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The Good Shepherd

Catholic Primary School

“I am the Good Shepherd; I know my own and my own know me”. John 10:14"

Year 3 - St Joan of Arc

Stations of The Cross

In English we wrote non-chronological reports. Firstly, we researched an animal of our choice. We created sub headings and wrote paragraphs including all of the research that we collated. Afterwards, we used Chromebooks and Ipads to type up our reports, thus creating our own version of a Wiki page. 

Using Colour to Create Form

Today we used oil pastels to draw a still life of an apple, using different layers of colour.

We set up an apple on white paper (so that any cast shadow is clear) so that everyone had a clear view of it.

 

Today we explored the parable of The Prodigal Son. We explored how we can ask God for forgiveness when we do the wrong thing, and God helps us to forgive others too! 

MONEY MONEY MONEY!!!

Skittleball Tournament

Well done to the Year 3 skittleball team who represented the school at the Hammersmith and Fulham Borough tournament. They played exceptionally well as a team and won a total 6 our of 7 games, finishing 2nd in their group. 

Locating Egypt on a Map!

Year 3 used atlases to help them locate Egypt on a map. The pupils had various elements to located with their talk partner. 

Features of a Newspaper

We are working towards writing our very own newspaper report. In our table groups, we labelled the key features of a newspaper. 

Art - Still Life

In Art we are learning about still life. We looked at the similarities and differences between different still life paintings. We looked at Andy Warhol's Marmite pop art. We discussed the colours he used in the painting. We were given a cut out of the centre of the painiting and had to complete the rest. We had to use paint and mix colours to accurately match the colours in the original painting.

Geography - Becoming River Trip Tour Guides!

Pupils became river tour guides today and brought the entire class down 'The Amazon' on a 'boat'. Children researched facts about the river and created their very own interactive and informative script to support them inleading their tour. It was very exciting, even Mrs Lavelle came to look at some! 

Children’s Mental Health Week 2023 (6th -12th February)

This year’s theme is Let’s Connect. Let’s Connect is about making meaningful connections. People thrive in communities, and this connection is vital for our wellbeing. When we have healthy connections – to family, friends and others – this can support our mental health and our sense of wellbeing. For Children’s Mental Health Week 2023, we’re encouraging people to connect with others in healthy, rewarding and meaningful ways. Our school councillor held a whole school assembly, talking about connecting with each other and how this can impact our mental health.  In class, we looked at the different ways we are connected and created our own connection link.

Year 3 have been learning about rivers this half term. Pupils have been exploring the features of a river, rivers in Europe, The River Nile and finally the Amazon. Pupils carried out their own research on The Amazon to support them in creating a script and becoming river trip tour guides on their very own boat down the Amazon!

Maths - Using Weighing Scales

We have been learning about mass in Maths. Children worked on pairs to predict the mass of items in our classroom then estimate their weigh before using a weighing to find the actual mass. 

English - Fact Finding

Pupils are continuing to prepare to write their propaganda letter to Mr. Zuckerman. Today, pupils researched facts to support their writing and help them build an argument. 

Pupils explored the riverside environment of the River Thames. Pupils went to Hammersmith Bridge where they observed the foreshore, tide, surrounding areas, animals and river features. 

Persuasion! Should Mr. Zuckerman kill Wiblur?

We are preparing to write a propaganda letter to Mr. Zuckerman to try and persuade him not to kill Wilbur for his Christmas dinner. Today we worked in our tables groups to create reasons why we think Wilbur should be saved. 

Testing the Strength of Magnets!

Today in science, we investigated the strength of different magnets. To test the strength of magnets we held up different magnets to see how many paperclips it supported. We learnt that there are some things that can weaken the strength of a magnet over time, such as heat, electrical current, and damage from being dropped or bashed around. If magnets are not affected by these things, they can keep a magnetic force for hundreds of years!

Year 3 have been busy researching, designing and creating pneumatic systems over the past few weeks. Today, we completed our final project and created our very own pneumatic toy. We picked a farm animal linking to our English text, Charlotte's Web. 

