Category: Class

A snowy week.

Scott Grason-Taylor

The snow has landed this week, it has prompted lots of discussion and created an air of magic in the classroom.

We have read stories about winter, snowflakes of course Christmas. We have been able to look closely at the ice and snow, which has linked wonderfully to our Science topic of seasonal change. 

In DT we have been learning different ways to join fabrics. We tried gluing, pinning and stapling as possible ways. Next, we will learn how to thread a needle, before deciding the best way to join the fabric in our Christmas decorations, which I hasten to add, we are VERY excited about!

In music this week, we have been finding out the meaning of the word ‘dynamics’. We listened to different types of music and could identify the dynamics and found out that dynamics are needed to make music more interesting and to create mood. We learned the meaning of the words ‘pianissimo’, forte and crescendo’. We really enjoyed this and are trying to keep our classroom dynamics pianissimo where possible and to avoid crescendo!

We had a fun PE session with the Hawkes Sports coaches on Wednesday and their were smiles all round as we learned fundamental skills through some fun games!

We have been continuing to spot newly learned split-diagraphs in our reading books this week.

Learners really are awesome and love, love, love learning!

Let There Be Light

Scott Grason-Taylor

We have read the story of the Creation and retold this with a story map. We have looked at our planet on Google Earth and discussed the colours and what we can see. The clouds are very visible. The white is the ice and the snow and the green is the land. The Pioneers also noticed that some of the land is different colours and knew that this was because some places are hot and dry. The Pioneers then recreated what they saw and talked about what they had painted. They enjoyed mixing and naming the colours too.

A very happy afternoon.

Who Might Live in Our Forest?

Scott Grason-Taylor

The Pioneers looked at our collection of animals and sorted them into groups. We knew that tigers do not live in Sleights! We recognised that some animals are farm animals and some are kept as pets. We made a set of woodland animals and drew these and did a bit of writing too. Bats,foxes and rats.

We researched and found out a bit more about owls and what makes them special. We watched videos of them hunting in the night and talked about how they processed their food.

We read the wonderful Owl Babies and retold this with an annotated storymap. We talked about the colours needed to paint the owl and we were all particularly interested in their eyes. 

The resulting paintings are wonderful.

 

It’s beginning to look a ‘little’ like Christmas.

Scott Grason-Taylor

Christmas is approaching, this week we have begun rehearsing our 2023 nativity in readiness for the up and coming performances. Learners class will be angels and shepherds and we have been busy allocating parts and lines.

On Friday, we delighted in creating decorations for the school tree at St Mary’s Church in Whitby. Our theme was to show our continued school support for The Zambezi Sunrise Trust. After a class discussion, we decided on making baubles displaying sunrises and globes, the finished products were very effective. We were also lucky to be joined by Jo from the Zambezi Sunrise Trust.

This week in computing,  Learners class have used the chrome books to type a Michael Rosen poem. We are still learning to log-in independently and are persevering with using capital letters on the keyboard.

In Art, we have been applying our recently learned drawing skills to create some observational drawing. We identified intricate details of plants and the results were brilliant.

We enjoyed some gymnastics in PE and used benches to travel across, concentrating on our control and balance. 

We have begun to learn about the first Christmas in RE and enjoyed listening to the story and identifying key features while drawing story maps sequencing the characters and  key events.

In phonics this week we have learned about split digraphs and have been avidly spotting split digraphs in everything we have been reading. 

Learners achieved best attendance (again) this week and were proud to be able to choose the ‘coming to school song’ on Friday. 

The weather is turning colder now and Christmas is just around the corner, hold on to your hats!

A wonderful week of learning.

Scott Grason-Taylor

As Learners Class reflect on our Learning at the end of each week, we are in awe of all we have achieved. This week is no exception!

In RE, we have begun to explore Christmas and in the coming weeks we will answer the question “Why does Christmas matter to Christians?” We discussed how we knew Christmas was approaching and the signs we may spot in our daily lives.

In art we are continuing to develop our drawing skills and this week focused on creating light and shade using a range  of pencils. We used the previously used skills of stippling and hatching to help us too.

This week we have completed our poems based on refuge in the forest. We have REALLY enjoyed writing poetry and were delighted with our final pieces. So much so, we chose to perform our poems to families on Tapestry.

We ended the week, joining the Children in Need endeavours and we even came together in the playground to collectively burpee! Following that, Learners enjoyed a gymnastics session in the Hall, focusing on how to move and travel smoothly and with balance and control.

Another wonderful week of learning. We are excited to see what next week has in store!

Scooping Out the Seeds

Scott Grason-Taylor

Mrs McGill cut the tops off the pumpkins and the Pioneers enjoyed using their hands and spoons and tweezers to get to grips with what was inside. Once they removed the seeds, they set them out to dry. The next day each Pioneer made a label and filled a jar with seeds to take home and keep until they can be planted next year. 

We looked at different plants and seeds and recapped the knowledge already gained this year on seeds found in our forest,

Each Pioneer took home a jar full of seeds to plant in the spring.

Making 5

Scott Grason-Taylor

This week we have been working on the composition of the number 5. We have been noticing arrangement of 1,2,3,4,and 5 all over the place and noting totals. We have started writing out calculations and linking these to numberframes,numicon and blocks.

The Pioneers have been writing sums on whiteboards during play.

So exciting.

The Tiny Woman and her Coat

Scott Grason-Taylor

After reading and discussing this beautiful book, we set out to find all the things we needed to retell the story and make the coat for the tiny woman. The book references porcupine spines and we couldn’t find any of those in Sleights but we found some parts of a pine tree that were similar. One Pioneer suggested that the inner part of a feather would look similar.

We discussed lots of things that could be a danger when out foraging, for example,the road,the car park,  slippery surfaces and different types of berry and fungus. The Pioneers are already aware of hazards in the forest such as low hanging branches and thorns and nettles and holly.

We used dough to stick everything together.

The focus and discussion were great.

Forest Soup

Scott Grason-Taylor

The Pioneers went to the forest to make some soup. We read the instruction together and then got stuck in with the collecting and identification of seeds and leaves to add. The team worked well together, filling and refilling the water containers and sharing out conkers and pumpkin seeds.

Everyone helped to transport our kit and ingredients up and down the very slippery slope.

A good day.

We are poets and we know it!

Scott Grason-Taylor

We have enjoyed lots of great learning this week.

On Wednesday, we welcomed families into the classroom to celebrate Diwali. We had lots of families visit us in Learners class and together enjoyed a range of activities to learn more about this special occasion.

In class this week we have spent time looking at the individuals remembered on our village War Memorial, This was incredibly moving and it was wonderful to discover some members of the class with distant family members named on the memorial. We painted poppies to remember each person who lost their lives. The whole school proudly displayed their work around the war memorial, in the Church and around the village.

In English we have been embracing poetry. Families have sharing their own favourite poems with us, which has been delightful. In class, we particularly enjoyed Michael Rosen’s ‘Don’t’ this week and decided to perform part of it on Tapestry to share with our families.  To inspire our own poetry writing about refuge in the forest, we headed down to our forest to gather key vocabulary. We managed to dodge the rain and spent a sunny morning in the forest.

We finished the week with a visit from the Rotters, who talked to us about food waste. We made a smoothie using pedal power and made our own wormeries and heard about how worms were vital to our soil and our food growth. 

It’s been an incredible week of learning.

Learners Class love to learn 🙂