Yr2's were tasked with writing an advert to sell a cow (Jack's cow from Jack and the Beanstalk). The children worked really well together and supported each other in finding different keys on the I-pad keyboard, the smiley faces etc... 

We were looking at grouping and so we did it using children in hoops, cubes in hoops and created part-whole models as well. Reception and Year 1 worked really well together. 

Reception children accessing the provision and applying what they are learning. 

Reception children made their families out of the natural materials,  the class had collected earlier in the term. We talked about where we belong and the children all said with family. We discussed how each family is made up differently such as, some children have 2 sisters whereas another child may have no siblings. We then talked about what we do with our family. 

We worked in groups to create a zoo. Children have been working on their zoo map to show what they have at the zoo and discussions as to how much entry would be and why etc.... 

Forest school was a little bit different this week as we had to use the playground area rather than the Eco space due to the area still being water logged. Children enjoyed the activities of stripping bark of sticks using a peeler and decorating their stick with wool and other materials such as conkers. 

Year 2 children have enjoyed creating a life cycle diagram using real plants and labelling. 

Year 1 have been making a life cycle out of playdough explaining the steps. 

Forest School

We were blessed with the weather this week, the sun was shining and it was warm allowing the children to remove their rain coats and freely run around. Lauren had brought in ropes and it was great to see the children using their creative skills to build  a den using the ropes to move logs and branches and putting them carefully in their place. 

They built a pretend fire using paper and twigs then Lauren had brought in fire lighters which they were all eager to have a go to see who was first to get a spark! I am pleased to report that they were all very successful.  A fun and an adventurous afternoon was had by all.

The year 2s really unpicked the 6 days leading up the last day of creation as busy and hettic which can be seen around the outside of the image. The children then dug into the 7th day and what a day of rest actually means.  

Wow! We had a bear cub in the classroom yesterday. The children had many different views as to why the cub was in our room one was that it was baby bear who had come to borrow one of our tiny chairs as Goldilocks had broken their chair. However, the bear slept all day which allowed all children to carefully stroke the bear. This visit inspired our letter writing  for the year 1 and 2 children and the Receptions in their retelling of the traditional tale. 

Reception and Year 1 took part in a flag workshop to learn about how we can use flags to retell stories from the Bible. 

Year 1s have been exploring the different maths resources and which are the easiest to use to create a number line. Children have lived out our school value of teamwork. 

We have all worked really hard to grow our beanstalks and had a great discussion as to why some were taller than others, why some were a different colour and why some hadn't grown very well at all. These were based on the conditions we had provided for our beans to grow such as no / little light, cold, warm, light. 

Receptions have been building up their fine motor skills by mark making in flour and trying to write the sounds we have taught so far. 

Reception had a lovely circle time with Mrs. Ellis to unpick what makes us special and why. 

Using the provision to support our learning of number, sounds and much more. 

WOW! what a lovely morning we had a great time listening  and sharing poems and our own creations through the poetry workshop we each created an individual monster. 

Our beans have started to sprout even the ones which had lots of water, in the dark cupboard and even the fridge. However, there is a noticeable difference between them. 

The receptions have worked with Mrs Fryer to make silly soup with initial sounds they have been taught so far. The children then tried rhyming words such as, cat, mat, pat etc... 

The children had a great discussion around road safety and how to behaviour around roads. Please ensure you talk to your children at home how to keep themselves safe when walking or crossing a road. 

Another lovely afternoon spent in the Eco garden.  Lots of amazing adventures were had on the hammocks, playing with the pully rope, looking for bugs and finding the gnomes (which everyone loves).  Today Lauren brought in organic apples and a special peeler of which the children loved the experience of peeling their own apple.  

We had the opportunity to share children's success with their outside of school adventures. 

Children were following  instructions to build a specific tower or shape. 

We used IT to find out more about the significant individual we are learning about in History which is Emily Davision. 

We have had a great time exploring plants and planting bean. 

