Next Half Term

This year the children have really been enjoying taking trips to our school library and reading some brilliant books with Miss Sparks. It is clear through their role play and the stories they have been creating in class that they are developing a love of reading. To encourage this further our topic next half term is 'Stories', the children will explore fantasy settings, learn to use adjectives to bring characters to life and much more!

To add even more excitement to our topic a trip has been book to Discover Story Centre. The children will be able to explore a secret cave, make a spoon puppet, have a tea party, find the giant's legs and even slide down a magical tower! The aim off all of this is to develop the children's imagination and let them experience the magical world of stories in an interactive way.

Have a look at the Story Centre website to see some activities we will be taking part in: http://www.discover.org.uk/


Why not get the children to write about or draw a picture from their favourite story this half term so we can see what stories they would be interested to study.

Class Challenges

Thank you to the parents and grandparents who were able to come into school and join the Key Stage One children in their class today. We hope you enjoyed your visit.

Here are some pictures of challenges we have been completing today:

Sienna's Instructions

Blogging is proving to be a great incentive for the children to write. After making a beautiful squirrel using hama beads, Sienna has typed her own instructions to explain how she made this.

First I got the shape off the scrirall. Then i lookt fo the corect culers and i startid to mace it. I copeed the maguzeen.Then i arsct my mum if she can iyan it for me. Sienna (aged 6)

Amazing Dancers

 

Ellie-Jo, Ruby and Alisha have won a rather impressive dancing trophy after taking part in a competition. They performed the following dances on stage; Good Ship Lollypop, Follow the Leader, Little White Ducks, Jelly Tasting and Phone as and Fern. The girls must really enjoy their dancing as they decided to perform five dances instead of the compulsory three! Well done to all three girls for the hard work they put in to learn their dances.

Home Made Items

Some children have had another busy weekend of making interesting items. Inspired by his love of gardening club William made a flowerpot using tissue paper and pencils, Caitlin used card and sequins to create a beautiful owl book mark and Georgia managed to create her own candle!

We are encouraging children to be resourceful in class. In terms of lessons this might mean they explore ideas using their imagination, ask thoughtful questions and are able to be independent and find things in the class to help them learn. These creations are a good example of children being resourceful and using their imagination.

Right Angle Monsters

Cedar class have been helping the right angle monsters find some food. The monsters can only eat shapes that have one or more right angles.

Here are some photographs of us trying to feed our monsters:

 

After the monsters had eaten their food we noticed that there were right angles all around us.

 

Here are our photographs of the different places we spotted right angles in our outdoor learning area:

 

 

Investigating Victorian Toys

Cedar Class have spent an exciting afternoon finding out about the replica Victorian toys we have in school. Some of the toys were easy to use and others were more challenging. Using our resilience we soon worked out how to play with the toys.

 

The ball and cup was difficult at first, but with practise we soon managed to catch the ball in the cup.

 

The whip and top was a real challenge. Winding the whip around the top took a lot of concentration.

 

The jumping clown was one of the easiest toy to play with. To make the clown jump all  you need to do is pull the string.

We all loved playing with the Trapeze Clown. We really enjoyed watching  the clown flip over. We found out that the harder you squeezed the sticks together the more the clown flipped over.

Superheroes

Mulberry class have decided to become Superheroes!
What will our Superhero name be? What will our super powers be? What Superhero costume will we wear?

MEASURING 

First we had to measure ourselves so that our costmes will fit. This is tricky so we worked with a partner. We used string or paper strips and cut them to the correct length. Then we measured them using rulers.

DESIGNING

Next we designed our capes and masks. We had to think about the colours, patterns and logos.

 



 

 

 

MAKING

Making them is fun! We are using bin bags for the capes and different materials to decorate them with.



 

OUR FINISHED COSTUMES!

 

Now we are real Superheroes!!

 

 

 

 

 







Fun Experiments To Try At Home

In science lessons at school the children have been learning about forces. To begin with we found out how pushes and pulls move objects and used play dough to learn forces can sometimes change the shape of objects. Then we investigated invisible forces by flying kites we had made, experimenting with magnets, using guttering to observe the affects of gravity, and observing how friction created by different surfaces affects the speed of a toy car.

Here is a link to some science experiments you might like to try at home: http://kids.nationalgeographic.co.uk/kids/activities/funscience/

We discovered that even when we stood still the force of the wind would move our kites.

We found out which magnets were strongest by investigating how many paper clips we could pick up.

The force of some magnets was so great we could move the paperclip through the plastic container!

Pushing and pulling can change the shape of some objects.

We used syringes to try and squirt water up the guttering. However, we soon discovered this was an impossible task as gravity pulled the water back down.

Pine Class Celebrate 100% Attendance!

Pine class have had an extra special afternoon today because we managed to score 100% attendance this week. Every single child has been at school from Monday to Friday, and as a reward for the great effort Mr Drakes supplied us with delicious cupcakes!

Unfortunately Miss Tynan and Mrs Corbett were too busy celebrating our fantastic attendance and eating cakes to photograph the event, however the children will be able to tell you how excited they were when they heard the good news in assembly this morning. We have decided we would like this to be a regular Friday event so keep up the good work Pine class.

Storytelling

Inspired by the fantastic story tellers that came to visit EYFS and Key Stage 1 classes the children have been busy developing and performing their own stories. They have independently built stages, found props, wrote notes to help them remember the story and set up chairs for an audience to view their show.

In one story the children worked collaboratively to tell a story about an evil wizard who was creating a spell to make the lovely mermaid explode. Fortunately there was a brave policeman on hand to control the wizard and the story had a happy ending!