We've been learning about the animals that live in cold places. We looked at a globe and found the Arctic and Antarctica. We then sorted the animals according to where they live. We learnt some facts about these animals and had fun playing with them in our small world area. The children were challenged to write a list of five animals they might see if they went to the Arctic. I was impressed that they all remembered that penguins don't live there. We listened to a story about Hunter the polar bear who had to be rescued from a rocky ledge and flown back to his home in the Arctic. 

We looked at photographs of the Northern Lights and watched a short video clip. We then used chalk and pastels to create our own representations of them.

In maths we've been continuing to practise our subitising skills and number bonds to 5. We've also been learning about patterns and the children have been busy continuing repeating patterns using paint, chains and cubes.

We've been focusing on reading and writing CVC words using the letter sounds we've learnt so far this term. The children have really enjoyed hunting for the CVC pictures that I placed around the room. Many of the children were able to sound out the words independently and write them on their clipboards.

We've also been busy practising our nativity. The children were very brave to get up on the stage in front of an audience of their family and friends. 

What a lovely month of celebration and learning. 
The children did a fantastic job of learning lines and songs for the Key Stage One Nativity show which was a joy to watch. 
In maths we spent some weeks consolidating what we have learnt so far this term and really working on the rapid recall of number binds within 10.
We learnt abut the season of winter and used this as a subject for some descriptive writing. 
The term was rounded off with a special Christingle assembly shared with families.

This month we have continued to learn about how toys have changed through time. We asked our parent's about their favourite toys and we found out more about the differences between how toys are made now and how toys were made in the past. We had a go at making a cup and ball toy which was popular with children in the Victorian days.
The theme of toys continued into our DT learning. We explored and made toys with moving parts in preparation for making moving robots.
We learnt more about the NSPCC's 'Speak out. Stay safe' message and learnt about what could motivate us to speak out to a trusted adult. We also learnt the number for the NSPCC in case we feel we need to speak to an adult at the charity. 
In science we have used our knowledge of materials and their properties to make windproof and waterproof structures and have used our testing and observation skills to check our structures were up to the task. 

 

December

December was a busy month for us.

We had a successful ARC trip to Plymouth Theatre to see Raymond Briggs 'Father Christmas'. It even snowed in the theatre. The children enjoyed the show and there was much laughter throughout. 

As this was the Christmas Term, we looked at why Christmas is important to Christians. We discovered that for Christians, Advent is a time for preparing for Christmas and each candle as it is lit represents Faith, Hope, Peace, and Joy. The final one is the joy that Jesus was born. 

We also completed our Science module 'Animals including humans'. We looked at what is needed to keep animals and humans healthy and alive including exercise. 

December was full of Art and craft including making prints from our Literacy topic - books from Julia Donaldson. 

We enjoyed making our own Christmas tree, Christingle, decorations and Christmas cards.

And of course, much fun and laughter was had as we enjoyed our Christmas dinner, lovely food, crackers and our own hats that we made.

We hope you have a lovely Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Hello Everyone!

There has been plenty of fun and festive activity in Penhallow this week.

Our Christmas Art Day took place on Tuesday, where we worked with our school house groups to make Christmas cards, crowns for our Christmas dinner, Christmas decorations and bags. We have also made some of our own decorations and cards in Penhallow this week, during our art and design technology lessons.

During our Christmas party on Friday, we enjoyed playing some old fashioned party games such as musical statues, musical chairs and pin the nose on Rudolph. Thank you so much for the party food that was supplied. Great fun was had by all.

As well as all the festive fun this week, we have also been busy writing some amazing stories, based on the story of 'The Snowman' by Raymond Briggs. Reception have enjoyed sequencing the story, and retelling the events, while Year 1 have really shown off their learning this term, by including some fantastic vocabulary and sentences in writing their own version on the stories. Well done everybody!

We hope you all have a lovely Christmas.  We will see you on Tuesday 7th January.

From The Penhallow Team.

Merry Christmas!

We've had a very festive week in Landaviddy class!

On Tuesday, we had Christmas Art Day, which was lots of fun. We made a variety of different decorations, cards, crowns and bags. 

Our Christmas party was on Friday. We started the day playing a team building game, where we used only candy canes to build a marshmallow snowman. This was a challenge but so much fun! The fastest team was Amber and Nevaeh! Well done! We completed a 'Grinch Run', danced and played some musical statues too, finishing off the morning with a christmas film and snacks. 

During DT this week, we also made our Egyptian collars and practised sewing fabric together. This was a challenge for sure, so we needed to use our growth mindsets! But everyone persevered extremely well and didn't give up. 

Congratulations to Oliver, Nevaeh and Darragh for being Landaviddy's People of the Week. And a big well done for all those who achieved their 99 club. 

We hope you all have a magical Christmas and look forward to seeing you back at school on Tuesday 7th January 2025!

