Pioneers Class

The Pioneers love to be active and to look for patterns and links and find ways to explain these. We have been exploring patterns in number looking at 5 and a bit and 10 and a bit. We have used a variety of materials to create number lines and representation. We used a big wooden number square and a number splat on the whiteboard. The work was full of new thoughts which require a bit of grappling to articulate once we had spotted links.

The elves are still with us and wanted a material to make a window in their rocket. The Pioneers were asked to test materials to decide which would work best. We explore testing all and everything in the classroom by looking to see if light could pass through or not. We then recorded our results on a table, discussing our findings as we went. The Pioneers now know how to record results on a table and the words transparent and opaque.

The sun shone and there was a little bit of a warm feeling in the air. Pioneers spent most of the day out and about making use of our wonderful school grounds. 

We worked on story telling and story making linked to Peter and the Wolf and our visiting elves. We enjoyed maths in the forest and on the playground. In the afternoon we did some printing on a big scale using tubes and lots of loose parts to experiment and create. 

Such a wonderful day.

The Pioneers computing led them to work together on prediction, problem solving and programming. They moved the Beebots across the map mat giving them instructions along the way. The communication was wonderful to watch and their excitement was palpable.

Pioneers love their cricket sessions and learn so much during the sessions. Listening and focus are a priority. Teamwork is required. The Pioneers know the routine and each week we build new skills to perfect technique. Our expert coach Owen guides us through a series of games to highlight the required body position and thinking. 

We played “What’s the Time Mr Wolf”, “Craters and Volcanoes” and “Hit the Alien”. Hit the Alien allowed us to focus on bowling, hitting the alien to knock it out. Within our session we managed to get rid of them all.

The elves are arriving daily and bringing written requests for all sorts of things. The letters include tricky words and the new digraphs taught this week. It is funny how they know just what we are learning about. They must have known that we are looking at materials in science and about joining techniques in DT as lots of their requests were related to using different materials and using a variety of methods to secure these!

We have made little bags to contain boots and crowns and painted pictures to annotate. The Pioneers have built thrones and used the elves to help when finding one more in maths. The Pioneers are writing lists of elf names and elf items and this is so wonderful.

So much collaboration and consideration is happening. There is a lot to get to grips with when sharing resources and space and elves.

So much progress this week! Go Pioneers

The Pioneers made a start on investigating printing, making marks with all kinds of loose parts. They chose colours and shapes and arrangement. Some created pictures. Others explored pattern and repetition. Some were creative with their application of colour and the materials used, applying paint to a paper towel and developing this. 

We looked at the work of Andy Warhol involving layers of colour and noted the need to let each layer dry. By the end of the session everyone had a better understanding of how much paint was too much paint. This is often difficult to gauge.

The elves, who arrived after Christmas also made a few demands, asking for printing in red and black and green. It is a good job that we have just learned the ee digraph so we were able to read their letter!

After lots of discussion about where Bethlehem was and how you would travel there and what it would be liked, The Pioneers went on the bus to Bethlehem and it was quite remarkable. We discussed that it was all pretend. We were met by two Roman centurions and greeted warmly on Skinner Street. We entered Bethlehem and the Pioneers questioned the lack of sand. We were taken to the market square where we observed greetings and were signposted to the various locations. There were sounds and sights and smells to keep us all curious.
We got to find out about candle making, woodwork and the food that would have been eaten at the time of Mary and Joseph’s journey to Bethlehem-no oranges apparently! We found out that Bethlehem means House of Bread. We looked at old woodwork tools for smoothing and drilling. Everyone got to dress up if they wanted and listened to the Christmas Story.
Juice and a biscuit was served in the Inn.
We had an impromptu singsong which was a bit of a mashup of our nativity songs. It was done with great energy!
The Pioneers were asked many searching questions and gave brilliant answers.
And we made it back for lunch but were a little late. The afternoon was quite quiet.

Our book this week is The Jolly Christmas Postman and everyone loves it. We have read it together and got to grips with the plot by using a storymap. Everyone is able to add some words to read and write and this is so wonderful. We used the story to make some beautiful imaginary maps and these are supporting our narrative writing. 

We took the chance to do a bit of role play using a technique called Whoosh! We built up each page with the Pioneers taking the roles. Sometimes you were a house and sometimes you were the Postman. Two Pioneers became the stile and we had to discuss what this new word was referring to. They had all heard of a hairstyle but did not recognise the word stile. This fitted in very well with our phonics. It is so fantastic to make these links and see phonics and vocabulary acquisition in action.

The maps and the writing are wonderful and we had a lot of fun being a wall of ice and the elves in Santa’s Workshop.

The Pioneers love their dance session and each week things become more complex. They begin with a warm up and then extend and develop the routine. This involves a lot of skill and focus to listen and follow multi part instructions. This week saw the addition of ribbons on sticks and leadership exercises to end the session.

The energy is palpable.