Emergency 999

Today as part of our emergency 999 topic, Butterworth, Potter and Hargreaves had some special visitors.  PCSO Rachel and Mandy from Ware Police Station came to visit to tell us all about their roles.

We learnt about the clothes they wear.  They wear a high visibility jacket so that they can be seen clearly.  In this jacket they keep a radio which they use to talk to other Police Officers.  We were lucky enough to listen to someone talking over the radio.  Mandy and Rachel also wear strong boots because they do lots of walking.

As part of their job they help to stop people stealing from shops.  They check people are keeping their handbags safe whilst they are shopping.  Mandy and Rachel also talk to the elderly and children in schools.  They help people who have lost things and use the CCTV and town link radio to find out what is happening in the town centre.


We enjoyed listening to Rachel and Mandy and we asked them lots and lots of questions!

Tolkien Class Maths Challenges

Today Mrs Anstead gave Tolkien Class a set of maths challenges to complete.  The children were asked to work in small groups and complete a challenge and then present their results visually.

The challenges were:

1.    In order to swallow its food a snake can open its jaws five times its normal size.  How wide would you be able to open your mouth if you could do the same?

2.    Cows produce one eighth of their weight in saliva every day.  How much saliva would you produce if you could do the same?

3.    A scarab beetle can lift 850 times its own weight.  What would you be able to lift if you could do the same?

4.    A deer’s antlers can be as wide as three fifths of its whole body length.  If you had antlers of the same scale how big would they be?

The children had lots of fun exploring the challenges.

 "I chose the snake challenge.  My mouth is 7cm wide.  If I could open it in the same way a snake can it would open to 35cm.  This would mean I could put an RE book or Mrs Anstead's head into my mouth.  I really enjoyed this investigation because it was something different." E.S

 "We chose the scarab beetle problem. I weigh 35kg. We multiplied this by 850. This means that I would be able to lift a 29750kg weight. We found out that this is the same as 18 American cars." W.RW

"In my maths lesson I investigated some problems.  My favourite was the problem with the antlers.  We measured our bodies and then divided it my five to find one fifth.  We then times this by three to find three fifths.  My antlers would be 52.3cm long." T.H

"I worked out that if I was a deer my antlers would be 87cm long.  To find this out I measured my height and then divided this by five and then multiplied it by three to find three fifths.  We used paper to find out how big our antlers would be." I.P

The Wind Blew

Mckee class enjoyed reading this book and thinking of ways to add to the story. As well as all the things that blew away in the text, we came up our own which included, amongst other things, a book, an alien, a teddy, sunglasses and a cap.

The children chose which character they would like to be and why. Most wanted to be the man with the umbrella because it was funny or the twins who lost their scarves. Olivia wanted to be the man with the "inside-outside out umbrella". The balloon and kite owners were almost as popular.

Luca would read the book again because he liked the pictures and Olivia because she liked the front cover. Naomi would read it lots because it is quite short.

Everyone thought it was a funny story and soon realised that you could predict the next item if you looked carefully at the pictures. They also enjoyed the rhyming text and the fact they could read some of the words.

McKee class recommend this book to anyone who wants "a short story with really good pictures that will make you laugh." Alfie. If you do read it, please let us know what you think.



After school clubs

 As you know, we run a variety of after school activities, for the children who attend our school. This term these include storytime, ICT, football, netball, Spanish, dance and Barnabus.

In ICT the children coloured in a dragon mask and printed it out. They then made it into a mask to wear adding decorations. "I enjoy ICT club because we get to do interesting things and can use the computers."- E. "ICT is great fun, we did a mask." - A

 This week in storytime the children heard the story of the Gruffalo and than made Gruffalo puppets. "I like storytime because it is good to read books." - E "I like stories." - S.

The footballers are assisted by members of Chauncy school and Spanish is run by Mrs O'Reilly.

"Netball club is great fun because we love netball." - I. "Miss Ball is a good umpire." - A

In Barnabus club (which incidentally is now on Thursday and is open to years 1-6) the members spent sometime planning what they would like to do this term and are looking forward to some role play and construction activities based on a Bible story. "I like Barnabus because we get to watch a DVD and choose what to do" - F.

Hopefully some other children, will soon, let you know what they like about their clubs.

Football

On Thursday 26th January Christ Church school played an away football cup match against Hertingfordbury School.

 

All the players tried their best and put in some good tackles especially our main defender Jake H. Unfortunately we conceded a goal in the first half. We could have won if we controlled the ball before we shot to get more accuracy.

 

In the end it was a close game and our Man of the Match was Samuel S.

By Liam  & Thomas

The Year of the Dragon

"Chinese New Year is here again, here again, here again...." so said the song. Here in Mckee class we have become really interested in this celebration and spent quite a lot of our week on this theme.

We started the week by listening and retelling the story of the 12 animals and discovered it was the year of the Dragon. In our hall time we tried making up some dragon movements and then used a drum and fabric to create a group dance.

The children carried this on, for themselves, as part of their play in the outdoor area during the week. The beat of the drum and the jerky movements of the dragon where a constant feature!

We had "oodles of noodles" and this proved a very popular addition to the room. We looked at dried noodles and wet noodles, tried feeling them with our hands and picking them up with chopsticks. Some children even had a taste.

The class also tried their hand at making dragon puppets, designing their own mask,  colouring in a dragon mask picture, making fans, making and decoration the red money envelopes, using tangrams, ordering the animals in the race and many other things. Thank you for all the Chinese items the children brought in to share with the class, they were all really interesting.



Stainglass Angels

We are delighted to announce that the artwork given to us by Victoria Halls is now hanging in a prime position. Next time you enter school, through the main door, look to your right and enjoy this beautiful painting.

Mrs Halls said that she was reminded of this painting during the school Christmas play and so kindly gave it to us as a gift. She has also offered three prizes, of an artistic  nature, to be awarded to the winning entries of a competition that will be set by Mrs Vaughan relating to this painting.

Thank you