Keep up to date with all the latest news happening in school at the moment.

• Reception October 2020

  Fri 23 Oct 2020

  We have had a brilliant first half term in reception and are incredibly proud of how the children have settled into life at Aston Clinton School. They have enjoyed exploring their new learning environments, inside and out, forming new friendships and becoming more independent. The children have embraced the new routines and enjoy working together.

  Our day always starts by developing our fine motor skills through dough disco. We move our fingers to lots of different tunes. We have been busy learning phase 2 phonics sounds and the children are doing really well at recognising them and their matching actions. We have already learnt about lots of exciting topics and are looking forward to covering many more next half term.

  We started with ‘Me and My World’ and this gave us a great opportunity to discover more about the children’s personalities. Each week, we have linked our learning to a book which started with ‘The Colour Monster’. Through this book we learnt more about different feelings and how and when we express these. We have also read ‘Elmer’, ‘The Jolly Postman’, ‘Funnybones’, ‘Oliver’s Vegetables’ and we are finishing the half term with ‘Leaf Man’ and ‘Seasons come and Seasons Go’.

  So far in our provision our role play has included, a post office, hospital, fruit and vegetable stall and a supermarket. We have some budding doctors, receptionists and cashiers amongst our children! The children have loved taking their learning outside, creating all sorts of concoctions in our new sandpit, including making cakes and building volcanos.

  To develop their mark making skills we have been writing our sounds of the day in all sorts of exciting ways, from mud painting to chalk writing and good old-fashioned pen and paper!

  In Maths the children have explored numbers to 5, sorting and comparing groups of objects and have started a new topic of finding one more. During our exploring time children have been comparing shapes, colours, length and capacity.

  We have all been artists and creators this term, exploring and mixing colours, printing with fruits and vegetables and making leaf art animals. The children have loved getting messy in the process.

  We are really enjoying teaching the reception children and can’t wait to see them grow and flourish over the next year. We are super proud of them!

• Halloween Pictures

  Fri 23 Oct 2020
  

• Year 1 - October 2020

  Fri 16 Oct 2020

  We have been really proud of the children and how well they have settled back into the routine of school and Year One.  The children have been working hard to show us what they can do and we also have been finding out what they need to learn next.

   

  Well done to every one of you for making such a great start. The Year One team know we are going to enjoy teaching you this year.

   

  Our topic this half term has been Our World and we have fun finding out about The United Kingdom.  We have learnt all about the four different countries and even the capital cities!   We learnt about some of the famous landmarks you might see if you visited London, the capital of England.

   

  I liked doing drawing of the landmarks of London. – Oliver D

  I liked learning all about the United Kingdom.– Brock A

  We also created our own cities too.

   

  In English, we have been reading different stories and poems.  Our favourite book so far has been We’re Going on a Bear Hunt!   We even got to go on our own bear hunt around the school ground. 

  We learnt the story off by heart and retold it to different audiences including Bridget!  We then created backgrounds for the story using different collage materials. 

   

   In writing, we labelled and then wrote descriptions of the bear.  We even created a story map of We’re Going on a Bear Hunt before making new adventures for us to go on including crossing mountains, volcanoes, swamps and vines!

   The bear hunt outside has been my favourite. – Ellis S

   I liked masking the backgrounds, I love painting. – Henry S

  I liked acting out Going on a Bear Hunt across the playground.- Nate C

  I loved running away from the Bear! – Jack H

  I liked watching Michael Rosen’s poetry when he retold the story. -Florence H

   

  In Science and Design and Technology we have been investigating our five senses.  We have tried reading a book and putting on our coats with our eyes closed.  We have tested our sense of smell by deciding if we liked the smell of different foods and drinks.  We really enjoyed testing our sense of taste by trying lots of different fruits.   We have also created our own fruit pictures using crayons.

   

  I liked tasting the fruit in DT especially the prunes! – Johnny D

  I loved using my sense of touch when we felt the

  different fruits- Violet C

  I love trying new things – Lyrah A

  I loved the tasting especially the strawberries

  nd blueberries – Fleur E-W

   

  What a lot of new learning since the children have joined Year One, well done to all our children

• Year 2 - October 2020

  Fri 09 Oct 2020

  Year 2

   

  The children have settled back into routine nicely. They have been working very hard to do their best in all we do.

