Pine class go on a minibeast hunt

Last week, Pine class went outside on a minibeast hunt. Armed with magnifying glasses and bug containers, they headed to the special ‘minibeast hotel’ areas in the school playground. 

After a discussion of the dos and don’ts of minibeast hunting (DO be gentle when picking up any minibeasts, DON’T squash them!), the children carefully began searching underneath logs and amongst the long grasses for creepy crawlies.

 They discovered that lots of minibeasts like to live in damp, dark places such as below rotting logs and buried down in the soil. The most common minibeasts they discovered were centipedes and woodlice, which were very interesting to look at with the magnifying glasses as close up the children could see their many wriggly legs.

There were also lots of slimy slugs and worms, which some children were brave enough to pick up!  They even caught a spider in one of the bug containers.

 The highlight of the minibeast hunt, however, wasn’t a minibeast at all. The children were very excited to find a big toad hiding under one of the logs by the minibeast hotel. It was very well-camouflaged and at a first glance just looked like a lump of soil. 

After examining it with the magnifying glass and looking at its bumpy skin, the children decided to release the toad next to the school pond. It promptly swam away and hid in the undergrowth, no doubt waiting until the children returned to class before coming out to snack on some delicious minbeasts!

Learning Challenge Project work in Cedar

Some brilliant learning challenge work completed by Isabelle, Jessica S and Brooke studying the life and work of Georgia O'Keefe. The girls had quite clearly demonstrated resourcefulness in their use of a range of sources to research Year Two's famous artist.

Isabelle also continued to record her findings on Bear Grylls and wrote out beautifully our Continents poem shared with those of you who were able to attend the Cedar and Cherry Sharing Assembly a few weeks back!

Great fun to read and look through!

Help needed please year 2 parents.

Our science topic after half term is materials and we want to set up a material laboratory outside ( lab coats have been ordered) and investigate lots of different materials. So can you please start collecting plastic bottles of various sizes, wood, cardboard, metal, carpet, fabric, stones, sponge and any other materials you can think of. We look forward to showing you some of our materials work soon.

Cedar Star Writer

Well done to Jessica who received this week's Star Writer certificate!

Following our visit from a Sculpturer last week, Jessica remembered to start a new line for each new instruction when writing about How to Construct a Dome Sculpture.

Jessica also responded well to verbal feedback and is beginning to experiment with adverbs in her independent writing!

Year One Make Pancakes!

Year One were lucky enough to have the chance to make pancakes this week.

We were all chefs for the afternoon and helped Mr Borrell make the pancake batter - he used eggs, flour and milk.

We each had a turn of flipping a pancake. We were very careful of the hot pans and tried really hard to flip them like Mr Borrell to make sure we didn't get any pancakes stuck to the ceiling!

Then to continue the learning we have been doing about taste, we explored lots of different tastes by putting various toppings on our pancakes.

These included sweet, juicy raspberries which were very popular but we also tried some bitter citrus tastes. Some of us liked the taste of the lemon, but Elinga thought it was a little too sour and pulled a very funny face!

Year One Shape Activity

In Year One we have been learning about the properties of 2-D shapes. We learned how to count the number of sides and corners a shape has, and learned about how to spot whether a shape has parallel lines and right angles.

We used all this knowledge to sort shapes using Venn diagrams.

When we were in Reception we learned a lot about circles, triangles, squares and rectangles... Now we are learning to remember how many sides pentagons, hexagons, heptagons and octagons have!

Conner Holloway - star writer!

Conner is Mulberry's Star Writer this week after producing a fantastic recount of our school trip to Barleylands. He really challenged himself to use capital letters and full stops and produced an accurately punctuated piece of work. Well done Conner!

Cedar's 3D shape challenge

Hexagon group were challenged to make 3D shapes out of straws. They showed great reciprocity talking through ideas of how they were going to make the shapes. They spoke about how many vertices, edges and faces each shape had.

Learning Challenge - Why, How & What

Why do we have a Learning Challenge?

• Foster love of learning - We believe that it is a vital way to foster a sense of inquiry in our children, to develop a curiosity about the world and to take pleasure in learning something new.
• Cultural entitlement - We believe that the our Broadford pupils are entitled to a wide range of cultural opportunities.
• Parental support - We believe that it is important for us to provide guidance for parents on how the children's learning can be extended at home.
• Celebration - We believe that we should be celebrating the work and projects that children choose to do in their own time.
• Challenge - We believe that we should offer enrichment that provides challenge for all learners (basic, advanced and deep understanding)

How does it work?

• Half termly - there is a new challenge each half term focusing on either an aspect of the curriculum being taught or an enquiry question e.g. 'Who is the greatest woman of all time?'
• Slow learning - because we always have high expectations for their work, it is anticipated that the children will take six weeks to complete the activities.
• Pupil choice - children can choose how they present their learning challenge outcomes to their teacher or class.

What do they have to do?

	Poem	Painting
Basic	Learn it off by heart	Find out 10 facts about the painting/artist
	Find another poem by the poet	Produce a collage of other paintings by the artist
Advanced	Create a performance as part of a pair/group	Draw a picture in similar style
	Write a short biography about the poet	Transform the medium of the painting: use collage instead of painting
Deep	Write your own poem inspired by the topic	Use the image as a stimulus for 100WC
	Compare and contrast two poems by the poet	Describe what the painting: what it represents, how it makes you feel, what it is based on

	Person	Composer
Basic	Draw a portrait of the person	Listen to a piece of music
	Produce a timeline of their life	Identify the instruments.
Advanced	Produce a poster to advertise their achievements	Research the life of the composer.
	Write a letter asking them about their life	Attempt to recreate the piece of music
Deep	Explain how the world would be without this person	A mind map of different emotions you feel at various points in the piece
	Give five reasons for and against why they should be in ‘The Hall of Fame’	Produce a piece of art/collage based on how the music makes you feel.

Learning Challenge - Year 2 Autumn 2

Poem: London's Burning!

London’s burning, London’s burning.
Fetch the engines, fetch the engines.
Fire fire, Fire Fire!
Pour on water, pour on water.
London’s burning, London’s burning.

Painting:Big Ben Cityscape (by Kay Crain)

http://www.kaycrain.com/ART/Landscapes.html

	Poem	Painting
Basic	Learn it off by heart	Find out 10 facts about the painting/artist
	Write the poem out in your best handwriting	Produce a collage of other paintings by the artist
Advanced	Create a performance as part of a pair/group	Draw a picture in similar style
	Find another poem about fire	Transform the medium of the painting: use collage instead of painting
Deep	Write your own poem inspired by the topic	Use the image as a stimulus for 100WC
	Draw a picture inspired by the painting	Describe what the painting: what it represents, how it makes you feel, what it is based on

	Person	Composer
Basic	Draw a portrait of the person	Listen to a piece of music
	Produce a timeline of their life	Identify the instruments.
Advanced	Produce a poster to advertise their achievements	Research the life of the composer.
	Write a letter asking them about their life	Attempt to recreate the piece of music
Deep	Explain how the world would be without this person	A mind map of different emotions you feel at various points in the piece
	Give five reasons for and against why they should be in ‘The Hall of Fame’	Produce a piece of art/collage based on how the music makes you feel.

Composer: Vaughan Williams - 'London Symphony'

Person: Samuel Pepys