Some people say that in teaching no two days are ever the same and I completely agree, what I also say is that every day the children make me smile and laugh!
We started the week discussing the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee and the different celebrations that will be taking place both in school and in the locality. The children were quite amazed when we discussed the Queen’s age – it did not really mean a lot until we said that she is older than the school!!! “She must be so healthy” said Oscar “She must eat a lot of broccoli” said Evey, “This might sound funny but I think she probably does gymnastics” said Macy (I think you might be right Macy… but in her younger day I advised!). “I think she drinks a lot of tea and not many fizzy drinks” said Seb “…and only a little bit of cake and one sandwich” said Alexi…..”and brushes her teeth in the morning and the night” said Hollie. Then I chipped in …..and walks her dogs every day to which there was silence……a long silence and a few strange looks in my direction “her guards do that not the Queen” said the children - clearly my suggestion was not up to scratch!
We will continue with our Royal Family discussions next week - we will be talking about the Queen’s children, grandchildren and great grandchildren. Therefore for this week’s weekend wonder…..
Weekend Wonder
I wonder if you could look at and discuss your family tree, using the language of grandparents, parents and children and grandchildren.
We are busy making crafts for the jubilee celebrations – I don’t want to reveal too much - all I can say is that I hope as many of you as possible will, at some point throughout the day on June 4th, make your way to St. Mary’s Church in the village to see the flower display and celebrate your child’s efforts with them.
Part of our craft involved colour mixing – now for those of you who know me quite well you will know that art and craft is not my forte. However, I absolutely love exploring colour mixing with powder paint. There are so many learning opportunities that can arise from the children mixing their own powder paints. Mixing their own paints helps with fine and gross motor skills, hand-eye coordination, organisational skills and spatial awareness. Most crucial of all, the increased independence and sense of satisfaction the children gain from being in control of their own mixing is immense. Whilst I was taking these photos, again there was absolute silence in the class apart from the ‘helper’ who was keen to top up clean water when needed – I watched in awe as the children used the step by step approach that I had explained only once – the concentration, focus and independence was incredible - I felt quite emotional!
In Show and Tell this week there were no moments of silence – it was full of talk and questions, we heard about a wasps nest, birds eggs, a telescope from Devon, photos of friends, singing with a microphone, Pokemon cards, toys etc – it really was a wide ranging and lively session! Please feel free to bring in any interesting objects as it makes the session engaging for all, often introducing us to new subjects that we know very little about.
I wondered why this Robin had turned all the frogs upside down…..she had decided to play ‘pairs’ using the frogs and turned them over one at a time in order to find a matching frog - quite interesting!
Independent sentence writing using the ‘air’ trigraph
Phonics - yes / no game
Just before our welly walk we went on a ‘sensory run’ - shoes and socks off and run across the carpet, the astro turf, the track, the path the grass - which was your favourite?
The whole school enjoyed a visit from Mr. Gareth Beard who brought in his Tesla car…..
On Thursday we enjoyed a special Jubilee picnic outside in the sunshine.
Problem solving and construction during Forest School
The wasp’s nest
This group of Robins decided to find out how many frogs they could fit on the bridge - accuarate counting was required!
Djembe drumming and maracas in Pantomimus
Phonics - applying the learning to writing
We just love our welly walks - and with all this beautiful countryside right on our doorstep you can understand why - how lucky are we?
Some of us even got to sit in the driving seat!
We then went on to discuss electricity and solar power….our water fountains are solar powered and we discovered that when the sun goes behind the clouds the fountains are low and when the sun shines brightly the fountains spray high!
The rain managed to hold off for us to enjoy Forest School without the need for waterproof clothing.
Leaf bashing which MIGHT be made into bunting….ooppss have I let out a little secret!
In Phonics……
Next week is a very short week (Mon, Tues and Wednesday), therefore we will be having a consolidation week of all the sounds we have learnt so far.
Phase 2
s,a,t,p,i,n,m,d,g,o,c,k,ck,e,u,r,h,b,f,ff,ll,ss
Phase 3
j,v,w,x,y, z, zz, qu, ch, sh, th, ng, ai, ee, igh, oa, oi, oo, oo, ow, ar, air, ear,
After half term we will also recap
er, ur, or, ure
If you wish, please return the blue phonics letter formation books so that they can be updated before half term and also return the Common Exception Words zipper wallets so that they too can be updated.