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Dice and Doubles and Dominoes

Scott Grason-Taylor

Maths this week has been very active using the big ten frames and dominoes and dice. We have been exploring Odd and Even and then doubles. 
The Pioneers are really great at organising their resources and recording their results. They are also keen to talk about how they know, which is wonderful. We discussed taking turns and being fair. Sometimes we win and sometimes we don’t. We discussed how to react when things don’t go our way and that perseverance is important. ( I did not win at dominoes and we did a bit of role play to model how not to respond!)

 

Learning at its best!

Scott Grason-Taylor

This week our learning has been extremely hands on and practical and it has been awesome!

We started the week with a drama session in the hall, with Louise from Red House Theatre. We brought history to life and created a physical timeline, adding inventions through time as the morning went on. We became aeroplanes, computer typists, wheels and lightbulbs as we delighted in using drama to remember old inventions. We were excited to identify that nearly everything has been ‘invented’ and talked about our favourite inventions. What a fun morning!

On Tuesday morning, we enjoyed our swimming session at the local pool.  Our confidence is improving and our skills are certainly progressing. Improvements are happening with each session. Swimming skills are so important, living where we do!

On Tuesday afternoon, we enjoyed holding our Jewish Shabbat in class. After lots of hard work and gaining knowledge over the half-term, the Shabbat was a great way to celebrate and conclude Learner’s learning around Judaism. The tables were decorated with cloths and candles. Learners shared toasted bagels and drank blackcurrant juice in special glasses. We said a prayer before we ate. It was very special and we enjoyed eating and relaxing together. Linking back to our learning, we could identify similarities with a traditional Shabbat celebration.

On Wednesday, we enjoyed a session with Hawkes Sports. This half-term we  are working on developing our hockey skills. Learners have lots of enthusiasm for PE and always look forward to Wednesday’s session.

On Friday we enjoyed a visit to the forest, while we were there, we were able to focus on three different curriculum subjects.   In Geography we were able to use compasses to identify North, South, East and West.  With a Science focus we planted our own flower seeds, in order to bring back to the classroom to grow. We gathered natural materials, such as sticks, stones, grasses and feathers so that back in the classroom we can make patterns in art. This was outdoor learning at it’s best. Alongside this. we had plenty of fresh air and fun, climbing trees and exploring the forest!

Wow Learners, we’ve had the best week with the BEST learning!

We can’t wait for next week!

Learners love to learn 🙂

 

 

Capulets and Montagues

Scott Grason-Taylor

It has been a busy first week back for Learners Class.

This half-term, we are exploring Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet in English. To launch our topic, we used drama to act out the first scene. We each took on a role of one of the quarrelling families and became either a Capulet or a Montague. We learned about the feud between the two families and wrote down some Shakespearean insults to say to our rival family.  Words included villain, rat catcher, coward, liar, beast and dog. Learners particularly enjoyed acting out the ultimate Shakespearean insult “I bite my thumb at you!”

In history, we have been looking at changes in transport over time. This is in preparation for our trip to The National Railway museum in York this half-term.

In PHSCE we have been discussing people and services who can help us, including how to telephone 999 in an emergency.

We have shared lots of stories together in class this week as always. Our current favourites are The Emporer’s New Clothes and Rumpelstiltskin.

The Book Fair is currently in School and is open before and after school to buy a new book or two. Please come and have a look if you haven’t already.

We are collecting for the charity WHISH in school this week, please donate if you can. More details about the charity are on this week’s newsletter.

The days are becoming a little lighter every day, Spring is on the way!

Learners Class

 

 

 

Representing and Exploring

Scott Grason-Taylor

The Pioneers are comfortable exploring number in lots of ways. They like to use counters and ten frames, Stickies, Moshi Monsters, buttons and anything they can find to count and compare. They are adding written calculations to their repetoire and love to write the longest calculations possible to represent the composition of a number. The focus this week has been wonderful with excellent questioning and explanations when asked, “How do you know?”

 

Who’s That Trip-Trapping Over My Bridge?

