This week we have been travelling around the world and exploring the animals that live on different parts of the planet.
This allowed us to recap on the continents, on habitats and environments and to also think about similarities and differences in climate, language, culture and food. On Monday, we journeyed to Australia where we learned about marsupials, crocodiles, kookaburras and the duck-billed platypus. Mrs Ware convinced us that Koalas are NOT bears and taught us a song about Kookaburras. We also created some animal pictures using aborigine inspired dot painting. Of course we also worked hard on our phonics, maths and drawing club on Monday morning. As we are preparing for transition, we have begun going out to play rather than having a break and snack in the classroom. The children all did this really sensibly for the first time on Monday and enjoyed being outside with the rest of the school. Tuesday's exploration took us to The Arctic and Antarctic to discover which animals live in the polar regions. We learnt how many animals change colour at different times of the year to camouflage amongst their white environment. We made penguins from black playdough, pipe cleaners, white fluff and googly eyes. The children enjoyed playing with animals from the polar regions in our tuff tray, using the resources provided to create suitable environments. Children also tried to see how many animals they could fit onto an 'iceberg'. Our drawing club text this week is one of Mrs Ware's favourite's: Little Rabbit Foo Foo and we have drawn the Rabbit as well as the Goblins in their 'habitat'. In maths on Tuesday, we explored patterns within numbers to 10, practising doubles and thinking about how quantities can be distributed equally. As usual, the children worked really hard in their phonics lesson too. Wednesday and Thursday took us to Africa and in particular 'The Gambia' and 'Kenya'. We explored the stories of 'Fatou fetch the water' and 'Handa's surprise' and we explored the different animals, foods and clothes there. We made pictures of animals in their habitats, played with animals you might expect to see on safari and listened to another child in our school who used to live in Africa and they told us they had seen crocodiles, monkeys, giraffes and antelopes! We continued working hard in phonics, drawing club and maths, where we have been focusing on number formation. On Thursday afternoon Marion popped in again and read a French story about French school fetes (very apt for Fonts Fest this weekend) and we compared similarities and differences. We then had a sack race (a traditional game in France at a school fete) where we all raced against each other and Arlo was crowned our winner! In our creative lessons we have designed and begun making our kites in preparation for Rainbow Day next week! Lets hope they fly! We have had another busy and lovely week in school. Have a great weekend! Miss Ruby and Mrs Ware.
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This week, we continued exploring the world within our topic of Ready Steady Go! This week we asked the children "Where shall we go?"
On Monday, the children recalled their knowledge of the continents and countries and we considered the different environments including the climate and the landscape in those countries. The children thought about what they would need to take with them and cut out and stuck appropriate items into a suitcase. They wrote postcards home or wrote about where they would go and why. Of course, as usual, we had our daily phonics and maths lesson and the children were delighted with our drawing club film this week which was a Minions mini-movie. Mornings now consist of mostly structured learning, ensuring that children are ready for the transition to year one. On Tuesday in our maths lesson, the focus was on assessing and deepening the children’s understanding of our counting system. The activities provided opportunities for further counting experiences. On Tuesday afternoon in our P.E. lesson the children practised some of the activities they will be doing on sports day. They worked well as a team and enjoyed the challenge of the different activities. We also thought about holidays especially beach holidays and the children enjoyed playing with our beach themed tough tray and used shells to print into clay to see what patterns they could create. On Wednesday we continued with phonics, independent learning time, maths and drawing club, followed by French with Marion during the afternoon. We spent some time recapping words and actions, listening to French nursery rhymes and then playing a game. As usual the children loved it and wanted to play it all afternoon. We then enjoyed some time outside and took part in Singing assembly, where we started to learn a new song to sing for our Sports Day. On Thursday we continued with phonics, independent learning time, maths, drawing club, followed by R.E in the afternoon. We shared some children's Bibles with the class, discussed how they were different and similar and then shared the story of Noah's ark. Some of the children decided to build ark's out of blocks and draw pictures of the animals inside it! On Friday we continued with phonics and independent learning time, but then went outside on the field for P.E. We practised sprinting and long distance in preparation for Sports Day. During the afternoon we focused on sun safety, by watching a short video and looking at what we do to keep us safe in the sun! Slip, slap, slop! Have a wonderful weekend! Thank you. ![]() On Monday this week all the children worked really hard in their phonics' lesson. All the children are now learning the set 2 sounds which are ay, ee, igh, oo, oo, ar, or, air, ir, ou, oy and some have also moved on to the set 3 sounds which are: : ea, oi, a-e, i-e, o-e, u-e, aw, are, ur, er, ow, ai, oa, ew, ire, ear, ure. All the children are now bringing home book bag books to read with you at home linked to the sounds they are learning at school. We hope you are enjoying listening to your