Welcome to the new year 2018 -2019

Apples and Cherries!

Thursday and Friday were all about Sports. Scooting, Zumba, Sport's day, we met an Olympic Judo athlete too!. We had perfect weather and it was great to go to the Junior School to run our races. Thank you to all parents who came to watch and support the children. 

Wednesday - Science Day!

We learned to be super heroes and eco warriors with the help of Super Sam to thwart the baddie Boomer who constantly loves to party and he wastes energy and electricity!

Do watch the trailer ...

Activities Week

Hurrah! It is Activities Week and we are halfway through an enriching curriculum of new and creative learning.

Monday saw the arrival of Robin Hood and his troop of Merry Men courtesy of the Image Musical Group. They chose children from the various year groups to take part in the final performance. The rest of the children joined in too as part of the chorus including a few 'hey nonny nonnys'. It was brilliant to see the enthusiasm of all the children and how their attention was absorbed by the drama group.

Tuesday was Art & Design day in which we all made a mask for the afternoon's Masquerade Ball. There were prizes to be had and we all endeavoured to design and create the best mask we could. Well done to Rocco and Emily in Cherry Class for being voted Best in Class and also to Emily and Julian in Apple Class - also Best in Class. Emily Ray did even better in the whole school competition bagging third place whilst William Jesse from Maple received second place and finally Harriet from Oak Class claimed first place with her beautiful plant themed mask. Amazing ideas!

The Week That Was...

What a busy old week we have had. We have begun sport's day practice ready for next Friday 22nd at the Junior School. It has been fun with Mr Woodall helping us to sort out the groups. We are hoping that we can run in a straight line and not lose our plimsolls on the way! Do remember we need to come to school in our PE kits on Sport's Day. 

We have explored our Space topic a bit more and we watched a video about Tim Peake, the astronaut and watched him do all sorts of amazing things in the space station! We are beginning to write sentences now and we have made so much progress since we first started.

We are also becoming quite adept at using the iPads as we are learning to make videos of each other. Learning to hold the screen steadily and use our loud voices to talk about things. 

Next week is going to be so much fun with Activities Week - we can wear our own clothes all week and sports kits on Thursday and Friday. 

Welcome to the new and final half term

The year is flying by and we are now in our final half term. The weather is improving and we have already been at school for a week. Our new theme is Prestwood and Beyond in which we will be exploring our local area and the wider world beyond...

We have already been on a walk around the village which was fun and enlightening, we spotted birds and curiously shaped chimneys, different types of homes and buildings, interesting gardens and road signs. The children took photos and videos of the walk which you can see below. This week we are looking more at space, what is out there and who might be out there....!

Its the end of the half term as we know it ... and that's just fine!

A super ending to the day as we found out all about Combine Harvesters from Paddy who was the Expert of the Week and Apple Class won the Class Gem Trophy. 

Its been a great half term and we can't believe that Summer 2 is almost upon us. 

The theme next half term is called 'Prestwood and Beyond' what do you think it will be all about?

Do enjoy the holidays relaxing, travelling, reading, learning and having some family time and see you soon. 

Well the ducklings have gone and we were sad to see them go however we know they have gone to a good home so that makes us feel better.

Today we decided that our cress that we grew was just just right to cut and taste so we did!

Some of us had never tasted cress before and it was a new experience. It was "hot", "spicy", "peppery" and "spicyno!" but we decided that it was good and lots of us had second helpings.

Do look at the video below to see some of our reactions. 

The story this week is The Bad Tempered Lady bird by Eric Carle. It is a funny story which helps us tell the time and learn the name of lots of different animals and also, of course, how to share and be kind and friendly to one another. 

We have been making character puppets and these are very popular, we have also been on a hunt outside for all the different creatures hiding in our garden and we have been making story maps to show the beginning, middle and end of the story. In maths we are reviewing how to add and subtract. Its a bit confusing but we are having a go. Phonics is fun too with practising our blending and segmenting skills. Don't forget to hear us read and sign our Reading Records and also practise those Tricky words. 

Duckling Diaries

The ducklings have grown over the weekend and are full of energy. We have watched them cheeping in their cage and swimming in the water tray. They are diving and flapping and love to swim. 

Daily Walk

Our Daily Walk is now popular with the children and we look forward to having a little walk each day, having a chat with out friends and building up the muscles in our legs. 

Thank you to parents sending in hats and water bottles as it is warm this week.

If you have any old magazine that you don't mind being cut up, please send them in as we can use them for collages. 

This week, our learning about plants has grown speedily like the magic beanstalk! We have grown our own cress seeds and some are already sprouting...hopefully they will grow over the weekend and not dry out. We had a fabulous PE lesson with Mr Woodall and our tennis skills are improving. We love lessons with Mr Woodall and its all so much fun. 