Scott Grason-Taylor

The elves have gone and left us with trolls and goats.We started the term by retelling the story of the Three Goats and the Troll. The Pioneers have costumes and materials and figures to retell the story. We then discuss the concept of a map and created on for the setting of the story. This allowed us to look down from above and draw a 2D representation of our 3D world. The focus was incredible and every setting contained the key elements of lush, green grass, short grass and a bridge and a river with rocks.

We then went to the forest in the wind and the rain to make Stick Trolls to retell the story in another way. This was wonderful and the writing on our return was just amazing. 

Go Pioneers!

Launch the Rocket

Scott Grason-Taylor

The Pioneers had another letter and a package delivered this week. The package contained a water powered rocket to blast off on the field. The Pioneers read the instructions, created labelled diagrams and went out into the field. The launch needed the right weather conditions so we checked the weather everyday until the wind dropped and the rain stopped. The sun shone and after a few damp attempts the rocket took flight. We built our own small rockets and used all the new skills to join the parts. The Pioneers really enjoyed writing about the rocket launch taking great care and spending a lot of time on their work.

A love of learning.

Scott Grason-Taylor

This week has been another busy week of learning in Learners class.

On Wednesday we were lucky to be visited by the Open The Book Worship Committee, who told the bible story of the Good Samaritan. Children from Discoverers and Leaders joined in with the acting and story telling and were successful in bringing the story to life.

Back in the classroom, Learners have been enjoying learning about the Jewish religion in RE lessons. We have been identifying important objects and traditions. We looked closely at the Jewish mezuzah, which is a visual sign in Jewish homes acting as a reminder to live by God’s word. Learners were fascinated by Hebrew writing, contained within the mezuzah. We wrote our own class mezuzah and thought carefully about the values that were important to us. In the coming weeks we will be having our own class Shabbat and it’s safe to say we are very excited about this!

In Science this week we have been identifying common plants and trees and were able to identify the differences between the features of different leaves.

Learners love to read and we enjoy many stories and books throughout each week. We were inspired by a workshop from the Reading Leaders last week and on a visit to the library this week were keen to investigate the types of books on offer. Everyone chose a book to take home too!

We hope families will visit Learners class this Wednesday (7th Feb) where we will be celebrating Chinese New Year with many themed activities. Please join us at 9.15-10.30am.

We Built a Big Thing

Scott Grason-Taylor

After last week’s build, we decided to go big-big enough for us all to fit in! We were very lucky to receive donations of large sheets of card so we were able to build some nice walls. The Pioneers worked together to join them using special card fasteners . This needed cooperation and communication and perseverance with Pioneers working on both sides of the walls to make things fit. Over the week we learned how to use a screwdriver and a card saw. We took lots of things apart to see use as our bits and bobs to stick on the control panel. The building will stay in the classroom and so far has been a rocket, a house and a castle. The play is wonderful.

Marvellous Maths.

Scott Grason-Taylor

We begun our week this week with an open Maths Activity morning. We welcomes 24 families into Learners Class alone! The class was buzzing with problem solving, times tables and practical activities around money, shape and time. It was wonderful to be able to share our learning with our families.

We have been focusing on our 5 times tables this week, using our fingers to help with multiplication and division facts. We are certainly becoming more confident!

In computers we have had a great time enjoying the Beebots to develop our programming skills. We looked at the four direction commands on a Beebot and using our powers of prediction to decide on the outcome of an algorithm. We created an obstacle course in the hall for the Beebots and loved having a really long race.

In Geography we have been finding out about the four countries that make up the United Kingdom. We looked at maps and were able to identify the whereabouts each country and name their capital cities.

In History, we are continuing to enjoy our topic Inventors and Inventions. This week we turned our focus to the invention of the wheel. We all agreed that this was indeed one of the greatest inventions and were able to identify many different ways the wheel was useful today. We particularly enjoyed mastering how to pronounce the place ‘Mesopotamia’.

Learners love to learn 🙂