Did you have a good Christmas?

Thank-you to everyone who engaged in our first ever Santa discussion on SWGfL Merlin, despite being very busy Father Christmas managed to reply to every child who wrote, sketched or filmed a message to him in the run up to Christmas. He would now like to know if you had a good Christmas? Father Christmas' new discussion on SWGfL Merlin reads: 'Ho Ho Ho! It has been a busy time but I am back safe in the North pole and the Elves have already started preparing for next Christmas. Did you have a good Christmas? Why not use this discussion board to tell others what I bought you in my sleigh and what you did over the Christmas holiday. Did you visit family? Did you play games? Did anyone see snow? I look forward to reading your replies!' Login to SWGfL Merlin now to join in. #

Prince of Wales School Calendar for 2012

The Prince of Wales School Calendars for 2012 have now arrived! Come and collect the calendars that you have pre-ordered at the School performances (in the main hall) or after school by the Office.  If you haven't managed to order one and you would like one, please come and speak to us as soon as possible.

Christmas Puddings - last chance!

Do you need a tasty pudding for Christmas? Hold off on that supermarket shop..... POWSA will be selling super tasty Plum puddings and Chocolate puddings from the 'Ulitmate Plum Pudding Company'. All proceeds will go directly to The Prince of Wales School. Buy them at the Christmas Performances on Tuesday 13th, Wednesday 14th and Thursday 15th December 2011 in the main school hall.

POWSA Christmas Fair 2011

A big thank you to everyone that attended (and especially those that helped at)
the school fair. We had a great time and managed to raise a fantastic £721.55!

Week of 12th December

A busy week before the Christmas break! This week we will be going to school on Monday morning to watch the Christmas performance, Tuesday is our family breakfast, on Wednesday lots of us will be having a school Christmas lunch, and then we will finish the week with our party on Friday morning. Those of us in Friday afternoon will be joiningthe whole school in the school hall to sing Christmas songs and carols. In between we will be making decorations, cards and lots more! Merry Christmas !!!!

PSRN:- games, songs, advent calander. A role play Christmas shop.

CLL:- Christmas stories, writing cards.

@home:- think about the Christmas nativity story. Sing some of our Christmas, including when Santa got stuck up the chimney and Rudolph the red nose reindeer.
If you go to a pantomime or Christmas play over the holidays please bring in a programme, photo, picture.

Please take a look at our garden centre pictures.

Song for Dorchester

As a school, we are keen to support the 'Song for Dorchester' project currently being run by the Mayor of Dorchester. One plan to do this is to send a tag cloud to the mayor with our thoughts in and we would love you to help us with this. To add to the tag cloud, simply click the 'Song for Dorchester - Contribute Now' button at the top of school website homepage. This should take you to a form where you can give us your one word that describes Dorchester. The more popular a word is, the bigger it will appear in the tag cloud. Before sending the tag cloud to the mayor, I will share this with you all through our whole school blog. Thank-you for your help in advance. Mr. Spracklen

5th December-16th December 2011

This will cover the next two weeks at pre-school, although we will keep you up to date with what we are doing. We will be thinking, learning and discovering all things Christmas for the next two weeks!!!!
We will be making cards, decorations, cooking, singing, completing ICT tasks, playing games and importantly learning about the Nativity.
We will be taking part in the school Christmas Play in a 'virtual way!' and inviting you all in to join us for a Christmas breakfast on December.

PSRN:- Make a Christmas number line, lots of games and puzzles.

CLL:- Reflect on our visit to the garden centre. Enjoy the nativity story. Enjoy Christmas books.

@Home Think about the Christmas nativity story. Ask your child to sing the bossy King song.

“Ho Ho Ho!” - Father Christmas is now on SWGfL Merlin

Pupils can now join a discussion started by Father Christmas using SWGfL Merlin. To access the special Father Christmas page, log in to SWGfL Merlin and click the ‘Father Christmas comes to Merlin’ title. On this page you will find a Christmas countdown, Christmas games and even a ‘Santa Tracker’. At the very bottom of the page you will see  a ‘Father Christmas’ discussion board’. He has already posted his first question asking you: “What you are doing to prepare for Christmas? Have you put up your Christmas tree yet? Have you started your Christmas shopping? Have you written me a letter telling me what you want for Christmas?”. Log in now to join the discussion.

