GT - Issue 5 Feb 13

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The Gorseland Times

February 2013

Written by the children for the whole school community GORSELAND TIMES the best newspaper in the world!!

ISSUE 5 February 2013

For the first time, an issue of The Gorseland Times contains an article for every class, which is something we would like to continue each half term. The long-term plan is to combine the articles into a yearbook for each class, which the children take with them as they join a new teacher until they have a full record of their learning in Year 6. We are hoping this will be a great memory aid for their learning. The first half of the Spring Term was short (only 29 school days) but there were several highlights. For many people, the snow was an exciting time. The sight of a variety of snow sculptures around the school made me wonder whether they came to life at night and had a party. This term’s learning has featured pets in school (p.6-8), burning buildings (p.10-12), a Mission to Mars (p.28) and more sporting success (p.3032). We hope you enjoy reading the articles about the children written by the children.

Inside this ISSUE: Page 2 Upcoming Events 3 Learning in Nursery 4 Mrs Fitzgerald’s Class 5 Mrs Jarvis’ Class 6 Mrs Florey’s and Mrs Bailie’s Class 8 Mrs Doorly’s Class 9 Miss Stanley’s Class 10 Mrs Adelson’s Class 12 Mrs Slattery’s and Mrs Waller’s Class 13 Mrs Wallace’s and Miss North’s Class 14 Mrs Bowskill’s & Mrs Hardwicke’s Class

Page 15 Mr Guite’s Class 16 Mrs Cracknell’s Class 17 Mrs Harris’ and Mrs Taylor’s Class 18 Mrs Aldous’ Class 20 Mr Woodward’s Class 21 Mr Trinder’s Class 22 Mr Sampson’s Class 24 Miss Downey’s Class 26 Learning Heroes Come to Life in Y6 28 Key Stage 2 on the Red Planet 30 Athletics County Final 32 Basketball Tournament


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February 2013

Upcoming Events This year Gorseland are holding Red Nose Day and World Book Day on the same day. The date of this event will be Friday the 15th of March, although World Book Day is still the 7th we are just not holding it on this date. You, yes you, could be a hero. By simply giving some money to the school, that will then go to the Red Nose Day Fund. Did you know that if everyone in Britain gave £1 to the Red Nose Day Fund (Comic Relief) it would be a total of around £60,000,000? The money goes around the world, to help children and adults who are suffering, from deathly diseases. The theme of the Red Noses this year is… Dinosaurs!

World Book Day is about YOUR favourite books and book characters. This year’s theme is… humorous books, so you can come as a funny book character. Every year everyone gets a book token; this token represents a free book. Some books have been shortened to encourage the reader to read the full length, and some are the original length. To find out more please visit: http://www.worldbookday.com/ By Sydney & Holly (6B)


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February 2013

Learning in Nursery Introduction Nursery is a fun and easy way for the smaller children to learn and play. The children are always eager to learn whatever the activity they are going to do. They have been up to lots of fun activities such as doing going on a bear hunt and learning about Chinese New Year. ‘We’re Going On a Bear Hunt’ One of their most recent activities was ‘We’re Going on a Bear Hunt’. The children read the book, and then acted it out in their PE lessons. When we asked the class what their favourite part was, most of them said, “THE BEAR BIT!!!” Learning Letters and Numbers As well as playing, the children have fun with chicken, ladybird and Mr Hand helping them to learn their numbers and letters. “I like learning letters” said Cameron. Although they have their puppets, they also have a giant abacus to help them count numbers and counting how many people come to nursery each day. Zion said, “Counting numbers with the abacus is fun!” Chinese New Year Earlier this year, Nursery celebrated Chinese New Year of the Snake. The children did lots of different activities including creating snakes, Chinese cooking, role-play and making music with a variety of instruments. The snow In January when the snow finally came to us, the nursery children had fun out in their playhouse as well as making snowy pictures in the warmth of their classroom. They had an enthusiastic time exploring ice. Conclusion As you can see nursery have been busy learning lots and having fun over the last term. They are hoping to do many more activities to extend their learning of numbers and letters. By Tash 6B, Grace and Jake (6A)


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February 2013

MRS FITZGERALD’S CLASS On the 25th of February 2013, we interviewed Mrs Fitzgerald’s reception class to find out what they had been getting up to last term. We had the privilege of finding out that the children had great fun learning about the wonderful Chinese New year, treacherous polar bears, and exciting emperor penguins. You could tell they had fun, because they were ecstatic when answering the questions. We found out that, when they were researching, it was challenging to retrieve information. They are going to Jimmy’s Farm on Thursday the 7th of March, so they were pumped up for that.

