Celebration Assembly – Friday 3rd April

Message from Mrs Smith:

Good afternoon everybody!

You have once again filled my heart with joy this week with your transformation tales. You may know that Mrs Smith is a keen gardener so to spend my evenings hearing about your new planting and the moments you have ‘stood and stared’ at the beauty of nature all around us has been an absolute treat. You have told me about  …

  • The joy of lying on a bed of buttercups
  • Children planting a patch of grass they had grown with Mrs Goss last year
  • Planting new life that will attract bees, butterflies and birds
  • Children designing their own allotment planting
  • Old planter renovation projects
  • A Christmas tree that has been planted in preparation for the festive season …
  • Turf laying and stone transportation
  • Beautiful sunsets
  • Tales of the joy of previous lettuce planting experiences
  • Planting of edamame beans (as a favourite restaurant is no longer an option!)
  • The recreation of beach scenes in garden plots
  • The signs of blossom and new life that you have seen all around you
  • Children growing plants for their cats
  • The learning that has emerged about  life’s natural cycles
  • And families sharing their seeds and pots, inspiring others to start planting too … (thank you Flora for the lovely packages that appeared in our garden bank!)

So, time to enjoy the green fingered achievements of Damers First School this week. You may see a few grown ups that you recognise in here as they have been busy ‘transforming’ too …

I have included two stories for you this week. The first is one that I have shared in assembly before so you may recognise it. It fits beautifully with our theme and shows how we can turn ‘grey’ situations around using the power and colours that emerge from planting … 

I felt the second story of the week was a great one for us to start the Easter holidays with as it reminds us how through our imaginations and the beauty of nature we can travel to many exciting, far and distant lands, even during a lockdown! (See if you can spot the badly behaved chicken. My audience were nowhere near as good as you are in assembly!)

See if you can find a magical place where your imagination can run wild, either in your home or in your garden over the next few weeks and do tell me about it during the holidays if you like (your grown ups can help you to send a message).

Stay focused on those green shoots and new beginnings everyone and enjoy your Easter break . Your Headteacher is genuinely lost without you!

With warm wishes for a happy holiday.

Mrs Smith ☺️ 

Earth Hour

This Saturday you can join in with Earth Hour . Mr Moore explains how…….

Our School Assembly this week was all about the Harmony Principle Interdependence which links really well with Earth Hour. 
We would really like you and your child to take part in WWF Earth Hour which is happening on Saturday 28th March. https://www.earthhour.org/ This is where people and famous landmarks across the world will be turning off all their lights and electrical appliances. This will be happening at 8.30pm UK time but you can do it at a time that suits you. This will show your support for strategies that will help to solve the problem of global warming. People will be lighting candles to read a book, having a candle-lit dinner, stargazing, or simply switching off their lights and TVs for an hour. We would like you to do the same, if possible, and be as creative as you can. Please take a photo of how you celebrated Earth Hour and email it to earthhour@damers.dorset.sch.uk by 5pm on Sunday 29th March. We will share some of the photos on our blogs next week. Please make sure you write your name and class in the subject box. 
Also here are some educational activities you can do as part of EarthHour https://www.wwf.org.uk/get-involved/schools/school-campaigns/earth-hour-schools?dm_i=38LF,10AQU,3CWX1V,3TTA9,1

TT Rockstars Accounts – Years 2 – 4

Here is some information for the adults about a new login…

Children can now use their TTrockstars account to access a new activity called NumBots. https://play.numbots.com/#/account/search-school

NumBots is an online game and playing little and often (5 minutes a few times a week) will significantly improve your child’s recall and understanding of number bonds and addition and subtraction facts. 

They might need some help navigating to the website and entering the details but once they’re in, they just need some quiet space to get on with the games for 5 minutes.

Important: please don’t allow siblings or family to answer for them but do support your child if they’re stuck.

Game Types 

1. Story Mode – the emphasis is on learning the ideas and concepts behind addition and subtraction so it features more diagrams, shapes and question styles. 

2. Challenge Mode – the emphasis is more on speed of recall of key facts, like number bonds to 10, doubling small numbers or adding & taking away in your head