St Mark's CE Primary School

Summer Holidays - Boredom Busters

The dreaded cries of, "I'm bored!" can be met with quick challenges to keep their brains ticking over and ready for Cocoons Class next year! 

Writing a holiday diary or keeping a scrap book with notes is a fun way to keep children writing in the holidays.

Don't forget to send me your postcards from somewhere you visit during your holiday. (School address, please!)

Reading Bingo         Maths Bingo       Times Table challenges        Hit the Button

Maths Packs:  Year 2 to year 3     Year 3 to Year 4   

Flashback 4 and Fluent in 5  are quick fluency checks to keep reminding you of what you have learnt! They only need to take 5 mins for each one per day.

Flashback 4:   Year 2    Year 3

Fluent in 5: Year 2 recap   Year 3 recap     

Viking Longships

Cocoons used their DT skills this afternoon to make Viking Longships having learnt about them in history lessons. They put a lot of effort into joining and fixing them in the 'Clinker' style used by Viking skilled carpenters. Shields and sails have been added to finish them off. 

Update - Clay Figures showing some of the stages of Muslim prayer.

The children made clay figures to show some of the different stages of Muslim prayer. Photos below. :-)

Why is prayer so important to Muslims?

Cocoons have been learning about Islam this term and to help the children answer the above question, we had a visitor (via Teams) to talk to us about Muslim prayer and answer our well thought out questions! Thank you so much to Foysal who gave up his time to speak to the children. It was so insightful. 

Dragon Eyes - update Tuesday 12th July

The children absolutely loved using the pearlescent paints to finish off their dragons eyes. They look incredible! Well done, Cocoons! :-)

Dragon Eyes

The children have been so excited to make their dragon eyes out of clay but first, they were asked to design them and experiment with ideas and patterns in their sketch books. After this, they learnt how to mould and shape clay using different techniques with tools and their hands. They also learnt how to use clay slip to join pieces together. Finally, today, they were able to make their designs and WOW! They are beautiful and all so individual. I can't wait for them to paint them.  

Jubilee Day!

We had a wonderful morning of jubilant Jubilee activities organised by the staff! We decorated biscuits, made crowns, contributed to a whole school piece of art, had our nails and faces painted and made pin-wheels amongst other fun things! Each class produced some fantastic artwork as well as contributing to a whole school historical timeline. 

Jubilee preparation

Art - Monoprinting and English - comprehension

We have been trying our (steady) hand at monoprinting and produced some fabulous prints of Her Majesty The Queen. The children couldn't believe how fantastic they looked and were so thrilled with their results. Adding the second colour was trickier but we were pleased with the results from our first try at monoprinting.

We also had a treasure hunt around the school where we had to read facts from a book about The Queen and her reign and answer comprehension questions. We found out so many interesting facts!

History - Reneactment morning

Having made their shields brilliantly, it was only fair that the children got a chance to use them so we spent this morning re-enacting scenes from the Roman invasion of Britain timeline as well as practising some of the Roman army formations that contributed to the success of the army. 

Science - Investigating Friction

Today, the  children planned their own experiment to investigate the effects of friction. Using controlled variables to ensure that the experiment remained a fair test, such as the height of the slope, they recorded and observed the results of a car travelling on different surfaces. Some Children raised and measured the height of the slope to see when the car began to move, some measured the distance travelled after the slope and some measured the time taken to travel down the slope.

History / Art/DT

Today, the children finished making their Roman shields. Firstly, they looked at historical sources of Roman shields to find out what symbols were used and what they meant. After this, the children designed their own shields and made them. Hopefully, we will be able to get outside on Friday to try out some battle formations and re-enact the Roman invasion and Boudica's rebellion with the Battle of Watling Street. 

Termly Value - Wisdom

Cocoons have been sharing words of wisdom on our wise owl tree in class to reflect our termly value of wisdom.

Forest School - SMILE Meadow

How lovely it was to be back at SMILE Meadow doing some forest skills with Jennette! It was absolutely beautiful down at the meadow with all the beautiful bluebells out and the sun shining. The children learnt how to peel and used peelers to make a wand which they then decorated. Using keys and charts, they investigated wild flowers and had a wonderful time during free play, too, building dens. 

