Year 2 visit the National Botanic Garden

We were very lucky with the weather on Wednesday when we went to explore the beautiful National Botanic Garden of Wales as part of our topic, Scented Gardens. There was so much for the children to see and do, we all had a wonderful time!

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  Walking through the gardens

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  This plant felt so soft to touch, the children said it felt like a soft blanket!

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We explored the gardens and found some plants and flowers we had never seen before. We used our senses to describe them.

The butterfly house was an exciting place to be (and very hot!). We were very respectful and stayed really quiet so as not to scare the butterflies! We enjoyed sharing the facts we had researched about butterflies with the butterfly expert.

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We explored the Great Glasshouse which houses some of the most endangered plants on Earth! They come from six areas of the world, California, Australia, the Canary Islands, Chile, South Africa, the Mediterranean Basin.

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After all that exploring, we were eager for lunch! The weather was so beautiful we were able to sit outside and enjoy the view and surroundings while we ate. We even had some time to play in the park!

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We were taught all about seeds by an expert. She helped us understand that there are many different types of seeds. They come in all different shapes and sizes and we were able to take a closer look and sort them into groups based on their similarities. We were then able to plant our own seeds which we bought back to school with us!

We had an amazing day! A big thank you to staff at the National Botanic Garden of Wales for making it a very enjoyable learning experience!

Another big thank you to our parent helpers who came along to join us! You’re amazing!

World Ocean Day!

Dosbarth Taf have been busy recording a special news report about marine pollution!

Watch the full video here:

Reception’s Trip to Cefn Mably Farm

This week, Dosbarth Ogwr took a trip to Cefn Mably farm.

Despite the rain, they had a fabulous day! They were able to visit and pet the animals while discussing all the knowledge they have learnt over the past few weeks  in their topic ‘Do Cows Drink Milk?’

It might be raining but we’re having a great time!

We met a curious goat!

We brushed the guinea pigs!

Saying hello! to a friendly pony!

Rights Respecting Fayre

All pupils had a roarsome time embedding Children’s Rights at our Rights Respecting fayre this term.

Each school action group created activities for children and parents to participate in which helped us learn right of UNCRC (United Nation’s Convention on the Rights of the Child).

As a school we are thriving to be confident in understanding our rights and ensuring they are embedded in our whole school ethos.

We hope our fayre allowed parent’s to see how we are celebrating Children Right’s in our school and enjoyed all activities put on by the children of Ysgol y Ddraig.

Year 4 Trip to Bristol Aquarium

This week, year 4 went to visit the fantastic Bristol Aquarium as part of their topic, blue abyss.

We had a guide who told us lots of interesting facts about the creatures at the aquarium. Did you know that when  a starfish loses a leg they can grow another leg and then that leg can grow a new body!

We also learned that the male seahorse makes his pouch really big to show off to the female seahorse. The males seahorse carries the babies and looks after them until they are old enough to look after themselves!

We learned that the strongest male clownfish turns into a female and then becomes the queen of all the other clownfish!

We got to hold a tooth from a megalodon shark. The megalodon shark was the largest predator that ever lived.

We had a look at some shark eggs and stingray eggs and even got to see what shark skin feels like!

We had a great time!

 

 

Christmas School Fair

On Saturday 15th December, a fantastic time was had by all at the school fair.

Thank you to all the PTA members and staff who attended and helped it run smoothly.

The choir opened the fair by singing beautifully and really setting the Christmassy mood.

Afterwards people enjoyed playing lots of Christmas related games, taking part in the Christmas crafts and purchasing items from the variety of stalls.

Father Christmas attended and gave out gifts to all the lucky girls and boys.

We can’t wait for the holidays to come now!

Pantomime Trip to see Beauty and the Beast

On the 11th December KS2 went on a fantastic trip to the Memo in Barry to see a pantomime. We saw Beauty and the Beast.

It was a great adaptation of the story and we really enjoyed the singing and the bright colours and jokes.

On the 18th of December foundation phase went to see a different adaptation of Beauty and the Beast. Great fun was had by all!

Dosbarth Rheidol Show and See

On Wednesday 5th December, Dosbarth Rheidol welcomed our families to join us for a roarsome afternoon at Show and See. This was an opportunity for us to showcase all of our fantastic learning we have done during our Beachcombers and Land Ahoy topic this term.

