BIC Sant Agustí Weekly News (06/03/21)

Dear parents

We have just entered June - our final month of this academic year, which is unbelievable! The time has passed so quickly but we are looking forward to all the exciting things we have planned for the next few weeks. Everyone is going to be really busy in so many different ways but the learning continues. Every class will be going on a trip, linked to the curriculum and we are looking forward to some extra special celebrations throughout the month too.

As we come to the end of the school year, it is really important that everyone keeps to their usual routines as much as possible and although we will be involved in lots of exciting activities, it will be vital that we keep to our normal routines to ensure the children still feel safe, secure and calm. Please help us in this by also keeping to the same routines at home, especially bedtimes. Even though it is tempting to allow children to stay up later as summer approaches, they need to be rested for the following day, especially as they have an exciting month ahead.

This month is the transition month in which we will be helping the children prepare for their forthcoming changes of class, teacher, routines and timetables. Transition is an important part of our journey and some people find it easier than others. Throughout the rest of this term we will be helping and guiding the children to make this transition easier for them so they enjoy their summer holiday.

Last week on our Charity Day we raised over 150 Euros for charity so we would like to say a huge thank you to everyone who donated and a huge well done to all the children in Years 1 to 6 who ran 1 kilometre and all the Early Years children who ran 500 metres!

Some more lovely news - Miss Martinez now has a baby daughter, Alma. Many congratulations and best wishes to them all!

Don´t forget to enter our Environment Competition - see the poster below!

Have a lovely weekend

Warm regards

Mrs Short

Principal

Food, glorious food! We have now started our Healthy Eating topic. This is a very important topic to talk about with children from a young age onwards. Did you know, for example, that a third of children in the U.K do not know where their food comes from other than the supermarket and other countries show similar percentages. Connecting children to the source of their food is so important, it serves as a foundation for healthy habits and it makes children more aware of their natural and local environment.

This week we looked at different groups of food; dairy, fish -meat and other sources of protein, fruit, vegetables and grains.

We looked at what role these food groups play in a healthy and balanced diet and we learned about which fruits and vegetables grow on trees, plants or under the ground, Starfish class is keeping a good eye on the growth journey of their bean sprouts and sunflowers that we have grown from seed in our own Nursery playground planters.

We also did a smell and feel test with different kinds of vegetables,fruits and spices, with many of the children sharing their thoughts, likes and dislikes on how things feel and smell. Some of the children were able to describe what they could smell with adjectives such as sweet or salty.

Another very exciting thing that happened this week is that our butterflies hatched out of their cocoons, they are so beautiful! We observed their movements in class for two days and released them into the wild, wishing them well and thanking them for their time with us.

Of course, Starfish class also continues mini-beasting as soon as they have the chance.. …. using the Duplo blocks there is now a lot of effort being put into making houses for these little creatures. These Duplo houses feature multiple stories, bedrooms, kitchens and outdoor areas, they are really quite elaborate!

I hope you all have a great weekend!

This week the Seahorses have been very busy travelling around the world. We are learning all about the places we come from such as what language they speak in those countries, what their special meals are and many other things; so far, we are learning how to say “hello” and “thank you” in seven different languages. During these weeks we will all try to learn as much as possible from our friends’ native countries. The children had put the world map together and they are already getting their passports ready!

In Maths, the children are working really hard with their number lines up to 20 and they are getting really good at playing Bingo! Little by little they are also beginning to be more independent when using the chromebooks and although they still need support I know that with a little bit more practice they will shortly be really good at it.

Also we wanted to show you that this week we’ve had our first harvest, green beans and tomatoes. Do you remember when we put a few beans in a cup with water, 3 months ago? They are the ones! We are so proud and excited about this achievement!

Finally, we would like to show you our new updated classroom areas: our Kandinsky tree, whose decorations have been all made by the children independently and our new‘Cafe’, where the children have been having loads of fun and loads of ice-creams and cakes! Wishing you all a lovely and safe weekend!

We have had a lot of fun this week playing maths games, back to back, higher or lower and guess my number. All these games have been helping us consolidate our place value of 2 digit numbers. Row row row your boat, Jack and Jill and Grandma´s Knives and Forks are some of the rhymes we have been studying and learning this week during English class. We have looked at rhyming words, unfamiliar words (especially in the older songs) and we have had fun with role play and adding actions too. But I think our favourites might be the finger rhymes. We read Incy Wincy Spider in German too!