Year 3 busy making and testing the pneumatic systems. 

Year 3 went on a school trip to the science museum. We started in the flight gallery, then explored the Wonderlab and finished with the 'Feel the Force' show. 

Computing - Understanding the internet and computer networks

Today pupils looked at how the internet works in a similar way to transportation networks. Just as train networks carry people around, the internet carries data around. There are different ways to get to the same destination both in train networks and the internet. Some routes may be busier than others and/or have problems slowing traffic down. Everyone was given a starting point and a destination on the network. Their job was to come up with a route from their starting point to their destination, they needed to identify where they needed to stop to change trains and which line they were travelling on.

E-Safety - Trademark v's Copyright

Today pupils modelled a network and sent messages to each other around it.

The Lost Sheep - Role Play

Science - Exploring Magnetism

Today we did mini investigation in our classroom using magnets. We learnt that a magnet is attracted to metal. Magnets can either repel or attract metals, but not all! We used magnets to test the magnetism of different objects in our class. In pairs, we predicted whether we thought the magnet would repel or attract the object. After predicting, we investigated and wrote down our observations.  

Music Strings Workshop

Science Investigation!

We are learning about magnets and forces this half term. Today we did an investigation. we explored friction and learned that some forces need two surfaces to touch in order to the force to occur, friction is one of these. It is a contact force. After developing our knowledge we investigated the friction produced between toy race cars and different floor surfaces on a ramp. 

Maths - Length in cm and m

Pupils worked in groups to guess the length of four objects in our classroom, measure the length of the objects and say whether the objects they measured were longer or shorter than 1m. 

Pupils took part in the A-life Healthy workshop. They had a hands-on experience, allowing all to delve in and explore for themselves, the various activities based on healthy lifestyles. Pupils engaged in variety of different activities set up around the hall in stations. Year 3 and 4 pupils worked together to explore various scenarios and topics linking to PSHRE, PE and Science. 

Today pupils explored computer networks. We first looked at the different networks that we already know of; social networks and train networks. They learned that the computed network consists of the computer and the connecting hardware (WIFI access points, cables, fibres, switches and routers) that make it possible to transfer data using an agreed method (‘protocol’). Pupils worked in pairs to recreate our school network. 

Multi-skills - Ball skills in handball, netball and skittleball

Pupils are developing the skills used in netball, handball and skittleball. Pupils are gaining an awareness of transferable skills and how the same skills can be used in various sports. Today pupils focused on passing and keeping possession. The term defender was introduced and pupils each had a turn at defending the ball from the opposition. Pupils developed their passing and communication skills. Pupils became more aware of the importance of movement when looking for a pass. 

Feast of The Epiphany

Today we celebrated the Feast of The Epiphany. We went to mass in the morning and learnt about The Feast of The Epiphany on the 6th of January and also looked at Spanish traditions. We learnt that on the 5th January, there is a big parade in Spain to welcome the Three Wise Men. They pass by on floats throwing sweets to the masses. At home, Spanish children leave food and water for the Three Kings (called Melchor, Gaspar, and Baltasar) and their camels, before going to bed. Also, kids leave their shoes out so the kings know who lives there. After that, families have a special cake for breakfast: El roscón de Reyes (The King’s ring). This cake hides two wrapped little surprises inside: whoever gets a little figure, becomes the King/Queen of the day…but whoever gets a bean has to pay for the cake! Our King for the day was Theo!

 

Key Stage 2 Carol Service

Santa Visits Year 3!

Well done to Year 3 who competed at the Sportshall Athletics tournament. They showed great sportsmanship and teamwork. 

Pupils in Year 3 hosted a Stone Age feast for their parents. They have been working with Etain, our cookery teacher, over the last 6 weeks, exploring the different foods and methods of cooking in during pre-historic Britain. Pupils invited their parents into school where they demonstrated all of their learning from History and D&T. 

