Pioneers Class

There is so much learning which takes place while we make an apple crumble. We looked at the tree and the stalk and the leaves and the seeds. We made a list of the ingredients we needed and the equipment required. We discussed safety measures and why we needed a chopping board and the need to wash out hands.

The Pioneers read together the key words-cut,rub,mix,pat,tap and hot. They mixed and they stirred and they rubbed and the sifted. They talk about the job of the sieve and looked at how the apple peeler worked. It was fascinating to watch the peel fall off in ribbons and leave the apple in slices.

The Pioneers assembled the crumble and await to eat it after swimming.

They can all identify the ingredients,the equipment and are able to talk through the process.

And there really was not too much mess.

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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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.

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.

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!

The Pioneers have completed their first full week at school and it has been wonderful. So much has been achieved and everyone is much more independent in the classroom. They know where the resources are and where and how they need to be returned. We are beginning to find the rhythm of the day and that is reassuring. Things happen in the same order each day and within that order, exploration and experimentation,thinking talking and calculating can happen. Often this is noisy and messy and then a calm occurs when everyone is focussed and the learning happens.

We have been painting and building and sorting and arranging and comparing and sharing and laughing and learning together. It is no wonder that we are a bit tired by the end of the day.

Well done!

Everything was ready for the new Pioneers to let the learning begin. The first week has been wonderful and full of so many “firsts”-a first day, a first lunchtime, a first trip to collective worship, a first PE session and a first trip to the library as a Pioneer.

The Pioneers rose to every challenge and were ready for the weekend.