Cedar star writer is.....

Aimee Borrell! Congratulations Aimee on a fantastic piece of diary writing.

The Smartie Challenge in Cedar!

Pupils in Cedar Class have been engaging with their data handling learning with big grins this week. The class were asked to record the frequency of colours within a party size box of smarties. So what was it that created the wide smiles:

Could it be their grasp of organising raw data into tally charts? 

Could it be their pride as they transfer this into pictograms? 

Or...could it be the delight of eating the smarties after the data is collected?

Whichever way we have had great fun in Maths!

Festive snowflakes

Children in Pine class began to get into the festive spirit this afternoon as they made paper snowflakes during their independent learning time. This really tested their motor skills as they had to carefully cut out patterns in the paper - which can be more difficult than it sounds, particularly as when folded up the paper is quite thick. They then unfolded the paper to reveal their designs. Some of them were so engaged with the activity that they made multiple snowflakes to take home and put up as decorations!

Materials

During the Autumn term, the children in year one have been busy learning about different materials. They have distinguished between an object and the material from which it is made. They have had to identify and name a variety of everyday materials, including wood, plastic, glass, metal, water and rock.

Throughout the term they have enjoyed several activities investigating and describing the simple properties of materials using a range of forced alternatives e.g.  stretchy/stiff, shiny/dull, rough/smooth, opaque/transparent. 

To conclude this topic we have set up an enhancement in the classroom to encourage the children to sort the objects that are hidden and to place them in the labelled boxes.

Winter artwork

No wonder Evie looks so pleased with herself. Look at the fantastic picture she has created using the art programme on the computer. She started by using the fill icon to create a dark background and then used various tools to create the winter scene. Good job, Evie!

Seasonal Changes

In year one, we have been observing seasonal changes and the weather associated with different seasons. Wrapped up in our coats, wearing our hats and gloves we went for a walk around the school to observe how the season has been changing from Autumn into Winter. During our walk we collected lots of leaves and twigs to creature structures and artwork on our return.

Chloe led a group of children with the great idea of making the alphabet out of twigs. Another group decided to decorated the reading den with an arrangement of leaves.

I wonder what differences we will notice over the coming weeks!

Cedars Smarties pictograms

Cedar have been using smarties ( not to eat ) but to make graphs and pictograms. First they had to make a tally chart showing how many of each colour smarties they had. Then they put them onto a graph. We labelled the vertical axis number of smarties and the horizontal axis colours. Next we recorded how many of each colour smarties they had. Finally we could eat them. Yum!

Maths challenges

Some year 2 children were challenged to solve a mathematical problem using addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. They found it difficult at first but through discussing ideas with their partner they eventually solved the problem. Well Done!!

done,

 

Cedar star writers

Well done to the writing efforts in Cedar class!

This week Desmond superb writing has made the Star Writer board and we also celebrate the great effort from Jessica who featured in the newsletter last week. Both have worked very hard to include various verbs and more adventurous descriptive language in their writing.

Fabulous effort Desmond and Jessica! 

Socks multiplication

In Year One children are learning some multiplications. Today they paired up lots of (clean!) socks and practised counting up in multiples of two. They seemed to enjoy doing such a hands-on, practical activity in maths and most of them were able to say how many socks they had altogether without having to count them all individually.

They also discussed other things that occur in pairs, coming up with great examples including eyes, ears, feet, hands, arms and legs. Can you think of anything else?

Happy Assembly

Congratulations to Sonia, Charlie, Abena, Elis,Olivia, Harry, Tommy and Elinga for making their teachers extremely happy this year. Well done Superstars!

Great Fire of London workshops Year 2

Year 2 enjoyed their drama workshops about The Great Fire of London. They had to act out scenes from the Pudding Lane fire and move around like the roaring flames. They even interviewed 'Thomas Bloodworth' who was the mayor during the Great Fire of London. 

 

Libby Northwood; Star writer.

Well done Libby for being this weeks Star writer in Cherry. Your diary entry as Samuel Pepys was fabulous with a great use of the past tense. You wrote about what you could see, hear, feel and smell to create an emotive piece of writing.

Making Diwali lamps - Winter Festivals

Year One have been studying Diwali as part of their Celebrations topic. They have learnt the story of the Ramayana, a Hindu epic about Prince Rama, his wife Sita and an evil ten-headed demon called Ravana. Hindus celebrate Diwali, the Festival of Lights, by lighting small lamps known as Divas.

Children in Pine Class today had the chance to make their own Diwali lamps out of clay. The children are used to making models from play dough, but clay is a very different material and a lot of them were surprised by how much harder it was to shape. It definitely worked the muscles in their hands! 

They deorated their lamps with colourful beads and sequins. The end results were very impressive, and everyone is looking forward to the clay fully drying so they can take their creations home.