Mrs Wilkie, Mrs Phillips, Miss Bowden and Miss Colton

We do hope that you have enjoyed the Christmas Nativity this week!

The children have remembered some very tricky Christmas songs, as well as some very easy ones, too, and have enjoyed singing them to you in our play.

We are overwhelmed with the positive feedback, gifts and good wishes; the Nursery staff wish you all a very Happy Christmas and a peaceful New Year.

IT'S A CHRISTMAS WRAP!

What a lovely last week of term we have had! Christmas Art Day was a huge success and the school came together to create their own crowns, decorations, cards and bags/tags. Everyone thoroughly enjoyed themselves!

We have completed our Expressive Art investigation into 'Making our voice heard through expressive art', combining street art and Mayan symbolism with chiaroscuro and the results are amazing. They have been put up in the Library/Entrance Hall so that everyone visiting the school can enjoy seeing our work.

Chaipel finished the week with a Christmas party on Friday morning. We really are an amazing class and have produced some incredible work to be proud of this term. The celebration was well deserved!

All that is left for me to say is MERRY CHRISTMAS and a HAPPY NEW YEAR TO YOU ALL!

See you all back on Tuesday 7th January!

Miss Randle, Mrs Clary, Mrs Hodge and Miss Colton.

We started the festive season with a special delivery of a Christmas tree which the children helped decorate. Our story focus at the beginning of the month was ‘The Christmas Pine’ by Julia Donaldson which retells the journey of the Christmas tree in Trafalgar Square. We shared photos of our own Christmas trees from home and the children confidently spoke about their own trees and decorations.

Our role play areas of a Post Office and Santa’s workshop gave the children an opportunity to play out different roles and improve communication with their peers whilst sharing their own experiences from home.

Lots of Christmas crafting took place where we made cards, collages and decorations as well as reindeer food to take home for Christmas Eve.

We practised our pencil control using festive stencils and used our pincer grips to peel stickers and decorate Christmas trees.

We learnt about the true meaning of Christmas by reading Rod Campbell’s ‘My First Nativity’, along with a small world nativity scene and matching game to expand their learning and vocabulary.

There was some great hand-eye coordination on display with our sensory tuff trays; mixing up a foam Santa, scooping a cereal Christmas pudding and making fragrant Christmas ‘tea’.

We also read ‘Stickman’ and made our own stick people from twigs we collected in the garden and play dough. 

What a wonderful full and final week of the year we have had. Well done to all the children in Nursery and Reception for their sensational sing along. When Santa Got Stuck Up The Chimney was a firm favourite with the children and the audience. Congratulations to our KS1 children for performing so brilliantly in their nativity, Shine Star, Shine. All the children most certainly shone! Thank you to Wadebridge Cinema for hosting us on two occasions this week – the children so enjoyed watching the film (and the walk). To end the week, the staff certainly had a ball performing the annual panto to the children – oh no they didn’t – oh yes they did!

This week we also said a fond farewell to Abi Miskowicz; we wish her all the very best as she starts her new role at Truro and Penwith College – she will be marvellous. After Christmas, we welcome Mrs Carly Cassidy to the team. Mrs Cassidy will be teaching PPA across a range of year groups.

Thank you to you, our supportive parents, our wonderful children and our dedicated staff. It’s been a mammoth 15 week term – and despite its length, the staff have kept going providing memorable learning opportunities for all the children. I wish them, and yourselves, a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

We look forward to seeing everyone back on Tuesday 7th January 2025.

With very best wishes,

Chris Wathern

Well done everyone for a really successful Autumn term! Jam-packed with learning, trips and adventures. It was lovely to celebrate our values champions in assembly today and we were surprised by a musical rendition to ring in the Christmas break. Thank you again to mole Valley Farmers for our lovely Christmas tree. Have a peaceful Christmas and see you in 2025 for the Spring term.

Merry Christmas

We are at the end of a long Autumn term and have spent some wel deserved time feeling festive with Christmas Challenge Cup and our final Christmas community engagements

On Tuesday, we found the time for a Geography field trip to compare land use in local woodland wit that of the Amazon rainforest. The children made use of their iPads to collect evidence and back in the classroom, we analysed their findings to draw conclusions for their comparisons.

We hope you have a lovely Christmas break.
Mr Twaite and Mrs W

The end of term and Happy Christmas!

The children have been absolutely amazing this term and have worked so hard. We have had special visitors in our class this December! We found the elves under the tree at the start of December and they have been up to mischief ever since! We have had to keep a close eye on those cheeky elves, and the children have definitely been keeping them in check!

We have also had our Christmas performances. Foundation were absolutely brilliant in their first Nativity. They sang beautifully and the performance was wonderful. Year 1 performed in our Christmas play ‘The Fleece Force.’ They worked really hard to remember all the songs and the play was brilliant. Thank you all for coming along and supporting.