Their Main Topic Their main topic was Chinese New Year. Some of the children found it quite challenging to research this information. Also baking and eating biscuits helped them learn too! Although their main focus was on this subject, they also had fun learning other subjects, too!

Habits of Mind Reception has been enjoying their writing, but they think they could do better, and because of this, they are using the Habit of Minds: persisting, thinking about how you learn, and being accurate and precise. They are very proud of themselves! Summary Ultimately, it sounds like these reception kids were fanatical about their learning last term, and they will enjoy their lives at Gorseland.

By Luke and Jasmine, 6A


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February 2013

Mrs Jarvis’ Class Mrs Jarvis`s class have been learning about Chinese New Year, the Arctic and addition sums. The highlights of their term were cooking Chinese food and then eating it, making colourful Chinese dragons, learning their phonics (how to pronounce words), and learning about polar bears. They have also made some bird food to hang in their gardens. What do you know about the Arctic, Chinese New Year and sums? Mrs Jarvis would like the children to remember: phonics, how to listen carefully, how to help when tidying up and general number work. All of the children have enjoyed these lessons. Last term, Reception 1 was reading lots of books in class and at the library, such as: Arctic Animals, Alien School, Haunted House, Super Worm, and Dogs like Drawing. As they did with their topics, the children had a good time reading these books together. What books have you read this term?

Mrs Jarvis’s class making their bird food to hang in their garden at home or in school. Mrs Jarvis’s class have had a lot of fun making their bird food I hope the birds enjoyed eating it as much as the children have enjoyed making them.

This is one of the snow pictures they took when the played in the snow.

Surprisingly, it started to snow, and that also links in with their topic, so they got a feel of what it was like in the Arctic (but not as cold as they thought it would be though!). Here are some photos showing what they have learnt.

By Jasmine (6B) and Henry (6A)


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February 2013

Mrs Florey and Mrs Bailie’s Class (1A) What have they been learning about? Last half term, the Year 1 classes learnt about pets and farm animals. While learning about pets, they held a Pet Morning, where the children brought their pet in (if they owned one) for the morning. The parents who owned the pets came too, so they could look after them. It was a fun and eventful morning for the children to get to know other people’s pets. These are two of the most interesting pets brought in for 1A to find out about- a bearded dragon and a tortoise.

The children read some animal themed books as a class. Two of the favourites were ‘Farmer Duck’ and ‘Lazy Ozzie’. There are many more besides these two as well. Some children told us which facts they thought were the most interesting. They learnt a lot about cows and how they are milked as well as how chickens lay their eggs in the winter and sit on them to keep them warm. Also they learnt lots about names of baby animals- for instance; a baby pig is called a piglet. Although the children enjoy learning, it’s sometimes quite hard. The children mostly thought that writing was the hardest thing to do, but drawing pictures of animals was quite tricky for them too. However, ALL the children strongly agreed that Year 1 was not harder than Reception, although Mrs Bailie commented, ‘Sometimes the children


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February 2013

don’t realise how hard they work!’ We here at The Gorseland Times agree with Mrs Bailie; take a look at these fantastic pieces of homework about the children’s pets! On the left is Sophie’s homework about her pet dog Truffle!

The piece of homework on the right is by Zak, about his dog George!

Mrs Florey and Mrs Bailie’s class worked extremely hard last half term! Let’s hope they continue the good work! By Maddy and Liam (6A)


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February 2013

Mrs Doorly’s Class (1B) Mrs Doorly’s class had an exciting term when they learned about animals, maths and did lots of cooking.