REMINDER - POWSA CHRISTMAS FAIR! (TONIGHT)

Just a short reminder to say that the POWSA Christmas Fair is tonight (Friday 2nd December, 2011). The Christmas Fair will take place in the school hall from 3.30pm until 6.00pm. Teas and cakes will be available from the pre-school stall from 3.00pm onwards. We hope to see you all their supporting POWSA (The Prince of Wales School Association) and their fundraising for the school. Mr. Spracklen

Mid week question

We all enjoyed our trip to the garden centre. What was your favourite thing you saw?
How many camels were there?
How many lions did you see?

Christmas Games for all on SWGfL Merlin

The '12 Games of Christmas Game' is now available for all pupils to play through SWGfL Merlin. This features 12 educational games and activities for children in Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2. The games have a value of £29.99 and we hope that you will enjoy playing them free through SWGfL Merlin. P.S - If you have forgotten your login details, please see Mrs. Dukes in the Library or Mr. Spracklen who will happily get you a fresh copy.

OLYMPIC TORCH HAND OVER

On Monday 28th November 2011, pupils from our school took the DASP Olympic Torch to Manor Park. Carrying banners proclaiming the Olympic values, we walked across town to deliver the Torch. As we passed Dorchester Middle School, we were cheered on by all the pupils who had come out of lesson to see us. On our walk we were accompanied by members of the Thomas Hardye Student Voice. A large number of Manor Park children welcomed us on our arrival and watched the handover of the Torch.

Week of 28th December

We are really looking forward to our trip to the garden centre, this really starts our Christmas celebrations and topic work. When we visit the garden centre we take some little challenge cards with us so the children have to look out for different things. We also take cameras so they can record their favourite decorations, then we see if we can make some of them in our sessions.

We will be continuing on with our learning about shape. We have just started to learn our new Christmas song 'bow to the king' hope you enjoy it... words to follow.

PSRN:- Continuing on with our learning about shapes and keeping graphs and tally's. Using challenge cards to find how many...? At the garden centre. Start to design a Christmas number line.

CLL:- Learning a new Christmas Song. Reflecting on our trip once back at pre-school, talking and writing about it.

@Home:- Ask your child if they enjoyed their trip to the garden centre, What was their favourite Christmas Decoration? Did we set them a Challenge? What was it?

Mid week question

We have been talking about different shapes, we have had different shaped snacks this week. Have a look at home and see what shapes you can find. Can you find an interesting shape and tell us about it?

To be able to comment you need to have a google account, these accounts are free.

DASP Olympic Torch Arrives

Today (23/11/11) we received the DASP Olympic torch which is making its way around all the schools in the Dorchester Area Schools Partnership. Today children from St Mary’s Dorchester shared with us some of their learning about the Olympics. On Monday (28/11/11) November some of our children will be making their way across town to Manor Park. We shall be working with some of their classes and passing on the work we have done in making our banners. All of this will be filmed by students from Thomas Hardye School. For more information on the torch relay visit the dedicated page on the DASP website: http://www.dasp.org.uk/daspolympictorch.htm. Mr. Spracklen

Wise Owl Toy orders

If your ordering toys from Wise Owl Toys in town please mention the pre-school as we will recieve 10% of the costs of all orders. Please return Wise Owl Toy orders forms with payment to Amanda by Wednesday 30th November.
Thank you for supporting the pre-school.

Week of 21st November

This week see us join the school to start our Olympic 2012 celebrations. We will be talking about the Olympics, and introducing the Olympic values of friendship, respect and excellence. These values will form a thread through the rest of the year. The Dorset Area Schools Partnership (DASP) have their own torch which will be passed from school to school up until 2012 Olympics. It is our school turn next week and to celebrate each class in the school is making an Olympic banner, We will be making ours next week, do look out for it!

PSRN:- SHAPES-using the Olympic circles we will be playing and making lots of different things with shapes, indoors and outdoors. Also making a graph from our snacktime using shapes e.g. how many of our snacks are square, triangles etc.

CLL:- Books about friends, the children will choose their favourite, look out for what it is on the blog.

@Home:- Answer our midweek blog question.

Mid week question

We have had a visitor in to talk to us about recycling. What can you tell us about recycling?

Please leave us your reply.

Ofsted Parent View

As you know at the Prince of Wales First School we are always looking for feedback and encourage you to provide this in a variety of ways. Whether this is through face-to-face conversation, comments on our class blogs or through our annual parents questionnaire, we always welcome your feedback. Building on this, we would now encourage you to go online and express your views using the new ‘Parent View’ website from Ofsted. This 12-question survey will help other parents as they make important choices about their child’s education and provide Ofsted with information about our school that will help them inform their priorities for inspection. The questionnaire does not allow free text comments but invites responses to a series of closed questions. To express your view, please visit our school website now and click on the parent tab and look for the link to the Parent View website. Alternatively, visit: http://parentview.ofsted.gov.uk/.

