we found out at the lifeboat station to gather our facts together. We have also been learning how to stay safe at the beach and collected some top tips. We have really enjoyed learning more about the RNLI and we now have lots of facts to add to our poster!


I am looking forward to our final full week and all the activities we will be doing to celebrate the end of the year!


Miss Bolger 

Summer 2 - Weeks 5 and 6 - Let's make a pattern

We have had a very busy couple of weeks in Reception. In Maths we have been exploring odd and even numbers, followed by exploring patterns this week. We took our learning outside and found natural resources to be able to create patterns with. This tied in beautifully with Art week, learning all about Andy Goldsworthy.

In Literacy, we have continued our focus on beaches and read a story called 'Clean up!' which focused on the importance of cleaning up our beaches. This gave the children the opportunity to learn all about recycling and sorting materials for them to be recycled. They enjoyed learning what recycled materials could be made into. 

This week has also seen our first transition visit to Year 1. We were so impressed with how the children took this in their stride, and the Year 1 teachers commented on how wonderful all of the children are. They enjoyed taking part in all of the fun activities that Miss Lake, Miss Folland and Mrs Clarke had planned for them. 

Going into the final full week of Reception, we have sent out a reminder to return ALL reading books, library books and packets by Monday 15th July. To continue the love of reading, you can access a wide range of books (linked to your child’s book band) on the Oxford Owl website. Please visit: https://home.oxfordowl.co.uk. 


Best wishes, 

The Reception team 

Scrumptious Science:

We've put our scientific enquiry questions to the test this week; creating solar ovens to cook s'mores. The sun was on our side and we were able to prove that the darker the box colour, the quicker the s'mores cooked. We ensured fair testing and discussed how we'd observe and record our findings/results. They tasted great too!

Geography,

Coastal erosion and sea defenses are very close to home living in Cornwall. We have thought carefully about how this is caused, discussing erosion and deposition features and also the benefits of sea-defenses.
We also put on various 'hats' when thinking about differing views in the light of tourism and how developments in natural beauty spots can come with a mixed view. As you may of guessed, we voted 'NO' to building a hotel on a beach!

This week Tregantle Class has been all about money! Our Year 1 children have been getting to grips with identifying coins and notes. There have been lots of interesting activities to practice using money and finding a total by using different coins. Our tuft tray activity has been a big hit with the children. The challenge has been to make different totals of money using as many or as few coins as possible. The EYFS children have made their own 'Tregantle Shop' in the role play area and have been busy stocking up on healthy fruits and vegetables! The children have been using our play money to pay for items and give change.
We have also been wonderful writers this week. Year 1 have written our class version of the story 'Mr Gumpy's Outing' which we re-named 'Mrs Honey's Outing.' There were some great adjectives and verbs including our spelling patterns for adding suffixes - amazing! The EYFS children have used their sounds and tricky word knowledge brilliantly to write about the animals that stole Handa's fruit in our class story 'Handa's Surprise.' What a busy week it has been! 
 

Forest School

Class 3 enjoyed their Forest School Session on Wednesday. They were tasked with building dens using items they were given like tarp and rope along with any items they could find. We ended up with some very inventive dens! Next job was to build the fire and toast some marshmallows.

We have finished looking at under the sea this week and answering our enquiry question of "who lives under the sea?". The children have enjoyed playing in the tuft tray with all of the different sea creatures and have been counting shells. They have been painting and making paper plate jelly fish and using  potato masher to create sea turtles. On Thursday we enjoyed a snack that the children created using pancakes and fruit to create a fish.

We have been exploring voice sounds and identifying sounds in our environment this week in phonics and at storytime we enjoyed reading the story of "What the ladybird heard at the seaside". All of the children loved this story and had lots to say about it as well as been able to answer questions about what they heard.
In maths we have been counting, identifying and writing numbers.

We have two more days at nursery now before we finish for the summer holidays.
We are looking forward to seeing all of our big children graduate from nursery next week. Graduation is on Tuesday 23rd July at 1pm for those that will be going to big school in September and then nursery finishes at 1.30pm for all children.

Have a lovely weekend and we look forward to seeing you next week for the last few days.

Julie and Sarah

Fun filled learning. 

We had a lot of fun last week. 

We are all really enjoying the new jelly numbers we have. Some super star learners took them out and drew around them, they then identified and represented that number.  

Our topic this term is school readiness and in preparation for this the children asked if they could colour pictures for their new teachers. They really enjoyed this all a while looking at pen grip and colours. The children were also discussing what they are looking forward to and what they want to learn. We of course were on hand to answer the many questions they had.  They then passed their pictures to their new teacher and they LOVED them. 
We also went down on Friday to have a play in our new outdoor area. 

Sports day - 

Wow, we all  had a lot of fun! 
'I enjoyed the parachute when all the parents waved it above us, it was so much fun!'
"I run really fast and ran to the end"
"I liked the ice poles we got"
"I liked the football game, I shoot and score!"

Phonics-  The sounds we explored were v and y. The children enjoyed this and a few thought of words beginning with that sound! van, vet, violin, yak, you, yell.  

