Our focus in Holy Week has been on the Easter story. We recalled our Nativity performance, where we celebrated the birth of Jesus. We learned that, as Jesus grew up, he became very popular and well-loved because he was kind and taught people many things. However, this led to some powerful but unkind people becoming jealous and angry. One Sunday, Jesus arrived in Jerusalem for a feast for Passover – a Jewish festival. The crowd of people laid palm branches at his feet. Those who welcomed him hoped that he would get rid of the Roman rulers. Ever since, people have waved crosses made from palm leaves on the Sunday before Easter – Palm Sunday.

The Bible tells us that Jesus was punished for being popular and he was nailed to a cross on a day we now call Good Friday. Instead of being angry, Jesus prayed for the people who put him there and he forgave them. When Jesus died, his disciples and friends were very sad.

On the next day – Holy Saturday – Jesus’ body was taken to a tomb. His best friend – Mary Magdelen – and some other friends saw where the tomb was and they sat outside, noticing that a huge stone was placed over the entrance. The following day, the friends returned to the tomb and noticed that the stone had been removed and the tomb was empty apart from Jesus’ clothes. They could not believe it and were frightened but an angel said, ‘Do not be afraid. Jesus has risen and he is alive again’. We learned that this was called the resurrection.

Mary then saw a man in a garden and it was Jesus. He asked Mary to tell everyone he was alive again but no one believed it until they saw him. For the next seven weeks, Jesus told everyone to spread the word about the miracle of his resurrection. Then he went to join his Father, God, in Heaven.

Since then, we have remembered the sacrifice Jesus made for us on Easter Sunday. We noticed the crosses on our hot cross buns before enjoying their fruity deliciousness.

We also made Easter cards and chicks, which the children are looking forward to sharing with you.

Wishing you all a very happy and peaceful Easter break. Thank you for all of your support this term.

Mrs Shipley

In the classroom and outdoors, we have been boarding the Magic Train each day to imitate Sally Crabtree’s story, which you can sing along to at home if you would like. We took turns at being the station master (which presented the opportunity to punch holes in tickets and practise our number bonds to ten) and we ‘blew’ the whistle to send the train onto its next destination.

The children worked collaboratively in teams to see who could sequence the settings correctly first.

They then thought of a sentence, said the sentence, remembered the sentence, wrote the sentence and checked the sentence before adding some beautiful illustrations of their favourite or own imaginary setting. The land of cakes was a clear winner!

Take a look at where some of the children would like to go….

We are looking forward to preparing for Easter next week.

Now that we are back in school, please may we politely request that, if you need to contact us, you use office@allertonceprimary.com. Thank you.

Have a lovely weekend.

Mrs Shipley

This week we have been thinking about people around the world, who are less fortunate than ourselves. 

We learned that our classroom toilet is twinned with a latrine in South Sudan, Africa. Maddie was able to find Africa on our globe. We heard a story about an African girl called Rachel. She was very poor and her village had neither bins nor toilets. Consequently, the villagers were often sick. Some kind visitors came to the village and helped to build toilets. Rachel and her friends no longer suffer with tummy bugs and they can concentrate on their school work, which they love. We talked about how lucky we are to have indoor toilets in our school and homes.

To support Comic Relief, we shared jokes and had egg and spoon races. We also spent time thinking about how important it is to help others whenever we can. Thank you for your generous donations.

Do you believe in magic? This week, we have watched magic tricks, witnessed dickie birds flying away and had a magic light in the classroom. We discovered that, by rubbing prime colours together, we can magically produce secondary colours. The children had some wonderful ideas about what they might do if they were magicians. We then started to explore ‘Magic Train Ride’ by Sally Crabtree. The train took us into the jungle, underwater, outer space, a magic wood, the land of cakes and fairyland.  Next week, we will be thinking about where our magic train ticket might take us.

The weather has enticed us all outside this week and the children have risen to our skipping challenge with some earning their first certificates. Well done!

Thank you to Roham and Daniel for sharing their excitement about Persian New Year – Nowruz. We learned that it is an ancient Spring festival – celebrating the end of Winter and the rebirth of nature – which starts tomorrow morning and lasts for 13 days, Here’s Roham painting some eggs, which he will enjoy eating later. Happy new year!

Wishing you a lovely weekend.

Mrs Shipley

Well done to all of the children, who have settled back into school so happily this week. It has been a pleasure to have our classrooms buzzing again. Thank you for your cooperation with the routines at each end of the day – it is much appreciated.

This week we have been learning all about our senses and how they help us to understand the world around us. We turned our noses up at smelly pots and tried to guess what they contained. Bravely, we dipped our hands into a feely box to discover objects, which the children described as soft, squidgy, spiky, rough, bumpy, hard and silky. Crayon rubbings enabled us to capture the textures of materials we found outdoors. We tried to identify our friends just by their voices and shared the story of ‘Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What do you hear?’ Our eyes were used to spot the early signs of Spring. We tested our taste buds and considered if we preferred sour, bitter, sweet or salty flavours. I wonder if your child can recall which they enjoyed best?

The children made cards to celebrate Mother’s Day. We wish all mums, step-mums, aunties and grannies a lovely day on Sunday – we hope you enjoy the portraits that the children have drawn of you.

