Thank you for all the effort that went into dressing the children up as characters from ‘101 Dalmatians’.
To celebrate World Book Day, the children drew the front cover from their favourite book and talked about why they love it so much.
We made spoon puppets of our favourite story characters. Thank you if you sent in a competition entry from home. Winners will be announced by Miss Cooke next week.
Children were invited to draw and label story maps.
Some of the children built Cruella de Vil’s mansion. When I asked where the puppies were, Poppy said, “We can’t have real ones or they’ll poo all over the classroom”! So, we made some using black and white cubes. Each day, the architecture became more elaborate as the children developed their thinking. Just wonderful!
Today, we explored the school buildings and grounds by carefully following the images on a map. We noticed: daffodils growing in the year 1 flower beds; older children eating lunch in the dance studio; our buddies working hard in their classroom (but they were very kind and invited us into their classroom); a football match on the MUGA; a pizza oven like the one Eva has at home; the fish pond; Mrs Elliott preparing for a cookery lesson in the cafe; Obi helping Miss Frazer with her planning; Mrs Thomson considering ways to ensure that we flourish at ACE and, finally, Miss Backhouse and Mrs Gregory, who help families and us in so many ways throughout the day. Thank you to everyone who made us feel so welcome on our adventure.
Maybe the children could make a picture map for someone to follow around your home?
Well done…
….to our learners of the week, Sima and Rio, and to our other certificate winners this week. Your hard work is paying off – thank you and keep it up!
Excitement had been mounting all week for today’s visitors: police officers, Sarah and Paul.
Sarah and Paul talked to us about their important role in helping members of our community to make positive behaviour choices. They were impressed that the children knew the phone number to call in an emergency. We enjoyed learning about the equipment that forms part of their uniform: a radio, a camera and a torch. Can the children recall all of the different vehicles that the police use and how animals help them to do their job?
Before the visit, we identified some question words and discussed what we might ask Sarah and Paul when they came in.
We also drew some pictures and made books.
A particularly exciting part of the visit was when we were invited to go and explore the police van. We noticed that there was a place on the van, where people would be asked to sit if they needed some help with their choices management. The lights flashed and the sirens blared. We even got to hold the heavy shields that may be used to protect police officers in a riot.
Thank you so much to Sarah and Paul for inspiring so many of the children to say, “I want to be in the police when I am bigger”.
This week we have been learning about Lunar New Year. We started by looking at the places in the world where many people celebrate Lunar New Year. We discovered that Lunar New Year is a celebration of a new moon every Spring. Families prepare by cleaning the house before putting up decorations: lots of red for luck and flowers as a reminder of Spring. On the morning of Lunar New Year, new clothes are worn to recognise the fresh start and children are given red envelopes containing money. Lanterns are made to symbolise the brightness of Spring and people offer good luck messages. Feasts with eight or nine (lucky numbers!) dishes are eaten. Families then go outside to watch the dragon parade and dancing. After the parade, there are firecrackers to deter bad spirits. Each year is named after an animal. I wonder if the children can recall why this is? Here are our beautiful lanterns and dragons that required lots of precise cutting and thoughtful sticking!
Thank you to the lunchtime team for our delicious Chinese banquet on Wednesday.
Feeling proud
Thank you if you were able to attend our assembly today. Well done to the children for joining in with such enthusiasm and good humour! Here are the certificate earners from this week. Well done to you all. Have a well deserved break next week.
After enjoying the book, ‘A Busy Day for Birds’ by Lucy Cousins, we went on our own birdwatch around the school grounds. Can the children recall which birds they spotted or heard? We came across a pigeon, blackbirds, house sparrows, a carrion crow, a blue tit, a pied wagtail, lots of magpies and a herring gull. We were most impressed by the magnificent red kites but disappointed not to see a robin. Luckily, we have our own Robyn!
We discovered that all birds: have feathers; lay eggs; have a beak instead of teeth and have wings (but not all birds fly). We made our own colourful birds and learnt that it is the male birds, who are have the most colourful feathers, so they can attract females.
To try and attract more birds to our class willow tree, we made bird cakes. Why not make some at home too?
Come and get your cakes, birds!
Feeling proud
Congratulations to our learners of the week: Aulani for being such an inspiring athlete and Peter for his reasoning in maths. Well done to our Reading Eggs and Mathseeds certificate earners. Birthday girl, Paige, is our home reader of the week.
Over the last couple of weeks, we have been learning about people – in school and out of school – who help us. Please show the photos to the children at home to see if they can recall who does what.