Come back next week to see what we have been up to. :) 

In June we began thinking about our new big question 'How have the Olympic games changed over time?'. We have learnt some key information about the ancient Olympics and about the modern Olympics which are happening this year in Paris. We also learnt about Jesse Owens (runner) and Ellie Simmonds (swimmer). We took part in sports week and sports day and had a great time learning our dance for the opening ceremony. We continued our learning about the Jewish faith and learnt what happens each week as Jewish families celebrate Shabbat and what happens each winter when Jewish families mark Hanukkah. We learnt two stories which people of the Jewish faith tell to help them to understand what their God is like. One of the stories was the story of David and Goliath. After reading this we reflected on times when we had been courageous. 

During May we concluded our work on 'Why should forests be protected?'. We learnt about the flora and fauna of the rainforest and compared it to that of forests in the UK. We learnt about deforestation and used The Lorax to help us to think about how human activity can have a huge affect on plant and animal habitats. We also compared the weather and climate of the tropical rain-forest and forests here in the UK. 
In the lead up to the school art exhibition we learnt about, and worked in the style of, Alma Thomas. We experimented with sketching and paint techniques and created wonderful pieces for the exhibition. In science we continued to learn about plants and learnt about how to identify trees and tree and flowering plant structures. We planted seeds and investigated how well deeds would grow under different conditions. 

Our Art Exhibition entry

A few highlights from the past few weeks of learning in Class 4...

Year 6 children held an ice-cream parlour after sports day to raise money for their Class 4 end of year show. Although they didn’t raise as much money as they had predicted when planning the stall during their maths lessons focused on profit and costings, they did exceptionally well selling over 60 ice-creams!

During our outdoor learning day, the children learnt about many types of birds and their nests. They took part in various bird focused learning activities including creating bird art using outdoor resources. I was really impressed with the final outcomes as you can see in the picture! We also enjoyed our infamous smores around the campfire.

This week, as part of our D.T learning, the children have learnt how to tie dye. They learnt how to create the various patterns using elastic bands to block out the dye and had a go at preparing their own. After preparing the t.shirts, they then dyed them in the various colours of their choice. We are very excited to reveal our t.shirts on Monday. We are extremely grateful for Mrs G's expertise in tie dying! As part of our D.T lessons, the children also started to create outfits using recycled materials. Thank you for the donations!

Year 6 children took part in another transition day to Looe Community Academy. They relished seeing the school again and enjoyed taking part in the escape room that they had to solve.  

Main points to remember:

·       No Pro20, art or yoga clubs this week

·       Thursday 18^th July Class 4 Show- 2pm and 6pm

·       Tuesday 23^rd July Year 6 Assembly 9:15am 

Porthpean Residential

Year 4 excitedly set off on Monday morning heading for an amazing three days at Porthpean Outdoor centre. 

When we arrived, we headed straight for the high ropes and once we had put on our harnesses and hats, we tested out our climbing skills and head for heights!  All the adults were extremely proud to see so many children overcome their fears.  For some, just putting on the harness was a success and for others, they managed to head to the very top of Jacob’s ladder and ring the bell. 

As you can imagine, we were all quite tired by the end of the day and were glad to get into our bunk beds and settle down for a good night’s sleep. 

A beautiful sunrise greeted us on Tuesday morning and after a full English breakfast, we headed to Porthpean beach where we launched the kayaks and paddled up the coast to a secret beach which was only accessible from the sea.  We also enjoyed paddling and jumping off the Mega SUP.  We were all quite excited when a seal decided to join us and we watched him swim and dive around our craft. 

After tea, we played laser tag and then headed off towards the tents where we popped on a set of headphones and enjoyed bopping away to the silent disco. We then headed off for some much deserved and needed sleep.

On Wednesday morning, we found our inner Robin Hoods as we tried out archery.  It wasn’t as easy as it looked although there were some bull’s eyes amongst the scores.

All in all, we had an absolutely amazing time at Porthpean.  We all learnt a life-long lesson – don’t let fear hold you back as some of your greatest achievements will come from pushing yourself to new heights!

Well done Year 4 – we are all very proud of you!

July already!

How have we got to July already? We still have so much to squeeze in to our last few weeks in Penhallow. 

This week was a busy one and started with our fantastic Beach Day. The children behaved brilliantly and we had a wonderful time.

The week continued with natural weaving looms on Tuesday, where the children ventured out into the garden. We are writing recounts in English and in maths we begin our topic on money in Year 1. We enjoyed a very energetic PE lesson on Wednesday where we learned the difference between a hop, a jump and a leap! 

Well done to all children for having a try at 99-club this week. The Reception children had their first attempt and wowee! it shows me how amazing they all are.. well done to Hugh, Casey, Martha, Ada and Evie for getting their 11-club badge. Well done also to our 'People of the Week' this week who are recognised for showing amazing examples of our School Values. Well done Ada, Casey, Theo and Jemima.

