Election Fever!

Source: SFX College

This week, the school has been filled with excitement about the General Election. We have been learning about how UK elections work and how our government is formed. Yesterday we monitored the results of the election with interest throughout the day.

Alongside the General Election, we have had a mock election of our own! Across Year 4 we were divided into four new political parties; The Tomorrow Party, The Vision Party, The Progress Party and The Transform Party. We had to choose our main policies to form a manifesto, elect a leader and deputy leader of the party, design a party logo, create posters and rosettes and prepare speeches. Yesterday, we held a 'Question Time' debate, focusing on the key issues of policing, health and education.

For homework you are designing a persuasive poster to convince people to vote for your party. Here are your key policies, to remind you:

Finally, the time came to vote! We visited the polling station set up in St. Patrick's Class. We registered, received a ballot paper and entered the cubicle to vote, before folding the ballot paper and posting it in the ballot box. (Pictures to follow next week!)

We are pleased to announce the results of the Middle School election:

Progress 19

Tomorrow 21

Vision 27

Transform 14

Therefore, The Vision Party won most votes, but will need to form a coalition with another party to form a government!

Congratulations to all of our political parties!

Egg-citing Activities for Easter!

I hope you are all having a wonderful Easter holiday. This week is Holy Week!

Source: albertoenglish

Here are the times of all of the services and masses at St. Thomas More this Holy Week (click to make it bigger and easier to read):

Here are some suggestions for other things you might want to do over the holidays- get out and about with an adult! All of these activities are FREE!

Source: dulwichonview

At The Horniman Museum
These events are all free and start every 45 minutes from 11am - 2:45pm.

Tuesday 31 March: Easter Bunny MessengersWednesday 1 April: Pecking Hens - Use brightly coloured card, tissue paper and feathers to create a little hen, then watch how it pecks!
Thursday 2 April: Pecking HensFriday 3 April: Pecking Hens
Monday 6 April: Bee Headdresses - Create a fabulous headdress with little bees which bounce around your head!
Tuesday 7 April: Bee HeaddressesWednesday 8 April: Leafy Plants Masks - Cover your face with foliage! Make a Leafy Plant Mask to hide behind, then peep out through the eye holes!
Thursday 9 April: Mini Tree Dressing - Celebrate Nature in Fashion by making your own mini tree, then style it and dress it up however you choose!
Friday 10 April: Mini Tree Dressing


At Dulwich Library

Wii Games, Wednesday 1 April, 4pm to 5.30pm. Age 5 to 16.
Make an Easter Bonnet, Thursday 2  April,  2pm to 3.30pm. Age 2 to 12.  
Film Club Harry Potter Season (Cert 12), Thursday 2 April. Age 5 to 8. Children under 12 must be accompanied by an adult.  
Make an Easter Basket, Saturday 4 April, 10.30am to 12pm. Age 2 to 12. Children’s Film Club, Saturday 4 April, 1.30 pm to 4pm. For all the family.  
Wii Games, Wednesday 8 April, 3.30pm to 5pm. Age 5 to 16.
Board Games, Thursday 9 April, 3.30pm to 5pm. For age 5 to 12.  
Film Club Harry Potter Season (Cert 12), Thursday 9 April, 5pm to 8pm. Children under 12 must be accompanied by an adult.
Cuming Museum Cabinet of Curiosity, Friday 10 April, 2pm to 3.30pm. For all the family.  
Spring Crafts, Saturday 11 April, 10.30am to 12noon. Age 2 to 12.
Children’s Film Club, Saturday 11 April, 1.30pm to 4pm. For all the family.  

Let me know if you try out any of these fabulous workshops and how you get on! Enjoy!

Exploring the Tomb of Tutankhamun!

Yesterday, after break, we arrived in our classroom to find that it had turned into Tutankhamun's tomb! We had to be archaeologists and work in teams of four to complete a Reconstruction Relay.


We took turns to enter the tomb and crawl through the corridors between the chambers. We had to use a torch to look at the artefacts in the tomb, then rush back to our teams and 'draw what we saw'! We had to be very careful because we could only enter the tomb for 10 seconds at a time. Due to the tomb being sealed for thousands of years, it was filled with poisonous gasses- we could only be exposed for 10 seconds at a time.

We had to work well as a team to look for each of the 6 artefacts and to draw them in detail. At the end of the challenge, the judges chose two winning teams. The winners had clearly looked for the details on each object and one team had even labelled what they had seen! Well done to the winning teams!

Cafe Marvellous, Part Two!

Well done to everyone in St. George's Class- today was another brilliant day at Cafe Marvellous! We had lots of special guests, including some of your parents and Mary from the Bread of Life Cafe. Thank you to everyone who has visited the cafe this week- we are very grateful!

Here are some photos from our cafe experience- showing the cooking, the decorations and the finished products on sale.

Very well done everybody! You've all worked so hard this half term; have a lovely rest next week!

Some of the beautiful cafe-themed artwork on show.

Hard at work, preparing the cafe before our guests arrive.

The tables were set with cutlery, napkins, table cloths, menus, flowers and candles.

 

The very popular marshmallow lollies- these were first to sell out!

 Spooky iced Halloween biscuits.

 Orange 'pumpkins' filled with fruit salad!

 Tasty fruit kebabs made up our pumpkin's spiky hair!

 Tasty French fruit tart.

 

 Beautifully baked and decorated fairy cakes.

