Best wishes for the holidays

It’s been a long and busy term and everyone is quite ready for a rest. Best wishes from Avonmore for a happy holiday.  We wish you all a very merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Winter Production

As Christmas is rapidly approaching, we have now performed our play! In my opinion (and Miss Driscoll’s) it was the best one yet! The few weeks spent practising finally paid off as the whole crowd found our play hilariously amazing!  Great work by everyone involved!

Winter Gifts

To make the fair as enjoyable for everyone as possible, each class, starting from Nursery, made something to sell or set up an activity stall. Nursery and Reception’s reindeer poo truffles tasted much better than they sound, and was my favourite treat yet. Year 1 and 2 made their own glittery goodie jars each containing a handful of yummy surprises. Year 3 put in a lot of effort making little cotton-stuffed felt Christmas tree decorations. Their effort paid off as they earned £50! Year 4 made some funny reindeer cookies with sweet smiles. Lastly, Year 5 and 6 started a fun biscuit-and-cake-decorating activity. Everybody at the fair had loads of fun so Merry Christmas to everyone!

Avonmore on Ice

This week the whole of KS2 got to go to Westfield Shopping Centre ice rink.  We stayed there for an hour each.  For the children who had trouble skating there was a seal that you could sit on or push. There was also a penguin that you could push. Afterwards we got a few gifts.  An exciting event which happened was running into Amanda Holden, who is a judge on Britian's Got Talent. She was watching her own child skate on the rink but she took some time out to pose for a picture with our students!  We all enjoyed ourselves, well I did anyway!  

For a short while we had the rink all to ourselves

We didn't know seals could skate!

Steady now!

Dancing on ice

Does Avonmore have talent?

Merry Christmas Rudolph!

For this year’s Christmas Fair, we have some special visitors! Santa has come, as usual, but this time he’s brought his pet reindeer and snowy owl! (Not exactly Rudolph, but play along with it). We were first given the opportunity for individual and class pictures , but when the actual fair starts we will do pictures with our friends and family. Santa is feeling very generous and is giving us books as well as our main Christmas present!

Christmas tree decorating assembly

This week there was a tree decorating assembly. To start off the assembly the choir sang Winds through the Olive Trees and Mary had a baby. Then, three students came up to the front and read their wishes which they placed on the Christmas tree. The whole school then sang Gloria and Christmas Tree.  Some parents came to watch their children sing !!!!

The tree getting  decorated

The choir singing beautifully

The tree is all ready for Christmas

Christmas Fair

Year 5 with Father Christmas

This afternoon everyone is awaiting the Christmas Fair!  This year, the Christmas Fair is going to have a reindeer and a snow owl! Every class has taken a picture with Father Christmas this afternoon. All and all, everyone is very excited and preparing to have fun!

Our community

On Wednesday 20th November, year 5 wanted to investigate pollution on Hammersmith Road and its effects on the area. We also wanted to know how well kept it is. First, we went around the block and did a tally on how many cars, buses, bicycles, vans, lorries and motorcycles we saw. The purpose of observing the traffic was to see how much pollution there was. After that, we did another tally on how many people. This information is useful because the more people who are in shared cars, and not individual cars, are better for the environment because there’s less pollution. Then we did a tally on our area quality. We discovered that there are more areas which are cleaner than others.  Later we took a few pictures then came back.  Overall, it was a great experience to learn about the impact people have on their environment.

 

Auditions for Christmas Play!

This year, we are doing a Christmas play on an edited (and better) version of Jack and the Beanstalk. The auditions for parts in the production were held on the 27^th to the 28^th of November.  We were judged by Mrs Wilson and our Year 6 teacher, Miss Driscoll. There was a huge variety of kind and mean characters to choose from. I am particularly pleased with the results, as I received the part I wanted- Ginger the Vegtable Fairy! Be sure to watch our upcoming preformance on the 18^th and 19^th of December!  

