Gymnastics Festival - Bitterne Manor winners

Tuesday 25th January saw schools come together to show off routines and skills they have been learning and practising. Bitterne Manor pulled out all the stops and were voted winners by Southampton squad coaches who judged on variation of skills and technique. Our children were presented with medals and certificates for their win. Well done. after the performance children had the opportunity to go on all the gymnastic equipment with the skilled coaches. Some of our children were chosen to attend trials for Southanpton Squad places. Hopefully they will be our stars of the future.

Daily Echo Report

The Daily Echo have reported on the visit of the Maasai teachers to our school and placed a short video from our assembly on their website - if you would like to have a look, follow this link:

http://www.dailyecho.co.uk/video/video/108568/

Maasai Warriors

Bitterne Manor was visited by two Maasai warriors today, all the way from Tanzania in Africa. Grosper Mollel and Kephas Ndiamasi belong to the Maasai tribe and are also both teachers at the Noonkodin school, near Arusha. They led an assembly telling us about their culture and their school and performed the amazing jumping dance which the Maasai are famous for. They toured the school and the children got to ask them lots of questions about their life in Africa. For more information about Noonkodin visit serianuk.org.uk.

The Mayor's Parlour

Our school council were very lucky to be shown around the Mayor's Parlour by the Right Worshipful the Mayor of Southampton, Carol Cunio. She is the 788th Mayor of Southampton and was once a teacher and remembers teaching at Bitterne Manor Primary School! We were shown around her impressive offices in the civic centre and even allowed to dress up in the official mayoral robes! Enjoy these great pictures:

Year 5 are machines!

We are well on the way to putting together our Victorian dance inspired by the machines of the industrial revolution! We thought we would give you a sneak preview before our performance later this half term!

Year 6 Movie Makers!

Year 6 have been learning how to use digital cameras to make their own movies. They have recorded short clips and taken still images. By adding animation and sound they have begun to create their own spy movies!

Year R get dancing!

In Year R we are very lucky to have a dance coach teaching us for this half term. We have been learning a Chinese dance, how to mirror each other and a skeleton dance. It's been great fun.

Year R's 3D shape hunt

Year R went on a 3D shape hunt. They were looking for hidden shapes. Some of the children could spot these shapes in objects and equipment. Super hunting Year R.

Investigating Micro-organisms

Year 6 have been learning about the different types of micro-organism. They have invesitgated the conditions needed for mould to grow & are very proud of their mouldy bread! Lovely!

Storybird

Storybird is a website we've been using to write stories inspired by art! Here is a story written by Lucas in Year 5 as part of a Green assigment...

Tech world by Lucasbmp on Storybird

Why not give storybird a go yourselves?

River Art

Year 4's theme for this half term is 'Save Our Rivers'. We have learned about the features of rivers and have interpreted them in our art work. Last week we used pastels for our river art and this week we worked in our home groups to create the journey of a river using a range of different materials....as you can see from our pictures we enjoyed using paint, tissue paper, art straws and lots of other things to make our art work (and a mess!!!)

Beebots

Year 2 have been learning about control technology using these great little devices called 'Beebots'. The idea is to program the Beebot so it follows a set path - in this case a track the children had drawn on sugar paper - but will it end up where you want it to?

Intra school competitions

Year R to 6 have been springing into action by taking part in athletics, multi-skills and speed-stacking competitions. They have given 100% effort competing in their own class and against other year groups. Well done!

Year 1

Year 1 have been working very hard in their Numeracy lessons! We have been been estimating, weighing and comparing objects and sorting them using diagrams. We have also been answering questions by recording information in block graphs. The children are now extending their counting and calculation skills, so far this includes understanding the place value of two-digit numbers by using our tens and units blocks. Keep up the great work Year 1!

Year 5's exciting new classroom!

Year 5 have now settled into their new classroom! A new carpet and freshly painted walls have transformed our classroom completely! We have a newly decorated and furnished book corner, which the children have already been enjoying, and we are looking forward to a new display board on which we can show off more of our fantastic work! Keep a look out for our next posts on what we have been getting up to whilst learning about the Victorians!

Last, but not least, congratulations to year 5 on winning the attendance award this week! We are very proud of you all!

Dragons swoop in to Year 3!

Our topic this term is an exciting one. Knight's Academy training is underway and so is our study of dragons of all type (plus the ususal lessons you find in school too!)

The children's first homework task is to design a moving dragon using pneumatics - wow. We had loads of fun experimenting with syringes and tubing this week. So we are really looking forward to making our dragons soon in class.

Thanks for all the boxes that have been coming in.

Ikea visit

Our school councillors were invited for a tour round the IKEA store in Southampton. We were shown around by 'Sparky' who is the store's environmental champion. He explained to us how much IKEA is doing as a a company to support sustainability in their stores, products and in communities around the world - it really was impressive! We'll be encouraging our school to do a bit more to help the environment over the next few months too!

High Five from SAM!

Monday morning saw SAM the dog on our school gate greeting pupils as they arrived at school. He then led an assembly for the whole school with his best friend Odo encouraging all pupils to make sure they have 100% attendance! Sam, as you may be aware, stands for 'School Attendance Matters' and Odo is short for 'Odd Days Off'. Thanks to all those - parents and pupils - who ensure that they get themselves to school every day - no matter what - it really does matter!

Year 4 Poetry

Year 4 are learning about poetry in English this week. The children have been finding their own ways to present a poem called 'The Door' by Miroslav Holub. They imagined what the door might be made of and what could be behind it. They presented their ideas to the class using pictures, new poems, stories and drama.

"Robin Hood" comes to Bitterne Manor!

What a great first day back! M & M Theatre Productions performed their pantomine version of "Robin Hood" to the whole school. The show was action-packed, full of songs, laughter and fun.

Key Stage One Guildhall choir

Well done to the Key Stage One choir who were excellent at the Guildhall concert. They worked very hard at the rehearsals in the morning and had lots of fun. They were fantastic at acting 'Christmas with the aliens' and their singing was beautiful. The costumes looked wonderful and the children made us all very proud. What a superb evening!