Vegetables

McKee class would like to say thank you to their parents for donating some vegetables to be used in class.

We chose some of the more interesting shapes, such as a mushroom, to print with.

This was great fun and everyone got very messy! "I loved using the printing things. It was funny using food" - A. We also did some observational paintings which are now displayed in our "indoor garden" just near our coat pegs and garden shed!

We saved the potatoes to cook and make mashed potato with.

Pirate Day

Pirate Day for KS1 was a great success! All three classes enjoyed being part of Mary Read’s crew. (Mary Read was a female pirate from the eighteenth century). Captain Mary had the motley pirate crew doing the kinds of jobs that pirates would have done onboard ship.

The children became carpenters, cooks, dish-washers, swabbers, surgeons, topmen and loblollies. Your children will tell you all about their jobs and the voyage to discover Captain Kidd’s golden treasure. Here are some of your children’s comments:

“The pirate quest was awesome!” … “We liked pretending to do all the different jobs.” … “I enjoyed looking for the treasure chest and seeing Captain Read trying the keys to open the box.” … “The coins inside were chocolate!”

School photographs

Today in McKee class we became photographers!

Another first today...Our first school photograph! This morning the class were photographed individually and in sibling groups. The children thoroughly enjoyed the session, especially the posing and the music. They also enjoyed watching each other and the photographer.

 

Making a camera

Some of the children commented on the experience saying that they thought the photographer was funny, they loved dancing to the music, most seemed to think the soft toys falling off the photographer’s head was extremely funny and others enjoyed the fact they got to lie on their tummies and shout “I love school” and "sausages" whilst being photographed.

 

Some of the cameras the class made

This afternoon, in response to this experience, we turned the classroom into a photographer’s studio. Various children made cameras, wrote lists of names, rounded up their subjects, helped each other strike a pose, and took "photographs". These they then drew and labelled. A lot of fun was had and the learning taking place encompassed all six areas of the early years curriculum.

Fruit salad

This week the foundation stage children have been learning about fruit. One of the activities they wanted to do was eat some! In Mckee class, each child brought in one piece of fruit to share with their friends and we made a fruit salad.

The children were able to choose which fruit they wanted to use and then worked as a group to cut the fruit and mix it in a bowl. They then spooned it into their own plastic cup or bowl and sat at the table to eat together.

This is what some of the class had to say...

I cut up the bananas with a knife and the grapes were nice, they tasted fruity. When I  put it in a round bowl I stirred it.  I ate it with a spoon.  -  A

We got some fruit out of the bowl and put it on a tray. We cut it with a knife which was fun. We put it in a cup and got a spoon and ate it. I liked the kiwi fruit best. I loved chopping the fruit. – R

I chopped up an apple, some grapes and banana. Chopping the apple was fun. I put it in a bowl and stirred it and then ate it. It tasted nice, of strawberry- O

We cut it up and put it in the bowl. We mixed the fruit and could eat it with a spoon. I want to make some at home with mummy. - G

Thank you to everyone who donated an item of fruit.

Visit my classroom

A message from McKee class: "On Monday we invited our Mummy or our Daddy or our childminder to visit our classroom. The best bit was showing them our drawer and our pictures; lots of us like showing our adult the dolls house and the role play area."

A liked showing his Daddy the book area and R liked showing her Daddy everything. E thought her Mummy loved the books and A said that the computer area was the most interesting to his family.

"It was nice having them in my classroom."

"My Mummy said she like seeing my pictures."

"Dressing up is the best and I showed Mummy."

This is what the children thought. I wonder what the adult visitors thought.

School Dinner

This week the reception children stayed to lunch. They joined the rest of the school in the dining room to either eat their own packed lunch from home or a meal prepared in our kitchen.

On four of the days the children were escorted from the classroom by a "buddy". Their buddy was a year 6 child who then helped them get the correct lunch, find a space to sit, encouraged them to eat and finally took them back to the reception outdoor area to play.

However, on Wednesday, the children had invited their parents to join them and to sample a school meal. This proved a popular invite and soon the dining room was full of adults and children.

When asked afterwards, the children's assessment of the meal was that "The Daddies ate very quickly, the children were the best behaved and the Mummies were very chatty". Oh yes, they also enjoyed their roast beef and Yorkshire pudding!

An example menu

Please remember to fill in your green dinner slip and return it to school each Monday. Option A is a hot meal, option B a vegetarian meal and option C is a packed lunch provided by our kitchen. If you bring your own packed lunch from home either put a cross in each box or don't return the form. Thank you.

Meet the teacher

This week we have held our new style meet the teacher sessions. All were well attended and we have had some great questions during them and some positive comments afterwards.

We hope you found them informative and a useful addition to our school calendar.

We would welcome your feedback.

Mr Allchin's update

Well as a new term starts I thought I would give you all an update on how the training has been going over the summer holidays.  You will be pleased to know that although I managed to get away from it all, I did stick to my training plan for the marathon. From the day you all left on Friday 22 July for the summer holidays, I have clocked up 131 miles (211 km) of road and trail running.  To put that into perspective, that is approximately 700 laps of the school field.

So far I have been blessed as I have no injuries to speak of, just a few hairy moments in Cyprus when the trail I was running on suddenly disappeared into the sea leaving me with two choices, 1. swim round to the next headland, or 2. go back the way I came and find another route.  I thought that turning around was a safer option due to the rocks, and the huge waves crashing into them.  Apart from that, and being chased by dogs, I gave my legs a good workout in the mountains and I am on course for a reasonable time.

As a warm up, I will be running in the Royston Harvest 10 mile cross country run on 18 September, and on the way back I am planning to get dropped off near Puckeridge so I can add another 10 miles to the daily total.  This will be a good test for the legs before the big day.

As one running coach once said...'Go out hard, and finish harder'

I hope you all have a great time back at school, and I will let you know how things are going in a couple of weeks time. If you can't wait that long, then just log on to my blog for updates.

www.ware2barefoot.co.uk (child friendly) and the sponsorship form is available at www.tuxpower.co.uk/eden.pdf

First day at School

"Firsts" are an important part of every child's life and today the reception children experienced their "first day at school".

After a morning of settling in, finding out where everything is, having lots of fun, experiencing a few tears (yes, mummy, we know you did and yes your child was fine!) and meeting up with old and new friends, the members of Carle and McKee classes joined the rest of the school in the church building.

Here they were supported by some of their parents and were welcomed into the family of both Christ Church school and Christ Church church. After a few words by Rev.John Hookway  and some of the year 6 children this special day was marked by each child being presented with a Bible story book.

Over the years this has proved to be a very popular book for adults and children to share and the children delight in the next milestone - the first time they can read it alone!

Well done to all the children and parents for surviving the first day of school and we hope this celebration service helped create memories of this special occasion in your child's life. We look forward to getting to know you and your child better.