Chaffinch

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!🤗

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. 

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.  😁

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.  

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...

Welcome to our Ancient Egyptian Day 30 March 2021

English WC 8.3.21

Over the next few weeks, we will be studying news paper articles in our English lessons.  Starting with the features of a newspaper, we will then move on to journalist skills of questioning and note taking before studying headlines, puns and wordplay, quotes and opinions based on a news report of the short animation ' Spy Fox'.  If you have a news paper at home, or access to the children's newspaper First News or BBC Newsround online, it would be great to support our class learning by reading and talking about news reports together.  

Summer 2020 - our final message for the Summer Term: 

Happy Holiday Birthday wishes go to Lily, Amelia, Jude and Finley!

We hope you all enjoy your summer break and come back to school refreshed and re-energised in September. As some of you have asked for some guidance on resources to keep things ticking over through the summer, we have posted some resources to  help.  These are completely optional.  You can also continue to log on to Purple Mash, Education City, TTRS and Read Theory if you wish to. 

Take care and enjoy the break. xx

Chaffinch Home Learning 13.07.20

Dear Chaffinches

this is our last week of learning for this year and I have a special message for you:

We're so very proud of you  

And we just want you to know

That although our year was cut short

It was wonderful watching you grow

We've loved being your teachers

And we've missed your smiling face

But the memories we have made this year 

Will never be erased

Wading along the chalk bed river

Celebrating Harvest at Wellington

Learning our spellings and times tables

Has all been so much fun!  

The most important lesson though

To last your whole life through

Is to know that you are special

Just because you are you!  

We will see you all in September.  Some of you will be in Chaffinch, and some in Goldfinch, but which ever class you're in remember to work hard, try your best and be kind.  We're  sending each of you a great big hug!

with love, Mrs Dodds, Mrs Gan, Mrs Coulson and Mrs Farrell xxx

Chaffinch Home Learning for week commencing 06.07.20 

Hello Cheerful Chaffinches - we hope you are well and ready for your penultimate week of home learning. 

Let's start by  wishing Jessica a very Happy Birthday for this week - another summer birthday to celebrate!  We hope you have a fabulous day Jess!

Mrs Gan and Mrs Coulson have welcomed many of you back to school over the last couple of weeks and have told me that you've listened well, worked hard and really enjoyed your time in school.  That's fantastic news and we all hope you continue to enjoy your learning as we approach the end of term.  This week there is less directed work on the website: 

• A whole school focus on healthy eating with a project on picnic planning  - incorporating Maths and English.
• Finishing off our Rocks, Fossils and Soil planning
• Maths - please keep practicing your times tables
• English - spelling (see last week's summary of the key stages) and reading regularly

As always try your best and do what you can.  Keep smiling. 

Chaffinch Home Learning 29 June 2020

Hello everyone and welcome to this week's home learning...we have some great ideas planned for you this week.    Let's start by wishing three gorgeous Chaffinches a very Happy Birthday: Ethan Hu, James and Bethany.  We hope you each have a very special day!

As Mrs Vanstone's newsletter mentioned, many parents are finding this time difficult, especially as lockdown lengthens.  The most important thing is our health and wellbeing so we can hopefully  return in September ready, energised and determined.  This week we have planned learning as listed below but know many of you are enhancing this with your self initiated learning and / or only completing some of the work.  This is absolutely fine and we really enjoy hearing what you've focused on.  Please share your learning with us.  Here's a summary of our planned work:

• Maths - the last unit of our booklets can be completed this week.  The teaching slides will help you make the most of the exercises in the workbook.  As always, please practice times tables.
• English - no set work this week other than a summary of the year's spellings and the reading/comprehension in the rock topic slides.
• Science - focus on soils, worms and mud!
• Music - singing for wellbeing
• PE - Friday would have been Sports day so instead we will be competing virtually this year.  There is also a short exercise on the Olympic Values - Not the winning but the taking part. 

Enjoy the week and may the best team win sports day!  

Chaffinch Learning 22.06.20

Hello again cheerful Chaffinches - how are you all?  This week includes Midsummer Day or St John's Day on 24th  June 2020.  It's hard to believe we're in the middle of summer because the view from my window as I write this is grey, gloomy and wet.  I'm imagining all your smiling faces to brighten up my day.  

