Rooks Test Wood Lakes Adventure!

On Friday, Rooks visited Test Wood Lakes Nature Reserve.  This term, in our Geography and Science topics we have been studying Rivers and States of Matter, including the water cycle.  The aim of this visit was to link both subjects together, look at and identify the features of a river, and also learn more about the water cycle and the role our rivers play in it.

Read on to find out about our exciting day

The morning began, with us map reading our way around the nature reserve.  After leaving the centre,  we were each given a map to help us navigate our way around the site.

 We crossed over the River Blackwater

 We found ourselves at the faster flowing River Test.

 We all had a game of Pooh Sticks - it got rather competitive!!

 After returning to the center, we ate our lunch.  As part of Test Woods desire to protect the environment, we looked at how much of our lunch waste we could recycle and how much would need to go the the landfill.  Although we were not officially taking part, we managed to win a silver award - well done Rooks!!

After lunch, it was time to play with water.  We created our own water cycle using sponges for clouds, drain pipes to deliver the water and squirty water bottles to act as evaporation.  The three teams had to repeat the cycle and label up the different parts of the water cycle.  Luckily the sun came out, so we dried up quickly.

Finally, if that wasn't enough fun, we headed off to their wooded area to practise our map reading skills.  We had to follow another map and find different parts of the water cycle hidden within the woods, these were clearly labelled on the map but it was quite tricky getting our bearings!  Again competition was fierce, with one team completing the challenge and several others coming close second.  We even had some of the local deer join in the hunt!

After our map reading dash around the woods and an enormous 'Thank you' to the staff at Test Wood Lakes for hosting our day, it was back to the mini buses to head back to school.  

A great day was had by all!

Learning Lab Plans!

We are very excited to share the first look at our new 'Learning Lab' designs. Another of this year's projects supported by our fabulous PTA. The area outside 'Rooks' and 'Nightingales' classes is being completely transformed by the same talented artist who did our library. We are are very pleased to announce that the project will begin the week after half-term and should also be completed well before Christmas. An exciting time to be a child (..and grown-up!) at BMPS!

Robins Dance Day!

Wow! What great dancers we have in Robins class.  Today we were split into different groups. Some of us were robots while others were a jack in the box, spinning top and puppets. Can you guess from the pictures who was who?

Beep Beep!

In our Design technology lessons we have been leading up to building a moving toy car. The first stage in this process was to find out what a car looks like and needs to be able to move. We then moved onto designing our toy car. We worked in partners and listed the equipment that we would need and drew a template. Finally we got to the fun part, making and decorating our cars. Take a look at our pictures. 

Outside Improvement Plans!

Thanks to the PTA and Lottery funding, we're pleased to share these plans for our improving our outside areas. Funding is now secured and plans are in place for the new play equipment in our 'woodchip' area and an outdoor 'stage' and seating area on the school field. Even better news - these will all be in place by Christmas!

Year 5 Space Race!

On your marks,  get set...GO!  Year 5 have been working hard this term designing and creating their very own moon buggy, culminating in a space race today! They built their chassis out of wood, added their wheels, made it move using batteries and a motor and built a body out of junk materials such as cereal boxes and yoghurt pots.  Our friends and family came in to help us build the bodies of our cars and then we raced them on the playground. It was fantastic fun and really exciting for everyone! Thank you to everyone who came and well done to Adil and Fawad for winning the race!

Every Child a Talker (ECaT) Parent Session

Find out how you can help your child develop their communication skills and support their early literacy development.

 

 

Every Child a Talker (ECaT) in Southampton is a programme to support the development of communication and language skills from birth to five years of age.

Poor early language development can have long term effects in terms of harming learning, not achieving academic success, poor employability and mental health issues. 

The ECaT Parent Workshop will introduce ECaT strategies and resources which are designed to help parents/carers to create a supportive and stimulating environment at home in which children can enjoy experimenting with and learning language.

ECaT will encourage the development of early language through everyday fun and interesting activities which reflect children’s interests and enable them to become confident and skilled communicators, making them less likely to struggle in developing their literacy skills in school.

 

Early Years Parents and Carers are invited to this 1¼ hour session with

Early Language Consultant/Speech & Language Therapist, Jan Stevens.

 

 

Date:        Wednesday 2^nd November

Time:        9.00 – 10.15

Venue:     Bitterne Manor Primary School

 

 

Every Child a Talker (ECaT) aims to:

 

)  Raise children’s achievement in early language

 

)  Improve practitioners’ skills and knowledge

 

)  Increase parental understanding & involvement in children’s language development