Taruca 2022 - 2023
World Book Day!
We had a great time on World Book Day - what super costumes! As well as doing book-themed activities during the day, we had a special assembly with Charlotte, the Library Lead from Grantham Library, who shared with us all of the exciting activities available at the library. She also explained how to borrow books for free - we hope to see many of our children join!
RAF Youth STEM Workshop
Our class, along with Sambar, took part in the RAF Youth STEM program during the spring term - the glider challenge workshop. This gave the children the opportunity to think like engineers to try and create a glider that could travel as far as possible. The children had to draw 3 designs and then make the 3 designs following their plan as closely as possible. The children then had the opportunity to test and measure their glider to see how far it could travel. They finished the session reviewing their designs and were able to think about why one design went further than another or reasons why some were more successful than others. The children’s designs were brilliant, and they enjoyed taking part in the challenge.
Teaching Live Grammar With Pie Corbett
Each Monday, we have been taking part in Teaching Live Grammar with Pie Corbett. We do this as a live lesson each week and the children use a padlet and jotcast to interact with Pie and the other 37 schools participating. After each session the children prepare a blog post to share with others all around the world. They are impressing me with their contributions as well as impressing others – getting shout outs from Pie Corbet himself during the sessions.
Holocaust Memorial Day
As part of our learning journey about WWII, we participated in a Holocaust Memorial Day session with the author Tom Palmer. We learnt all about a Holocaust Survivor called Sir Ben Helfgott and then in the afternoon listened to his sister, Mala, speak live about her experiences during the war. The children were incredible and empathetic when learning about such a sensitive topic.
The Natural History Museum & Houses of Parliament Trip
At the beginning of the Spring term we, along with Sambar Class, were lucky enough to head to London on a visit to The Natural History Museum and The Houses of Parliament. Even though it was a very long day, the children made us incredibly proud – asking insightful questions and taking everything in. We were even lucky enough to visit the viewing galleries of the House of Common and House of Lords when they were in session – seeing the day to day running of Parliament.
Wonderful Clay Work!
Our topic during term 1 has been about Ancient Greece. We have learnt about Ancient Greek pottery, the different eras and what pottery from that time would look like. The children have learnt some great clay skills and have created some wonderful clay pots inspired by Ancient Greek pottery.
Maths With Numicon
Learning about number can be challenging so to aid understanding, at Belmont we use Numicon which is a multisensory way of learning, meaning children learn by seeing, feeling and doing. Numicon are a system of flat, plastic shapes with holes in them. Each shape represents a number from one to 10 and each number has its own colour. When they're arranged in order, children can easily see connections between numbers. In class, we have been using them to help plot points on a straight line graph.
Castleton!
At the end of September some of our class stayed at Losehill Hall Youth Hostel in Castleton and were able to enjoy the wonderful countryside and fantastic facilities on offer. We did orienteering, archery, gem panning, candle making, walking, fire lighting and den building. We also visited Treak Clifff Cavern to see the Blue John stone. The children were brilliant and made us incredibly proud with their good manners, their can-do attitude and their team-work skills – which they used throughout the whole time we were there.=
Castleton Highlights
