Spring Term: Week 6
This week saw lots of excited children, whether in school or at home, because of the snow. Not quite enough to build enormous snowmen but fun nonetheless.
Staying with the wintry theme, the Year 2 children focussed really well when exploring the different effects that could be made with chalk ahead of creating some wonderful snow scene pictures. There were great discussions about sledging, snow ball throwing challenges and the atmosphere was truly magical! The children have become authors this term and have written lots of short stories based on dragons; and this week they wrote Lego adventure tales. These were shared with the Reception class. What a great half term it has been.
The children also learnt about the Chinese New Year and how it is celebrated in ‘normal’ times. We hope families will still hold reduced celebrations, as was the case for Christmas. This year is the year of the ox. In the story they listened to, the children discovered that the ox had been kind and helpful to the rat and the cat, by helping them across the river. The ox is also said to have characteristics of strength, reliability, fairness and conscientiousness, as well as inspiring confidence in others. Something for us all to aspire to.
In Year 1, Monday afternoon was designated a snow afternoon and the home-schoolers had a fantastic time out sledging. In-school children dressed up warmly and played on the field. The art lesson took on a snow theme with roll-a-dice snowmen pictures, where the children had to follow step-by-step instructions to draw different parts of the snowman. In English, the children put the final touches on their wonderful twisted tales; they have been wonderfully imaginative. They have also written job applications for a variety of jobs at our Fairy Tale Castle! This included vacancies ranging from marshals (who need to be good at looking after horses); cooks (to make delicious pancakes and lemon cake) and guards (to keep the castle safe). One applicant stated, positively, that he always wakes up very early. Mrs Reed and Mrs Bates think that all applicants have been successful. In maths the children have worked with partitioning numbers to 50. They will have an exciting home challenge for half term including counting how many steps it takes to get from one side of a room to the other, to counting doors and window.
In Reception the children have had a week of varied themes. On Monday and Tuesday they learnt about Chinese New Year and made dragons and paper lanterns. On Wednesday the theme was Valentine’s Day and they made heart shortbread biscuits. On Thursdays the theme was Pancake Day and the children tasted pancakes with different toppings to decide which was their favourite. In Forest School the children made Chinese numbers using sticks to represent the strokes of the Chinese characters. The children have learnt about ordinal numbers and a days-of-the-week song to help them remember which day comes after which.
The Chaffinch and Kingfisher classes were very excited this week as, for many, it was the first time they had seen snow. They had a lovely time throwing snowballs, creating snow angels and generally slipping and sliding on the field. The children have been learning about the Chinese New Year of the Ox. They talked about what animal they each might be and made Chinese lanterns choosing their favourite colours. They also made some mooncakes and particularly enjoyed making holes with their thumbs to spoon in the jam.
The Nightingale children couldn’t wait to get outside and explore the snow. They threw lots of snowballs and found it highly entertaining when they ‘got’ their teachers. They discovered a frozen bucket of water which had a toy frog stuck inside. “Oh no! The frog is stuck. How can we get him out?” one of the children asked. They also visited Forest School in the snow and saw that the pond had completely frozen over. To celebrate Chinese New Year, the children created Chinese fans and painted cherry blossom trees. The children were shown how to create their trees and were then given the task to see if they could follow the instructions. They were really engaged.
The Robin class have had lots of fun exploring the snow in the garden and they have been really creative with many arts and crafts activities. They made lovely Valentine’s Day cards and cherry blossom trees to celebrate the Chinese New Year and staff set up a sensory activity for the Robins to make from oats and they thoroughly enjoyed it!
The Sparrow children also made a cherry blossom tree for Chinese New Year using their hands to print the blossom. They too made St Valentine’s Day cards for their families using paintbrushes and Duplo.
It’s been a super half term’s work from one and all. Have a lovely half term break and see you all on Monday 22 February.
