The Nightingales Weekly Newsletter

Friday 8th May

Dear Nightingales, It’s Friday again! I’m so glad I was able to speak to you all on the phone this week, it was great to hear from you all and I’m glad you liked the cards I sent to you via the post! An update from last Friday, Finn had a go at making a Lego egg whisk and after a conversation with his dad about gears work, they worked out the end spinds at 1200rpm – same as a car in idle!! It was so lovely to see you all enjoying DT week.

This week was Wellbeing week, and it was so lovely to see some of the things you have been up to! Maisie had been creating a pumpkin patch with her younger sibling, and Arlo has been busy beavering away making some Lego creations! I hope you all had chance to take some time to reflect, relax and appreciate all the wonderful things around you and how lucky you are to be the wonderful individuals you are. Elodie sent in some gorgeous photos of things she has been doing recently – I loved the painting of newts! Elodie also made a meal for her family, cupcakes for her friends and is knitting herself a scarf ready for winter!

Happy Birthday again to George and Maya – I hope you both enjoyed a wonderful birthday filled with presents and cake! This week, I have been in school supporting our key worker children. It again felt strange not seeing everyone but I was very fortunate to be able to speak with you on the phone. We made bottle rockets, did lots of maths activities, wrote letters to care homes, created sunset lighthouse art and played bench ball! I have attached some of the ideas from this week in school in case you’d like to try some at home! I even managed time to bake one evening this week – some chocolate chip cookies! These were so scrummy, the outside was crunchy and the inside was gooey and soft! Mrs Calder emailed to let me know that if you are doing some lovely reading at home (which a lot of you said on the phone that you are!) then you can now access Acclerated reader at home to do some book quizzes. To login, follow this website link - https://ukhosted12.renlearn.co.uk/2116232/Public/RPM/Login/Login.aspx?srcID=s Then for username – it is the first letter of your first name, and the first four letters of your surname – for example Joe Smith = JSMIT. The children already know their password (if they have forgotten, please email!) Below, I’ve also attached a few other bits and pieces related to some learning that I had requests for. There is no deadline, no obligation for you to do it all, but it is there for you to pick and choose from as you wish. If you are unable to print things off/access a laptop to open, please do email and I can get paper copies sent to you. The lovely Mrs Foucher has put together some fab learning for Maths next week – including times table battles between classes, I can’t wait to see which class will win (hopefully us!!) Mrs Lilley and Miss Seaton-Smith have also sent me a letter about what they’ve been up to, which is on the next page! Please do keep in touch, whether it’s via email admin@dartingtonprimary.org, letters or posts visible via social media. I love hearing from all of you and that is why this weeks phone calls were a very special moment for me, and it was great to catch up. Stay safe and take care, Miss Humphries x

Hello Nightingales.

I have been thinking about you all and how much I am missing you still. I wonder what you are up

to every day?

I hope that you are enjoying every day of spending extra time with your family and making the

most of every day with them, because I am.

Some days are tricky, especially when it's time to do school work at home with my boys. I would

much rather be helping you all in class some days but that's ok. We have learned to adapt and

change the way we work together so when we get a bit frustrated we play a game like Scrabble, a

dice game or maybe do a word search.

We have found getting fresh air seems to lift our spirits and refresh our

minds so we have been walking our dogs every day and going on bike

rides and just being outside makes us all feel better. We are still baking regularly and have

made cornflake nests, brownies and have been

experimenting with pastry too. Some don't go so well

and no one wants to eat what we made, like burned

pizza dough rolls! Very hard on your teeth but good

for building a wall with maybe?

I have loved seeing the things you have been doing

and showing on the Facebook page so keep it up, it

certainly makes me smile.

Keep well and keep safe until we see each other again, Mrs Lilley x

Hello Nightingales!

I hope you are all keeping well and safe and are managing to keep busy and have lots of fun whilst you are at home.

Keeping in contact with my friends and family through phone calls and FaceTime has been lovely and I hope you are

managing to do this too.

