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