Term 4- A New Term!
Welcome to Term 4!
Here we go......
We can't believe we are nearing the end of February! As we came back through the Robin's door, we could almost begin to see signs of Spring ....we now have our new triangle garden in the main playground which provides a calm reflective area. We are looking forward to seeing flowers and plants appear soon and this week despite some rather torrential rain at times we were lucky enough to see some lovely pockets of sunshine coming through and when they did there was even a little warmth!
As we all welcomed each other back we couldn't wait to explore the Rainforest area, it all looked a little different, similar and familiar but ....different, with a new lounge, kitchen and creative area to explore we were soon delving in. "
We were also very excited to find out that Mrs Brown had brought in some vehicles and a car mat for us! We carefully selected which vehicle we wanted, would it be the taxi or the lorry? Maybe the fast car or the car like my Mummy's? We then placed them on the car mat and used the Duplo to build houses!
We even had construction vehicles which we used to carry the blocks around to help us construct!
It was however time to finish our Dear Zoo story and today we were finding the PERFECT animal for the zoo to send us! We had so many ideas.....from kittens to dogs, fish to rabbits and even a guinea pig! As Robins said their sentence and then wrote it down, it was lovely to see how far they have come with their writing.
I wonder what your perfect animal would be and why?
During free flow we even thought about what our favourite animal would be if we went to the zoo and the most popular animal within Robins was a......
Fish!
In Maths this week Robins focused on their understanding of the composition of number 5! We investigated the part-part-whole relations, for example understanding that 5 is the whole 3 is a part and 2 is a part.......
Robins deepened their understanding of a 'whole' being made up of smaller parts through practical activities such as singing 'Five little speckled frogs' and then moving frogs from a log into the pool just like in the nursery rhyme!
We finished off our Maths learning this week with a little bit of measuring, exploring and using the language of longer and shorter. We compared lots of objects from around the classroom. What a great time we had in Maths this week!
As we continued to develop our computing skills through Purple Mash, we practiced logging on independently. Don't forget you can log on at home too, your log in cards are stuck in your Reading Records! The children loved using the paint app in Purple Mash to practice their skill of using the touchpad to move the cursor to select colour and pen, they started the term with an artistic flare!
"I want my page all red!"
"I want different coloured dots!"
Why not have a go at home and see what your child can create? We would love to see their technical creations!
With Tuesday drawing to a close we knew that it must be time for PE and with the start of a new term comes the start of a new skill. This term we will be focusing on Dance and within dance we will be developing the following :-
- Exploring how our body moves, coping basic body actions and rhythms.
- Exploring actions in response to music and an idea.
- Begin to explore pathways and the space around us and in relation to others.
- Perform short phrases of movement in front of other
This week we started with a song that we all knew 'Heads, shoulders, knees and toes', putting actions the songs to warm ourselves up and then once we were warmed up we began moving around the room to music. Each time the music stopped we had to find a space and touch the floor with a given body part, some were much easier than others!
As we headed towards the end of the week, we we creeping closer and closer towards March......
"March brings breezes, loud and shrill,
To stir the dancing daffodil."
The Garden Year by Sara Coleridge
It will come as no surprise to you that I always look forward to March – Spring is in the air and of course what better way to start the month than with a celebration, especially one as close to my heart as the celebration of St. David’s Day. On Friday, I wore my daffodill with pride, a sign of my welshness – my belonging, my identity, my being part of something – my ‘hiraeth’ as we would say in Wales. I would like to think that we as a school offer that similar sense of belonging – wearing the school uniform with the school badge, giving that sense of pride. We also spread the welshness in class - daffodils and welsh cakes were offered to all the EYFS and KS1 children to take home and welsh cakes were on offer in the staffroom for the staff to enjoy with their cups of tea! I do love St. David's day.....but I am already planning what we can offer for St. Patrick's day later on in the month - any suggestions or Irish relatives who fancy coming in to talk about St.Patrick's day celebrations will be more than welcome to come in and visit us! Just let us know.
WORLD BOOK DAY NEXT THURSDAY
PLEASE BRING IN YOUR FAVOURITE BOOK
Thank you to those who have already signed up to be a Mystery Reader - please don't be afraid to volunteer - the children get so much out of it. In the past it has been one of those things that 'grows' and once word gets out how much fun it is the more volunteers we get (if you don't volunteer you know I will nag you into it!!!!).
We already have our first volunteer for next week lined up so watch this space! All will be revealed. We can't wait!
Finally, before we sign off we just want to share another little glimpse of what happens in the classroom. The following photo shows a group of three children who spent a good deal of time together on Friday afternoon in the junk modelling area. One had designed on paper, a robot, one collected the materials needed and one put most of it together. The three children worked collaboratively, they problem solved, they adjusted their plans and generally had the most amazing time together made all the more special by seeing their robot come to 'life'. Myself and Mrs Langford stood back and watched and listened in awe of the way they spoke and brought their ideas together. Our eyes filled up when we heard one say " do you think we are actually working as a team, is this what team work is?" the other replied very seriously..." yes, basically this is team work, it's good isn't it" (that's it, I'm gone again, just retyping the words!!!).
When we announced 10 more minutes left and then we have to tidy up there were lots of moans and groans and disappointed faces - we were having such a lovely time that we did not want the day to end - it was a perfect day!