Dear parents and carers, 

We had a fantastic trip to the Natural History Museum on Monday. The children enjoyed seeing the giant moving T-Rex in the dinosaur section and were amazed to see how large Mary Anning’s Plesiosaur fossil was. Seeing all her discoveries brought our English writing from the last few weeks to life. We also had an amazing time in our stegosaurus workshops. The children held some actual stegosaurus fossils, learnt about the purposes of their spikes, plates and skull and even built giant 3D stegosaurus puzzles. The children all represented Pewley Down beautifully and had a really fun time.

This week in English we finished our non-chronological reports about Mary Anning. We added some fun facts and did you know questions alongside a drawing of one of Mary Anning’s discoveries.  

In Maths this week, we consolidated all our learning from the term so far. Having a go at some fluency questions and word problems all about multiplication, division, money and measurement.  

In Science, we discussed and debated how dinosaurs might have become extinct. We started by recapping what dinosaurs need to survive – food, water, shelter and warmth. We then considered some scientific theories about their extinction – an asteroid hitting Earth, an ice-age, many natural disasters such as volcanic eruptions, new diseases and competition from mammals. For each theory we considered how what dinosaurs needed to survive would have been affected, before deciding as a class which theory we thought was most likely.  

For the rest of our week we worked on a DT project, creating a dinosaur themed moving picture. We explore two types of mechanisms to create moving parts – sliders and levers, before coming up with a design brief and some designs for our pictures. To start the making process we created a prototype to test our mechanisms and consider any changes. We then created our moving pictures from a variety of coloured papers and card. The finished pictures were very creative, colourful and eye catching! 

Easter Gardens: 

As part of our Pause Day activities (Tuesday 1st April) and to consolidate our RE learning all about Christians calling Jesus a Saviour, the children will be making mini Easter Gardens inspired by the Easter story.  

Could the children please bring in a range of resources for this: 

• A container filled with soil or sand (a cereal box with one side removed, disposable oven trays, square or rectangular planters). 
• Twigs (for a cross) and pebbles (that could be painted). 
• Moss, flowers or other small plants. 
• A round container to create a cave (cup, empty jar etc.) 
• Any other Easter items they would like. 

Uniform:

Vicky has asked us to give parents a gentle reminder that children should only be wearing PE kit type clothing such as jogging bottoms on PE days. Longer hair should also be tied back on these days and earrings removed. 

The children can wear either trainers or smart black school shoes or black boots. Ugg style boots or boots in any other colour are not part of the schools uniform policy.   

Easter Service: 

The service on Thursday 3rd April is taking place from 9.45am to 10.45am. If any parents are able to support with walking down to Holy Trinity Church, it would be really appreciated. We will be leaving school around 9.15am. 

Dinosaur Exhibition: 

Our long awaited exhibition is taking place next Wednesday 2nd April at 2pm. The children will be able to a lot of their work home with them, so please bring along a bag to carry everything. 

Key Dates:

• Pause Day – Tuesday 1st April 
• Dinosaur Exhibition – Wednesday 2nd April at 2pm  
• Easter Service – Thursday 3rd April  
• End of Term  - Friday 4th April at 1.30pm