“We are Britain” is the name of our new humanities topic. We looked at all the nationalities in our class, where our families come from, all the languages we speak and we learned that British schools are very diverse places. We found all the different countries on the map.

Handwriting goes from strength to strength each week -keep it up! The children now practise in their spare time in our class handwriting booklet!

In phonics we have been learning the sounds ee and or and the stories , actions and activities to go with that.

Science has also seen us move on to a new topic of Inventors and Scientists. We began by learning all about LEGO, what material it's made from, the different shapes and sizes and how they make it in the factory in Denmark! Did you know that the word LEGO means ´play well ´ in Danish.

In Art we have been looking at lines, drawing and copying patterns. The children were really good and the pictures are now on display in the art room.

In PSHE we have been celebrating our differences and we updated our class promise with our stars.

Have a lovely weekend everyone!

See you next week for more learning and doing!

Remember plenty of water and sunscreen each day!

Love the SUPER SEALS!

Busy, busy, busy… The Y2 class has been amazingly busy this week. So many fun activities and learning tasks… We started being busy last Friday, running a km (20 times around the playground!) for charity. Mrs K-B and Mrs C ran too, but we aren't sure they did all 20 laps!

In Literacy we have started a new unit of work and have been enjoying ´The Diary of a Wombat´ by Jackie French. We have revisited days of the week, orally rehearsing and sequencing our thoughts and writing full sentences using the first person and the past tense. To help practice we played a game called Spot the Truth. We had to think of two sentences, one was a true statement and one was a fib! We then had to tell our talk partner and see if they could tell which statement was the truth! Mrs K-B went first with “When I was a young child I used to like to find snails in the garden and eat them” and “Yesterday I crammed a whole cupcake in my mouth in one go!” We then had to try and figure out which statement was true! Can you guess?

We have started to get ready for World Music Day… a song, a dance and 2 more songs to learn! We´ve also had a focus on the United Kingdom. We have found out some amazing facts about the UK, including information about the different countries that make up the UK, the countries that make up the UK and Great Britain, the countries´capital cities, Ben Nevis, the different countries' flags and the longest river in England.

Funky Fractions is our Maths topic! We are using our learning from the last unit (multiplication and division) to recognise, find and make half, quarter and third.

This week in Science we investigated the properties of a material that we could squash and squeeze. Mrs K-B challenged us to not only think about a material to squeeze but to MAKE a material to squeeze! We made our own playdough and then experimented with its rigidity and flexibility. We are learning so many new and interesting words in Science!

We cannot believe that is is June already! This year is flying by…

Last Friday, we had a fun-filled day taking part in the Charity run. It was great to see everyone with so much energy, some children even completed more than 1km!

On Thursday last week, we designed and created our own Stone Age houses. We chose from 4 different eras… Mesolithic, Paleolithic, Neolithic and Skara Brae style. We used natural resources such as clay, flowers, leaves and twigs to create our designs and they turned out incredible so they are now proudly on display around the school.

This week in our music lesson, we have started practising our songs for ‘World Music Day’, we’re looking forward to making our dance routines over the next few weeks!

In other news, a big shout out to Vova for his amazing effort on TT Rockstars. He has been crowned Rockstar of the week with his impressive score of over 1000 correct answers!

Boom...and just like that, we’ve jumped into June! With this being the last full academic month of the school year, it’s always guaranteed to be a very busy month with so much to look forward to. From finishing topics, making sure the children are as prepared as possible to move onto their new year group, we know that we are all going to be very busy bees this month! This week has seen Year 4 practicing for their Sports Day in PE, which will be held later in the month, rehearsing songs for both the Queen’s birthday and World Music Day in Music and generally being great role model students whilst reflecting our School Values.

In the photos below, you’ll see the children enjoying their practical Science lesson learning about their digestive system. Kailani transformed into a potato, entered the mouth and was chewed up. From there she travelled through the mouth, into the oesophagus, down to the stomach, through the miles of small and large intestine, then finally, dropped out as waste...which you can imagine caused lots of amusement! What a great way to learn and remember the facts.

Have a great weekend and fun in the sun!!

On Friday we had a very special day and were radio presenters. As part of the radiothon, Year 5 went along to Radio One Mallorca to present an hour-long show. The children were amazing and spoke with great confidence, they certainly kept the presenter in check on what they wanted to do! It was a great experience for all of them and one I am sure they will remember.

In our Science lessons we have been busy continuing to learn about Electricity and this week were testing out materials to see if they were conductors or insulators. There was a real buzz around the room as they all were busy finding different materials all around the classroom to test including books, glasses, remote controls...anything that wasn't moving was tested! Our learning will continue later in the week when we will be building and testing circuits of our own.