Pets Morning The whole of year 1 participated in a fun yet interesting activity called Pets Morning. They could bring their own pets in to show everyone their furry friends! There were loads of pets including: a slow tortoise, a gerbil, four dogs, guinea pigs (one of which was called Smasher), cats, rabbits and a bearded dragon called Stacey.

Maths The enthusiastic year ones have been practising their number bonds to 10. They also had been learning their 2, 5 and 10 times table. Some of the children find this particular task challenging but they persevered in the same way they did for their skipping.

Cooking Mrs Doorly’s class are probably going to be future chefs, as they have been doing a lot of delicious cooking and baking. They have cooked vegetable soup, animal biscuits and of course pancakes (food for the gods). But obviously the best bit was the eating!

Story Time In story time, Mrs Doorly would read books to her class. Because the topic was animals, she read animal stories. The stories included Little Ba, Animal, Floss, Little Red Hen, Emma’s Lamb and not forgetting Farmer Duck. They also acted these wonderful stories out. By Sam, Dan and Safie (6A)


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February 2013

Miss Stanley’s Class Each week Mrs Fitzgerald’s Class and Miss Stanley’s Class partner up and share activities. When they shared fact leaflets, the reception children had made some wonderful leaflets about penguins, which taught Year 2 about they care for their young.

Year 2 have been learning about fire; they have been reading ‘Tiger Child’ by Joanna Troughton. They went on to make face leaflets comparing tigers and cats. The children shared the part they were most proud of and tried to remember one fact.


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February 2013

Introduction Mrs Adelson’s class have been learning a lot last term. Here are some of the things they told us:  They have been learning about electricity; one of the children learnt not to play with wires.  Some of the children talked about materials, castles and the Fire of London.  They found some learning hard like: how to halve; changing quickly for P.E.; handwriting and Big Maths Beat That. Fire of London Their favourite things they have done was making little houses and burning them down to remake the Fire of London in miniature size. Here are some pictures of burning their houses down.


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February 2013

Dragon Stories 2C have been reading lots of books like Tiger Child, Bubble Blowing Dragon and Dragon Machine. You can really see how much they like their dragon stories. Here is one of the dragon stories they have written:

They had a busy term last half term especially writing dragon stories, art, model making, burning London houses, electricity, maths and learning the 5 times table. By Ollie (6A) and Yan (6B)


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February 2013

Mrs Slattery and Mrs Waller’s Class Earlier this week we visited Mrs

Next, we asked what their

Slattery and Mrs Waller’s class to

favourite lesson was. They replied:

talk to them about what they had

“Our favourite lesson was making

been doing last term. They had

the stir fry for Chinese new year.”

been learning about the great fire

The highlight of the term for the

of London and electricity. We are

children was when they made a

going to write about their best

London street out of paper and

moments and what they enjoyed

material and then burnt them.

throughout the term.

They watched a small flame

Most of the children enjoyed learning about the great fire of

gradually get bigger. They thought it was fantastic.

London because they enjoyed burning the paper house and writing a diary of Samuel Peeps. Other children enjoyed electricity more because they had to find out how to make circuits and how to build them. However, they found this challenging because there were so many choices on how to build the circuit. Also women came in and showed them a DVD about electricity. The children were

The children found year one easier and year two harder because of the English, Maths and they have to practise their times tables a lot more. They found this challenging. The habits of mind that they used were respecting others in what you do, thinking flexibly, persevering even when it is tough and taking responsible risks.

really glad that now they know how to keep safe with electricity. Mrs Waller wants the children to remember how to keep safe around electricity and wants the children to stay safe.

By Alice, Molly (6B) and Daisy (6A)


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February 2013

This term SSC1 have had a lot of fun doing exciting activities. This is what they have done: What were you learning about this term? They have worked really hard to build an aeroplane. The result was perfection!!! Also they’ve been listening to the story of the naughty bus. The story was about a bus that was up to mischief and they decided to test this. They found a little toy bus, put it on a table, told it to “stay still, naughty bus” and left it on the table overnight. When they came back the next day, the naughty bus had disappeared. They searched the school and do you know where they found the naughty bus? Well, they found him in Mo’s jelly!!! Naughty bus! You can find the book of Naughty Bus if you ask Mrs Ling. This book sounds a lot of fun! This term they have had a lot of fun but some things they found challenging. Most of them found catching a ball in P.E challenging . Lately they have been working independently and they have found that more difficult than working in a group, in a pair or with a helper. The highlight of the term so far for SSC1 is their parents coming in for Valentine’s Day. They made heart designed biscuits which they ate soon after. Yum Yum! SSC1 also made love bug lollies and they tasted scrumptious. By the sounds of things they have had lots and lots of pleasurable learning activities. By Alice (6B) and Eddie (6A)


