Summer Term: Week 4
The children all returned fresh-faced after their extended weekend and during their Tuesday morning assembly, they learned why they had had an extra day added to their weekend. They discovered why May Day exists and that it has been celebrated for many hundreds of years. They learned of maypole and morris dancing and how the students and townsfolk of Oxford have been regaled by beautiful singing at 6am from the top of Magdalen College tower for the past 500 years! Sadly these last two years this has been to a handful of observers only. Hopefully 2022 will see similar numbers to 2019 – 13,500!
This week Year 2 started a mini project about invertebrates and vertebrates. We are so lucky to have our Forest School; the children went for an extra visit this week to look for invertebrates. Over the next few weeks, the children will be collecting, sketching, photographing, creating using clay and making an invertebrate home! The awe and wonder witnessed by Mrs Tomsett this week has been such a pleasure!
The Year 1 children have completed some amazing writing this week, from recounts of their trip to the beach to wonderful adjectives for the creature that they found hidden in the cave deep in the sea. They have worked using their curiosity learning power on their new phonic sounds and have come up with a very ambitious list of words. In history, the children have compared school life in different eras and learned of the similarities and differences. There was much discussion about the cane and its use and they had many a story to tell about their grandparents’ school lives. In the Forest they have continued with work related to the artist Andy Goldsworthy and have produced some lovely observational drawings. On Friday we celebrated Number Day with many exciting activities, including maths games and a number hunt.
The Reception children have been learning about ordinal numbers, playing a game where the gardener had to plant flowers in the correct order before they could be watered. The children also made yummy pizzas with toppings including ham, pineapple, olives and salami. They heard the story Aliens Love Underpants and painted their own aliens using their footprints; very scary aliens appeared. On Friday they enjoyed a range of activities in the Forest for World Number Day.
The Chaffinch and Kingfisher classes have been looking at patterns and symmetry. They made butterflies by painting patterns on one side of the paper and folding it over. ‘Look at that – – it’s the same!’ The children all enjoyed deciding what colours they wanted to use. When adding white to red and blue a child said, ‘Oh look, that colour looks like Lilac!’ Another child was pleased with her ‘pretty patterns’. The children also explored what parts of their bodies were the same, ‘I have two ears and two eyes but one nose,’ said a child. ‘I have two arms and two legs,’ said another.
This week the Nightingale class has explored different textures. They mixed shaving foam and paint together to create ‘puffy paint’. They described it as ‘soft and fluffy’. The children then loved using different tools to created textured works of art and exploring how it felt on their hands. They have also used the sand pit and compared how the sand has such a different feel to the puffy paint. The children created great sandcastles and cakes using different objects to help them, such as buckets.
In Robin class, staff have been focusing on encouraging peer interaction during activities. The tables were covered with paper and the children used their gross and fine motor skills to mark-make. The children went out for some lovely walks to All Saints gardens and one particular highlight was when a dog chased a squirrel up a tree!
The Sparrow children have been focusing on summer colours in a painting activity. They also had fun exploring and discovering different textures with the paint. They experimented with different objects to paint with.
Armelle Wilkinson
Head of Pre-Prep and Nursery
