Platinum Jubilee celebrations
We had a fun-filled day today. All the children and staff shared a picnic lunch on the field, listening to some 50s music. We then all congregated on the field again, sang the national anthem and each class showcased a Wake Up Shake Up (WUSU) dance through the decades that the Queen has been on the throne. We went from 1950s (Mambo No 5/Lou Bega) all the way to 2020s (Blinding Lights/The Weeknd). It was so much fun! We hope that everyone has a happy and healthy half term.
Platinum Jubilee
We have had a wonderful day celebrating the Platinum Jubilee.
My body is amazing!
This week, we have learned more about how incredible our bodies are. We have: looked at a range of non-fiction books; set up an egg experiment; made a class shop and looked at the changes our bodies have made in our lives so far.
On Monday, we set up a scientific experiment. We took white duck eggs and placed each one in a different liquid. We used milk, water and coke-cola. The children made predictions and carefully observed any changes to the eggs. Professor Myers came to help us examine the results of our investigation. Our findings resulted in the following conclusions:
Water is good for your teeth-Jack
If you have a fizzy drink, you have to brush your teeth!-Reuben
Milk has calcium to help your bones-Eti
Milk is white like your teeth-Clara
We have thought about: how our bodies have grown since being a baby; the things we can do now and the things we hope to do in the future. The children have produced some fantastic time lines that include their baby photographs that were sent in. (Sadly, we forgot to photograph the timelines but will pop them on after the holiday). Here are some quotes to make you smile:
I was so tiny-Sofia
I could only drink milk-Holly
I could not drink any orange juice!-Freya
My clothes were so small-Ronnie
Now I am 4/5 I can…
Ride my bike-Jack
Do cartwheels- Clara
Come to school – Ronnie
In the future…
I will drive a Lamborghini car!-Ronnie
I can walk to the shops-Jessica
Catch rainbows and drive an aeroplane -Bea
Our animal visit on Tuesday enriched our recent focus and learning about animals. We all loved it!
In Maths we have been introduced to a rekenrek. We have had one each to help us with our perceptual and conceptual subitising skills.
The children have been incredible at sliding different quantities smoothly. We have been using them to keep score in our table football challenges too!
Our class giraffe has helped us to measure our height and find out if we are taller or shorter than it.
Our theme in provision has been the Queen’s Jubilee! Look what we have been up to.
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Have a wonderful holiday and please send photographs of your adventures to us. We will see you back in school on Monday 6 June.
Walk to School Week winners
Lots of families joined in with Walk to School Week last week. The Buffers and St Phillips car parks were busy with people walking some of the way, if they couldn’t walk all the way from home. Thank you for joining in and helping to make our school and community an even happier and healthier place to be. Here are some of our lucky winners!
Walking Through The Jungle
This week, we’ve been Walking Through The Jungle with our story, written by Julie Lacome.
We looked closely at repeated parts of the text and used it to frame our own innovated piece of writing. First, we planned our writing; new animals, movements and endings to our story. After this, we created our very own story books. The children came up with some fantastic new vocabulary for movements through the jungle:
“Gliding”-Sofia
“Hopping”- Tristan
“Jumping”- Leo B
“Swimming”- Adriana
At this point in the school year, we’re encouraging children to extend their writing and independently start to plan and edit their work. The children are becoming enthusiastic authors!
Does your child enjoy writing stories at home?
More animal explorations…
In our classroom Curiosity Corner, we’ve continued to compare animal habitats, look at maps showing which parts of the world animals come from, read animal stories and explore animal fur or skin prints.
Our provision areas have been animal-tastic too! Making repeating patterns with animal stamps, using small world animals, building habitats, naming baby animals and more!
Jungle Dancing and Music…
This week’s story book is also a catchy song! We used the song in PE to imitate animal movements. We love expressing ourselves through dance.
Click here to have a jungle dance at home!
We’ve also been using the instruments outside, to create a jungle sound game.
Maths…
In maths, we’ve been creating number tracks. We explained how we’re able to identify which number is next in a sequence. We used our knowledge of number and our subitising skills to identify missing numbers on the number track.
New life…
Over the past few weeks we’ve been closely observing our caterpillars grow, then form their chrysalis. Our butterflies are finally starting to emerge! Next week we’ll release them to start their new life in the wild.
Take a peek at more learning from this week…
Home-link challenge…
Next week, we’ll be thinking about human life on Earth. We’ll be learning about our bodies and how we keep them clean, healthy and safe. The children will also be looking at the ways humans change over time; What were they like as babies? What can they do now that they are 4/5? What might they do in the future?
To help with our learning, please start to have these conversations at home. We’d also like you to send in a baby photo of your child, that can be used in their learning this week. You can send these in person or email them to the Reception email address. Thank you.
Jubilee Celebrations…
We’ll also be celebrating The Queen’s Jubilee next week! We’ll learn about The Royal Family, be making crowns, having our Jubilee Picnic (keeping all fingers and toes crossed for sunshine) and we’ll be having our very own royal dance. We can’t wait to celebrate!
