Lewis Class loved Celtic Harmony

We loved learning all about the lives of people in the Stone Age. We made dens, spear throwing and made arrow heads to name but a few of the great activities.

Lewis class are coding!

Lewis Class have been learning to use the coding program Scratch to create mini animations. 

Horowitz Week of Inspirational Maths

Last week, in Horowitz Class we took part in a Week of Inspirational Maths, a special programme of lessons devised by Stanford University in California. Each day we watched a video which taught us that you are not born a 'maths person' or 'not a maths person' and that our brains can grow and change. Mistakes are an important part of learning and when we make mistakes synapses fire in our brain, encouraging brain growth and learning. 

We enjoyed the different activities that we undertook.  

We looked at different ways to represent numbers in dots. 

We explored patterns and how they grow. We then used the patterns to work out how many squares there would be in figure 10, 15 and 20.

On day 4 we investigated visual maths. We made 3x3x3 cubes out of sugar cubes (cuboids), coloured in the sides facing outwards and then investigated how many sides had three sides, two sides, one side and no sides coloured. We devised our own way of recording our results and came up with lots of patterns. 

On day 5 we investigated Collatz's Conjecture with 'Hailstone sequence'.  A conjecture is a mathematical prediction. We made our own conjectures as we tried to find a number sequence which didn't finish with 1.

Year 1-Shared time

On Wednesday afternoon all the Year 1 children meet together in Hargreaves class. This way, not only can they enjoy time together with friends from their Reception class, but they can take part in adult directed or child led activities specifically for Year 1.

Take a look at some of the things we did in our first week.

Writing about a superhero

Making a superhero mask

Building transport and homes for a superhero

Working together to complete a jigsaw

Using the water tray and sand tray

Writing and calculations in the outdoor area

Superhero colouring 

All About Me - McKee Class

McKee class have been learning about themselves this week. They have painted self portraits using water colours, made plate faces and used natural objects to make faces after looking at themselves in mirrors. The children have also enjoyed singing and dancing to body songs such as head, shoulders knees and toes, one finger one thumb and my body. 

In maths the children have also measured parts of their bodies such as their height, shoe size and hand span. We have talked about the number of body parts we  have such as ten fingers and toes. The children also made shape pictures and ordered numbered peg people.

Keystage 1 Ocarina

The new ocarinas arrived in school this week! Today, the children from Hargreaves and Butterworth, (who had previously paid and placed an order) were able to choose their colour. Please ensure your child leaves this in their book bag, so that it is in school when needed.

*** We have had a request, from a parent, to buy an ocarina and book, however at present there are none spare; if enough people still require one, please let the office know and we can place another order ***

Key Stage Two Puzzle Day

On Tuesday 13th September Key Stage Two were visited by the Happy Puzzle Company. Each year group took part in a puzzle session, where they had to work in teams of six to solve several challenges. The children developed their team working skills, building on each others' strengths to work together to solve the challenge. The children enjoyed the sessions and had lots of fun solving the problems. 

Berrie: some of the puzzles were quite hard. I enjoyed the hexagon puzzle where we had to fill the hexagon with the pieces. We had to make sure that the pieces were not touching a piece of the same colour. 

Gertie: it was tricky. I liked the castle puzzle where we had to build a castle to look like the pictures on the cards. Putting the towers in was the hardest part. 

Aaron: I enjoyed the spinning circle. We looked at it for a while and then we looked at the back of our hands. It looked like I had a heart on my hand. 

Self portraits

This week, every child in school is producing a self portrait. Here are the members of Hargreaves class. I wonder if their parents can spot their own child. ( I will add the missing two when I have their portraits.)

London cityscapes

In years 5 and 6 our topic for this term is 'London'. 

 In art we are looking at ways to represent the Landscape of London. Each week we will be producing a different piece of artwork based on London. We will be trying out lots of different artistic techniques and materials. We hope to showcase our work at the end of the half term.

These are some of the pieces produced by Horowitz Class during our first art lesson. They are 3D pop art cityscapes in the style of Charles Fazzino, an American artist. 

Look out for an invite to view all the  London cityscapes by Horowitz Class at the end of the half term. 

KS1 Superhero training camp

Today, Keystage 1 welcomed a variety of superheroes into school. They were here to complete their superhero training. Whilst at the training camp they had many different activities to complete.

 Stage one - recognise potential problems and know which super power to use to save the day!

Stage two - know how to dodge laser beams.

Stage three - be in the peak of physical fitness. In our training gym the superheroes skipped, jumped, aimed bean bags, balanced, ran and stepped up and down.

Stage four - mental agility. Superheroes need to be quick thinking.

Stage five - dress the part.

Once our superheroes had completed their training, they were rewarded with their "Official Superhero certification".

The best part of the day, for most of the trainee heroes, was the laser beam activity. However, others enjoyed the problem solving and gym training and everyone was delighted to be awarded their certificate.

First day in Year 1

Hargreaves class were extremely busy today! The children spent some time learning where to put all their belongings, before doing some physical exercises, watching a Charlie and Lola story, phonics and meeting our class Geraldine. Then it was time for maths, assembly, Charanga and Big Maths.

They also found out how Mrs Matthews likes them to answer the register and select their lunch. They learnt where to line up at playtime and how to move around the school showing courtesy and consideration and how to calm themselves and relax to music after lunchtime.

Everyone coloured in their own name, which will be laminated and used as a label on their drawer, they played in our outside area, they completed an alphablocks jigsaw (cue much cheering) and read a Mr Man book.

The children had extra time on their afternoon playtime, (they had all earned 5 mins golden time) and then the children learnt the going home routine and the fact Mrs Matthews likes them to wear their coats and jumpers, so that they can not forget them. 

They ended their day with a story all about Super Daisy and then a prayer. We had a great day full of smiles, fun and learning. 

Thank you to those of you who sent postcards from your holiday, completed a holiday scrapbook and filled in the Year 1 sheet.