Autumn Term: Week 5
Super Andro Bear’s Learning Power this week has been Creativity. Many of the children were under the impression that being creative just meant making nice artwork. To their great delight they discovered it is so much more than that. They can be creative in their English and mathematics lessons, in dance, music, Forest School and even more. This means you don’t have to be great at art to be creative. Starting with very little, you can let your imagination go in any direction and create something wonderful; a story, a structure, a dance routine and even something nice to eat.
This week, the Year 2 children have been investigating electricity and were challenged to work out how to connect the different components in order to make a light bulb light up or a buzzer buzz. There was great excitement from the children when they succeeded, which was delightful to see. They also used their creative skills when making their own Great Fire of London houses.
Year 1 used their creativity Learning Power in their English lessons, whilst studying the book Shark in the Park. They looked at rhyming words and worked together to write poems, which they then acted out. In mathematics, they are learning about teen numbers and made ‘teen crowns’. The artwork this week was focussed on the book they have been studying in English and they produced a lovely display for all to see.
The Year 1 School Council children were especially excited at lunch time on Wednesday, as an idea they put forward for the lunch menu was realised. Ale said proudly, ‘Yes, we asked for it at the School Council meeting and now we’ve got it. It works.’
On Monday, the Pre-Prep welcomed back Mrs Tarrant. She has been working each morning with small groups or one-to-one with the children in the Reception class, ahead of returning full-time after half term.
The focus in the Reception class this week was Harvest. The children read the story Oliver’s Vegetables by Alison Bartlett and Vivien French. They looked at real vegetables and talked about where their food comes from, such as crops on farms, allotments and vegetable patches. On Wednesday the children worked collaboratively and creatively making sweet potato, carrot and onion soup; they had to peel, grate and chop the vegetables and then tasted it – very yummy. The phonics sounds of the week were ‘e’, ‘u’ and ‘h’; the children used great imagination as they decorated eggs, made clay hedgehogs and stood under Miss Maynard’s rainbow umbrella, whilst she poured water over them. The week ended with the children working creatively with Miss Maynard and Mrs Cracknell to make their very own class scarecrow in celebration of Harvest!
The Chaffinch and Kingfisher classes celebrated their Harvest Songs this week and there was much excitement leading up to this lovely event! The children brought in different vegetables and we talked about where they might have come from. Eliza showed everyone her ‘patty pan’ and said that it was from ‘my granny’s garden!’ During cooking the children cut, peeled and mashed all the vegetables to make soup. Everyone had a taste but not everyone was impressed! They continued to explore vegetables by making some potato prints, they talked about what shapes the children would like carved on their potatoes and everyone had a go. The children worked creatively using their potato shapes to print pictures. They were most pleased with the outcome.
Elsewhere, the children in the Nightingale class used different tools and explored textures while painting leaf shapes and they also used their hands imaginatively to create patterns. The children in the Robin class made sensory bottles, using conkers and leaves. They made bubbles and had enormous fun catching them and making them go pop. The Sparrow class children explored play-dough with their hands, squishing and squeezing it. They tried their hand at using rolling pins to flatten it and then cut out shapes using shape cutters.
So it was another hugely busy week in Pre-Prep and Nursery. Long may their creativity continue.
