Summer Term 1 - Week 1

We have had an ''egg'citing start to the new term with the introduction of a chicken life-cycle project (following our butterfly project last term). We have 7 eggs (from Mr Van der Leeuw's chickens) in an incubator and will be counting down the days until they hatch. The children have been learning about the different stages using an app on the iPad to see what is happening inside the eggs.

Other news…

There was an opportunity to create butterfly sun catchers which have been put up to decorate the classroom.

We have been busy planting and repotting vegetables in our garden and we have also noticed how much our onions and garlic have grown.

There was a lot of activity in the Wild Area, where some children discovered a newt and a number of interesting minibeasts, which we researched later.

Spring Term 2 - Week 6

It has been a jam-packed end-of-term round up, with lots of exciting events, culminating in the perfect timing of our Painted Lady butterflies hatching and being released into the wild – a true sign of new life at Easter!

The children have been learning about the Christian celebration of Easter and how the story is told in the Bible. This week we have also enjoyed decorating and rolling eggs, planting wildflower seeds and taking part in an Easter egg hunt as a special treat. The children had to work together to solve and find clues, which they had to write down to find the location of some Easter eggs.

Lastly, the children witnessed our butterflies hatching (which we have observed as part of a life-cycle project from tiny caterpillars).

We hope you all have a wonderful Easter break!

Spring Term 2 - Week 5

We’ve been continuing our interest in life-cycles this week with our chrysalides fully formed and in their new location ready to emerge as butterflies soon. The children have been writing about their knowledge of the changes that occur, which will be reinforced again after Easter as we start our chicken life-cycle project.

Thank you again to Mrs Lowndes for her continued support reinforcing maths mastery in number. The children have enjoyed and subsequently benefited from the focussed teaching groups she has been a part of and this has been apparent in the confidence the children have shown when explaining their understanding.  

We also enjoyed an Easter activity with Reverent Richard from St. Mary’s Church this week. The artwork will contribute to a larger display in the church for all to see. We will be learning more about the Christian celebration next week.

Spring Term 2 - Week 4

Following on from our Octonauts project, the children have been creating storyboards as a prerequisite to animating a short video using stop-motion technology. The children were taught how to carefully position props on a small set and used an app on an iPad to create motion that brought their animations to life.

Other news…

We have been excitedly observing the growth and changes to our caterpillars, which are now almost all chrysalides. Next week we will remove them from their current housing into a net in anticipation of the next process of metamorphosis as they hatch into butterflies. We will then release them into the wild area before the end of term.

Spring Term 2 - Week 3

This week there has been a lot or interest in the Octonauts project. The children have been busy finding out about the characters and creating information sheets.

We have also been working with clay to create models of the Octonaut characters, which have been carefully painted ready for next week, where we will be learning about stop-motion animation.

Other interests…

We have been delighting in the wonders of nature with the observation of our fast-growing caterpillars, collecting hailstones after the storm and looking under a microscope at a Devil’s Coach Horse beetle. All of these interests have sparked conversations and stimulated questions to answer, often resulting in research in books to find out more!

Spring Term 2 - Week 2

This week we initiated a mini project linked to an interest in Octonauts. We have been learning about the characters and how they help to save animals and solve problems in the ocean. We will continue this over the next few weeks, working towards some stop-motion animation using models they will have created.

We have also been focussing on a few pirate themed stories that the children enjoy, which led to the theme for World Book Day. The children followed treasure maps and solved clues to look for some buried treasure in our wild area.

Caterpillars observation – We have started talking about Spring and the start of new life. We will be learning about life-cycles and started this off with the introduction of caterpillars. The children will be able to observe them grow and metamorphosise into butterflies, which will later be released into our wild area. This topic will continue next term in more depth with a focus on chicken life-cycles, developing eggs in an incubator in the classroom.

Finally, we have been planting bulbs for an up-and-coming special occasion!

Spring Term 2 - Week 1

Walnut Class started the new term with enthusiasm and excitement, talking about their holidays and time spent with families.

The children have been learning to get back into school routines and focussing on listening skills.  

The children have voted on ‘’toy shop’ for their new role-play area and have been learning about the value of different coins.

We have seen some good progress in mathematical language and understanding, referring to number facts and composition.

We have also been doing some still life watercolour painting of daffodils and discussing some of the early signs of spring.

Spring Term 1 - Week 6

What a busy and fun packed last week it's been! We launched this week with an introduction into STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) looking at various jobs and how science is used in many different ways. We set ourselves an engineering challenge, looking at bridges and the shapes that appear to give structure and support. This led to a number of tasks involving pasta, card and other materials to create bridges to support small vehicles. Lastly, we had a marble challenge to work in teams to build the longest marble run!

Other news…

We had fun learning about the moon and how astronauts have made lunar landings. We looked at the moon using google earth and then had the chance to see real moon rocks and fragments of asteroids!

Finally, we rounded the week off with our special treat, which was a slightly belated Lunar New Year celebration. The children helped to set up a Chinese banquet and cooked a stir fry with crispy seaweed, prawn crackers and fortune cookies. They also gave lucky envelopes to each other. What a lovely end to the term!

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Spring Term 1 - Week 5

This week has flown by, with a continuation of the Lunar New Year Theme. The children have been working on different movements in their PE lessons this term, building up to a sequence linked to Dragon dancing. This week we enjoyed putting the various elements together to show each other. They also used their imaginations to represent animals of the Chinese Zodiac.

Other news…

There has been a surge of enthusiasm in our phonics sessions, with lots of fantastic writing from everyone. The children’s confidence in blending and reading is also evident and we will be building on this motivation next term.