child read regularly at home and also continuing to share your child's favourite stories. In maths we reviewed the number skill of comparison by deciding who had more and who had fewer (cubes or toys etc.) In music we were exploring tempo - how slow or fast the music was - we used movement as well as playing instruments at different speeds to try out the musical element following a simple musical score. In the afternoon, we finally had the opportunity to have a go at creating our own bee hotel. With support, the children cut some bamboo canes and stuck them inside a large cardboard roll to create a suitable home for solitary bees to lay their eggs. With any luck, the females will lay their eggs inside the stems of our hotel. If they do, each egg will be left with a store of pollen for the grub to eat when it hatches. The egg is sealed up behind a plug of mud, in a ‘cell’, and one cane may end up with several ‘cells’ in it. On Tuesday, we continued our hard work in phonics and maths as well as exploring the story of the magic porridge pot, our drawing club story this week. After retelling this story the children invented a home for the wizard from the story and used their phonic skills in their adventure code, many of them choosing to use the magic words: "stop little pot stop". On Tuesday afternoon, after our PE lesson exploring the weather, we went outside and made our own 'magic porridge'. The children absolutely loved playing with the gloopy mixture. We also painted our bee hotel to try and attract bees. On Wednesday we had a busy day of phonics, drawing club, maths, R.E and outdoor activities. In R.E. we brought in our favourite books from home to share and tell our friends why they were our favourites. It was a lovely thing to do and some of the children even drew their front covers. We also began our Father's Day cards too! On Thursday we had another busy day of phonics, drawing club, maths and French with Marion. This was a wonderful lesson and we created a class masterpiece all about 'Father's Day', or 'Bonne Fete Papa!' We recapped words we have learnt in the past, read a story about colours and then by playing a listening game about parts of the face, we drew pictures of our dads and collated them together to create a beautiful work of art. Thank you Marion for giving up your time! The children love your sessions and have learnt so much in such a short space. On Friday we continued with phonics, drawing club and a maths activity. P.E. was cut short due to the weather. During the afternoon, we discussed weather and the seasons and then continued to have independent learning. The children have worked very hard this week and we have had a wonderful time together. I think our photos say it all! Welcome back to the final half term in Oak Class for you and your child. This half term we will be doing a lot more in terms of transition to year 1 so that they will be ready to hit the ground running when they return in September. This week for example, the children have started lining up and collecting their own lunch in the dinner hall instead of having their lunch brought to them. They have managed this really well and no accidents - so far!! In line with transition and moving on, our overarching theme this half term is called "Ready Steady Go". On Monday, we began thinking about this theme by talking about where we live and what it is like here in England before we start thinking about travelling to other places. The children began making their own little 'homes' with lolly sticks which they then drew their families inside. In drawing club, we read a familiar story - The colour Monster, a story all about feelings and the colours which match those feelings. This led us to talk about the learning zones which are used throughout key stage one and two. In music on Monday, the link to our theme was through transport. We began learning a new song and added some sound effects of trains, boats and cars. We also used the Beebots (programmable toys) to travel around a map and this involved moving the Beebots forwards and backwards and turning left and right. On Tuesday, our role play area became a train station where the children had fun buying tickets, waiting at the station and then boarding the train - many of them said they were going to Hollywood! We have been using the Rekenreks in maths which are counting frames, similar to an abacus. It has ten beads on each row, five white and five red which supports the development of number sense. On Wednesday we learnt all about D Day, why we remember it, why this year was so important and looked at where Year 6 have gone on their residential in France. We then all made parachutes with a Union Jack on the top and let them go from the top of the decking to watch them glide onto the field. This created so much enthusiasm! As part of our ongoing transition to Year 1 the children will now be attending every Wednesday assembly. This is usually a singing assembly, but today I led assembly all about D Day and we listened to a special song called the longest day. On Thursday we spent some time learning French with Marion. We were introduced to the month of June and French traditions that happen then. We learnt some new key words with actions and revisited old ones! The children were able to recall a wide range of words! Then we listened to a story about colours, which involved all the children and was great fun! Finally we went outside to all find a 'magic wand' (stick) that we could use in our abracadabra game. This was a lovely way to end our French lesson. We continued to play and finish off our parachutes outside before attending assembly with Mr Cutler, who spoke to us about D Day- and sacrifice. On Friday we ended the week with a fantastic PE lesson on the school field in preparation for our Olympic themed sports day (2nd July). We practised bean bag throwing, balancing, passing, running and had a great time with lots of smiles! Congratulations to Vinnie, our star of the week! |
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