On Tuesday 25th April, we participated in the Count on Us Maths Challenge. We had to do four rounds of different maths challenges. There was a shape round including tangrams and pentominoes, a 24 game tournament and a code breaking challenge. Despite the fact that we didn’t qualify for the semi-finals we still really enjoyed ourselves. We were the fastest competitors to solve the code, which we are really proud of.
It has been a busy week in EYFS. We have been lucky enough to watch eggs hatch into ducklings as well as invite our parents and friends and parents from Tower Bridge to join us in our ‘Federation Garden School’.
When we arrived at the garden we made a large circle. We counted how many people were there before recalling how to stay safe at Garden School. After this, we invited our parents to join us in a trail around the garden. We were given a map and five special clues to read and follow. At each location we found out about plants from around the world.
Once we had completed the garden school challenge we spent time exploring the garden and joining in activities with our parents and friends. We created dishes in the mud kitchen, made sculptures from natural objects, painted still life, planted seeds, watered the garden, weaved ribbons, created fairy homes, investigated mini beasts, created observational drawings, whittled sticks, collected different amounts of objects, balanced on the P.E. equipment, communicated with our new and old friends as well as reading non-fiction books.
We all kept busy, had lots of fun and had a lovely morning in the sunshine. We would like to say thank you and well done to the parents who joined us to celebrate this special day. We hope that you didn’t get too muddy J!!
In the evening, we celebrated the Federation Garden School and EYFS with thirty plus teachers from Southwark. We took them to the garden, explored the classrooms and displays, looked at work in our beautiful folders and taught others how to use QR Codes to showcase what the children can do. All agreed that the Federation Garden School is an amazing resource to promote learning in an outside environment.
Well done everyone, we look forward to continuing to learn about ducks next week.
Year 5 have been writing poems about the river as part of their Literacy and Geography learning.
Here are a few of them…
Kyler:
The River
Slowly moving like a snail
Leaping and diving through the land.
Animals falling and drowning;
the poor river gets the blame but it’s not its fault.
The river cries but nobody can see its tears,
The poor river needs a friend.
Thunder storms are brewing,
thunderbolts strike!
The river begs for mercy;
The thunder storm is not forgiving.
Animals running for cover
The thunder hits the trees:
A baby flame appears
Suddenly, the flame grows,
The flame extends to other trees.
Burning trees collide with the river.
Ella:
The River
When a gale blows, trees swish and sway
as I begin to make my way.
Over rocks and pebbles, I shiver and quiver
through the night-lit sky reflected in the river.
During winter I freeze to ice,
which is very cold and not that nice.
My beautiful waves gush and rush
as the freezing ice floes begin to crush.
As the leaves turn emerald green
the water starts to form a stream.
The river gurgles and burbles back to life
overcoming winter’s strife.
Summer enters with boiling heat
giving me a fantastic treat
Flowers and blossoms start blooming
as the wind once again starts brewing.
Trees full of auburn leaves,
leaves us with some autumn breeze
I fall asleep again
and that’s how my journey ends.
Adele:
I burn with curiosity when humans dive into my body.
Presumptuous, I laugh with joy as the sun shoots balls of flames at me.
My mood changes as the weather turns against me.
The currents I make flood the ground, as I sense fear and danger all around.
Swallowing islands overnight, the influence I have on people is intoxicating.
As my fingers grab energy from other tributaries, I rampage everything I see or feel.
As I arrive to my destination, other currents rush me into the sea.
Drop, drop, drop.
I feel the rain pouring into me, like its haunting me.
Caitlin:
The Musical River
As the river conducts the trees, they dance by the river bank.
Badgers and deer wake up to the wonderful symphony of the rushing rapids.
The river plays the cymbals as it collides against the rocks.
People travel from afar to listen to the magic band.
Finally, the river meet its favourite audience: The sea.
Emmanuel:
The River Mouse
The river is birthed from the mountain.
Leaping down the valley.
Slithering like a serpent.
Through the trees, crawls and crawls while cubs hunt for fish.
Scurrying along like a mouse.
Fish dart through his throat.
In the winter, he catches a chill.
Sick until Spring.
Blossoms bloom.
In Summer, sunlight shines.
In Autumn, leaves bedecked with flecks of brown and gold hue.
The end is near.
Now the river is free from its icy prison.
Aya:
River
The river is a hunter,
that hunts the sea.
It meanders and sways,
left to right,
with the fish swimming side by side.
The river is like a mirror,
reflecting the sun’s light,
gleaming and booming with delight,
as it moves on with flecks of silver and gold and blue.
Rushing, gushing, as quickly as it goes,
It stumbles upon swirls of mist and pebbly stones.
The peaceful melody of the river,
so clam and relaxing,
Animals dance and hum along,
As the river reaches for the sea.
Athena:
When water reaches the earth, a small drop of life starts.
And it makes a splash into a puddle of rain which trickles down, very slowly into the cold, distant snow-capped mountains.
The rain starts to all, bit by bit and gradually, it starts to emerge into a great river stream.
It glows crystal blue, in the rain so delicate and new.
Although the soft melody of the sapphire blue water flows, flecks of silver, gold and blue shimmer as the sun regrows in the early morning dawn.
The sharp water invigorates as the rushing current sways. Dense patches of woodland snuggle up near by the river.
The swishing and swooshing from the river flutters away to the empty space far and wide.
As the snaking river meanders from side to side, it resembles a little bird in the sky.
Adam:
Winter
When winter is here, the river stars to shiver and quiver. A thunder strikes. Dense patches of barren trees collide. Ice floes all over the crystal blue river.
