Sports Day 2012

Our reserve sports day (competitive races) is tomorrow, Friday 29th June, starting at 9am and finishing at approximately 12.15pm.

Lunch for the children will be as normal, no picnic.

Please remember to wear your wristbands.

Many Thanks

McKee class will make you smile....

Just how much fun can you have preparing to read an e-book?

Family Forum - Mexico

At Christ Church we have four houses, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John; each house is also divided into three "family groups". Every so often we hold a family forum - this is where each of the family groups meet together with their member of staff and discuss something about the school or prepare for a school event.

The family groups have children from each year group in from nursery to year 6. Today we met to prepare for sports day. Each family group has been assigned a country and so we learnt a little bit about our country and made flags ready for the day.

One of the Mark family groups were particularly fortunate! Our country is Mexico and we got first hand accounts of life in Mexico. Mrs Parker, one of our governors, is Mexican and grew up in Mexico City, and we also have a visiting student in school - Lisa - who is usually found in Mexico City but is staying with Mrs Parker and her family; between them they gave us an interesting and exciting account of life in Mexico.

We found out that dogs are the most popular pet, food is tasty and spicy, children start school at 6 years old and attend the same school until they are 13 when they transfer to a second school for 3 years and then their last school for a further 3 years. We know that wrestling in masks is a popular sport and that bull fighting was invented in Mexico, not Spain. (Neither of our guests were proud of this fact!)

We found out what the emblem in the middle of the flag stands for, what the colours mean and that Mexicans love colour and music. We know that Mexican children like to play with hand made toys and a particular type of spinning top is a favourite.

We would like to thank Mrs Parker and Lisa for being so open about their lives and for being willing to answer all of our questions. Thank you.

McKee Potato Crop

Yesterday McKee class harvested their potato crop. The children had great fun grubbing around in the soil and seeing how the potatoes nestled amongst the roots of the plant. "look, look I can see one, no two...Mrs Matthews we have grown them look wow!" They were very excited.

About to harvest the Rudolph variety

About to harvest the Rocket variety

We planted two different varieties and everyone was amazed by the vibrant red colour of the Rudolph variety. We weighed the potatoes and have entered our scores into the competition.

Grubbing amongst the roots

Look at those leaves

Digging for victory

This has been a fascinating project for McKee class. Through it we have learned about the weather, seasons, potatoes and how to care for plants. We have got our hand dirty (always popular!) pulling up the final crop and have counted, weighed and looked at the different sizes of the potatoes.We also saw a few rotten ones.

White rocket

Counting and weighing the red Rudolph variety

All that is left to do now is eat them! I wonder what we will cook this time?

736g of Rocket

609gof Rudolph

Maths in McKee

As you know we are having a Maths inspection tomorrow and so we thought you may like to see some of the maths activities we have undertaken in McKee class (similar to when we told you about our writing activities); it is hard to know what to choose from all the cooking, building, playing, calculating, measuring and investigating we have done this year, but here is a sample chosen by the class.

Working with 3D shapes

Ordering numbers

Learning about time

Measuring our heads to make our crown fit and decorating them with shapes.

Sorting using our own criteria

Making patterns

Patterns

Investigating symmetrical items

Number and pattern

Repeating patterns

Using numbers in everyday situations - hopscotch

Measuring

Indoor number games

Using money and timetables

Using a sand timer to measure time on bikes.

Number rhymes

Addition and subtraction

Capacity

How many?

Division

Number recognition games

How tall?

How many jumps in a minute?

Data collection - who liked which mash.

Sorting

Measuring feet to make paper shoes

Play dough activities

Addition and subtraction

Dividing in half

Groups of numbers

Outdoors maths

Goodness me,  we have been busy and tomorrow will see the children using the play-dough that they made today.

McKee Bug Club Reviews

When McKee class trialled Bug club, Mrs Matthews asked the parents and children to share their thoughts on the scheme and promised to share these with you. Now Bug Club is up and running we thought it was about time we did this.

Parent Pros:

·         Children love using the computer and so this is a great encouragement

·         Children love the interactive nature

·        Helps with interpretation, context and inference

·         My child enjoys the rewards

·         My children find it easy to navigate

·         My child likes being able to log on and use it herself.

·        My child particularly enjoys getting the reward sticker in her online scrapbook

·       They want to read more to collect the rewards and so it has encouraged her to read more than she normally would.

·        My child loves reading the page and then listening to the audio to self correct

·        Excellent concept that encouraged her to read

·        Books and questions are just the right level for my child.

Parent Cons:

·       Not as easy to share with your child as a book because you can not sit side by side and need your child on your lap

·       Could not access it from the children’s computer. Think it needs the latest flashplayer because it worked on ours.

·       Child was distracted by the fact he was reading on a computer

·       We did not find it obvious as to what was expected from the child

·       Child does not need to read, they can just listen to the audio

Parent Other:

·       Simple and effective as long as it is used along side homework and hard copy reading.

·      My child prefers the e-books because she “gets to do more things”; I prefer actual books and so this combination is ideal!

·       Doesn’t add value over a hard copy book and so I would only use those.

·       My son wants to use bug club as soon as he gets home from school. He loves it

·       We liked bug club as an addition to real books.

·      My child loves everything about Bug club from logging in, typing the password, using the mouse and answering the questions.

Children:

• Zachary said he likes choosing the characters and the books are better than the others he takes home
• Rimini thinks that it is exciting and she likes doing the quiz after reading
• Daniel enjoyed using it with his Daddy and the other Daniel loves getting the rewards and answering the questions.
• Grace and Evie enjoy reading the books with their Mummy and answering the quiz
• Jessica thought it was fun and read lots and lots of books.
• Emily, Luca, Rebecca and Eloise all enjoyed the books they had and liked to look at their reward stickers.

Some of you have asked about the reward scheme - In the foundation stage, every time your child gets 20 points they will get a virtual reward sticker (this is different other years, for example, in year 1 it is 30 points and a tree house article and in year 2 it is 70 points and involves an egg hatching!)

All of McKee class now have a full compliment of books, happy reading.

Support HELPING



HELPING is the charity through whom we are twinned with our Gambian school. Money from this event will not go to out particular twin, but will assist the charity in their general work in The Gambia, which may include our partner school and their village. It should be a good afternoon.

In the news

Mrs Matthews was very surprised to look in The Mercury newspaper this week and see the smiling faces of McKee class.

As you know, the partnership is facilitated by HELPING a local charity and they are also featured in the same copy of The Mercury. Last year Margaret presented us with a beautiful fabric hanging (now in the school hall on the Gambian partnership board) which had been made for us and now it seems Stanstead Abbotts have their own village sign.

There are still plenty of fundraising events taking place in school to ensure we can buy the lamps. Please look out for details in the contact, via this blog or ask your child's class teacher.