As always, the golden rule for Show and See afternoons is ‘all grown-ups must join in with our favourite 5-a-day routine.’ So we started the afternoon dancing and singing to  the pirate video, as we had enjoyed learning the song and dance moves to this during our topic. Our parents tried really hard to copy the moves and follow the instructions.

Then we had a chance to share our learning within our indoor and outdoor classroom, with our grown-ups.

We enjoyed programming the Beebot, making symmetrical buildings in our builder’s yard and racing our grown ups against the sand timer in our 100 square challenge.

We constructed an electric circuit and tested which materials would allow the electricity to flow through it to keep the bulb lit up. We discovered tinfoil and the fork were the best objects.

Also, we got into the Christmas spirit by writing Christmas lists to Father Christmas, creating Christmas wreaths and Christmas themed paintings using the technique we learnt this term – ‘Pointilism’

Finally, we ended our afternoon by performing our ‘Under the Sea’ dance to our grown-ups. We have worked hard on this dance during the Autumn term, learning techniques such as mirroring, shadowing and canon. We also used ribbons throughout our choreography. Check out our Twitter post for a video of our dance!

Diolch to all of our families who joined us for our Show and See afternoon. We hope you enjoyed it as much as we did! Remember to check out our Twitter page to follow all of our learning in Dosbarth Rheidol.

Year 3 Visit from Warburtons

We watched a video about how the bread is made from the wheat in the field to the packaged bread in the supermarket.

We then learned about the Eat Well Plate and talked about the different food groups and how much we should eat from each. We were reminded about food hygiene and all washed our hands and walked back to class with “bakers’ hands”, placing one hand on top of the other, not touching anything else.

The ladies from Warburtons, Angela and Cheryl, then put our aprons and hair nets on for us.

Then we were able to make our sandwiches. We had to include at least 2 veg.

We had a great time and we were able to take home our sandwich, a certificate and a packet of Warburtons Thins. We were also given activity booklets that were left for us to do in lessons!

Year 3 pupils

Quick guide to the YYD Website

Are you still having trouble finding or accessing our weekly online school and class newsletters? Then follow this quick guide!

Our website’s homepage can be accessed by clicking here.

STEM Fortnight @ Ysgol y Ddraig

Monday 5^th March – Friday 16^th March 2017

is

STEM fortnight

(Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths)

at Ysgol-y-Ddraig Primary School.

Your home learning task is to make a marble run.

Entries will be judged on:

• It must be no more than 1m high
• Length of time the rolling marble takes to reach the ground
• It must not be a pre–bought marble run

 

 

All marble runs to be in school by Monday 12^th March so all entries can be exhibited, judged and tested.

The winner and runner up from Foundation Phase and Key Stage 2 will go to Romilly Primary School for the battle of the 5 schools’ competition.

Good Luck!

 

Be sure to visit the Ysgol y Ddraig website by clicking here. On the homepage you will find weekly school and class newsletters and lots more!

Safer Internet Day

Last Friday following Safer Internet Day, our E-Cadets and DigiDragons held a fayre in the hall for classes to attend. Our E-Cadets and Digi Dragons represented their classes and shared some of the important activities that they have been completing to understand and raise awareness of internet safety. 

Da iawn pawb!

 

 

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Maths in Construction

Newsletter, 13th January 2017

We have had a very busy first full week back in school!

Please support our school by following us on Twitter, subscribing to our Youtube channel and subscribing to our newsletter. Please see class teacher for further details.

This week saw our classes getting involved with lots of activities inside and outside of school.

Col Huw (Nursery) had a very ‘Royal Party’ to develop learning linked to our new topic ‘Did Dragons exist?’ Children also played a range of Royal games in the hall and participated in some welsh folk dancing.

Ogwr and Hensol started their new topic “will you read me a story?” They focused on Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs this week and were even lucky enough to meet her!

Thaw and Fonmon began their new topic ‘Memory Box’ by welcoming a 7-week old baby and a 17-month old toddler to their class to find out about different stages of development.

Rheidol and Coch kicked off their topic by creating their own maps of their classroom. They also used online sources including google maps to find their homes and known locations.

Caernafron and Taf have been focusing their week around fractions and applying their new learning to work out fractions of amounts and fractions of a shape.