 

Reindeer are coming to town

On Friday, 6^th November, Santa will be coming with his reindeer to visit our Christmas Fair! For those of you who don’t know much about reindeer, here are some facts.  Both females and males grow antlers, their noses are specially designed to warm the air before it gets to their lungs and some subspecies’ legs click while walking to help them stay together in a blizzard. Can you spot any of these characteristics when the reindeer are here?

Will our visting reindeer look like this?

CFC Meets APS

On Tuesday 19th of November 2013 Year 6 went to Chelsea Stadium. We got to see Michael Foreman. Michael talked about how his life was in World War II. He also talked about how he started drawing and how he met Michael Morpurgo.  Michael Foreman was focusing on War Game, his latest book, and he drew 2 pictures about it. After, we had lunch with him. Then we went on a tour with a person named Nick. We went over to the Chelsea Museum and did many activities. My favourite activity was the Shooting Gallery. We had to kick the ball to different areas to earn points. We also had to draw trophies that Chelsea won. After, we went to the Museum we went over to the pitch and dressing rooms. We saw all of the players’ clothes and Nick quizzed us on if we knew where all the players are from. Overall, we had a great time and a good learning experience!

Girls are answering questions from the journalists

Flower beds

Year 5 has been learning about composting. They will be putting manure on the planting beds soon. Manure puts lots of vitamins and minerals back into the soil to help plants grown in summer.

Let's get planting !

Year 2's Florence Nightingale trip

Children dressed up in period costume

The year 2 class went on a trip to the Florence Nightingale museum. They went on the tube to get there. Once at the museum, they put on headphones and listened to the information about Florence Nightingale. There was an actress who dressed up as Florence Nightingale  and told them facts and information and asked them questions. Two of the facts were that she was born in 1820 and she died in 1910. She also had two houses. Overall , they enjoyed the trip. Their favourite thing about the trip was being able to open drawers and there were various things in them and their least favourite thing about the trip was the walking to all the different places in the museum.

Remembrance at Avonmore

 



Poppy: a sign of respect

This Sunday will be Remembrance Sunday, and Year 6 is learning about World War II. For those of you who don’t know what Remembrance Sunday is, it is when people all over Britain take one minute of silence to think about all of the brave men and women who fought in the war to save our country. We are all wearing poppies to show respect because there were poppies growing on the battlefield. We will also be taking our own minutes’ silence. Please try and take a break of silence for one minute this Sunday to show your respect as well.

Remember, remember the 5th November!

Around four hundred years ago, in 1605, Guy Fawkes tried to blow up the Houses of Parliament with gunpowder, hidden in the cellars. The reason behind this plot was that Guy Fawkes was Catholic and King James I was announcing anti-Catholic laws. Although Fawkes was caught before he could blow it up, King James wanted to remember what happened forever so every year people had bonfires and created models of Guy Fawkes to throw on the fire. Nowadays, in London, people celebrate the 5^th November by attending fireworks displays. Year 1 celebrated the day by drawing their own firework pictures.

Year 1's showing their work with pride!

 

Happy Diwali!

On Sunday 3rd of November, it was Diwali! Diwali is a festival of light. Many people in the Hindu religion celebrate this celebration. To celebrate further at school, I performed ‘Kathak’, a classical Indian dance, with my family! I performed two pieces: one called Guru Vandana, an invocation to the three gods: Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva. The other piece was called Trarana Tarangali, a mix with Indian music with modern music. All and all, everyone said I did wonderful and I am proud of myself.

Choir auditions

This week our music teacher has been holding auditions for the first ever Avonmore choir. There were loads of people

who auditioned for the choir. I even auditioned, and I got through! The other successful members will be singing Christmas carols at loads of different venues. We are looking forward to this opportunity to share our soothing voices.  

