Month: February 2022

Wearing Red to Support The Children’s Heart Unit Fund

Scott Grason-Taylor

Adventurers enjoyed wearing anything red to help raise money for CHUF. We learnt a little bit  more about this charity then coloured in and cut out hearts to hang in our bedrooms at home. Some children even wrote a prayer to share with others in their class.

We enjoyed finishing our newspaper articles about the Iron Man visiting Sleights School. Watch out for sightings of him around the Whitby area! The children also finished making and then painting their own Iron man which will be making their way home shortly.

 

 

Friday 18th February 2022

Scott Grason-Taylor

The last week of the half term has been a busy one! 

The week began with Leaders enjoying an Egyptian drama experience with Louise – always a bit hit!  The children enjoyed learning about Egyptian life and the gruesome mummification, creating freeze frames, linked movements and then a recorded piece using IPads.  

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The week ended with a day of heart related activities in support of CHUF (Children’s Heart Unit Fund).  Leaders learned all about who they are and their work supporting children and families.  They also learned about the ‘clown doctors’ and their important role in keeping the children who find themselves in hospital smiling and happy.  Some Leaders decided to make their own ‘clown doctor’ clip Sleights style.

 

Here are some of the best bits of our half term:

Noah: I loved the session with Louise.

Mia: CHUF activities.

Corey: I have enjoyed making animations in ICT.

Rachael: I enjoyed using the marbling ink to create different effects.

Reegan: I have enjoyed learning about Algebra in maths.

Hollie: I liked making clay cartouches.

Leila: I enjoyed the mental health session with Mel, learning about the alarm clock in our brains.

Cheyenne: I enjoyed all the different science experiments.

Max: I liked the history activities.

Happy Half Term!

Ending the Week Wearing Red

Scott Grason-Taylor

Hello Everybody,

Our week started in the forest, where we worked as a team to tackle some tricky obstacles. We worked in teams and had to help each other navigate the forest by using clear directions, whilst some were blindfolded. 

We have worked hard with our fractions work in maths, where we have learned to confidently add and subtract fractions that are improper or mixed number. 

We managed to finish our newspaper report about an Ancient Egyptian battle, and published a final copy to share with our families and on display around school. We spent the rest of the week working on an independent explanation text about mummification! You don’t want to know how the Ancient Egyptian’s extracted a person’s brain!

We have ended our week wearing red, to raise money for the CHUF charity. This is an organisation that supports children in hospital. We created a happy heart to send the children, and managed to raise lots of money to support the work of this wonderful organisation. 

We hope you have a wonderful week,

Discoverers

Well-Being Week

Scott Grason-Taylor

This week in class we have thought a lot about well-being.

We were lucky to have a visit from Mel our well-being nurse, who shared the story ‘The Colour Monster’ with us. This book combined colours with feelings and we were able to articulate the different feelings that we knew. We then, created our own colour monsters using paper plates and different colours. Mel taught us some relaxation techniques and how to breather and relax mindfully. We really enjoyed the session.

In PHSCE we have thought about the groups and families we belong to and how thankful we are for the people in our lives.

We have enjoyed many stories as always in class this week. However this week, we have been particularly lucky to have some Learners  request to read their favourite stories to the rest of the class during story time. This has been an absolute joy! Such wonderful readers, such confidence and such a celebration of reading!

Well done Learners Class, I am so proud of you!

Wishing all of Learners Class and their families a happy half term. 

Rockets and Rainbows

Scott Grason-Taylor

It has been a busy week in Pioneers. Our rocket is now in good working order and we have written instructions to ensure everything is in place for future flights. The Pioneers took their instructions outside and followed them from getting the rocket out of the box to the 7,6,5,4,3,2,1…Blast Off. Later in the week we all got to fly Zach’s rocket too.We had to wait for the best weather conditions and the result was good.

 

We have talked a lot about light,our mirror ball and the lens blocks. This week we talked about rainbows and their colour sequence. The Pioneers painted on a variety of surfaces and we read the Bible story of Noah and his Ark. Next week we will story map and have a go at building an ark for 8 animals.

The floor has been pretty wet this week but the exploration has been fun. The Pioneers have been finding out about capacity by pouring and filling and emptying.

