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From Tiny Acorns…

Scott Grason-Taylor

Way back in the Autumn, the Pioneers went to the forest and collected acorns and got to find out about our oak tree. We went through the process of selecting the best acorns and set them aside to rest over the winter in their little pots. Now that spring has sprung we have the most beautiful tiny oak trees. We took them to the forest to compare them to the big tree, spotting that the trunk is hard and lumpy and the branches and roots were much bigger too. we did a bit of bark rubbing which was very popular.

We planted the sunflower seeds that we harvested from last year’s sunflowers and searched in the soil to see what roots looked like.

We found plenty of juicy worms and a random head of garlic! Mrs McGill even managed to put up a birdbox.

When we returned to the classroom, we wrote about our adventures using the new vocabulary-bark, trunk, roots and wild garlic. We experimented with pastel pencils for our observational drawing and the results were wonderful and varied.

So much learning.

Inventors and Inventions

Scott Grason-Taylor

Learners have enjoyed another busy week in the classroom. 

On Tuesday we enjoyed a dance session with Poppy from Hannah Verity’s Dance. We jumped and hopped to music and ended the session with some fun games.

We are very excited to visit the National Railway Museum next week. To help prepare for this visit, we have been enjoying finding out about Inventors and Inventions, including the work of George Stephenson. We used Ipads to research information and found out he was often called ‘the father of the railways’. We also found out that he built a train called the Rocket which was an early passenger train. This helped us to know just how important George Stephenson was to modern railways. We are so excited to bring our  classroom learning to life next week on our trip.

We have been excited to see the seeds we planted in the forest are starting to grow. We have them on our windowsill in class and water and check the regularly. We also have some seeds in a container in the cupboard (with no light or water) and are keeping a close eye on these too.

We have begun to write our own poetry around the story of Romeo and Juliet and have taken to this wonderfully. The classroom has been bursting with knowledge and creativity and we hope to share our poems on Tapestry next week. 

In music, we were able to transfer our knowledge of the plot of Romeo and Juliet and invented our own musical story. We thought carefully about key parts of the story and chose our instruments to reflect the mood and emotion of each art. Our understanding of the plot was clear and to be able to transfer our knowledge into music was a triumph!

We are collecting plastic bottle tops in school, in order to recycle these into school resources. Please collect these at home and bring these in to school if you can!

Easter is approaching and we are looking forward to celebrating with families in Church this week.

 

Mapping Our Route

Scott Grason-Taylor

Next week we head to York on a very exciting trip. We took a look at an Ordnance Survey map to check out our route.  We took a look at Google Earth and found our location. We compared this with the map in front of us. The Pioneers noticed red lines and orange lines and questioned what these were. They were able to identify the land and the sea and areas of forest. The were able to identify beaches and rocky bits too. They were also using their phonics to read some of the place names finding York and Pickering and recognising Sleights. From previous work they spotted that this map has a grid too.

We are beyond excited about going on the bus to see the trains!

A rose by any other name would smell as sweet.

Scott Grason-Taylor

On Thursday families came in to school to celebrate World Book Day. Our focus was to celebrate Shakespeare and predominantly Romeo and Juliet. Families enjoyed joining in with many activities, such as painting and making roses, creating story maps of the text, decorating masquerade masks and writing love letters to send between Romeo and Juliet. Learners are really enjoying getting to know the plot ad characters in the text and identifying the rivalry between the Capulets and the Montagues.

In computers we have been considering face-to-face and online bullying and thought carefully about  how to be kind to our friends and how to keep ourselves safe. This is a really vital discussion, which was held with great maturity.

In PE, Learners are focusing on hockey skills. In this week’s session with Hawkes Sports we focused on balancing and movement and enjoyed some fun games to improve our skills.

In Science, we have been busy watering our newly planted seeds and are delighted to see some shoots sprouting already.

In Geography, we have been watching the weather all week and have really enjoyed watching the daily weather report. We were interested to find out about the job of a meteorologist and have enjoyed completing our own weekly weather chart too, paying attention to the temperature and wind direction.

In RE, we have been learning more about the Easter Story. We thought carefully about the different feelings and emotions we had during different parts of the story. Learners articulated their feelings wonderfully and this prompted a very meaningful discussion.

We ended the week dressing up for World Book Day, we shared lots of our favourite stories and talked about our favourite books and authors.

A busy week of learning as always in Learners Class.

 

 

 

Making Maps- Sleights and Fair Verona!

Scott Grason-Taylor

Inspired by our story telling and reading, we have made some more maps. We watched a wonderful version of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet and enjoyed spotting Mr Tumble! We got on our feet and acted out some of the scenes, shouting angrily at the opposing family. We also used Gnomio and Juliet to help us get our heads around the issues. The Pioneers were able to articulate the difficulties the two friends faced. We built Verona from loose parts and an impromptu puppet show took place.

With the story of Romeo and Juliet at the centre, we mapped out what we thought their city of Verona would be like. We used our bard book as inspiration and knew that the map needed to show Romeo’s house, Juliet’s house, the market place where they quarrel and the streets and bridges of the city. Because we had acted it all out, the drawing was the easy part. The Pioneers looked at a selection of other maps and spotted the grid and the compass. 

Our next job was to look at maps of a real place we knew well-our school grounds. We studied plans and went for a walk and the Pioneers were incredibly skilled at using the map and working out what was where asking,”Which way up does it go?” On return to the classroom, we drew our own maps with grids and added a compass rose.  The Pioneers love to write so many of them added labels too. 

Wonderful learning.

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?”