Building Boats in Cedar!

This week in Design and Technology, the children of Cedar have been deeply engrossed in designing and making their own boats. The children had to work in pairs and found they had to adapt their plans as they went to overcome obstacles. Alex and Olivia said they added a sail to their boat "so the wind can blow it really fast".Whilst Naleli and Adi said "we put tubes under ours so it moves smoother". The final products were well constructed and they all put a lot of effort in. The children tested their boats yesterday afternoon, racing them in the large paddling pool to much cheering and encouragement.

Star writer

Congratulations to Maisy for winning star writer this week. Maisy has worked hard on her writing and is gaining in confidence, using more and more descriptive techniques to extend her writing. This week in Big Write she has been writing about the house Hansel and Gretel find in the enchanted forest. She has also been using our 'quills' and ink to mimic the writing from Shakespearean times. Great work Maisy!

Year One visit Discover Centre

On Friday, Year One visited the Discover Centre in Stratford. Discover’s overarching mission is to spark children and adults’ imagination, curiosity and creativity in a magical and stimulating environment. Enabling them to explore their imaginations and utilise this in their writing and play. First, the children listened to an interactive story told by the team and then the children were able to explore the workshop. There were different interactive areas all designed to enhance children's play and evoke imagination. The areas included an enchanted forest, a magic cave, a dress up area, puppet show, art and craft area, space ship, indoor and outdoor playground. Towards the end of our trip, the children came together and using puppets, created their own class story about the character 'Toothless Spike' the dragon and his friends. Through their exploration of the different aspects of stories within the Discover Centre, they recognised the importance of characters, settings, story openers and storylines. The children thoroughly enjoyed the trip and didn't want to leave!

Beginning the trip with an interactive story, dance and song.

The children exploring the enchanted forest- made up of props from various tales which the children had fun trying to guess the stories.

Sitting in the story tellers chair.

Exploring characters through costumes and role play- superheroes, monsters, insects, fish, fairies, mermaids- all you could think of!

Making puppets in the craft area.

Exploring the spaceship.

"I want to be a superhero and I'm going to whizz off to space!" Oliver.

The puppet show!

"This is screechy parrot and he talks like this. Come watch my puppet show, roll up, roll up! I've got a grisly lion too" Rashid.

The indoor playground.

Outdoor fun on the space rockets and pirate ships.

"I got to the top of the spaceship!" Polina

Finishing with the creation of a story about 'Toothless Spike' the dragon.

"I think he can breathe out flames of fire" James

"He has glittery black scales" Florence.

Cedar visit tescos

We had a fantastic time at tescos today. We learnt all about the food groups and hunted for different coloured fruit and vegetables. Then we looked at added and natural sugar in food. We were surprised to find out a can of Coke contains 7 sugar cubes and some cereals contain many more. Finally we tried some healthy snacks and made our own muesli.

If you want to download the sugar app which tells you how much sugar is in all foods by scanning the bar codes, the information is in the bags your child brought home. 

Star Writer

Congratulations to Sophia, this weeks star writer! Sophia used lots of adjectives in her work in order to describe the house Hansel and Gretel found in the enchanted forest. Her house was made of gingerbread and was covered in candy. Great writing, Sophia!

Cherry at Tesco

The children in year 2 had a fabulous time visiting Tesco Gallows Corner today and yesterday.

They were given a challenge to hunt for fruit and vegetables of different colours on the shop floor; many children found produce they had never heard of before! 

We then had a detailed discussion about added sugars in our foods. The children were shocked at the amount of sugar in a can of Coke and other foods they regularly consume including cereals. 

Here are some of the responses to their new found knowledge: 

"I can't believe tomato sauce has that much sugar!" Charlie Marshall

"Frosties have too much sugar in for breakfast!" Kaden Nicol

"I thought shredded wheat was low, that's good." Leah Joyce. 

Finally, we went upstairs to eat some healthy snacks and made our own muesli! 

Although the walk in the rain wasn't desirable we still managed put a positive spin on the elements by singing our music festival song "Raindrops keep falling on my head!" What a great end to the trip! 

Wednesday's group