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PARK HILL PREPARATORY SCHOOL THE DEERSTALKER ISSUE 45 - 26th january 2018

From the Headmaster:

As you can see from the range of images and stories featured in this edition of the Deerstalker, it has been a rather busy and enjoyable week. A return visit to the Apple Store, a trip to Wagamama, a rather interesting experiment involving yeast and balloons and preparations for our second House Shout in full flow it is just as well that Chef Leon feeds us so well!

Wine (and beer) and Food Pairing Evening - Friday 2nd February, 7.30pm at Park Hill

Well, Chef Leon has had fun with the menu for the upcoming wine/beer/food pairing evening this coming Friday; nearly as much fun that was clearly had by Charlotte at Wined Up Here in selecting some rather exciting wines and beer to match the menu. As you can see from the image below, it promises to be an evening not to be missed!

We held the event for the first time last year and it was a most successful evening, the emphasis being on simply enjoying one other’s company as much as it was on enjoying the wine and food. What better way to celebrate the beginning of February (or for those of righteously celebrating the end of dry January...) than with champagne, caviar and a rather interesting selection of cheese? Places are limited and I would encourage you to sign up through the following link -

House Shout

Our next whole school assembly promises to be unmissable. The four houses are busy preparing their songs and moves to compete for the House Shout Cup. Expect a roar; expect to be knocked down (but you will get back up again), there will be some gold and you won’t be able to stop the feeling...

Thursday 1st February, 8.45am, don’t miss it! (We will also record the assembly and upload it to our YouTube channel).

Yours sincerely,

Alistair

PS - Just to whet your appetite for the wine and food evening, Chef Leon produced a rather splendid fish and chip lunch today....

Apple Store Visit

Enormous fun was had during our return visit to the Apple Store in Kingston. Using the application ‘Stop Motion’ the children used putty to tell a story through animation. As you can see, the results are certainly worthy of Nick Park/Wallace and Gromit!

Information from the Year Groups

Year 3 and Year 4

This week we have thoroughly enjoyed a trip to the Apple store learning how to animate. Some superb videos were made, and I think we may have some future animators in Park Hill! Again their confident handling of iPads and a variety of apps is most impressive.

We have continued our studies with Greek Mythology and are familiar with many of the stories now. We are now looking to create our own myth starting with making our own mythological monster.

In Science we are continuing our work on microbes. Can you work out what we were doing by looking at the photo below?

We will show you next week!

In DT we looked at the different food groups and how to make a well balanced meal, which was very tasty.

In Humanaities we have enjoyed learning about volcanoes and are very glad we don’t live near the ‘Ring of Fire’.

Year 2 -

This week, the children in Year 2 have been working on expanding sentences from a single noun. They built their sentences up using nouns, adjectives, verbs, and connectives. They were absolutely fantastic, and very imaginative. In Mathematics, the children sorted 2D shapes according to properties, and then created their own using descriptions.

Science was a lot of fun as the children designed houses, and tested materials to see if they were insulators or conductors of heat and electricity. They did this using ice cream - if they could keep it from melting, they could eat it. Unfortunately, we learnt that it’s difficult to keep something cold in a warm room.

Year 1 -

Our focus this week has been measuring length in both standard and non standard ways. Year 1 learnt how to measure with hand spans, foot strides and cubits (which is the measurement from your elbow to the tip of your fingers) used by the Ancient Egyptians. At woodland school we measured the circumference of the trees to try and work out their ages. We were surprised to discover that the trees were younger than we thought. The oldest tree found was an Oak tree, 108 years old.

We tried an interesting method to work out the height which meant that year 1 had to look through their legs, when they could see the top of the tree we measured the distance in metres. This method was not very effective.

Amazingly, it would appear that Cinderella visited Park Hill school and dropped her slipper on the stairs. Year 1 investigated and then published their own newspapers. Fox News and the Fox report interviewed Mrs Patel and photographed the evidence. Amazing work Fox class !

Reception -

This week Reception have got stuck into all things food! We had a marvellous visit to Wagamama where to children got to use different ingredients to make their own Katsu Curry. They were allowed to chose from a few ingredients and weigh out each item, while their food was being cooked the children got the opportunity to use the juicing machine they had a choice of using apples and oranges. It was so delicious even the teachers got a cheeky Wagamama dish.

