Mrs C Kingsman

Author Archives Mrs C Kingsman

3c visit Willmott Dixon site to learn about building and the new local Health Centre

By Mrs C Kingsman20th April 2018

This week 3C had the chance to visit the new health centre for our local area which is in the process of being built. With the help of several parent (and grandparent volunteers) we walked from Fen Street to the site where we were kitted out in safety kit including hard, hats, gloves and hard hats – very stylish! After a safety talk we were shown around the building.

We were led by Nick and his colleague who taught us lots of facts about the construction and planned layout of the the building which has cost nearly £8million to build and is due to be finished by June. The centre will include dentists suites as well as Dr’s examination rooms, a minor surgery room complete with a recovery room and even a cafe (with healthy snacks I’m sure). Ambulances will be available outside with a large car park for patients and visitors.

3C showed lots of interest and asked a whole range of interesting questions from “What are all the different coloured wires for?” to “How many bricks were needed to make the building?”. Willmott Dixon did a great job of answering all the questions and even the adults leant a lot from the information they shared.

At the end of the tour, the children were kindly offered a momento of the visit. Many chose a Keyring, while Mrs Kingsman opted for sharpeners. 😀

Thank you so much Willmott Dixon for the opportunity to visit. It was brilliant! 👏🏾

Year 3’s Working Hard on their Maths Close the Gaps!

By Mrs C Kingsman30th January 2018

Year 3 have been working on practicing using written methods to solve four questions every day. They are given an addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. This close the gap work is completed in the children’s maths books and each child has a grow sheet to track their progress each day. Importantly, they MUST show their working out – something they have not consistently been doing. This helps eliminate minor errors and is a skill required in later years for SATs and GCSE’s as marks are given for showing working out not just the final answer.

Examples of questions:

520cm + 193cm =

342 – 139 =

5 x ____ = 40

27 9 =

How you can help your child at home…

Spend 10 -15 mins creating similar style questions and supporting your child to answer these 3-4 times a a week. Short, focused and regular practice will improve your child’s overall skills.

Any questions, please talk to a member of the year 3 team.

Year 3 Spring Term learning

By Mrs C Kingsman23rd January 2018

Year 3 have begun learning about the Ancient Greeks. As part of our Ignite day the children took part in a Greek dress up day and participated in a variety of activities, such as creating Greek temples, playing Greek games and learning the Greek myth Pandora’s Box to ignite our learning.

In our maths lessons we have been exploring methods to solve multiplication problems. We had lots of fun creating arrays to work out our questions.

Homework for this week

Safari Stu visits Foundation 1

By Mrs C Kingsman21st March 2017

On Monday children were visited by Safari Stu as part of our Ears, Tails and Whiskers project. He brought a wide range of animals with him which included giant hissing cockroaches, a variety of snakes, a tarantula, a skunk and a chameleon.

Children showed true scientific curiosity with the animals handling many of them and asked about what they ate, how long they lived for and what they felt like.

A box of hissing cockroaches

A python

Tarantula time!

A colourful chameleon

The next day we recalled which animals we saw and what facts we remembered. Outside we built a safari park for our small world animals.

Learning through Dear Zoo in Foundation 1

By Mrs C Kingsman5th March 2017

Foundation 1 have thoroughly enjoyed their story Dear Zoo this last two weeks. They have learnt the story and the song, talked about the difference between animals we see in the zoo and animals that make good pets. They have showed a good understanding of why a lion or an elephant would not make a safe pet in our homes.

The children have been painting animals from the story and creating zoos by using the small blocks and small world animals. They particularly enjoyed watching a video of Mrs Kingsman’s dog playing with her toys and sharing information about their own pets in circle time.

Don’t forget to send pictures of your pets for our pet board!

Sharing the story and creating our zoo.

Role playing walking a dog.

Painting the ‘scary snake’ from the story Dear Zoo together.