Sophia correctly guessed that Mrs Horsley “fixes stuff”. Indeed, Mrs Horsley fixes lots of things, including children, when they need first aid. She keeps us safe by managing the Nursery Lane gate and cleaning the touch points around school.
Mr Carter rushed to help when our bookshelf broke. Rio predicted that he would “need his screwdriver”.
Mr Gilfoyle ensures we have everything that we need in the classroom.
Magdalena cooks and serves our delicious lunches.
Rosa cleans our classroom after we have all gone home.
Mrs Price encourages us to come to school on time every time so that we don’t miss any learning. We might even learn how to cook with her!
Ruby wrote some wonderful sentences following the visits.
On Tuesday, Freya’s mum – a physiotherapist – talked about her role in helping people develop their balance, and improve their muscle and bone strength. We enjoyed meeting her skeleton and learned that our ribs protect our lungs and that we all have a funny bone. Freya modelled the crutches that help us if we hurt a leg. We also got to test our reflexes with her tendon hammer. Thank you so much to her for coming in to school.
Who helps us outside of school? Parents, grandparents, siblings, dentists, nurses, doctors, librarians, members of our religious communities, hairdressers, postal workers, refuse collectors, shop assistants, builders, police officers, pharmacists?
Please encourage the children to draw a picture or write a sentence about someone who helps them and bring it in for our ‘People who help us’ display board.
Well done….
….to our learners of the week – Ruby for her writing and Poppy for her helpfulness – and to our home reader of the week – Robyn – and to our Reading Eggs/Mathseeds certificate earners.
….to our first celebration assembly. We really appreciate your support. Thank you, as well, for your imaginative contributions to our collaborative tale about Hector. The children will love referring back to it when they open our book. Hopefully, you caught the storytelling bug and you can enjoy creating your own at home.
Well done to our learners of the week – Adam and Jemimah – and to the children, who were awarded certificates for their learning on Reading Eggs and Mathseeds. Well done to our swimmers too.
….called Fred, whose head and leg appeared on our board one lunchtime. Eva instantly said, “We need to find all the things for him and then he’ll be happy.” What a brilliant observation and suggestion.
So, the children hunted around the classroom for bear body parts, some wondering who could have done this to Fred. Sam’s name came up a lot. His name does come up a lot when mischief occurs but we have explained that cheeky Christmas elves take a well-deserved sunshine break in January.
Anyway, after finding his body, other leg and two arms, we put Fred back together and he was very grateful.
The children wanted to make bears of their own and demonstrated improved fine motor skills to cut out the shapes and use split pins or treasury tags to assemble them. They decided how their bear might be feeling before drawing an expression on its face.
A grateful Fred told us that it wasn’t the first time he had faced challenges and the children had some creative ideas about what might have happened to him in the past. Maya wondered if he had “fallen in the bath”. Christina thought he may have “stepped on a pin”. Eliza wondered if he had been “taken away” and Rory interjected, “by a bad guy….like a robber” “with a Samurai sword”, added Eva. A Samurai sword?!! Ulyana thought someone may have “eaten all his sweets”. Poppy even feared that Fred had “stepped in some dog poo”. The children wrote to Fred to ask him…
Thank you to our wonderful lunchtime team, who cooked and served a delicious Christmas feast today. We wore our crowns with pride. Did you hear about the gingerbread men in our ice-creams?
Christingles have been prepared for the services tomorrow afternoon. I wonder if the children can tell you what each part of the Christingle represents when they bring them home.
Sam has been busy channelling his inner Paul Hollywood this week and impressed us with the professionalism of the shortbread he baked.
We will miss him in the classroom after Christmas and hope he will make a return at some point in 2024 after a well-deserved rest. The children are in need of a rest too after a long half term. They should be very proud of all they have achieved.
Wishing you and your families the most wonderful of times together over the next two weeks. Thank you, as always, for all of your support and for the kind wishes we have received. They have been much appreciated.
Our elf, Sam, has been up to all sorts since he arrived in Reception. Can the children recall what has been going on by looking at the pictures with you?
His antics have encouraged us: to investigate what happens which ice melts; build with DUPLO; draw pictures; write letters; sound out and blend green words; practise our number bonds using numicon pieces; consider how we should throw and catch balls effectively and think about how much paper we might need to wrap a gift.
Sam even had to visit the dentist after eating too many sweet treats. The dentist reminded Sam that other foods – such as cheese and yoghurt – are better for our teeth.
It’s been lovely to hear about what Sam’s friends have been up to at home with you. That said, I’m not sure we want Paige’s elf giving Sam any funny ideas….