Maths - Division

Pupils have been developing this division skills. They worked in pairs and individually to split numbers up into equal groups, then writing an equation to support their answer. 

We are preparing to write a historical story in English. In preparation for this, we took part in a Now Press Play experience. We followed the story of a day in the life of a young boy living in the Stone Age time period. 

We attended the Celtic Harmony Camp where we had the wonderful opportunity to learn more about our Stone Age - Iron Age history topic. We had a hands-on learning experience from the Iron Age farmers at the camp. We explored the Chieftain's roundshouse, grinded grain on quern stones to make bread, weave yarn on warp weighted looms, help to cook Iron Age soup and dye bracelets with fresh herbs. We had a fantastic day!

Caritas Assembly

Today we had a visitor from Caritas. Sister Sylvana led our assembly. She spoke about Caritas and the jobs they do. Caritas Works with churches and schools so that we can learn to step forward and show love. They were inspired by Jesus and Pope Francis. Everything that Jesus taught us and his example by how he treats people. Pope Francis writes lots of letters expanding on Jesus’ teachings and life. Caritas means love, but not an ordinary love, it’s the love that we talk and show to people - LOVE IN ACTION. We can show Caritas love by showing kindness, providing care, sharing with others, being helpful and noticing things. It’s it important to know that EVERYONE MATTERS - we were created with this huge love by God. We are now continuing to be held in that love. We are valuable and precious. As a class we came up with reasons why we would want to become Caritas ambassadors. 

Year 3 pupils enjoyed some Drop Everything And Read time. They enjoyed reading their books from the school library. Some got to enjoy their book in our class reading corner!

Maths - Snap Games

English - Phonics Games and Dictation

Maths - 3 times tables

Today we became geologists. We looked at six different rock samples. As a group we discussed the properties of each rock sample. 

Today, KS1 and KS2 held a Black History Assembly. Each class completed study of an inspirational person from the local area.

Year 1 - Adelaide Louise Estelle Hall

Year 2 – Mary Seacole

Year 3 – Fanny Eaton

Year 4 – Dr John Alcindor

Year 5 – Ellen and William Craft

Year 6 – Gandhi

English - Persuasive Writing

English - Conscience Alley

One child, in role as Lob, walked slowly between two lines of pupils. As he/she walks, each child in one line in turn whispered reasons to stay at Clunny Cottage, while each child in the opposite line whispered the reasons to go. When the child in role reached the end of the ‘alley’, they explained what they were going to do, and what they heard which helped to persuade them. 

Maths - Subtraction Using Place Value Counters

Music - Drumming Workshop

Today the children had a special workshop with Music Mission. Firstly we had an introduction to playing the drums by exploring the drum kit itself and the different types of drum. After that, we explored the different types of rhythms used around the world, like the Samba and the ChaChaCha. Everyone got to join in with learning how to use your hands and feet on the drums as we finished off by performing some songs together.
 

English - Power of Reading - Role Play

English - Power of Reading

Today in English year 3 were Composing a short paragraph using assertive language choices to summarise their own opinions about Lob’s real or imaginary status and why they have come to that conclusion. Pupils stood in lines around the classroom depending on their opinion and what they believed. Pupils then had provide reasoning as to why they were stood in that line using information they have read from the text to support them. 

Maths - Creating Addition Sums Using a Dice

Today in English, we began looking at our Power of Reading text. We explored the front cover of 'Lob' by Linda Newbury and made predictions on what the book could be about. Afterwards, we looked at illustrations and a piece of the text. Miss Usher read the text we then closed our eyes and created images in our mind's eye of what the author was communicating to us. We discussed what phrases were most evocative. Our task was to draw an image of what was created in our minds. We then went outside and listened to the sounds we could hear. 

Developing Emotional Literacy and Awareness

Pupils hopped on board the feelings bus. Pupils had to think of and embody four feelings; happy, sad, love and angry. Pupils had to show how their face would look and how your body feels when experiencing a certain emotion. Pupils discussed how their feelings show on the outside and how they affect us on the inside (where in the body do we feel it).

