On Wednesday, we harvested our potatoes. It was an impressive yield of 53 potatoes. Today, we enjoyed them either plain, with butter or with butter and freshly plucked mint. Some of us tried all three options! “Mmmmmm” said Eliza (who ate five!). “Delicious!” declared George. Mia enjoyed “the butter off my finger because it tastes good because of the mint”. Rio explained that he “liked the big ones as well as the babies”. “Me too,” agreed Peter. Well done, RS, for looking after the plants so diligently.

Well done certificate winners

Please keep up with the Reading Eggs and Mathseeds after you have recharged your batteries.

Moving up

RS 2023/24 – you are a wonderful class. Stay wonderful for each other! Thank you for all of the fun, learning and laughter we have shared.

Thank you to everyone, who was able to join us for our Art Celebration today.

The children were excited to welcome you into school and share their learning; we are so proud of how well they performed.

Here is the presentation (without the music), which the children might want to share with their friends and relatives.

Masks, paintings, postcards, drawings, mushrooms, printing, instruments, sketching will be coming home as the final instalment for their learning journals.

The castles that you made at home were brilliant – thank you!

Celebrating certificate winners

Whilst the weather wasn’t quite as spectacular as last week, the predicted rain stayed away and we enjoyed our day out together! The town crier was so impressed by our sketching of the castle last week that, today, he returned from the market square just to see what we had drawn. He also let us all ring his bell after George asked so politely.

Thank you again to the parent helpers – we couldn’t have gone without you. We cannot wait to see everyone on Thursday 11th July for our Arts Celebration, where we will share more photos and all of our learning.

Twelve of RS took an outing to Knaresborough today. Thank you, Mr Carter, for taking us – in the school minibus – to the station, where we hopped aboard the train. We had magic tickets to “take us anywhere” but most seemed happy to stick with Knaresborough. When we arrived in Knaresborough, we wandered down the cobbles, noticing the chequer-board paint and a thatched cottage. At the bottom of the hill, we marvelled at the echoes produced when our voices bounced off the stones. A biscuit break was essential before we climbed the 117 steep steps up to the castle remains. The children wondered if the people in the rowing boats on the River Nidd were or knew Mr and Mrs Gumpy. Thank you to the lunchtime team for our delicious picnic, which we enjoyed on the grass before listening to the town crier talk about the history of Knaresborough castle. We sketched the castle ruins before playing ring games in the shade. Then, we ambled back down the steps for the moment we had all been waiting for: our ice lollies! Thank you very much to the adult helpers, who were able to join us. Children – you behaved impeccably and were wonderful ambassadors for our school. There will be more photos at the art celebration on Thursday 11th of July.

Our innovation of ‘The Bear and the Piano’ involved us considering which other woodland animal could be our main character and which other instrument he or she may come across in the forest. What noise would the instrument make? Where might the new character go? Would he be as famous as the bear? Some lovely writing and illustrations, RS! I hope you are proud of yourselves.

Refugee week

We have explored the idea of what it means to be a refugee through the story of ‘Lubna and Pebble’ by Wendy Maddour. We learned that a refugee is somebody, who has no choice but to leave their home and move to a new country to live – perhaps because of war, an earthquake or a flood. Mia showed lots of empathy when she explained that “people go to other countries, where they will be safe”.

We also shared ‘Counting Kindness’ by Hollis Kurman and discussed the maths that we noticed in the story. Then we created our own kindness posters.

Thank you to the Year 5 activists, who read us ‘My Name is not Refugee’ and provoked us to consider some brilliant questions.

Well done to our certificate earners this week!

Over the next few weeks, we prepare for our Reception trips to Knaresborough and arts fortnight.

We have been recycling shredded waste paper by, first, mixing and soaking it in water and (a secret ingredient of) glue. Next, we pulped the mixture with the hand blender. Then, we spread the pulp over the screen and pressed out the excess water. Finally, we turned the paper out of the screen and we are waiting for it to dry.

Miss Patchett is teaching us a train dance. Can the children recall any of the moves we have learnt so far?

