Category: Pioneers Class

We have been retelling the story of the wise man and the foolish man and where they chose to build their houses. At the same time we have been able to see the foundations being laid for the new build. The shutter pans went in and then they were filled with concrete. Andy the builder told the Pioneers all about how they used a laser to check the measurements. This was fascinating for all. Some Pioneers drew a map of the area and others wrote sentences about the building work and all of the equipment being used.

Back in the classroom,we all did some story maps and the resulting writing was simply stunning.

A great week of learning.

The Pioneers really enjoyed their time with the visitor from The Dog’s Trust. They were very receptive and were able to recap on the 4 important points from the lesson. They knew not to tough a dog if it is asleep ore eating. The knew not to cuddle a dog and to ask for permission before approaching a dog that was not known to them. This was quite impressive. They all had lots of chat about dogs in their families.

Very useful learning.

After reading Somebody Swallowed Stanley the Pioneers voiced their concerns about the animals in the story-the turtle,the whale and the jellyfish. some had seen videos of animals in distress trapped in fishing nets and discarded plastic. When we went to our forest they noted that their was rubbish and this could be dangerous to wildlife on our site. The Pioneers made their own Stanleys and added labels with a warning “Plastic Bags Don’t Belong in the Forest”. They made story maps and wrote about Stanley.

Happy Learning

This week has had so much great learning going on. Our old buildings have come down and we have met Andy and Jack our builders who are keeping us up to date on progress. we have a whole new vocabulary to use when discussing the building equipment-Skid Steer,Rotor Snip and Containers. We have seen recycling happening on a big scale and watched as the materials are sorted and moved.

Liz,our artist joined us to work on big boards,talking about animals and colours. This was a moment of peace and focus.

The chicks caused a great stir and we all found it very hard not to squeal and jump. They did have little scratchy feet and they did want to flap about a bit. Mrs McGill was there to reassure everyone and offer a firm but gentle hand to move the birds around.

Maths has been magical and involved as always.

Oh and we went to the forest and something had been making big holes in the bark chippings. The Pioneers had a few suggestions to offer but we did not come to a conclusion. We will have to look for further clues!

Very Happy Learning!

This week we left behind the four walls of our old classroom and starting learning in our new classroom with all of our familiar resources.This transition was wonderful and well handled by everyone and we lost no learning time. 

We are continuing our work on Animals and this has been based around whales and then we had a wonderful arrival-an alligator head. This caused quite a bit of excitement and the writing flowed rapidly

We have been composing and comparing numbers over 10 this week,all the way to 20. We spotted that there were patterns here and explored this further using number tracks and then a number square. Some Pioneers were quick to spot the pattern all the way to 100.

This work really caught their attention and break time almost didn’t happen on quite a few days.

Thank you to the Pioneers for being so good at clearing away all of the kit 

Happy Learning

The Pioneers have been discussing how they can do things for other and the things other people do for them to help them and make sure that they are happy. They have written a prayer. Often its that little things that mean the most.

Go Pioneers

The Pioneers have been voting and became familiar with some new vocabulary-Democracy,Polling Station and Voting Slip. They could not believe that it was possible that not everyone had a vote. When reading about Emmeline Pankhurst one voice said,”Was this in real life?” They could not imagine a life where women would not have a vote,be able to attend university or have certain jobs.

The Pioneers certainly understood that this was not fair.

Strong Learning

It has been another busy week of new learning for the Pioneers. We are following our interest in eggs and popped down to the forest to consider,discuss and build some nests. We asked,”What does a nest need to be?” and “Where should a nest be located?”

The Pioneers selected materials and discussed the shapes and structures required to keep the egg safe. No eggs were cracked in the making of these nests.

The nest needs to be “comfy” and the tree selected should be “stable”. We had a walk around to look for the best tree. “Nests should be in a tree to be safe from badgers and foxes”. “They are predators”

Way back in October when we were all small, we had a fiddle around with some seed heads and collected some for planting in the spring. The time has come to get them potted up and labelled.

Some are even poking through the soil already.

Exciting times.

Maths Magic has been taking place all over the place as Pioneers discover how amazing arrays are. We looked at different ways to arrange 12 and spotted columns and rows.

So much maths chat.

Thank you to everyone who has helped us with our learning this week. Sleights is a wonderful place to learn.

Happy Learning

We make a regular visit to our school library on a Friday but this week we went on a journey to The Mobile Library and that was an adventure.

Mr Grason accompanied us on our walk and helped the Pioneers to locate The Mobile Library. We were all looking for the big lorry however it had broken down so a smaller van packed full of books had come in its place. The sun was shining so this was just fine for us. The Pioneers sat in the Carpark with boxes of books and the very patient librarian talked each Pioneer through the checking and scanning of the books.

This showed our Christian Value of Service in action.

We now have a selection of borrowed books in the classroom and we will make a return visit soon.

Thank you to the library service for wonderful service. 

Happy Reading!