Month: April 2024

A dinotastic week.

Scott Grason-Taylor

Learners have had a dinotastic week in class. 

In English, we have completed our non-fiction pages around dinosaurs. We used the chrome books to type up some key information. The end products look fabulous and will be displayed proudly outside our classroom.

In history this week, we have been learning about the three periods of the Mesozoic Era (the triassic, jurassic and cretaceous periods). We are really enjoying finding out about dinosaurs and hope to finalise a school trip soon, which will consolidate our learning around this.

In RE we have been learning about the Creation. This week we each thought of the things we were grateful for in our wonderful world and wrote prayers of thanks to reflect our thoughts.

In maths, we have been continuing to learn more about fractions, finding a third and a quarter of shapes, objects and quantities.

We continue to enjoy our swimming and dance sessions this half-term and are building on our skills and dance moves each week.

We have enjoyed looking at many encyclopedias in class this week and have been delighted to share together many of our own brought in from home.

Learners continue to be amazing!

 

 

Total Focus

Scott Grason-Taylor

The Pioneers all love maths and this week’s selection of chances to explore number really hit the spot. Engagement was high and discussions were focussed. This led to lots of chat and subsequent recording. All of this was independent and happening in continuous provision with hoops and beanbags and skittles.  It was too good to disturb and continued across the week. 

They had some set tasks with Numinon to explore numbers beyond ten and they adapted and changed these to find out more.

Wonderful learning!

Fantastic phonics

Scott Grason-Taylor

This week we were visited by the Phonics Hub and we were delighted to be able to showcase our phonics lesson. In phonics lessons we are focused and keen to learn something new every day that will aid our reading skills. Learners love to read and our determination and hard work during phonics sessions is a key part of our daily learning.

In RE this week we have been learning more about the Creation and who Christians believe made the world. We found out about the different things God created on each of seven days and all agreed that we are so lucky to live in such a beautiful world.

In Science, we have been classifying animals into groups and thought carefully about the characteristics within each group. We sorted animals into birds, fish, mammals, reptiles and amphibians.

In English, we have been using chrome books to type some key facts around the Jurassic age. We are creating our own information pages to go into an encyclopaedia, remembering to use a title, different size font, labels and key facts. One Learner brought in an encyclopaedia from home and was keen to share his knowledge with the class – this was wonderful.

In History lessons we are also focusing on dinosaurs and this week, we learned that dinosaurs were on earth during the Mesozoic era and that they fit into the reptile group, as they were cold blooded and laid eggs to hatch their young.

Dinosaurs is most certainly cross-curricula this half term and we are looking forward to planning a trip to reflect our learning.

Learners arrive at school each keen to learn more.

Handling Artefacts

Scott Grason-Taylor

This  week, we read Wilfred Gordon McDonald Partridge, the story of a little boy who visits old people in a care home. He finds out that some of his friends have lost their memory. He asks questions to find out what a memory is. One of the ladies tells him stories from her past all linked to items. The Pioneers had access to the selection of items mentioned in the book-an egg, a medal from the war, shells, and additional linked items. She talked about boots with buttons so they tried out a button hook. Some were interested in the thimble. A puppet brought back happy memories for the old lady. Everyone was fascinated by a tiny, fragile New Testament from 1945 and a selection of letters from a soldier during the war. They looked closely at the selection of photographs and noted that things looked different and “old”
We looked at these alongside our own memory photographs-we will continue this work next week.
Happy Learning  

Dancing into the summer term.

Scott Grason-Taylor

This week, we have enjoyed our fist dance session with Hannah Verity Dance. Together with our friends, we were keen to show off our moves and enjoyed dancing to the beat. We will be working towards a routine over the coming weeks and are very excited to keep building on our new skills and learn a new part of this routine each week. 

In maths this week, we have been working hard on finding fractions – in particular halves and equal parts of a whole.

In English, we have been exploring the book The Greatest Show on Earth by Mini Grey. We have really enjoyed Mini Grey’s whistle stop tour of the history of the planet and have been identifying the features of a non-fiction book this week. Next week we will be creating our own additional pages to the book. Together we have decided to focus on the Jurassic age, which will also support our history topic of Digs, Dinosaurs and Discoveries.

In PHSCE this week, we have been celebrating who we are, what we have achieved and listening to the positive things others say about us. This was a wonderful session which strengthened our self belief and self confidence. It didn’t come easily for some to confidently talk about themselves , but by the end of the session we were all able to speak positively about ourselves and celebrate who we are – it was fantastic!

We have enjoyed sharing lots of stories together this week as always. Look out for the new labels that have come home in reading records this week, which will help to record the great reading taking place at home.

Learners have had a peaceful and settled return after the Easter holiday and are straight back into school routines and ready to learn!

Learners love to learn 🙂

From Tiny Acorns…

Scott Grason-Taylor

Way back in the Autumn, the Pioneers went to the forest and collected acorns and got to find out about our oak tree. We went through the process of selecting the best acorns and set them aside to rest over the winter in their little pots. Now that spring has sprung we have the most beautiful tiny oak trees. We took them to the forest to compare them to the big tree, spotting that the trunk is hard and lumpy and the branches and roots were much bigger too. we did a bit of bark rubbing which was very popular.

We planted the sunflower seeds that we harvested from last year’s sunflowers and searched in the soil to see what roots looked like.

We found plenty of juicy worms and a random head of garlic! Mrs McGill even managed to put up a birdbox.

When we returned to the classroom, we wrote about our adventures using the new vocabulary-bark, trunk, roots and wild garlic. We experimented with pastel pencils for our observational drawing and the results were wonderful and varied.

So much learning.