Challenge: Pumpkin carving

To continue our theme of challenges, some year 4 students were set an Autumnal challenge. The challenge was to be the first team to hollow out a pumpkin, which is an incredibly messy but fun job. At first, the students were reluctant to put their hands into the gooey mess of seeds and orange gunk and were opting to use a spoon to scoop the insides out. However, they soon realised this would take ages, so they had to get their hands dirty. Various facial expressions and hand flickering were definitely the common site! The winning team were proud of their work, completing the task in 25 minutes.

The start of a messy challenge

"Yuck!"

The winning team!

A proud second place

Hi Autumn!

The signs of Autumn have arrived. There are starting to be more leaves on the ground rather than on the trees. The leaves have lost their green colour and are now shades of red, yellow and brown. It has begun to get darker earlier and it is slightly colder. This weekend, clocks will be falling back an hour which means that it will really be getting darker much earlier in the evening. During half term, Halloween celebrations will be taking place where kids will be dressing up and eating sweets. What a great season!

Cheerleading Tryouts

This week there was a cheerleading competition tryout. Lots of people tried out with their enthusiastic cheers and performances. The reward is a trip to a year 6s football match to perform a routine and cheer Avonmore’s team on. The winning cheer came from a year 4 group called “The Spice Kids.” Way to go!

Spice Kids!

Paul Canoville

A man named Paul Canoville came into Year 6 to tell us about his life. Paul Canoville was the first black player in Chelsea in the 1980s. He was very good at football. During this time, people were teasing Paul because he had a dark skin tone so he faced racism. Also, Paul went through 3 cancer attacks. We watched a show (that a couple of children created) about his youth. We saw his victory dance when he scored his first goal! All and all Paul was funny, informative, funny, serious and funny! Ha ha!

It’s the last day of term-woohoo!

It is the last day of term and the students are wearing their traditional clothing from their country and everyone is in a great mood! In the afternoon, we will be having an Eid party in the hall. People have brought in traditional food from their country for this party. I think everybody is going to have a great time, I know I am. Everybody’s costumes look great!

Students dressed up!

Mindfulness

On Thursday 24^th October, year 5 had a visitor come in to teach us about mindful breathing which is when we do 3 mindful breaths to calm the mind to have less worries. It is important to have fewer worries because they will distract you from work and being able to focus. This technique will be incredibly helpful to us as students. To do this, the teacher rings the bell then we close our eyes or look down. Next, we do 3 mindful breaths. The bell is then rung one last time and we put our hand up when we can’t hear the bell chime any longer and then open our eyes. Ah, so relaxing...

The mindful bell

Junior Citizens

On Tuesday 8^th October, Year 6 went to Junior Citizens. Junior Citizens is a place where we experienced five different scenarios to do with safety on the streets, on transport and with fires. It was a long journey so we got there by minibus. We were split into five groups and spent 10-15 minutes on each activity. There was a road safety one, where we experienced a car crash (at a slow 8 mph), a drug one which scared the life out of me, a theft one which was equally scary, a fire one which told us not to put water on an oil-based fire, a bus one, a train station one, a cyber bullying one and a puppy one where we learnt how to stay safe around an over excited puppy. We learnt a lot of things that day and it was by far the best trip ever... so far.

The Year 6s’ First Football Match!

On Friday 27^th September, a team of Year 6 boys and girls went to play a match against a school named Normand Croft. The match was placed in Hurlingum Park. The girls lost 0-2 and the boys won 2-0. To be honest it doesn’t matter who won or lost: it is all about having fun.  We were going and arriving via a bus. When we were going there we left the school at 12:30 and we came back to Avonmore around 4.  Hopefully, our school will make it to the finals and maybe win! But that’s for later.

Black history month

 

October is black history month. It is a time to remember and celebrate the achievements of black people all around the world. Some notable people are Rosa Parks who stood up for herself on a bus in Alabama in 1955. Also, this year marks the 50^th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.’s famous speech, “I have a dream”.

In Year 1, they have been learning about Africa and its people. They also drew some pictures in the style of African art.