Recycling Week

Recycling week took place 19th - 25th September 2022. Year completed a Now Press Play experience where they explored the topic of recycling. Afterwards, Year 3 wrote a landfill poem. 

Similes and Metaphors

In English, we have been learning about similes and metaphors. We played a game where we had to work in pairs to identify similes and metaphors. 

Interviewing Our Parish Priest Father Mark

Meditation

In PE, we have been exploring dance. The focus of this lesson was to respond to different stimuli being able to add drama and emotion to the dance. Pupils moved around the space to the beat of the drum. We were focusing on the weather for example; moving like the wind on a calm day.  Pupils worked in groups to create a dance sequences representing the different elements of a storm. 

Performance Poetry

In our English lessons, we have been exploring performance poetry. Pupils discussed different types of poems and what makes a good performance. Pupils performed the poem 'The Bug Chant' by Tony Mitton in groups, focusing on tone of voice and actions. 

Year 3 drew and painted self portraits during our first week back to school. 

Our term in review - Spring 2

We have had a very busy term so far! Take a look at everything we've been up to! 

 

Religion: We celebrated Ash Wednesday with a KS1 Liturgy in our school hall. Fr Mark and Laurence taught us all about why Ash Wednesday is a special day. We received our ashes and prayed together. We have also prayed everyday  for Ukraine with our whole school and some members of our families in a Novena for peace. 

 

History and Music: We had a wonderful trip to Cadogan Hall, to see a Classical Roadshow Production performed by the Philharmonic Royal Orchestra. Miss Howard has taught us all the songs in preparation for the trip which was based on Samuel Pepys diary of the Great Fire of London. The conductor was called Benjamin Pope and he was great fun! We are orchestra experts now! 

 

British Science Week: To celebrate British Science Week we had a Silly Science Workshop with Professor Nitro! We (safely) created fire using three ingredients, fuel, oxygen and heat. We also investigated the reaction between water also known as H20 and a vitamin tablet! The reaction caused lots of pressure to build up in the bottle which caused the bottle to explode! 

 

Art: We have been studying the work of French artist Henri Matisse. We have really enjoyed 'colouring with scissors' a technique made famous by Matisse! We even created an exhibition in our classroom!

 

Science: We are astronomers! We are learning all about astronomy this term. So far we have learnt the names of the planets in our solar system, how the earth travels and abut constellations. We even made our own models to help explain what we have learnt! 

 

Research projects: We have graduated from show and tell to research projects! We have really enjoyed researching lots of amazing topics! So far we have researched:

  • William Shakespere
  • The Stone Age
  • An inspirational person
  • Astronomy

 

On top of all of that we have even managed a sunny afternoon in the Mary Garden, listening to stories from the Bible - with some delicious ice creams! 

Let's see what next term will bring!

Miss O'Leary 

We can't wait to see what our next term will bring!

 

 

 

Costume ideas for our school trip to the Great Fire of London production.

Let's get reading! Camp out with a good book in Year 2!

Spring 1 - Round up! 

 Wow we have been really busy over this past term! Check out everything we have been up to! 

 

Cooking

We are cooks this term! We have been cooking every Friday with Etain our cookery teacher! Our culinary delights are inspired by food from the British Isles. We loved connecting our learning in Maths about mass to real life in our cooking lessons!  We even baked a special cake to say good bye to Kitty our wonderful Lunch time lady! She always kept our bellies full! Thank you Kitty! heart

 

Art:

This term we are exploring colour! We have been looking at the work by French artist Henri  Matisse - who famously painted with scissors! We have created coloured sheets and have cut them into shapes. Stay tuned at the end of the term we will create our own collages with the cut outs!

 

Science 

This term has been electric!  We have been learning all about electricity! We really enjoyed constructing our own electrical circuits and investigating insulators and conductors of electricity. Check out our circuits below! 

English

This term has been all about traditional tales! We have loved studying Bethan Woolvin's adaption of Rapunzel. This inspired us to create our own twisted tales which we are making into books! 