   

  We have been busy completing assessments this week and the children have truly shown how well they are now settled into Year 2, taking them in their stride.

  We have focussed this week on lots of PSHE, Geography and Art, while also taking some mindfulness breaks using headspace.

   

  PSHE

  We’ve listened to a few stories this week to help us think about our growth mindset and positivity.

   ‘The Girl Who Never Makes Mistakes’ was the first story we listened to.

  “She never made a mistake. Then she made an enormous mistake on the stage and she thought it was funny.” Freya

  “She thought it was funny after she made a mistake.” Lucy

  “At the end she realised it is okay to make mistakes.” Jaime.

  And the whole class agreed!

  We created posters to help each other remember how to cope with making mistakes. Here are a few we came up with.

   We then listened to ‘The Colour Monster’ story, which was about…

  “feelings and about different colours that represented different feelings like anger, calm, happy, love, fear, sadness. The colour monster got all of his feelings mixed up.” Seyi

  “We read the colour monster story, we drew our own colour monsters and then we coloured them in. Happy was yellow, calm was green, sad was blue, love was pink, anger was red and fear was black.” Evie

  We completed our very own Happiness Jars with things that made us happy and put them up as a display to remind us!

  Geography

  This term our topic is ‘What A Wonderful World’. The children have been learning about the 7 continents and facts about each one.

   We decided to create our own globes using balloons!

  “I liked the fact that we learnt about our continents and we made our planet and took them home.” Ethan K

  “I felt happy because we got to glue them onto the balloon and it looked like our whole planet.” Macy

  “I really like making it with my partner. I liked gluing the continents to the balloon.” Jasmine.

  “First, we coloured in all the 7 continents and then we cut them out, then we were all given a blue balloon. It was blue to be like the water. Then, we stuck all the continents onto the balloon and then finally we tied string to the bottom so we could hold it. I really enjoyed it.” Isla

  “Making our globe balloons was the most fun I have had in year 2 so far.” Lachlan

  “We coloured in all of the 7 continents and we stuck them onto a blue balloon. It was fun and I enjoyed it.” Florence

  Art

  Following on from listening to ‘The Colour Monster’ we had a go at creating our own colour monsters. We drew what we would look like as a monster and used colours to represent different emotions.

   

• Year 5 September 2020

  Fri 02 Oct 2020

  The last few weeks back in school have been a rollercoaster for all of us. It has been a bag of mixed emotions after so long at home and the children have coped well and taken all the changes in their stride. We are very proud of them.
  ‘I was a little nervous coming back to school, but I am really enjoying being with my friends.’ Sam B
  Since coming back to school, year 5 have been working hard and having a lot of fun. Here are some of the things that we have been doing:
  Class reader-
  ‘I’ve loved the class novel so far. Every page is filled with excitement and adventure. It is filled with exotic animals and surprises around every corner.’ -Archie.
  ‘I’m enjoying the class novel because you think the book is really exciting and then you turn the page and its twice as exciting, and sometimes even more!’ Sam T
  Maths:
  We are all getting to grips with our new maths scheme – Power Maths. The children seem to be loving it!
  ‘I’m enjoying Power Maths. It has been really fun and tests my brain to work hard!’ Poppy C.
  Art:
  Last week, we researched Pablo Picasso and Cubism and created artwork based on his cubism faces.
  ‘I enjoyed being back at school. I have had fun doing art because I love art. I especially liked creating our Picasso faces.’ Kiera.
  ‘We drew Picasso faces and then coloured them in with Pastels. It was fun!’ Louis Price.
  Design and Technology:
  This half term we are learning to design and create a soft toy of a rainforest animal. Lots of new skills are being learnt.
  ‘My favourite lesson so far has been designing my rainforest animal toy because I enjoy creating things.’ Izzy
  ‘I really enjoyed making the pattern for my toy sloth. It was challenging to get the right shape and proportions but once I got it right, all I had to do was put stitch marks about a centimetre away from the outline. It was really fun!’ Poppy R
  Science:
  As we are looking at lifecycles this half term, we started by dissecting a flower to look at all the parts.
  ‘In science, we took a flower to pieces and saw all the parts of it. We looked at two flowers, one had red petals, which if you put on paper and smudge it, it turns into a sort of purple ink!’ Louis Pillai
  ‘In science we looked at flowers. We took the petals off and focused on the middle of the flower.’- Lana

