The children have learnt a great deal from our themed work on India – including researching their own topic using the Internet and books. Through constant practice they are all now improving their computer skills. We have worked very hard on newspaper reports in Literacy, and I am sure that we have some real journalists in the making!

In DT, Mr Winn has helped the children design and make monsters, using air to make various parts of their monster move. They have had some excellent ideas, and most of the monsters are now finished and in working order.

Tigers have been going to Witham Hall for gymnastics every Wednesday this term. Mrs Welch, the teacher from Witham, has complimented the children on how much progress they have made in every area of gymnastics. She says that Wednesday mornings are the highlight of her week!

I took a group of ten Y3/ 4s to Witham Hall for the annual Sing Up morning, a gathering of seven schools from the Stamford area. Our children did us proud – they were so confident and well- behaved! They all enjoyed the occasion and mixed very well with the other schools.

We look forward next term to starting our topic on Ancient Egypt – always a winner with the children.

One of the highlights of the term has been our first experience of movie-making. The children based their movie on an Indian traditional tale. We drew storyboards, painted the scenery, wrote the script and acted the story out in front of the cameras. Some of the children were then in charge of editing the movie and writing the credits. We have learnt a lot from our experience and look forward to including movie making in our work again next term.

We all enjoyed our trip to Aladdin early on this term – the best ever pantomime according to popular consensus. This, as always, gave us the opportunity to write reviews and letters to the theatre.

Tigers have also been enjoying their weekly visits to Witham Hall for gymnastics. We are incredibly fortunate to benefit from the generosity of Witham Hall in lending us not only their fantastic facilities, but also the expertise of their PE teachers. The children are gaining in confidence on the apparatus and have been very successful.

We look forward to continuing our India topic and starting our DT project on Moving Monsters next half term.

In the last few weeks we have been designing and making our Roman purses, and, as you will see from the finished products, many of the children have shown a real talent for sewing.

In literacy, we have been focussing on myths, legends and traditional stories, culminating in the children writing their own version of a traditional story. They have all worked very hard and produced some very good quality writing.

All the children who were fit enjoyed singing in the carol concert last week, and have learnt many new songs, both traditional carols and new Christmas number ones. It has put us all in the mood for Christmas.

Next term our topic focus will be geography based – studying a village in India. Once again, we will integrate many different areas of the curriculum into our theme: geography – studying another country; literacy – stories from other cultures; RE – Hinduism; art and design – textiles and collage; ICT – e-mail.

We look forward to seeing everyone fit and healthy again after the Christmas break

Mrs Martindale

Physical Education has been fun and energetic this term as we have been out in the field playing and learning invasion games as well as going to the pool every Thursday for swimming lessons.

Next term we are looking forward to learning more about the Romans including beginning a DT Project to create a Roman money container.  Have a great break and I look forward to seeing you all next term.

In Science we have been studying Teeth and Eating, culminating in a very smelly experiment to find out how eggshells are affected by being immersed in different drinks for a week. The results should be interesting!

A group of 10 Y3 and Y4 children will also be taken to the mini Olympics at Meres Leisure Centre later in the term. This will involve the children taking part in a world record hula- hooping session – so get practising!

Three of our Y4 children have been to a Gifted and Talented art course in Grantham and produced some beautiful batik work using wax resist and paint.

We are all looking forward to our KS2 production of Snow White later on this term. Rehearsals are in full swing and hopefully the play will be a great hit.

In RE we enjoyed a visit to Little Bytham church to complete our topic on Christianity. The children had a very successful term doing dance and gymnastics at Witham Hall. Mrs Welch, their coach, was full of praise for their efforts and said that they were the best group for their age that she had ever taught!

Next term, Tigers are looking forward to focusing on a historical topic – the Tudors. We hope to have a class trip to Burghley House to find out about life in Tudor times at first hand. Alongside this we will be studying teeth and eating in Science, designing and making a healthy meal in DT and PSHE and portraits in art.

On Thursday 25^th February Tigers class from the Bythams School walked down to Little Bytham church to learn about Christianity. We met Reverend Sue,then we sat down and had a look at the stained glass windows. They were so beautiful.

Then Morgan and Mark dressed up in vestments and surplices. After that we rang the bell, it was really hard. Then Mrs. Martindale played the organ.

After that we went outside and saw the Anglo Saxon door and the sun dial which tells the time. Then we were looking at the graves and we walked back to school.

By Lucie Oldham

Towards the end of term we started our topic on Light and Shadow and have also undertaken many Christmas DT and craft-based activities, including baking spicy Christmas biscuits, constructing decorations and making boxes.

All the children took part in our Christmas carol concert in the outdoor classroom.  We were fortunate to have a perfectly still and starry night for the performance, and the fairy lights adorning the outdoor classroom certainly added to the festive atmosphere!  Many thanks to FOBS for providing the refreshments and particularly to Guy Turner for spending his afternoon putting up the marquee and organising the generator.  It was a magical occasion!

Next term we are focussing on a geographical theme, water.  This will provide many opportunities for the creative curriculum, including identifying oceans, seas and major rivers of the world (geography/mapping), the water cycle (science), evaporation and condensation (science), how water reaches our taps (local geography), the effects on people of droughts and floods (geography and PSHE), animals and plants that live underwater (science/habitats), paintings of water (famous artists e.g. Monet, Turner), water transport (history), water poetry and literature (literacy).  The list of related topics is endless!

In art, the children have been developing repeated patterns based on Anglo-Saxon decorated letters and In D.T. we have been building houses using both wooden frameworks and shoeboxes as a base.  We have even baked some saxon bread (if it arrived home before being consumed!).

The children’s enthusiasm and thirst for knowledge has been infectious and we look forward to completing our topic next half term.  Next term our focus will be a science topic “Light and Shadow”, which will fit in well with R.E. festivals of light and art.

Tigers class have made a cracking start to the new term, returning to school eager to learn and full of energy.

Our topic this term is Anglo-Saxons, and we are looking forward to finding out about this period in history through cross-curricular links. The children will be learning how to research a topic on the Internet, and through reference books. They will be honing their skills as history detectives by looking at artefacts to see what these objects can tell us about life in Saxon times.

They will also be learning mathematical skills through the use of timelines, decoding runes, reading stories and legends from the time and learning about the Saxon gods and the coming of Christianity to Britain. In art, the children are looking at the patterns on Anglo-Saxon jewellery, illuminated letters and then designing their own pattern to transfer to a piece of material.

Our science topic is Characteristics of Materials, which will also link in to the Saxons. We will be examining the types of material they used to make their clothes and houses, and then in DT, designing and making our own Saxon houses.

We look forward to seeing you later on this term to show you our work.