Topic finale 

We had a fantastic day. We loved wearing our royal clothes, dancing and sharing a royal banquet with our friends. 

THE EGG HAS CRACKED!
This morning when we arrived at school the egg had cracked. There were footprints on the floor. There were even burn marks on our junk model traps! We turned it into a crime scene and wrote police reports containing the evidence.
This afternoon we worked together at forest learning to create a huge dragon trap.

Have you seen the dragon?

After watching the video of the dragon on our school field, we drew and labelled wanted posters and put them up around school.  We asked different adults in school if they had seen the dragon.

We also worked together to build a trap to capture the dragon.

We found a dragon egg

This afternoon our teacher had a phone call from a dragon explaining that she'd lost her eggs!
We went on a hunt to the woodland area and found 2 red and blue spotty eggs. We could hear the baby dragon scratching inside! We worked together to create a nest using sticks, leaves and grass. We are going to look after one of the dragon eggs and have put it in our curiosity cube.

I wonder what will happen next week...

Look at our boats 

We began by designing our boat using drawings. We then used junk model resources to create our boat. We selected tools and techniques to shape, assemble and join. 

We made slime!

Sublime science delivered a workshop. We all had a cup of glue, we choose our own colour and stirred the mixture until it blended. The lady then added the 'accelerator' and we mixed it together to create a ball. We had fun exploring the slime using our senses. 

Drawing dragons 

We used a paint app on the iPad to draw pictures of dragons. 

Fun in the snow

We put on their suits and wellies and enjoyed playing in the snow. We went sledging, made snowmen, snow angels and snowballs. One child said it "was the best day ever." We had a brilliant afternoon! 

Computing 

We've been practising programming bee-bots and are beginning to use directional language 'forwards, backwards.' We've also been using the talking clipboards to record 'the rainbow princess' story.  

The rainbow princess 

We enjoyed exploring the sensory aspects of our story 'a path of sharp stones -ouchy, grouchy, ouch grouchy and the sea -splish, splash, splish, splash.'

World Book Day

This year we celebrated World Book Day and came to school dressed in our pyjamas. During circle time we shared our favourite bedtime book. We also took part in the whole school book swap.

We had lots of exciting activities planned:
The tiger who came to tea - A tiger is joining us in the home corner
Supertato - chopping vegetables
Goldilocks and the three bears - create a bear mask
Aliens love underpants - decorate some underpants 
Zog and the flying doctors - we've added the doctors kit into the castle role play area where children can dress as princesses, knights and dragon's
Superworm - threading onto pipe cleaners
The hungry caterpillar counting and adding
World book day hunt - use the clues and hunt for different characters in the books

Design your own book mark

Forest learning -Can you find…

Can you go and find something longer than the line drawn on your bag? Shorter? The same length?

R.E. What places are special and why?

Our teacher showed us a jigsaw which we worked in small groups to create. We noticed that the jigsaw was showing a place in school. It was our teachers favourite place in our classroom -the reading area! We thought about our favourite place in school and shared it with the whole class during circle time. 

Pancake day

We had lots of fun exploring pancake day. We shared the story 'Mr. Wolfs Pancakes.' We weighed the ingredients to create a pancake mixture. We poured it into a pan and heated it on the hob. Miss Pemberton was very good at flipping the pancake. We practised our flipping skills with a dough mixture in the tuff tray. We also enjoyed tasting the different toppings on our pancakes. They were delicious!

Trip

We walked through the town to the palace theatre. We had a brilliant time watching the Northern Ballet Ugly Duckling performance. 

Spring 2 -The magical kingdom

Floating and sinking 

We enjoyed exploring which materials float and which material sink. 

We recorded our results. 

Maths -Number bonds to 5

We continued to develop the understanding that all numbers are made up of smaller numbers. We explored and noticed the different compositions of 5. For example, 5 can be composed of 2 and 3. 

Painting skills

• At the beginning of the week we practised painting big squares. 
• The following day we practised painting big wavy squiggles.
• We then moved onto painting smaller squares. 
• Finally we painted smaller wacy squiggles. 

Literacy -Little Jack

We explored the sensory aspects of the story: we baked bread and held a shell to our ear to listen to the beautiful sound of the sea. 

We are builders!

• We used gestures, talking and drawing to design. 
• We build/constructed with a wide range of objects.
• We took photographs of our buildings on the iPad. 

Number Day

The children dressed in something with a number on and took part in lots of exciting number activities. They had a fabulous number filled day!

R.E. Who are we and how do we belong?

I can talk about what happens at a Christian infant baptism

Our teacher explained that for many Christians, it is wonderful to welcome babies into the world and into their families when they are born. We shared a baptism certificate made out to Grace (persona doll). We explained that babies are often welcomed into the Christian family by having a baptism and Grace’s certificate is to remember a time when she had a baptism to welcome her when she was a baby. We watched a video and role played what happens in an infant baptism.

R.E. Who are we and how do we belong? Welcoming a baby

Our teacher explained that just as lots of people like to give visitors a warm welcome to their homes, lots of people love to welcome babies when they are born. We discussed what we have done when new babies have arrived in families that we know (given cards, gone to visit the baby, given presents, attended a Christening etc.)

