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Learning, Transforming and Growing
‘I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go.’ Genesis 28:15
‘I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go.’ Genesis 28:15
Our Pine Tree arrived this week. We enjoyed observing it closely, before it was decorated. We talked about shape, smell and colour and then made some observational drawings using water colours. We also experimented with representing our findings through some amazing independent embroidery, drawing and playdough. We have enjoyed baking cakes and biscuits in our gingerbread house. We have started to explore the nativity story and think about signs, symbols and Christmas traditions.
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In Kingfishers this week we have started to think about why Christmas is a special time for Christians. We thought about how Christians might celebrate Christmas and worked as a team to create Christmas collages. We have been very busy in Cuckoo Class this week. Paddington came for a visit on December 1st so that he could have some help to open the first door on his advent calendar. Keen to learn, he had a phonics lesson with one of our younger teachers which they both enjoyed. We are very good at helping each other to learn and are making good use of the word wall to help with independent writing. We hope to be able to share some of our Nativity Stories next week and have enjoyed getting to grips with the connection between repeated addition and multiplication in Maths this week.
'A sweet friendship refreshes the soul', Proverbs 27:9 Owls and Kestrels accepted their next Commando Joe’s mission this week. 80% of communication is non-verbal. Children had to cooperate within their teams to read the map and locate the secrets. Their challenge was to then work together to translate the secret into Morse Code. Were they successful? Absolutely!
In order to test how well we could work as a team, we were set a challenge where we needed to build a bridge using only paper and masking tape. During our reflection time, we discussed how listening to each other and making a plan first was imperative to the success of the challenge. Below are some of our reflections;
‘Once we had made our plan, we gave each other very specific roles which allowed us to stay focused and on task. This also made sure that everyone was included.’ ‘Because the task was difficult, we sometimes found it hard to persevere which made us lose confidence as a team. Luckily we were able to communicate how we felt and made a new plan to try which eventually worked.’ As part of our cross-curricular English and Geography work, we research, planned and wrote our own weather forecasts for Manaus in the Amazon rainforest. We then looked at examples of weather forecasts to help us understand how to present our own one successfully. After learning the scripts off by heart, we then used a green screen to record them - hopefully they will be edited and ready to show you next week! Children had the opportunity to show off their home learning projects about animals that are found in the Amazon rainforest. They had clearly put in a lot of effort and it was a joy to see how proud they were of their creations. To help us understand the different parts of a plant, we did observational drawings of flowers and then cut them up to have a real look at them. COMMANDO JO'S - We took on mission 5 this week and it was brilliant. The children had to work in teams and trust their leader to guide them carefully around an obstacle course. We all had so much fun!
We enjoyed exploring the different ways in which we can balance and move around a course. You can see some of them are very creative! We have been investigating different habitats, sorting creatures into groups by habitat, size, colour and pattern. We have been exploring the outside resources and using them to create our own maths games! The best thing about being in Fledgling class is that we continue to find out what it means to work as a team, support each other and make friends. ‘Let everything you do be done in love’ 1 Corinthians 16:14 In Kingfishers we have been experimenting with different watercolour techniques. We have practised using water based and paint based as well as practising our strokes and lines.
We have enjoyed exploring number this week and trying out some of our new resources. We have played number snap with real cards. Ordered numbers to 20. Matched numeral to quantity and had great fun inventing our own number games! Outside we started to plant some bulbs ready for Spring. As we were digging we found lots of treasures and became archeologists, using brushes and tools to gently unearth our findings. Our transient art work is becoming more detailed and we are using books to add details to our designs. Fledglings, Kingfishers and Cuckoos took part in their first Co Joe’s missions today. We thought about how to transport porridge for Mummy Bear, helped Jack find what he needed to grow his beanstalk and helped the Billy Goats cross the bridge. We learnt that our missions were more successful if we listened to each other, shared ideas and, encouraged all the members of our team. |
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