The whole school celebrated our Chocolate theme with a Chocolate Day. We went to the forest and made pies and milkshakes and chocolate brownie. We wrote recipes on clipboards and displayed them in the mud kitchen. Everyone worked together. It was beautiful learning on a beautiful day.
Category: Class
Swimming
15th February 2019
Discoverers enjoy going swimming every Friday morning, with Pioneers, and are nearly half way through their swimming sessions.
The children were eager to get in the water in their first session but had to be split into groups first according to how well they would already swim. All of the older children swam in the big pool, which took a lot of courage for some of our less confident swimmers.
Discoverers think that the pool is quite cold which helps them to swim faster to keep warm!
The children in the deep end are trying to perfect their strokes.
The children in the middle group are working on putting their heads in the water, learning a breathing technique.
The children in the shallowest part of the big pool are doing lots of activities to develop water confidence, including their ability to float in the water without moving.
Reegan
“Swimming is really fun.”
Max
“Swimming is active and fun.”
Tom
“I’d like to learn some harder strokes.”
Ruby
“I wish we could go swimming every day.”
Mia B
“I like to get dressed quickly to win the tokens.”
Scarlett F
“I don’t like getting in at the beginning because it’s cold.”
Chocolate Day! February 2019
This week began with a launch day to our new writing topic, investigating “How is chocolate made?” The whole school worked in mixed groups during the day to complete a range of activities based on making chocolate. We want our children to be able to write with real purpose and using experiences, so what better way to learn about making chocolate than by doing it!
Mrs Hann worked outside with the children on Monday, down in the forest. The groups worked hard to create their own mud chocolate creations, adding different textures and objects to give some added crunch to their recipes! The children hunted around the forest for interesting and unusual objects to add in. It was excellent to see all children of all ages supporting each other in this task.
To help our day be a success, we kindly received a donation of chocolate and materials for making our own lollies from Alex at Crofts Chocolates in Scarborough. With Mrs Roe, the children had the very exciting task of using this donation to make their own chocolate lollies. When I visited, each lolly was heaped with sweets and marshmallows, which made them look really delicious!
Mrs Walker and Mrs Exelby led the baking efforts on Monday. During the day, each child had the opportunity to create their own chocolate creations. Working together to carefully add the ingredients, mix them together and prepare them for baking was something that everyone enjoyed. If you were able to join us for the café in the hall during the afternoon, I am sure you will agree that they looked delicious!
Finally, with Miss Stubbs, the children created their own packaging for their chocolate lollies. After looking carefully at the designs of well-known chocolate brands, the children then came up with their own designs. It was fun to see how the children were using these brands to influence their own, with many adapting well-known chocolate names and designs.
At the end of the day, it was great to be able to invite so many families into school to see the children’s efforts from the day and read their stories in our chocolate café. The event was incredibly well attended, with it being said that the cake sale was “like a fair day!” This overwhelming support is amazing. Thank you to everyone!
Chocolate Cake
Friday 8th February 2018
This week has been an exciting one, after starting with our very own ‘Chocolate Day’! . We have now finished writing our chocolate stories, and wanted to share them with the other children in school. Here we are reading with the oldest children in school (Leaders).
Adventurers were also inspired to make their own chocolate cakes, with the help of Emily’s gran, after reading Chocolate Cake by Michael Rosen.
Reading
This week, the children have been enjoying sharing their Chocolate Cake stories. Over the last couple of weeks, the whole school has been inspired by Michael Rosen’s Chocolate Cake poem and have been creating their own versions of the text. Children have also enjoyed writing for purpose and publishing their stories.
On Thursday afternoon, the Pioneers and Discoverers had a wonderful time sharing and enjoying each other’s stories. It was a special time for everyone.
Lovely Visitors
Today was magnificent. Pioneers had a visit from David the Show Sheep and a 2 day old lamb. The children were as calm as possible and were very gentle with the lovely creatures. David liked a ginger biscuit,preferring these to the carrots. Children and Sheep behaved very well and we are most grateful to Layla’s Family for taking the time to bring them in and make the learning real. We now know that the baby only drinks milk and that she needs to be kept nice and warm. The children were fascinated by her tiny hooves. The question at the end of the day was,”When are the sheep coming back?”
So good. Such fun. So much learning.
Actual Snow
Everything had to stop when the snow started. There was nothing else that we could do other than put on our coats and get out and experience the cold. Lots of learning took place when questions required answers.
“Why is my hat wet?”
“Why do my fingers hurt?”
“How can I stop my fingers hurting?”
“Is it actual snow?”
“Can we make snow angels?” Sadly, there wasn’t quite enough snow to make angels, but we all had fun in the flurry of snow on Thursday Morning.
Chocolate Cake
Our theme for the term is Chocolate and we have chosen the most wonderful poem by Micheal Rosen as our starting point and inspiration. We have a Chocolate Shop and we have been creating bags of sweets and writing labels. We have made little chocolate buns, written shopping lists and worked on writing the verbs from the recipe. Please do pop in and admire the wonderful independent writing on our walls.
Explorers’ Blog
Exploring with Paint
The Explorers love to get messy and painting is always popular. They explored colours and a variety of textures and just enjoyed the process of finding out what paint does.
Office Work
The Explorers have had a Post Office in the classroom. Lots of fantastic writing has taken place. The class took a walk to visit Mrs Stubbs in the School Office to see where all the real work happens.
