Pre-Prep: Signs of Summer

'Of all the paths you take in life, make sure a few of them are dirt.' So advised John Muir, born in Dunbar and one of the world's greatest naturalists and environmental philosophers. The story of the Pre-Prep's term so far has revolved around walks, nature's cyclical wonder and a fair amount of dirt... Read on to find out a bit more of what they have been up to... 

 We have had a very sunny start to the summer term. The suncream is out and our caps are on! All the children in Pre-Prep have been playing tennis and cricket every week whilst also doing athletics in preparation for Sports Day (5 June). The children have been enjoying the new additions to the playground as well as continuing to make all sorts of delicious mud pies and ‘hot’ chocolate in the mud kitchen.

 On 17 April, we were very fortunate to be able to visit the newborn animals at Aikengall Farm. We had such a lovely time cuddling the lambs, petting the foal and helping the little calves. Thank you so much to Mr and Mrs Hamilton for arranging such a great visit! 

 Last Friday, 1 May, the whole school embarked upon our much-anticipated sponsored walk. The weather was perfect – sunny and not a breath of wind. We started the climb up North Berwick Law and although it is seriously steep for little (and not so little!) people, the children were all up in under 25 minutes! At the top we listened to Geordie play the pipes and Lukas play his snare drum - we were quite impressed that he had managed to carry it all the way up with him! We then began the descent which took significantly longer...


Our next challenge was Traprain Law. We were a bit surprised to meet an enormous teddy bear dressed in a Belhaven t-shirt hiding behind a hedge, but he was very friendly so we gave him a hug and a high-five and carried on. We met with a number of parents at the foot of the hill who joined us for the climb. It was then time for lunch which was a wonderful picnic in the park in East Linton. We had a delicious lunch and particularly enjoyed some amazing baking by the PTFA. 

We were very impressed by the children, particularly our youngest in Reception who were positive and cheerful throughout. It was highly successful and fun day out! 

Music  
This term has seen the introduction of Pre-Prep Music Club which runs alongside Homework Club (Thursdays 4:30pm). Each week we focus on a specific concept/skill/theme that can make music practice more productive and enjoyable. Week one focused on having a small specific target e.g. one bar or one technique (called a Progress Power-Up). Pupils need to know what their Power-Up is, then they can grow it (slow it down, repeat it, nurture it) and then they can show it (there should be tangible progress after one week which pupils can share with you at home, as well as their teacher). Week two focused on the ‘show it’ part as all pupils did performance practice. Remembering to announce their piece, get ready to play, end musically, stand up an receive applause, and importantly how to be a good audience member. We can’t wait to share these skills with you at the Pre-Prep Concert & Art & Design Exhibition on Friday 15th at 2pm.   

Classwork – Reception/ Form 8 
In literacy, as well as continuing our phonics and reading groups we have started a writing unit based on the book ‘The Secret Sky Garden.’ We began this unit by listening to the book and imagining where the story could take place. The children used their imaginations to think about what could be missing from the car park in which it is set! 

This book has linked beautifully with our interdisciplinary learning, which is based around 'The Garden'. We started this topic by asking the children what they already know and what questions they have about our learning. We have since begun answering their questions:

Does a plant grow from the seed or the roots?
What is the difference between a weed and a flower?
How do plants grow when you don’t plant them?  

Science has also linked to our topic as we learn about plants and trees. The focus has been on plant parts, as well as wild and garden flowers. In our play provision, everyone planted some tomatoes and cress and we hope to be able to send our plants home soon! 

In Numeracy, Reception are working on place value within and beyond 10. They are counting forwards and backwards within 20 and are trying to quickly recognise and recall these numbers in and out of sequence. Form 8 have been working on place value within 50 and are learning to partition numbers into tens and ones. They have been using skills that they have learned throughout the year to support them with this, like the part whole model. 

Classwork – Form 7 
In literacy this term, our key text is ‘The Great Kapok Tree’ which tells the story of the animals who live in the Amazon Rainforest. The text has already inspired some incredible writing, with the children learning about nouns, verbs and adjectives, how to use commas in a list, and the prefix ‘un’ e.g. unkind, ungrateful, unfriendly. 

In topic, the children are learning all about the rainforest. They have been studying the layers of the rainforest whilst investigating which animals might be found on the forest floor, the understory, the canopy and the emergent layer. The children recently carried out their own survey to determine which rainforest animal was the most popular amongst Belhaven pupils. They displayed their findings on a pictogram, which clearly indicated that the jaguar was the resounding winner!  

In Science, our learning continues to to overlap as we study the life cycle of humans and animals. The children have learnt the words ‘offspring’ and ‘adolescent’ which they have been using to describe the different stages of life. We’re very excited to receive delivery of our very own caterpillars which will allow us to witness their life cycle in real time!  

In Maths, the children have shown real confidence and skill as we get stuck into learning about fractions. So far, they can recognise and find a half, quarter and third, and soon we’ll be moving on to looking at non-unit fractions as well as equivalent fractions! This unit of learning has allowed the children to make valuable connections to prior learning on multiplication and division, and it’s been so pleasing to see them make these links so confidently! 

Classwork – Form 6 
In Literacy this term, we are reading the book ‘The Boy Who Grew Dragons’. We had a very exciting start because one of our parents is friends with the author, Andy Shepherd. She contacted her and she kindly sent us a card, poster, bookmarks, and a copy of her new book. 

We started off by writing a funny rhyming poem all about a dragon called Flicker. We then moved onto information texts about exotic fruits. In the book, Tomas discovers a dragon living inside a dragon fruit. We have looked at and sampled many different exotic fruits and discussed which mythical creatures could be living inside them. We have now started to put these ideas together to create our own information texts. 

In Maths, we have been continuing with multiplication and division. We have looked at multiples of 10 and related calculations – if 2 x 3 = 6 when can use this to work out 2 x 30. We are now learning how to multiply a 2-digit number by a 1-digit number with an exchange. For example, 2 x 48 so you would do 2 x 40 = 80 and 2 x 8 = 16 therefore 80 + 16 = 96. We have also started a new topic on 'time'. We began by looking at Roman numerals and then recapped quarter to and quarter past, as well as remembering which hand does what. We then moved onto telling the time to 5 minutes and telling the time to the minute. 

In Science, we are learning about parts of plants and their functions. We have just started an experiment about plant growth – we have four plant pots, and each one has a different number of seeds. Which one will grow the tallest? We will keep checking and measuring them over a four-week period to see if their predictions are correct. 

Our topic this term is John Muir – landscapes, conservation, and human impact. So far, we have looked at different types of landscapes, discussing how and why they are different but also how certain features may have formed. We have been looking at key events in John Muir’s life and put them together onto a timeline.