Spring
Flowers bloom and start to roost in the flourishing trees. The river is ecstatic; snaking along its floor, hearing beautiful birds chirping.
Summer
The sparkling river glints at the sun. Children and otters diving in and out splashing stunning showers of water onto the lovely bright green grass.
Autumn
When Autumn occurs, crackling leaves fall into the gorgeous river and makes it way to the sea just in time for tea.
Victoria:
A harmonious melody, a river symphony.
The fingers of children caress the water, creating astonishing music.
The life of the river starts at the peak of a snow-capped mountain, then flowing, descending to a depth-less cave where it then takes its own path.
The music of the river lures in fish like a siren, calling men.
As the moon-lit sky glints with stars vitality expands within me.
As day appears, the sun-lit heavens reflect off the river, creating a magnificent illusion.
The river’s skin is soothed by the delicate touch of the leaves.
Once the moon awakens, the sun goes to sleep.
The shadow of the blue-bell appears on the surface of the river.
On Monday 27th March Year 5 went to the Science Museum. We saw the Legend of Apollo and it was about three astronauts landing on the moon which was a 3D simulator. It was my favourite. “A Beautiful Planet” is a 3D movie in the Imax theatre and was about astronauts living in the International Space Station.
We also explored the solar system exhibition. In the 3D simulator the chairs wobbled to make us feel as if we were really there. It was exciting.
By Irmak
For the second year, Year 6 at both Tower Bridge and Snowsfields Primary School have taken part in a project called Stride. The aim of the scheme is to develop pupils’ problem solving, confidence, teamwork and leadership skills. Each year 6 class works in groups to create their own company and develop stalls for the Spring Fair. Their business presentations were judged last week by Laura, MP Neil Coyle and Paul Harbottle, who helped develop the programme.
On the 16th March, Year 6 did presentations of their Stride Projects and showed off their products to our local MP, Neil Coyle, Paul Harbottle and Laura. At first we were nervous but thanks to Stride (Nikki and Shelley) we have built up our confidence and we believe that we could do it and we did! We would like to thank Stride for letting us do this!
Jovanny and Christian, Year 6
We were presenting our work that we had practised for weeks. There are 5 groups: Splish, Splash, Splosh; Pop Shots; Stress Savers; Just Flip It and Easter. Our local MP, Neil Coyle came and the manager of the company who sponsors it was there too. Every group presented their slides to the judges. We had an order we had to follow using our 9 slides which luckily everyone did correctly. My group gave the judges a free sample of our product.
Splish, Splash, Splosh (my group) we given £2 for just having a nice stall. Overall, this was a fun day.
Zain, Year 6
Tesco Trip
We walked to Tesco to buy some foods to bring back for the class to taste and share. We looked at the different prices of the foods and we helped scan the items at the checkout and pay. On the way there we saw Tower Bridge, HMS Belfast, and other boats in the Thames.
20/3/17
Children across the federation have been out in the community to learn about jobs people do as part of Enterprise Week. We have even had some visit us. Here are some of the experiences we have enjoyed.
News UK
On Monday, Year 5 went to a building called News UK where The Times, The Sun and lots of other newspapers are written. The building had 17 floors and we went to the top one which had a spectacular view of London. A person called Phil came to talk to us about how newspapers are made and how they get sent to homes.
After 30 minutes another person, who came from The Sun floor, called Oliver came to talk about his job. Next, we went to the 12th floor, which was where the journalists of The sun worked. We took a tour of the entire floor. All of us got a copy of The Times and a copy of Pinocchio.
Adele and Alma, Year 5
Co-op
On Thursday Year 5 went to the Co-op store on Tower Bridge Road. When we were there we met the deputy manager called Sam. He told us that the Co-op first opened in 1844 and was founded by 14 pioneers. Sam told us that the people who work there make sure nothing is out of date, nothing is out of stock and that the fridge is cold enough for the sandwiches and drinks. He also gave us a bag of Easter eggs to use as prizes for our stall at the Spring Fair. Thank you Sam!
Irmak, Year 5
An architect named Andrew visited our school to tell us about the first pedestrian and cyclist bridge. This bridge will be from Rotherhithe to Canary Wharf. He said the public will have access to the bridge in around 4 years. The bridge will be a suspension bridge, which means it will open and close like Tower Bridge. It will be for cyclists and pedestrians only. It will encourage people to walk and cycle to where they need to go instead of using their cars. This bridge is designed so that people who live in Rotherhithe or Canary Wharf do not need to travel to Tower Bridge to cross the river.
Marcus, Luna and Emmanuel, Year 5
Members of King’s College came to work with Year 1 to Year 6 to investigate light.
On Monday, the whole school got a once-in-a lifetime opportunity to discover the world of “Glow In The Dark” science. During the science workshop, brain scientists explained to us that jelly-fish have a fluorescent protein that could be injected into a zebra fish, fruit flies and maggots. We also had the privilege of going to different stations and taking a look at what the Brain Scientists from King’s College were looking at. They’ve inspired many of us to take science at Secondary school and perhaps pursue a science career. Thank you, King’s College.
Victoria, Year 5
On Monday, we had to go to a Science workshop about Glow in the dark. We looked at fruit flies under a microscope. We got split into 5 groups and each group had a chance to go on all stations.
On our second station the brain scientist gave us glow sticks as wrist bands. We looked at a mouse’s brain in a camera. It had some weird objects on it and that was pretty much the whole workshop.
By Zach, Year 4
On Monday we went to a science workshop about Glow in the Dark. we got glow in the dark bracelets and got to look at amazing bees through a real microscope! We pretended to be a vet and pull out the bad bits of a rat’s brain! They use glow in the dark science to see nutrients in the brain!
Samuel, Year 4
