BiG Schools Bird Watch

This Monday found Mrs D'arcy and Mrs Matthews, wrapped up in their coats, taking turns to stand and count birds, with various Year one children. Yes, Year one took part in the RSPB BIG schools' bird watch.

 

Despite the weather not being very kind to us, almost every member of Year one was keen to take their turn outside. Armed with a clipboard of identification sheets, which were rather soggy by the time the hour was up, we did our best to identify and count the birds that visited our school.

 

Those children who were not outside took part in a variety of RSPB activities inside, making bird "snappers", masks, puppets and labelling the parts of a bird. They also had a chance to look at some photographs and listen to bird song on the Interactive whiteboard.

 

We have submitted our results and look forward to seeing the nationwide results in the near future. Many children also took part in the Big Garden Bird Watch, with their families.

 

It was an interesting afternoon and the children were fully engaged and two boys even asked to make a Bird information book, to share with the rest of us.

 

Mind you we think that the two rather large crows, who frequent the school field, had lots of fun with their own BIG Schools' Human watch because they certainly came very close and hopped around us for most of the afternoon.

Hargreaves class Assembly and JML

Last week, Hargreaves class enjoyed inviting their friends and family to watch their class assembly. The children showcased some of their learning - they narrated and mimed the story of Baboushka, danced to tell the story of Handa's Surprise, sang an action song about Goldilocks  and then sang two songs to demonstrate how to used "Doubles" in maths.

After showing great confidence in speaking to an audience and using the microphone, they returned to the classroom, where their adults joined them for a puppet making session! It was a busy and noisy activity, which everyone seemed to enjoy.

Mrs Matthews was pleased to be able to share many positive comments with the class, which were read from the feedback forms. Thank you to all who joined us on the day and took the time to fill in the sheet to let the children know what they had enjoyed.

Traditional stories

This half term we are thinking about traditional stories.  We started with the Ginger bread man...

We re told the story

A giant Gingerbread man came to visit.  He sat on our stage and watched us learn...but then he ran away! We wrote missing posters, and displayed them around the school.

Then we found a clue! We followed him all around the school. We went to the library, the dinning hall, the staffroom until we finally found him in Mrs Vaughs office!

We decided he was a naughty Gingerbread man...so we ate him!

Maths Problem solving: How can the gingerbread man get across the river safely without getting wet?

 The children built bridges and boats

Making our own Gingerbread men



This week we are thinking about Goldilocks and the three bears.

We made porridge...

Yum, yum!

The porridge was a hit!

I think there will be lots of children asking for porridge for breakfast from now on!

Fun with the snow!

 Snow with treasure (coloured ice cubes) and a frozzen balloon

 Snow writing

 Making igloos

Ice-cream making

 Painting the snow!

 The boys used the painted snow to make colourful snow castles

Whole school fun in the snow

Last Tuesday, we returned to school and found a beautiful snow covered landscape. The field was covered with pristine white snow...

...and then it was playtime - We had great fun making snowmen...

..and this is what the field looked like when the bell rang 20 minutes later.

Photos By Mrs C Matthews

Tuesday 22nd

School will be open tomorrow.

 

Please take care when travelling to school and when entering the playground.

 

Please ensure your child has suitable outdoor clothing and footwear to change into. Spare socks/tights and gloves would also be useful.

 

Volunteers are still needed to clear the remaining snow. Many thanks once again to those who came and assisited today.

 

 

 

 

Thank you!

Thank you everyone who turned up to clear the playground of snow.

  It proved to be great exercise! Hopefully the school will open tomorrow.

Ideas for KS1

 

Potter, Hargreaves and Butterworth - we hope you enjoy your extra time in the snow and look forward to hearing about it soon. Remember, we are looking at traditional stories this half term and so why not use a few of those extra minutes curled up with a story book?

 

 

Maybe you could try a few investigations with the snow or create some interesting art work or sculptures.

 

 

If you have had enough of playing in the snow and want something else to do, don't forget Bug Club. As well as books, there are now maths games. Have you tried any yet?

 

Stay safe and have fun.

Can you help?

We desperately need volunteers to clear the school site.

 

 

If you can help please come to school at 11.00am.

 

 

Don't forget to bring your own shovel.

KS1 in the snow

This morning, when we arrived at school, it had been snowing and fortunately for us most of KS1 were wearing suitable outdoor clothing. This meant that this afternoon we were able to go outside and investigate the snow.

The year 2 children in Potter looked at the speed the snow was falling and counted how many snowflakes landed in a 10cm square in a set amount of time. They calculated that 88 fell in this area in a minute.

The Year 1 children were all in Hargreaves, for their joint session, and so the watched snow melt under the visualiser. Grace said it looked just like bubbles popping and most found it funny that the visualiser kept try to refocus every time the ice moved. Some children went outside and caught snow on pieces of black card to see if they could see the shape of the crystals.This was quite tricky but we manage to see a few before they melted.

A merry band of musicians were undeterred by the snow and made a parade outside, playing snowy music and singing at the tops of their voices. A small group tried to sweep it into a pile so that they could get to the sand tray but their effort swere in vain, because the snow got thicker and faster.

Out on the playground Miss Stickley, Mrs Matthews and a group of girls tried catching the snow on their tongues. Abi said it tasted just like water. She then told us that was because it was frozen water. It was harder than we thought and most people seemed to get more in their eyes than on their tongues.

Some of the children tried writing their names in the snow and Eloise attempted the alphabet, but had to give up a the letter R because her finger was too cold! We also enjoyed looking at the shapes left when we moved items that were laying on the floor, such as a bike, a rake, a glove and a flower pot.

Once every one had finished outside, we settled down to the indoor activities and lots of great pictures were drawn and stories were written about what to do in the snow. Naomi wrote and illustrated a story about herself building a snowman from a pile of snow and getting very cold.

Finally we checked on the door in the tree to see if there were any tiny footsteps in the snow. What do you think?

Snow

The promised snow has arrived. Please ensure you child comes to school suitably dressed, with a warm coat, gloves, hat etc and suitable outdoor shoes/boots or wellingtons to change into, when they go outside.

A change of socks or tights and a spare pair of gloves is also a good idea, just pop them in their book bag. Thank you.

Baboushka

This half term Potter, Butterworth and Hargreaves will be learning about traditional stories. One of the first they looked at, was a traditional tale about Baboushka.

In ICT the children were challenged to find the correct website and to then navigate the pages to find the answers to a selection of question.

If you do not know the story, why not have a look at the simplified version of Baboushka on the Cbeebies website and find out what happened when a Russian Grandmother was too busy to join the Wise men to find the newborn King.