This week Class 1 have been using observation skills to paint some beautiful pictures of natural flowers. Don’t they look lovely!
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This week, Class 2 have been stepping into the world of castles, dragons and very brave princesses! 🐉 🏰 👑 Â Â Â Â Â Â
In Literacy, we have been reading ‘The Paper Bag Princess’. The children really enjoyed meeting Princess Elizabeth, who does not wait around to be rescued… instead, she sets off to rescue Prince Ronald herself!
We created a story map together to help us remember the main parts of the story, then practised retelling it using actions, expression and lots of brilliant storytelling language. The children had great fun acting it out too, and it was lovely to see them continuing this in their play, retelling the story to each other and bringing it to life in our castle role play area.
Later in the week, the children used their story knowledge to write sentences about what happened. They worked hard to say their sentences out loud, use their phonics and write their ideas carefully.
We have been so impressed with their storytelling, acting and writing this week. What a lovely start to our castles theme!Â
This week in maths, Class 1 have been using number lines to complete addition and subtraction number sentences ➕➖🟰
We discussed how we go forwards when adding – as the number is getting bigger – and back when subtracting – as the number is getting smaller.
Some of us even decided to complete our own number sentences during choosing time!!🌟
Yesterday, Reception had a fantastic visit from the ICT in Schools team! 💻
The children were introduced to the animation app ChatterPix Kids, where they learned how to take sensible photographs using the iPads, including keeping the iPad still and making sure their toy or character was in the centre of the picture. They then animated their photos by drawing a mouth onto the picture, recording their voices and making their characters talk! 🎤🧸
The children worked brilliantly in pairs, creating talking teddies, toys and even characters from books. They loved hearing their creations come to life and were fantastic at helping each other navigate the app, record their voices and solve little problems together. They also enjoyed adding filters and stickers to their animations!
The team then introduced Reception to the app Puppet Pals, where they were able to choose cartoon characters and backgrounds before creating their own short stories and conversations. They were able to move the characters whilst recording their voices at the same time, which led to lots of imaginative storylines! 🎭
Throughout the afternoon, the children developed their creativity, storytelling and teamwork skills, as well as growing in confidence when using technology. We were so impressed with how quickly they picked up the apps and how enthusiastic they were to share their ideas and creations with others!
This week in maths, Class 2 have been exploring weight! ✨ We have been learning and using lots of mathematical vocabulary including:
⚖️ Heavier
⚖️ Lighter
⚖️ Balance
⚖️ Same
⚖️ Equal
⚖️ More
⚖️ Less
Class 2 enjoyed using the scales to compare different objects and investigate which items were heavier or lighter, as well as trying to find equal weights to keep the scales balanced.
We also explored weighing cubes and a variety of classroom objects, making predictions before testing our ideas using the scales. The children showed fantastic thinking skills and mathematical discussion throughout the week and had lots of fun along the way! 🦉💜
This week, class 1 were left a message in a bottle from the captain of the Black Boomer, who told us he couldn’t find his treasure because of all the pollution in the sea! He left us a special story to help us understand how bad the situation was and after reading it, we knew we had to do something! Using tweezers, we sorted through all the litter, taking out what doesn’t belong in the sea and sorting it into the correct bin – paper or plastic. We talked about how important it is to look after the sea and the creatures that live there and promised we would do our best to make sure we put our litter in the bin!🗑♻️🐙🌊🐠🐳
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Class 1 came back from our dinner to find a crime scene in our classroom!!
We found our classroom trashed and our pirate ship stolen – with only sandy footprints left behind! We were completely shocked and spent some time trying to work out who it could have been. We had some wonderful ideas from pirates to monsters to sharks!!
To help us catch the criminal that committed the terrible crime in our classroom, we created wanted posters. We made sure to write what the pirate looks like so that we could make sure he was caught!
…and they worked!! We received a video from the pirate himself admitting he had stolen our treasure and was going to sail away on his ship before we caught him! He left us some clues to find our treasure and after reading them we finally found our treasure in the mud kitchen in the garden!!🏴☠️⚓️
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As part of our spring topic ‘Growing’, we had some extra additions to Class 1 – of the small and hairy variety!
We started with 5 tiny and very hairy caterpillars and we studied the lifecycle very carefully so we knew exactly which stage of the lifecycle they were at, what happened in that stage and what would happen next. Our caterpillars grow through each stage, from caterpillars, to chrysalis and finally beautiful butterflies!!
Once they were ready, we released them to enjoy the fresh air and beautiful flowers🦋🌻🌷🌹
