In Theology, Philosophy and Religion (TPR), Year 1 have been learning about belonging to different groups. First we thought about belonging to our families and to Beechwood.

Then we learnt about how different religions welcome babies. We looked at the Muslim ceremony of Aqiqah and then considered some of the features of the Christian ceremony of baptism. Year 1 wrote careful invitations to the baptism and discussed the meaning of R.S.V.P. on the invitation!

We had great fun dressing up in smart hats and acting out the baptism in the School Chapel. The vicar held the baby carefully, the godparents declared their promises clearly and the baby (doll) hardly cried at all when the water was poured on her head!

Mrs Bullock

Year 2’s treat on Thursday was a visit from a ‘real live’ glaciologist, Bryony Freer. As part of her work Bryony studies ice and glaciers which involves using images from satellites to track the ice and ‘lots of digging’. We were amazed to find out that although satellites can’t track penguins they are used to track orange penguin poo which helps scientists to see how environments are changing.

We found out that Antarctica is the largest ice sheet. It is double the size of Australia and 58 metres thick (about 28 flights of steps) which is why we need to care about stopping it melting. Luckily the children were able to share some of their climate change pledges from last week’s homework.  You can read one of our pledges here.

The highlight of the visit was unpacking Byrony’s massive bag of Antarctic survival kit and trying the clothes on. The children bombarded Bryony with their many questions. We especially liked finding out about the toilet tent (two buckets) and were amazed (and pleased) to find out that human poo has to be shipped back from Antarctica as scientists are not allowed to leave anything behind.

Bryony is an old pupil of Beechwood and definitely left us with the growth mindset message that with hard work you can chase your dreams.

This week in art we drew our own newly discovered Arctic animals some of which look rather well suited to the cold polar climate. Bryony said that she sadly is yet to see a penguin in the wild. We wonder what she’d think if she met some of our animals!

We also dived into writing an Arctic adventure this week. Crammed with different sentence starters alongside noun and adverbial phrases, they demonstrated how far our writing skills have grown. Well done Year 2!

PSHEE

This week in PSHEE we have been exploring ‘Respecting My Own and Other People’s Bodies,’ with Bumble Bear to help us.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This week our Year 2 Yogis practised a beautiful yoga story about friendship and mindfully filled their hearts with love during our guided Heart Shape Breathing. We ended our session celebrating this term’s topic The Arctic. We adapted our asanas to recreate our favourite Arctic Animals.

Have a super half term break yogis, you deserve it!

 

WORLD BOOK DAY is just around the corner, and we cannot wait!

Not only is this a day to celebrate books and reading but it is also a chance to have fun and dress up in our favourite book characters. If you are struggling and would like some ideas, have a look at the links below for some inspiration:
https://www.worldbookday.com/dressing-up-ideas/
https://blog.partydelights.co.uk/world-book-day-costume-ideas/

We can’t wait to see your outfits!

PLEASE fill in THIS FORM to confirm whether your child can participate in our fantastic book sale, and what their maximum spend is.
Please click HERE to read the letter with full details about the book sale.
School Librarians