Welcome back!

Welcome back! 

Our topic this term is 'Under the sea'. Over the last two weeks we have looked at the books 'The Rainbow Fish' and 'Sharing a Shell'; we have been talking about what we can do to be a good friend. Lots of the children have been using these friendship skills inside and outside of the classroom! 

In time for the start of a new term, our role plays have been changed ready for the children to explore. We now have a 'pirate ship', 'under the sea' and a 'seaside' themed role play. We will be changing around the role play areas every two weeks so that every class will have an opportunity to access all of the exciting resources bought for us by the PTA!

The children have been given a Phase 2 keyword sheet. As we have now finished the phase 2 sounds, please practice these words with your children at home until they recognise them as sight words.  

Fire Fire Fire!

Fire, Fire, Fire!

 

We have really enjoyed this half term finding out about the Great Fire of London. We were amazing at remembering facts. At the beginning of the topic, these are some of the questions we wanted to investigate. Find the answers at the bottom of the page!

Where did the fire start?

Why did the fire spread?

How long did the fire last?

How do we know about the fire?

In our art lessons we explored colour. We found out more about primary colours and used these to make our own secondary colours. We looked at work by Piet Mondrian and even created some of our own. Using colours inspired by the Great Fire of London we made a woven pattern. 

 

  In English we have enjoyed reading Wow! Said the Owl which inspired us to write our own stories about an owl’s journey discovering colours around the world.

 This has linked with our Geography and Science topics as we have found out about different animals including birds and have created maps from an aerial (bird’s eye) view.

We hope you enjoyed watching our Christmas show as much as we enjoyed performing it.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from the Year 1 Team.

 

Here are the answers we found out:

Thomas Farriner’s bakery in Pudding Lane.

For many reasons including; the materials the houses were made of, houses were close together and it was very dry and windy at that time.

From Sunday the 2^nd September 1666 – Thursday 6^th September 1666

From eye witness sources such as Samuel Pepys.

 

 

Year 2 A Growing Adventure

A Growing Adventure

We have had another busy half term learning about dragons, looking at how plants grow, raising money for children in need and even learning how to wash a woolly mammoth!

In October we had news that a dragon called the Hampshire Ridgeback Dragon had been spotted flying over Aldershot! We learnt all about this dragon and this inspired us to write reports about our own dragons.

We also had lots of fun raising money for Children in Need and had to investigate where Pudsey had disappeared to. We made wanted posters and helped Pudsey prepare for his Children in Need party with some exciting maths problems to solve!

As the weather got colder, we had a think about how that can affect plants. We explored the school grounds to see if we could spot different types of plants and flowers and used these to create some amazing sketches and collages.  

We have also had great fun reading and exploring the books 'How to Wash a Woolly Mammoth' and 'Clockwork Dragon'.

Now it's almost Christmas we're very busy doing lots of festive things. The Christmas plays were amazing and we all did such a great job learning all the lines, songs and dances.

We're so excited for Christmas but can't wait to find out what next term has in store for us!



Christmas

Christmas is nearly upon us! We are all very proud of the children and their hard work for their nativity play - thank you to all the families that encouraged the children at home and practised lines and songs. We hope you'll agree that they did a fantastic job!

Our children have been working hard in their "Santa's Workshop" role-play areas practising wrapping up presents and making cards. There have been lots of Christmas crafts happening including making paper-chains and making snacks to sell at our Christmas Fair.

Over the holidays, please remember to read different books and spend time playing games and practising taking turns. We can't wait to hear what you will all have been doing with your time at home.

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"