Sunday 28 February 2016

Brilliant British Library Trip!

Source: The Guardian

On Wednesday, we were fortunate to visit The British Library. We admired the beautiful building and felt very privileged to see some of their most precious books in the 'Treasures Collection'.

 Source: www.bl.uk

We had a great workshop with Sheila and Rebecca; firstly, we collected nouns, adverbs and adjectives from the Treasures Collection.

Next, we were inspired by an animation of 'The Jabberwocky' to create a calligraphy presentation of one of our words.


Finally, we worked with a small group to use the words we collected to create a piece of performance art. Some groups wrote poems, others made short plays or told a story.

Our work was combined to make a spectacular book!


What was your highlight of the trip?

Saturday 27 February 2016

Book Week... Next Week!

We are all very excited about Book Week- we hope that you are too! Thank you for all of the Mystery Reader photos we have received. You can see them in the hall; can you guess who they all are?! If you would like to enter, but haven't yet done so, please bring in your photograph on Monday!


We hope that we will see lots of you at 8:30am every day next week in the hall for 'Dads' Reading'. Bring a book and a male relative (although ladies are very welcome too!); find a comfy place to sit and settle in to start your day with a book!




On Thursday, the whole school will be dressed up as our favourite book characters! We'll have a special assembly to celebrate all of the wonderful costumes and to read this year's school story. We will also announce the winners of the 'Mystery Reader' competition!


During the week, you will also have the chance to enjoy some Buddy Reading. Year 5 will be joining the Nursery, to pair up and read together! You will have the chance to read a story to a child from the Nursery and they might want to share some books with you too!


Sunday 21 February 2016

Mystery Reader Competition!

Source: thinkwonderteach

It's nearly Book Week at St. Anthony's! We will be celebrating with another fun photo competition. Last year's Extreme Reading was incredibly exciting and we had some wonderful entries!

This year's challenge is called 'Mystery Readers'.

What you need to do:
1. Pick your favourite book.
2. Create a disguise and pick an interesting location for your photo. Remember you must be safe- ask an adult to help you and don't take any risks.
3. Cover your face with your favourite book. You might also try wearing a mask!
4. Ask an adult to take a photograph of you, with your face covered safely.
5. Print the photo.
6. Write your name on the back.
7. Hand it in to Mrs Parrott ASAP!

Some inspiration:
Source: davyhulme

 Source: cheadleheath
 Source: 123rf

 Source: roebuck.herts

The entries will be on display in the hall and the winners from each phase group will be announced in assembly on World Book Day; Thursday 3rd March.

Good luck!

Wednesday 17 February 2016

Comic Competition!

http://stanthonyswrites.blogspot.co.uk/2016/02/comic-time-competition.html

Head over to the St. Anthony's Writes blog, to find out the details about a new and exciting comic competition at school. Lots of you are very talented graphic artists and comic creators, so I'm sure you won't want to miss this opportunity!

Click the picture above (designed by Luke in Year 6!) to go to the St. Anthony's Writes blog and find out more.

Good luck!

Saturday 13 February 2016

The Battle of Hastings!


Our topic 'Kings and Knights' has been great fun; it culminated with our reenactment of The Battle of Hastings on Thursday! We have been learning about Edward the Confessor and last week we found out about what happened when he died without an heir. Learning about the Battle of Stamford Bridge was interesting and ended with Harold having to march his army back down 187 miles in a hurry, when he heard that William was attacking from the south.

On Thursday, we picked up the story with Harold's Saxon army arriving in Hastings exhausted from battle and two long marches, carrying all of their kit and weapons. They were clever and took the high ground and built a shield wall to protect themselves.

William's Norman army arrived and kept charging up the hill towards the shield wall for six hours. For six hours it looked like the Saxons were going to win.


At one point, a Norman soldier announced that William had died (he was wrong!). What did William shout to rally his troops?

But soon, a few foolish Saxon soldiers made a fatal decision. (What did we decide 'fatal' meant?) When the Normans were retreating from one of their unsuccessful charges, a few soldiers decided to chase them. This meant there was a gap in the shield wall and the Normans took their chance! They turned around and charged back. Their cavalry (what did this mean?) and archers were better trained than the Saxons and soon destroyed the Saxon army.


Finally, one of the archers took aim at Harold and (if we believe the Bayeux Tapestry) he was shot in the eye!

William was eventually crowned King!


After our reenactment of the battle, we used toy knights, which were kindly brought in by Finn, to act out the battle again.

Once the events of the battle were firmly set in our minds, we worked in our house teams to write a timeline of the battle.
We identified three main reasons for William's Normans winning the Battle of Hastings. What were the three reasons?

Watch this fantastic animation of the Bayeux Tapestry. It tells the story of the Battle of Hastings, using the Bayeux Tapestry. But remember, the tapestry is not really animated! It is a tapestry/ weaving- like the Lady of Shalott made in her tower!

Source: YouTube, Potion Pictures

A Very Generous Donation!


This week, we were incredibly lucky to have a special gift from The Dulwich Picture Gallery. We visited the M.C. Escher exhibition at the gallery last term and produced some beautiful artwork.

The Dulwich Picture Gallery have very generously given us a stunning piece of artwork, produced by our local community, which was inspired by the M.C. Escher exhibition. It is a spectacular mosaic metamorphosis made entirely from LEGO!

M.C. Escher, Day and Night, 1938 (Dulwich Picture Gallery)

We all love our new artwork at St. Anthony's and feel very lucky to have it in our school!


During lunchtime on Wednesday, we put up some posters asking all of our children to write the first word that came to mind when they looked at the picture. Later that day, St. Clare's wrote sentences to explain our reaction to, or inspired by, the Lego masterpiece!




Next half term, we will hold a creative project inspired by our new artwork- linking Writing, Maths and Art- alongside other subjects! Hooray!

Saturday 6 February 2016

What a Peculiar Week!

A Guest Post from the Writing Blog

This week has been a strange one at St. Anthony's. On Wednesday night, tiny doors appeared around the school out of nowhere and nobody could explain why! A leading detective was onto the case straightaway, but he needed your help in answering these questions: Who are these visitors? Where did they come from? Why are they here?



After reading a letter from Detective Petitie, you all set out to solve the mysteries, and luckily you also wrote some excellent pieces of writing explaining what had happened. You were a big help to him in finding out what was going on.

We have been very impressed by your super pieces of work, but the mystery remains unsolved as of yet. What do YOU think goes on behind those tiny doors?






Here are some of the highlights of your fantastic writing, remember to click on the pictures to make them larger and easier to read:
Year 1
 Jonas, Year 1
 Annabelle, Year 1

 Amarachi, Year 1

 Siena, Year 1

 Aine and Misty, Year 3

 Klara, Year 4

 Alex, Year 5
 Erhun, Year 5

 Emily, Year 4

Bella and Mia, Year 5

 Natalia, Year 6

Laudine, Reception

Jasper, Reception

We'll add some more fabulous Tiny Door writing next week, when we receive some more submissions! Check out our new display board between the Year 2 classrooms too, to see this work in real life, plus lots more!