 

Geography

We have been learning all about the British Isles this term! We loved creating fact files and mini books about the England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland. We even mapped out where all our teachers in school come from! Can you guess which country most of the teachers come from? 

 

Maths

Let's measure! This term we have been investigating different forms of measurement - such as temperature, mass and length. We loved doing practical lessons with Mr Davis investigating and measuring the temperature outside. We even measured the length of Miss O'Leary using cubes!  

 

Religious Education

This term was very special as it was our first time attending Mass with Fr Mark! We attended Mass with Year 5 and really enjoyed listening to Fr Mark reading the Gospel. We can't wait to go again! We also started a special Holy Story Time this term with Laurence from our Church. Laurence reads us a special story from the Bible every Wednesday. 

 

As a we had worked so very hard this term we had a special treat of a Hot Chocolate afternoon! We have been reading Roald Dahl's Matilda and loved listening to the story with a warm cup of hot chocolate with cream and marshmallow! 

Well done everyone!

Miss O'Leary

Autumn 2 Round up!

We have had a very busy term! Check out everything we did!

Class trip to the London Eye

As we are learning about the Great Fire of London we decided to take to the sky to get a bird's 'EYE' view of London! We travelled by Tube to the London Eye at Embankment Station. We loved exploring London and spotting all the famous landmarks we had learnt about! Once in the London Eye we could see the Houses of Parliament, St Paul's Cathedral and even Big Ben! We had a wonderful day!

 

History

This term we have been learning all about the Great Fire of London! We really enjoyed studying this important historical event. We created comics to retell the events and even drew plans of Sir Christopher Wren's 'new' London! We loved reading Samuel Pepys's diary and learning all about King Charles II (did you know he liked to party?). 

 

Art in Kite Studios

This term we are artists! We have really enjoyed our sessions in Kite Studios this term as we recreated buildings from the time of the Great Fire of London! Can you believe we actually set the buildings on fire in the playground! 

 

Religious Education

This term we have celebrated All Saint's Day and have been learning all about the Mysteries of God. We loved celebrating All Saint's Day and we linked our Show and Tell topic to researching our favourite Saints! We also performed in the KS1 Nativity and we were the stars of the show! We loved performing and learning more about the birth of Jesus. 

 

English

We took inspiration from COP 26 this term in our English topic! We decided to research ways to help protect our planet earth and stop climate change. We used persuasive writing to 'tweet' Borris Johnson with our statements!

 

Christmas Lunch

As our term came to a close we celebrated Christmas together with a delicious Christmas lunch followed by The Good Shepherd Talent Show! We really loved performing and are blessed to have so many talents! 

 

Well done everyone on a terrific term! 

Miss O'Leary 

 

Coding: introducing block code

We created code to solve different problems. Our work with Scratch Jr last year helped us.

Coding with Lightbot 2.0

We coded Lightbot to move through a series of different routes. We decided it was best to add a code block and then test it straight away to make sure it worked.

Black History Month

Our week in review - Week 4!

We have been very busy in Year 2 this week take a look!

Design and Technology: This week we learnt about recipes and spoke about the different ways food can be prepared! We all had great experiences following recipes, cooking and baking at home! In class we wrote a recipe on how to make rice krispie buns! We really enjoyed mixing, pouring and measuring! 

RE: We have been learning about  special person chosen by God! We read the story of Moses in class and learnt about how he was special to God. God chose him to save the people of Egypt from a cruel King. We understand that God believes we can achieve great things to help others.

Parliament: We also received the ballot results for parliament! The following members of our class were elected:

Helena - Department for the Environment

Max - Department of Learning, Culture and the arts

Grace - Department of  Health and Well Being

Milo-  Department of Peace and Justice

Geography: We are geographers! This week we have been investigating maps and our local area. We discovered there are lots of interesting sites around our school! We enjoyed using Google Satellite images to locate and describe amenities near to our school - some of us even spotted the roads we live on! 

