What a busy end to our week in Oak Class.

We explored the book 'Oliver's Vegetables' by Vivian French and artwork by Guiseppe Arcimboldo to inspire our learning. Firstly, we collaborated our ideas and named as many different fruit and vegetables as we could, creating a word bank and researching any we were unfamiliar with. On Thursday, we used real produce to make our own version of Arcimboldo's portrait work, choosing appropriate shapes for different body parts. On Friday, we printed with vegetables and fruit, to create a different version of a portrait. 

We have also enjoyed creating our Farm Shop role play area together, using loose parts to engage our imaginations and some pictures of real produce too. By using loose parts such as shells, felt balls, wooden cups, stones and pebbles and rings, the children can explore, create and imagine at their own discretion adding their own purpose and meaning to each object in their play. What we as adults may see as a pebble in a plastic lid could be an ice cream to one child, or a stem of broccoli to another.

Most children enjoyed exploring playdough and runner bean seeds, a variety of life cycle puzzles, mini-beasts in compost and a huge selection of our library topic books within continuous provision. 

During PE this week, we have focussed on our gross motor development skills and dynamic movements, learning to link movements, work together in small groups, practising cricket based skills, and enjoying fantastic parachute games too!

In Maths, we have been learning about the properties of various 3D shapes. We will continue this next week too.

I hope you have a lovely weekend.

Take care,

Mrs Nuthall

Happy Monday everyone- here is last week's belated blog!
We had an exciting week last week on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday with Miss Prince learning all about how plants grow and their lifecycles. We even started writing a journal to track the growth and life of the sunflowers we planted! In maths we were learning all about sharing in equal groups - the children had a lovely time sharing cubes and picnics for different creatures and always making it fair.
At Forest School we were learning about bugs and drawing them outside including writing some labels for them with our new outdoor writing kit. 

Then on Thursday and Friday, the children looked at another bird life cycle with Mrs Nuthall. 

On Thursday and Friday, our learning was inspired by the book Owl babies by Martin Waddell. We  listened  to the story and explored different activities within our continuous provision, such as role play, fork owl art, pencil control and opportunities for independent caption writing too,

During PE, we practised and developed our running skills and our very important listening skills too, waiting for instructions and following them carefully. 

In Maths, we continued to learn about 2D shapes, making different pictures using them. We enjoyed a shape hunt too.

This week, we will be learning about why trees are important for the world and how planting them can help the planet in forest school. If anyone has a spade we can borrow on Wednesday, please let Miss Prince know on Dojo or in the morning. 

Hope you all had a lovely weekend, 
Miss Prince, Mrs Nuthall and the Oak Class Team. 

The children have enjoyed learning all about our new wider curriculum topic, Growing! After reading the story of Brenda’s Boring Egg, we learnt all about the life cycle of a duck, decorated our own beautiful eggs with cotton buds, wrote captions for different parts of the life cycle and had a go at drawing our own ducks and ducklings from real life photographs using pencils.

In Maths this week we have been learning about 2D shapes, introducing new shape names and looking for these in the environment. We have discussed the different properties of the shapes and made comparisons to everyday objects.
We have had time to explore the outdoor learning environment too, making the most of the beautiful Spring sunshine and playing games with our friends.
 
It has been great to return to Oak Class following my maternity leave, and I look forward to the wonderful learning that this Summer Term will bring.

Take care,

Mrs Nuthall.

This week we've been learning all about castles and dragons! The children designed their own dragon and described them in their writing books using their new adjectives they have been learning about. We made hand print dragon pictures and have been building all kinds of castles. We even watched Mike the Knight while we waited to go outside at lunch time for some inspiration (the children were amazed to learn that there are water dragons too, not just fire ones!)

The next thing we did, very excitingly, was design our own dream castle or fairy tale building. Once they had drawn and labelled it, they started to make it with box modelling and we have started to do some colourful papier mache on them. While we were building them and trying to choose the best boxes and bottles to use, we watched a range of amazing cardboard houses being made on Youtube and it was lovely to see the children drawing inspiration from them to make their own doors, balconies, windows and even staircases. (watch this space to see the finished result)

In maths, we have been learning all about adding and taking away starting with watching some number blocks to see how we can use our own numberblocks cubes to help us with our adding and taking away. We have all been so impressed by how well the children understand their numbers and are loving how excited they get to count and share their answers on the carpet now too. 

In Forest School this week, we joined Acorn and Willow class outside around the fire to make our own drawing charcoal... and perhaps a sneaky Marshmallow too. It was wonderful watching all the children working together and we even gathered by the fire at the end of the day for a story together. 

Between the website being down last week and technical issues at my end, its been a little while since I posted, but there's so much to share!

As we continued on our journey through time, we headed to Ancient Egypt in Oak class. We explored 3D shapes with  lots of different construction materials and tried to build our own pyramids and temples. We were in awe that they moved the temple of Abu Simbel in 1967 to protect it from rising water! (Monster Moves Abu Simbel episode is well worth a watch!)
​We also wrote our names in hieroglyphs and had a go at making our own mummies! 

 It was an exciting week in phonics as almost all of the children have moved up a group! So be sure to ask about their new group and look out for some new books coming home too!

