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