I hope you're ready for some more interesting learning...this week we're finishing off our Talk for Writing booklets, our maths topics on mass or shape and our spelling programme.   Keep practicing your times tables and reading regulary too please.  We  are also continuing with our Rock topic and I know from your emails, photographs and telephone conversations that you're enjoying this creative topic.  Some of you are even extending your own learning in this area and linking it to our other topics -  such as rivers, or healthy eating or famous artists - which is just lovely to see -  so resourceful!  It's also been great to see you inspire your siblings or other family members to join you in your learning.  There are some great photos in our gallery this week where brothers or sisters are working alongside you, or family members are taking you on shape or rock hunts around your area - there's even a rock collection from outside Winchester Cathedral!

We have no birthdays to celebrate this week but I wanted to end this message with a very thoughtful prayer,  celebrating our  wonderful world, written in response to the RE learning on the creation story this week:

Dear God our Father,

We are very thankful for everything you have made in our world. 

We are thankful for the amazing forests, the jungles, the deciduous trees and the tiny plants. 

The rocky mountains are high and the oceans are vast. 

How did you create all these beautiful things?  

Please help us to look after our environment and care for all your animals – big and small. 

Make us strong enough to do it all.

You are truly amazing!

Amen

Take care of yourselves and your loved ones.  Enjoy your learning and please keep in touch. xx

Home learning - week commencing Monday 15th June 2020

Hello again Chaffinches,

We hope you're all well and looking forward to your learning.  Thank you for all your emails and messages - we have even managed to talk to some of you, or your parents, on the phone this week .  It was great to hear how you're all being positive and responsible learners - learning lots of new life skills too such as pet care, baking or gardening.  Well done Chaffinches!  It sounds like you're enjoying our Rocks, Fossils and Soils topic; so make sure to share this week's learning via the parent email so we can put it in the gallery.   

Jack has sent some new jokes:

What  do you call a rock that never goes to school?

A skipping stone.

What do rocks eat?

Pom-a-granite!

What did the boy volcano say to the girl volcano?

I really lava you!

After that, I think we should get on with our learning - all listed below as usual - but remember you also have purple mash and education city (your choice of activities)  Read Theory and Timetables Rockstars.   We haven't sent any links or ideas for PE this week but would love to see some photos of you keeping fit.  What exercise did you enjoy the most?  What unusual things did you do?  What made you the happiest or the most tired? Please send your responses to finchparents@finchampstead.wokingham.sch.uk

Have fun, be kind, be resourceful

Monday 8th June 2020 - Chaffinch home learning

Hello again cheerful Chaffinch children.  How are you?  I hope you're well and enjoying our new Stone topic.  We have more interesting activities planned for you on Rocks, Soils and Fossils as well as your usual maths and english learning. 

Thank you for the great photographs and work you've sent through the parent email.  It's always great to see what you're working on - some are displayed in our gallery so you can see your friends too.   Keep on sending them in!

I'm delighted to say we have four more birthdays to celebrate this week.  Please join me in wishing a great BIG HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Mrs Farrell,  Elyssa, Ethan Ha and Isla H.  We hope you have a great day celebrating with your families.  

To finish, I thought I'd share one of my 'rock' jokes.  It might be more for your parents really but here goes:  What's a geologists favourite band?   -   The Rolling Stones.     Urghhhhhh.   I hope you have a funnier rock joke.  If so, please email it to me on the parents email.  

Be happy, be kind and be safe - we miss you all!

Monday 1st June 2020 - 'Rockin Rocks'

Hello lovely Chaffinch children, we hope you are all well and have had a great half term.  Welcome back to your home learning for this week.  

Let's start with a wishing Jake and Rebecca a very very HAPPY BIRTHDAY!  We hope you have a fun time celebrating with your families

This term's learning is very exciting and our foundation subjects are based on our Science topic of Rocks,Fossils and Soils.  Each week, as well as your usual maths and English activities, we will give you a title for the week and suggested activities.  You can complete the  suggested learning and / or others of your own choice related to the topic. Please feel free to take photos, do any extra activities that you enjoy and put your work together in a booklet or folder. You will then be able to look back on this folder in future years and enjoy all the amazing learning you did. 

As always, we would love to see photos of you having fun and enjoying the different activities so we can share them with your classmates.  

We hope you enjoy the topic and remember … be kind and have fun!