Weather watching!

Science:

We have been continuing our learning about Seasons in Class 1 this week.  We have been learning how the earth’s tilt affects our seasons and how that in turn affects our weather and daily temperatures.

Year ones made rain gauges to measure and record how much rain we get each day, although we’re having a bit of a race each day to get to them before some kind person tips our rain water away, or fills our containers with some other water they have collected!

Reception and year one children together made wind socks so that we can see which direction the wind is coming from.  This then led on to a discussion about which directions North, South, East and West are.  We will be looking at a compass later this week to make sure our directions are correct!  We also talked about why south isn’t just down towards the ground as it appears on a globe.  More work on this to follow.

Paired reading and celebration of work

Here is a live blog to show some of the wonderful ways in which we celebrate childrens work. Each Friday afernoon the whole school break off into their reading partners. This is an opportunity for each child not only to share and inspire each other in a love for reading but it also gives them the chance to share the work that they have completed this week. Below are some photos of this in practice. The children love this new initiative which also strengthens and develops their confidence, skills, experience and standards in reading (our four drivers).


Star Gazing Live!

On Wednesday night (25th Jan) family and friends of Bishops Nympton primary school gathered at our federated school East Anstey for an evening of space exploration.

During the hours leading up to the event, Venus was clearly visible with the naked eye with surrounding stars glinting in the moonlight.  However, as the doors opened the clouds rolled in and sadly shielded our vision of the night sky for the remainder of the evening.

Thankfully,  the astronomical society stayed on site to answer questions about their telescopes and their experiences gazing up at our solar system.  Despite the lack of live star gazing there was still a fun filled evening to be had.  The virtual reality goggles proved to be the highlight of the evening with people queuing out of the door to use them.

Other opportunities included: creating your own shooting rocket, watching a space shuttle take off, beautiful photograps of our solar system as well as a wealth of experience and knowledge to answer any of our burning questions.When energy dwindled, the East Anstey PTA were on hand providing delicious refreshments.  A superb evening to ignite and enthuse the interest of all ages into the wonders of space.

Following on from this we will be running space based activites next week, culminating in a space exploration day on Friday(3rd May) providing us with many more awe inspiring space based adventures.

Mr Scandrett

Exeter City FC Kids Club 2017

A bitterly cold Exeter University played host to this years football league tournament.  Exeter City football club were running the tournament to find a team to represent them at Wembley in the football league cup.

As you can imagine, with so much at stake, it is a very prestigious tournament with a very high calibre of competition.  Bishops Nympton and East Anstey sent players to represent our inaugural Exmoor Link Federation sports team.

We knew that rubbing shoulders with the big leagues would present us with an uphill struggle but the opportunity to perform in front of Exeter City youth scouts could not be missed.  Despite the cold our players dug deep and fought bravely against visibly superior competition.

We lost our opening matches 2 – 0 against Ottery St Mary and Lockwood.  A difficult 6 – 0 loss to group winners Alphington did not  deter the fighting spirit as we bounced back to a 0 – 0 draw against St Sidwells.  We ended the group, loosing 3 – 0 to Pinhoe, finishing 5th out of 6 teams in group C.

I am very proud of our players who fought hard in every game, knowing that we were the underdogs.  Excellent performances by all but I must mention George Snell who was superb in goal.  Well done to the whole team for a dogged performance.

Mr Scandrett

 

Chasing Shadows!

Science:

Class 1 spent a fun afternoon on Friday investigating shadows as part of our Science topic learning about Seasons and weather.  We learnt that day length changes each day and varies from season to season and that in turn affects the size and shape of our shadows.

Some of our year ones rose to the challenge of finding a way to touch their own shadow’s head.  They were very creative in finding a solution.

Back in the classroom we then made some pirate stick puppets which we used to make a shadow puppet play.

Construction Club

Our brand new Construction Club proved to be a major hit with children of all ages. It provided an opportunity for our younger children to mix with some of the older ones. Our year fives showed some excellent teamwork and worked together to create their own fast food restaurant – their choice! Whilst for our youngest children, it was a great opportunity to strengthen their hands and improve their fine motor skills. Great fun for everyone.
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Mission X

The BNA (Bishops Nympton Astronauts) blasted off into mission X this week as we completed our crew strength training challenge. Our space enthusiasts soon became focussed on the task ahead as they squatted and press-upped their way through their astronaut training. All participants gave 100 % effort with the exercises and are now fully aware of why we need to develop our upper and lower body strength if we want to stay fit and healthy and further our chance of becoming an astronaut.

Well done team!

Brass bonanza!

Today we were lucky enough to experience a musical learning opportunity from South Molton town band performer, Chris Taylor. His visit to the school consisted of an assembly to the children; which introducded them to a number of brass instruments. The children enjoyed a musical demonstration in which they sang and clapped along to some well known songs followed by a session where the children were able to ask about playing the instruments and how to get started. There was also the opportunity for class 3 to participate in playing a variety of instruments. The children had a great time with many enquiring about possible tuition. We are hoping to begin a school band in the future. Watch this space!