Taruca 2022 - 2023
We Say Goodbye
Taruca have had an amazing term working on their Leaver’s Play - 'I’m an 11-year-old – get me out of here!' All the staff have been impressed with the level of talent that we have, and we are all very proud of their amazing performances. The children were also presented with their Leavers Hoodies from FOBs which they couldn’t wait to put on. They enjoyed a party afternoon to celebrate finishing the play and also enjoyed their water fight afterschool on the Monday of the last week. On the last day of term, Mr Davidson and Governor, Mr Horan were very proud to present every member of the class with a gift from the school along with a special Leavers' Book full of messages and photos.
We wish all the Year 6’s luck as they move onto their new schools. Please don’t be strangers and come back to visit – we want to hear about all the amazing things you get up to!
Sports Day
We had great fun on Sports Day, the final one at Belmont for Taruca Class!
The King's Coronation Picnic
We had a lovely afternoon celebrating the coronation of King Charles III! It was wonderful that so many parents and carers could come along and have a picnic with us whilst being entertained by some terrific singing and dancing. We had spent some time during the week learning about the monarchy and during the picnic we were very excited to perform the dance we learnt for International Dance Day and sing 'Cheerleader' by OMI. The final song of the afternoon was The National Anthem which we were very proud to lead. At the end of the day each child was given a commemorative medal that I hope they'll treasure for years to come.
Art
We have been working very hard on an art learning journey about perspective, buildings and war art. We have spent time learning about perspective and how to use perspective lines to help when drawing buildings. The children had a go at drawing Belton House and Bellmount Tower, adding colour with watercolour. We have also been learning about Anselm Kiefer, a German artist who reminds people about WWII in his artwork. Another artist we looked at was Ernest Boye Uden, who was an artist during WWII as part of the War Artist Advisory Committee – a group of artists tasked with documenting the war.
Science Week
During science week, we took part in a live science lesson with Dr Ceri Lewis and Dr Adam Porter from the University of Exeter to find out about the range of amazing life that inhabits the seafloor. We looked at animals, live, in their lab and discussed the adaptations each animal had made to live in the habitat they lived in.
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
