Elfie McMagic Continues To Wreak Havoc!

Elfie McMgaic has had a busy week in Cherry class! He has been the topic of all conversation recently so, for those of you wondering, here are some snippets of his latest activity:

• He has stolen to fruit
• He tried to escape by reindeer but was caught on the ceiling
• He destroyed the construction area and everything in it
• He has eaten the teachers chocolates
• He tried to escape a second time, this time out of the window
• He wrote a letter of confession to the class

Although Miss Estall has found his antics highly undesirable, the children seem to take great satisfaction in his mischief....So much so that there has been a sudden influx of children arriving early to School!

 

Thank You!

A huge thank you to all that came along to see the wonderful children perform in our Christmas show. The children absolutely loved showcasing their singing and acting talents to you and it was lovely to see such a vast audience on the day.

 

A particular thank you for providing the children with the appropriate clothing and for the support given at home when learning lines. I'm sure you'll agree, they all looked and sounded amazing!

 

It seems we may even have some future Oscar winners amongst us due to their uncanny portrayals of Mrs Nicholls, Mr Drakes and Mr Martin!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Year 2 Star Writers

Leanne and Elliot are our wonderful Star Writers this week and boy do they deserve it!

They have both produced phenomenal stories which included a number of noun phrases and even exclamations! Not only this, they worked hard on their presentation and even took the time to proof read their work to check for clarity.

Being able to juggle all of those things in one piece of writing proves they truly are Star Writers!

 

 

Elvis the Elf gives Cedar a mission!

Wow! What an exciting day the children in Cedar have had! Elvis the class elf has been writing letters to the children in Cedar all week and in turn the children have been writing Elvis many replies asking him a range of questions! As a reward for all their fantastic questions, Elvis promised the children that if they wrote a letter to Santa he would deliver them to him personally! The children couldn't believe their luck, using the resources Elvis had prepared the children got to work! 

The children produced some fantastic letters, telling Santa why they were writing to him, what they would like him to bring them and why they deserve presents on Christmas Day. Some children even managed to include a rhetorical question to try to persuade Santa! 

The children were very excited when they posted their letters in the 'Elvis Mail' box - let's hope Santa enjoys reading them! 

Theo visits Cedar

Cedar were very lucky to have a festive visit from Theo the dog today! All the children enjoyed petting Theo, I think he enjoyed it too - they even gave him a doggy massage! The children then chose their favourite stories to read to Theo, they took it in turns to read in gentle but clear voices. 

Thank you very much for the visit Theo, see you soon! 

"Theo is dressed as Rudolph", Archie. 

"I'm going to read him Julia Donaldson because I think he will like it", Kiera T. 

Learning Challenge- Blake

What a fantastic learning challenge from Blake last week! Blake used his knowledge and understanding of Diwali celebrations to create an original Rangoli design, using coloured rice. Blake clearly went to a great deal of effort and Miss Hammond was thrilled with his results. Great work, Blake!

Did you know Rangoli is an art form native to India, in which patterns are created on the floor in living rooms or courtyards using materials such as coloured rice, dry flour, coloured sand or flower petals. It is usually made during Diwali, a festival related to Hinduism. Designs are passed from one generation to the next, keeping both the art form and the tradition alive.

The purpose of Rangoli is for decoration to add to a festival or celebration and it is thought to bring good luck. Rangoli designs can be simple geometric shapes, deity impressions, or flower and petal shapes.

"I used lots of bright colours to make it stand out well!" Blake

Pine Class Trip, St Andrew's Church, Hornchurch

This morning, Pine Class visited Hornchurch to see a very special church- St. Andrew's. The children were very excited to see a church during Advent and explore all the things they have been learning about in class. St. Andrew's were very welcoming and lots of people had arrived to show the children around all the different areas and teach them about the church and the Nativity Story.

"We learned about the baby Jesus and how the wise men followed the star to see him be born in a manger" Katlyn

"We got to sit in the pews- they are very old" Giada

Did you know there has been a church on this site since at least 1163?  The tower contains 10 bells hung in a clockwise ring. The tenor bell dates from 1779. Over Christmas Day, the bells will be rung for up to 3 hours! Here the children discovered the difficulty or ringing those heavy bells. The children were excited to climb the bell tower steps to get to the top of the church.

