It have been lively in Pioneers this week especially at the end of the day when we have got out the box of untuned percussion instruments. We’ve all had a good go at making some noise. As all good musicians know, silence is important too. We have tried out stopping and starting and been highly successful. It’s been great fun marching to the beat of our own drum.
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Welcome 🙂
This week, we have explored lots of new learning in science, including how shadows are created. We used torches to find out why our shadows got bigger, the closer the object was to the torch.
We used the word opaque to help us explain this. Opaque means that light is unable to pass through an object.
Wow, what a busy week in Learners Class.
On Monday, we were lucky to have a visit from Louise from the Red House Theatre Company. who took us on a whistle stop tour of the past. We used drama to become Vikings, Romans, Whitby Abbey and even a Roman Road. It was such a fun way to learn more about history. Back in the classroom we thought about ‘chronology’ and used our knowledge to create timelines of our own lives by ordering specific events.
It was delightful to welcome parents into school on Monday and Tuesday evening and be able to share each child’s achievements and successes so far.
In art, we have been learning how to draw and shade, using the techniques of hatching, stippling and scribbling. Art is a firm favourite in Learners Class.
On Thursday we visited St John’s Church for our new starter service, where we also welcome Sleights’ new Vicar. Learners spoke about their inspirations and aspirations for their new class this year. Learners class sung beautifully in church, it really was very moving.
In computers, Learners have been learning more about online safety, where we carefully decided what could and could not be shared online.
Learners class love to learn 🙂
The Pioneers have so many wonderful places to learn. We step outside the classroom into a wonderful space surrounded by green. There is always sand and water to explore and lots of things to climb on and to build with. This week we worked under the canopy to explore printing and colour and to get our acorns ready for their “hibernation” to plant next spring. We used a story map to remind us of what we needed to do and this included words that we could segment and blend.
Later in the day we walked around the edge of the field and the forest looking closely at the colours around us. The selection was fabulous. The Pioneers noticed the different shaped leaves and the changes that have happened since we returned to school.
Learners class were keen to find out the meaning of the word ‘history’ this week. We had wonderful discussions about the past, present and the future and could identify experiences in our own lives from each of these categories. Next week, we will learning how to plot these experiences using a timeline.
In English, we are continuing to prepare our explanation texts answering the question ‘what is a global neighbour? We reflected on the school visit from the Zambezi Sunrise Trust earlier in the year and could articulate and write about the wonderful charity they run.
We have really enjoyed mark making this week in Art, in the style of Pablo Picasso. We used pencils, wax crayons and charcoals to draw zigzags, curls and lines in our sketch books. I think Learners are definite artists in the making!
We enjoyed computers with Mrs Gurney on Thursday and learned some key E-Safety rules. Learners created a paper chain of 5 trusted adults that they could talk to and ask for help from if they needed to. Learners had great fun making these and ended the session with a game of ‘Does Sid say yes or no?’
We finished the week with a fun PE session, perfecting our throwing and catching techniques. There was a lot of concentration in the room as we raced each other while balancing beanbags on our heads.
Another busy week of learning in Learners Class 🙂
The Pioneers spent the day outdoors exploring our wonderful site. We packed up our trolley and took responsibility for the kit we needed. Some helped to carry some very heavy buckets. We talked about looking after ourselves,looking after others and looking after our environment.
As we went along we pointed out hazards like nettles and thorns and big holes in the ground. We speculated that these could have been made by badgers.
Our first Forest Find was a sycamore tree and it’s seeds so we stopped to take a look . We walked the boundaries and discussed where it was safe to go. We then set up camp next to the Oak tree and had a good rummage around. Lots of ladybirds were relocated and acorns and leaves made their way into the treasure boxes. We shared a good book before moving up onto the field to explore.
We had snack in our outdoor area and a good phonics session before lunch.
In the afternoon we headed back to the forest to look closely at leaves,selecting some to press for printing later. One Pioneer suggested this.
We pulled some vegetables which was very exciting. One Pioneer could identify the vegetable from the leaves.
To finish the day we repeated our bread dough making from last week with greater efficiency and a different kind of mess!
It was glorious.
Welcome to another week in Discoverers’ class 😀
This week it started in style, when we held a KS2 cross country within our grounds. We ran around the front and back fields, and even into the forest.
After battling across the different terrain, we cheered on the other classes, watching everybody finish with a huge smile of pride on their faces.
Learners Class’s feet haven’t touched the ground this week, we have been SO busy!
We started the week with cricket sessions with Owen from Yorkshire Cricket. We REALLY enjoyed this and had lots of fun practising our throwing and catching skills. There was a mention that cricket bats may be coming out in session 2, so we are very excited about this.
Also on a sports theme, Learners visited Caedmon College Whitby on Thursday afternoon and took part in a town multi-skills event. Learners were awesome, we ran, we balanced, we caught, we threw, we jumped over and we crawled under. We thoroughly enjoyed it and gave it everything we had!
In the classroom, we have been consolidating tricky words in phonics sessions and revisiting Phase 3 and 4 words and sentences. Learners class love to read and Little Wandle phonics sessions are invaluable in building our skills.
In geography we have been looking at our location using google earth. We have been labelling features around our school grounds using an aerial photograph of the area. We were very interested in aerial views and proceeded to draw a map of our own classroom. We had a good look around and identified where things were. Then, carefully using a ruler drew our own maps. Learners worked with great focus and the finished maps were wonderful.
We finished the week with an Open Morning for our families. Learners class was a hive of activity, with a huge parent turn-out. Learners and visitors enjoyed learning together and the classroom had a very happy buzz.
Learners love to learn! 🙂
This corner of the room is very popular and always full of activity and conversation. The Pioneers work together to build and create. They have combined a variety of materials to create parts of our village. They have made the river with the railway line running along it and used the foam tiles to make roads and bridges. They added green felt and grass to make the fields. They discussed that trains don’t go on roads and need to be kept on tracks. They built their own houses and talked about where they lived. There with lots of talk about neighbours and the shops in the village. They added signs and their mini-me.
This has built up over the week after reading Sid in Sleights and looking at the photographs of the village. We have now added different types of vehicles that pass through the village.
Pioneers got stuck in to making bread dough. They combined each ingredient-flour,yeast,sugar,water and oil to make a crust for the fabulous pie. This took a great deal of perseverance to continue when their hands were sticky and uncomfortable. Every Pioneer followed the instructions and were successful in their dough making. They then combined this with their selection of animals to retell our wonderful story of Fabulous Pie.
At the end of the session they were all more familiar with the required ingredients to make dough and some of the actions required to bring the dough together-mix,kneed,roll,rub and scrape.
They used Numicon to clean the table at the end of the session!
