The Pioneers have been scientists, planning an experiment, making predictions and recording results.
After reading a book called,”Who Sank the Boat?”, we needed to find which materials would float or sink when put on water. We made our own version of the story and then made a list of objects to test. We started with the question,”Will It Sink?” Lucky for us the -nk digraph is on our planning this week! We could segment and blend all of the words on the list which was fabulous.
We filled the water tray with nice warm water and then tested, recording our results as we went. The Pioneers noticed that some objects floated but once they added extra weight it sank to the bottom. A paper bag floated but when they added a cup it sank.
Fabulous learning and so much discussion. Well done Pioneers
Month: November 2025
A Lot of Work for Little Hands
The Pioneers like to make their mark. They can do this in many ways. The classroom is well stocked with a variety of pens, pencils and crayons and the Pioneers know what they like. The most popular addition this week was a set of silky crayons, a bit like lipstick and these cover the surface with a rich, glossy colour. They made an impact!
Inspired by Van Gogh’s Starry Night and our solar system, we explored colour mixing and shape.
We drew and cut out circles and little fingers got a good workout.
It has been a glorious week in Pioneers.
Forest Soup
We have had a fabulous week of learning in the classroom and outside. The weather is turning colder, wetter and windier but this did not deter the intrepid Pioneers. We did lots of heavy lifting to move our pumpkins and all the kit we needed to make Forest Soup. We looked closely at the dried sunflower heads and extracted the seeds to add to the soup along with our pumpkin seeds from last week
In the classroom, we read the recipe and then got our kit on and went off to get the job done.
Pioneers filled their bags with forest treasure and mixed and added till their pumpkins were full. The collaboration and conversation were wonderful to observe.
We realised that we could write lots of words and the excitement was incredible-rock, mix, stick, top, mud. Everyone added writing to photographs and celebrated being a writer.
Happy Learning
Remembrance 2025
Our whole school came together to remember our heroes and mark the two minute silence. The children and staff paid their respects with great maturity and reflection. Following the two minute silence, our Monday Music Club played Abide With Me to support our ongoing reflection. This film was recorded afterwards, but captures a stunning, very special moment of reflection and remembrance.
Sleights remembers.
Pumpkins in Pioneers
The Pioneers had some heavy lifting to do to move the pumpkins to the pumpkin patch. This was great fun and everyone managed not to drop their pumpkin and some of them were enormous!.
We read the beautiful Pumpkin Soup and realised we could read some of the words, which was so exciting. We added the characters to the Pumpkin Patch-cat, duck and squirrel and lots of bugs. The addition of bugs allowed us explore more vocabulary to read and write-a big bug, a fat ant and a kid bug were all suggested.
One Pioneer wanted to know what was inside the pumpkins so we cut them open and had a good rummage around. We watched some timelapse video showing the growth of the seed so we have dried our seeds to plant in the spring.
The Pioneers really enjoyed decorating the pumpkins with pins and shapes and matchsticks and leaves. The focus was fabulous.
Next week, we take the pumpkins to the forest.