This week we started our new English topic ‘Writing to Persuade’. We began by looking at a range of persuasive texts including advertisements, campaigns and letters. As we looked at each example, we discussed the purpose and audience as well as trying to identify any aspects of word play such as alliteration and repetition. We also looked at the difference between fact and opinion and how they are used in persuasive texts. Using TV advertisements we were able to listen out for statements which were factual and those which were opinion based. We discovered how writers use a mixture of the two to persuade people to buy products! Stay tuned as soon we will be writing our own persuasive texts!

In Humanities we are continuing our focus on tourism and this week we looked at the benefits and problems it can bring. We looked at a case study of a new resort in a pretty seaside town in Devon and discussed the potential advantages and disadvantages of it going ahead. Each Shark then took on a different role of a local resident and we had a debate sharing our thoughts. The yoga teacher, fisherman and dog walker said no to the development going ahead but the taxi driver and hotel manager were in favour of the project because it meant more jobs and money for the local economy.

Our Science topic this term is electricity and last week we learnt about conductors and insulators. After setting up a simple circuit using a cell, wires and a bulb, the Sharks chose different materials to attach to the wires. If the bulb lit up, they knew the material was a conductor and if not it was an insulator. It was great fun choosing different materials to test, from chocolate to coins!

Esta semana los alumnos de Year 3&4 nos hemos adentrado en desierto y hemos llevado a cabo una búsqueda de información sobre los aspectos que más nos interesaba conocer. Cada grupos se ha hecho experto en uno de los temas y ha expuesto a sus compañeros la información recabada. ¡Hemos descubierto cosas muy interesantes!

Además, en catalán, Year 2 ha estado trabajando con aspectos relacionados con el cielo nocturno y el Sistema Solar. Pues hemos descubierto algunas de las constelaciones que componen las estrellas y algunas historias sobre ellas. Además, nos hemos adentrado dentro del Sistema Solar experimentando con la Realidad Virtual. ¡Parecía magia!

Durante las últimas semanas hemos estado aprendiendo sobre la increíble historia de Frida Kahlo y su legado en el mundo entero. Los alumnos de Whales y Sharks han aprendido creando su propia casa azul con la biografía de Frida, alguno de sus famosos cuadros e interpretando el último de ellos, VIVA LA VIDA, del 1953. Este es el proceso y resultado de todo este proyecto. Si te cruzas alguno de estos niños o niñas, no dudes en preguntarles, ahora se saben muchas datos relevantes de la vida de esta simbólica mujer mexicana.

KIDS RUN

WE ARE DELIGHTED TO SHARE DETAILS OF AN EXCITING OPPORTUNITY FOR YOUR SON/DAUGHTER TO TAKE PART IN KIDS RACE, HALF MARATHON MAGALUF 2021

ON FRIDAY 25th OF JUNE, STARTING AT 6.30PM ON ATHLETICS TRACK IN MAGALUF

Online free registrations to the race until 24th of June 11 pm. https://sportmaniacs.com/es/services/inscription/kids-run-hmm-2021

Day: 25th of June

Place: Athletics track Magaluf

Schedules:

• 6.30pm Collective warm-up

• 7pm Race starts

Distances:

Online free registrations to the race until 24th of June 11 pm here: https://sportmaniacs.com/es/services/inscription/kids-run-hmm-2021 .

ATENTION: On-site registration can be done 1 hour before the start of the races, as long as the registrations are not sold out.

GENERAL INFORMATION FOR THE KIDS RUN HALF MARATHON MAGALUF

A fun race that aims to promote the practice of physical activity among children in the municipality of Calvià and the surrounding area. Sport allows us to promote values such as effort, social integration, solidarity, collaboration, fair play, respect, among others, without forgetting the intrinsic social component it has.

It should be noted that this race is part of the Half Marathon Magaluf 2021 event.

FEATURES:

Gifts and prizes for all the participants

All the athletes will have race insurance.

Athletes up to 6 years old must be accompanied by their parents.

To enter this fantastic creative project we are asking you to use your creativity and produce a unique piece of art that reflects the natural world. This could be drawing, painting, sculpture, craft. If what you produce is not possible to bring to school - no problem! Simply bring in some photos of your finished piece! The closing date for entries is the 9th June, when all entries must be brought to school. One winner will be chosen from each category of Early Years, Y1 and 2, Y3 and 4 and Y5 and 6. Good Luck!