Chaffinch
summer term spelling lists
Spelling ideas - your half term spellings are sent home to support your child with the weekly spellings. These ideas may help.
Timestables - multiplication and division expectations in Chaffinch Class
Year 3 Reading advice booklet
Year 4 reading advice booklet
We ended our Spring Term with Design Technology making Egyptian Treasure boxes. What great results.
Ancient Egypt day was a great combination of Egyptian maths, writing hieroglyphics, Egyptian food technology, drama,and music with a grand finale of a museum. Fantastic cross curriculum learning.
Spring Chickens awe and wonder
Sharing our news reports with Bullfinch class 😍
RE: we started our lesson on baptism with a bowl of dirt and grime to represent life's bad choices. We realised we could clean the outside with cloths and water but sometimes it's harder to clean our hearts when we have done something wrong. We talked about how Christians use baptism and communion as a sign of acceptance and forgiveness of past sins .
We learnt how the ancient Egyptians built pyramids then we re-enacted the experience of one of the workers to explore emotions associated with the people of that time. It was a great active afternoon!
Exploring fractions with small tiles has really helped us to find equivalent fractions.
Pancake flipping and tasting was the perfect way to enjoy some cross-curricular learning today. We learnt all about Lent and Jesus' temptation in the desert before tasting our favourite pancake toppings, collecting the data and turning into charts using our computing skills.
We started a new unit of writing newspaper reports all about our visiting chickens today. It was great to have a real experience to write a report about.
Stay and Read 📚🤩📚
Reading Challenge Spring Time
Ancient Egypt home learning grid
We designed our own bedrooms today then calculated the perimeter of each shape. Great to see maths in action.
An Egyptian dance showing how the pyramids were constructed
English: we read our Egyptian Cinderella stories to each other today and loved hearing how we had all made our characters come to life with adjectives, adverbs and similes. We were also trying to start our sentences in different ways and agreed that the stories were all the better for it.
Today we enjoyed a pilgrimage around the school grounds as part of our RE learning. For photographs and more information, please click the link then scroll down to RE photographs.
Our lunchtime clubs are really popular: gardening, chess, boardgames, choir, colouring or times tables. Lots to engage everyone 😁
Making canopic jars to support our learning about ancient Egypt. We needed lots of resilience but I think you'll agree the results are fantastic 😍
Active movement: today we launched our active movement initiative with an assembly all about the benefits of moving throughout the day. We started by completing an online survey to see if we made progress over the year. Chat with your children about the benefits of standing up and moving rather than sitting down.
Y4 spelling for this half term (Jan-Feb 2A) and next half term (Feb - Mar 2B)
Y3 spellings for this half term (Jan-Feb 2A) and then next half term (Feb - March 2B)
In RE we debated the value of going on a pilgrimage. Questions such as Why? Where? When and How? were answered. We gave our opinion on whether or not we would like to go on a pilgrimage and if you even had to travel to be a pilgrim. Everyone had good ideas and opinions. Why not ask one of us what we think?
This is the expanded method we use to calculate 1 Digit x 2 Digit
Another friendly visit to Warren Lodge care home 🥰
Today we were learning how yoga stretches can help our bodies and our minds. Thank you Sam for your interesting, creative and relaxing lesson 🧘♂️🧘♀️🧘
We've been learning how to divide ➗ 2 digit numbers by a single digit. Great work y3.
First aid training: now we know how to assess for hazards, call for help and put people into the recovery position if they're unresponsive. We also learnt how to put support slings on and how to stop a flow of blood to an open wound.
Partner work to edit our writing.
We learnt a new formal method of multiplication today. We multiplied a two-digit number by a one-digit number. First, we used equipment to represent tens and ones. Then we drew a representation on our whiteboards before moving on to be able to calculate mentally.
The Newbury showground education team visited school today to talk to us about healthy breakfast choices, animal welfare and understanding more about where our food comes from. It was both very educational and entertaining and I'm sure you'll agree from the photos, the children enjoyed their hands-on learning!
Email sent 13.1.25
We would like to welcome you all back to school after the Christmas Break. It has been great to see the children again, to hear all their news and share in their excitement of the learning we have planned this term.
Curriculum: The curriculum overview is attached so you can see the areas we cover in Spring term, and the outcomes by topic. (This will also on our class page on the website for future reference). Our class page will be updated shortly with photos and news of the first few days back and we hope you enjoy seeing the broad variety of learning your children undertake, as well as how they enjoy play and free time with friends. To find the class page log onto https://www.finchampsteadschool.org and select learning , class information , class page , Chaffinch. Also, please keep an eye on the school diary as there will be lots of opportunities for you to come into school and learn with Chaffinch this term and work alongside your children (dates tbc).