Rolling the Japanese vegetable sushi rolls.

 Preparing the sushi.

Chopping the vegetables for the Russian Vegetable Soup.

 Italian pizzas, ready to go in the oven.

 Delicious French Fruit Tarts.

 Making the pasta salad.

 Pink iced fairy cakes, especially for 'Wear It Pink' day for Breast Cancer Awareness at school today.

Icing the spooky Halloween biscuits.

 Baking the fairy cakes.

Decorating our chef hats- we had to look the part!

A Busy First Week!

We have had a very busy first week in St. George’s Class. We have played some team building games, shown off our writing and maths skills and made some beautiful artwork.

It was important to start our year together by deciding how we would like our classroom to work. We had some discussions about what makes a successful classroom and we all added our ideas to these post-it note posters. Click on the pictures to make them larger and easier to read.

We used these ideas to help us write our class rules. We discussed what we want our classroom to look and feel like and these were the rules we chose:

• Always be kind.
• Try your best.
• Listen to everyone.
• Be happy!
• Keep our classroom clean and tidy, so that it is safe.
• Respect everyone and remember your manners.
• Stay seated during lessons and put your hand up if you wish to speak.
• Respect the school and children's property.

This week we also discussed what we each hoped to achieve this year. We chose some targets for ourselves, then made these beautiful hands to ‘Reach for the Stars’ in our class!

 

 

Mrs Parrott loves Art, so we started the year with some shared artwork, to show that we can make wonderful things when we work together. Take a look at our fantastic circle mural:

What was your highlight of the week?

The Blog is Back! Loom Bands...

Hello! I've been having some technical difficulties with the blog in the last couple of weeks, but (fingers crossed!) it seems to be back in action!

So, the year has ended and we have all said goodbye to each other and headed out into the summer holidays! Before we finished term, we had a very busy and exciting few weeks.

In the last couple of weeks we have been Loom Band crazy in St. George's Class! We followed some video instructions to try to make some complicated new designs, did some Loom Band maths (to practise our addition and learn about ratio) and had a debate about whether or not Loom Bands should be banned.

Last week, we had a visit from Dan Shepherd of FarShoreline Productions, who came and recorded our debate. Dan recorded lots of us speaking, then edited our discussion to make a short documentary. The final recording will be on the blog soon. Can you hear yourself speaking? Which side do you think won? Should Loom Bands be banned?!

Loom Bands!

 Source: Mamamia.com.au

If you are lucky enough to have a Loom Band kit at home, please bring it into school (with your name on it) on Wednesday... you will have to wait and see why!!

Source: eversave

Please do not buy anything especially- only bring in what you already have. I will provide everything we need if you do not have a loom or hooks etc. at home. DO NOT BUY ANYTHING NEW!

A Lesson in German with Miss Jordis!

Source: HMH Books for Young Readers

Last week, we started our new book 'La Mariposa'. We heard the story of Francisco, who moved with his family from Mexico to California. He struggled to settle into school, because he didn't speak any English and his teacher, Miss Scalapino, stopped him from speaking any Spanish. He felt lost and confused.

To get an idea of how Francisco felt in his lessons, we decided to try it for ourselves! Miss Jordis taught us a whole lesson in German and we were banned from speaking any English at all. It was very tricky!

 Miss Jordis gave us instructions to make and decorate a paper aeroplane- the colours and shapes were difficult to work out, but we all made a plane by the end of the lesson. Thank you Miss Jordis!

Following the lesson, we discussed (in English!) what made the lesson easier for us. We decided that some words were easier to guess if they sounded similar to the English words and that Miss Jordis' gestures and looking to see what the other children were doing were helpful tactics.

The lesson was lots of fun and gave us a taste of what the experience might have been like for Francisco. This week, we're going to write letters to Miss Scalapino to give her some advice on how she might help Francisco to settle in to school in a new country where he doesn't understand the language being spoken.

Thank you for a fun and fascinating lesson Miss Jordis!

Egg-citing Egg-cellent Easter Activities!!

I hope you are all having a wonderful Easter holiday! Next week is Holy Week!

Source: albertoenglish

Here are some suggestions for other things you might want to do next week- get out and about with an adult! All of these activities are FREE!

Source: dulwichonview

At The Horniman Museum

Monday 14 April – Easter Mobiles: Create a pretty mobile hung with Easter shapes and images.
Tuesday 15 April – Easter Mobiles: Create a pretty mobile hung with Easter shapes and images.
Wednesday 16 April – Chicks in a Nest: Make your own little chicks from card and create a cosy nest to put them in.
Thursday 17 April – Chicks in a Nest: Make your own little chicks from card and create a cosy nest to put them in.
Friday 18 April – Chicks in a Nest: Make your own little chicks from card and create a cosy nest tp put them in.


At Dulwich Library

Chatterbooks, Monday 14 April 2014, 4pm to 5pm, for children 7 years and over.
 
Kids Writing Workshop, with Neal Zetter, are you a budding writing and would you like to get your work published? Then come along to a great writing workshop, Wednesday 16 April 2014, 11am to 12.30pm for children 7 to 12 years

At Forest Hill Library

Easter Bunny Hat Craft, Forest Hill Library, 12 April 2.30PM to 3.30PM Craft session for 5-11 Year Olds

Let me know if you try out any of these fabulous workshops and how you get on! Enjoy!