The Reception Team

Over the last two weeks, we have been enjoying the story of ‘Little Red Riding Hood’. First, we went on a book hunt, following clues which would help us to guess which story we would be reading. Unfortunately (but by design), our book hadn’t arrived but we learned that, with traditional tales, we don’t really need a book because they were spoken and shared long before they were written down. Even without a book, we were able to draw a story map and retell the events. The children then added actions to our story, which helped us to remember it.

Two different versions of ‘Little Red Riding Hood’ finally arrived and we discussed the similarities and differences between them. Puppets were used by the children to imitate the story.

After painting scenes from the tale, we then shifted into innovation and started to change parts of the story. The wolf was replaced by a furry brown bear, who had a shiny big nose that was all the better for smelling Little Red Riding Hood with. Children then had the opportunity to change the ending of the story and decided that, when the woodcutter arrived, Big Bad Wolf jumped out of the window and went home. When he got there, the little wolf cub told his daddy off for trying to eat people. The next day, Big Bad Wolf went to Little Red Riding Hood’s house and blew on the window and wrote, ’Sorry’, with his paw in the condensation. Big Bad Wolf fixed the window and went home for tea. They ate watermelon and had coke to drink. The (new) end!

Children at home followed the story with Oak National Academy and sent in their impressive story maps and drawings.

To celebrate World Book Day, children at home and at school wore pyjamas. To start the day, we shared a fun quiz via Zoom to test our book knowledge and then we talked about our favourite books and characters.

Please may we take this opportunity to thank you for all of your support since Christmas. We are so excited that the children will be returning on Monday for our fun and learning packed Science Week.

Have a restful weekend.

Mrs Shipley

Hopefully, by now, you will have had the opportunity to watch the children’s wonderful Nativity production. The classroom was full of Christmas activities this week. The children enjoyed reading our version of the Christmas story, which was filled with their photographs. We made paper chains and compared the lengths. We also noticed that some children had created repeating patterns in the chains. Fine motor skills were developed as we made snowflakes. Fred had been shopping online and we took a delivery, which contained parcels labelled with sounds. We guessed what might be inside; some of the parcels had far less exciting contents than the children predicted. Christmas bingo was a hit. The children added one more and one less within ten before marking off their bingo cards. I hope you get chance to play at home during the holiday.

On Friday, the children had the opportunity for a taster session with the Balbir Dance Company. It was exciting to visit our dance studio for the first time and the children particularly enjoyed pretending to eat a ping pong ball! Thank you to Mrs Johnston for arranging the visit for us and to the Balbir Dance Company.

Wishing you all a wonderful and peaceful Christmas. Thank you to the children for all of their hard work and enthusiasm this term and to the parents for all their support. I look forward to seeing you in the new year.

Mrs Shipley

Thank you to Miss Archibald and William, who talked to us this week about the Jewish festival of lights – Chanukah. We learnt that the word Chanukah means ‘re-dedication’ and celebrates a great miracle. Over 2000 years ago, Jewish rituals were banned by the Greek King Antiochus. A small group of Jewish people – the Maccabees – resisted and, after a three-year war, they were victorious. To celebrate their victory, they repaired their destroyed temple and lit an oil lamp. There was only sufficient oil to enable the lamp to burn for one day but, miraculously, it burned for eight days. That is why the Chanukah festival lasts for eight days and why a Hanukiah with eight candles is symbolic in Jewish homes. Thank you to William’s mum for sharing a photo of him lighting a candle on their Hanukiah. Children receive gifts and play a special game with a spinning top called a dreidel. By eating food such as doughnuts and latkes, Jewish people remember the miracle of the oil lasting eight days.

Thank you to Miss Bramham for taking some of the children into our Forest School. They have made some wonderful Stick Men and Stick Ladies.

We have also been preparing for Christmas by sharing the Christmas story. Christmas cards and decorations are being created and the children have been helping the elves to make gifts in our very own toy factory. Cameras are seemingly in high demand this year. Today was Christmas Jumper day; thank you for your charity donations. The children also enjoyed a delicious Christmas lunch – thank you to the lunch time team.

Finally, thank you to everyone for sending in the fabulous costumes for our Nativity. We have started our recording and the children have done a wonderful job learning the songs and their lines – well done! We look forward to sharing the production with you soon.

Enjoy the last weekend of term.

Mrs Shipley

Please practise our nativity songs at home.

Take a look at all of our space cadets, who took inspiration from ‘Whatever Next!’ by Jill Murphy. Thank you for sharing your wonderful adventures. I’m so glad you enjoyed your trips to space and other exciting destinations. You created some fantastic postcards and pictures to send to your friends and thought of some inventive alternative endings to the story. Well done!

There were some creative ways of practising Phonics. Ava even built a stunning ship! Great work, Ava.

Lots of sorting was enjoyed by the children – either by size, colour or quantity. And, you were able to match groups of objects to the correct numerals.

It has been wonderful to see that you have enjoyed lots of other activities too – cookery, music, jigsaws and painting – what a talented bunch you are. Emma can recommend that you try gravy with your jam roly-poly if you ever bake one!

Thank you so much to the children for all their hard work and enthusiasm over the last couple of weeks and to parents and carers, who have supported them.

So ‘Whatever Next?’ Hopefully two fun-packed weeks in the run up to Christmas.

I am very excited that I will be seeing you back in school tomorrow.

Mrs Shipley

There was no taking it easy at the end of RS’ week. Many of you have sent me examples of your wonderful writing efforts today. Thank you and well done!