Home learning: This term’s home learning continues: reading, talking about books and completing the reading diary with both the Reading Challenge books and much loved family favourites; spelling the weekly patterns and related words; practicing times tables for fluency (speed and accuracy). The free choice grid on Ancient Egypt will be sent home around February half-term.
Parent Partnership: You may have seen in the newsletter this week that we would like to begin some parent partnership work to gain more awareness of your views on areas such as attendance, behaviour, communication etc. If you would be interested in sharing a little of your time and your opinions, please let me know by return email or a call. Also, we are always keen to have parent volunteers for daily reading and other support tasks in school. If you can regularly spare 20-60 minutes as week (around drop off or pick up) to work in Chaffinch or another class please let me know.
Thank you for your support and we look forward to a great term’s learning.
With love,
The Chaffinch Team
The Chaffinch team would like to thank you all wholeheartedly for your love and support this autumn term and for the kind gifts, cards and messages of appreciation. It means a lot to know that you appreciate us.
Christmas love made visible 😍
Design Technology: Food. We really enjoyed investigating, designing, making and evaluating healthy choice sandwiches. Some ingredients were more successful than others but there was great learning all round.
We have been learning about money in our life skills lessons this term, especially where it comes from, how we choose to spend it and the mental health associated with those choices. It was wonderful to welcome one of our parents as part of this learning to talk about her job as an accountant. The children enjoyed problem solving and using accountancy skills to help a baker decide whether to make more mince pies or turkey sandwiches. Great fun with very valuable learning at the same time.
Getting ready for Christmas lunch by making our hats 😀
Designing a fantasy sandwich at the start of our Design Technology topic
Final rehearsal and our costumes are looking great 👍
An amazing celebration of all things Roman! The children, confidently and excitedly shared their learning on Romans in Britain, linking their learning in history to work in maths, art, music, life skills, and English. It was wonderful to share it with so many families and to perform to a live audience. Thank you all for coming!
Roman biscuits! 😋 Yum 😋
It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas in Chaffinch Classroom 😍🎄
We're making Christmas music 🎶
Our class assembly was lead by y6 children today. We thought about what we could let go: pain, sadness, falling out, bad dreams AND what we wanted more of: love, friendship, playtime and food to share. We also thought about people in our family who had died, sometimes even before we'd met them and how their memories still live on like ripples in a pool. It was lovely to pause in the busyness of the day.
Y4 are working on the 7 x table. Y3 on 3 and 4 x tables.
We have started a new maths unit - multiplication and division. Today we were using manipulatives to find the factors or 20, 12 and 15. We heard lots of good explanations and reasoning about what was happening in each case.
After thinking careful about a sentence structure of adjective, noun, verb and similie, we wrote beautiful poetry to commemorate Remembrance Day.
Roman Home Learning Grid - your choice!
Spellings for November and December 2024 - Y3 and Y4
Autumn Harvest Celebration at Wellington College: We tasted several apple varieties, watched a recipe demonstration for crumble and beetroot brownies, heard the tale of Jonny Appleseed, went on a colour walk and examined different squash. It was wonderful to be outside in the autumn sunshine 🍁🍂🌰🍄🍁
Card games are a great way to learn times tables
More fun building community at Warren Lodge
Melody from Warren Lodge explained about dementia to our children through the use of memory games and a questions and answers session. There was a lot of empathy, care and love shown by the class today. We love our visits to the Care Home and understanding more about dementia has made it even more worthwhile.
Times table practice
Our weekly visit to Warren Lodge Care Home is a wonderful way for children to build confidence and conversation skills, as well as dementia awareness, while spreading happiness to the residents. Always a joyful time.
Science and the Digestive System.
Chaffinch have been learning about the digestive system, the names of the different parts and their functions. We tried an experiment using Weetabix and orange juice to simulate how our bodies process the food we eat.
Mandala Art
When the weather makes outdoor art challenging, Chaffinch show great resilience and creativity as they continue exploring their work on patterns using maths equipment and various materials indoors. They create some wonderful mandalas.
We love our lunchtime ♟️ chess club ♟️
As part of our history topic on the Roman Empire, we looked at the importance of Roman roads. Then we marvelled at the engineering involved in making this impressive network of roads. No wonder they are still around 2000 years later. We made cross sections of the roads.
We enjoyed working at the outdoor tables today. To see what we did, please follow the link to our learning page then click on maths. The photos are at the bottom of the page on the photos tab .