On the Farm
It has been a fun filled farm themed week!
We have continued our learning on our topic Life on Earth by exploring animals that may live and work on a farm.
We began our week by reading Farmyard Hullabaloo
In Literacy, we worked together to read a page from the story. We used our tricky word knowledge and phonics skills to decode the words.
We wrote our own sentences about different animals.
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In maths, we have been exploring 10 frames. We have built on our previous knowledge to make number bonds of 10.
Can your child tell you what number bond is been represented below?
In the classroom, we have continued to watch the development of our caterpillars.
Two of them are in the cocoon at the top. Oliver
The caterpillars are in a cocoon. Lucille
The caterpillars are in a cocoon ready to be a butterfly. Raife
In art, we have used clay to create minibeasts.
Check out our other fun learning inside and outside the classroom.
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Write a list of animals that often live on farms. Do you know what their babies are called?
Walk to School Week 16-20 May 2022
Next week is Walk to School Week (or scoot or ride).
We hope you’ll all try to take part in this, even if you can’t walk from home. The Buffers Pub and St Phillip’s Church have agreed for us to use their car parks so everyone has the opportunity to walk part of the way.
Remember to bring your raffle tickets each day you walk to put in your class boxes to be in with a chance of winning a prize!
Let’s get active!
Mad About Minibeasts
We have all been ‘Mad About Minibeasts‘ this week. This is a fantastic book that has educated us on many of the minibeasts that we can find in our outdoor area.
It has been wonderful to see children turning over stones and tree stumps to find woodlice, worms or centipedes. Children have also been finding spider’s webs and following ants to their nests. We have been trying to build our own minibeast house. Our provision indoors has also reflected our book.
In Literacy we have been looking at rhyme in the book and making up some of our own. We have also written some short acrostic minibeast poems. Please continue to help your child at home by encouraging them to write for a variety of purposes (lists, maps, letters, stories etc). When helping them perhaps point out a letter they may need to practice the correct formation of or enable them to write the correct sound that they can hear in a word. This will really help your child on their journey to achieving the age related expectation for Reception. Remember the following too:
We certainly do enjoy writing and drawing!
In Maths we have been composing 5 in lots of different ways.
Here are some other photographs of our learning this week:
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This week could your child draw a picture of their favourite minbeast and write a fact about it.
The Bad Tempered Ladybird
This week, we’ve been reading The Bad-Tempered Ladybird by Eric Carle.
We spotted lots of new features the author had used in the book, when comparing it to another of Eric Carle’s books we have recently read. We used the book to practise our reading skills and came up with alternative words for parts of the story. It sparked a discussion of time (clocks on each page) and size comparison, as the animals (and text) got increasingly larger throughout the story.
Clay sculptures…
We have started a minibeast art project. This week we’ve been creating minibeasts out of clay and collage materials. Over the next couple of weeks, we’ll be painting our sculptures and creating habitats for them to live in!
Doubles…
This week, our maths saw us return to doubling. We are becoming experts at adding “the same amount” and recalling our doubles number facts! We’ve also been spotting patterns of six, to support our number composition.
Writing…
We are developing independence in our writing, with additional morning challenges. We’re ensuring that our sentences feature capital letters, a full stop and finger spaces. We have special actions to remind us of these.
Skipping…
In PE, along with the rest of our school, we’ve been developing our skipping rope skills. We look forward to seeing how the children progress over the next few weeks.
More photos of our learning this week…
Home link…
Continue your minibeast hunts in the garden, or out on a walk. This week, have a go at writing a list of any that you find, to share with your class. You might want to extend your writing by adding a description to make a sentence, for example:
I see a black ant with six short legs.
The worm is long and thin.
Don’t forget those sentence features shown in the ‘Writing’ section of this post!
May Bank Holiday…
School will be closed on Monday 2 May 2022, for the early May Bank Holiday. We look forward to seeing you all on Tuesday. Enjoy your long weekend together!
Crunching Munching Caterpillar
It has been lovely to be back at school this week. The children have enjoyed sharing their half term experiences with the class.
In Literacy, we have read the story – Crunching Munching Caterpillar.
After reading, the children noticed similarities and differences between this story and The Very Hungry Caterpillar.
Both caterpillars ate leaves. Max
There are holes in the book or an eaten page. Ella
They are both really hungry. Charlie
They both get into a cocoon. Bea
In Science, we have explored the lifecycle of a butterfly. We are looking forward to observing this with our own class caterpillars.
We have also created a wormery. By representing their habitat in a box, we have begun to observe how they tunnel through soil.
In Maths, we have been counting to 20 and beyond.
We ended our week with an egg rolling competition and a special visitor … singing sensation Egg Sheeran!
Well done to our winners.
In our areas, we have gone mini-beast mad! Check out some of our super learning.
Home Link
This half-term our topic is Life on Earth. For the next few weeks we are exploding mini-beasts.
Become a mini-beast detective!
You many choose to draw a picture of the mini-beasts you find, record how many mini-beasts you see in your garden or observe how different mini-beast move.