Cleddau and Penfro went on a very special trip to Bristol Aquarium to investigate as they started their new topic “Blue Abyss” They also learnt how to make cupcakes and even made a video tutorial, see our Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCWc9K9zX4r4-nFoY7bbs5aw

Teifi and Caerdydd introduced their topic of Beast craeator by searching the school grounds to find any bugs or creatures. They also gathered resources from the school grounds to begin the build of their own bug hotels. Reptile Dave also came to visit to show us some amazing reptiles, bugs and creatures.

Hafren and Carefilli also had a busy week by starting their topic of blood heart. They started off by asking themselves what they already knew about the heart and what they wished to find out. They then drew a picture of a heart including labelling of the heart. They were also very creative by making hearts made of Lego.

After School Clubs

All after school clubs are now returned. Please see class teacher if your child wishes to attend an after school club

 

Welsh Phrase of the week

Lwcus – Lucky

The Nurturing Programme

The Nurturing Progamme builds on exisiting parenting skill and helps parents think about:

• Why children behave as they do.
• The feelings behind behaviour (ours and theirs).
• Different approaches to discipline.
• Developing co-operation and self-discipline in
• The importance of looking after ourselves.
• The Nurturing Programme has a positive impact on the whole family!
• Duration: 10 weekly sessions, 2 hours per session
• Starting Friday, 13th January 2017 1.00pm – 3.00pm
• Free Crèche provided.
• Please book your place with Mrs Rees/Mrs Jones on 01446 792368.

 Spring Term Key Dates

February

7^th Safer Internet Day

20^th – 24^th February Half Term

 

Star of The Week

Dosbarth Ogwr  – Amelia Baldwin

Dosbarth Hensol – Hallie Darby

Dosbarth Thaw – Orla Payne

Dosbarth Fonmon – Ellis Wilkinson

Dosbarth Rheidol – Riley Havard

Dosbarth Coch – Oliver Keil

Dosbarth Taf – Natalia Witkowska

Dosbarth Caernarfon – Nicole Jeziorska

Dosbarth Cleddau –Davyn-James Burch

Dosbarth Penfro– Alice Ferrier-Thomas

Dosbarth Teifi – Harley Williams

Dosbarth Caerdydd – Kieran Richardson

Dosbarth Hafren – Cameron Carroll

Dosbarth Caerffili – Skye Bateman

Not long now!

This week at Ysgol y Ddraig has been a very busy one! With only 1 more week to go we have so much to do. We have been practicing long and hard to remember our parts in our Christmas play. We can’t wait for you all to see us!

The whole school visited the National Ice Rink in Cardiff to see a performance of the Nutcracker.

We got involved with Taekwondo!

Year 1 used lego to create some amazing ideas including castles and theme parks.

Year 4 used Pablo Picasso as inspiration to create their own masterpieces.

We even had a chance to do some shopping with our amazing Elves R Us store in school thanks to the school’s PTA.

We have a very exciting week ahead of us next week!

 

 

 

 

Year 4’s trip to Manor Adventure!

Year 4 have had a very exciting trip this week visiting Manor Adventure for lots of exciting activities.

We had lots of excited faces on the bus!

Once we arrived we jumped straight into some activities including making our own rafts.

After a busy day of travelling and activities we relaxed in front of a film before bed time.

You can’t start a day full of activities without a big breakfast!

We then dove straight into the obstacle course!

And then even got to absail!

A favourite of ours was giving fencing a go

After a busy day, sleeping lions was a good choice to help relax.

Our first week in school

Take a look at what our journalists think of their first week in the new school.

DJ:
Woohoo!! Our first week in our new school completed!! It has been so much fun exploring our new school and getting used to it! My favourite part has been our new classroom with our touch screen computer, wobbly seats and our own tables! 

I love wearing my awesomely awesome slippers and it is fun sliding around the school. Our school hall is massive and the corridors and stairs are brightly coloured! We have lots of new things including things in our classrooms as well as a lab with high tech computers and a studio for dance and green screen projects. 

We’ve played maths and literacy games on the touch screen whiteboard and had a competition on a connectives game, Boys Vs Girls. Girls won! We are learning about the history of remembrance day and poppies, and then making posters about it to raise awareness. We are also selling snap bands and wrist bands and badges to raise money for poppy appeal! 

I love our new school and cannot wait for more learning and activities across the school. 

