Early Years

In Early Years we have been using our number skills and recognising some coins in our role-play areas - the children have enjoyed taking turns being shopkeepers and using the new tills. We have been writing price tags for some of the toys so that everybody knows how much they cost. 

Lots of children have enjoyed showing us their knife and fork skills with the Play-Doh - we are hoping to keep using these skills when we are at lunch so we can cut up our own food.

Our nativity play rehearsals are in full swing and the children have been making the staff very proud with their good attitude and effort. Next week we will be doing dress rehearsals so we can practise taking our costumes on and off and some of our pre-schools will be coming to watch the final dress rehearsal before the main performances. We can't wait to see everyone and for them to enjoy all the songs and dances that the children have put so much effort into. 

Children In Need

This week we have had a busy time learning about Remembrance Day and Children in Need. Lots of children made amazing poppy pictures, models and posters at home and brought them in for a display in our Early Years area - next time you're in, come and have a look.

On Friday, the children wore clothes from home - lots of them wearing spots and Pudsey items - in exchange for a donation towards Children in Need. We learnt about other children and some of the ways the money might be used. In class, we had discussions about our own lives and things we are grateful for. In the afternoon, the parents and families of the children had a chance to 'stay and play' and complete some Pudsey related activities - many families gave a further donation for this so we were able to raise lots of money for charity and it was great for the adults to spend some time seeing how independent their children have become at school. 

Across the school there were various other activities going on including art galleries & a coffee/tea and cake sale in the hall. Thank you to everyone who took part and helped us raise money for an important cause 😄

Year 2 In a Land of Magic

What a busy start to Year 2 we have had! We had great fun learning all about traditional tales and alternative versions, as well as castles and kings and queens.

We started off looking at Little Red Riding Hood but then found out that perhaps the wolf wasn't so bad after all. We acted out his version of the story and realised that he was actually a very helpful and misunderstood wolf!

We loved visiting Windsor Castle and learnt all about how to become a knight. We also spotted gargoyles and decided to create our own out of clay.

After looking at real castles we thought it would be great to use our imagination to create our very own fantasy castle and write about them. It was great fun!

 

We can't wait to find out what interesting things we're going to learn and do in " A Growing Adventure"

Nearly Half Term

We have already been at Alderwood School for half a term! The children are very settled and becoming more independent each day.

We have been practising our tricky words a lot alongside our phonics - we are learning to recognise these words quickly and playing different matching games to help us.

The children have been using the art areas to come up with their own creations and practise their cutting skills. Some of the children used the bat templates to make hanging bats for their roleplay area. They found ways to attach the bats to the wood including BluTack, tape and string. 

We have been reading the 'Funnybones' books by Janet & Alan Alhberg in class and watching some of the videos on the interactive whiteboards. This has inspired lots of labelling and work about skeletons. The children have made some skeleton pictures at the art table - the first time the children made their pictures we hadn't discussed the different bones and their names so they came up with what they thought a skeleton looked like. As classes, we then looked at pictures and models of skeletons and felt where some of our own bones were and then made a second skeleton picture to see what we had learnt. As you will see from the photo below, the children made great improvements to their skeleton pictures and added a lot more detail and were able to talk about some of the different bones in their bodies (top = before, bottom = after).

We look forward to coming back after half term where we will be learning about different places around the world as our class bears are off on an adventure! 

Year 1

Autumn Term in Year 1

This half term we have been excited to start finding out about fossils and dinosaurs.

A dinosaur egg arrived in our classes and we  thought about how we can look after a dinosaur.

We have thought about what a dinosaur needs and have written instructions explaining how to wash a dinosaur and we thought about what we would need to teach a dinosaur.

In our History lessons we have found out about Mary Anning and some of the children have even researched her at home as well.  In the playground we have become budding palaeontologists  searching for fossils in our school grounds! 

We have created amazing fossils using clay as well as practising our sketching skills to create wonderful drawings of ammonites.

 

At home the children have been busy building brilliant dinosaur models whilst thinking about the different shapes they have used.

Phonics!

In Early Years we have been working hard with lots of different activities. We have now started practising some letters in phonics and thinking about the sounds each letter makes. We have been learning songs and actions to help us which you can practise at home. We have had lots of activities around our classrooms to help us recognise the letters and to practise forming them properly. We are listening carefully to hear the different sounds in words and thinking about what the first sound is in a word.

Settling in to school life!

The children have already started to settle in brilliantly to life at Alderwood School. They are getting used to the routines and finding new friends. 

We have been sharing some of the 'chatter boxes' they have brought in with them - these have pictures or items from home that they can talk about with their friends and teachers. It has been a good way to get to know more about each other. Lots of the children spent ages decorating their boxes too! 

Something that all of the children have been enjoying is mark-making in different ways. We have been finding different ways to make our bodies ready to write and draw. Have a look at some of the fun activities we have been doing to help develop our motor skills.

All of the children have been joining in with lots of songs and rhymes. Soon we will be learning songs for our Harvest Assembly (which the parents and carers can come and watch!) so we are sure you will be hearing lots of these at home too!