Some beautiful art work

Swimming lessons

Year 5 went to swimming lessons. Personally, I enjoyed it. My swimming instructor was strict but fair. At first we didn’t use any floats to see how good we were. After that we used floats and learnt a few things. It was great!    

Office Prefects



All ready to do the job!

Being in the position of an office prefect is a very important job. To decide who would be suitable for the job, those who wanted to be one (eleven children in total!) wrote a formal letter to Mrs Wilson explaining why they deserve to be chosen. Four children were chosen, but Mrs Wilson said that it was a very hard decision and set up a trial run to choose two more children out of the remaining seven. We ended up with eight office prefects in total. The first pair of prefects shifts today. It feels great to be responsible for such an important duty.

Football fun day

Flying high!

Last week year 4 and 5 went to Bishop’s Park for a football event. Fulham football club coaches were playing games with year 4 and 5 such as football rounders and traffic lights. For separate games we had different coaches. At the end, the two most well-behaved children from each group got small footballs to keep as a reward. On the way back, we got to go to the top of the bus. I’m pretty sure everyone enjoyed it.

Apples bonanza

In the school playground a new guest has caught our eyes: it’s the Avonmore apple tree! We’ve asked Miss Clement some questions about the apple tree. Miss Clement said there are so many apples this year because the weather has been just right for the apples to grow. She said the apples are cooking apples and they are quite sour. The children in nursery have made apple crumble with them. So, it’s been a great experience to have our own Avonmore apple tree!  

Our Glorious Tree

The New Year 6 Meets The Lifebus!

On Tuesday, 24^th September 2013, the Lifebus visited Avonmore. Year 6 were learning about `Drugs Education’. We had some cards that had clues and we had to figure out what the drug was. Some of the clues were `It Can Be Drunk’ and `It can be an ingredient in a cake’. We also saw a short film about a person named Jack and his friends. His parents were away and his friends were coming to his house. They had nothing to do and were trying to force Jack to drink beer but his friends were standing up for him. So, the moral of the story is to stand up for your friends and yourself. In the end we saw Harold the giraffe for maybe the last time!

Harvest at Avonmore

At Avonmore we celebrated harvest with our very own apple tree! We have harvested the delicious food that has grown in our school garden, including the apples. All the classes in the school have taken part in a competition where we had to collect as much food as we could. All donations went to a charity called Age UK. For our harvest assembly all the classes preformed either a song or told us some information about harvest. Overall, it was a bountiful experience!

Our Apple Display

Introducing our new staff!

We interviewed the 4 new staff members at Avonmore. Here’s what they had to say! Helen, who works in year 2, Miss West, who is the nursery teacher, Miss McKenna, who helps students with reading  and Sylvia, who works in year 5 were all excited about starting at a new school. Miss West added that she was also a little scared. We asked Miss West what’s the best thing about Avonmore so far? She replied she enjoys the lovely friendly children at school. We asked Miss McKenna the same question and she said the best thing is the amazing children who all want to learn. It sounds like Miss West, Miss McKenna and Sylvia are all having a good time so far at our school!

The New Year 6 Class

    After the holidays, the year 5 pupils have moved up to year 6! It’s so exciting being in our last year at Avonmore. For some of us it’s the first time Miss Driscoll has been teaching us. It’s only our second week back but we’ve already started doing tests!  Despite all the hard lessons, we still enjoy learning in our new class. Being the oldest class in the school means a whole lot more responsibilities, so many of us have applied for these positions. Some of these positions include: office prefect, playground friends, recycling and watering of plants to name a few. So, this year is going to be a challenging and exciting time for us.

 

Welcome Back!

Hello everyone! All the students have just come back from the long summer holidays for first week, filled with memories of their holidays. Oh the excitement of coming back! Everyone is settling into their new classes and are enjoying learning about their new teachers. This year new teachers have come into the school to work and we are looking forward to getting to know them better. Here’s to an exciting 2013-14 academic year!