Week of 14th November

We have a busy week this week, on Wednesday we will be having a visitor from the council who is going to tell us all about recycling, we have a new compost bin ready for her visit. On Thursday and Friday we will be taking part in Children in Need,making patterns, doing spotty things and thinking about those who don't have as much as we do. We will be continuing with owl babies at the beginning of the week and thinking about day and night.

PSRN:- observe and use positional language, next to,in front, behind etc
Making patterns

CLL:- learning lots of different words about recycling.
Our book will be 'the owl babies'

@home:-
Talk about the owl babies story
Ask what is dark and what is light?

Mid week question

Who are Sarah, Percy and Bill?

Please put answer on comment page.

Week of 7th November

This week we will start the week enjoying the sights and sounds of fireworks on the computer and making firework pictures, using lots of colours.

We are then going to continue our thinking and learning about Autumn and what happens in this season, by thinking about what birds need at this time of the year, reading the book of The Owl Babies and making owl puppets and masks.

PSRN:- Observe and use positional language, next to, in front, behind etc.

CLL:- We will be thinking of words to describe fireworks, what they look like and the sounds they make.
Our book will be The Owl Babies.

@Home:- Talk about the owl babies story.
Tell us about your firework parties.

Ongoing saga of the preschool ceiling

We apologise for the any confusion over which door to pick up from etc this week. I have not put a letter out due to changing classrooms through out the week. Please bear with us while the ceiling is being mended.
Thank you

Pre-school

Mid week Question of the week.

When you talk about the book we have been reading this week, can your child tell you what the book is called? Can they remember the animals from the story? Ask them if they can tell the family about the story.

Answers on the comments page please!!! Don't forget to leave your name!

Can you help? (Cheese Boxes - Year 2)

Can you help? Miss. Mertens in Year 2 is on the hunt for circular cheese boxes like the one pictured above. If you have any of these boxes we would be very grateful to receive them.

Week of 31st October 2011

we are starting the week with some dressing up for Halloween, and decorating biscuits to look like spiders. We will be making webs and painting and drawing pictures. We will also be creating lots of firework pictures using lots of colours and paint techniques.
We will also be exploring and learning about animals that hibernate, light and dark, day and night, using torches in a tent.
Hope you all had a good week!!

PSRN:- spiders have 8 legs

CLL:- Story-Room on a broom and Poem:- incy wincy spider.

@home:- Did you do anything for Halloween-let us know.

Discussion - What have you been up to this half-term?

A big thank you to Jack in Year 2 who started a discussion in the whole-school area of our SWGfL Merlin pages asking: 'What are you doing this holiday?'. Why not share with Jack and others what you have been up to this half-term through adding text, an image, a video or a sketch? We would all love to hear what people have been doing as well as see the pupils practising their SWGfL Merlin skills. Mr. Spracklen

Week of 17th October

This week we will be finishing off our group number line which we have been decorating using all the leaves etc that we found on our autumn walk.
We will be looking and reading Pumpkin Soup and making pumpkin soup to bring home.

We will be using a drawing programme on the interactive whiteboard to draw pumpkins and lots of different textures to collage orange pumpkin pictures.

HAPPY HALF TERM HOLIDAYS, ENJOY HALLOWEEN CELEBRACTIONS. dON'T FORGET TO TELL US WHAT YOU DID.

PSRN:- Counting characters in the story, calculating one more or less, recognise patterns and shapes in the story. Use positional language such as in front, behind, short and long.

CLL:- Pumpkins soup By Helen Cooper

@Home:- Ask the children to telly you about the story of pumpkin soup, what can they remember?

POW on the BBC!

On Sunday 30th October at 6pm, BBC2 will showcase excellence in education when it broadcasts the 2011 UK Pearson Teaching Awards ceremony – held at the Palace Theatre, Cambridge Circus in London. As you may know, pupils from our school made a film at the end of last term about our school and it has since been made a finalist in the National Teaching Awards, ‘Film my School’ competition. Pupils and staff will be traveling up to London for the awards ceremony and will be joined by host Lenny Henry at the event. Other stars presenting awards include Minnie Driver, Al Murray, David Morrissey and Beverley Knight. More information on the competition and other finalists can be seen at: http://www.teachingawards.com/film_my_school

Pigbee Qustionnaire

A questionnaire has been sent home by a parent finding out about the need for a child friendly cafe in Dorchester. Please take a few minutes to fill in the questionnaire and return to pre-school.

