Easter
This week, we’ve been learning about how some Christians celebrate Easter. We’ve made Easter cards, printed spotty patterns on eggs, enjoyed catching floating eggs in the water tray and loved going on egg hunts in the garden.
In the playdough area, we used the dough and decorations to create our own Easter eggs and we also made little chicks using eyes and feathers.
We enjoyed tasting Hot Cross Buns at snack time and we spotted the important symbol of the cross on the top. Children also joined in with some some other traditional Easter themed activities including making Easter nests, rolling eggs and going on an egg hunt.
Outside, children have been noticing lots of changes in the garden. They loved looking for signs of spring using the clipboards and spotter sheets. They found leaves, buds, flowers, insects and heard birds singing. We talked about the changes in the weather and seasons.
In group time, we learnt a new letter – b for bear and b for bunny!
Help at home – Some of our older children are learning to hear the initial sounds in words. What can you find that begins with a ‘b’? You might find a ball, a biscuit, a badge or some butter.
For our younger children in yellow group, this might be a little tricky. You could enjoy singing a rhyme related to Easter such as ‘Chick, chick, chicken‘ or ‘Little Peter Rabbit‘.
We hope that you all have a lovely Easter holiday and enjoy some family time together. We’ll look forward to hearing all about your adventures when we return to Nursery on Monday 17 April.
Rabbits Don’t Lay Eggs
Rabbits Don’t Lay Eggs
This week, we’ve been reading Rabbits Don’t Lay Eggs by Paula Metcalf.
The story begins on a farm, with a rabbit named Rupert. All he wants is to be useful but unfortunately, he struggles to find anything he’s good at. Luckily, he soon finds an unexpected job on the farm.
Creation is our ‘word of the week’. We’ve been learning the definition – something that is made or created.
Come look at my creation!
The creation of new life, like lambs.
Maths
In Maths, we have been sorting objects by attributes.
They are sorted by colour.
They’re big and they’re small.
Those bears have scarves and they don’t.
Poetry Picnic
Each week we will be learning a new poem. We will recite this poem each day. By saying the poem out loud, we can focus on the sounds and rhythm of each word or line. We talk to the children about how this can help us become better readers. This week’s poem is called A Tiny Seed.
We talk about how a poem sometimes has rhyming words and sometimes doesn’t. Can your child tell you the rhyming words in this week’s poem? We also talk about how a poem can have a fast rhythm or a slow rhythm.
National Railway Museum
We had a wonderful time on our first school trip. The day began with toast and milk to set us up for an action packed train adventure.
In the museum…
It looks really posh in here!
I liked going under the train.
Look at those wheels! They’re gigantic.
The wheels are enormous.
Check out our amazing observational drawings.
We finished the week with lots of Easter themed activities. The egg rolling competition was a real highlight of the day!
Reminders and Dates
SWIMMING DATES- Summer 1
Rainbow Class- 19 Apr, 3 May, 17 May
Sunshine Class- 26 Apr, 10 May, 24 May
We know that Rainbow class missed a swimming session in Spring 2 due to the pool closure. This should be made up in Summer 2, which is a 7 week term.
Shakespeare Rocks-WOW!
We think you’ll agree, our performances of ‘Shakespeare Rocks’ were BRILLIANT! We are unbelievably proud of every super star who sang their heart out, performed incredibly and shone in their unique way. What a show! 3,4 children have certainly made some happy memories whilst rehearsing and performing this amazing play. Thankyou for all of your support. We hope you have a fantastic Easter.
A few pictures from rehearsals.
Post show costume pics.
Food Glorious Food
Children in year 5/6 have been making vegetable pasta bakes.
At home, discuss the techniques used in the lesson. Ask your children about the ‘bridge’ and ‘claw’ method. You could even add it to your weekly meal planning.
Science – working scientifically
John McAdams has been our scientist of focus this half term in KS1. McAdams made the first macadamised road. The road he invented was smooth, durable and had good drainage. We did our own experiments to investigate which road surface was best for cars.
For the first experiment, we pushed a toy car down a ramp to measure how far it would travel. We did a comparative test where we kept everything the same but changed one thing. We kept the car the same, the ramp, the ramp height and the person pushing the car. We tested the car on 3 surfaces; concrete, laminate and carpet. We found that the concrete was the best surface because it was smooth and the car travelled the furthest. The carpet was the worst surface because it was rough and soft. The car did not travel very far on the carpet.
We also tested different road surfaces for drainage. The road surfaces were large stones, small pebbles, sand and flour. We tested 4 road surfaces without water to see how easily the car could travel across. We then poured water onto each surface to see which road had the best drainage. In both tests, the road surface made of small pebbles was the best because the it was the least bumpy and has the best drainage due to the small gaps between the pebbles.
One child wrote ‘The worst road surface was flour because it was bumpy. When we poured water on it was sticky and the car didn’t move.’
We have really enjoyed our Science topic this half term
Living and Learning: being the same, being different
We have been talking about how we are the same and how we are different. It can be about how we look, what we like and how we feel. It’s important to celebrate our similarities and differences.
Help at home by discussing similarties and differences.
