Month: September 2023

Out and About with the Pioneers

Scott Grason-Taylor

The Pioneers spent the day outdoors exploring our wonderful site. We packed up our trolley and took responsibility for the kit we needed. Some helped to carry some very heavy buckets. We talked about looking after ourselves,looking after others and looking after our environment.

As we went along we pointed out hazards like nettles and thorns and big holes in the ground. We speculated that these could have been made by badgers.

Our first Forest Find was a sycamore tree and it’s seeds so we stopped to take a look . We walked the boundaries and discussed where it was safe to go. We then set up camp next to the Oak tree and had a good rummage around. Lots of ladybirds were relocated and acorns and leaves made their way into the treasure boxes. We shared a good book before moving up onto the field to explore.

We had snack in our outdoor area and a good phonics session before lunch.

In the afternoon we headed back to the forest to look closely at leaves,selecting some to press for printing later. One Pioneer suggested this.
We pulled some vegetables which was very exciting.  One Pioneer could identify the vegetable from the leaves.

To finish the day we repeated our bread dough making from last week with greater efficiency and a different kind of mess!

It was glorious.

Adventurers Week 4!

Scott Grason-Taylor

The Adventurers have had a great fourth week back at school. They have enjoyed cricket with Owen and began planning and writing their explanation text about being a global neighbour. The Adventurers also loved cross country on Monday! They have been practising their times tables songs which they have thoroughly enjoyed! They are approaching the end of their place value topic in maths.

We have made further progress with our class book, ‘The Giraffe, The Pelly and Me’ which they are analysing for their reading comprehension. Furthermore, they have been also enjoying their end of day book ‘The Nothing to see Here Hotel’.

Finally, the Adventurers have been practising their singing for the New Beginnings service on Thursday! We look forward to another busy week next week!

Sleights Strikes Again

Scott Grason-Taylor

Welcome to another week in Discoverers’ class 😀

This week it started in style, when we held a KS2 cross country within our grounds. We ran around the front and back fields, and even into the forest. 

After battling across the different terrain, we cheered on the other classes, watching everybody finish with a huge smile of pride on their faces.

What a fantastic week!

Scott Grason-Taylor

What a great week we have had in our second full week back!

The Adventurers have been working hard, continuing with the place value topic in mathematics, whilst also practising their 3 and 6 times tables! 

An instrument has been assigned to each Adventurer, either a trumpet, clarinet, saxophone or a trombone! They are all looking forward to learning these with their music teacher Ralph on a Thursday afternoon. 

Friday was a fantastic morning where the class were visited by their lovely families. This enabled the Adventurers to teach their families the activities that they have learnt so far. This was great to see!

Furthermore, the Adventurers have continued their learning regarding e-safety, ensuring they are able to staff safe whilst online! In addition to this they have continued learning about the Stone Age.

What a fantastic week it has been and we look forward to week 4!

A whirlwind week.

Scott Grason-Taylor

Learners  Class’s feet haven’t touched the ground this week, we have been SO busy!

We started the week with cricket sessions with Owen from Yorkshire Cricket. We REALLY enjoyed this and had lots of fun practising our throwing and catching skills. There was a mention that cricket bats may be coming out in session 2, so we are very excited about this.

Also on a sports theme, Learners visited Caedmon College Whitby on Thursday afternoon and took part in a town multi-skills event. Learners were awesome, we ran, we balanced, we caught, we threw, we jumped over and we crawled under. We thoroughly enjoyed it and  gave it everything we had!

In the classroom, we have been consolidating tricky words in phonics sessions and revisiting Phase 3 and 4 words and sentences. Learners class love to read and Little Wandle phonics sessions are invaluable in building our skills.

In geography we have been looking at our location using google earth. We have been labelling features around our school grounds using an aerial photograph of the area. We were very interested in aerial views and proceeded to draw a map of our own classroom. We had a good look around and identified where things were. Then, carefully using a ruler drew our own maps. Learners worked with great focus and the finished maps were wonderful.

We finished the week with an Open Morning for our families. Learners class was a hive of activity, with a huge parent turn-out. Learners and visitors enjoyed learning together and the classroom had a very happy buzz.

Learners love to learn! 🙂

 

 

Making Sleights

Scott Grason-Taylor

This corner of the room is very popular and always full of activity and conversation. The Pioneers work together to build and create. They have combined a variety of materials to create parts of our village. They have made the river with the railway line running along it and used the foam tiles to make roads and bridges. They added green felt and grass to make the fields. They discussed that trains don’t go on roads and need to be kept on tracks. They built their own houses and talked about where they lived. There with lots of talk about neighbours and the shops in the village. They added signs and their mini-me.

This has built up over the week after reading Sid in Sleights and looking at the photographs of the village. We have now added different types of vehicles that pass through the village.

Fabulous Pie

Scott Grason-Taylor

Pioneers got stuck in to making bread dough. They combined each ingredient-flour,yeast,sugar,water and oil to make a crust for the fabulous pie. This took a great deal of perseverance to continue when their hands were sticky and uncomfortable. Every Pioneer followed the instructions and were successful in their dough making. They then combined this with their selection of animals to retell our wonderful story of Fabulous Pie. 

At the end of the session they were all more familiar with the required ingredients to make dough and some of the actions required to bring the dough together-mix,kneed,roll,rub and scrape.

They used Numicon to clean the table at the end of the session!

Friday 22nd September 2023

Scott Grason-Taylor

It has been another busy week in Leaders class.

In maths this week, we have tackled rounding any integer up to the nearest million and can confidently explain the steps needed to do this. We have also explored negative numbers and can calculate and solve problems with these. 

In history this half term, we are learning about the Romans. This week, we considered how Rome was formed. We explored the story of Romulus and Remus in a reading lesson and then demonstrated our understanding through drama. Each group was given a part of the story to act out, without using any speech, and the rest of the class had to identify the part of the story being performed. 

On Monday, we were joined by Owen from Yorkshire cricket. We played games to practice throwing and catching skills before enjoying a game of last batter standing. The enthusiasm, level of skill and team work demonstrated was wonderful to see. 

In Leaders class, we love to read and we have been enjoying a range of books and texts together and independently this half term. In our whole class reading lessons, our focus is ‘The Boy at the Back of the Class’ and at the end of each day we are currently reading ‘ Can you see me?’. We are already thoroughly enjoying these books and look forward to sharing more with you about them soon.

 

Friday 15th September 2023

Scott Grason-Taylor

What an amazing start to the new school year Leaders have had!

In maths, the children have been working extremely hard on place value and persevering when faced with challenges with excellent success. They have mastered reading, writing and ordering numbers to 10,000,000.

In English, we have been creating our own Terra Cartas, inspired by the text, ‘It’s Up to Us’. The children have written thoughtful responses when writing about nature and the impact that human actions are having on the planet. The published books are looking incredible.

In computing and PSHE, the children have been considering how to stay safe online. They have considered what harmful content is and how to report it as well as how to create safe profiles online.

On Thursday, it was great to hear the music of our class band once again. This year, we have teamed up with the Discoverers to make a new Year 5/6 class band and we are looking forward to more brilliant performances as the year progresses.

This half term, our Christian Value is Thankfulness. The children have enjoyed exploring this value through the story of Jesus and the lepers this week in Worship.