Wishing you a Happy Father’s Day

Before the children drew pictures of their daddies, we considered: the relative size of a head to a body; where arms and legs fit in relation to a body; how daddies might fall over if we just draw thin lines for legs and miss off their feet and how daddies rarely stand with their arms sticking out to the side….unless they want to give their children a hug, which I am sure you will once you see the effort that they have put into their cards.

Rory moved us all with the message he wrote for his daddy (entirely independently). He has, kindly, given me permission to share it with you all!

I am sure your daddy will be impressed, Rory!

A fluffy visitor

Nursery very kindly lent us one of their chicks. We noticed her soft feathery down, her dark beady eyes, her slender and pink legs and crinkled feet. She made lots of tweeting noises and we wondered what she might be trying to tell us. She also left us a little present on the floor!

Well done to our certificate earners this week!

On Monday, a bear invited us into the forest to see what we could find.

We came across a tennis racket, an alarm clock, a bucket, a spade, a teapot, a trophy and a Spiderman mug. A discussion followed, around what the bear might do with these objects.

Rory wondered if the bear might “decorate his bedroom” with a trophy “he won at tennis” and Paige imagined that the alarm clock would ensure that “the bear isn’t late for school”.

Back in the classroom, the children considered what other objects the bear might find in a forest and what he might do with them. This led to some very impressive writing. The colourful semantics cards help us to remember all the words in our sentences, which are starting to include time/place and description. We are also trying hard to remember our capital letters, finger spaces and full stops. Well done, everyone!

Bye-bye butterflies

Thank you to Maya for hosting the caterpillars over the half term break and for sharing the photos and videos of their progress. Spiky was released into Maya’s garden to wriggle and grow as he was not ready to form a chrysalis. By the time we returned to school, three of the caterpillars had metamorphosised into butterflies. The fourth butterfly emerged from its chrysalis within five minutes of us arriving at school. It was fascinating to watch! Later that day, we bade an emotional ‘farewell’ to the butterflies: off on their journey to find their mummy, Betty.

Well done to our certificate earners this week!

Thank you to everyone, who was able to join us for Reception sports day. The children were brilliant and it was wonderful to hear them cheering for their team mates and doing their best. Well done to Birkdale, who were overall winners today. Thank you to our captains for leading their teams with such enthusiasm. Thank you to Mrs Cosgrove and the PE team for preparing the children for all of the races over this half term and to the year 5s for their support.

Well done to our certificate winners this week….

and thank you if you were able to join us for our assembly.

….has been echoing indoors and out this week.

After our first bean plant (sadly) failed due to over-zealous watering, our second bean plant survived a bean-napping incident and has started to grow this week. On Monday, we observed shoots. On Tuesday, there were roots. By Wednesday, seedlings were stretching through the compost and into the light. By Thursday, the seedling was five cubes tall. The children are invited to record their observations for our display board.

The caterpillars (which the children have named Lucas, Ice-cream, Furry, Wriggly and Spiky) seem to be flourishing under our care. We enjoy checking on their progress each day and reporting back to their mummy, Betty. Betty challenged us to craft some butterflies, which required some very careful cutting and sticking. We have also made butterfly life-cycle pictures in the art area.

Our potato plant has responded enthusiastically to the recent sunshine and showers so we earthed them up today. There is no room for complacency but the RS plants seem to be faring well against their competitors in the other classes.

Well done to our certificate winners this week!

The children, who have Reading Eggs and Mathseeds certificates this week, asked me to save them for assembly next Wednesday.

After reading ‘The Feelings Book’ by Todd Parr, some of the children wanted to talk about when they have encountered certain feelings. We opened up about how we feel: cranky when a “baby brother bites [a] finger”; scared when we think of “monsters” and “a scary dinosaur…a real one…not pretend”; brave when we “swim underwater for the first time” and lonely when a “brother goes to woodcraft”. Rory suggested that, “sometimes we might even feel like having fish and chips and diet coke for breakfast”.

Thank you for sending the children in their green clothes. We blended in well with the classroom’s calm zone.

We discussed what makes us feel calm and happy. Running around, playing games, cooking, listening to stories, having a bath, playing with pets, being kind and crafting were all mentioned. The children were invited to craft collage hearts and write kind messages of appreciation for their friends.

Feeling proud

Well done to our certificate earners this week.