Year 6

Year 6 have just returned from a very sunny week at Mersea Activity Centre in Essex. They completed lots of new and exciting activities that really challenged them. After successfully completing their team building challenges, the children were asked to work collaboratively to build a go - cart using the materials provided. Every group succeeded because they communicated well, listened to each other and were able to adjust their plans when necessary. The children showed great resilience when taking part in the rock climbing, big swing and high ropes activities. These activities were very high above the ground, but everyone was brave in completing the challenges. It was also great to see the children encouraging others when they started to feel a bit nervous. Archery was enjoyed by everyone and there are definitely a few budding Robin Hood’s in Year 6 ! The instructors also commented on how responsible our children were at listening to and following the safety instructions at all times. Finally, Year 6 were intrigued by what they found at the beach in the evenings and  built up an interesting collection of sea shells and pebbles. Some children even found a colony of tiny crabs and it was fascinating picking them up and watching them crawl over our hands before we put them back amongst the pebbles. Some children even found time to build a sandcastle too! 

Making a go-cart

Go-cart Video Clip

Team building challenges

     

         

The Big Swing

   

 

The high ropes challenge

    

Rock climbing

     

Archery

    

At the beach

        

       

Year 5

In 5 Willow, we love reading! We have been recommending lots of books to our class to read during ‘Recommendation Friday’. Some of these include non-fiction such as ‘Horrible Science: Painful Poisons’ and ‘Horrible Histories: The Frightful First World War’. We have also been loving Jacqueline Wilson’s books, and Diary of a Wimpy Kid. 

We have also been enjoying our Spanish lessons since the start of term. We have learnt about how to greet each other, numbers, and how to tell the time. Nabila has written out a simple conversation in Spanish - have a go at saying it with someone at home!

1: Hola, como estas? - Hello, how are you?

2: Estoy bien gracias - I’m good thank you

1: Como esta ba tu dia - How was your day?

2: Esta ba bien! - It was great!

1: Vamos a cenar! - Let’s eat dinner!

Year 4

This week, in Year 4 we have been very busy scientists!

We tried something new by exploring our local area to classify different types of plants. We collaborated with one another to look for characteristics to decide whether a plant was a flowering plant, moss, conifer or fern.

  

Did you know that most of the plants in Stepney are flowering plants?

We will continue to be curious in our science lessons and ask lots of questions to find out more about plants.

Year 3

This week 3 Willow have been really ambitious with their writing in English. We have been practising how to write letters to Duncan as various crayons because we are currently reading a story about how he had been so careless the crayons decided to quit!

In our letters, we have been working on adding lists of 3, as you can see in Ariana and Liya S’s work. In addition to this, we have also been learning how to use fronted adverbials at the beginning of our sentences and subordinating conjunctions! Take a look at Hannah and Alia’s fabulous examples of this below!

Hannah

 

Alia

 

Liya S

 

Ariana 

Year 2

2 Willow is on a steady road of becoming masters at building bridges! This week we have started our Design and Technology block and we are learning about solid structures.

     

We already know that a running bond of bricks is more solid than a stacked bond. 2 Willow tested this out with wooden blocks and sugar cubes.

 (book work by Tafhim)

We also know that for your structure to have a stable foundation, you need a very wide base.

(book work by Joairia)

Children trialled all three types of bases with paper cups. Collaborating together working as a team can be so much fun when you let everyone play their part in the project.

      

Year 2

It has been a great start to the year for 1 Willow. When the children come into the classroom first thing in the morning they are already working hard.

  

They have been very ambitious with the new challenges that year 1 brings. They go to their tables and have been practising writing their name and surname. Our focus book has been Where the Wild Things are by Maurice Sendak.

Year 1 being wild things!

We learn outside as well. You can see us roaring our terrible roars and gnashing our terrible teeth!!

Reception

This week, Reception Willow have been trying new things just like Taibah the Tiger and having a go at Woodwork! We have learnt how to be responsible and keep ourselves safe at the woodwork bench by wearing eye protection and keeping our fingers away from where we are hammering.  The children really focussed while they were hammering, talked to each other about what they were doing and asked lots of questions! They used the wood and the nails to make lots of different creations. Tasnuva said ‘I hammered in the nails really hard’ and Adeen said ‘The nail joined the wood. It looks like an animal’.