 

MR:
The first week of school was amazing.It has been so much fun going around the school and wearing slippers in class.It will take some getting used to knowing where everything is but I’m sure I will get it.My favourite place in the school is the hall because it is so big and i like going down the stairs to get to it.There are no radiators in the school because its all got underfloor heating so it will be warm when we sit on the floor.The school has a lot of cool things including touch screens in every classroom we have a lab and a studio and apple computers in the lab.We have been raising money for poppy appeal from the 9th November to the 11th November which included selling poppy appeal slap bands, poppy appeal wrist bands, poppy appeal bracelets and poppy shaped reflectors.In class we have got apple computers and wobble stools witch is really fun to sit on.In maths we have been doing BODMAS which is exciting and in literacy we have been doing a story about a child getting evacuated and thats really fun too.

 

MB:
Welcome to Ysgol y Ddraig this is only week one in the new school and its been filled with really fun activities. I still cant get used to climbing stairs but before we moved in we got a tour of the school we got to bring slippers in because we don’t want our brand new carpet and since we have slippers it is lush because we have got underfloor heating #cosy. This week has been amazing we have played maths and literacy and welsh games in maths we have been learning about perimeter, area, angels, algebra and BODMAS. In literacy we have been learning about really good connectives and on Thursday the 10th of November Dosbath Carfilli wrote a story about an Evacue’s problems when they got to there foster parents and some stories were a little bit dark. And we have been playing a connectives game boys v girls at 1st break DJ and CU have been selling fruit tuck to children who bring in 20p so the teachers know that the children in ysgol y ddraig are having a healthy snack because we are a healthy eating school and also this week AL and EP are selling poppys snap bands and wrist bands. We have had reverend Hibbard in to tell us a story out of the bible and we have also had our very first stars assembly and LJ earned the lunch time award and that rounds up our first week in our new school in Ysgol Y Ddraig by MB.

 

Sounds like they have had lots of fun in the new building and can’t wait to explore new opportunities in school.

Day 1 at our new Dragons Den!

Today marked the day that all of the pupils and staff of Ysgol Y Ddraig had been looking forward to for over a year and a half. We finally opened the doors to our brand new school!

Lots of excited faces packed the school playgrounds in anticipation of seeing their new classroom.

Then they got to open their very own classroom!

The children then got to spend time in their new classrooms with their teachers.

The children got to a take a tour of the very big school! Exploring all the new rooms and areas.

Then it was time for assembly where we all got together for the very first time to celebrate Day 1 of our new school.

We even got to use the new technology in our classrooms, using our promethean smart boards and Apple Macs.

We then headed to the hall for some lunch!

Our head boy and girl even vlogged their whole day at school!

We love our new school!

 

What’s going on in Dosbarth Teifi?

This week we take a look at Dosbarth Teifi! They have been up to a lot recently, let’s take a look at what exciting things they have been up to.

This week we have been up to a lot including visiting Atlantic College. While there we got to take part in some team building games, we used different techniques to solve lots of challenges, all while becoming a better team.

Meanwhile inside the classroom we have focused our learning on our maths. We have become so good at it recently that we even came out in front of the class to describe how to multiply or divide by 10 or 100 using decimals.

We have also been very lucky to have some visitors come into school. We have had some student teachers from Cardiff Met University come into class and help us create classroom based projects. One of the projects this week was to create dream catchers using different materials in school. We had so much fun making them and can’t wait for the next project.

Thanks for reading the blog!

We hope you enjoyed reading about Dosbarth Teifi.

What’s going on in Dosbarth Hafren

This week we take a look at Dosbarth Hafren! They have been up to so much recently with lots of roarsome experiences!

This week we had a special visitor, PC Pernell. He came into our classroom to discuss drugs. He asked us about what we knew about drugs and staying safe. We played different games to find out more about drugs and the dangers that are involved.

Nick Toulson came in to talk about our new school building, we took part in a construction workshop and got to find out a little bit more about the building and how its being made.

We also had a roarsome trip to Cardiff Bay. We got to take part in the Wondercrump workshop, which involved us making up imaginary words and giving them a definition as well as touring the Wondercrump museum which had all things Roald Dahl inside including giant peaches, monkey eating giants and lunch absorbing vitamin D!

Come back soon to find out what roarsome things another class is getting up to in Ysgol Y Ddraig!

Thanks for reading!

From

The Media Team