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February 2013

Mrs Bowskill’s and Mrs Hardwicke’s Class When we were asked to write a newspaper article about a particular class it promised to be an exciting project due to the unknown class and anonymous questions. Visiting Mrs Bowskill’s room, we were enthusiastic about completing this task. The Snowman and the Snow Dog

Firstly, we asked the question: What were you learning last term? They replied that they had been studying The Snowman and The Snow Dog film by researching the years between the first film and the sequel. Although their main focus was on the latest film, they looked at how Raymond Briggs would get to your emotions, without sound. Another book they had read was The Lighthouse Keeper’s Lunch by Ronda and David Armitage, a topic that included a timeline. Their general attention centred on journeys. The class agreed that they found a recent lesson in doubling challenging as well as space week, which they enjoyed taking part in. Measuring the background for the timeline.

Their highlight appeared to be an adventure into modelling. Sticking true to their subject they built fantastic 3D lighthouses, capturing their height and famed red and white stripes. Another emphasis was placed upon some target rockets to show what they had achieved. Their teachers had decided that they wanted them to remember capital letters and full stops, something that we all have to remember when writing. They were also asked to follow instructions carefully.

Lighthouses

The Lighthouse Keeper’s Lunch and Cat were both favourites as topics for last term while the P.E lesson involving frames and mats took top place for the favourite lesson. Another enjoyed lesson, as the children described, was swimming. We really enjoyed speaking to SSC2 and loved writing this article. By Amy, Ellie and George (6A). 


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February 2013

Mr Guite’s Class (3A) French In French I most enjoy writing in French. We also play bingo it’s the same in English but you have to say it in French. For Christmas we had to draw a snow man and number the colours mine had ear muffs. It was fun when we drew a rainbow and wrote the colours in French. When we first went, Mrs Cook put on the board Bonjour la classe. By Holly (3A)

Teeth HEALTHY TEETH

TEETH How do you have clean teeth? To have clean teeth you should go to the dentist at least 1 time in 6 months. You should also not eat many sugary foods and definitely brush your teeth twice a day, morning and night .

Teeth brush Brush your teeth gently , and change your brush at least once in 3 months. Brush in a circular direction, softly , not leaving all the plaque behind.

What to eat ? Eat food with not much sugar in it , but you can eat some now and then . Chocolate, ice cream , lollies , milkshakes and sweeties have sugar in them.

PARTS OF YOUR TEETH

These are your canines . They are very sharp , as they help you tear your food . They are in the middle of your molars and incisors .

These teeth are your molars . They are at the back of your mouth. They help you grind your food .

These are your incisors .They help you slice your food. They are at the front of your mouth.

This is your enamel .It is the hardest part of your body . These are your roots. They hold the tooth into the gum.

By Asmee (3A)

These are your nerves .The blood gets carried through them to your tooth.


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February 2013

Mrs Cracknell’s Class (3B) We recently done a class assembly about forgiveness. We acted out the story of The Prodigal Son, William acted the part of the son. We sang a song by Kelly Clarkson called ‘I Forgive You’. 3B had to practise several times in class. I had two pieces to say, one was a lot shorter than the other. William had the most to say! By Evie Gilbert – 3B

Before half term we had an art lesson where we were learning how to sketch. We practised sketching by listening to different speeds of music and letting the pencil do the work. When we had learnt how to sketch we listened to a poem called ‘The Hippocrump’. Next we were able to design our own Hippocrump from the description, we did this in our sketchbooks. After that we drew them on a piece of paper and then were able to paint them whatever colours we wanted to. Zack Weir- 3B