So much learning.

Keeping Happy, Healthy and Safe

Scott Grason-Taylor

Over the last few weeks Adventurers have been learning the knowledge and skills to keep themselves happy, healthy and safe in school and at home. They have learnt about the how sleep benefits their health and wellbeing and what healthy choices they can make each day. For example: exercise, drinking plenty of water, having 5 portions of fruit and vegetables and spending time with friends.

For Internet Safety Day the children in adventurers designed posters highlighting how we can all stay safe online. Why not check their knowledge at home.

A Wonderful Week to be a Learner!

Scott Grason-Taylor

Learners have had the busiest of weeks this week and ‘we have had the best week ever!’

On Monday morning, some children walked down to the mobile library in the village and delighted in choosing some new books for us to read at story time, Next month another group of children will visit the library, return these books and choose some more to enjoy. 

On Monday afternoon, to build on our RE topic of Judaism, we held a Jewish Shabbat in class. We laid tablecloths and dressed the tables with plants and candles. We then enjoyed toasted bagels and juice together. We really felt the spirit of the celebration of Shabbat.

On Wednesday, we enjoyed forest school learning. The sun was shining and we had the best day in the fresh air. We transferred our RE learning to the forest and thought about another Jewish celebration called ‘Sukkot’, where Jewish families build a hut called a ‘Sukkah’ and sleep in there for a few nights to remember the Jewish pilgrimage to Jerusalem.

On Thursday, we became scientists and tested absorbent and non-absorbent materials. We used pipettes, water and different materials. We tested each one and recorded our results accordingly. I think there are a few budding scientists in Learners Class.

We have also enjoyed many stories this week as always.

What a wonderful week to be a Learner!

 

If at First You Don’t Succeed,Try,Try Again

Scott Grason-Taylor

Our Christian Value is Perseverance and we have had to persevere this week. We have experienced a number of setbacks with our rocket-a leaky pump, a tricky connection and then it shot over into a neighbouring garden. A mission was launched to recover our rocket lost in the wilderness.

The day after the rocket went missing another Elf letter arrived asking for help. One of our elf friends had gone to get the rocket and was stuck in a tree. Luckily the Pioneers were on hand to rescue him. We were most grateful to our helpful neighbours for their support in this matter.

Meanwhile, back in the classroom we build our own junk models. These began as rockets but have now turned into complex robots. Through this work we have found out about joining techniques and the need to wait for glue to dry. The Re-Bot and his friend the U-Bot (re-Use-Bot) are incredible and on display in our classroom.

In maths we have been comparing using a balance scale and this has got us thinking and talking and estimating. It’s tricky stuff.

 

And the Beebots have featured too and they have some beautiful new mats to roam on. The Pioneers have been giving them complex sets of instructions to make their way across.

A lovely week of happy learning.

A Surprise Visitor!

Scott Grason-Taylor

Adventurers arrived at school on Thursday morning to discover their classroom had been trashed! According to the caretaker Mr Everall, The Iron Man was spotted leaving the school and stomping down the street. There was lots of evidence around school to show this,  including: giant footprints, nuts and bolts, squashed cans and half eaten computers and a toaster! The children were very excited to look for more evidence of his visit and find out exactly what had been going on. They even interviewed an eye witness and reported the main facts back to each other. Watch this space to find out more!

 

The children are really enjoying our class text ‘The Iron Man’ by Ted Hughes and we started to make our own model Iron Men in DT which we plan to cover in paper and paste and then paint.  

 

Chinese New Year Celebrations

Scott Grason-Taylor

We have enjoyed finding out more about Chinese New Year this week. We spent time finding out about how animals link to different years and the meaning of this. We also delighted in creating our own Chinese lanterns and were amazed at how easy they were to make (some of us went home and made them with our families too).

In RE we spent time looking closely at the Jewish Shabbat and hope to enjoy our own Shabbat next week – please give consent on Parent Pay, for your child to sample the foods. 

On Wednesday 9th February we will be visiting the forest, please send your child in old clothes and please bring a spare pair of shoes in a bag. Thank you.

This week, a few Learners requested to bring in their favourite books from home and read them to the class. This has been wonderful, we are hoping to continue sharing our stories together over the coming weeks.