Next week we will be moving on to the story and rhyme Little Rabbit Foo Foo. We will be practising rhyming for our phonics too and playing games such as match the rhyming words to help children grow their ability to rhyme.

At home you could play rhyming games, listen to rhymes on YouTube and make up your own rhyming strings and rhymes.

Happy rhyming!

Foundation 1 complete their Project on Journeys

By Mrs C Kingsman12th February 2017

Dear Parents,

this Sping term was a short term and a very busy one! Your children have shown a higher level of participation throughout this term. They have enjoyed learning our stories, been creating art and models relating to the stories and shown a maturing attitude towards their learning which has become more focused and purposeful.

Next term we will move on to a new project entitled ‘Ears, Tails and Whiskers’. More information to follow when we return to school. If you have a pet at home please send your child in with photos so that we can talk about them during the project. How do you care for them? What do they need every day? Where do they sleep? Etc

🐶🐱🐰🐭🐠🐺🐍🐈🐕🐇

Lastly, have a restful half term holiday and don’t forget to send your children in with some photos of activities you do in the holiday in their talking bags.

Chris Kingsman

Project learning in F1

By Mrs C Kingsman16th January 2017

For the last two weeks children in Foundation (Countess Way) have been reading the story The Train Ride. We have talked about journeys we have been on, by using the train, and which other ways of travelling there are, from cars and buses, planes and even boats.

The children have created maps to show their journey from their houses to school and coloured, painted and made trains. They have especially enjoyed role playing train rides and have taken it in turns to be the driver, passengers and the ticket collector.

The children have grown their understanding of ‘journeys’ and that they can be long, but may also be very short and that some journeys are made on foot.

This week we have moved on to we’re going on a Bear Hunt by Michael Rosen where we will explore the journey the characters go on to find the bear. More on what we do for our learning later this week.

Foundation Christmas performance

By Mrs C Kingsman17th December 2016

This week foundation enjoyed performing their Christmas ‘Singing around the Christmas Tree’. It was lovely to see all the parents and very many grandparents attend this. Siblings in the older year groups were invited to watch too and joined in with the singing beautifully!

Next term (Spring 1) foundation will be working on the project ‘Journeys’. Nursery at Countess Way campus will begin their learning with the book The Train Ride by June Crebbin. If you get a chance to ride on a train in the holidays, take a picture and keep your tickets for school.

Please remember to put one or two photos or mementos of your break in the ‘talking bags’ so your children can talk about what they did in the holidays when they return on the 4th January.

Have a fantastic Christmas break and we look forward to seeing your children rested and ready to continue their learning when they return.

Chris Kingsman

Christmas decoration making with Foundation Parents at Countess Way

By Mrs C Kingsman6th December 2016

Thank you to all the Foundation parents who came into school to help us make Christmas decorations over the last two days. Your artistic skills have been noted!

The children enjoyed decorating the tree and the room too. We will send out the decorations that have been made next week.

We look forward to welcoming even more of you to our Christmas performance next week!

Exploring Ice in Foundation 1

By Mrs C Kingsman25th November 2016

The children in nursery explored various size ice blocks this week. They explored how the ice felt and how hard it was to change, even when banging it using playdough tools. We learnt that ice is water that has got very, very cold and so become ‘frozen’ but that it melts easily in a warm place like our school building.

Many children experimented with different ideas of how to melt the ice faster by either breaking it into small pieces, touching it with our warm hands, mixing it in bowls or pouring warm water over it. Some great problem solving! See our pictures below.

Well done to Indie who continued her learning at home by freezing water to make her own ice cubes. I am informed that she is going to make different flavour ice cubes next, now that’s what I call yummy science!

Next week we will continue our project by moving on to the story Stick Man by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler. As part of their learning we will read the story and identify all of the different ways the stick could be used.

You could support your child’s learning at home by playing a game to find things made out of wood. There are also a variety of animated versions of the story on YouTube you could watch and join in with. If you feel like getting creative you could go for a walk and collect some sticks to make something out of…have fun!