Category: Pioneers Class

The Pioneers were very interested in the work of Kandinsky the abstract artist and on his approach to creating the images. We have had the most wonderful week full of energy and intense focus exploring line and colour and shape. We did this on a large scale on the playground and on a smaller scale back in the classroom, at the table and then moving onto the floor. We played Wagner on the Boom Box and experimented with painting to a variety of other pieces familiar to us – Firebird by Stravinsky and Greig’s Hall of the Mountain King.

An artist’s work is never done and the Pioneers are keen to continue their work. They are unstoppable. One Pioneer was heard to say, “Well this is actually art,” as they left the classroom with their larger pieces to take home to parents. 

The process and the art produced were inspirational.

We had a visit from Owen our marvelous Cricket Coach. The sun shone and everyone was very happy to throw and catch and play as a team.

After a quick and happy warm up we played a game with rules and we managed to follow the rules without the need for a video referee!

The Pioneers all got to bat, hitting the big ball from a big tee.

A thoroughly wonderful session of precision teaching and great learning.

The Pioneers took a daytrip to Whitby. For many it was their first school trip and their first trip on a coach and what a trip it was. There is so much to learn and so much to do. The Pioneers carried their own lunches and water bottles and looked after all their own kit. This is quite an achievement considering the many locations we visited.

Walking around Whitby is fill of risks and we assessed them before, during and after our trip, The  Pioneers did a great job negotiating the narrow pavements and the pedestrians.

We talked about fishing and boat building before crossing the bridge for story and a snack in the Little Fox Bookshop which was fantastic. 

Whitby Catch answered all our questions about what was for sale on the fish counter.

We spotted the new lifeboat in the water before visiting the old lifeboat in the museum.

Lunch was eaten in the Fisherman’s Mission which added to our learning.

We walked up the hill to the wonderful Whitby Museum where the awe and wonder was palpable. There was so much to see and we were made very welcome.

This was a very wonderful day out – Eight very happy kilometres together!

The Pioneers talked about the Christian Faith, the Bible and how Christians believe that God created the world in 7 days. We looked at a number of versions of the story – a beautiful book called Let There Be Light, a Children’s Story Bible and a short video clip. We spotted the main features of the story and as we did this Mrs Hogarth and Miss Greaves drew out our story map. This was wonderful to do together as the adults were put on the spot to demonstrate their drawing skills!

In the book it finishes with the line, “God has put love into everything in creation, especially you.” We talked about how special and how unique and loved everyone is and the Pioneers added the people they love to their story map.

We went off to our tables and clipboards to produce our version of the story. God’s duvet had a cross on it and a variety of favourite animals took their place in pictures.

The Pioneers then took their chance to retell the story using our maps. They showed great confidence and strength to retell to the class. The Pioneers are magnificent.

Ahead of our Harvest Festival, we recapped on our knowledge of parts of a Christian Church using vocabulary to describe this-pew, aisle,alter, cross, candle and vicar.

The Pioneers have maths at the centre of everything they do. They are constantly comparing and counting and looking at what is around them. This week we have used butterflies and buttons, blocks and sticks. We have drawn pictures to represent our thinking and tested out new symbols and vocabulary. There is a lot going on.

The focus is clear and their organisation is wonderful.

 Thank you Pioneers for a wonderful week of Happy Learning!

Writing has been happening all over the place this week with Pioneers making signs and filling in tick-sheets with their families during our open morning. We have been out on the field taking inspiration from the trees to build sentences using adjectives. There is great excitement around writing out new letter shapes each day and the progress is wonderful to see. 

The Pioneers are to be congratulated for their superb efforts and outcomes in writing this week.

Happy Learning

We have been in and out of the classroom, developing fieldwork skills and looking at our school site. We collected data, deciding if areas were friendly to nature or not. We worked on how to record our findings on a table. 

After reading Six Dinner Sid, we discovered that he had visited many places on our site. We experimented with positional language to describe where Sid had been. We used on, behind and next to. 

We used an online compass to find out about north, south, east and west and drew some amazing field sketches of what we could see when we looked north. There were lots of questions about what to include and we discussed the things that were always there and the things that moved.

We read our story about Sid in Sleights, identifying locations in our village and describing these. Sid visited the bus stop. The bus stop is opposite Botham’s. We spotted road signs and lots of letters on shop signs. We had some great chat about the telephone box and how things had changed over time! 

There are some amazing pieces of work on the walls now-story maps and field sketches and collections of data.

The Pioneers should be very proud of how they have worked this week. Their kindness and perseverance has led to a wonderful week for all.

We hit the ground running in Pioneers and everyone worked together to get organised and into the swing of learning together.

We have been sorting all sorts of things-houses,cutlery,bricks and our favourite gems and buttons.

We have discussed our rules for sorting and we have become highly observant when looking for differences-two holes or three? Smooth or wavy edges?

Tidying in a new classroom adds a whole new level of complexity to sorting and this has gone really well too!

The Pioneers also managed PE and sorting their own sets of kit.

Very Happy Learning

The Chip Shop opened in the classroom this week as we investigate the food chain from the sea to the plate. The Pioneers wrote their own menus and receipts for food and took orders in from customers who arrived. The customers were met and greeted with a ,”Good Morning Madam. How can I help you?”

The prices were pretty high but the service was excellent. 

We discussed how the fish was processed and filleted and they were interested in which bits were removed before we get to eat it.

We went on to discuss the process of fishing and the Pioneers were full of amazing questions including how the fishermen got the right fish, how did they know it was cod in the net and how they would get rid of things that they did not want to catch.