On Shrove Tuesday we all got to make a pancake. We worked in a group of six. The ingredients we used were flour, eggs and milk, some oil for the pan and lemon and sugar as a topping. Everyone had a turn to mix the batter. We had to tidy up after ourselves and do the washing up too! Mrs Cook helped us to pour the mixture carefully into the pan and we watched it cook. We used a spatula to flip our pancakes. The best bit was eating them! By Jainie Prior- 3B


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February 2013

Art From the beginning of the year until now, 4B have studied three topics. Their favourite topic was Ancient Egyptians. They decorated some paper to make it look like real Egyptian work. These were beautifully coloured and designed. Here are some pictures to show you how wonderful they really are and how hard they worked. Books This year, 4B have read three books. This is what they are:

The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe

The Scarab’s Secret

Sky Sisters

PE In PE they were playing bench ball. It is their most favourite sport they have done so far and are very good at communicating with each other when play. Their teachers have said that when playing bench ball, the class work well in a team.

Assembly This class have had their first year 4 assembly and in it was lots of humour. They got into groups of four and had to be either Horrid Henry Family or The Simpsons Family. If you were there, you would have heard lots of laughter in the main hall. The class worked very hard on this assembly and used many things to make it interesting. Haven’t they worked hard this term and what a wonderful class they are? If any of you teachers have them in year 5 you will always have a smile on your face as they are amazing with team work, art and many other things. By Yasmin and Tom (6A)


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February 2013

Mrs Aldous’ Class (4A) PE This term we have learnt how to play football. Mrs Aldous class have been doing skills and matches. We liked about doing the penalties against the goalie. Archer and James

We have been doing football in P.E. It is our second week doing football because of the horrible conditions outside we have not been able to get outside to do it! We really want to do football more often. Oh when will the weather be better!? By Ethan To my astonishment this term we were doing football which is my favourite sport. First we did football skills it was very marvellous because we all worked as a team and at the end of P.E we did a penalty shoot-out just for fun! By Elliot and Tom

In class 4A we have been learning about Ancient Egypt. Mrs Aldous has been reading the Scarab’s Secret, which is based in Ancient Egypt. It’s about a scarab beetle that met a prince. When we finished the book we had to write the prince’s diary in our own way. We got to make our own Egyptian stories. I did my story about a scarab beetle called Pepi who lived in the famous sphinx and Caitlyn’s story was about a hand stealing the treasure in the tomb. We have enjoyed leaning about Ancient Egypt. By Blythe and Caitlyn


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February 2013

C.L.I.C and Big Maths Beat That Over this half term we have really enjoyed doing our C.L.I.C tests. Mostly all of us have moved up a level so that means we practise every chance that we have. A C.L.I.C test is a test where you have hard maths questions. You have questions like 71x17. Once you get used to the hard questions they get easier and easier. Also over this half term we have enjoyed doing Big Maths Beat That. Big Maths Beat That is a mental maths test where you have 42 questions to answer in a minute. A few people can answer all 42 questions in a minute. It is very hard to get all 42 but we try our best to get 42 questions right. Alix and Olivia

Art In art we have been doing hieroglyphics we learnt how to do our name in hieroglyphics. We liked doing it because we found out how to do different writing especially Egyptian’s writing. It was a lot of fun to do it. Georgia and Abigail


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February 2013

Mr Woodward’s Class (5A) Class 5A have been learning many things but their two main topics are Space and Victorians.

Victorians In their first term, they learnt about Victorians; how they dress, eat, sleep and live. Their school trip was to Christchurch Mansion and they played loads of games and activities with the Christchurch employees. They said that they really enjoyed their trip but some just enjoyed the ride. From the trip, they learned to appreciate how lucky they are compared to the poor children in Victorian times. Y5 had a special Victorian day when this man came in to talk to them about Victorians they all dressed up in a costume and they had Victorian foods. Lots of them had fun and they all enjoyed it.

Space In their second term they learnt about space as their topic so they made a painting of space and they made a class assembly about space in it was information about different planets so how hot they were or what the terrain is like on the planet.

Freedom Y5 find being older better because they have more opportunities to do things like swimming, activity week, competitions and many more things.