The children should have come home with 2 letters on Friday, the first, regarding our Pirate Day on Monday the 8th, where children are invited to dress like a pirate. We will be exploring all things piratey and don't worry if you don't have any pirate wear, we will accessorise throughout the day. The second letter is regarding our trip to the aquarium and we really hope all children can make the trip on Tuesday the 16th of July! We are very excited! We will have an interactive tour of the aquarium as well as take part in craft activities throughout the day. I have attached both letters to this blog if you require another copy, alternatively, just ask!

I have also attached a copy of this half-term's knowledge web so that you can take a look at the amazing things Penhallow will be learning throughout Summer 2.

We hope you enjoy a lovely weekend!

Mrs Taylor, Mrs G, Miss Colton, Miss C and Mrs Hodge.

Do People with Longer Femurs Jump Further?

What a great week we have had! 

As part of our enquiry 'What's On Our Doorstep?' we enjoyed exploring topography maps in Geography, locating different elevations across the UK. In Science, we conducted an experiment to find out whether people with long femurs jump the furthest. We had a mixture of results, but most of use agreed that longer femurs did mean further jumps! In Computing, we learnt more about how PowerPoint works and had a tinker within the app. Hopefully, we will be able to develop our word processing skills next week, by typing up our English stories.

In Art, we have continued to discover what we can do with printing. We used a range of found objects to print with, such as potatoes, buttons and cotton reels, and began to create rotated patterns. Music this week was fantastic! Mrs Butlin worked with the class on a story, where we used the keyboards to provide sound effects for key parts of the story. Everyone did a brilliant job at locating the sounds and playing this in time with the key parts of the story. 

In English this week, we have been working tirelessly on our own Polperro legends. We have written these using our own mythical creatures and enjoyed describing their secret lairs. Next week, we will finish off our legends and begin some non-fiction writing. 

Both Year 2 and 3 have had a whistle stop tour of money this week. Year 2 have been recognising coins, making amounts and comparing money, whilst Year 3 have been converting coins, adding and subtracting money. Next week, we will finish off this unit, with Year 2 exploring Time and Year 3 consolidating their knowledge on Length and Perimeter. 

Congratulations to Zac and Harley for being Landaviddy's People of the Week! 

Polite Reminder - Please can you ensure you child brings in their colour banded reading book into school each day. Thank you.

We hope you have a restful weekend and look forward to seeing you all next week.

Mrs Wilkie, Mrs Phillips and Miss Bowden

Storytellers have made the most of the weather this week and enjoyed adventuring outside. Mud pie making, setting sail with pirates and driving to the shops were just a few of the adventures they have been on! We have also been practising for sports day, and everyone is getting rather good at the egg and spoon race ….

Sports Day 2024.

Despite the weather's best efforts yesterday, we all had an exhilarating afternoon in the sunshine. The unexpected weather challenges only brought us closer, making Sports Day 2024 a testament to our community's resilience. We couldn't be prouder of the children, who showed remarkable teamwork, encouraged each other, and took care of their younger peers. It was a joy to witness!

The Duck race provided the usual year six mayhem as 400 ducks were released down the river to be caught by a very brave Mr Smith, who proceeded to get slightly wet! Hopefully, our duck catchers have all dried off!

We had some delighted prize winners! Thanks to the PTFA and everyone who supported them by donating food, setting up, clearing away, serving ice cream, and running the Tombola. We appreciate everything you all do, and it’s an integral part of our little community school!

As a school community, you raised a fantastic £700 with the PTFA, which goes towards providing enrichment opportunities over the coming year … That is one of the highest amounts ever raised on sports day.

We extend our heartfelt thanks to everyone who sponsored us: Tesco, Asda Bodmin, Morrison’s, The Old Inn, The Westberry Hotel, Bodmin Nursery, Rowes, Dole Fruit, Lappa Valley, The National Trust, Bodmin Wenford Railway, Bowood Golf Club, Trelawney Garden Center, and all our parents. Your support has made a significant difference to our school community.

TALLAND'S BLOG 5.7.24

Talland have been busy directing their own trailers this week for the opening of the Paris Olympic Games 2024. They have been incredibly creative and I'm looking forward to getting some motivational music in the back ground to get everyone pumped for this amazing spectacle!

Maths: 
Year 4 have been using coordinates to plot points on grids and create different polygons by the information given to them.
Year 5 have been looking at volume and using multi links to help them solve these problems. They have built certain shapes - this has helped them to find either the approximate or estimate the volume in centimeters cubed.  

English:
This has been linked to the trailer the children have created. They have been finding ways to describe certain landmarks, be an animal, perform the event and transform into an athlete. Children have had to hone into their senses and then as if that wasn't tricky enough - we thought it best to include rhythm and rhyme too! 

PE:
Talland got into their super hero gear and practiced life saving skills in the pool. We looked at different ways to float, 'the help position', what to do if you get caught in a rip and even made our own rips by having lots of fun and creating whirl pools. It all went swimmingly!

A huge well done to Tabbi for being noticed as our enthusiastic child of the week - her ability to help those around her is truly fantastic - well done!

That's all from Talland - we hope you have a fantastic weekend!

Signing off from Mr. Langley, Mr. Bishop and Mrs. Hodge.