In Maths, we have been looking at weighing vegetables and other classroom objects and putting them into their weight order. We even tried to read the grams on the scales.

At the beginning of the week we had a fantastic yoga session with Dr. Hiwett, where the children went on a yoga journey making different animal poses and even a yoga bus to take them to different worlds.

Second Steps -

What a very busy and exciting week we have had! We started off with a Treasure Hunt, the pirates stole our treasure and hid it for safe keeping. We had to look at the treasure map to find the hidden treasure! On Tuesday we finished our dragon for Chinese New Year, we also celebrated Luke’s Birthday, Happy 4th Birthday Luke!

On Wednesday we had great fun in Music lesson. We also did lots of maths and phonics. We have also been busy doing Dough Disco, Finger Gym, Yoga, Georgies Gym. On Thursday we enjoyed singing along to the flute and creating lots of different sounds with musical instruments. On Friday we made some yummy Sushi in our cooking class. Great work this week Second Steps

Sushi Chefs in action

First Steps -

This week has been a busy week. We have discovered what an amazing form of transport a hot air balloon can be. Looking at how we can float up in the air and see everything from above. We showed the children clips of hot air balloons gliding over safari animals and they were all amazed.

We have made our own balloons and will be discovering more air adventures. Benjamin said ‘I would like to go to the Santa’s fair in a hot air balloon’.

The children have been using the book corner a lot this week. One of their favourite stories for their teachers to read to them is ‘The Tiger Who Came To Tea’.

If you are familiar with the story you will know that the Tiger eats all the food in Sophie’s house. This has led on to lots of discussions about the different types of food we have in our homes and what we like to eat.

This has also led to the children taking the play dough into the home corner to make and cook food for each other and feeding the dollies.

We have been learning about the letter sound ‘m’and discovering lots of ‘m’ words and objects such as mouse, monkey, man, mummy.

Jack said ‘I’ve got a mummy’ with a big smile on his face.

We have also been talking about emotions, ‘m’ for mad scrunching up our faces to show mad then smiling to show a happy face. The children have continued this looking in the mirrors in the home corner.

At the end of the week we made traffic lights sandwiches and discussed about the traffic rules.

Reception Trip to Wagamama

As part of their topic on food, the Reception classes visited Wagamama earlier this week. As you can see from the images, they had a most enjoyable time.

Drop off and Collection Arrangements

The side gate is open each day from 8.00am - 8.05am for early bird drop off. It will then be opened again from 8.15am - 8.30am for drop off, and 3.30pm - 3.40pm for collection. Early bird drop off is for children only and you should leave your children with the member of staff on duty.

If you are running late, please inform Mrs Blower so we can make the necessary arrangements.

Breakfast Club

In order to ensure we can obtain accurate numbers for Breakfast Club each day we have adapted the form currently used to book a place for the after school club. If you wish to apply for a place for breakfast club for the next day or coming week, these requests can be accommodated up to 2pm each day, with the form being taken off line at 2pm to ensure we can make the necessary arrangements. These bookings will need to be made each week and will be 'online' from 3pm each Friday afternoon for the consecutive week.

Second Hand Uniform

For your information, we are no longer hosting sales. If you wish to request some second hand uniform please complete the Google Form:

Website

We are in the process of developing a new website. We are hoping to reveal our new site in January 2018.

The grid calendar is back up and running, although we are still trying to publish 2018-2019 term dates and remove the 2016-2017, however they are in the grid calendar.

Parking

Please help us maintain the very best relationships with our neighbours by not blocking or parking in their drives when dropping off or collecting your children.

Please do not park on the yellow chevrons directly in front of the school or across driveways for the safety of all of our children.

Woodland School

Could I ask that you ensure that waterproof trousers, Wellington boots and coats are brought into school on the relevant day (regardless of the forecast) so that we maximise our use of Richmond Park.

After School Activities

Please note: all activities, clubs (including after- school and breakfast clubs and trips) will be charged through schoolmoney.

Spring Term club choices-

Created By
Park Hill
Appreciate

Credits:

Alistair Bond

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