Active learning about the miracles of Jesus
Welcome back to school everyone! We're really excited for this term to be teaching you all maths, reading, writing and all the other exciting subject areas. You will find the full curriculum overview on the next page - The Roman Legacy is the main theme.
Please don't hesitate to speak to us at pick up if you have any questions. Also, you will find lots of helpful information on the attached document.
Start of term
European conference: bringing together all the curriculum in an exciting and purposeful event. Thanks to our wonderful parent group for all the support 🙏❤️
DT project: shell structure with electric circuit. We made European landmarks to fit with our geography topic. Can you spot the Leaning Tower of Pisa, the Arc de Triumph, the Royal Albert Hall, Big Ben , Blaney Castle and the White Church of Iceland to name just a few of these incredible structures.
Poetry and rhythm performances 😍🙌
Connecting to our world through the arts from collage, letters to the new Prime Minister and retelling of traditional tales Chaffinch Class had great ideas 💡
A great start to our arts week as we connected to our bodies through percussion 🪇
Active maths: a great way to learn coordinates and translation
Celebrating the Spring tradition of Maypole dancing. So joyful 🥰
Science Rocks! We had a wonderful science lesson exploring our local area for the three types of rock: igneous, sedimentary and metamorphic. Then we considered their usage in buildings etc. We explored with magnifying glasses, tape measures, and pipettes to look at their texture and explore how porous they were. Finally, we explored a fascinating picture book that showed us all about the world beneath our feet as we dig deeper and deeper towards the earth's core. .
Vikings!
Invitation to our Learning Event March 26th 2024
Chaffinch Viking Day—Tuesday 26th March 2024
We will travel back in time, for the whole day, to understand more about how the Vikings cooked, built homes, communicated and spent their ‘leisure’ time. Please dress warmly for outdoor learning in lots of layers and clothes you don’t mind getting dirty. If you would like to dress as a Viking, that would be great, but you will also need a waterproof jacket etc as lots of the learning will take place outside.
Also, and very importantly, we would like to invite parents and or grandparents /family members etc to join us for our Spring Family Learning Event from 2.30pm to learn alongside the children and share in their enjoyment. Please let us know if you can attend so we can prepare accordingly. Thank you.
Art -Weaving
Viking Art
Home Learning Spring Term 2024
Celebrating World Book Day
Design Technology: linkages, levers, pivots and pop-ups in our own river fact books.
We made a never ending landscape of rivers showing key facts from major rivers of the world. English, geography and art combined 😁
Rivers: we had the privilege of hearing from a real life explorer, Sandra, who told us all about her time in Papua New Guinea with people who lived on and in the River Sepik. It was so interesting to see the photos and the artefacts.
The power of prayer: Mrs Fox shared her views on prayer and the children asked some very interesting and insightful questions.
October 2023: we really enjoyed showing our river dance to Bullfinch Class. They loved seeing our interpretation and spotted lots if features in our dance such as waterfalls, pools, bridges, rapids and the mouth. Our favourite feedback was "It was a feast for the eyes!"
October 2023: today was our Geography Field Trip to the River Pang. We measured the flow the width and the depth of the river. We also looked at the habitat and creatures in the area. It was an amazing day full of awe and wonder!
Science: look what we found in the garden during our invertebrates hunt...
Welcome to Chaffinch September 2023
September 2023 - Making rivers to learn new vocabulary
September 2023 - year 3 are representing numbers up to 1000 in lots of different ways.
Pneumatic systems in action: as part of our design technology leaning about using air in a linea system, we explored stomp rockets in the park. Once I'd figured out the construction, we had a blast!
Using our pneumatic systems to make models of Finchampstead wildlife move.
July 2023: we had a very productive sports day practice today. Lots of good team spirit and enjoyment as we ran, jumped and threw our way through the afternoon😁
Chaffinch Scarecrow Sculptures. Thank you for supporting Chaffinch with the equipment for our Sculptures Art Project. We have had great fun constructing our scarecrows today.
What a wonderful day at Moor Green Lake Nature Reserve! We learnt so much about all the insects and pond life as well as birds and bats! Active outdoor learning at it best.
Quiet contemplation 🌿 June 2023 🌿 We are learning how to help our body and mind relax by finding space in the busy timetable for relaxation and reflection. Such a beautiful place to practice 😊
RE May 2023: Understanding Hinduism. Today we learnt more about puja and murtis. We enjoyed exploring a puja tray in the classroom.
Our class book for Summer Term is Danny the Champion of the World. We had fun finding out what we were reading with a taste of pheasant, a feather 🪶 and our own book to read. I wonder where our discussion will take us?
