Tuesday, 7 February 2012

Grandparents

Over the last few days, Mrs Matthews has been told that quite a few Grandparents read this blog, to enjoy catching up with their grandchildren.

McKee class say "Hello, Bonjour, ¡Hola or Guten Tag" and please let us know where you are and what you enjoy reading about on here.

Monday, 6 February 2012

Reception fun in the snow - part 2

You may remember we left our ice art out and wondered if it would still be there. Although most of the ice cubes on the tree had melted, the water tray art was still there, but was covered with a thick layer of snow. We made an igloo and added some small animals and used it was a polar landscape.



When we came indoor we transferred some of this to a tray inside so that we could carry on our adventure. The snow lasted most of the day.




When a lot of the snow had melted we were able to see our ice art. By using spoons we rescued some of the items frozen in the now softer ice and picked them out. Once we mashed up a lot of the snow, we made a pool for the penguins to swim in and ice hills for them to slide down.


We also made hand and footprints in the snow. D - you had to press hard to make the shapes, rolled balls of snow Z- this was fun and we went for a funny snowy walk copying actions. R - I liked walking backward and marching in the snow. I was also a penguin.


Back inside some children used toothpicks to collect the sequins that were hidden in tubs of snow, we looked at the penguin homework and toys, wrote and drew some snowy pictures and words and melted snow with salt.


Mckee class all said they had had a great day and the words amazing, brilliant, lots of fun and the best day ever were said when we sat down to talk about what we had learned today.

Reception fun in the snow - part 1

McKee and Carle enjoyed their day in the snow today. We took part in lots of outdoor learning and had loads of fun at the same time!

The children made a large scale painting by squirting and spraying watered-down paint from squeezy bottles and a plant spray as well as sprinkling powder paint on to the fresh snow.

A - I liked squirting and spreading the paint.
R - I really really liked all the colours.
N - It looked like a big flower.
E - I thought it looked like a firework display.
G - I loved squeezing the paint on the snow because I had never done that before!

We started to build an igloo, by packing snow into a box and building with the bricks. However once we had pretty coloured snow this developed into a magical castle.

H - We had to scoop up the snow and make it into bricks.
Z - It would be cold in an igloo with no roof.
D - We piled the bricks on top of each other.
J - I liked putting the snow in the boxes best.
E - I enjoyed making the colourful igloo castle.

The children used the buckets and spades to make snow castles and shapes such as triangular prisms, cuboids and cylinders. C - Snow castles are a lot easier to make than sand castles.
A polar expedition seemed to take place, with children taking turns to pull each other on a sledge, pointing out the imaginary icebergs, penguins and rivers they encountered. They finally found land and a house!

H - The sledge was bumpy and when it went on the ice.
D - I liked going round and round the boat.
R - I liked it when the sledge was slow best.

We also blew bubbles and were amazed how much easier it was to see their colours against the white of the snow. The children squealed with laughter catching them and those who were beginning to feel the cold suddenly found themselves a lot warmer after running and jumping.

We have so much we want to tell you we will have to come back later with a second post.

A snowy day at school

Today school playtimes were very different due to the snow. All children were able to go outside on the field during playtimes and therefore they were able to create many objects out of the snow. Everyone had a fabulous time in the snow. 

Here are some comments the children made:
We made a giant snowman. - R.J.
We had fun playing in the snow. - E.H.
We made an igloo. - A.D.
We made ice sculptures. - I.S.
We enjoyed making snow angels. I.H.









    By Butterworth Class

Sunday, 5 February 2012

Snow

School is expected to be open as usual tomorrow. Travel safely, and wear suitable footwear and outdoor clothing.

If anything changes a parentmail will be sent or you can check the county website or listen to local radio in the morning.

Hopefully everyone has had fun in the snow today, several of the staff and their families did!

Friday, 3 February 2012

Greek New Year

Yianni brought a special cake into Potter class this week. He shared it with his class and made this powerpoint to explain why.

Ice art


McKee were going to tell you about Penguins this week, but the weather took us in a different direction! On Wednesday the class filled ice trays with water, wool and sequins. We left them out over night and they froze.


On Thursday we felt them, looked at them with a magnifying glass and decorated an old tree with them. It was so cold they did not melt all day. The children wanted to make a bigger ice picture. We put water in the water tray, added various items to make a collage and left it over night.


Today, Friday, it was frozen solid and we thought it looked beautiful.


Instead of asking the class for comments for the blog, Mrs Matthews left a clipboard outside and the Mckee class parents wrote comments when they dropped their children off at school this morning.

Here are some:

"What a fantastic idea - the decorations on the tree are beautiful."
"I love the sparkles."
"Very good."
"Great idea! Love the decorations."
"Birds Eye world box very impressive - very pretty, love the tree."
"Very good idea, we may do something at home."
"Very good, perhaps you should move onto ice sculptures next!!
"Very good artwork, very inventive, the tree is my favourite."
"It was good to see it all on the blog and to hear about all the comments from my child. Well done Mckee!!"
"The ice work looks amazing and it looks like they had a great time doing it!"

As we went home our ice was still frozen,
we wonder if it will be still there Monday?