Year 5 Victorian fun!

We have had a fun-filled couple of weeks in year 5! Last week, we visited SEARCH Gosport Historical museum to find out more about class differences in Victorian Britain. As part of this trip we were able to handle Victorian artefacts and even role play as the servants and masters/mistresses! Some of the children were even able to fully dress up in Victorian costume, while the class was taught about all the different articles of clothing which would have been worn!





This week, we have experienced a day in the life of a Victorian school child. The whole class dressed up in Victorian outfits and we followed the timetable of a Victorian school, including learning how to convert between farthings, pennies and shillings! The children were apparently most shocked about how strict Miss Starling, Mrs Martin and Mrs Meddings really could be!





We also performed our dance inspired by Victorian machines in the factories and retold the poem 'The Highwayman' with actions!





We would like to thank all of the adults both in school and at home that helped us to have so much fun these last two weeks!

Year 3 in Australia!

Year 3 have travelled on an exhilarating journey to the Great Barrier Reef in Australia! With flippers on and dressed appropriately for our surroundings we all explored our new environment. As a class we are all very proud of our collage which hangs outside our classroom and our ceiling of sea creatures.

Year 2 Restaurant

Year 2 would like to invite their parents to the grand opening of their restaurant on Tuesday 6th December at 3:30pm in the school hall. Please come along and share some of the food the children have prepared. Thank you

Celebrating Music Day!

Alex and Ben led a workshop for each class during Music Day. Topics linked with our curriculum and children and staff all had great fun participating in warm up games followed by different groups creating and performing music.

Throughout the day, all our activities were based around music - from learning new songs, to listening to music and creating descriptions or drawings to match the music moods, to making our own fantastice instruments to composing soundscapes with our own instruments! Wow!

Here are just a few photos celebrating our musical day.

Music themed day 29.9.11

Next week Bitterne Manor is having a Music Day - and we love our themed days in school!

A professional musician is coming in to work with each class with a focus on composing and performing. All the details can be found in the letter your child has brought home, so rummage through their bookbags if you haven't read it yet!


Next Thursday, the 29th September, every pupil has been asked to bring in some junk items in order to make their own percussion instrument. (In a named bag please.) Each class will be creating their own piece of music playing their instruments, which the children will then be able to bring home. If you'd like to come to help at any point during the day, please see your child's teacher. We'd love to see you!

Story Telling Day

Today we have had a Story Telling Day. Everybody dressed up as a character from a book, film or T.V.programme and spent the day taking part in a varity of activities. These included sharing stories using objects the children had brought in, making story sacks and boxes, making up and retelling stories using actions to other year groups, and listening to a visiting story teller!

Sports Day

Sports Day 2011 was a great success! All the children took part in teams representing Challengers, Freedom, Victory and Stars.



Each team took part in a round-robin of events to test their skills and their ability to work together. There was huge enthusiasm and everyone had fun taking part.



After the excitement of the class races everyone settled down for a picnic on the school field.



And the winner was...FREEDOM! For the second year running, the trophy was awarded to the captains of Freedom. Well done to everyone who took part and who came to support.

Y3 become pirates!

Year 3 began their new topic by learning 'How to be a Pirate'. There was the learning of new pirate words, the singing of sea shanties, a quiz to find out what they already knew about pirates, some map reading and pirate maths.
In the afternoon, the pirates practised tying knots, making pirate maps (for themselves and the PTA) sketching, and puzzles. After reading about Jolly Rogers, they formed teams to make their own flag designs by using natural materials found round the school grounds. From the photos, you'll see what a great job they did!
Great fun was had by all AND you all looked fantastic! Welcome aboard, me hearties. We've got some amazing adventures planned for you this term. Signed ... Captain Teach.

Hands on - it's Science Day!

What an exciting day to end the half term! Each class moved round their keystage investigating a range of different questions from Do bigger bubbles fall faster than smaller ones? to How high will my rocket fly? to Is it a liquid or is it a solid? plus many more.

The children worked well in teams, using their scientific knowledge to work out the answers and conduct their testing. Very impressive work everyone :) We finished the day by sharing our findings in an assembly.

Year R visited Hawthorns Wildlife Centre

On Friday Year R visited Hawthorns at Southampton Common.

We took part in a variety of activities including taking on the role of squirrels and hiding 'nuts', acting as birds looking for different coloured caterpillars, mini-beast hunting, finding brass rubbings and using the activity rooms.

We had a fantastic time. Year R were very well behaved. Well done Year R. Thank you to those parents who came and helped us.

Year 2 at The New Forest Wildlife Park

Year 2 enjoyed a day at the New Forest Wildlife Park today. They saw many different animals and learnt about their habitats. They loved seeing the otters swimming and the lynx prowling up and down. They thought the wild boar were smelly and very messy. Some of the children saw the joey at the wallaby wood and were amazed when it jumped out of its mother's pouch. Well done Year 2 for being so well behaved. Your sketches of the animals were very detailed and precise and Robin and Mandy commented on how quiet you were while sketching. We had a wonderful day and the rain held off.

Chinese New Year in Year R

Last Thursday, as part of our 'Around the World with Barneby Bear' topic, Year R celebrated Chinese New Year.

After writing a list of ingredients, we made Chinese noodles. When we had our party we ate these. Some fo us enjoyed the noodles so much that we had thirds!!!

We enjoyed making up actions and learning the words to the song 'Chinese New Year Is Here'.

The class also watched dragon and lion dance video clips. We then made up our own dragon dances.

Dragons invade Year 3!

Year 3 have been working hard designing then making dragons that move - using pneumatics. Some children used syringes and some balloons to make various wings, mouths or even shooting flames move!

We look forward to showing the school our dragons in the forthcoming Dragon Show on the morning of Friday 11th February. Year 3 parents are invited too.