Habits of Mind Year 5 have persisted in their topic work when they could not find the right answer to the questions they were given about space. They also persisted in their non-chronological report because they had a limited amount of time to find the facts for their report. In science week, the year 5s used what they knew already to help them with the challenging activities. Overall, Year 5 have used most of the Habits of Mind to make sure they can learn all that they can in their lessons. By Bryony (6B) and Laurie (6A)


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February 2013

Introduction 5B had been learning countless things last half term because there are so many things that should be reported! We went to their class and asked the whole class about what they did and asked how they felt about their feelings were against that subject. Many people found all the subjects fun since Mr Trinder makes them enjoyable! 5B’s Main Topic Mr Trinder’s class had been doing a topic about Space. Ben said that he knew nothing about space, but then after science week, he knows lots! Many children said that their favourite part in science week was when they all went into the Astrodome! What they found challenging Federico reported that the swimming tests he had to do was hard and some other people said that their newspaper writing about aliens was hard because they had to understand the mystery carefully, so they could write it in their own words. They also found PopArt challenging because they had to be precise on their drawings. Habits of Mind they used When we went to their class to ask what Habits of Mind they used, they said: Managing Impulsivity, Being Accurate and Precise, Persevering, Using what you know in new situations, Thinking Flexibly, Asking Questions and Posing Problems. Their favourite lessons and is being in a higher year better or worse? Many people said a variety of things! These lessons included Maths, P.E., art, science and ICT. The year fives enjoys their learning very much. We also asked them whether they found being in a higher year better or worse; they all said BETTER! Trips The year fives went on a trip to the forest when it was snowing as a part of their suspense writing. Here are some photos:

By Rahul and Olivia (6A)


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February 2013

Mr Sampson’s Class (6A) Last half term, 6A were learning about heroes. In our heroes topic we have been writing a biography of a learning hero that inspires us. We have also been drawing the hero that inspires us and we used a variety of pastels and paint. We have also been doing a lot of measuring in maths and we even made a scaled down drawing of the classroom! We had lots of fun! Some people found measuring the classroom quite tricky because you had to be very accurate and precise. If you even made one little mistake on scaling down the classroom, you may have had to start all over again! Recently we have been reading a small but brilliant book called Clockwork. Although most of us vaguely remember the story, we do recommend it to you. The highlight of year 6 was hard for me to choose because we have done many amazing things. But I think the highlight of last half term was doing the portraits and biographies and working on our animated adventures. In animated adventures we had to create a story using Microsoft PowerPoint and use animation styles, sound, textboxes and the animated adventures resources area. We are still working on them and we are all really pleased with them. In our PE lessons we have been creating a dance routine in groups of 4 or 5. After deciding and practicing what to do in the dance routine we then performed to the class and on a video camera. The theme of our dance was about the solar system and many of us made shapes of meteors. If the dancers of that routine don’t mind then you can watch their performance. Despite doing Maths and English we have also been doing other lessons such as French. In French we have recently been doing a


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February 2013

speaking and listening test with our French teacher, Mrs Jablonski. This was to judge how well we can speak to other people in French. It was nerve-wracking, but fun! Recently we have been asking Year 6 what their favourite lesson was and why and we have been getting great responses. Here are some quotes: Laura: My favourite lesson is English because I love imaginative story writing. Thomas: My favourite lesson is ICT because I like making animated adventures and stories. Rohan: I love a variety of lessons but my favourite has to be maths because I like the problems and challenges. Grace: My favourite lesson is music because I like playing musical instruments and listening to the great tunes. We went round the class to find out if the people in Year 6 found being in Year 6 better or harder. The majority of the people thought that Year 6 was better because it challenges you further and you have more freedom. Last half term we have been using a variety of habits of minds but we were mostly using the habits “persisting” and “being accurate and precise.” One example of using these two habits is when we were making a scaled down drawing of the classroom. We had to be very accurate and persistent. Year 6 has had a busy half term but next half term we are hoping it is going to be even busier. By Rohan and Laura (6A)