Bignor Roman Villa visit

Today, the children experienced life at a Roman villa. They marvelled at the mosaics and learnt all about what life might have been like as a Roman living in Britain. They found out more about the hypocaust underfloor heating system, were followed by the Roman goddess Venus, escaped being turned to stone by mosaic Medusa, ground their own flour using quern stones, played a Roman game, wrote on wax tablets, made their own mosaic patterns and practised their skills with Roman numerals. Phew! A super day was had by all in the gorgeous sunshine, too! 

English

Today, Cocoons made the most of the sunshine and acted out scenes from Escape from Pompeii to try to understand how Tranio was feeling during each part of the story. They then went on to write diaries as Tranio drawing on their drama experiences.

History

Cocoons have had an awesome afternoon today as they continued to look at Roman influences in Britain. They studied roads and aqueducts and even made their own aqueduct. Thank you to our fabulous trainee, Miss Smith, for such an exciting lesson. Some of our remote learners joined in too! :-)

World Book Day

Cocoons became book designers for the day! After looking at the features of a good book cover and sharing their favourite one with the class, the children designed their own cover for a new story using the blurb and some even began to write their own story to go with it. It was wonderful to talk to the children about their favourite books and hear what they loved about them. Their enthusiasm for books was a joy to be part of. Well done, Cocoons! 

Science

To demonstrate how the digestive system works, the children made their own out of household items! With just a bit of food, water, orange juice, bag, tights, tray and a paper cup, they were able to model the food moving through the digestive system. It was a bit gross but fun! 

English/History

To kick off our Romans topic, the children read the myth of Romulus and Remus and the founding of Rome. They they acted out a scene in groups. To see their videos, please click on this link using your child's Google Classroom login. I have also added them to the Stream on Google Classroom. :-)

Science

We began to learn about our digestive system today. After playing Sink or Swim to test what we had learnt, we made our own role-on-the-wall digestive systems as well as playing a matching partners game with the parts of the digestive system. 

Today was Twosday! 

All the twos in the date today prompted a maths lesson on doubling and halving. 

Terms 4 and 5  - The Romans

Term 4 - What did the Romans do for me?

Term 5 - Why was the Roman army so successful?

Over the next two terms, Cocoons will continue their journey through history and follow the adventures of the Romans.

Science

For their final activity on rocks this term, the children learnt about how a fossil is formed and made their own examples. 

English/History

An amazing discovery was made at St Mark's today and Cocoons were called on as experts in the Stone Age to investigate it further. As budding journalists, they decided to use their writing skills to write newspaper reports about this exciting event! Look out for the next issue of the St Mark's newspaper to read some of their articles. 

DT

Today, the children finished their Stone Age house models having designed them and selected the materials they would use. 

Year 3/4 Netball Tournament

Mrs Stow and I were incredibly proud of all the children who took part in the inter-school netball event. They put in a great deal of effort and perservered throughout each game. They learnt teamwork, some new netball skils and had fun! 

PE

Cocoons practised their netball passes in PE today. Good timing for our netball tournament next week!

RSHE and RE

In RSHE today, we learnt to recognise and celebrate our similarities and differences. After some great discussion, the children circulated to share and celebrate the postitivity in how we can be similar yet so unique!

In RE, we were lucky enough to have a special visitor to the classroom: Father Pete! He came to talk to the children about Christian pilgrimage and its value and meaning to those who undertake one. Thank you Father Pete!  

Stonemason Visit - Mr Edwards

Cocoons were lucky enough to have a real stonemason in class to talk to us about his job and how he uses rocks everyday!   Mr Edwards showed us the tools he uses to cut the stone and explained the different strength blades needed for different rock density. He also explained which rocks would be used for outdoor use such as gravestones that would need to be hardwearing against erosion from the weather, such as granite.

Recount writing/Stone Age drawing

Our class became a cosy cave today and the children used cave art style drawings to visually retell the events of the trip yesterday. This helped them to write their own recount of the day. 

Stone Age trip

Cocoons had an amazing day filled with lots of Stone Age fun, learning and activities on Ashdown Forest: they walked through a time-tunnel (historical timeline), examined artefacts, played games, made tools, lay on a heather bed and built a shelter/camp. 

Thank you so much to our parent volunteers. 