Ancient Egyptian Day: A RECOUNT FROM THE DAY: On Thursday 23rd March, I took part in an amazing day in Chaffinch Class when my friends and I all went back in time to ancient Egypt. It was one of the most fun learning activities I have ever done in school and I think I will remember it forever. We were even allowed to come to school dressed up in Egyptian costumes. When I walked into the classroom, it had been transformed into the inside of a magical pyramid. The walls were golden brown and cushions and cloths covered the floor. There was even a camel in the middle of the room. I thought my eyes were tricking me, and my nose too because the scent of roses and jasmine filled the air.
We met Shelby the tortoise so we could learn about this reptile and write our news reports.
History - Do you know how to mummify a tomato? We explored the Ancient Egyptian way of preserving a body
Christmas lanterns for our contemplative walk through school🕯️
Roman's in Britain learning celebration Dec 22
Countdown to Christmas! Our performance was magnificent.
In Food Technology we have been investigating, designing, planning, making and evaluating a healthy sandwich. We had great fun making and tasting our own lunch and then enjoyed our creations in the classroom.
An Autumn Celebration at Wellington College Nov 22
Our 'eggsperiment': looking at the impact of sugar and acid on a substance similar to tooth enamel.
In Science we have been learning about the digestive system and the functions of each stage. (October 22)
Today we walked to church to remember our Queen. We prayed, lit a candle and thought deeply about the difference one person can make in the world.
Parent Information Evening 14 September 2022
Thankfulness - September 2022
We have been thinking about our value of thankfulness. Here all all the things we are thankful for:
- we can learn with our friends
- our teachers are kind and caring
- all the fun learning we do
- the resources that help us to learn
- everyone is so welcoming
- everything in Chaffinch!
- our friends look after each other
- we go on lots of trips in Chaffinch
- we get to learn new things all the time
- we can use new equipment
- there are always friends waiting to help us
- we have beautiful plants in our classroom and our gardens
- learning is fun
Autumn Term 2022 - we have had a lovely few days getting to know all our new teachers and classmates in Chaffinch. We have been reading The Planet in a Pickle Jar by Martin Stanev and have made our own jars full of all the things we'd like to preserve for our grandchildren's grandchildren's grandchildren. What would you preserve? .
Swimming survival skills: June 2022.
Follow this link to see photos of us in the water 💧
Check out some active photos of our learning on the RE photo page - we acted out the parable of the workers in the vineyard (May 2022). Follow this link:
Philosophy for children: the present 🎁 we all wrote questions based on the film.
Questions generated:
Should you judge people by how they look?
Why are some people mean to animals?
Can gifts make you feel better about yourself?
Do computer games make people angry?
Do pets make people happy?
Do video games make you mad?
How does playing outside help people?
Can we treat living things the same even though they have disabilities?
Can animals help people feel calm and happy?
How can animals help you?
Why do people hurt others over their looks?
Can animals help humans?
Why do we feel better when we find someone or something else the same as us?
Not Philosophical: Why did the boy hurt the dog? Does the boy not like the dog with a missing leg?
Chosen: How can animals help people? Is it fair to the animal?
The class had a really interesting debate about how animals can help people in roles such as police dogs, sniffer dogs, guide dogs, messenger dogs and pigeons in wartime, therapy pets and general pets at home. Horses can get you places and are used for enjoyment. Also, we talked about how adopting animals in the wild (tigers in India or orangutans in Borneo) can help people take care of the planet and be responsible. Should we eat animals? Some animals are bread to do a job so is it better that they are born to help people rather than never live at all. Animals can be bored if they're not doing interesting things, or if they’re not with people, so letting them use their natural talents is the kindest thing to do. All animals should just be free and not be pets but…would they starve to death then and what if they needed a vets help?
Design Technology April 2022- Viking Money Pouches
Family learning event April 2022
Viking day 2022 - we ended our learning about the viking Invasion and Anglo Saxon life with an exciting day where we cooked, built and performed to embed our learning.
Chicks and Easter symbolism. We have been thinking about the link between Easter and Passover. Eggs play an important role in both festivals. It was so special to have a visit from a chicken and her chick 🐤
Mental health champion training March 2022: we learned why mental health matters, discussed a wide vocabulary of feelings and emotions, played games to help us role play how to help others and learned strategies to help us help ourselves and the wider community. Such a valuable day and important certificate to achieve.
World book Day celebrations March 2022 included reading, acting, art, pe and fun fun fun. What a wonderful celebration of books!
A Healthy Breakfast is so important. Now we know what to make , how to make it and where it comes from. Thank you to the West Berkshire Farming and Agriculture team for leading this exciting workshop.