Yr 2s are conducting an experiment as to whether the beans need more light, water or warmth. 

Another week at Forest School, the sun was shining and the children once again had lots of fun.  Lauren introduced a hammock and a pully which was very popular showing team work. More bugs and creatures were found whilst exploring and hunting for the gnomes (pretend!) and ladybird stones, very exciting!

We retold the creation story and explored the idea of what the Creator (God) might be like as well as exploring ourselves and who we are and how we know others. 

Forest School

Reception class enjoying their first day at Forest School, playing with nature, running around in the mud and rain  they weren't bothered, they were just having fun.  Making conker necklaces, stroking slugs, catching spiders and looking for more of God's creatures to enjoy.

One thread on its own could not have done it, just as one person on their own cannot make a family or class or a church. Everyone is important (humility).

We have had a morning full of exciting investigation of what happens when we add water to sand. 

Children have investigated the scene and had some CCTV photos from the school security. They have pieced together what has happened and found that the little pigs came through the blue door first, had a picnic in the room and then played in the house before the Big Bad Wolf came through an knocked down the house and then ate all three of the little pigs apart from their curly pink tails. 

Children used a mirror to explore different emotions and what they look like  on their own faces. We then discussed what makes us special, unique and individuals. 

We started being testing our reflexes:

How our pupil size changes when going from dark to light. 

How we automatically grab the ruler when being dropped. 

Making noise and seeing who turns to the sound. 

We then worked in groups to look at how plants carry water to different parts of a plant. This investigation didn't work as the pieces of celery didn't drink the dyed water to show how water is transported around. This allowed us to have a great discussion about science experiments and how sometimes they don't work. We shared our thoughts on what a fair test is and what could we change next time.

Receptions have started their phonic journey with listening to the sounds around us in God's world. We went on a wet walk around the playground and discussed how our hoods on our coats made it a little tricky to hear or changed the noise. 

We heard birds, cars, leaves and the wind blowing things. 

We have had a great morning hot seating as police officers and witnesses of the crime scene in Parks' classroom.  We have had some amazing language such as, suspicious and mystery. 

We have been looking at repeating patterns using different colours and shapes. Children have also used their fine motor skills; using their pincer grip to select the colour pegs and place them into the peg board. 

We came into school on Monday to a Crime Scene! 

Someone had come through the Traditional Tale door and knocked down the house. We had a great discussion about the evidence we could see and who we thought it could be and why.  Some of the suggestions were:

"The three little pigs because there is pink curly tales. Maybe they did it by accident."

"A dog on a walk."

"The big bad wolf has eaten the three little pigs because he was hungry."

The year 2s worked amazingly as a team to build a house made from bricks and cement from our traditional tale ‘The three little pigs’. We have been discusSing what meat we get from farm animals such as pigs. Please recap this at home. 

The year ones and reception have been working independently to build their own house for a little pig to live in. This led onto a discussion around what the building are called in pig fields which are called pigloos to keep piglets safe. 

Our PSHE topic is all about me and we started off by looking at our reflection. 

We have had lots of fun exploring our outdoor provision especially loving the water tray and trying to get the water to other parts of the provision using the drain pipes. The construction area has also been a big hit building a second bus that was going to Oakwood as our blue one was going to London. 

We held a treasure hunt in the classroom finding where all of our resources are. The children worked well together supporting one another. 

Over the summer there has been a little blue wooden door appear in the classroom. As a class we are currently debating who lives behind the door or where does the door lead. So far we have had suggestions of fairies, snails and Komodo dragons. 

The children were very excited about the writing they have found around school. The children have discussed it together and through this found more in different places. The children have been great at using their observational skills to spot this. The children are suspecting it is fairy writing. 

It has been lovely to see and hear all about our children’s summer holidays. It is clear to see that children have enjoyed learning new skills such as swimming, golf and so much more as well as developing on skills they already have such as reading by completing the summer reading challenge led by libraries.