• Year 4 September 2020

  Fri 02 Oct 2020

  YEAR 4

  Returning to school has required many adjustments/changes that both the staff and students have had to get used to. Having spent so long at home, away from the educational environment, it was expected that returning to school would consist of a variety of emotions. The children have presented positive behaviours since returning to school and we are incredibly proud of how they have coped with the changes that have occurred within the school. When asking the children how they felt about coming back to school, here are some of the things they had to say:

  “I have been excited to come back so I can learn and see my friends.” – Sasha P.

  “School has been very different and still fun!” – Ruby S.

  “I felt a bit nervous but now I am in school I am ok.” – Maisie H. G.

  “I love being back with all my friends because friends are family.” – George Q.

  Since coming back to school, year 4 have been working incredibly hard in a wide range of subjects. Below are some of the subjects they have covered and a few comments on how they have found each one.

  Maths

  Power Maths has recently been introduced to the curriculum as a new maths scheme. Although it is a new scheme that was unfamiliar to the children at first, they are really enjoying and getting to grips with it! In maths Year 4 have been focusing on how to round numbers, Roman Numerals, place value and lots more. Here are what the children had to say about their Maths lessons so far:

  “We have been learning numbers in Roman Numerals like this – II – that’s 2.” – Eddie N.

  “In maths we have been using Power Maths, which I think is a great improvement because it has everything written down ready for you to try!” – Theo R.

  “I learnt about Roman Numerals which was so fun!” – Jessica J. K.

  In Art, we have been researching Mukherjee and creating artwork based on his ideas.

  “All the lessons have been fabulous and my favourite lesson is art. Our topic is M, his art looks exquisite.” – Ben P.

  “I really like doing Art because with only a few shapes, you can make anything and everything.” – Felicity R.

  Geography:

  Geography lessons have consisted of looking at maps to locate signs and symbols, as well as the children drawing their own maps.

  “I loved drawing the map in Geography. I learnt about what the symbols mean on a map!” – Abbie H.

  English:

  In English, Year 4 have been writing their own song lyrics, writing letters to a ‘special person’ and have had a go at writing their own poems.

  “I have always enjoyed writing, but never this much.” – Eva N.  

  PSHE: Within the PSHE lessons Year 4 have been learning what it is like to be ‘successful’, as well as being asked what ‘successful’ means to them.

  “I loved learning about what makes people successful.” – Dexter M.

  Science

  In science, Year 4 have been looking at different types of plants and learning how to use classification keys to identify them!

  “I like Science because we go outside a lot.” – Benjamin W.

  “I liked doing Science because it was fun looking at nature and we made leaf classification keys!” – Jake S.

  Music: For the past couple of weeks, the children have been focusing on drumming within their music lessons, in particular African Drumming.

  “Currently in music we are learning African Drums and it is so fun!” – Gracie B.

  Class Book:

  Year 4 are currently reading ‘Here We Are’ by Olivia Jeffery as their class novel.

  “I liked the Here We Are book because it is like being Olivia Jeffery” - Amy B. 

• Year 3 September 2020

  Fri 02 Oct 2020

  Year 3
  The children in year 3 have settled really well back into school and we are very impressed at how they are tackling their learning and doing their best even when they find it a little tricky after being home for so long!
  Art
  During the first week back the children learnt about the artist Romero Britto who started the “Happy Art” movement. The children agreed that his art did make them feel happy and cheerful since it is so bright and colourful! After exploring shapes in the natural world, they all designed and painted their own picture in his style.
  Science
  The children have started learning about skeletons and their functions. We challenged them to have a go at drawing the human skeleton before doing any research and then they had to look at drawings to see what they needed to do to improve it.
  They have also enjoyed learning about the names of the different bones.
  English
  We have been doing work based around the story Stone Age boy. The children have been retelling the story and using descriptive language to describe a setting and one of the main characters.
  History
  The children are learning about the Stone Age and what it might have been like to live during this time. They enjoyed taking part in an “archaeological dig” to help them understand how we learn about prehistory.