Pioneers Class

We have been asking the question,” Who lives in our forest? and today we met some possible residents. The Pioneers were absolutely delighted to meet a snake and find out that like the boa constrictor in our song, in squeezes its prey. Next we were introduced to the hedgehog,who seemed to hicccup when he was tickled. The owls were spectacular and the barn owl flapped his big wings.

The squeals of delight said it all.

Pop in to the classroom to see our story maps and some more pictures. We also have a wonderful snakeskin to looks at.

Pumpkins are things of beauty and beautiful to hold. The initial idea was to paint the pumpkins-stilllife style however the instruction can be interpreted in a different way. One of the Pioneers decided to paint the pumpkin so that set our exploration off in another direction. We painted on the pumpkin and tried rolling and pressing them on to paper to make imprints.

This was truly beautiful to watch and we will repeat this to enjoy further exploration.

The Pioneers love to tell stories and we have been using symbols on sticks to support this work. The little figures,jewels and small houses become charactars and  setting for fabulous fun. Keep an eye out for new stories in the Blue Files.

Lots of lovely mathematics has been going on in the classroom. Each day we get together and do a bit of clapping,jumping,drawing and counting. We move the beads on the bead string. We count numicon. We make patterns with bricks. We draw and we write. When appropriate we watch N-N-N-N-Numberblocks. The blue plates are great to write on and our cubes dont fall off.

Happy Maths

We had the great pleasure of welcoming the Leaders to read and sing with us. It was so lovely to see the care and consideration offered by all. The children are all familiar with each other after sharing lunchtimes,playtimes and Collective Worship. We began the session by singing our favourite,”Little Bunny Fou Fou” and then we quietened down to finish the day with a shared story. The older children wrote in the reading record of their younger friends,to note their visit and the book they shared.

Happy Sleights School Family

This week we have done  a lot of learning outdoors in our beautiful village and school grounds. The addition of some new bricks and some Hi-Viz Vests have brightened up our already popular Big Building.  The building tools have been used for the purpose of surgery. I have been invited to numerous appointments to have treatment. The treatment has most often been having my leg chopped off at varying intervals.

We have cut down some of our lavender to dry for playing in the dough over the winter and we have started to gather the apples from the trees to make crumble in the next few weeks.

We took a few trips to the forest too and it is just the best place. Our pockets were full of forest treasure. On return to the classroom we have counted and compared,looked carefully and found out more. So much learning.

We also walked up to the Church together and walked through the beautiful Church grounds. 

Happy Autumn.

This week we have been learning The Magic Porridge Pot. We have enjoyed the rhyme and rhythm of the story and I am sure many of us have the words stuck in our heads. The ongoing play has been fantastic and I have eaten so many bowls of porridge with huge wooden spoons.

The addition of a box of magnetic rods and a selection  of pots,pans,colanders and trays caught the interest of many. Some wanted to build high.Others were interest in testing out the materials. Some of  the pots looked like they should be magnetic and were not. This caused some discussion and ‘trial and error’ experimentation continued. The ‘attract’ and ‘repel’ of the magnets held the attention of many. It really is like magic to watch. The language used was spectacular, as was the team work required.. Over the day the play changed and developed and it was so exciting to watch.

Sharing wonderful books happens all over the place in our classroom. Baskets of selected texts are all over the place to dip into and relax. There is a big box of books that the children can pick from to take home and share. Special books are often highlighted by the Pioneers as favourites.

Each day we read two books and then discuss which is the best. Initially I placed two baskets for the children to chose one book or the other but they made it clear that they needed to be able to place a vote for liking both books. Democracy! We now have three baskets.

It is so beautiful to see children sitting together and by themselves looking at books. Some have been spotted reading to each other. Others have been pretending to be the teacher and sitting in my chair reading to their friends,modelling my behavior. If you listen carefully you can often hear the words from the text that they have committed to memory. We are so well supported by lovely reading volunteers who offer their time to sit and read and chat about books. The Pioneers are always keen to chat about their stories.

Next week we will visit the library to extend our book choices

Happy Reading