Red Nose Day and St. Patrick's Day

Our new poem, 'Spring wind' that we learnt this week was very appropriate for the changes in the weather that we've seen! The children loved exploring the descriptive language within the poem "Mrs Brown I like the words gruff and growling" and enjoyed using intonation in their voices as their recited the poem. We all agreed that we particularly like the spring wind when it is "warm and soft"!

In Maths this week we have been exploring the composition of numbers within 10, focusing on when 2 equal parts combine to make a whole. Robins have been using their comparison skills and identifying when 2 sets are equal or not equal through a range of different representations including dice and fingers. 

Robins were extremely good at saying when they could see 2 equal parts and why, using our stem sentence ____ is a part and ___ is a part to describe what their dice mat was showing. 

This week we have been working really hard on both reading and writing our tricky words! We even had a go at being tricky word detectives and seeing if we could find them within sentences! Don't forget to practise reading your tricky words at home.

Can you spot the tricky words in these sentences?

Will you be in my class?

He is on my red chair.

For cooking club this week we celebrated St Patrick's Day discussing why St Patrick's Day is celebrated and where it is celebrated. The children were then delighted to learn that today we were going to be making bread for the very first time and not just any bread but Soda bread! 

As we carefully mixed and combined all of the ingredients we were careful not to knead but to instead fold the dough and as the mixture came together it was time to dust it with flour and place it into the oven! As the smell of bread wafted across the room we knew it wouldn't be long until our Soda bread was ready and when it came out of the oven we were delighted by the outcome, it had risen! With a little help from 2 of our Owl helpers in cooking club this week we had successfully made our first loaf of bread!

On Wednesday, our Mystery Reader treated us to two stories, I think only one was planned and a reserve was brought, however, our Robins spotted the second book and took full advantage of knowing it was there - no way were they going to let Ivy's Mum leave without having read the two books. Again, the books were a huge success and of high quality - we listened to Sugarlump and the Unicorn and Dogs don't do Ballet. 

As well as our weekly learning of French with Madame Wilson (see picture), this week we had the privilege of hearing another language as we welcomed Baker's grandparents into the classroom - it was their first visit to our school! Apologies in advance if I get any of the following information slightly wrong - please forgive me Baker's Mum!!!! It was wonderful hearing Baker's Mum engage in conversation with her parents in their first language (Slovak? I hope I have that right), as she showed her parents around the classroom. It was fantastic hearing another language being spoken so fluently and beautifully - I had no idea what they were saying but they all had wide smiles on their faces so I think they were happy and extremely proud seeing Baker in his school setting. In turn, Baker has been really excited to see them at the end of the day - he too is equally proud of them. 

On Thursday, we (I) took the brave and bold step of taking the balance bikes outside. Having learnt all the skills, balance and control inside over the past few weeks, we felt ready (!!!!!) to head outside onto the wide open space of the playground. I quickly found out that this group of children are most certainly thrill seekers.....they went so fast, the faster the better! They were amazing and they were extremely confident and competent.

And finally......we finished off the week with two important events -  Red Nose Day and St. Patrick's Day in readiness for Sunday.

And that's it - another week crossed off the calendar.

See you all next week.