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February 2013

Miss Downey’s Class (6B) Miss Downey’s class, 6B, have been doing lots of projects over the last term. This article will tell you about various clubs, lessons and other things they have done. 6B were studying heroes last term. In their assembly, they included information about heroes that had been famous for a range of things. Also in their assembly, they included a hero from a story, Krindlekrax, they had read and, Matthew, the class register challenge hero was also involved. The class really enjoyed doing the assembly. They

also really enjoyed Science Week. Science Week was a big challenge for the Year 6’s. “It was challenging and fun and something different to what has been done before,” says a Year 6 girl. As well as the general challenges that came with Science Week, the Year 6’s also had to help the younger children in their group. Even though it was tough, many people thought it was great and would jump at the chance to do it again. Several people in Year 6 take part in Change 4 Life,


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a club that gets Year 4 children and Year 6 children learning together. St. Helen’s school are new to Change 4 life, and 2 teachers will be visiting Gorseland to see how it is run here. This puts a lot of pressure on the Change 4 Life Year 6’s, as people from outside the School will be observing them.

February 2013

Year 6 is getting ready for High School. For them, it is only months away. “I feel worried about all the homework!” says Tash. Zoe says, “I’m excited about all the opportunities we will have.” Over the next few days, the Year 6’s will find out which High School they will be going to.

The children feel that now they are in a higher year they have more responsibility. Someone even said that at some clubs Mr Weatherby just sits back and lets us do all the work!

Miss Downey, the teacher of 6B, says that the thing she wants her class to remember the most from Year 6 is, “Give it everything you’ve got and be prepared to make sacrifices like our learning heroes.”

One of the biggest changes for children in

By Grace and Matthew (6B)


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February 2013

Learning Heroes Come To Life In Year 6 In Year 6 we have been making portraits and writing biographies of learning heroes and people who are a great inspiration to others. First, we had to do some homework where we had to think of a learning hero, find interesting things about their life and put them into a timeline. A couple of weeks later, we went step-by-step through the process of how to draw a good portrait. The steps were: How do you create a realistic portrait of a learning hero? Part 1: How do you draw portraits? Part 2: How do you mix the colour you need? How do you use a brush to bring the portrait to life? Part 3: Draw the outline Part 4: How do you bring the outline to life with colour?  Detailed hair with a mix of colours  Clear facial effects  Neat  Clearly Visible  Don't rush  Shading to show shadowy areas  Look carefully at the photo  Stroke the paint on to show the direction of the features. NO SCRUBBING So next time you would like to draw a portrait maybe you would like to use these steps. We got to choose if we wanted to work in partners or individually, also whether we wanted to trace or draw it free hand. Most people chose to trace. We also got to decide whether to use paint or pastels. With our partners or by ourselves we drew the outline of our learning hero. After everyone had finished their outline we all started to make the pictures come to life by using colours. Once we had finished we had to cut out a white background to go in the frame with our portrait and biography. We then started to write the biographies by using the homework we had done a couple of weeks before. When we had finished all of that, we had to put the portraits and biographies into a clean frame here are some comments from a few people:


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February 2013

Rahul: I found it awesome because it was a very good experience since we will probably never get to do it again. Ellie: I found it really challenging and fun but it was really annoying when the background went wrong. Bryony: I really enjoyed the art because we hadn’t done anything like this before. Lewis: It was ok but I thought it was going to be better. Holly: I thought it was really fun and I enjoyed working with Ellie and I think our portrait was really good once we had finished. Jack: I thought at the start that I was definitely not going to finish but I persevered and at the end I came out with a good David Beckham portrait

Mae Jemison

Martin Luther-King

David Beckham

By Zoe

By Holly and Ellie

By Jack

By Holly, Zoe and Jack (6A) This year’s learning heroes portraits and biographies will be published on the website soon. In the meantime, you could look at last year’s learning heroes here.


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February 2013

Key Stage Two on the Red Planet

Have you seen these posters? If you’re in Year 4, 5 or 6 you’ll know what it’s all about, but if you’re not sure what this is, then read on!