The Tiny Seed
The Tiny Seed
This week, we’ve been reading The Tiny Seed by Eric Carle.
Some of the children recognised the illustrations, knowing that the author also wrote The Very Hungry Caterpillar
The story follows the journey of a tiny seed, tracking its journey through the four seasons. It details the life cycle of a flowering plant. In our writing, we wrote what happened to the seed in each Season.
Our story linked to our discovery area and other non-fiction texts about planting and growing.
Miniscule is our ‘word of the week’. We’ve been learning that miniscule is even smaller than tiny!
Art; Printing
We’ve been using natural objects to print impressions into clay. Next week we’ll be using our clay stamps to print repeating patterns.
Maths
In Maths, we’ve been doubling! Ask your child explain how we find doubles.
When talking about doubles, we use the following sentence structure:
“4 is made of 2 and 2; Double 2 is 4”
***Home Challenge*** Ask your child to draw out and complete these doubling ladybirds. Can they use the above sentence structure to describe what they have shown?
Phonics
Spring 2 week 5 has been a review of phase 3 sounds. We’ve been reading longer words, words with s in the middle /z/ (like ‘visit’), words ending –s and words with –es at end /z/ (like ‘foxes’)
In the reading areas, we’ve challenged ourselves to be ‘tricky word detectives’ finding tricky words of the day in books and taking a photo of them on the iPad.
Challenge your child to be a tricky word detective at home too! How many different tricky words can they find in one book? Perhaps they could write them in a list.
Poetry Picnic
Each week we will be learning a new poem. We will recite this poem each day. By saying the poem out loud, we can focus on the sounds and rhythm of each word or line. We talk to the children about how this can help us become better readers. This week’s poem is called Hungry Birdies.
We talk about how a poem sometimes has rhyming words and sometimes doesn’t. Can your child tell you the rhyming words in this week’s poem? We also talk about how a poem can have a fast rhythm or a slow rhythm.
click here to watch us recite this week’s poem!
More pictures of our learning this week…
Class Assembly
Thank you to everyone who came to watch our Reception assembly. The children have been working hard to learn their lines, song and poem. It takes a lot of bravery to stand up in front of so many grown-ups and we are very proud of them all. We hope you enjoyed learning about our school day!
Reminders and Dates
Reception trip to The Railway Museum, York- 30.03.23 Please drop-off and collect your child at the usual times. You should now have replied to say whether your child needs a school packed lunch. Please remember that every child will need a suitable backpack that they are able to carry themselves throughout the day. Thank you.
Egg rolling competition- 31.03.23 We are going to do an egg rolling competition as part of our Easter celebrations next week. Please could your child bring a decorated, hard boiled egg on Friday 31st March. Thank you.
SWIMMING DATES- Summer 1
Rainbow Class- 19 Apr, 3 May, 17 May
Sunshine Class- 26 Apr, 10 May, 24 May
We know that Rainbow class missed a swimming session in Spring 2 due to the pool closure. This should be made up in Summer 2, which is a 7 week term.
Oliver’s Milkshake
We enjoyed reading ‘Oliver’s Milkshake’ this week, which is part of the same series of books as ‘Oliver’s Vegetables’ written by Vivien French. We found out about where milk comes from and learnt that milk is good for our teeth and bones.
As we drank our milk at snack time, we continued to talk about how to keep our bodies healthy and how to look after our teeth. We used toothbrushes in the sensory area to clean the dirty teeth and we listened to some songs all about how to brush our teeth. This song was our favourite!
We loved making some ‘milkshakes’ in the water tray and whisking the water to make it frothy.
Help at home – Talk to your child about looking after their teeth and why it’s important to brush them at least twice a day.
In maths, we’re learning about the number four. We looked at four counters in a five frame and noticed that there’s one space left. Outside, we tried to get four bean bags into the buckets. We also tried to draw just four candles on a birthday cake. We counted carefully as we drew each candle and tried hard to remember to ‘STOP’ when we got to four.
Help at home – Look for groups of four things. There might be four apples in the bowl or four trains on the toy track. Look for the numeral four when you’re out and about. You might see one on a button in a lift or on a bus number. Can you jump/hop/clap four times? You could ask for help to set the table. Do you need four cups or plates?
Next week, we’ll learn all about Easter and have some Easter-themed fun!
Design and Technology
Over the last week in design and technology we have been developing our food preperation skills by making overnight oats.
We have followed hygiene instructions to make sure the children have tied their hair back and washed their hands.
The children followed the recepie ensuring they weighed out the correct amount of ingredients. They were able to cut the fruit using the bridge method they had been shown.
Everyone enjoyed having a taste of the oats!
Maths – shapes
Our focus in Y2 Maths this week has been shapes. We have been looking 2D and 3D shapes. We know the names of lots of 2D shapes, how to count sides and how to count the vertices. We have also explored 3D shapes, how to count edges, faces and vertices. We even came up with a method, so that we wouldn’t loose track of the faces we had already counted!
Today in 2C we looked at vertical symmetry and how to spot it in 2D shapes. We used paper shapes and folded them to see if they had vertical lines of symmetry. We also used mirrors to check the symmetry of shapes in our books and plastic 2D shapes.