At Forest School this past 2 weeks, we have been not only exploring the environment (and having lots of muddy fun!) but focusing on our physical skills with the rope course. We have had 3 different swings for the children to try out and even had a new Rope Ladder to help us to get onto the course. 

Well this week we travelled through the ages and learned all about the pirate life. 
From designing flags and ships to making our own floating vessels to test on our new water table next week. The children had some fantastic ideas and observations about floating and sinking and made predictions about whether a range of vessels would sink. They learned so much about what shape and features their own boats would need to be, I am very much looking forward to seeing how their designs work. 
At forest school this week, the children had a wonderful time in the mud, exploring which trees can be climbed at school and balancing around the log circle. 
To help us explore what life on the seas was like, during snack time we have been watching a Pirate Movie set in Victorian times so that children could see how difficult it was at sea (albeit with a little imagination around a the last Dodo too). 
Next week, we're going to be finishing our work on pirates and moving on to learning al about Ancient Egypt (a true favourite of mine) so expect lots of pictures of construction and symbols and maybe even a few mummies here and there.  

Well as much as much as we would love to continue learning about Autumn, as snow has fallen in much of the country, there is no denying that winter has arrived and with it, Christmas is on its way. 
The children were learning the Nativity story this week using our new set of "Story Spoons" to help them act out each of the characters. They are very excited and already taking on their roles for the Nativity which we will be starting to film in the coming week. 

We've also started practising our songs for the Nativity (I apologise in advance for the constant refrains of "Little Donkey" that I am sure you are experiencing at home right now). They've also been practising rhythms and patterns with Miss Boyce in music.

The children helped me to build our new drying rack for our paintings this week. They are becoming much more confident using tools and really love helping to develop our classroom as more brilliant new things are arriving. ​

Many of the children moved up a group in phonics this week. We are incredibly impressed with the progress they are making in their reading and writing. Thank you all for your help with reading and practising sounds at home - it really makes a huge difference and is paying dividends in class. As the weeks go on, you may notice that your child's books may change as they begin moving up through the levels. I am sure you will be glad too as they learn to read more words and have different stories to read to you each night. 
Next week, Christmas begins in earnest in Oak class. We will be decorating our tree on Wednesday and I am certain that Elfina is going to be up to her old tricks... be sure to ask the children what she's been up to each day. 
We have our Christmas Post Box set up now so if you want to start Christmas cards, feel free to post them into the box when you come to school in the morning. 
Thank you to everyone who has sent in material to make costumes with - I am going to be very busy at the sewing machine this week I think!
Hope you have all had a lovely weekend and are refreshed and ready for the coming run up to Christmas!
From Miss Prince and the Team. 

This week Autumn fell in Oak class. We started our week with an Autumn walk and found lots of evidence that autumn had arrived: from the fallen leaves to the weather and mushrooms to evidence of small animals looking for acorns (the seeds not the children(!) of course)
Then, after reading a wonderful story "Don't Hog the Hedge!", the children made their own pictures of hibernating animals and then sorted animals by whether or not they hibernate- we were all very impressed with the children's knowledge about different animals and why they hibernate. 

We were very lucky to have lots of exciting deliveries this week too - thanks again to FONTS for their hard work raising money that has allowed us to make such an exciting new environment for the children to learn in. Be sure to ask the children what new things they have been learning with. A particular favourite this week, and perfectly timed, has been the natural wood building blocks materials. They have been everything from gardens and palaces to furniture and roads. The children have been amazing with them!

Our other focus this week has been... you guessed it... Christmas is coming so the nativity is hot off the press. We've been learning all about why Christmas is special to Christians and learning the story of Jesus' birth. Very soon, children will be finding out who or what they are going to be in the Nativity- keep your eyes peeled for updates on how it will be released this year. And be sure to keep a clean tea towel handy for the costume appeals!

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend.
​From Miss Prince and the team. 

Welcome to Autumn 2 every body- always my favourite term with so many exciting events to work with! 

This week has been so busy! 
We have been learning about and celebrating Diwali and Fireworks Night this week! 
We learned the story of Diwali and all about Rama and Sita and why Diwali is celebrated by Hindus, Sikhs and even some Buddhists! Then we made our own diva lamps from clay and painted them too. We decorate Mendhi Hands and also made our own fireworks pictures. 
On Friday, we even had a Diwali feast where the children (and Miss Penny and our special visitor the Executive Principal Mr Whitley) got to try some traditional Diwali celebration food- Pakoras, Bhajis and Samosas. 
​ 

Its been a week for making things too- with the builders busy making our new Outdoor space, the children have been making diggers and cranes. We also worked together to put up our new storage centre for outside - the children used hand drills and screw drivers to put it up!

I am incredibly proud of the class too for their Phonics work this week- we have started 3 different Phonics groups now and every child has risen to the challenge. We even had a visitor on Thursday in to watch our amazing class in Phonics who was blown away by how hard they are working and how well they have engaged with the Read Write Inc Phonics scheme. Thank you all for your hard work at home too!

Hope you all have a lovely, safe weekend this fireworks night. 
From Kaydee and the Team