I was in school again a couple of weeks ago. It was fun getting to see some of the staff and children and luckily, we

had lovely weather so were able to spend a lot of time outside, playing and visiting our wonderful garden. Excitingly, I

cooked all the lunches. Fortuitously Danielle was in on the afternoon shift, so she was able to show me how to use

the very high-tech oven! I do not know how our lovely lunch ladies manage to make such delicious food, for such a

large number of children, every school day. They make it look so easy! Another positive

outcome of doing this is the fact that I now know where the doughnuts are stashed…

Since my week at school I have been doing much of the same that I described to you in my

previous letter. I have been going on walks (in the allotted time) and have managed to see

lots of beautiful bluebells. One day I was walking across a field full of buttercups and saw a

scrubby, wild field in the distance with a haze of blue across it. I hiked my way through the

long (wet) grass to see what was making the beautiful haze. There I discovered the field

was covered in hundreds of bluebells! There were

more there than in the actual bluebell wood I walked through on a previous

day. Definitely worth the soggy boots!

My vegetable patch has been coming along; peas are starting to grow

up their sticks along with ‘cut and come again’ lettuce, gem lettuce,

spinach and some radishes that are still fattening up. I am growing

some potatoes in sacks having been inspired by our planting of potatoes at school! I have a few more

seedlings waiting to be put out when they are big enough; courgettes, cucumbers, squash, kale, broccoli,

French climbing beans, runner beans, parsley and dill.

Some ideas to keep your maths and English learning going, no pressure to complete all! -

https://whiterosemaths.com/homelearning/year-4/

Above is a link for White Rose maths. If you haven’t already been and checked this out, it

has weekly lessons based on sequences we would have been doing in school, there is a

video followed by an activity. These are updated weekly, so it may be worth starting at the

beginning (Week 1) and continuing from there. There is no expectation to share any of this

with me, or pressure of deadlines but if you are wanting to have a go at some maths

activities, they are here for you to utilise. They also have a “problem of the day” section to

their website – if you feel like an extra challenge! See the link below, again no pressure to

share or compelte by a certain date, but there if you need it.

https://whiterosemaths.com/resources/classroom-resources/problems/

Websites and app from Mrs Calder –

https://www.storynory.com/ has free audio stories for children

https://www.scottishbooktrust.com/learning-and-resources/authors-live/authors-live-on-

lockdown has lots of author talks and activities available https://www.sirlinkalot.org/ a free spelling app that helps children find ways of

remembering tricky spellings through images, rhymes etc.

I’m just not sure if I have room for them all… there may be vegetables growing in the flower beds this year

or if my neighbours want a few, I will give some to them. Lots of people I contact are feeling very inspired

to start growing vegetables this year, I wonder if any of you are doing the same?

I managed to finish my book (Under the Greenwood Tree) and now I am either going to reread a favourite

of mine, To Kill a Mockingbird (no, no birds are killed) by Harper Lee or read a book that I’ve been meaning

to read, Great Expectations by Charles Dickens. Have you all been reading? I hope you have as it is a great

way to escape to other places when you are not actually allowed to leave your house!

In the coming weeks, or however long we have left, I will continue with the gardening, reading and walking

and will hopefully finish painting my hallway, if I don’t run out of paint, so far I have painted nine doors

and the ceiling… I am looking forward to hearing about what you have all been up to during this time when

we all get to meet again at school. We are so lucky that the weather is nice and we have warmth and

sunshine (mainly) to enjoy.

Thinking of you all,

Miss Seaton-Smith

Think of your favourite rainforest animal… can you create a fact file about it?

Below is a Spelling, Punctuation and Grammar mystery game.

All you have to do is work out the answers to the clues, which will then give you information

to use with the first page to find out who stole the sunglasses…

Answers –

Write a persuasive advert – Roll for a Keyword, a type of persuasive writing, a target

audience and a place. For example; KW – Hurry, T- Poster, TA- tourist Place - Hotel

Similar to the emoji activity in English, there is also a maths one which I did with some of the

children in school this week! use the clues to work out their road trip destination.

Answers to the above –

Arithmetic questions –

Art activities –