We have done some lovely Christmas activities to end the term, including our Christmas crafternoon! We have also been making Nativity stick puppets, decorating Christmas trees, using our cutting skills to decorate baubles and many more!

Thank you for all your support.

I hope the children have a very well deserved break. Happy Christmas and I look forward to seeing you all in the New Year!

Foundation / Year 1 Team

We Wish You a Merry Christmas

What a Fantastic autumn term we've had in Tregantle Class! This week has been wonderful as we have been enjoying the celebrations of Christmas together. We have had a super festive time wearing our Christmas jumpers and enjoying our legendary Brunel Christmas lunch. We finished the term with carols around the Christmas tree in an assembly led by Reverend Parkman.
Merry Christmas one and all from Team Tregantle! 

Hard to believe that we have reached the Christmas holiday! This term has been a long one but the learning, attitude and kindness to each other has really showed the caring nature at Darite. The children have done so well this term with all the changes to the school structure and the learning has again been superb. I'd like to take this opportunity to thank you all for your continued support of the school. There is a lot to tell you about the last few weeks, starting with Class 2's collaboration with Trenode last Wednesday as part of their geography work. They walked to the moor to find the start of the river Seaton and were joined in this by Mr Abraham and his class from Trenode Academy. The children made friends and the children at Darite really enjoyed showing the visitors around the area. They looked at the mine workings and how humans have affected the physical geography of the area with spoil heaps, dams to create the donkey pool and the pits in the South Caradon mine. The children had a great time and were superb ambassadors for the school and themselves. It is great to have chances to work closely with other schools in the trust and we have already put plans in action to visit Trenode and Blisland later in the year. The nativity performances were, as always, stunning with the children giving their all in both shows. As I said on the night, Christmas in a primary school is a magical place and time and shows like this week's are a prime example of why we all love what we do. Thank-you to everyone who was able to come and watch the show. The whole school had a warm- up last Wednesday when we sang to the Darite Village Lunch Club. The comments from the members were amazing with some comments of "What a pleasure to see happy children singing so well." and " Thanks to Darite School (pupils and staff) for the festive singing". Darite really is a special place to be! In addition to these things, our Reindeer Run also made the Cornish Times. Click the link here to view the story about the "Prancing Pupils" charity efforts. Thank-you also to the PTFA (and Father Christmas) for making the Christmas Fayre such a memorable event. Christmas is a magical time and having Father Christmas come to visit also made it really special. Thank-you to everyone who was able to come and spend their money on the arts, crafts and games last Friday. Between the fayre and the reindeer competition, the PTFA raised an amazing £358.30! This money will really help current and future children at Darite. The annual Christmas lunch on Wednesday was delicious as always. The children were able to enjoy a Christmas dinner with all the trimmings and there were some very full up children in the afternoon! Thank you to the wonderful Lisa for her hard work in making the meal so special again. To cap the term, the class parties yesterday afternoon were fun packed and full of laughter, fun and food! Thank-you to those of you who were able to donate food - we has so much that we were able to have another snack this morning! As you can see, Darite is always a special place to learn and work. On behalf of the staff at Darite, I'd like to wish you all a very merry Christmas and a relaxing New Year. Whatever you choose to do, I hope you are able to relax with friends and family. Just a reminder that Monday the 6th is an INSET day and we are looking forward to seeing the children back on the 7th. Have a wonderful holiday, Mr Whipps. Have a wonderful holiday.

Friday 20th December

Wow! We have reached the end of term!

I cannot believe that the Foundation children have completed a whole term already!

Time flies when you’re having fun they say, and we have had SOOOOO much fun learning and exploring this term!

We are so proud of all that the children have achieved and how they have progressed!

This week has been full of Christmas exploring in class. We have explored The Christmas Story in more detail, we have had fun creating lots of Christmas crafts and following verbal and visual instructions to make special things to come home!

We also had the Christmas disco, and class party which were both great fun. Wednesday was Christmas jumper and lunch day, and the children looked amazing!

This time of year, is always very busy and tiring so we wish you and your children a very happy, relaxed festive time at home and we look forward to seeing all the children back to school for the spring term on Tuesday 7^th.

The Foundation Team 

w/e 20.12.24

We've had a busy last week full of festive cheer. We have enjoyed Christmas performances, visiting the Baptist church for their live nativity, had a wonderful Christingle and enjoyed Jane’s yummy Christmas dinner. Also, we carolled at St. Anne's on Tuesday afternoon where the children proudly sang. 

As well as all of this, the children have written fantastic 'Hansel and Gretel: Volcano Adventure' stories, using the skills they have learnt in our narrative English unit. They also displayed their great knowledge in Geography answering 'How Active is our Planet?'

It’s been a busy Autumn term and I wish you all a wonderful and restful Christmas and New Year! See you in 2025! 

We also finished off our DT project of making Tudor houses following our designs...