We have been very fortunate to see the ducklings hatch too. They are all out now and we have had special duckling time when we held them in our hands. We thought they were very soft and their feet were a bit prickly. Some of the ducklings were so comfortable they feel asleep in some of the children's hands. 

Ella was our Expert of the Week and she told us all about her jewellery box and showed us the beautiful things she had in there. We were all enraptured and had lots of questions for her. Ella showed us different types of jewellery like anklets and chokers spreading her knowledge to all of Apple Class. Very fascinating - well done Ella. 

Today we learned all about the School Council and the school council members came to talk to us about what they do and how they got voted in. Cherry and Apple Classes have been invited to send a boy and a girl representative to the school council. If you would like to be a school councillor then you must be able to stand up in front of the class and give three reasons to be elected by the rest of the class this Friday. We will then collect votes and the children with the most votes will be sent to school council meetings with the other year groups. Good luck!

Here comes the sun...

Our Magical Minibeasts topic is fluttering along splendidly and now that our butterflies have emerged and been set free, the arrival of the duck eggs are most opportune.

Last week we looked at different fruits and vegetables and learned all about doubling and halving in maths. We used different fruits to actually cut in half to make our fruit salad. Mmm it was delicious and sticky! Some of us had never tried plums before so it was a new experience. 

If you would like to help your child with doubling please feel free to use the image below to explain how to double using Lego that you may have at home. It is fun, clearly visible and will to help grow maths brains.

This week we have introduced the Daily Mile to Apple and Cherry Classes. We are going to walk a little bit everyday. It may not be a mile but we will have a go. Today was our first day and we had a beautiful day for it. As it is quite sunny, please remember to send in sun hats and a water bottle to keep the children cool. 

We also went to visit the duck eggs which arrived today and we are very excited because Mrs Gresswell told us all about it during assembly. We crept in quietly to look at them and ask questions. At the moment, the eggs are still and being kept warm in the incubator. Hopefully they will hatch in a couple of days. We really want to see them swim and give them cuddles and hold them. Yay!

Our College Lake trip

We had enormous fun on the trip to College Lake. We took along our teddies as it was a Teddy Bear's Picnic and we learned lots of things along the way. 

We used our senses in the beautiful sensory garden finding plants and herbs with all types of strange and delightful aromas, we heard the Nature's Orchestra and it is amazing what you can hear when you are very quiet and still. We found colours to match the broken rainbow and learned what SWAF is. Please ask us if you don't know either!

We had a fabulous picnic with our teddies then built shelters for our teddies; we thoroughly enjoyed the day. Phew! ZZZzzz...

Magical Mini-beasts

Our new topic this summer half term is Magical Mini-beasts and we have already been on a bug hunt around the school grounds. We saw an amazing array of creatures ranging from bumble bees to woodlice. We are looking forwards to learning all about different types of mini beasts and we know some things already. 

In school we have been donated some caterpillars which are already wrapping themselves up into their chrysalis shells awaiting transformation. We are fascinated!

This week we are reading the story of The Hungry Caterpillar and we are amazed at what he ate. We have mapped out the story so that we can remember it.

Bring on the Clowns ....and the Magicians!

This has been a rather fun week because we have been looking at clowns and magicians. We have been clowning around with our rhyming skills and each class came up with a poem about clowns. We put some actions with the words and performed it for the other class. 

The poems are here for you to look at. We hope you enjoy them. 

We are also writing story plans on a clown and magician theme. Watch this space or ask the children to tell you the story at the end of the week. 

Science Week in Reception

Last week was Science Week and EYFS children had a great time exploring all the different areas on the different days.

Have a look at the posters to find out about the things we did.

Welcome to Reception!

Roll up! Roll up! Come to the circus. Apple and Cherry Classes have started their new topic learning all about Circuses.  Our role play area has been transformed into a Big Top and the children have been dressing up as circus performers and learning new tricks. They have written and presented information about the different jobs in a circus and written sentences in their books; some have even used capital letters and full stops!  In maths some children have been measuring length, height and weight and others have started learning about adding and number bonds.

It was lovely to meet some of you last night at the first Parents' Evening and we are looking forward to catching up with the rest of you next week.  Don't forget we will be celebrating World Book Day on Thursday and everyone will be dressing up as a favourite book character. Celebrations will continue on Friday with our Story Telling Day.

We are enjoying our lovely new website and urge you to check out the photos of all the Kings and Queens, Princes and Princesses who joined the Royal Banquet on our Castles WOW Day last half term.