This week in English we have begun a new learning journey based on the book, ‘The King Who Banned The Dark’ by Emily Haworth-Booth. This is the story of a selfish King who was afraid of the dark. So far in the story we have learnt that he wants to install a permanent, artificial light over the Kingdom so that it will always be light. The children generated some fabulous arguments opposing the King’s idea and on Thursday we debated in groups.

In RE we have begun our Advent learning. This week we looked at the Annunciation (where Mary was told by the Angel Gabriel that she was expecting a baby) and the Visitation of Mary (where she visited her cousin, Elizabeth).

In Maths we have started our unit on time. This is a notoriously difficult skill to master and children’s ability to tell the time varies greatly dependent on whether they own a watch, tell the time at home etc. Any support that you can give at home will be greatly appreciated!

Today we celebrated STEM day by creating movable shadow puppets that we can use to act out the story, ‘The Owl Who was Afraid of the Dark’, by Jill Tomlinson. The children began by cutting out the owl templates to learn how movable shadow puppets work, carefully cutting out the pieces and punching holes for the split pins. Once that was mastered, each group set to work designing and creating their own different characters and props for each part of the story. Keep visiting our blog for updates – this project isn’t over yet!

It has been great to see so many of the children using both SumDog and TT Rockstars – keep up the good work! The winners of this week’s SumDog competition were…….LIONS! There is now a time assessment running. Other homework for the week includes the main class spellings  and the  phonics group spellings. Vocabulary homework for all children is here and as mentioned at Parents’ Evening, can be used to practice writing at home if this is a target. For anyone having difficulty with their TT Rockstars login, we have been told that using the school’s postcode (PO7 7BP) enables you to find St Peter’s and log in successfully. If you’re still having trouble, ask your child to see their teacher at break time.

We hope you have a wonderful weekend, Team 3.