Easter bonnet parade

Look at our fabulous Easter bonnets that we created at home with our grown ups. 

The Easter story

Reverend Caroline, from St Peter's Church, visited us at school and retold the Easter story using a variety of different materials and objects.

Painting in response to music

We listened to Tchaikovsky's 'Waltz of the flowers' to create movements and respond to music. 

Paul Sturgess 

We had a visit from the record breaking tallest man in Britain and basketball player -Paul Sturgess. 

R.E. Our wonderful world 

Following on from our walk last week where we noticed so much rubbish on our playground and field, we decided we wanted to do a litter pick to make our school tidy again!

We went outside with the litter picker, gloves, and a bin bag on a tidy mission! Our playground and field look so much better now!

Signs of Spring 

We talked to the children about the changing seasons and asked them if they know what happens during Spring. We looked all around, up in the sky and down on the ground for signs of daffodils, blossom, buds etc. We took photographs of the signs of Spring and discussed our findings.

Lifecycle of a butterfly

We've observed the lifecycle of a butterfly. We observed the caterpillars spin silk and grow. We saw them create cocoons and finally turn into butterflies. 

Lifecycle of a bean 

We've been exploring the lifecycle of a bean, from root to harvest.

Science week

The theme this year was time. We investigated apples and pears. We used our senses to describe the appearances and textures -we even tasted them! We observed how a chopped apple/pear changes over time.

Odds and evens 

We sorted the numicon using the criteria 'odd tops' or 'even tops.'

Colour mixing 

We explored and experimented with different colours in order to create a new colour. We observed how colours blend together and engaged in problem solving by testing different ways to achieve a certain colour.

Careers day

We celebrated Careers Day.

Through play, we learnt about different occupations, what they do and how they help people in our community.
Each area of our classroom was set up to support our learning and understanding of different occupations:
- Hairdressers 
- Builder 
- Chef game 
- Fashion designer 
- Garden center role play
- Painter and decorator
- Office worker 
- Doctors 

We also had a visit from a nurse. She talked about her job at Kings Mill Hospital and shared her equipment. 

Doubles

We used objects to make double patterns and described what we could see. We used the stem sentence: ____ is made of ____; ____ and ____ make ____. 

Messy play fun

We used our senses and explored the minibeasts in green spaghetti.

The sleepy bumblebee collage

We collaged a large bee. We practised a variety of different techniques. We scrunched the cellophane. We folded the paper. We tore the tissue paper. We rolled the paper and we used sponges and dabbed his face.

R.E. Our wonderful world 

We spent some time looking at and exploring the poster. We discussed: How do we look after the things in ‘our Wonderful World’? We talked about parts of the poster we liked and why. We also discussed other things we would like to see on the poster.

James Ketchell -Explorer visit 

We had a visit from James Ketchell. He shared his values of never giving up! We watched video clips and he talked about his experiences of rowing across the Atlantic ocean and climbing Mount. Everest. We enjoyed exploring his adventure kit. 

Little bug bingo

We took turns and played a matching game featuring a variety of minibeasts.

Growing grass

We've been observing the stages of plant growth. 

Forest learning -Minibeast hunt

We went on a minibeast hunt in the outside area. Our teacher drew our attention to where to look to find some minibeasts. We used magnifying glasses, bug pots to look more closely at the minibeast we found. We used an iPad to take photographs of our findings.

We collected worms to create a wormery. We discussed how worms like to live underground in damp soil.

Spring 2 Come Outside

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 week 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 and red money envelopes. We also painted Chinese symbols using black paint and practised using chopsticks in red rice. At the end of the week we enjoyed tasting Chinese food. We ended the day by watching a parade and listening to Chinese music.

Where do animals of the world like to live?

We sorted African and Polar animals into hot and cold habitats. We took turns when playing Where do I live? We matched different animals to their habitats.

Maths 

We engaged with activities that developed our understanding of composition, or the numbers within numbers.

Painting on foil 

We enjoyed painting on tinfoil. We used different shades of blue and white to create a winter feel. 

Winter trees

After our winter walk, we used charcoal to draw the bare winter trees. 

Kandinsky 

We explored the work of the artist Kandinsky. We talked about the different shapes, sizes and colours that we could see. We used a variety of art techniques to produce work with a variety of different effects.

• We drew circles on a circle template using crayons. 
• We painted circles on a circle template. 
• We painted circles on a square template. 
• Our paper was split into 4 sections, we painted circles in each section. 
• We painted circles in smaller squares. 

Counting, ordinality and cardinality

We continued to engage with activities that draw attention to the purpose of counting – to find out ‘how many’ objects there are.  The children also revisited the concept of cardinality – that the last number in the count tells us how many things there are altogether. We were provided with opportunities to hear, join in with and develop our knowledge of the counting sequence.

We're going on a polar bear hunt

Our story map was cut into sections. We had to work together to re-sequence them and use it to retell our story. 

We're going on a polar bear hunt 

We explored the sensory aspects of the story. 

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 took photographs of signs of winter and collected objects. We gathered together and discussed our findings.

Mastering number -subitizing

The children will use their perceptual subitising skills (seeing the quantity without counting) in increasingly complex arrangements, moving from dots in a line and arrangements of 2, to a focus on standard dice arrangements. For larger quantities, the children will begin to use skills of conceptual subitising, beginning to quickly see the sub-groups within these larger numbers.

Painting penguins 

We choose colours for a purpose and painted penguins. 

We’re going on a polar bear hunt

When we arrived at school, we found a big, dark cave in the classroom. I wonder who lives there?

Our teacher read the story ‘We’re going on a polar bear hunt.’We dramatized the story to allow us to experience and process the tale in a physical way. We watched video clips of the snowstorm in the story. We moved around the carpet in character and practiced tip-toeing towards the cave. We investigated ice to allow us to experience and process the story in a sensory way. We imagined what it would be like to walk across a frozen lake. We practiced retelling the story several times. We used actions to support retelling and to reinforce the meaning of the story.

Maths -shapes with 4 sides

We had a range of flat paper squares and rectangles for children to explore. We investigated which new shapes we could make by folding the paper shapes. We went on a shape hunt around the room. We pointed out where we could see squares and rectangles on everyday objects.

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. 

Spring 1 -The world around us