We are enjoying reading How to Train Your Dragon by Cressida Cowell and have been inventing our very own species of dragons. Do you like our fact files?
Merry Christmas 2021!
Advocacy Week. On our first day we found out more about what was happening with waste and why it matters. Then we each planned our own response. Here's some of what we got up to:
A special class assembly on self control today (22.11.21). ❤️
Rivers in Action
We had an active and exciting lesson on river terms today as we made our own river in the playground. We watched in amazement as all the features appeared before our eyes. It was a great way to learn terms such as confluence, tributary, delta, source, mouth and meander. We even built dams to cause flood plains.
Reflections on Remembrance Day
Lots of ideas to support reading in KS2
River Pang field trip with pond dipping, tractor rides and bug hunts. October 2021
We had several moments of awe and wonder as we harvested the seeds from our beautiful sunflowers.
Amazing focus! You could have heard a pin drop in our hot write today.
X tables are fun to learn. We used a number stick to encourage fluency in the 8 X tables
Harvest festival fun!
We enjoyed using our dictionaries and tablets to research exciting new vocabulary 😍📖
Thank you to all the children who stood for election on our School Council this week. We were impressed by your confidence, kindness and passion to make a positive difference in our school. Well done to you all! (9.9.21)
Welcome to Chaffinch Class Autumn 2021
DT - Pop Up Books with V folds, box folds, levers, flaps, doors and tabs. You're in for a treat when you see what they have produced. So much concentration.
6th July 2021 - This is the day…
We took Chaffinch class up the path to the church,
Sang a song which made the sun come out,
Made ‘rejoice’ artwork on the green,
Had a cupcake treat
Sang another song to make the sun come out,
Felt the calm and peace of the church inside,
Explored the lost gardens … and learned how wasps protect their nest🥴,
Ate our perfect picnic lunches,
Before hiking to the luscious lavender farm and back to school ….just in time to avoid the sudden downpour that had held off all morning!
… we will rejoice and be glad in it!🤗
Sports day practice...a few hurdles but then it was in the bag!
Learning to bowl in our PE lesson 30/06/21
Philosophy for Children - 21 June 2021
We had a really thoughtful morning thinking about the 40 days Jesus spent in the desert after he was Baptised and how he was tempted by the Devil. We thought really carefully, in small focus groups, and came up with several great philosophical questions before choosing one for our whole class discussion.
Our question was:
Why is temptation in the world and is temptation really the Devil or just a voice in your head.
Our discussion was fascinating and we wonder if you would like to talk about this with your friends and family at hone?
Excited About Reading.
Chaffinch have had a lovely start to the afternoon sharing their new Reading Challenge books with a reading partner. We focused on bringing the story alive with expression and asking each other questions. It was wonderful to see their obvious enthusiasm for all the books.
Celebrating Ascension Day at St James' Church
Exploring Dahl books May 2021
We worked together to explore lots of different books and express our opinions. We looked at our likes and dislikes, what was similar, what was unique and encouraged each other to try new new books.
By working together like this, we learn new vocabulary, interlink our thinking and create a new shared understanding. It's also fun. 😁
Science in action
Our Locality - 11 May 2021
Today we were 'secret geographers'. We had to read a map, navigate to our secret location, record human and physical geographical features and then report back to our class so they could guess our location.
Secret Geographer Work in Action
5th May 2021 - planning our descriptive writing of a Minpin's journey
29/04/21 a special science and art afternoon today! We looked really carefully at all the separate parts of a flower and then drew them as botanical sketches/paintings..
Contemplative walk - before the five minute walk we used these adjectives to describe the mood in the classroom: busy, exciting, loud, friendly, happy, shouty, silly and distracted. After the walk, we talked about feeling calm, focused, happy, friendly, belonging, cool and refreshed ; as well as saying we were much more able to think about our learning and some of us even talked about our brain ' feeling clear ' and 'our mental health being stronger'. This just shows the power of connecting with nature, even if only for five minutes each day.
26.04.21 We showed some great learning behaviours today as we built our toolkit to write an engaging and exciting setting in English: responsible, resilient, resourceful and reflective thinking from the whole class. I can't wait to read your settings later in the week...
1st April 2021 - class assembly all about forgiveness with a fantastic link to the Easter Story. We wish you all a joyful Eastertide.
Welcome to our Ancient Egyptian Day 30 March 2021
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We have worked hard today:
What do you think we learnt while having all this fun?
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mint, garlic and cucumber dip with flatbread
An afternoon of Egyptian fun 30.03.21