 

Finally we are learning a poem for World Poetry Day next week! Our poem is inspired by our love for reading in Year 2! Check out our poem below!

 

Have a lovely weekend everyone, 

Miss O'Leary

Our week in review - Week 3

We had a terrific week! Take a look at everything we have been up to!

Maths:  We have started learning more about addition! This week we used pictorial and concrete resources to solve equations. We all practiced our number bonds - we even found a great song to help us! Check it out below!

Phonics:  This week we focused on tricky digraphs. We enjoyed playing buried treasure to practice blending sounds together. We wrote sentences based on our focus sounds too! Our focus sounds were -ai, -ay and -aw.

Science: We had a very special science lesson this week! Milo in our class kindly shared a wonderful experience with us - we released some butterflies! We really loved observing the changes in the lifecycle of a butterfly, we couldn't believe how quickly they grow and change! We released the butterflies in our Mary Garden and said a special prayer to God to look after them!

We also voted for our class members of parliament this week so stay tuned to find out the election results! 

Have a wonderful weekend everyone, 

Miss O'Leary

I Know My Number Bonds 10 | Number Bonds to 10 | Addition Song for Kids | Jack Hartmann

Number bonds for 10 song. Number bonds are simply the pairs of numbers that make up a given number. Number bonds can also be called number partners or numb...

Our week in review - Week 2! 

This week was very busy in Year 2! Take a look!

Maths: This week in Maths we were learning about greater than and less than. We practiced playing games by comparing numbers. We also had some time to use practical tens and ones to make number bonds. We know that there is more than one way to make a number!

English: We really enjoyed reading more of our story 'The Night Pirates'. This week we compare Tom's bedroom to our very own bedrooms! We discussed the similarities and differences that we could see. Miss O'Leary has left a link to the story if you would like to read it at home!

Religion:  Our focus this week was our school mission statement. We discussed what it means to be like a follower of Jesus and how we can show our faith through our choices and actions.

RSHE: We loved creating our new class rules! We understand that we need to respect one another's things, space and feelings. We all agreed to follow our rules to make our school a fun and safe place!

PE: We loved practicing our gymnastic skills in PE this week! As it was our second time using the equipment we were experts at using it safely! 

Adventure time: This afternoon we went on a school adventure! We are learning about maps in Geography and have planned to create a map of our school! This means we need to know every nook and cranny of our school! We went on a tour of the school all the way to the top of the school seeing all the classrooms and offices along the way. Did you know Miss McDaid and Miss Kennedy are at the very top of our school!

We also had a surprise visitor in our classroom this week - a sneaky snail! We look at the different features of the snail before bringing him to a better home in the Mary Garden. smiley

 

Have a lovely weekend everyone!

Miss O'Leary

Moses Story RE

Our week in review - Week 1! 

Welcome back to school! All the children in Year 2 have been working extremely hard in our first week back , take a look!

Maths: In Maths we have been learning about place value, practicing creating numbers with tens and ones. We loved playing a place value game on our school Ipads during our Maths lesson. Miss O'Leary has left a link to it below if you would like to try it out. 

Handwriting: We are terrific writers! This week Year 2 started pre-cursive handwriting and we love the challenge of using it in all our writing.

English: Arrrrrgh there's some pirates in Year 2! This week we have been reading a story called 'The Night Pirates.' We spoke about our favourite characters from the story and wrote about them using adjectives.

Art: We love colour! This week we created masterpieces inspired by Vincent Van Gough. We have also started to explore colour and today mixed primary colours together to make secondary colours.

PE & Cricket: We also started our cricket lessons this week! We loved our time with Coach Jonathan and we even managed to hit the ball a few times! We cant wait for our next session. In PE class we explored all the wonderful equipment in our hall and had the best time creating some gymnastic routines!

 

That's all for this week, I can't wait to see what next week brings!

Have a wonderful weekend everyone, 

Miss O'Leary smiley

Welcome back!