Teach Rex - Dinosaur Day!

It is not everyday a huge T-rex is invited into school but it was today! The children learnt how to use a green screen and were part of the action. 

Science

Following on from learning about the rock cycle, the children investigated rocks and experimented to work out their common properties.

Computing/Topic

The children worked together to retell part of the story, The Pebble in my Pocket: an event from the  history of our planet. They used 2Animate and created their own moving animation sequence. 

 Science

To further our learning about rocks, we learnt about the rock cycle by making one out of sweets! First, we cut the sweets up to create sediments and learn about deposition. Next, we compacted the sediments to create a sedimentary rock. After this, we applied heat and pressure to create a metamorphic rock. Finally, Mrs P heated up the metamorphic rock to create an igneous rock. We drew the process on our rock cycle sheet. We then used the iPads and the DK Find Out website, to learn some names of each type of rock. 

 Science

For our first day back, and as an introduction to our science topic of rocks, we looked at the biggest rock of them all: our planet! We found out about the different layers that make up Earth and made our own, from playdoh!

 Term 3

Happy New Year and welcome to Term 3. Our topic this term takes us right back to the Stone Age and pre-history alongside our science topic of 'rocks'. So come on, Cocoons. What are we waiting for?! Let's 'rock' the Stone Age! 

Christmas Party Day!

Christmas cards (maths/art themed), Christmas party hat making, party games (crazy/silly Christmas themed team games, Christmas pictionary, Snowman Drive) and a virtual visit from a special guest - today has been a busy but fun-filled day!

Reverse Advent Calendar

Thank you so much to our children and their families for their kind donations to our 'reverse advent calendar'. The children are very keen for the food to go to The Salvation Army as Captain Zoe made such an impression on them. :-)

RE

Christian practice

We have been very fortunate that Captain Zoe was able to visit Cocoons to talk to the children about Christian practice and how the Salvation Army supports and cares for the local community as well as their work all around the globe. 

RE

Learning about Jesus as a saviour through church practice (singing carols).

Today, the children listened closely and read the words to familiar carols and worked together to spot lines from the carols that celebrated Jesus as a saviour. We discussed these lines in order to think more carefully about their meaning. The children then wrote these lines on 'straw' and created mangers from clay in which to put their straw lines. Finally, they made a baby Jesus. 

Geography - Rewilding

Last week, we were lucky enough to have an expert visitor to talk to us more about 'rewilding' which we have been studying in our geography lessons alongside learning about biomes. Chris Sandom is a lecturer at Sussex University and head of the Rewilding Sussex organisation. The children were fascinated to learn about rewilding and loved playing the Top Trumps game he brought in and kindly gave to the class. 

English - Introduction to a new book

Today, the children had to search for jumbled up letters, and pictures hidden in the playground to work out clues about the new book we will be starting for our Fairy Tale topic. 

No Pens Day - RE

On what was a fun day trying not to use pens to encourage verbal skills, Cocoons embarked on acting out Bible stories that inspire Christians today to follow Jesus.We have been discussing the word 'saviour' and its word family, such as 'save' and 'salvation' so we acted out freeze-frames of the moment of rescue by Jesus. When tapped on the shoulder, children 'came to life'  and expressed how they would feel using a range of emotions words. 

Science - Investigating pitch

Using a variety of objects, the children investigated patterns between pitch and the features of the objects that produced the sound.

Science - How sound travels

The children have been learning about how sound is made and how it travels. After several small experiments using their ears and voices today, they made string telephones and reasoned about the effects when they experimented with the string. 

RE - Jesus as a saviour

Through stories, the children have been exploring the concept of a hero and what it means to save someone. They have been thinking about what qualities are needed to be a saviour. We looked at the story of Zacchaeus and explored how Jesus saved those who were most lost through understanding and talking as well as miracles. Following on from Father Pete's discussion about sin in last week's Friends and Family assembly, we looked at how sin disconnects us from God and his image. 

Science - Making Toothpaste

The children were keen to investigate the egg experiment further and to see how they could protect and clean their teeth. Firstly, we investigated the history of tooth care and made a Padlet to share our learning. We took it further by making our own toothpaste to find out which ingredients had an effect on a Coca Cola stained egg. 