We bought in photographs of us as a baby. Our teacher reminded us that everyone in the class was once a baby (even the adults!) and people were delighted to welcome them when they arrived. We looked at the baby photos without giving away whose was whose and tried to match them up with the person each baby has grown into.

Forest learning – Building a bird nest

We spoke about the different types of birds we might see in the outdoor area, we invited children to talk about any birds we have seen flying around. We spoke about the habitats the birds would live in. Where do birds sleep? Where do they keep their babies warm and safe?

In small groups we worked together to create a birds nest for our favourite bird and their babies. What will you need to use to make your nest? We encouraged the children to forage in the area and collect the resources they need to build their nests, e.g. bendy sticks, leaves, stones.

Maths -Number bonds to 5

This week we continued to develop the understanding that all numbers are made up of smaller numbers. We explored and noticed the different compositions 5. For example 5 can be composed 2 and 3.

We used a five frame to show these different combinations and created pairs of numbers which make 5.  

Literacy -Little Jack

We drew a class story map to help everyone remember what happens in the story. Throughout the week we practised retelling the story several times. We used actions to support retelling and to reinforce the meaning of the story.

Language development (nouns)

Language development (nouns):  mackerel, crab, shell, basket, jam sandwich. We looked at pictures to help us with these new nouns and played a matching game.

We explored the sensory aspects of the story: she listened and she listened and she listened but all she could hear was the beautiful sound of the sea. We listened to the sound of the sea.

We used bread, butter, jam and knives and made our own jam sandwiches. We enjoyed eating them just like Jack in the story.

Book talk

Who are the characters in this story?

Where does this story take place?

How does the story start?

What problem did Jack face in the story?

How is the problem solved/How does the story end?

Chinese New Year 

We enjoyed celebrating 'Chinese New Year.'

Our key questions:
Chinese New Year is a colourful celebration. Do you know what colour means good luck?
Family and friends give each other red envelopes for Chinese New Year, do you know what they put inside them?
People celebrate Chinese New Year with lots of decorations, do you know what this decoration is called (share photograph of a lantern)?
A Chinese New Year parade is very exciting, do you know what two animals you will see at the parade?
In the Chinese calendar, 2022 was the Year of the Tiger. Do you know what animal represents this year?

Throughout the day we shared information books and watched these videos: https://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/watch/chinese-new-year

We talked about how different families prepare and celebrate Chinese New Year. We practised using our scissor skills to create lanterns, paper chain dragons and red money envelopes. We also painted Chinese symbols using black paint and practised using chopsticks in red rice. This afternoon we enjoyed tasting Chinese food. We ended the day by watching a parade and listening to Chinese music.

Painting on different textures

We enjoyed painting on tinfoil. 

Winter trees 

We are documenting the changes of a tree by photographs, drawings and discussion. We drew winter tree using charcoal. 

Literacy -Let me come in

Throughout the week we practised retelling the story using our story map and actions. We put in ‘sound; effects’ and ‘noises’ to go with the story.

Our teacher explained that somebody had cut up our story into sections. We worked in small groups to re-sequence them and used this to re-tell our story.

Our teacher modelled writing a short simple sentence with words with known letter-sound correspondences using a capital letter and full stop. She scribed down our ideas while ‘sharing the pen’ so we could write the letters or words that we felt confident with. We completed the sentence orally before writing e.g. the cat is sad. We memorised the sentence before writing by repeatedly saying it aloud.

Painting 

• We mixed colours to make different colours. 
• We added white or black to alter the shade. 
• We used a range of resources to paint (fruit and vegetables) patterns. 

Forest learning

We talked about the changing season and discussed what happens during Winter. We went on a winter walk and looked for things that appear in winter outside. We looked all around, up in the sky and down on the ground. We gathered together and discussed our findings.

Computing 

We used the Ipad to take photographs of signs of winter. 

Maths 2D shape

We learnt that circles have one curved side, triangles have 3 straight sides, squares and rectangles have 4 straight sides and 4 corners. We can recognise these shapes on everyday items in the classroom and outside. We went on a shape hunt.

Where can you see circles, triangles, rectangles and squares on the surface of everyday objects?

R.E. Who are we and how do we belong? I can talk about groups I belong to

Our teacher explained that each family is a group of people that we belong to. We recapped who is in our family and who we belong to. We also discussed that we belong to our class group and that there are other groups that we might belong to as well. We brought in any special clothes/items (badges, certificates, etc.) that we wear as part of these groups and shared them with the other children.

Forest learning 

We read the story ‘Stick Man.’ We asked the children to go in search of sticks to be their Stick Man. The children then created their own Stick Man. We also took our learning forward and created the Stick Man’s family to.

Maths -Introducing zero

The children already have some practical understanding of ‘nothing there’ or ‘all gone.’ This week we learnt that the number name zero and the numeral 0 can be used to represent this idea. We provided examples of contrasting familiar numbers with 0 to support the children’s understanding that 0 represents the absence of something. How many apples on each tree? How many people on each bus? Which field has 0 horses.

Spring 1 - Once upon a time