Years 4, 5 and 6 were all jumbled up into six different classrooms, each named after a different constellation- Draco, Pegasus, Ursa Minor, Ursa Major, Perseus and Canis Major. These might not mean much to you, but the stars in the constellations are most important. Each group was named after a star, and in the Stars we had six questions to answer: Monday was a very controlled, relaxed day, but very interesting all the same. People were very excited to find out who would be in their group, as no two people from the same class were in the same group! Laura in class 6A says that, ‘Learning about food chains was probably the best part of the day, because you got to find out how the


The Gorseland Times

February 2013

cycle works.’ Once we had found out all the required information, we had to choose how to present it. The only way we couldn’t show our information was with a PowerPoint Presentation. On Tuesday morning, 15 groups were scheduled for building GeoDomes and the other 15 were scheduled to make K’Nex structures. The idea was that after lunch the groups would swap around, but the GeoDomes overran! Ellie, 6A, gives her opinion on Tuesday; “It was really hard but really fun! I’m glad we could have the whole day to finish the GeoDome rather than just the morning.” Grace, 6B, who was doing K’Nex, says, “It was challenging but great fun!” In order to give the groups a chance to experience everything, Wednesday was partly K’Nex and Geodomes, and also generating electricity. Grace, 6A, thinks that it was good to have Wednesday as another structure day. Thursday was packed with things to do- the pressure to finish things was climbing, and there wasn’t much patience left. A visitor from BT, Mr Shultz, helped us with Communication. We had to find out how cordless phones, cord phones, email, television, IPods and iPads worked, and how they got forecast information and news. By Friday, everyone was getting worked up about the big presentation that afternoon. Absolutely everything had to be finished by 2:45, including a NEW project- HOW ARE WE GOING TO GET THERE? It was pressurizing and exhausting, but overall it was a fantastic week! Reported By Maddy Wheeler, 6A Click on the logo below to visit the Mission to Mars page


The Gorseland Times

February 2013

On the 5th of February Gorseland’s athletics team competed in the county finals in Stowmarket. It began with a bad start because the coach driver turned up late with only 10 minutes to get there. When they eventually got there they were greeted by a sarcastic clap. After a quick warm up, the competition began. The first event was the girl’s obstacle relay. This involves going over steps, hurdles, jumping off a bounce board then running all the way back and tagging the next athlete on the back. While the girls were doing the obstacle relay, the boys were focusing on their field events. In the field events they could participate in vertical jump, standing long jump, standing triple jump, chest push and speed bounce. The boys and the girls did exactly the same races: the obstacle relay, the over and under relay, 1x1 relay, 2x2 relay and the 6lap parlauf. All of the activities were timed events, which was how they scored the points.


The Gorseland Times

February 2013

Finally it came to that moment: The results were announced. The man said “in 4th place is Gorseland Primary School.� Some of us were happy, some of us were not. The competition was over. All of the athletes went back to school and told everyone where they came. Although we came 4th, the school was still happy with their efforts.

By Joe & Louis (6A)


The Gorseland Times

February 2013

On the 24th of January 2013, Gorseland Primary school took part in a 5 a side basketball tournament at Kesgrave high school. 9 teams took part, and they were divided into two different pools, pool A and pool B. Gorsland were in pool B along with 3 other schools. Gorseland managed to ease past Bucklesham with a 20 – 0 victory. Gorseland went on to win their next match 14-0! Then finally, Nacton managed to stop them, drawing 4 – 4, but there was a bit of a controversial moment when Gorseland thought they scored, but unfortunately the referee didn’t count it. 8 people from Gorseland took part in the basketball Tournament they were Matt G, Dan, Charlie, Safie, Lewis, Bryony, Natasha and Matthew They all worked really hard. Then it came to the finals and yet again Cedarwood were the team who we met in the final. After a feisty encounter, Team Gorseland managed to take the win once again! By crushing Cedarwood 6 - 0.

By Matt and Charlie (6A) This victory has taken the basketball team towards the County finals on 21st March.


The Gorseland Times

February 2013

Thank you for reading The

The next issue will be about the second half of the Spring Term 2013. Would you like to contribute an article? Speak to Mr Sampson, Miss Downey or Mr Weatherby.

Email: asampson@gorseland.net sdowney@gorseland.net sweatherby@gorseland.net


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