Pioneers Class

We went to the forest on Wednesday to photograph our writing so we can make people more aware of the need to look after the plants. The Pioneers visited different areas of our school site to consider if we could leave the grass a little longer to help the insects and the plants. They agreed that some areas would be better kept short. They like to play football and rugby so the grass on the pitches would be better if it were cut. The edges of the field and the forest could be longer. 

We also planted the sunflower seeds we harvested in the autumn from our sunflowers. We made labels and expect to see some growth after the weekend. After planting,we wrote instructions detailing the sequence of planting a seed.

The sun shone and everyone was delighted to be outside and enjoying the fresh air and the green all around. The focus of the day was to look at what was growing and establish a knowledge of roots going down into the ground and shoots coming up. We discussed how scientists look carefully and that botanists are interested in plants.We were also getting to grips with using a selection of tools for digging and dig we did!

Lots of soil was shifted and one voice was heard saying,”We are miners!”

We discovered that there were different types of roots. Some were thin and like hairs and others were much fatter. We also uncovered some lichen and some spawn. We found new grown and perfect acorn cups. Many returned to the classroom with pocket treasure.

A wellies remained in pairs and a good time was had by all.

The Pioneers have been doing a little bit of quiet painting this week and it was lovely to watch. The were very peaceful and undistracted when choosing colours and mixing and creating. They all take great care with the brushes and where they apply the colour and how they choose to do this. Every viewpoint was different. They passed the paintpots and shared the space so beautifully. 

A quiet moment in a busy room.

This week we have read a beautiful book all about memories. In the book a little boy called Wilfred goes to visit the older people who live in the care home next door. He hears that some of them may have lost their memory and he sets out to help them find it again. He collects a number of items in a basket to talk about and sees how the old people recount their youth. The Pioneers talked about happy times that they remembered and that sometimes they have sad memories too. 

The conversations were beautiful.

The Pioneers had a most wonderful visit to St John’s Church hosted by Mrs Jones. The sun shone and the snow was crisp and white. 

We were all excited to see the font and talk about our own baptisms and family events in church. Mrs Jones told us about the old font which sits in the porch which is even older than the church.

Having discussed our Christian Values,the Pioneers understood that they needed to be respectful whilst in church. We continued our exploration by talking about the altar and spotted the purple cloth-just like our prayer space and the table in school. Mrs Jones explained why there were no flowers and the Pioneers added this new knowledge to their exisiting knowledge of Lent.

All the Pioneers got up in the pulpit,sat in the pews,looked at the windows and found the Bibles. We looked at the different coloured vestments and finished our visit with a story. The Pioneers then searched in all the windows to find the pictures of Jesus with the little children.

On return to school the Pioneers completed a Church Check List to illustrate all the new vocabulary. They painted pictures and wrote about their visit. We also made big picture maps of our journey. The focus was excellent.

Another week of wonderful learning.

To finish a wonderful week of learning,we read together and created together and had a lovely time. The mess could have been a lot worse.

We read The Disgusting Sandwich and then found worms and slugs and feathers and green and grey gloop. We all experimented with running our sandwiches over with a tyre.  All sandwiches were disgusting and went home at the end of the day.

As always,we took our Friday trip to the library and it was lively. We read The Highway Rat as we had a Highway Rat in our midst. We talked about the ruff on his shirt. 

Such a great day.

The Pioneers made table top representations of the story of the Three Billy Goats Gruff and combined a variety of interesting materials to do this. They used cups and paint sticks to make bridges and then went on to explore how to build other structures. The resulting work was incredible.

The Pioneers got to the point of realising that to build a taller tower they needed a wider base and they set to work to build a wall higher than themselves. Of course,what goes up must come down…and it did!

Great team work and communication was involved.Everyone was careful and respectful and supportive. We discussed our Christian value of forgiveness and everyone was helpful when the wall came tumbling down.

This work will continue into next week.

The elves left a video and a letter asking for a rocket. The Pioneers made great efforts with glue and string and paper fasteners and tape to create a wide selection of rockets. They created annotated diagrams noting the materials used and their function. This was stunning work.

A delivery arrived of a water powered rocket and this caused great excitement. We took it out on to the field after discussing any possible risks. We found a safe spot away from houses and trees where the rocket may have got stuck.

The Pioneers counted down from 10 to blast off then ran to collect the rocket after each flight.

They successfully managed their outdoor kit and we didn’t make too much mess of the carpet.

Then later in the week our families joined us for a wonderful session of rocket building and story telling.

It was a wonderful week of learning.

This has been another truly tremendous week of learning in Pioneers. We know what we need to do and we are getting it done. The Pioneers have been excited about number with a focus on the composition of 6,7 and 8. We have talked about what we see and how we see it when looking at collections of objects. We then used counters and wonderful blutac to represent 6,7 and 8 and then wrote calculations using = and +. We also worked on our number formation.

We talked about the shapes and built with them,discussing which were best to stack and roll and why some others were a bit more challenging. The Pioneers spotted faces they recognised and built up their mathematical vocabulary to describe what they saw. We sorted them by colour and by shape and by size. This was fabulous to observe.

Notes were written to add to our buildings.

This week the Pioneers have been very busy joining a variety of materials using  a range of methods. The classroom has been quiet and the Pioneers have been very focussed on their work. They used a selection of tools to take apart some Beebots and other junk. They used tape and lots of glue, paper fasteners and pipecleaners.