Painting Flowers,Hearts and the Odd Tractor
I set a table with a selection of paint, pallets and brushes. In the centre, I placed a few jugs of flowers. They were not the usual jugs-usually I use a red rubber vase for our classroom flowers. The children painted. Some painted flowers. Some painted hearts. Some painted tractors. Some painted the flowers in the red vase that is usually there, but wasn’t there this week. Some enjoyed moving the paint to create patterns and mix the colours.
The resulting works are now displayed in a classroom near you.
Beautiful Learning
Tadpoles Cause Great Excitement
A lot of time this week has been given over to finding out about tadpoles and watching how they are changing. This has caused great excitement, squeals and whoops. We have had a go at using Pic Collage on the iPad, drawn story maps of the development and gazed in awe and wonder at the little wrigglers. The children added some new words to their vocabulary – yolk, gill and they may remember amphibian. We discussed who might be eating who and what might be eating what. This learning will continue for a little longer, hopefully allowing us to see the development of limbs over the course of the week.
A Tree For Everyone
This week the Pioneers got the chance to handle a range of saplings provided by the Woodland Trust. We discussed the structure of the tree and use the related vocabulary. We wrote labels, having first discussed the links with our phonics. There were a few new teachers leading the learning during this session. The children all wrapped and packed individual trees to provide every family with a tree to take home and plant.
Pop into the classroom to see the wonderful writing that goes along with the photographs.
Juicing Oranges From Sunny Spain
After reading The World Came To My Place Today, we made some orange juice. Mrs McGill cut the oranges in half and everyone got to have a go with the electric juicer. some were fascinated by the bits that were left after juicing. We enjoyed our freshly squeezed orange juice at snack time. While we were drinking, some of the children acted out parts of the text we have been learning. Ask a Pioneer to tell you all about it.
Such happy learning.
Double It Up. Find Half.
We have worked really hard with some challenging maths this week and the children persevered and did not give up. This was impressive. You could almost see their brains working. They were talking to each other and making suggestions, showing each other ways of doing stuff. They are making full use of Numicon and we added the pegs to experiment with sharing.
Persevere Pioneers
Sometimes play happens on your own. Sometimes play happens in ones and twos but this week big play has been going on with everyone getting involved. The Pioneers have been building assault courses with prizes at the end. They can be seen helping each other across obstacles and making adjustments to equipment to ensure safe crossing. This play has been going on everyday and has not been curtailed by the bad weather. It has been a privilege to stand back and watch our school Christian Values in action.
Trust, Perseverance, Respect -Very Happy Learning
World Book Day
Pioneers delved into a selection of new and loved wonderful texts. This week we have been enjoying Dave’s Big Breakfast Blast Off and Dave-two books about a big fat cat and his adventures. It involves animals feeding him too many beans and the inevitable happens and Dave “blasts off” . We had great fun sharing the count down together, painting pictures of Dave and making a story map together. In the afternoon we visited our reading buddies in Discoverers Class. We brought the books and they helped with the big words. To end the day, we went into our new school library to share our last story of the day. Amelia finished the day beautifully by saying that it was the best story ever because it had a happy ending. So lovely.
Happy Reading
Spirituality Day
This was such a beautiful day. We discussed some huge questions and the answers really made me sit up and think.
Are you ever alone? Does it matter what you do? If you can’t see it,is it real? What do we need to learn? Are we part of something much bigger?
The children were given a selection of materials and they chose how they wanted to combine and arrange them. They were able to articulate why they had chosen the shapes and the colours. They talked about the circle of life,about all the pieces fitting and and resoundingly agreed that happiness was vital.
There was a quiet sense of purpose. Everyone worked together,helping each other and sharing. So good.
Making Patterns
Over the course of this week, we have been discussing shape and pattern. The children have been quick to spot repetition and can describe differences in size,shape and position. We used coloured rods,pegs and beads. The Numicon sparked new conversations about number patterns. They are very interested in odd and even and noticed the pattern with the Numicon and on the number square. This was very exciting work and I did say “Wow” quite a few times when they spotted and described patterns. That’s Maths Magic.
Kung Hei Fatt Choy
Families were invited to join our learning in every classroom of the school. In Pioneer Class, the children showed their parents how to decorate the Lucky envelopes. They used the computer to find out which animal they were. The parents drew a picture. We had a selection of spices to use with the dough and had discussed the fragrances. It was busy, but lovely.