Final Thought

My favourite memories of Avonmore, somethings I’ll always remember, are the teachers and their reassuring words. I will always remember the blog and how I joined in year 5.  For our leaving production, we performed Grease and we both enjoyed playing our roles that we auditioned for! Our favourite song was Greased Lightning.  This is our final blog this year and then we go to secondary school.  Missing Avonmore already!!!

 

Sports Day!

On  Wednesday 10^th July 2013 we had Sports Day! The destination for Sports Day was at Holland Park once again. The teams were named after famous athletes. Luckly, the second date for Sports Day was not taking a rain check and we enjoyed ourselves a lot in the sunshine. The activites for Sports Day were: the egg and spoon race, space hoppers race, skipping race, dribbling skills, the sack race, hockey penalties and the big sprinting race!

Fun Week!

Stroking the Goats

The children who didn’t go to the school journey still had a fun time as they went on enjoyable outings such as a trip to the farm. There were many weird and wonderful animals such as a horse called DJ. The pupils also got to try making their very own pizzas, with the help of Pizza Express. Everyone loved the taste -each child received two slices of it! One of the most memorable experiences was the Peter Pan Playground, where they got to play on a huge wooden pirate ship in the sand.  It was an exciting week!

 

Egyptians facts from the British Museum

On Tuesday 25^th of June 2013, Year 5 went to the British Museum to continue learning more about the Egyptians. There was a lot of exciting yet knowledgeable information about the Egyptians. First, we were handed a booklet. The booklet gave us questions that we can only answer using information within the British Museum. There was a wide range of rooms about the Egyptians that we could use information for our learning!  Later, we saw the Rosetta stone and we saw all the three languages written on the sacred stone. The three languages were the ancient Egypt hieroglyphics, demonic and Greek script. Overall, the Year 5s had a fun and educational day!

The British Museum

 

Avonmore Summer Fair 2013

 

 

On Saturday 29^th June, Avonmore hosted yet another Summer Fair! It was all colours and smiles as despite the hot weather this year’s fair was a great success. There were many fun rides, activities and  interesting stalls for children to enjoy. The food there was scrumptious- sweets, cakes, salads, popcorn, more sweets, burgers, strawberries and cream, candyfloss, even more sweets and much, much more. It was a great day out!

Sports Day Takes a Rain Check

 

We have had to postpone Sports Day due to the awful, rainy weather. The new date is Wednesday, the 10^th of July 2013 (next week). So, here's hoping for sunny skies!

 

Isle of Wight tree climbing and archery

On Monday 17^th June we went to the Isle of Wight for week full of activities like tree climbing and archery which most children liked.  For tree climbing we had to learn to make an acorn knot which would stop us from falling and hurting ourselves. In archery there was a bull’s eye for each person with a balloon stuck on it.  I shot two balloons. In archery you also had to aim properly to pop a balloon.  Luckily, we were all on target!

Long Walk in the Isle of Wight

The Wishing Seat

This week is our first week back since our trip to the Isle of Wight.  Our trip was full of many fun activities and we (apart from loads of muddy clothes as well as stinging nettles and mosquito bites) are still left with many magnificent memories. But one of our activities was very tiring and also not the most enjoyable. This activity was our 8 mile long walk. During the walk we had seen historical buildings like: The Devil’s Chimney (a tall building which smugglers used to hide in from the revenue men). We also tried to run up a very steep hill, without stopping, named Nansen Hill. None of the pupils from our school made it without stopping, but a student from St.Dominics, the school which was staying at the East Dene Centre with us, made it without stopping. When we arrived at our destination, we were all given Whippy ice-creams with flakes in cones as a treat. We then made our way back, and made a wish on Victoria’s Wishing Seat, so called because Queen Victoria herself sat there and made a wish, and it came true! Hopefully, the same thing will happen to us!

School journey, 2013

Here safe and sound rolling down a hill. Nice view.