"There used to be 8 bells, but now there are 10" Kanishka

"We all got to ring the bells- it almost lifted me off the floor!" Roberto

Next, the children learned about the lighting of candles for Advent and the church gift box collection. The children saw the model nativity scene and even a life size one!

"The red candle is lit on Christmas Day" Connie

Finally, the class got to look at the oldest Bible the church owns (over 100 years old!). They saw the changes the Bible has made over time and the different kinds of Bible we can buy today.

"It was so old the lady had to wear special white gloves to touch it so the pages wouldn't break" Temilola

Year 2 Star Writers

Sajida and Ruben are our brilliant Star Writers in Year 2 this week.
They have worked extremely hard to use their plans to create their new, adapted version of 'Little Red Riding Hood.'

They thought about who the characters would be, where it would be set, where the problem would occur, what the problem would be and who would help. These steps meant their stories had structure, resulting in Star Writing!

Instead of Little Red Riding Hood my character is Little Blue Bobby and instead of a wolf I've got a tiger that's hiding in the house in a golden meadow. Sajida                                       
                                                                                                                                                      
I liked creating this story, it's like what we do in Literacy and Language when we magpie ideas and the best words. Using the story bags made sure we didn't forget an important part.

 Ruben

Christmas Performance Reminder

Tomorrow, Year 1/2 are doing a dress rehearsal in preparation for the big day Tuesday. If you haven't already, please send the children in with the necessary clothes tomorrow.  

 

We are looking forward to seeing you all on Tuesday and can't wait to show off our singing and acting skills!

 

Many thanks.

 

 

KS1 Christmas Maths Challenge

Below is the final KS1 Maths Challenge of 2016. If you complete the Maths Challenge at home with your child they should give their answer to their class teacher. Well done to those children who have completed the Maths Challenge in the past, I look forward to seeing your continued success in 2017! If you have not completed it yet - why not give the Christmas special a go? 

Miss Rollin

Year 2 Spellings

It has come to our attention that there is a spelling mistake on the Year 2 Group 4 spellings. The correct spelling is: Sydney. Many apologies for this inconvenience. 

The Year 2 Team. 

This week in Maths....

Today, Pine class have been working together to help with answering maths problems. The children have been practising using their skills in adding and subtracting. They have learned the importance of checking what a number sentence says- paying particular attention to the symbol. They have been using numberlines to support them with finding the answers to the questions.

Here, the group worked together to find their answers to the questions but were also challenged with putting the cards on the right title card- more than 10, less than 10, 10.

The group worked together to find answers to subtraction and addition number sentences.

"When I got the answer, I had to find the right place to put the card" Blake

"If the answer is smaller than the starting number then it is always a take-away" Harry

"I used my bonds to 10 to help me work out the answers" Moyin

"If we are adding, we need to jump forwards on the numberline so the answer is getting bigger" Molly

Deck the halls!

The children in Year One have been getting into the festive spirit, enjoying their new activities and surroundings in the classroom and outdoors. The home corner has been decorated and the children have been enjoying dressing up our Christmas tree every morning when they get to school. We are sure we have seen a few elves and Christmas helpers popping up in class too!

Children have also been preparing their letters to Santa and posting them in the our Santa post box. We will make sure Santa reads every one!

"We have been writing letters to Father Christmas" Moyin

"Did you know Santa is also called Saint Nicholas?" Harry

"We've been opening the Advent calendar in class every day" Charlie

Sophie Daflon's fantastic work!

Year One- Learning Challenge

A big well done to Sophie Daflon, who completed this half term's Learning Challenge. Sophie created a poster all about Saint Nicolas, with lots of interesting facts. Keep up the great work Sophie!

                                  

'I love learning new things and I liked finding out all about Saint Nicolas. I discovered things that I didn't know before!' Sophie, Year 1

Wow, Christmas is here!

Christmas in Mulberry Class

The children were excited to walk into their classroom and see the transformation of the role play area and the writing area. It felt as though Christmas had come early! The children went straight in the role play area, acting out Christmas morning, while others wrote out and posted their wish list to Santa.