Art - Screen Printing

On Friday, the children added their second colour to their screen prints. It has really transformed the prints and added an extra dimension to them. They look fantastic and they can't wait to display them ready for them to be admired at The Community Tea afternoon.    

#OneRunGlobal

Cocoons took part in the One Run Global challenge to be active for 15 mins during the day on Friday 15th October. I challenged them to complete a mile around the playground. They could walk or run and do as much as they could in the time. They all did really well and showed real determination to complete the mile. It was lovely to see them helping each other and supporting each other.   

Poetry Visitor - Adisa the Verbalizer

Cocoons were lucky enough to have a workshop today with Adisa the Verbalizer, a performance poet who made them think, laugh and of course write poetry! 

He also stayed for a performance to the parents after school so everyone could join in!

PE - rugby

We have been learning to play rugby in PE and are developing our passing skills. We must remember to keep our feet pointing in the direction we are going and to pass backwards.  

Art - Screen Printing

What a busy morning of art we had! The children have made some amazing screen prints and took real care and pride as they learnt how to use the screens and squeegees. We are hoping to add a second layer of colour next week. 

Reading - The Wolf's Footprint

In order to really understand the characters in the story, the children role-played a scene from the book and became the characters. Once they were familiar with them, they began to write a diary as the lead wolf. 

Science

Cocoons were very excited today as they set up their experiment to find out if different liquids affect the colour of teeth. We decided to use egg shells rather than our actual teeth! Before they started, they made predictions about what might happen to the eggs. Next, they measured 400ml of each liquid into a clearly labelled cup and placed an egg into each one. The children will observe the eggs every day, then make a final observation in one week before making a conclusion.

Skipping workshop

Today, we had a skipping workshop, learning some fun tricks to make our skipping more fancy! Cocoons were all very keen and enthusiastic despite the rain!

Reading - Role-on-the-wall

So far this term, Cocoons have been reading 'The Wolf's Footprint' by Susan Price and today we discussed the key characters, Daw and Elka, and made roles-on-the-wall. The children wrote what they knew about each character around the outside and how they were feeling on the inside.  

Geography - map making

Making the most of the sunshine, Cocoons went out this week to make a map of the playground. They used measuring wheels to try to work out scales of the playground so their maps could be more accurate. We found making the maps to scale tricky but have made some super maps. 

Art - Andy Warhol

Today, the children learnt about the Pop Artist Andy Warhol. They created sketchbook pages from what they had learnt. They also discovered a link between Andy Warhol and Hans Christian Andersen as Warhol had screen printed a photograph of the author and his paper cuttings. Some of the children are ready to start screen printing using their paper cuttings next week!

Wilderness Woods - Forest School Day

Cocoons enjoyed using their imaginations to tell stories and be creative at Wilderness Woods this week. They made their own creatures out of clay, working in groups to use them to tell a collaborative story. Many creatures they found, inspired them: a toad, a newt, a disco beetle and some rather large spiders!!! They also experienced using natural dyes to create collaborative negative prints with the leaves from the woods.

Science

Today we had our first lesson learning about teeth. The children investigated their teeth using mirrors to see what order they went in and tried to order them in a playdoh gum! They then learnt about the different jobs of all the teeth in our mouth. Finally, we looked at some animal skulls to evaluate if they were a carnivore, herbivore or omnivore by looking at their teeth.  

An evil wizard had zapped Mrs Pridmore's book of fairy tales and mixed them all up! We had to find them in the playground, sort them into the correct stories and then order them. We also ordered a timeline of fairy tales and played Chinese Whispers to show how the spoken word changes with every retelling. 

Please click to access the Meet the Teacher presentation. 

Twisted Tales 

Welcome to Term 1 in this new school year. I hope you all had a wonderful summer break. Please find below the learning journey for the term.

We will be delving into one of our oldest traditions and using the features of familiar and fantastical fairy tales to twist them into something new and wonderous of our own!

Please visit the 'Home Learning' page for voluntary activities linked to our topic as well as more detail on recommended activities for Maths and English home learning. Spelling Frame and MyMaths will be set weekly so please check these and ensure you are signed up to Marvellous Me for alerts on home learning, messages and of course, badges to celebrate achievements! 

PE will be on Monday and Thursday afternoons so children will need their PE kits in school on these days.