 

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2020 - 2021 ARCHIVE

 

 

Sports Day 2021

We managed to avoid the rain and have some fun at Sports Day!

Using time delay in Scratch Jr

We have started using time delays in our code when we want to pause the actions in our scripts.

Adding sounds to our animations

Year 1 recorded animal sounds to add to a simple animation scene of different creatures.

Using looping in Scratch Jr

We’ve moved on to using loops in our code to make our sequences repeat themselves.

Coding with Scratch Jr

We have started to code using Scratch Jr. We can now code sprites to move and change in different ways. 

 

The day we drew a line in the sand.

To celebrate our return to school Mrs Lavelle orangised a beach day for the children.

We left the worries of the summer behind us and enjoyed the day together. Making some great memories and enjoying the sunshine together.

Medium Term Curriculum Maps

Homework

Our School Prayers

 

Morning Prayer
Oh my God,
You love me,

You are with me night and day,
I want to love you always,
In all I do and say,
I try to please you Father,
Bless me through this day,
Amen

Lunchtime Prayer

Bless us O Lord

As we sit together

Bless the food

We eat today

Bless the hands that make our food

Bless us O Lord

Amen

Evening Prayer

God our Father
I come to say,
Thank you for your love today
Thank you for my family

And all the friends you give to me

Guard me in the dark of night

And in the morning send your light
Amen

Welcome back to a new school year. 

A few things to keep in mind for year 1. 

  • Please ensure all uniform is labelled, including P.E kits. 
  • Children are to line up in the playground, the bell will be rung at 8:55. 
  • Homework will be handed out every Friday, please hand completed homework in the following Thursday.
  • Please try to read daily to your child.

Welcome back, Year 1!

2019 - 2020 ARCHIVE

 

Thank you for sending me photos of some of the lovely things you are doing while school is closed.  I am enjoying seeing you tackling the tasks in your pack with such brilliant results.  I also love seeing photos of you playing and having fun.  I hope you enjoy looking at them, too. 

We can't wait to see you all back at school.  In the meantime, keep reading, keep busy and, most of all, keep smiling!   

heartsmileyheart

 

 

 

 

If you took a little pot home before school closed, how are your sunflowers doing? I think the foxes might have dug up the ones we planted in our school garden.  I can't see any sign of them anywhere surprise. 

 

Do you remember we kept a flower pot near to our fruit table and poked any pips or seeds we found into the soil as a little experiment?  Well look what's happened!  Two of those plants must be very tiny apple and pear trees.  But I can't think what else might be growing in there. Can you?

 

 

 

Our On the Move topic gave us lots of opportunity to experiment with movement and discuss our observations and experiences.  Children identified for themselves the forces of push and pull that were essential for movement to take place. 

              

 

            

 

            

 

            

 

                                               

 

Carpet times were full of descriptive, analytical language as the children explained how they made themselves and non-motorised vehicles move.  They delighted in explaining how by pushing the pedals on their bikes with their feet they saw the chain move and the wheels turn or how they created wind with the squeezy bottles to move the boats in the water tray. 

 

   

 

We had lots of fun with our class books, acting out some (very messy!) parts of the story, creating props and going on journeys of our own:

               

 

               

 

              

 

             

 

 

 

 

 

 

BLOCK PLAY

We know that children love playing with blocks but let us look at how important it is to their development.  Block play offers an open-ended, creative and valuable experience.  It boosts imagination, self-expression and communication, allowing children to co-construct, take turns and negotiate.  It also offers a great platform to develop problem-solving, allowing them to test hypotheses and practise scientific reasoning. 

 

            

 

 

They can take risks in their block play and experience a sense of achievement as they 'have a go'.  Due to the many shapes and sizes on offer, blocks offer ample opportunity to practise important maths skills, covering measurement, number, symmetry, balance and estimation, at the same time increasing attention span. 

 

 

We had a lovely visit on Wednesday afternoon from a group of Year 2 siblings who wanted to read their pirate-influenced rhyming couplets to their brothers and sisters!  It was lovely to see them back in Reception.