Pre-school car park

If using the pre-school car park please can we make sure we use the one way system at all times.

Halloween

Question.....How does everyone feel about Halloween at pre-school?

Week 10 October 2011

We will exploring and discovering things about Autumn. We will be starting the week with an Autumn walk and collecting leaves and bits and pieces to us with our activities.
We will be finishing off our Autumn computer task.
We will be enjoying finger painting, leaf printing and leaf collage.

Problem solving, Reasoning and Numeracy (PSRN)
Numbers for labels and counting- We will be making a group number 1-10 and decorating it with things collected on our walk. Children to use autumn colours from colour charts to make their own number pictures.

Communication, Language and Literacy (CLL)
'Why do leaves change colour?'
Poem 'a fall of colours' by Charles Ghigna
Autumn Books

@Home:-
Say 'ten red apples' poem together!
Talk about how do you know its Autumn?

3rd-7th October

This week we will be enjoying lots of activities using apples. We will be threading from apple templates, finger printing, making apple toffee squares and apple juice. We will be using the computer to make autumn name cards.

Communication Language and Literacy:- Apple songs and poems.

Problem Solving and Numeracy:- Ten red apples

P.O.W.S.A Blog

P.O.W.S.A (The Prince of Wales School Association), now has it’s own section of the school website which includes a blog detailing all their latest news and events. To access the P.O.W.S.A page simply click the link labelled ‘POWSA’, at the top of any page within  the school website.

26th-30th September 2011

This week at school and pre-school we are celebrating Harvets Festival. On Monday we will be apple picking in the orchard. The children will be cooking courgette muffins and flapjacks to take to harvest festival on Friday and we will put together some produce baskets to take as well. We will be talking about vegetables and harvest all week, and trying lots of different breads and thinking about what they are made from. We will also be looking at oats and making porridge.
Our books (CLL) will be Olivers Vegetables, Goldilocks and Harvest and Farm books.

Our PSRN will be counting using pictures of allotments and food and farm games.

At home:- You may like to talk about vegetables and where they come from. Along with Harvest.

CLL- Communication language and literacy
PSRN- Problem solving reasoning and numeracy.

Week begining 19th September

This week we will be continuing our topic on Milk which will follow into Harvest. You can see on Milk display in the classroom. We will be starting swimming this week. This Thursday is the coffee morning with Amanda.

12th-16th September

Welcome back to the Autumn Term. We had a good start to the term last week with lots of new role play resources.
We talked about what we did in the holidays and all the children completed a computer activitiy what they did in the holidays.
There has been lots of interesting discussions about ice cream so this week our role play will be an ice cream shop and we will be learning about where milk comes from and looking at how it changes to make lots of different foods such as ice cream, cheese etc

We will be looking at farm books. (CLL)
Playing board games (PSRN)

New SWGfL Merlin!

SWGfL Merlin has received a big update and now looks very different with lots of new features and extra functionality. Over the coming weeks Mr. Spracklen will be working hard to prepare our VLE (virtual learning environment) for the new academic year. In the meantime, why not log on to SWGfL Merlin in the usual way and check out what’s new? As one suggestion why not have a go on the V-Me editor which now includes new items like a space suit (see picture) or a pirate costume. To access the V-Me editor simply click the ‘Home’ tab followed by the ‘My Account’ button on the left hand side. For pupils in Years 3 and 4 (or 4 and 5 depending on how you now see yourself) click the ‘My Place’ tab to see you e-portfolio instantly. While you are on it why not update your blog with your latest holiday news? More ideas to follow, Mr. Spracklen.

Comments Please

We have all been working hard on updating our Blogs at The Prince of Wales First School and have slowly been building momentum with this method of communication. We would now encourage you all to comment on our blog posts to support our work and encourage your child's class teacher and/or year team to keep blogging! To add a comment to any post simply click on the blog title which will load the chosen blog from www.blogspot.com.Next, click the 'comment' button below the post and enter your comment. You will need one of the supported accounts to post your comment, e.g. 'Google' and all comments will be moderated for content. Thank-you all for your continued support, Mr.
Spracklen

Scooters

If your child brings their scooter to school, please could all scooters be labelled with their name.

Thank you