Nursery have been busy taking their learning outside this week. After spotting the beautiful snowdrops at Forest School, we were able to take some back to create an array of still life paintings. The children inquisitively explored the snowdrops and daffodils before taking their time to delicately paint the stems and petals with such care. The final results definitely belong in a gallery and will be going up on display soon!
Ribbet! Ribbet! What a ribbeting time Reception have been having. We have been exploring the frog life cycle and visited the lake where we noted why it was the perfect habitat for the frogs when they were ready. The children have been making their own froggy crafts alongside their recording of the life cycle. What a creative pride of Edge Grove lions we have! After an eventful week of learning, exploring and engaging, the Year 1’s embraced the opportunity to dress up as their favourite book character with the typical enthusiasm and energy that we have come to love. There were smiles and excitement all around! Victor Hugo once wrote the following quote, “To learn to read is to light a fire” - and these children are the very embodiment of this.This week the Year 2 classes were buzzing with excitement due to World Book Day. The costumes were brilliant and the highlight for the day for many was reading with the older children. It was really lovely to see the children so engaged with their reading and sharing their favourite stories with each other. We loved hearing the children read and we especially loved them sharing their favourite parts of the story and designing front covers for their books.
In Forest School this week, our minds have been distracted from thinking about the cold as we have been working in small groups, building and decorating dens. The children needed very little assistance to demonstrate their knot tying skills and showed great kindness and understanding towards each other when sharing ideas as to where and how to set up their shelter and how to fill it with life’s essentials.
Some children have also set up their own little Forest School shops. There were price tags and instructions written and collections of pinecones, binoculars and all manner of precious woodland artefacts displayed for sale, in some very creatively built shops.
Finally, a huge amount of hilarity burst out this week when the crafty squirrel eventually gnawed through the top of the shed door to find our Forest School treasures, as he escaped he left a trail of debris as he scampered back to his dray with his stash of goodies. No doubt the magpies and the rats were there to assist and share in the haul. Everyday is a fun-filled adventure. “We should write a book”, one of the children was heard saying as she returned back to class!
Spring is on its way and this week the daffodils have started to appear around Edge Grove. There was much excitement about World Book Day and the children had great fun visiting the book fairs that Mrs Broadis had organised, dressing up and sharing the love of books with one another. The Year 3 and 4 pupils were joined by the Year 7’s and 8’s to form reading groups and thank you to our Year 5 and 6's who visited some of the Pre Prep classrooms to share their reading.
In Year 3, the children started to explore the features of poetry this week as they continued to read poems by Lewis Carroll. Year 3 had great fun working together to perform different stanzas of the poem.
In maths lessons this week the children were exploring fractions. They used their understanding of numerators and denominators to identify fractions of quantities and to place fractions on a number line.
In science lessons the children discussed non-contact and contact forces. They were challenged to sort activities that use electromagnetic and muscular forces into these columns. Year 3 also explored their surroundings to discuss objects in motion.
The children continued to look at the River Nile in Humanities lessons this week. They pretended that they were completing a journey on the river and described the different sights that they might see.
On Thursday the children (along with World Book Day face paint!) took part in matches both home and away for netball and rugby. Well done to all of the pupils who took part.
What a busy week for Year 4! Science investigations, non chronological report writing, decimals, world book day and much more. The children have enjoyed the diverse selection of activities and learning opportunities on offer this week.
In maths the children have been exploring tenths and hundredths. They have also been busy converting fractions into decimals. A challenging concept which many have understood well.
Tuesday proved to be an exciting day with the return of Mr G who let the Year 4’s make lots of noise while exploring the topic of sound. We hope you have enjoyed listening to the various instruments that they bought home with them!
We finished off the week by finalising our non chronological reports in English. The children have created their own dragons and reported on their habitats, appearance, powers and much more!
World Book Day was my absolute highlight last week. I really enjoyed chatting to our seniors on Thursday to find out what book was indicated by the intriguing props they carried around for the day! It was also such a pleasure to see them interact so beautifully with children in the Lower Prep in their paired reading. I overheard some really lovely conversations taking place about various authors, words, stories, characters, vocabulary, predictions and cliff-hangers! It has been decided that there is definitely no need to wait for World Book Day to take place to see these wonderful sharing conversations take place; we look forward to organising some more buddy-reading sessions very soon!
To reiterate Miss Leighton and Mr Balfour's words, well done to all our Year 8 pupils who have been successful in their 13+ scholarship assessments. We are very proud. You can read more here.
Please check out the match reports section for last week's reports - well done to everyone who took part in fixtures last week.
Congratulations to Alexis O, Xander M, Monte M and Dylan S who won the team gold in the EFROC Chess championships on the weekend. This competition involved 23 different schools so this is a fabulous achievement. Monte deserves special mention as he won all four of his matches, with Dylan and Xander winning three out of four matches and Alexis winning two out of four.
The Watford Festival of Music, Speech and Drama
Congratulations to the following who performed this weekend:
Abbie Z - GoldFreya S - SilverSara L- BronzeBolu M - SilverMiriam R - BronzeRohan T - Silver (performed his own speech entitled ‘Mischief - a Creative Force to be Wielded’)
Good luck to those pupils performing today and on Wednesday.
Alice The Musical
Year 6 have been busy rehearsing and the shows are really coming together now. This week we will be introducing new props and continuing to develop our characterisations. Year 5 have been busy learning their songs and will join year 6 next week for rehearsals. Please keep going over the lyrics to the songs and remember to bring in costumes by the end of the week to your form tutors. Tickets now available! Two weeks until curtains up!