Durkan Competition

On Wednesday 22^nd of May 2013 there was a competition from the building company Durkan. The competition was for the company to use our drawings, which we made, in their new building site. The employees of the company came on Wednesday to announce the results. Each class had three winners. We made the pictures of the constructions two weeks before, which was on the 8^th of May. The results were very good choices. The pictures showed safety features of a building site and were very detailed. The winner of each class got a voucher from WH Smith!

Healthy Bake Off

On Thursday 13th June the whole school had a healthy bake off. The year 6 and year 5 classes made an Asian noodle salad and it went pretty well. Year 5 did the cutting and we did the mixing and cooking. It smelt so nice that even we wanted some! All the classes had a competition to see who would make the most money. As of now, we don’t know who won but my class made £58 and we’re certainly hoping we are the winners!  

The End of Year Performance

Year 6 have recently discovered that they are doing Grease for their end of year performance! So far, we have done auditions and we have been assigned our parts. The script is done and we are working vigorously to learn our lines off by heart.

Lego workshop

On Thursday 23^rd May we had a Lego workshop in the hall. Year 6’s challenge was to build a small village with a station and a train track. We could make a lighthouse if we wanted. The rest of the classes had to make houses for a huge Lego city. We were put into teams. The year 6’s made a train track with a moving lighthouse. It looked really good! One of the most exciting events of that workshop was when my class had to do the hard job of breaking all of the buildings, etc., up. That was epic!

Year 6 baking bread

This morning, year 6 made some bread. The ingredients were sunflower oil, yeast, warm water and flour. First we mixed all the ingredients in the bowl, then we poured it onto the table with some flour and then we kneaded it. After a while, we put it back into the bowl and covered it with cling film and let it prove (which means to let it rise). It is baking at the moment and certainly hope it will be good! We are all looking forward to tasting it later!

Avonmore School Garden

Hello everyone! Since the arrival of spring, Miss Clement has prepared for the Avonmore School Garden Big Plant Out 2013! You might be thinking, ‘What is the Avonmore School Garden Big Plant Out 2013?’ Well I can explain quite simply! The Big Plant out is when Miss Clement asks students to contribute flowers or plants to the school in order to make the garden more colourful. In the garden there are lots of vegetables which are growing! But, to make it a more fun and colourful garden,  the Big Plant Out is there for that! According to Miss Clement, The Big Plant out has been a huge success and we have received loads and loads of plants! Our garden is now full! Thank you for all who participated in the Big Plant Out.

Trip to the Isle of Wight

It’s not that long to go until the school journey, where some year fives and sixes will go on a trip to the Isle of Wight! We are already getting prepared and are having many letters being sent home to confirm medical requirements and allergies. All the activities the teachers said we would be doing sound fun. They include such things as abseiling, crab finding, kayaking, wind surfing, raft making, expedition, orienteering and many more! Everyone can’t wait until we go there!

May the force be with you

On May 3^th the whole school did a Star Wars day. We dressed up as Star Wars characters such as: Yoda, Princess Leah, Darth Vader and Darth Maul. In the morning we did a parade for the parents to see our costumes. In the afternoon there were a variety of different Star Wars related things happening. All the money raised from today (children who dressed up had to contribute £1) will be donated to The Blue Cross. This charity supports animals.  

Epic battles





Characters unite









The Jolly Holidays

                                                                   

Everybody at Avonmore was looking forward to the Easter Holidays, and I’m pretty sure the teachers were waiting for a getaway from work, too! I certainly enjoyed my holiday- I visited Paris with my mum. The weather was no better than London, but we were determined not to let it spoil our trip.  We stayed at an excellent hotel called Crown Plaza. Most of the time we spent was on sightseeing. I saw the Louvre, the Mona Lisa, the  Arc de Triumph, the Eiffel Tower and a bridge called the Ponts de Arts where people write their names on a padlock, lock it, and throw the keys in the water. Overall, I think it was a pretty good place to stay if you like sightseeing.