It has been another busy week and wow, it got off to a great start!
The children came in on Monday morning ready and eager to learn, immersing themselves into their morning lollipop activities and working hard to give everything a go.
In Maths this week our Early Years children have been strengthening their understanding of composition, or the numbers within numbers, with a key focus on representing a number using a die pattern. Within their maths they learnt a new song this week which they all loved called ‘Five little men in a flying saucer’ and have been fantastic at not only representing how many men were left in the flying saucer and how many had flown away but also showing a greater understanding of the composition of the number 5 as the week progressed!
Year One have also been busy finishing off their learning about Place Value within 20 and moving onto exploring addition within 20. They started the week exploring the greater than, less than and equals to (<, >, =) symbols, using these to make comparisons between two numbers and then used this knowledge to order three numbers, using the language they had learnt to discuss their findings.
Later on in the week they moved onto exploring addition within 20, counting on to find the total sum, practically at first and then by using a range of manipulatives to support them.
On Monday afternoon Year 1 continued to explore Aboriginal Art and wowed me with the amount they have learnt about Australia. We started the lesson by exploring a piece of Aboriginal Art and discussed the different colours that we were able to see within the painting. They then went on to explore recreating these colours, using power paint to mix colours together. At first Robins were a little hesitant to experiment, wanting to be told which colours to mix but they soon put our learning power hat on and had a go, persevering when it went wrong and celebrating in their victories!
“Mrs Brown, we made purple! We used blue and red!”, there was great excitement about this colour being made!
Whilst Year One were ‘down under’ exploring colouring mixing, our Early Years were super busy in the rainforest designing and making their own vehicles! They thought hard about what their vehicle would need and used our junk modelling to construct their ideas, great work Early Years!
In Jigsaw (PSHE) this week we continued to discuss how at times we may find different activities challenging and exploring how we could overcome these. From difficulties walking naughty dogs to challenges with riding without stabilizers, the children showed fantastic respect for each other, listening to each other’s current challenges, and even suggesting ways in which they could overcomes them.
On Tuesday afternoon Year One continued their science topic all about growth and began their scientific investigation, exploring what plants need to grow. We divided our investigation into 4 different way, our first pot had only a blue paper towel and seeds but would be watered and have sunlight, our second pot had a blue paper towel, soil, seeds, sun but no water, our third pot had a blue paper towel, soil, seeds and water but no sun and our final pot had a blue paper towel, soil, seeds, water and the sun! Which do you think will grow the best and why? Why not have a go at growing something at home and share your photos with us!
On Wednesday afternoon, we were feeling relaxed….we were taking part in Cosmic Yoga. Each child had their own Yoga Mat and off they went - I had very little to do other than stand back and watch how well the children listened, folowed and enjoyed.
On Thursday afternoon, we enjoyed a whole class computer lesson. We logged onto Purple Mash and completed an activity on Grouping and Sorting. After the activity the children explored the Paint programme in Purple Mash, the children were so engrossed, they worked in pairs and all you could see and hear were big smiles and lots of giggles.
Then on Friday….Wow what an amazing end to our week, supporting the NSPCC through our Number Day activities! It was so wonderful to see all the different number themed outfits that the children came in, from a number witch, Google number, to the number blocks, we loved them all! (click on the pictures to move them on)
During number day we explored the different manipulatives that we can use within the classroom to help us with our maths, exploring which ones we selected to use when adding on within 20. From the multilink, ten frames to using the Rekenrek, we had a wonderful morning of exploration and lots of excitement! We also spent time playing different maths games, from snakes and ladders to count and catch, the children enjoyed spending time exploring and having a go at each of them. (click on the pictures to move them on).