Walnut Class have been working hard to earn the last few pairs of pants so that they can have another treat. We are aiming for a Chinese Banquet to finish the term’s Lunar celebrations.

Spring Term 1 - Week 4

It has been another eventful week in Walnut Class, with guest appearances from two of the children’s grandmothers stepping up to do some teaching! Special thanks to them both for their enthusiasm and expertise. The children were having fun doing some maths activities at the beginning of the week and then learning more about Chinese customs and celebrations at the end of the week.

The class have also been busy writing Chinese messages, making lucky envelopes to share with their classmates and continuing craft activities linked to the Lunar Festival. We enjoyed rehearsing a dragon dance in PE too!

Spring Term 1 - Week 3

We have been continuing the theme of Lunar New Year celebrations and Walnut class have been making puppets after watching a shadow puppet show about the animals in the Chinese Zodiac. The children have enjoyed learning about some of the Chinese customs and folk stories, including the story of Nian the monster!

Other news…

We have also ben talking about silhouettes and noticing thee beautiful sunrises and sunsets at this time of year. We were inspired to do some art work using pastels to blend colours and represent a winter sunset.

We also spent an afternoon sharing cake and a story with our buddies after voting for this special treat for earning 10 more pairs of pants!

Spring Term 1 - Week 2

Walnut Class have kicked off this year with the introduction to Lunar New Year. We have been learning about Chinese customs and celebrations and have converted our role-play are into a Chinese Restaurant.

We have also been joining in with the Big Bird Watch and have discovered a Robin’s nest in our Mud Kitchen.

Finally, the class have just received their final pair of pants for the washing line and voted to have cake and a story with their buddies next week.

Autumn Term 2 - Week 6

Walnut Class amazed us with their fantastic performances on Monday and Tuesday this week. The children have worked so hard to remember their lines and when to come on to narrate their part of the story. They were so confident on the big stage and had smiles on their faces as they participated. There was also some wonderful artwork that was produced for the backdrop scenes and lovely singing too – well done to you all, we are very proud of you!

Other news…

The children have been continuing to take part in festive activities such as creating Christmas paperchains to decorate the classroom. There was a challenge to beat Mrs Ward’s class for the longest paperchain and we won!

We were also trying out some new writing tablets to practise our letters and drawing, which have proved very popular (not dissimilar to old-fashioned chalk boards!)  

Autumn Term 2 - Week 5

Christmas is in full swing and the children have been busily decorating the classroom and Christmas role-play home. The children each created their own advent calendar and have been opening them each day to see what is inside (coupled with receiving a Smartie as an extra treat!)

The children have also been rehearsing hard for the play performance next week and have blown Mr Poote away with their confidence and delivery of their lines. 

The class also earned a special treat for collecting all the gems in the jar. Children can receive a gem for solving their problems using words. The vote was to toast marshmallows on a fire and have a hot chocolate – yummy!

Autumn Term 2 - Week 4

Nativity play rehearsals are in full swing and the children are already rising to the occasion! The children have been learning their words and practising the songs daily. We always like to set the bar high, so the determination to deliver their lines confidently and without prompting is fantastic. The children are improving every time they get on the stage and are also adapting well to the changes in routines.

Other news…

Thanks to one of our parents, we had the chance to look at and burn some real frankincense, which we found interesting.

The children have also been busy creating advent calendars ready for the countdown to Christmas. Each day, the children will be offered a ‘Smartie’ once they have opened their calendar door.

Lastly, the class have collected all of the gems in the jar for solving problems using their words. This means we are going to have a special treat (toasting marshmallows on a fire and having a hot chocolate) next Friday. Well done Walnut Class!      

Autumn Term 2 - Week 3

It has been a busy week, with lots of visitors to the class! We were really impressed with the way children were confident to talk about their learning environment and the things they do at school. It was noted how well the children managed to be calm, when they needed to, especially after the heavy snowfall.

Other news - We had fun during Forest School, looking for animal tracks and creating Mandalas in the snow using natural resources. The class also delighted in throwing snowballs at Mr Poote and having a run around to keep warm!

We also enjoyed observing the effects of melting snow and ice and did an experiment to predict what would happen overnight. We also looked at our wormery to see how the worms that we collected had created tunnels.

Finally, we have been reading lots of versions of the Nativity story to help the children to understand their characters and their involvement in the play. We have been busy trying to formulate part of the dialogue by asking children what the cahacters might say - watch this space!

Autumn Term 2 - Week 2

This week we have been focussing on artwork linked to Remembrance Day. The children took part in a minutes's silence with the rest of the school on Monday and we were proud to see how respectful they all were during the service. The children later created watercolour and 'splatter art' of poppies, which will be displayed later in the term.

Other news - We have created a wormery and will be observing the wonder of worms and all that they do. Some children helped find the resources needed (including worms) and we also discovered a family of Irish Yellow slugs (we though that they were Leopard Slugs) and their eggs!

Autumn Term 2 - Week 1

It has been lovely to see everyone after the half term break and despite the inevitable few wobbles, the children have been excited to be back.

Some of this shortened week has been about getting back into school timings and routines, but in addition to the usual timetable, we have been talking about various celebrations and customs. We have been learning about Bon fire night and Diwali and looking at some of the similarities between activities people take part in. The children have been creating firework art and had a go at producing rangoli patterns.

Other news - we have been thinking of ideas for a change of role play area and the children used tally charts to find out that a cafe was the most popular suggestion. The children have started to resource their new space and decorate it with cafe paraphernalia!

Please take a look at our class page for more photos...