            

'I love Christmas! I love everything about it!' Bella, Year 1

'It is Christmas morning in here and we have just come into the living room and Santa has already been. He ate all the mince pies, but he left us lots of presents!' Freddie S- Year 1 

Bedtime Story Evening!

The children of Year One are very excited for this special evening. On Friday night, when they get changed into their pyjamas, they will not be going straight to bed... Instead, they will venture out in the dark and make their way back to school, where they will be greeted with hot chocolate and cookies, before settling down for some bedtime Christmas stories.

The event starts at 5:15pm and we will settle on the carpet for around 5.30pm. The evening will finish at 6:00pm, where we hope the children will leave feeling very Christmassy!

We can't wait to see you all there! 4 more sleeps!!!

            

Cherry Has Been Elfed!

Well, this has to be THE most exciting Christmas Miss Estall has ever had in Cherry class! For the very first time we have been sent our own Elf!

 

'Elfie McMagic' arrived on Thursday, he was discovered at the end of the day, hidden in the drawer with a dusting of glitter and a letter addressed to the class. He wrote about how this was his first deployment to a School and how he had been sent by Mr and Mrs Claus themselves! You can imagine the pure exhilaration we all felt!

 

The next day, all was going well, Miss Estall came to School to find Eflie McMagic peacefully resting on the shelf. She breathed a huge sigh of relief as many members of the class had told her about the mischief their elves had been causing at home.

She went to her usual Friday meeting and arrived back at class with the children. As the children led into class there were sudden huge gasps...This is when it emerged that Eflie McMagic wasn't as tidy as we thought! He was found surrounded by muddled up Rock Star sheets and a pencil in hand. To say we were astounded would be an understatement!

 

We are now all curiously and eagerly awaiting the coming weeks to see what else he will get up to... Watch this space!

 

 

 

To further get into the Christmas spirit that day, we decorated our class Christmas tree together.

 

Mathematician John!

John really has been a busy bee at home this week. He has challenged himself by writing out square numbers and their square roots beyond 100!

 

John explained that "4 x 4 is 16, so that means 4 is the square root of 16"

 

He proudly arrived at School with his list in the attempt to challenge Miss Estall and Mrs Ilott. (He might have even been slightly quicker at recalling them than the adults!)

 

What a super mathematician you are John! Keep up the fabulous work at home, as well as at School.

 

Year 2 Star Writers

Well done Dora and Polina; these girls are our brilliant Star Writers! This week, they magpied ideas from the famous story 'Little Red Riding Hood' to plan out their own version of the story. They used the story bags to support their planning and ensure structure in their story. Both girls used the headings: who, where, where next, problem, who helps, where last and feelings.

 

Next week we will be writing the story in full. I truly cannot wait to read them!

 

  

Year 1 Star Writer

Congratulations to Tilly Butler and Tyler Kelly, who both worked very hard on their writing this week. The children were asked to think about what they did to demonstrate reciprocity. Tyler and Tilly wrote about all the things they could do independently.

Great work Tilly and Tyler, keep it up!

KS1 watch Cinderella

KS1 were very lucky to be able to watch the pantomime Cinderella in school this morning. They watched eagerly as Cinderella transformed into a beautiful princess in order to go to the magical ball, they screamed 'he's behind you' when the ghost was sneaking up on buttons and they laughed hysterically at the ugly sisters.

"My favourite part was when the ghost chased Buttons." Florence Ayres 

"I loved it when the shoe fit on Cinderalla's foot". Ellie Wise

Cedar at Romford Market

Yesterday. the children of Cedar were lucky enough to visit the Romford Market for a cooking workshop.

The children were very excited when they boarded the bus into Romford. When they arrived they were amazed to see the big white marquee full of Christmas stalls. The children bustled to the back of the marquee where they were met by Mr Borrell who was raring to teach them all about decorating Christmas biscuits and cupcakes.

First, the children decorated their very own chef hat. Then they were free to decorate two Christmas biscuits and a Christmas cupcake. The children were very patient and precise when decorating their goodies and produced some wonderful (and tasty) designs!

"My Santa hat is going to be red, just like the real Santa," Lewis.